A 600-word composition carved on paper with thin lines

Fine line engraving paper is gradually formed on the basis of folk paper-cutting and is a unique variety of paper-cutting art. Fine line engraving began in the Yuan Dynasty and flourished in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. It evolved from popular paper-cut flowers such as dragon boat decals, window flowers, shoe flowers and belly flowers. The main tools for carving paper fine lines are carving knife and oil pan. The blade thickness of the carving knife is only 0.35 mm, and the oil pan is lined under the paper when carving, which is convenient for hollowing out and removing unnecessary parts. Using "carving" instead of "cutting" makes the knife technique of the work more subtle, powerful and vivid, with rich lines and beautiful composition. Therefore, it is called thin line engraving paper. Fine-line paper carving is a beautiful and simple art form in China folk arts and crafts, which enriches the treasure house of various paper-cutting arts in China.

Fine line engraving paper is mainly popular in Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province, and developed with the custom of dragon boat lanterns in Yueqing. Every year during the Lantern Festival, some folk artists in Yueqing will tie up "Dragon Boat Lantern" and stick thin lines and carved paper around it, which is called "Dragon Boat Flower" locally. Due to the need of decorating dragon lanterns, Yueqing folk paper-cutting has gradually formed an exquisite artistic style. After the founding of New China, fine-grained engraving paper has been innovated on the basis of inheriting the tradition. At 1998 National Folk Traditional Art Expo, Yueqing Fine-line Carved Paper was awarded as "a must in China".

The most prominent feature of fine-grained engraving paper is "fine", neat and delicate, as fine as hair. Artists can carve more than 40 thin lines on one inch of Luban paper. The width of the thin thread is only 1 mm, and the interval between each knife is less than half a millimeter. They are as thin as hair, dense, harmonious and beautiful, and breathtaking. . When carving patterns, you don't need any drawings. You just need to draw the latitude and longitude grid lines with bamboo knives, and folk artists can carve and cut out colorful decorative patterns in a small box at will.

Another outstanding feature of fine-grained engraving paper is its strong decorative atmosphere. The patterns commonly used by artists include orthography, sunflower, turtle's back, fish scales, longevity, twists and turns, and more than 60 patterns such as "Tianjiao Tian", "Empty stomach ten" and "Hook cloud". They skillfully use these patterns, which are ever-changing, rich in changes and contrasts such as density, thickness, straightness, width, rigidity and softness, making the patterns clear in outline, beautiful in form, distinct in subject and object, and outstanding in image.

On May 20th, 2006, this heritage was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. On June 5, 2007, Lin and Huawei of Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province were identified as the representative inheritors of this cultural heritage project by the Ministry of Culture and included in the list of 226 representative inheritors of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects.