How is the development of the fan

The fan is originally a practical thing, with its thin and light area, can fan for cool. China has always been in the daily objects on the tradition of decoration, so the fan handle fan bone on the carving, the fan on the front and back plus painting and calligraphy. Earlier carving calligraphy and painting by ordinary craftsmen to complete, slowly a variety of talented and imaginative artists to participate in the fan has evolved into a practical function of the art, so that people have been envious of the heart, the treasure of the intention to become a collection of today's major categories.

Chinese fan has a very early origin, the Shang Dynasty on the prototype of the fan.

There are many kinds of ancient Chinese fans, but only two kinds of folding fan and group fan are really coveted by collectors.

Folding fan a "folding fan", also known as "gathering fan". Folding fan is folded, with the spread, so it is also known as "spread fan". Folding fan produced time is late, its importance is great. It is easy to carry, in and out of the pocket sleeve, fan face painting, fan bone carving, is the pet of the literati, so there is "pocket sleeve elegant things" nickname. Fan produced far earlier than the folding fan, because of the shape of the round as the moon in line with the Chinese meaning of harmony and good luck, also known as "Huanhuan fan". And because it is made of silk fabric, it is also known as "playboy fan" or "Luo fan". More due to the Tang Wang Jian "Laughing Order" in the famous line "fan fan fan, beauty and to cover the face", and produced "and face", "the face" and "barrier face" elegant. The "face of the barrier" of the elegant name.

The Ming Dynasty was the beginning of the popularity of the folding fan, perhaps due to the Yongle period of Ming Chengzu's advocacy. Recent excavations of the Ming dynasty vassal king's tomb in the folding fan a lot of things, can be corroborated with the above records. Folding fan production in the country are distributed to the name of the local celebrities known as Hang fan, Cao fan, Chuan fan, She fan, Eagle fan, Pan fan, square fan, yellow fan, Qingyang fan, Liyang song fan, Fengrun painting fan, Wuling clip yarn fan, Jinling Liu's fan, Yin's paper wheat fan, Wu fan, and many other names, but also to the functional use of the spring fan, autumn fan and boot fan varieties. The production of fan stock and fan surface is becoming more and more sophisticated, and each has its own famous artists; fan painting and calligraphy is widely popular, recognized in the literati and elegant people. If the folding fan originated in Japan, at this time has been truly Sinicized, become an integral part of Chinese culture.

The Qing Dynasty was a period of great development of Chinese folding fan. Fans were used more frequently among literati officials. The fan is not only a tool to generate cool air, and not only a kind of art, it becomes a status status symbol of fun and props for their social role. Not only in summer, that is, in the cool weather season, holding a fan, open and close, or hanging in the body, or hidden in the sleeve, have the meaning of personality expression, emotional exchange. Not only the literati, not only men use folding fans. From the mainstream of literati painting and calligraphy fans, there are typical craft fans such as the black paper fan, the traveler's fan, and the opera fan, as well as the rice fan for women. From the fan itself, ancillary crafts such as fan bags, fan pendants, and fan boxes were created. Fans also spread from China to other parts of the world, especially Europe. During the Qianlong period, merchants in Guangzhou specialized in producing ivory folding fans that were adapted to the interesting hobbies of European noblewomen. The folding fan became a symbol of Chinese culture and a messenger of cultural exchange with the world.

In the Republic of China, the folding fan maintained its importance in Chinese art and life, but nothing beyond the previous generation, and a noteworthy innovation was the set fan. Prior to that, although there were also fans with multiple people collaborating on the same fan to paint or writing their own signatures in sections, the jijin fan was a fan space divided in different ways, and then made by a number of calligraphers and painters to write and paint respectively. Starting from the least two people combination, to as many as more than a dozen cooperative set of masterpieces, it is indeed refreshing.　Painting and writing on the fan, in the three kingdoms, according to the book of jin, wang xizhi for houttuynia old basil title fan story, is not the earliest, I can not say. Writing and painting on the fan has always been loved and collected. Due to the unique shape of the fan, literati and artists painstakingly, original, based on the shape of the fan painted a thousand pictures, express a pleasant language and poetry. Today's calligraphy and painting collection of celebrities in the past generations of masterpieces in the form of a fan or fan form of the works of a considerable number, has become a treasure of the art of calligraphy and painting.

Writing and painting on the folding fan is not an easy task, due to the shape of the fan surface is different, high and low, the material is diverse, to create a momentum through the above, dashing and smooth, praiseworthy works, it is indeed necessary to carefully design, patience and management, and repeated practice in order to achieve the experience of the ancients, we have seen the more there are the following kinds of chapter design:

One is a line of long line of short chapter!

One is a long line and a short line of chapter, this form of cursive script is the most appropriate to use, you can receive the momentum of smooth, majestic atmosphere, the effect of beauty.

The second is a line of equal number of words chapter, this form is suitable for the use of the official script, regular script, showing the ancient and simple, elegant and strong, heavy and durable effect. The use of seal script, oracle bone, etc. is also very durable.

Third is a word into a line of the chapter, this form is suitable for writing large characters, calligraphy style is not limited, along the folding fan arc writing, leaving a blank space below, appearing ethereal, natural, generous, giving a pleasing sense of pleasure. The above three forms of chapter, are written along the arc of the fan into an arc, today there are also creative, in the middle of the fan Shuo row into a parallelogram (or round) form, I thought that this form is not natural enough, but as long as the arrangement is appropriate, especially the arrangement of the good paragraph and seal, you can also get the enjoyment of beauty. About the fan (i.e., round mirror) calligraphy, compared to the folding fan to be a little bit free, can be along the circular fan, can also take the middle of the arrangement into a square, can be half-square and half-circle, you can also write only a single word, but also have some flavor.