Types and uses of Shanxi folk paper-cutting

The Spring Festival is especially grand because it commemorates people's understanding of the "event calendar". At that time, all the houses and courtyards were decorated, the windows were covered with flowers, the doors were covered with red couplets, and the colorful doornotes fluttering in the wind added to the festive atmosphere. In rural Shanxi, although there are door paintings, couplets and door signs on the courtyard gate, we still have to cut and paste a pair of "peach pits" (Hu pronounced as "pit" in dialect), "pit" and "symbol", inheriting the ancient custom of calling "Spring Festival couplets" peach symbols. But "Fu Tao" doesn't mean "Spring Festival couplets" in the eyes of cultivators. It still retains the original intention of "Fu Tao" in ancient legends to drive away epidemics, ghosts and evil spirits. Dusting and sweeping the house on New Year's Eve, every window is bright and clean, and red and green window grilles are stuck on white window paper, which has a unique charm. Sticking fish, chickens, tigers, flowers, birds and animals. The folk sticker "Fish and Chicken" means "Qing Ji has fish". Sticking tigers may be related to the Chinese nation's worship of tiger totem and tiger cosmology.

On the Lantern Festival, colorful lanterns are hung in front of every household. Lanterns have various shapes and characteristics. Paper-cuts pasted on lanterns are colorful. Rotating in the shadow is called "lantern". The carved snuff is sideways to adapt to rotation, and the role of snuff is to beautify lamps, which requires that the cut patterns must be suitable for transparent lighting. Therefore, the snuff lines are slender, the contrast between black and white is not obvious, and the block spacing is uniform.

Shanxi is located in the North China Plateau, and there has always been little rainfall, especially in spring, with nine droughts in ten years. In the old society, when it didn't rain for a long time, people couldn't save themselves, so they pinned their hopes on dragons. On February 2, women cut dragons and put dragons on every door, praying for rain from the Dragon King. Most of these paper-cuts are simple and exaggerated, with clear outline and few floating ornaments, showing childish games.

In spring, when everything recovers, poisonous insects also move around, and they will suffer if they are not careful. Traditionally, at this time of year, people have to chop "chicken pecking scorpion" and "seven-star sword chopping scorpion". Some people even put up "Fu", and the inscription on the "Fu" reads: "Grain Rain Day, Grain Rain Morning, please invite General Grain Rain. Three cups of tea and four cups of wine send scorpions thousands of miles of dust. " The paper-cutting of "Eliminating Five Poisons by Tiger" on Dragon Boat Festival is the same as the above psychological factors. It is a good wish of people to get spiritual comfort and psychological balance. The birth of a child is an important event in the family. All the old people should celebrate this new life. First, cut out a big and unadorned waist-pinching "gourd" with red paper and stick it on the door. First, it is good news, announcing that more food will be added and more mouths will be added, and it will also seek happiness for the newborn Najib and solve problems; The second is notification, which is a kind of doorpost. People know this custom very well, so they won't go in and out casually. In addition, if the newborn is a boy, press a square piece of white paper on the pier with a coal block, indicating that the conduct is correct and flawless; The baby girl is holding a piece of red paper, which symbolizes happiness and happiness.

When children grow up, parents do their best for their children's wedding gifts, wishing them harmony and happiness and a long life together. This mood can be seen from the bride's dowry, the groom's marriage partner, and the paper-cut on the gifts given by relatives and friends. Everything used in the wedding ceremony should be covered with fireworks. "Fireworks", also known as "happy flowers", are naturally pleasing to the eye and full of joy. The symbols on fireworks, such as flowers, plants, utensils, auspicious things, words and patterns, are also artistic means to express feelings, and often contain people's unspeakable ideals, wishes and blessings. Take the "buckle bowl flower" cut and pasted on the window of the bridal chamber as an example. Its shape is two bowls closely connected, which means "getting married". Hey, it's a gourd ladle. A ladle splits two ladles, and when the two ladles are combined, it is called "combination". In addition, the paper-cutting with the contents of "Rats make grapes", "Rats pull melons", "Rats pull chickens", "Pomegranate fish" and "Catch a steamed bun baby" also contains the meaning of reproduction. Over the years, people have learned, understood and accepted the unique theme, romantic and open formal structure and simple symbolic meaning in paper-cutting. It can be seen that the long-standing collective mind is condensed in folk paper-cutting, and the social form, human history and rich psychology are displayed in the works. Wedding stickers pay great attention to the word "Xi", and the word "Xi" is attached to a woman to show a kind of celebration and auspiciousness. On the other hand, the party who marries a daughter-in-law should post the word "hi". The word "Xi" was originally created by the folk collective, and "Xi" is used to describe happiness and increase happiness. Out of the rich imagination of folk artists, it also reflects a kind of national empathy. When they cut the word "hi", they combined the images of animals, birds and flowers, which increased the implication of paper-cutting and revealed the rich psychology of the Chinese nation. Only in this way can we express the author's deeper and broader meaning.

At the birthday ceremony, the guests celebrated their birthdays. In rural areas, they usually bring homemade birthday buns with a bright red paper-cutting day "Shoutao Hulu" hanging on them. Or cut out patterns composed of bats (bats are harmonious), deer (deer is harmonious) and birthday girl. In a word, I hope to live a long and happy life.

Folk funeral etiquette is extremely complicated. Sacrificial objects are all cut out of paper, including Jinshan, Yinshan, cash cow, cornucopia, boys and girls, and many famous ones. With a sincere heart, people pinned their memory of their loved ones on the deceased, carefully crafted colorful banners, flowers and playthings that the deceased loved before his death, and arranged a rich and happy world for Xie Shizhe. The origin of this custom comes from the ancient ritual system of sacrificing slaves and pottery.

Paper-cutting, as a life ceremony, has a huge shape, full composition and gorgeous decoration, which is unified with its affiliated folk ceremonies. As a folk paper-cut with both practical and aesthetic functions, it is the cheapest ornament in people's lives and the spiritual product that best reflects the owner's wishes.

Wallflower, as its name implies, is the flower stuck on the wall. It has a large space and a strong story, such as the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, getting married, the master sending his nephew, and the mouse marrying his daughter. This kind of large paper-cut is very common in the village wopu in Shanxi. The early wall flowers were probably used as New Year pictures to beautify the living room and decorate the environment. Although color offset printing New Year pictures are economical and beautiful now, the custom of sticking wall flowers in mountain villages has existed for many years. The continuation of "Wallflower" to this day cannot exclude the traditional life customs, nor can we ignore the fact that the author of "Wallflower" is a rural working woman. They are creators and executors of the beauty of life, and they know the people's wishes and aesthetic habits best. Their subtle understanding of life and sincere love are integrated. They express themselves or the people and things around them with deep feelings and rich imagination. With this, there is no printed matter to replace it.

Storehouses such as granaries and water tanks are the "heaven and earth" that people strive to beautify. Most people like to paste "fish" (fish harmony), and paste fish on the granary to symbolize that there is surplus food at home; Stick the fish on the water tank like a duck to water. Where there are fish, there must be water, which is inexhaustible.

In the early days, except for pen drawing, most of the embroidery patterns were cut out of thin and tough paper, then stuck on the bottom satin and embroidered. The practice of sample cutting is very simple and economical, which is both high-yield and fast. As long as you find a piece of tissue paper and a sample, you can cut out multiple sheets without going out of shape. It is more widely circulated than hand painting, so a considerable number of embroidery samples are circulated among the people. The most commonly used embroidery patterns are animals, plants and geometric figures. These paper-cuts are concise and abstract. Common ornaments include pillow top, vamp, collar and sleeve edge. The content of cutting depends on the use of embroidery, such as pillow top, vamp, auspicious dragon and phoenix, phoenix peony, dragon ball, unicorn, fish lotus and wishful pomegranate. These are auspicious words for weddings. Children's bellies, bibs, shoes and hats, tiger, lion and fish are mostly for liveliness and loveliness. For the clothes worn by the women guarding the palace, cut out deformed characters such as "Tuanshou" and "Longevity", or patterns such as "Five Bats Hold Longevity", "Happy Birthday", "Living Together for a New Year" and "Songhe Changchun". The decorative patterns of clothes or utensils they cut out are full of their true feelings and their lively spirituality. This is the reason why paper-cutting art can be deeply rooted in people's hearts. Folk writers who reflect life and drama stories are born and raised in the yellow land. They are familiar with the surrounding grass, trees, mountains and green waters, people's feelings and customs. The techniques of cutting by hand and cutting at will practiced for many years have branded their love for farming, such as rolling rice and grinding flour, driving horses, carrying water and chopping firewood, raising chickens and feeding pigs, spinning and weaving, sewing clothes and cooking. It not only reflects the colorful rural life, but also reflects the simple folk customs. Their paper-cut works are full of affection, which is a hymn of life and a record of life.

Jin Opera has a long history. The depth and depth of Chinese opera are loved by the masses, and it also provides reference materials for folk paper-cut artists to re-create in theme, character dynamics and story plot. In traditional Chinese opera paper-cutting, there are humorous shopkeepers, majestic and resourceful Zhuge Liang, godson, heroic and selfless, all of whom are lifelike and ready to come. Paper-cutting is carried out on a piece of thin paper, and it is difficult to include all the contents of the drama. It can only capture the most typical and representative plots, scenes and characters to shape dynamically. Therefore, the characters must be generalized and exaggerated, and the image must be vivid and affectionate. "The Story of Lyu3 bu4 Playing Diesim" cuts a "lure" and a "play" vividly with the author's skillful and profound artistic skills and the characters' eyes and dynamics.