The Origin of Chinese Paper Cutting

Paper cutting originated from the ancient people's activities of ancestor worship and praying to the gods, and is rooted in the profound Chinese traditional culture.

Two thousand years of development history, so that it condensed the traditional concepts of Han culture, in its evolution, and pottery art, rock art and other arts intertwined with each other, deferred to the ancient nation's humanistic spirit and the pulse of thought.

It became an integral part of traditional Han culture, epitomizing traditional beliefs and human morality, and a window to observe the folklore and cultural heritage of a nation.

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China's folk paper-cutting handmade art has its own formation and development process, the invention of Chinese paper-cutting is in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period BC (3rd century BC), when people used thin sheet material, made of crafts through hollowing out and carving techniques, but as early as when the paper did not appear to have become popular, that is, carving, skeletonizing, ticking, carving, cutting techniques in gold foil, leather, silk, and even on leaves.

During the Warring States period, there were leather cutouts, (one of the artifacts excavated from the first Chu Tomb in Wangshan, Jiangling, Hubei), and silver foil cutouts (one of the artifacts excavated from the Warring States site in Guwei Village, Huixian, Henan), which were the same as the paper cutouts, and their emergence laid the foundation for the formation of the folk paper cutouts.

China's earliest discovery of paper-cutting works, in 1967, Chinese archaeologists in Xinjiang Turpan Basin, Gaochang site near the Astana Ancient North Dynasty tomb complex, found two regimental flower paper-cutting, they use hemp paper, are folded ritual paper-cutting, their discovery of the formation of paper-cutting in China to provide physical evidence.

The history of the art of paper-cutting handicrafts, that is, paper-cutting in the true sense of the word, should begin with the emergence of paper.

The invention of paper in the Han Dynasty led to the emergence, development and popularization of paper cutting.

Paper is a kind of material that is easy to mold, people will not save it like a treasure, mess up their own can be cut again.

And in Northwest China, dry days and little rain, dry climate, the paper is not easy to mold, which may also be Xinjiang

Paper cuts to appreciate (40)

Tulufan area found in the Northern Dynasties paper cuts one of the important reasons.

The Tang Dynasty paper-cutting was already in a period of great development, Du Fu's poem "Warm water wash my feet, paper-cutting to invoke my soul" sentence, to paper-cutting to invoke the soul of the custom of the folk at that time has been circulated.

Now hidden in the British Museum of the Tang Dynasty paper cuts can be seen at the time of paper-cutting handmade art level has been extremely high, the picture composition is complete, expressing a heaven and earth ideal world.

The Tang Dynasty popular Jie, its openwork woodblock pattern with paper-cutting characteristics, such as the hidden Japan Shokurain "sheep", the pattern of the sheep is a typical paper-cutting handmade

artistic expression.

The Tang Dynasty folk also appeared in the form of paper cuts produced by the leakage plate printing plate, people with thick paper carved into a flower plate, the dye leakage printed on the cloth, forming a beautiful pattern.

The Song Dynasty paper industry is mature, a wide range of paper products, for the popularity of paper cutting provides the conditions.

Such as becoming a folk gift "gift flowers", stick on the window "window flowers", or used for lanterns, tea decorations.

The use of folk paper-cutting in the Song Dynasty gradually expanding the range of Jiangxi Jizhou kilns will be paper-cut as ceramic patterns, through the glaze, firing to make ceramics more beautiful; folk also use the form of paper-cutting, donkeys, cows, horses, goats and other animal skin, carved into shadow play characters; blue printed fabric crafting of openwork plate is made of oil paperboard sculpture into patterns, scraping the printing of the pattern is the use of paper-cutting techniques, both negative and positive engraving. Technique, there are yin and yang carving points, long lines to be cut, to the point of the virtual reality.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the art of paper-cutting matured and reached its peak.

Folk

Ancient Auspicious Picture Gallery (40)

Paper-cutting handmade art has a wider range of applications, such as folk lanterns on the flower decoration, fan decoration, as well as embroidery patterns, etc., are not the use of paper-cutting as a decorative into the reprocessing.

More often than not, Chinese folk paper cutouts as decorative home ornaments, beautifying the home environment, such as door stacks, window flowers, cabinet flowers, happy flowers, roof flowers are used to decorate doors and windows, room paper cutouts.

In addition to the Southern Song Dynasty after the emergence of paper tie pattern craftsmen, the most basic team of Chinese folk paper-cutting crafts, or those rural women.

Women's hong is an important symbol of the perfection of traditional Chinese women, and paper-cutting, as a compulsory skill of women's hong, has become a handicraft that girls have to learn from childhood.

They have to learn paper-cutting patterns from their seniors or sisters, and through cutting, re-cutting, drawing and cutting, depicting their own familiar and love of nature, fish, insects, birds and animals, flowers, trees, pavilions, bridges and scenery, and finally to reach the realm of their own hearts, hand-cutting a new pattern to.

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