Sketch of traditional decoration in China

"Paper-cutting is a hollow art and the most popular folk art, which gives people an empty inspiration and artistic enjoyment visually. Its carrier can be paper, gold and silver foil, bark, leaves, cloth, leather and other sheet materials. "

[Edit this paragraph] Paper-cut Introduction

Paper-cutting is one of the most popular traditional folk decorative arts in China with a long history. It is popular because of its easily available materials, low cost, obvious effect and wide application. Because it is most suitable for rural women's leisure production, it can be used as a practical object and beautify their lives. Paper-cutting can be seen all over the country, and even formed different local styles. Paper-cutting not only shows the aesthetic taste of the public, but also contains the deep social psychology of the nation. It is also one of the most distinctive folk arts in China, and its modeling features are particularly worth studying. As the embodiment of China's original philosophy, folk paper-cutting has the characteristics of comprehensiveness, beautification and auspiciousness. At the same time, folk paper-cutting conveys the connotation and essence of traditional culture with its own specific expression language.

On May 20th, 2006, the paper-cut art heritage was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. On June 8, 2007, Shanghai Li Paper-cut Art Master Studio won the first Cultural Heritage Day Award from the Ministry of Culture.

Paper cutting, also known as paper carving, window cutting or painting cutting. The difference is that when creating, some use scissors and some use carving knives. Although the tools are different, the artistic works created are basically the same, which is collectively called paper-cutting.

Paper-cutting is divided into monochrome paper-cutting and color paper-cutting. A work carved with a color paper-cut is called monochrome paper-cut. Monochrome woodcuts, like prints, are the most commonly used forms, and such works are very simple and generous. Color matching paper-cut is a kind of work that can be made with different color paper-cuts. This form is not commonly used, and this kind of work looks very vivid.

[Edit this paragraph] The history of paper cutting

China folk paper-cut handicraft art has its own formation and development process. China's paper was invented in the Western Han Dynasty (6th century BC), before which the art of paper-cutting could not have appeared. But at that time, people used thin materials to make handicrafts by hollowing out and carving, but it was popular long before paper appeared, that is, cutting gold foil, leather, silk and even leaves by carving, carving, picking, carving and cutting. According to Records of the Historian Jiantong Di Feng, in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, a king claimed the title of king, and cut a plane tree leaf into a "reed" and gave it to his younger brother, who was named Hou in the Tang Dynasty. During the Warring States period, leather carvings (one of the cultural relics unearthed from Chu Tomb No.1 in Jiangling, Hubei Province) and silver foil carvings (one of the cultural relics unearthed from the Warring States site in Guwei Village, Huixian County, Henan Province) were all demolished together with paper-cutting, and their appearance laid a certain foundation for the formation of folk paper-cutting. The earliest paper-cutting works in China were discovered in 1967, when China archaeologists discovered two paper-cuts with flowers of the Northern Dynasties in Astana near Gaochang site in Turpan Basin, Xinjiang. They use hemp paper, all of which are folded sacrificial paper-cuts. Their discovery provides physical evidence for the formation of Chinese paper-cutting.

The history of paper-cutting handicraft art, that is, paper-cutting in the true sense, should begin with the appearance of paper. The invention of paper in Han Dynasty promoted the appearance, development and popularization of paper-cutting. Paper is a moldy material. In the southeast of China, the climate is humid, coupled with rainy days in May and June every year, paper products will rot over time, and folk paper-cutting is a popular thing. People don't keep it as a treasure, and they can cut it if it is broken. In the northwest of China, the weather is dry, the climate is dry, and the paper is not easy to get moldy, which may also be one of the important reasons for the discovery of paper-cutting in the Northern Dynasties in Turpan, Xinjiang.

Paper-cutting in Tang Dynasty-Paper-cutting in Tang Dynasty has been in a period of great development. There is a saying in Du Fu's poem that "warm water fills my feet, and paper-cutting calls my soul". The custom of paper-cutting calling my soul has spread among the people at that time. The paper-cut in the Tang Dynasty, which is now in the British Museum, shows that the paper-cut at that time had a high level of manual art and a complete picture composition, expressing an ideal realm between heaven and earth. Popular in the Tang Dynasty, the carved patterns of flowers and trees have the characteristics of paper-cutting. For example, the pattern of "Duiyang" in Masakura Hospital in Japan is a typical artistic expression of hand cutting. In the Tang dynasty, there was also block printing made of paper-cutting. People carved it into wax paper with thick paper, and then printed the dye on the cloth to form beautiful patterns.

In Song Dynasty, the paper industry was mature and there were many kinds of paper products, which provided conditions for the popularization of paper-cutting. For example, it can be used as "fireworks" for folk gifts, "window grilles" pasted on windows, or as decorations for lanterns and teacups. The application scope of folk paper-cutting in Song Dynasty gradually expanded. Jiangxi Jizhou Kiln uses paper-cut as the pattern of ceramics, and makes the ceramics more exquisite by glazing and firing. Folk also use paper-cutting to carve figures in shadow play with the skins of animals such as donkeys, cows, horses and sheep. Carved version made of blue printed cloth, carved into patterns with oilpaper board, and scratched patterns made by paper-cutting technology, divided into yin and yang engraving. Long lines should be cut off to distinguish facts from truth.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the paper-cut handicraft art matured and reached its peak. Folk paper-cut handicraft art has a wider range of applications, such as flower decorations on folk lanterns, decorative patterns on fans and embroidery patterns, all of which are reprocessed with paper-cut as decoration. What's more, Chinese people often use paper-cutting as decoration to beautify the home environment, such as door battlements, window grilles, cabinet flowers, wedding flowers and ceiling flowers, which are all used to decorate doors, windows and rooms. In addition to the paper-binding pattern craftsmen who appeared after the Southern Song Dynasty, the most basic team of folk paper-cutting handicrafts in China is rural women. Female red is an important symbol of the perfection of traditional women in China. As a compulsory skill of needlework, paper-cutting has become a skill that girls have to learn since childhood. They want to learn paper-cut patterns from their predecessors or sisters, cut out new patterns through cutting, re-cutting, painting and cutting, and describe the natural scenery they are familiar with and love, the scenery of fish, insects, birds, beasts, flowers, trees, pavilions and bridges, and finally reach the realm of their will.

China folk paper-cut handicraft art, like an ivy tree, is ancient and evergreen, and its unique popularity, practicality and aesthetics have become a symbolic meaning that meets people's psychological needs.

[Edit this paragraph] The creation of paper cutting

First, the composition method

The basic material of paper-cutting is flat paper, the basic units are lines and blocks, and the basic language symbols are decorative points, lines and surfaces. In addition, due to the limitation of materials, paper-cutting is not good at expressing multi-level and complex picture content, light and shadow effects, and the volume, depth and fluctuation of objects and images. Therefore, it is only necessary to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and adopt head-up composition in composition, that is, to change objects and scenes from three-dimensional images into two-dimensional plane images. Through the bold choice of performance materials, the complexity is simplified and summarized with concise lines, so that the focus of the picture is prominent, and the relationship between black and white is in contrast with reality, thus enhancing the expressive force of the work and expressing the objects of the world with a head-up view, which determines the planarization characteristics of paper-cutting, that is, any image creation is stored in a specific visual plane. Folk paper-cutting adopts an expanded way of thinking, which is very arbitrary. Under the scissors of the creator, paper-cutting has become a natural and bold creation, without volume, space, perspective and proportion, relying on experience and spirituality. In order to express their ideas, creators can break the objective laws of nature and space restrictions and put objects in different time and space on the same plane. This kind of static planarization can represent three-dimensional, four-dimensional or even multi-dimensional space, and constantly depict the world in your heart through dynamic thinking. Folk paper-cutting is to make a fuss about the limitations of paper, gallop freely in the limitations, make the impossible possible and simplify the three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional space. Infinite space and infinite complex shapes are placed on a plane, and the flat outline has become the modeling basis of paper-cutting. Therefore, the unique expressive force of folk paper-cutting is realized on the basis of the thorough concept of two-dimensional space. Paper-cut creators play their true and pure artistic nature, break the shackles of the objective world, and express their artistic objects from multiple angles, directions and levels.

This composition thinking of folk paper-cut is not limited by living customs and subject matter content, and creatively organizes a number of images to make them coherent, comparative and foil. This expression technique of flattening and taking things enhances the subjectivity, time and space, three-dimensional sense and comprehensiveness of paper-cutting, and its ultimate goal is to pursue the integrity of modeling. Perfect psychology is the foundation of all this. In folk paper-cutting, the foreground and background of the paper-cut object appear on the same plane, and the object and the image do not overlap each other, so that we can see both the front object and the back object completely, thus showing a strong decorative style. The creator broke the obstacles of realization out of pure thoughts, feelings and aesthetic stereotypes, and fully expressed the image with the method of unity of form and spirit. For paper-cutting, the back, top, bottom or interior of the object can't be seen, but it has an inner feeling. Invisibility is reasonable, but it is unreasonable not to cut it out.

In addition, the structure and expression of folk paper-cutting is not a simulation or representation of a static visual image from a fixed angle, but a dynamic dialectics that fully integrates sensibility and rationality. China folk art does not pursue the depth of perspective, but has an aesthetic recognition of "seeing more and seeing more". Folk paper-cutting also embodies this aesthetic concept, which embodies the whole picture of things in two-dimensional space.

Scattered perspective paper-cut works

The composition form of folk paper-cut completely abandons the concept of "focus" perspective painting, which not only breaks the limitation of time, space and proportion, but also completely breaks away from the specific position of natural scenery, unifying the picture with primary and secondary images, symmetry and balance formal rules. At the same time, folk paper-cutting also has the method of scattered composition, that is, different materials are independent of each other and do not cross each other, and even each object has its own perspective, so the author can arrange these different materials in the same plane reasonably. This is unreasonable in reality, but it is naturally reasonable in paper-cutting.

Folk paper-cutting is not bound by the inherent shape of natural objects, and is not satisfied with the simulation of appearance, but expresses all objects on the plane. At the same time, in order to pursue the integrity and comprehensiveness of modeling, different scenes in different time and space are described, which fully embodies the creator's wonderful ingenuity and aesthetic desire to pursue perfection.

2. Modeling method

Folk paper-cutting comes from life, and the creators of paper-cutting express their understanding of life and nature in this special art form, which is an expression of inner feelings. Therefore, this kind of artistic expression focuses on similarity rather than similarity. At the same time, due to the limitation of paper-cutting technology, it is not appropriate to adopt a completely realistic approach, but only highlight the outline characteristics of the object, and use deformation and exaggeration to highlight the characteristics of the object. Therefore, exaggeration and distortion have become one of the most commonly used expression languages in paper-cutting. Exaggerated deformation is the result of human creative labor and the crystallization of wisdom. Whether it is the painted pottery decoration of Yangshao culture, the graphic patterns of bronzes in Yin and Shang dynasties, or the stone carving art in Qin and Han dynasties, it shows its eternal artistic charm with the beauty of artistic exaggeration. As the direct carrier of primitive art, paper-cutting has outstanding performance in exaggeration and deformation. The performance of folk paper-cutting mostly comes from real life and reflects the life and things around working people. However, it is not only a simple and intuitive simulation of the object to be expressed in its works, but a common standard that transcends the objective expression of reality and changes the nature and shape of the object through exaggeration and deformation.

The creators of folk paper-cutting regard paper-cutting as a part of life, and the yearning for a better life and the worship of ancient totems are the main contents of folk paper-cutting. These themes full of folk customs, beliefs and philosophies can only be expressed subjectively, which makes the image of paper-cut arbitrary, and the depiction of inner images can not be separated from exaggerated artistic language.

The exaggeration of folk paper-cut modeling is a systematic and standardized process of complicated content, rather than an objective description of nature. Therefore, the image in paper-cut is more prominent and eye-catching than the prototype. This is determined by the big historical and cultural background and living environment, and comes from the rich life. At the same time, the processing and simplification of living raw materials is also the basis of folk paper-cut modeling. Eliminating non-essential things, highlighting the parts with characteristics and individuality, and turning complexity into simple art re-creation are the exaggeration of folk paper-cutting. Exaggeration emphasizes the characteristics of the object on the basis of ellipsis, and expands, shrinks, elongates, thickens and deforms the most special part of the object image to make the image more distinctive and artistic. In many folk paper-cut works, people can only see their eyes in facial modeling, because in people's minds, eyes are the most vivid, so the creators exaggerate people's eyes.

The exaggeration of sawtooth paper-cut folk paper-cut not only embodies the characteristics of objects, but also requires the purpose of decorative beauty, which shows the creator's spiritual pursuit of life, such as ideals and wishes. In order to make the prominent part more clear, concentrated and eye-catching, some decorative patterns are often added to the image to achieve the perfect decorative purpose. The desire for beauty has also become one of the exaggerated contents. When representing a character, the clothes of the character are covered with flowers; When depicting animals, the fur on animals is exaggerated into a whirlpool shape, or patterns are directly added to it, so that the original ordinary image becomes transparent and shows strong decoration. Sawtooth and crescent are common decorative patterns in folk paper-cutting.

The creative process of folk paper-cutting is a process of evolution and deepening from "truth" in real life to "beauty" in art through exaggeration, and it is also a process of the creator's thoughts, feelings, aesthetic psychology and pursuit and embodiment of beauty. Through long-term observation and understanding of life and long-term practice, the creator understands the law of paper-cutting, and freely combines balanced, uneven, dense and irregular lines to form wonderful rhythm and rhythm, which adds interest and enriches the appeal of the image.

Three, paper-cutting tools and instructions:

Paper-cutting is not made by machine, but by hand. The common methods are scissors and knife scissors. As the name implies, scissors are scissors. After cutting, paste several paper-cuts (usually no more than 8) together, and finally process the pattern with sharp scissors. Knife scissors first fold the paper into several folds, put it on the soft mixture of ashes and animal fat, and then slowly carve it with a knife. Paper-cutting artists usually hold a knife vertically and process the paper into the desired pattern according to a certain model. Compared with scissors, one advantage of knife scissors is that they can be processed into various paper-cut patterns at one time.

Shaanxi has been the political and cultural center of the Chinese nation since ancient times. The legendary Yellow Emperor was buried in Tongling Bridge Mountain, Shaanxi Province, and the Yangshao cultural site 5,000 years ago was discovered in Banpo, Lintong, Jiangzhai and Beishouling of Baoji. Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang and other 13 dynasties all established their capitals in Shaanxi, leaving a rich folk cultural heritage.

Shaanxi paper-cutting is a folk art form with a long history. Among the paper-cutting arts with different styles and characteristics all over the country, the ancient and quaint Shaanxi paper-cutting is loved by people for its unique charm. The main forms of paper-cutting in Shaanxi are window kiln top flower, kang flower, door painting, hanging curtain, pillow flower, table skirt flower, shoe flower, wedding double happiness flower, costume ornament flower, shrine decal and so on. Various forms and rich contents. Window grilles are the most common. Every Spring Festival, no matter where the countryside is, white paper is pasted on the windows, and window grilles cut from red paper are pasted to celebrate the New Year. Shaanxi window grilles, in terms of performance content, first, inherit the tradition, and second, be close to life and reflect the reality at close range. There are people's activities, flowers and birds, fish and insects, birds and beasts, folk stories and legends, etc. The shape is rigorous and full of folk flavor. Shaanxi paper-cutting mostly comes from the hands of peasant women, and its characteristics are simple, rough, concise and clear. The paper-cuts they created are full of rich earthy flavor and strong emotional color, without any pretense, and the folk customs are simple. On the one hand, they are influenced by folk culture, and on the other hand, they carefully observe and understand life, condensing the wisdom of ordinary working people. Through bold and rich imagination, they use paper-cutting to express their feelings about life and their understanding of beauty.

In Shaanxi paper-cutting art, folk paper-cutting in northern Shaanxi is the first one. Because the traffic in this area is blocked and the country has been closed for nearly a hundred years, it is difficult to introduce foreign culture, but the ancient culture and art have been inherited by peasant women and passed down from generation to generation. For example, some paper-cuts inherited the style of stone reliefs in the Han Dynasty, and the outline was extremely simple and full. Vivid and imaginative. For example, the limbs of the "melon seeds doll" posted on the door of the farmhouse during the Spring Festival were cut out of paper and the head was replaced with melon seeds. Because the authors are farmers, with a wide range of people and different ages, the themes of paper-cutting are rich and colorful. Vegetables, flowers and trees, grazing textiles, weddings and funerals, folk customs, etc. are all the objects of the elderly authors' performance. Guanzhong paper-cut is deeply loved by people because of its beautiful shape and meticulous realism. There are not many paper-cuts in southern Shaanxi, which are characterized by exquisiteness, exaggeration, delicacy and truth.

Paper-cutting is a culture created by women. There is a custom of "being smart when looking for a wife" in northern Shaanxi. When looking for a daughter-in-law, "don't ask people if they are blind, look at their hands first." Cleverness means looking at paper-cut embroidery. There is a saying called "Look at the window and see the curtain". Looking at the window is to look at the cut window grilles, and looking at the curtains is to look at the embroidery skills. It is generally believed that women who can arrange flowers must be smart, and the dolls born in the future are naturally smart. Nowadays, in the rural areas of northern Shaanxi, whoever can arrange flowers is still respected by the whole village. In the twelfth lunar month, aunts and aunts learn from each other to cut flowers, come out to look good and compete for samples. In the first month, women visit each other to see who has the best window grilles and the most dexterous hands.

There are various forms of paper-cutting in Shaanxi, one is monochrome paper-cutting, the other is collage paper-cutting, the third is stippling paper-cutting, the fourth is infiltration paper-cutting, the fifth is paper-plastic window flower, and the sixth is smoked paper-cutting.

Paper-cutting in northern Shaanxi is dominated by monochrome paper-cutting, with simple and simple shape, emphasis on exaggeration and deformation, and inheritance of ancient aesthetic taste and modeling concept. In terms of content, animals and flowers are the main ones. It is said that Confucius enlightened the world, but he neglected northern Shaanxi, so the temperament of northern Shaanxi people is not as gentle as that of Guanzhong people, so they are very creative and emotional, so they have a strong personality. In Jingbian, Anbian and Dingbian in northern Shaanxi, people cut paper on three sides, and paper-cutting has become another style, subtle, small and exquisite, small and medium-sized, and accurate in description. "Lele" is as thin as a needle, and the trimming is as thin as a hair. It is different from Yan 'an Sui and rough paper cutting, and it is also different from Jiangnan's originality and realism. According to textual research, Trilateral was once a frontier town, and the court often sent southern generals to guard it. They live here with their families, and also bring the folk culture of the water town, which is combined with the local folk art in Gu Zhuo to form a unique trilateral paper-cut.

Due to the good economic foundation, the paper-cutting forms in gap area have become diversified, such as monochrome, stippling, collage, paper and plastic. The content is mainly opera characters, and flowers, birds and animals often add piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, eight treasures and so on. , a symbol of cultural symbols, has a strong cultural characteristics of the Central Plains. Ku Lan Shu is a master of folk collage paper-cutting in Xunyi County. She is over eighty years old this year, and she is a master of paper-cutting art named by Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture. She developed collage paper-cutting to the extreme, which amazed experts and scholars. Taiwan Province Han Sheng publishes a large-scale picture book for Ku Lan Shu. CCTV and Shaanxi TV stations filmed feature films for reporting. The paper-plastic paper-cut created by Luo Zhanhua, an old man in Heyang County, is based on the characters in the play, which vividly depicts the strokes and styles of the characters in the play. Weibei's monochrome paper-cut is influenced by its shadow play modeling, and Xifu's monochrome paper-cut is influenced by woodcut New Year pictures, which shows the profound cultural heritage of the Central Plains.

Shandong folk paper-cutting

Northern School-Shandong Paper-cut Shandong folk paper-cut can be roughly divided into two categories from the modeling style. One is the boldness of Bohai Bay, which is in the same strain as the paper-cutting in other provinces in the Yellow River Basin. One is the exquisite paper-cut with characteristics in the coastal area of Jiaodong, Shandong Province, which is mainly line-based and combines line and surface. It seems to come down in one continuous line with the subtle and complicated style of stone reliefs in the Han Dynasty in Shandong Province, and with its intensive decorative means, it makes the simple and refreshing appearance more full and rich.

Shandong Jiaodong calls a woman with good skills a "liar", and people are proud of it no matter which village they are in. Their flower patterns are often spread around with fireworks on wallpaper, becoming the flower arrangement of villages far and near. The most common use of paper-cutting is to decorate windows. Most of the windows in Jiaodong are slender lattices, and generally only small flowers can be attached. Women give full play to their creativity, cut the big composition into strips by breaking it into parts, and then stick it on the window to form a complete picture. This kind of paper-cut called "window flower" is usually stuck on the "window heart". There are also "horn flowers", "window flowers" and "cockfighting flowers" hanging in front of the window, which constitute a series of "inter-culture". In order to match the layout of holiday rooms, paper-cutting is also used to decorate walls and ceilings, as well as decals for utensils.

Among them, the paper-cut spread in Gaomi, Shandong Province, from the doors and windows of the farmhouse, the roof of the shed to the cabinets and wardrobes. Generally, the production is straight-cut, without making a draft, and it is characterized by the combination of sawtooth pattern and straight line to form an image.

Since ancient times, Shandong paper-cutting has shown its unique aesthetic function more and more. Therefore, folk "magicians" who are good at juggling pay more attention to skills. Those broken lines and burrs as thin as mosquito's feet often make people feel a wonder that ordinary people can't achieve.

[Edit this paragraph] Paper-cut mounting

Paper-cut mounting generally adopts the following forms:

1. Frame type

Generally, it is ok to sell photos and pictures in the market. When installing paper-cut, it is necessary to stick a small amount of white latex around the paper-cut on the supporting paper, otherwise the paper-cut will often fall or move after the hanger, which is uneven. The color choice of paper holder mainly depends on the color of paper-cutting, which plays a role in foil paper-cutting. For example, when paper-cutting is heavy color, the backing paper should be light color, and when paper-cutting is light color or white, the backing paper should be heavy color.

2. Paperboard installation

Cardboard installation can be divided into plane installation and vertical installation. When plane mounting, all the transparent latex used for paper-cutting is stuck on the pre-designed cardboard. Three-dimensional mounting is to divide the paper tray into two layers, the middle of paper-cut is fixed with transparent sheet, and the outside is pasted with transparent sheet or cellophane. This mounting gives people a feeling of three-dimensional space.

3. Installation of reels

Scroll is a mounting form of Chinese painting. It is solemn and generous, hanging in the room with great verve and oriental artistic characteristics, which is naturally a superior choice for mounting paper-cuts. If you ask the calligrapher to inscribe and seal the mounted scroll, it can be compared with the central axis painting of China. Mounting scrolls are more expensive than picture frames, and mounting technology is difficult, but the artistic effect is quite good.

4. Glue pressing and installation

With the development of modern industry, there are more and more transparent chemical materials, such as transparent resin glue, adding a little coagulant, laying paper-cut on glass, pouring the prepared glue on paper-cut, then laying it on the glue with cellophane stretched on a wooden frame, flattening it with a rubber roller, and drying it under 400-degree light. This method is very beautiful and can be preserved permanently, but the technology is complicated. If the temperature is not well controlled during prayer, cellophane will be easily burnt and invalid. This mounting effect is similar to photo pasting.

[Edit this paragraph] Symbolic significance of paper cutting

Folk paper-cutting is good at combining all kinds of objects and images to produce ideal and beautiful effects. No matter whether one or more image combinations are used, they are modeled by "image implication" and "meaning conformation", rather than by objective natural forms. At the same time, they are also good at using metaphor and combining the agreed images to create various mascots to express their psychology. Pursuing auspicious metaphor has become one of the ultimate goals of image combination.

The main reason why folk paper-cutting can be widely spread for a long time is the performance function of accepting blessings and welcoming auspicious events. The geographical closure and cultural limitations, as well as the intrusion of adversity such as natural disasters, aroused people's desire for a happy life. People pray for ample food and clothing, prosperity, health and longevity, and all the best. This simple wish is conveyed through paper-cutting. Folk paper-cut "deer and crane in the same spring" is a traditional folk theme pattern. According to records, cranes are "blackbirds", and blackbirds are the general term for "migratory birds". In folk culture, deer is called "waiting for animals" and cranes are called "migratory birds". Deer and cranes are symbols of spring and life. Folk deer and Lu are homophonic, and cranes are regarded as longevity birds, so the combination of deer and cranes means longevity. In the case of relatively low productivity of civil society, human labor has become the guarantee of survival, and it is an eternal ideal for people to get rid of the pain of birth, illness and death. Folk paper-cutting expresses the desire for life in various forms, protects life, praises life, shows the joy of life, and the worship of life becomes people's sincere belief. "Eagle stepping on a rabbit" is one of the favorite flowers in the folk bridal chamber, and it is also a traditional pattern, which is widely circulated among the people. Eagle means "Yang", just like chickens, birds and crows. In folk deification, the sun is called a "three-legged bird" and people call it a "crow". Rabbit means "Yin". People call the moon a rabbit. The eagle stepping on the rabbit is a metaphor for the love between men and women, which embodies the theme of reproductive worship. Sitting and enjoying flowers, which are common in folk paper-cutting, express the worship and pursuit of life in a metaphorical way. Paper-cut works with the theme of "buckle bowl", "catch bun doll" and "fish lotus" abound, and the list is endless.

The concept of praying for life endows folk paper-cutting with inexhaustible blood and vigorous vitality. When the creators of paper-cutting treat wealth and happiness, they always have firm and optimistic beliefs and endless hopes. Paper-cutting is the external presentation of their ideal of creating a better life. Folk paper-cutting integrates these auspicious meanings into various ethnic activities to meet the spiritual and psychological needs of the general public, support human survival and enrich human life. In folk paper-cutting, we can see many pictures reflecting production and life. The biggest similarity between these works is that they exaggerate the main body, such as big fish, big pepper, big silkworm and big grain. Through paper-cutting, people invented a beautiful image; Comfort one's soul, publicize one's great creativity in conquering nature, establish one's ideal world, affirm one's strength, and inspire people's courage to continue their struggle.

The expression language of folk paper-cutting is not a simple and straightforward description, but a kind of token information, which borrows the conventional concept image to pin people's longing for a better life and expectation for good luck and happiness. All kinds of simple and grotesque paper-cut shapes contain frankness and beauty, which come from the original visual thinking mode and folk aesthetic concept; It comes from a unique modeling system, which consists of program system and image statue; The original philosophy and worldview from China are even more touching.

[Edit this paragraph] Historical records of paper cutting

Paper-cut art has a long history. In the classics of ancient poetry, it is also

Hope to adopt