The Development of Fans

In the long history, a small fan in addition to daily use, but also nurtured the wisdom of Chinese culture and art, cohesion of ancient and modern arts and crafts of the essence, a unique Chinese fan style of the wonders of the national traditional cultural relics of the artistic treasures.

Many scholars believe that the fan originated in the era of Yu and Shun. Jin Cui Bao "Ancient and Modern Note" cloud, Shun in order to "wide open hearing, seek the wise to assist themselves, so make five bright fan". The earliest image of a fan is a slave holding a long-handled fan on a gold and silver bronze pot from the Warring States period unearthed at Baihuatan in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

The earliest fan objects are the remnants of a wooden-handled feather fan unearthed from the Tianxingguan Chu Tomb in Jiangling, Hubei Province, and a Western Han gimlet-woven wooden long-handled fan unearthed at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan Province. Mawangdui excavated long-handled fan length of 1.76 meters, is a ceremonial fan, by slaves or servants, used to block the dust and sun, but also a symbol of the master's authority. This fan is called "fan (sha)", also known as the barrier fan or palm fan. Dialect - Miscellaneous Interpretation" cloud: "the fan from Guan and the East is called the Hands, from Guan and the West is called the Fan, now Jiangdong is also commonly known as the Fan for the Hands." The World Book says: "King Wu made a procession." From these records, we know that the fan was written in ancient times as "Dance Cars", and also as "procession". Xiaoer Ya - Guangfu: "A large fan is called a fan." Wang Hsu: "The son of heaven is eight, the vassals are six, the great officers are four, and the soldiers are two." Can be seen with the number of fans is determined by the status of the owner. This ceremonial fan with a long handle in the Tang Dynasty, Yan Liben's famous painting "step in the emperor's carriage", and Shanxi Taiyuan City, Kaifa Temple in the Song Dynasty murals can also be seen.

The feather fan for fanning and cooling appeared earlier. According to Jin Wang Jia "Gleanings" cloud, King Zhao of Zhou, Tu Huo country offer green phoenix, Dan magpie, in the height of summer, King Zhao of Zhou sent people with its wings, tail feathers made of "swimming floating", "strip quill", "Ruoxi light", "oblique shadow" four famous fan, "light wind dispersed, cold from the cool". Jin Lu Ji "feather fan fugue" cloud: "the former King Xiang of Chu will be on the Zhangtai, Shanxi and the right vassals in the country. The doctor Song Yu, Tang Le service, all manipulate the feathers of the white crane as a fan, the lords cover the dust tail and laugh. "After the Song Yu Kan and defense, feather fan only to get the recognition of the lords, popularized in the scholar. Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties, "dust tail fan", "feather fan" and "than wing fan" appeared one after another.

The stag was the leader of the big deer, the scholar held the dust tail or dust tail fan for the conversation, containing the "leader of the group" meaning. The Northern Wei stone carving "flying sky" in the flying female hand Zhai, symbolizing the wings of the flying sky, its shape is very similar to the feather fan.

Tomb portrait stone engraved with fan graphics, there are a small number of discoveries, such as Anqiu County, Shandong Han tomb was found in the early 1950s, the tomb has a portrait stone 16, in the north wall of the stone carving on the fan, such as the kitchen knife-shaped pattern. Mural painting was also popular in the Han Dynasty. The earliest examples of fans painted on murals should be the three ancient tombs with murals found in Liaoyang in the early 1950s. In a number of murals painted with fan-shaped. Also, such as l979 excavated in the north of Hebei Maguxian Otsuka Ying village of the Eastern Wei Ru Ru neighbor and the mural paintings in the tomb of the Princess, whose tomb for the Eastern Wei Wuding eight years (A.D. 550). In the north wall of the mural *** painted women 7 people, in the center of a more plump, wearing a crown, the right hand raised version of the command. Next to six people more slender and clean-cut, head combed double bun, hand-held feather program, Huagai, fan, cups and lanterns and other things. The fan is long-handled oblong.

The fan painted in the mural in the tomb of the Tang Dynasty Zhaoling Xin Cheng Chang Princess, is currently the earliest mural found in the Tang Dynasty. In the tomb mural painted on the long handle duck egg-shaped fan. The earliest fan is made of bamboo. Han-Ban Gu's "Bamboo Fan Fugue" can not only complement and confirm, but also mirror each other. "The green bamboo shape Zhaozhao straight, wonderful Hua long pole disputes real wings. Tou stripes clustered in the water, the wind when the streak of soughing. Cut for fan processor into a good tool, to defend the king for the time to have. The measurements are different and good, round and square, the wind can avoid the summer quiet night." The poem describes the growth of bamboo and even the material, shape and function of the fan. Bamboo as the main material of the fan has a long history. Jin Xu Xun also wrote a poem about bamboo fans. "The good work of gazing at the forest, the wonderful idea of touching things gallop. Scornful of the wings of the autumn cicadas, round to take the shadow of Wangshu." The craftsmanship of the bamboo fan depicted in this poem is very exquisite, and the bamboo gimlets woven on the fan surface are as thin as cicada wings. Its surface is round, while the popular story of "Xizhi's book fan" in the fan is hexagonal. The Book of Jin - Wang Xizhi's biography: "When Wang Xizhi was in Houttuynia Bay, an old woman held a hexagonal bamboo fan for sale, and Xizhi wrote five characters on the fan. The old woman initially had a pout, Xizhi said: 'But the loss of the right army book, ask for a hundred dollars'. People compete to buy." In fact, in the Jin Dynasty, the shape of the fan has a variety of. Texture in addition to bamboo fan, there are bushels of fans, is also a common thing. "Jin, Xie An townspeople have made bushels of koi fan 50,000, An executive a use, the scholarly public increased the price several times." The story of the feather fan is recorded on Jin - Wang Jia's "Gleanings - Volume 2", "(King Zhao) twenty-four years. The state of Tu Xiu offered a green phoenix, a female and a male magpie. At the time of summer, the phoenix and the magpies shed their feathers. The wings of the magpies were gathered to make a fan, and the feathers of the phoenix were seized to decorate the car cover. The first fan was called 'Yupiao', the second 'Jiehe', the third 'Lack of Light', and the fourth 'Uneven Shadow'. "

Then Dongou offered two women, a Yanjuan, two Yan entertainment. Make two more shake this fan, serving in the king side, light wind scattered, cold from cool. "However, the famous poem about the fan, but to count the Han-Banjie, Emperor Cheng of Han's favorite concubine fan poem," the "Grievance Song line" "new system Qi dandy, bright and clean, such as frost and snow. Cut for the Harmony fan, reunion like the moon. In and out of the sleeves of the king's bosom, shaking the breeze hair. I am always afraid that when the fall festival comes, the cool wind will take away the heat. I'm always afraid that the autumn festival will come, and the cool wind will take away the heat. A playboy fan to support the sadness and joy of love, named the fan also known as the Huanhuan fan, more flow wind rhyme. Jin Taoye's "Answer to the Fan Song" is really a reflection of the same song, the same song, the same disease. "The fan is painted with seven treasures, brilliantly illuminated by the bright moon. I'm with my husband, but I'm not in the summer, so I'll remember you and not forget you." The love story in the fan has been known for centuries. And the poems, words, fugues, inscriptions and writings praising the fan are really too many to be beautiful.

Tang Dynasty Zhang Hu "Fu got Fuzhou white bamboo fan" cloud: "Rattan wisps of snow light winding handle slippery, gimlet woven silver thin dew light." This white bamboo fan with snow-white shiny thin rattan wire wrapped around the fan handle, the fan handle is very smooth, bamboo gabion silk woven into the surface of the fan is fine and shiny, as if a thin layer of silver powder, the fan surface is vaguely exposed to the blossoming flower pattern. This shows that the production of bamboo fans to the Tang Dynasty has been ingenious, this Fuzhou white bamboo fan has been an exquisite arts and crafts.

With the advancement of silk textile technology, silk palace fan (also known as fan, silk fan, dandy fan) began to popularize. Ban Jieyu of Han Dynasty, Xiao Yan of Liang Dynasty, Tang poet Liu Yuxi and Du Mu. Song poet Wang Anshi and other poets have written famous poems about the fan.

The Tang Dynasty fan object, only in the Tang tomb in Astana, Xinjiang, has been unearthed wooden handle silk fan, long handle, fan surface painted with flowers and birds. Later Zhang Xuan, a figure painter of the Sheng Tang period, painted a woman holding a short-handled waist-circle fan in his painting "Pounding and Training the Tune of the Figure" (a Song copy) (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA). In Zhou Fang's Painting of a Lady with a Flower Hairpin (now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum), a figure painter of the Middle Tang Dynasty, a woman can be seen holding a long-handled fan with a peony design. There is also a painting by Zhou Fang of a lady wielding a fan (now in the Palace Museum). The painting is on silk, with colors, and depicts the daily life of concubines and courtesans in the palace. 13 people are depicted in the painting***, some of them are holding fans, and the fan is a long-handled fan with a pair of luan and phoenixes on its surface. Now housed in the Shanghai Museum of the Tang Dynasty Sun Bit "Gao Yi Figure Volume", also known as the "Seven Sages Figure". In the picture there is a high sage holding a short-handled fan. The early Tang Yan Lipen's "step in the emperor's carriage" in the Tang Emperor Taizong sitting in the emperor's carriage, nine palace ladies before and after the right and left, there are lifting the emperor's carriage, help the emperor's carriage, more fan, playing umbrella, each with a gesture. The fan should be a barrier fan, which has the function of blocking the dust and shielding the sun. Another example is Zhang Xuan's "Queen's Journey", the Queen's side and the front lead to the entourage held up by the long-handled big things, should also be a barrier fan.

Five generations of the southern tang dynasty painter gu ma-teung's surviving masterpiece "han xizai night banquet" in the fourth paragraph depicts han xizai appreciate the music played by the music, bare chest, bare belly, waving the fan to listen to the music, next to a maid also holding a long-handled fan, painted on the trees, mountains and other paintings. If we summarize, it is not difficult to see "seven sages" and "Han Xizai Banquet" in the man holding a short-handled fan, and the fan has a wooden frame. The other "pounding practice" in the fan in the fan in the fan charcoal stove, used is also a short handle, the rest of the master of the service used by the maids of the fan all the long handle, the mural also confirms this point. And from the time early and late analysis, the fan seems to gradually transition from round to square. The formation of multi-form fan varieties.

Our ancestors successively used feathers, bamboo and gabion, silk yarn production fan, with the development of the paper industry, and later used paper to paste the fan.1975, in jiangsu province, jintan county, mao lu commune excavation of a southern song dynasty student zhou yu's tomb, unearthed a carving and lacquer live handle paper group fan. This fan is extremely delicate in its production, with a thin wooden pole as its axis, and bamboo gabions as thin as bristles for the fan's bone veins, and then glued with paper to make the fan and the fan. Fan handle to degreasing method with black and red colors to paint, as many as 10 layers, 2 to 3 centimeters thick, and then hollowed out into a symmetrical three groups of double cloud head Ruyi pattern, the entire lacquer handle and the upper end of the wooden pole is not connected to the fan fan fan in the middle of the fan surface of the wooden pole can be rotated in the lacquer sleeve handle and will not fall off.

China from the Song Dynasty onwards, a large number of production folding fan (also called "folding fan", "gathering fan"), folding fan fan fan with a few with the silk (above left), most of the paper framed. Song dynasty Zhao Yanwei that China's folding fan is imported from North Korea, he said in the "Yunlu Man notes": "Song people with folding fan, to steam bamboo for the bone, sandwiched between the damask, noble family or ivory for the bone, decorated with gold and silver, cover out of Goryeo (North Korea)." In fact, China in the Southern Qi (479-502 years) when there has been a folding fan, "Southern Qi Book - Liu Xiang biography": "Stuart Chu Yuan into the court, to waist fan barricade day." "Tongjian" note cloud: "waist fan that folding fan." The earliest physical evidence of the appearance of folding fan in Chinese history, is the 1977 Wujin County, Jiangsu Province, the Southern Song Dynasty tomb unearthed bump gold lacquer trousseau, the name of this "figures and flowers Zhu lacquer bump gold lotus discernment trousseau" lacquer treasured in the Changzhou Museum, the trousseau cover surface bump painting a "garden lady summer map The cover of the trousseau is painted with a picture of a "garden lady in summer", a lady holding a fan and a lady shaking a folding fan. From this picture can be seen, as early as in the Southern Song Dynasty folding fan has been widely popular.

Before the Ming Dynasty, folding fan rare, no popular trend. So some people thought, folding fan began during the Ming Yongle. Folding fan is loved by the emperor Yongle, so in the early Ming Dynasty has a great development. Liu Yuanqing "Yin Yi" recorded: "Yongle in North Korea into the spread fan, on the like of its roll and Shu of convenience, order workers such as the style for the." Yongle Emperor Zhu rafters on the folding fan, the ministers were given, doubly respected dissemination, secular views are changing. The same book also records, "the southern women all use the fan, but prostitutes with a fan. In recent years, the women of good families are also used to spread the fan, which can also be seen in the customs tend to be thin also. And folding fan first used in the court, as the imperial to local popularization is always a process, a period of time. From the circulating and unearthed Ming dynasty folding fan, mainly in the Ming dynasty, late. And the main place of origin is Shu, Wu two places.

China's fan industry in the Ming and Qing dynasties was very prosperous, fan and people's lives have formed an unbreakable bond. Kong Shangren's "peach blossom fan", "Journey to the West" in the Monkey King three borrowed banana fan, "Dream of Red Mansions" in the Qingwen tearing the fan, although the art of fiction, but from a side to reflect the fan's great influence. At the same time, the fan and the art of painting and calligraphy have formed an inseparable relationship. Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Bohu, Qiu Ying in the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty's "Yangzhou eight monsters" and Changzhou famous painter Hun Nantian, have fan calligraphy and painting masterpieces have been handed down.

In addition to the feather fan, bamboo fan, playboy fan, folding fan, Chinese folk there are many kinds of fan, the Qing dynasty Wang Tingding "staff fan new record" recorded in the banana fan, duck feet fan, wheat grass fan, betel nut fan, cocoon fan, etc.. Among them, the production of cocoon fan is very chic. The book also said, Zhedong people in the silkworm spitting, with light lacquer discs placed in a dozen silkworms which, to cover, silkworms to and from the group cooking, suitable as a disk, silk and stop, out of its cocoon, sticking as a fan, clean and even dense, non-sewing non-weaving, called the cocoon fan.

China's vast territory, all over the production of famous fans are numerous. Zhejiang Huzhou, Hunan Yueyang, Jiangxi Ji'an feather fan, Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shaoxing, Anhui Jingxian folding fan, Guangdong and Fujian, Guangdong and Fujian fan, Sichuan Dianjiang palm fan and Zigong Gong fan, Zhejiang, Shandong, straw fan, Chengdu, Suzhou, silk fan, Zhaoqing, cattle bone fan, Yangshuo, Guangxi, etc., are known far and wide. Since the 1930s, Hangzhou and Suzhou have produced fragrant sandalwood fans, which are exported to the whole country and all over the world. In addition, Suzhou and Hangzhou also produce folding fans that fit and spread freely, beautiful and elegant silk palace fans, and finely carved ivory fans, thus becoming the two cities with the most developed fan-making industry in the country. This is a picture of the wall boundary of Hangzhou Fan Industry Association at that time.

With the rapid development of science and technology and the people's aesthetic level of improvement, some special styles, materials and novel plastic fan, pocket fan, cap fan, self-opening fan, multi-functional light-conducting craft fan and so on have come out. The role of modern life using the fan to cool off the summer heat is relatively small, but the fan as a beautiful crafts, will always bring people the enjoyment of beauty.

The fan originated in China, and has a history of more than 3,000 years in China. The earliest appeared in the Yin Dynasty, made of colorful pheasant feathers, called the "barricade fan", so the word "fan" has a "feather". At that time, the fan was not used to fan the cool, but as the emperor went out to patrol the sun to block the wind to avoid the use of sand. After the Western Han Dynasty, fans began to be used for cooling. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang shook the goose feather fan lightly, and made brilliant plans and strategized. Feather fan out of the wind slowly and softly, not into the coupling. Eastern Han Dynasty, most of the change of feather fan for silk, silk, damask and other fabrics, in order to embellish the embroidery and painting. A bright moon shaped fan called "dandy fan" or "fan", also known as "Huanhuan fan". At that time, the fan has a long round, sunflower, plum blossom, hexagonal, plaque round shape; also wood, bamboo, bone and other materials of the handle; and fan pendant, tassel, jade ornaments. The fan is often embroidered with landscape flowers, style competition, the lady of the house hand-cranked fan, the breeze, not only can add to the master's elegant and quiet demeanor, but also reflecting the innocent and lively personality of women.　　Poetry and painting on the fan first appeared in the Three Kingdoms. According to the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yanyuan's "Record of Famous Paintings Throughout the Ages" contains the story of Yang Xiu, Cao Mengde's chief bookkeeper, and the story of Wei Taizu's "painting a fan and mistakenly pointing it into a fly". The Book of Jin - Wang Xizhi Biography" has a good story about Wang Xizhi inscribing a fan for an old woman. At that time, there was an "old mother", "holding a hexagonal bamboo fan, begged for the book in Wang Xizhi", "Xizhi for the book of five words", she was sold by twelve Wen rose to" Hundred Wen". Today, there is a "Fan Bridge" in the south of Houttuynia Hill in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, which is rumored to be the place where Wang Xizhi wrote his fan. In the Northern Song Dynasty, folding fans appeared, which were extremely convenient to carry. Folding fan, also known as "poly head fan", "spread fan" or "poly bone fan". Its fan bone is made of cow horn, tortoiseshell, ivory, jade, Xiangfei bamboo, sandalwood and other precious materials; the form of qin style, Ruyi head, bamboo style, grasshopper eyes, etc.; the fan bone is divided into seven, nine, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen strands of the more.

To the Southern Song Dynasty, painting fans, selling fans, hiding fans of the wind prevailed, and appeared fan store and painting business. It became a fashion for literati and ink masters in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to inscribe and paint fans. Modern Yun Shouping, Zheng Banqiao, Jin Nong, Shi Tao, Ren Bonian, and Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, Xu Beihong, Fu Baoshi, Li Keran and so on are the masters of the art of fan painting. Right now, these masters of ink painting fan, each handle is worth up to tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.