Detailed explanation of traditional folk toys in China.

The earliest kites were not toys, but were used for military and communication. In the late Tang Dynasty, it was called "kite" because someone added strings to the kite, which sounded like a guzheng when the wind blew. Kites are made of thin bamboo strips, pasted with bright paper or silk, and then colored. In the Song Dynasty, flying kites in Tomb-Sweeping Day became our favorite activity.

satchel

In ancient times, whenever the Dragon Boat Festival, the elders at home would make sachets of cotton cloth, silk and other materials, which were filled with fragrant medicinal materials and placed on the children's chests or hung on the bedside to drive away the illness and seek happiness. After the Dragon Boat Festival, throwing away the shabby sachet means abandoning the disease. So when you see a sachet thrown by others on the road, don't pick it up.

shadow play

Shadow play is a folk art form in China. Longdong Shadow Play in Gansu, northwest of China, is mainly distributed in Pingliang and Qingyang counties, and the triangle bordering Shaanxi and Ningxia in the east is relatively concentrated. Longdong Shadow Play was very popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (14th century-19th century), with handsome and generous shapes and straight outlines. The carving is fine and smooth. Longdong Shadow Play uses young black bull cowhide, which is moderate in thickness, firm, flexible and green. The cowhide is scraped and dried until it is bright and transparent. First, draw a sample on the cowhide lightly, and then carve or chisel it with various knives. After that, the transparent water color is used, and the colors are generally not harmonious, so it is pure and beautiful, and the contrast is strong. After cutting and coloring, ironing is the most critical and difficult step. After the water comes out and dries, you can go on stage for binding and combination.

diabolo

Diabolo, also called "shake", is a famous folk toy. Tie the string with two small bamboo sticks and shake it around the wooden shaft. Diabolo rotates at high speed and makes a sound. As early as the end of the Ming Dynasty, the diabolo in Beijing became a spring toy. People are playing diabolo in hutongs and courtyards, and melodious voices come and go in Beijing.

Diaohu Dashi

Hanging tigers and big lions are folk decorations used to ward off evil spirits. They are made of mud and paper pulp, with black and white and color, many lines and strong color contrast. Some archaeologists believe that hanging a tiger evolved from a mask in the play, and was later hung on the door by farmers to welcome the new year and exorcise ghosts.

Mud peeling

Mud bark is a whistle that can be blown. It is colorful. After being oiled, it is black, bright and beautiful, suitable for children to play. There are many kinds of mud calls, such as bird whistle, fish whistle and pig whistle.

Mudao, Ping Huang, Guizhou

Tao Xiangqiu

Taoxiangqiu is an important primitive musical instrument and the earliest sounding toy. The unearthed ceramic balls are all ceramic balls, which are hollow in the middle and filled with marbles or sand grains, which will rattle when shaken.

The Chinese Ring

Originated from the ancient folk, in the Qing Dynasty, women and children liked to play with the nine-ring chain. Nine-ring chain is regarded as one of the most ingenious toys invented by human beings abroad, and its mystery lies in the ingenious and complicated solution.

rattle-drum

The rattle was originally an ancient musical instrument, but later it lost its function of playing music and became a toy for children. A rattle is a small drum that sounds according to balls tied on both sides. Bells in different areas have different shapes, such as waist drum, flat drum and four drums superimposed, which are loud and pleasing to the ear.

Shanxi fabrics toys

waist drum

top

tumbler

Stone crossbow

be volatile

Sugar blower

Xiaojiwo (Beijing)

Hebei Xincheng nigong chicken

Xuanmu doll (Shandong Tancheng)

Carving gourd (Gansu)

White glazed painted pottery cat (Yuncheng, Shanxi)

Shuidou (Wuxi, Jiangsu)

One of folk toys: seasonal toys for the New Year.

1, folk seasonal toys

China is a traditional agricultural country. For thousands of years, agriculture has been the foundation of the country. Therefore, we attach great importance to agricultural solar terms and festivals, which run through people's lives and form a relatively fixed folk custom. In all kinds of folk activities, folk toys are essential. Now in chronological order:

Spring Festival: It is the most lively festival in a year, and all kinds of folk toys are sold nearly one month before the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival Temple Fair is the most concentrated selling place for folk toys. At traditional temple fairs in Beijing, there are nearly a hundred kinds of traditional toys, such as windmills, lanterns, diabolos, gyroscopes, wood carving toys, kite clay sculptures, paper flowers, educational toys and so on.

February 2nd: Renzu Temple in Henan will sell all kinds of mud toys called "mud dogs".

Beginning of spring: There are spring chickens (mostly mud whistle) and spring cattle (mud toys).

Qingming: Flying a kite. Cold Food Festival (originally a day or two before Qingming Festival). Later, people combined it with Tomb-Sweeping Day, and Tomb-Sweeping Day was a Tomb-Sweeping Day. ): There is a dough sculpture "Han Yan" in the north.

Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of May): all kinds of sachets.

Tanabata: On the seventh day of July, the capital of song dynasty sells clay toys such as Moholo.

July 15: the custom of sending "flour-faced sheep" is widely spread in the northern Yellow River basin.

August 15th: Mid-Autumn Festival, people use moon cake molds and appropriate fruit molds to make moon cakes and snacks.

There are clay toys such as "male prostitute" and "Bunny King" in Beijing and Nanjing.

10 to the end of the year: start preparing new year's goods, including all kinds of toys.

Folk Toys II: Life etiquette toys

Every stage of one's life, from birth to death, has experienced life etiquette. Even before this man was born, women began to beg for children. From birth to full moon, one year old to adulthood, love and marriage, birthday funeral, toy art is accompanied by this series of life etiquette.

1. Begging for a child: Women who wish to have children burn incense and worship in local temples such as Niangniang Temple, and buy back mud toys such as "Big Brother" or "Mud Dog" symbolizing their children.

2. Having a baby and a full moon: This is an important beginning of life. When a child is born, relatives and friends will give gifts, and grandmothers will be busier. Most of these gifts are children's daily necessities and toys, such as children's clothes, children's shoes, cloth tigers and children's pillows.

3. One year old: This is an important moment in the process of children's growth. In China, there is a custom of "grasping Zhou" from south to north, which allows children to grasp anything around them, including many children's toys.

4. Growth Ceremony: When children are growing up, there are many toys to play with. Even the stone lion used to hang the soul in the town house has become a child's toy. Sheep pens, dolls, cloth bags, wreaths, chain toys, pottery molds and so on are all playthings that children can't live without. In some places, a rite of passage is held when a child reaches the age of 12 to show that the child has grown up.

5. Marriage: Newlyweds will receive many gifts on their wedding day, and anxious relatives and friends will send children's articles and toys to express their wish that the couple have children early. Among them, cloth monkeys and cloth tigers are the most common; The role of a pair of male and female cloth monkeys is a hint of marriage between men and women. Other decorations such as noodles (flowers) are indispensable.

6. Funeral: As early as in prehistoric primitive tombs, there was a custom of burying with toys. Later, it evolved into a funeral. People sent people (North) and paper men to prepare for the "funeral home". Shanxi still has the custom of putting paper mud in the coffin for the dead. If someone dies suddenly, a troupe should be invited to perform a shadow play to arouse their souls.

7. In a person's life, childhood is the main period of using toys. Toys are mainly made for children, but the toys made by these adults are also accompanied by adults and the elderly.

Folk Toys III: Games and Entertainment Toys in Daily Life

Toys are everywhere in people's daily lives, especially in children's lives. Game activities are places to show the functions and styles of toys. Popular sports activities all over the country, such as cuju, kicking shuttlecock and skipping rope, as well as children's "playing house" (a game that imitates adults' productive labor, and children play different roles), "riding a bamboo horse" (a children's game that rides on the crotch with a bamboo pole as a horse, and the idiom "childhood friends" refers to the friendship between two children, without guessing) and Listen to the story of "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" told by adults, and ask them to be as dexterous as Weaver Girl), "lose handkerchief", play "Galaha" (that is, "sheep turn"-sheep joint bone), "jump rubber band", "puzzle" and "fight war" (small arms are the main props of this game.

Daily home life is also a place to display toys. All kinds of toys bought from the temple fair are at home-clay sculptures, big brothers and dolls are enshrined in the main hall. New Year pictures "promotional pictures" are posted on the wall, and the old people are still playing the ancient "Water Margin Leaf Play" (a card game decorated with water margin characters) and serial toys, which all look like a leisurely pastoral.