Where did China's shadow play originate?

Shadow play originated in hua county (Guhuafu), Shaanxi Province during the Western Han Dynasty in China. It has a history of more than 2000 years. It is the earliest art of moving shadow play in the world. Some people think that shadow play is "the originator of modern movies".

Shadow play, also known as "shadow play" or "light shadow play"

Shadow play originated before the Han Dynasty. In Haiyang Zhi Zhu Ci, there is a poem describing the performance of shadow play: "Zhang Deng plays a new tune and looks around the reality;" Pei Huan walked steadily and I saw Li Furen's living account. " (Li Furen, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty) This is the primary stage of shadow play, and its heyday is the Tang Dynasty.

According to legend, during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty (179- 156 BC), after Liu Yuxin was born, Qi cried, which made the whole palace miserable. Once, a maid-in-waiting happened to find the little prince staring at the shadow of leaves on the ground outside the window, forgetting to cry and dancing happily. Therefore, the ladies-in-waiting cut the leaves into various human figures and animal props and projected them on the white cloth with lights to amuse the prince. Because the leaves will soon dry up and the preservation time is too short, the ladies-in-waiting later found that the props made of cowhide have good toughness, easy preservation and easy collection, so shadow play was born.