Questions about paper-cutting

[Edit this paragraph] The definition of paper cutting

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 foil, silver foil, bark, leaves, cloth, leather and other sheet materials. This is the specialty of China folk artists.

[Edit this paragraph] Paper-cut Introduction

Paper-cutting is one of the most popular traditional folk decorative arts in China with a long history. Because of its easy materials, low cost, obvious effect, wide adaptability, diverse styles and vivid images, it is widely popular. 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 5, 2007, Zhou Zhaoming, a disciple of Wang Laoshang in Yuxian County, Hebei Province, was recognized as the representative inheritor of this cultural heritage project by the Ministry of Culture and included in the list of 226 representative inheritors of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects. 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 work carved with different color paper-cuts. This form is not commonly used, but it looks 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 our country, the climate is humid, and the rainy days in May and June every year, paper products will rot over time. 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] Carving method of paper cutting

Positive engraving, negative engraving, yin and yang engraving.

Orthographic engraving: give priority to lines, keep the lines of modeling, cut off other parts, connect the lines, and keep the shape. Cutting off the outside is called orthographic.

Inscription: Based on the block, the lines of the characters are cut off, the lines are broken, and the shape is cut empty, which is called negative shape.

Yin and yang engraving: the combination of male engraving and female engraving.

[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, simplifying the complex and summarizing with concise lines, 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, the creation of any image 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.