Tradition has become art.

In ancient China, people attached great importance to chickens and called them "birds with five virtues". There is a famous saying in the Biography of Han Poetry that praises chickens: "Those who wear crowns also have articles; Far away, Wu also; Those who dare to fight in front of the enemy are brave; See food, benevolence also; Punctuality and faithlessness. " It means that it has a crown on its head and is Wende; There is a distance behind the foot to play, which is martial arts; It is brave for the enemy to dare to fight before; It is benevolence to have food to welcome the same kind; Vigilance and dawn are beliefs.

People not only cut chickens during the Chinese New Year, but also set the first day of the New Year as Chicken Day. During the Chinese New Year, it is gradually changed to draw chickens or cut into paper to hang on doors and windows. This is the earliest window grillage, which has become the source of paper-cutting art in later generations. 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. Li Shangyin, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote in his poem: "Engraving gold to praise Jing customs, cutting green to create customs." The "Beijing custom" and "Jin style" in the poem point out this ethos and clearly state the customs of Jin people.

After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the time to cut and paste window grilles to welcome the Spring Festival began in beginning of spring, and people used paper-cutting to express their joy in celebrating spring.

Extended data:

Composition of window grilles

Paper-cutting is different from other paintings in composition. "It is difficult to show the overlap of three-dimensional space, scene and image, and it often breaks through the proportion and perspective relationship between objects and images.

The content is mainly based on the connection of images, and more combinations are used. Due to the exaggerated deformation in modeling, it can also use some laws of formal beauty of patterns to make symmetry, uniformity, balance, combination and continuity.

It can arrange the sun, moon, stars, birds and clouds on the same picture, just like buildings, people and animals on the ground. Common ones are "layers of high bases" or "changing things for scenery".

Baidu encyclopedia-window grilles