The origin and history of kites

The origin and history of kites: Kites are another great invention besides the four great inventions of ancient China. They have a history of more than 2,000 years and are the earliest flying machines invented by mankind.

In ancient times, it was mostly used for military detection, communication, escaping danger, etc. For example, when Liu Bang attacked Weiyang Palace in the Han Dynasty, he used a kite string to measure the distance between them and dug tunnels to win.

After the Tang Dynasty, kites gradually became a folk entertainment toy. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, kites reached their heyday. Wang Ding, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, wrote in "Village Residence" that "the grass grows and orioles fly in February, and the Buddha blows the willows and is drunk by the spring smoke. Children come back from school early and fly kites in the east wind." Kites began to become popular among the people.

The real formation of the school began after the publication of "Southern Harrier and Northern Yuan Kao Gongzhi" by Cao Xueqin, a great writer in the Qing Dynasty. While he was writing "A Dream of Red Mansions", he also wrote a "Collection of Fei Yi Zhai Manuscripts" for disabled people. The first volume of the book is divided into eight volumes. The second volume "Southern Harrier and Northern Kite Kao Gongzhi" summarizes the techniques and diagrams of tying, pasting, painting and flying 43 kinds of Chinese kites.

At the same time, it also comes with 21 formulas on various kite making essentials, which were passed on and copied by artists, and the kite skills have been passed down to this day, pushing my country's kite culture and skills to a new height. Four major regional schools emerged: Weifang, Beijing, Tianjin and Nantong.

Types of folk kites in ancient Ming Dynasty:

Traditional folk kites are represented by the folk three-color kite Zhensang Nao originated from Weifang, Shandong. The main symbol of the tricolor kite is the composition of red, green and yellow, with bright colors and strong contrast.

Yangjiabu in Weifang is one of the three major production areas of New Year paintings in the country. The three-color kites and the woodblock New Year paintings in Yangjiabu interact with each other and complement each other. The three-color woodblock New Year picture hard-winged kite from Yangjiabu, Weifang, was once regarded as the representative work of Weifang kites and became popular all over the world.

The hard-winged butterfly and double-winged butterfly kites in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas evolved from the three-color hard-winged butterfly in Weifang. Taipei's swallowtails also absorbed the colors and shapes of Qilu kites, giving them a rich flavor of local life, and gradually formed their own style.

The materials of Shandong folk kites have obvious popular colors. For example, the popular folk song "Ten Girls Outing" in Dezhou, Shandong Province, once described the Cowherd and Weaver Girl, red lanterns, flower baskets and chains, goldfish, chickens, butterflies, bees, and happy vases. Characters, seven stars, plum blossom lanterns, writings, kites with animal and plant forms and character stories.