What dynasty did paper-cutting originate in?

Paper-cutting is one of the most popular folk arts in China, dating back to the sixth century AD according to archaeology, but it is thought to have actually begun hundreds of years earlier. Paper cutting is often used for religious ceremonies, decoration and plastic arts. In the past, paper was often used to make images of objects and people in various shapes and forms to be buried with the dead or burned at funerals, a custom that can still be seen outside of China. The art of paper-cutting generally has a symbolic meaning and is part of this ritual; in addition, paper-cutting is also used as a decoration for offerings to ancestors and gods. It is generally popular because of its easy availability of materials, low cost, immediate effect, and wide range of adaptability; and because it is most suitable for rural women to make in their leisure time, and can be used as practical objects as well as to beautify their lives. Paper-cutting can be seen all over the country, and even formed different local styles and schools. Paper-cutting not only expresses the aesthetic preferences of the masses, but also contains the social psychology of the nation, and is one of the most distinctive folk arts in China, whose modeling characteristics are especially worth studying. Nowadays, paper-cutting is more often used for decoration. Paper-cutting can be used to embellish walls, doors, windows, pillars, mirrors, lamps and lanterns, etc., and can also be used to embellish gifts, and even paper-cutting itself can be used as a gift to others. People used to use paper-cutting as a model for embroidery and spray-painting art. Paper cutting is not made by machine but by hand, and there are two common methods: scissors cutting and knife cutting. As the name suggests, scissors cutting is done with the help of scissors, and after cutting, several sheets (usually no more than 8 sheets) of paper cutouts are pasted together, and finally the pattern is processed with sharp scissors. Knife cutting involves folding the paper into several stacks, placing it on a fluffy mixture of ash and animal fat, and then slowly scoring it with a knife. The paper cutter usually holds the knife vertically and works the paper into the desired pattern according to a certain model. One advantage of knife cutting over scissors is that multiple paper-cutting patterns can be processed at once. In rural areas, paper cutting is usually done by women and girls. In the past, it was a handicraft that every girl had to master, and it was also used as a criterion for judging brides. The professional paper-cutting artists were often men, as only men could work together in the workshops and earn money. History: Since the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 B.C.), people have been making decorative objects out of gold and silver foil, leather, or silk fabrics, and during excavations at the Warring States site of Guwei Village, Huixian County, Henan Province, in 1950-1952, curved decorative objects made of silver foil were found. These decorations made of silver foil hollowing, although can not be said to be paper-cutting, but in the carving technology and artistic style, can be said to have formed the predecessor of the art of paper-cutting. Western Han Dynasty, people use hemp fiber to make paper, legend has it that after the death of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty's favorite concubine Li, the emperor misses, restlessness, food is not sweet, so ask the magician to cut the image of Li Fei with hemp paper to invoke its soul, this is probably the earliest paper cutting. In 105 AD, Cai Lun to improve and promote the experience of the previous began to make a lot of paper, this form of openwork found easier to popularize the material and thus the birth of the art of paper-cutting, has been more than two thousand years of history. Paper cut into beautiful patterns and patterns, the earliest discovery and documented is near the Xinjiang Turpan Flaming Mountain, has unearthed five North and South Dynasties group of flowers cut paper: the horse group of flowers; the monkey group of flowers; honeysuckle group of flowers; chrysanthemum group of flowers; eight with the shape of the group of flowers. The Tang Dynasty has been applied to other crafts of paper-cutting patterns. Since the Han to Tang appeared a kind of gold and silver inlay technology process, is the engraving of the gold and silver foil pasted on the back of lacquer or bronze mirror, by filling the lacquer grinding dry, in the lacquer ground shows the brilliant gold pattern. Tang and Song dynasties, popular "openwork gold for victory" custom. "Sheng", that is, with paper or gold and silver foil, silk and silk cut and carved into patterns, cut into sets of square geometric shape, known as "Fang Sheng"; cut into the shape of flowers and grasses, known as "Hua Sheng", cut into human form The pattern is called "Human Sheng" when it is cut into the shape of a human being. Liang Zong懔 in the Southern Dynasties, "Jing Chu chronicles" recorded: "the seventh day of the first month for the people day, (" Dongfang Shuo biography - the year festival ": the beginning of heaven and earth, one day chickens, the second day of the dog, the third day of the pig, the fourth day of the goat, the fifth day of the cow, the sixth day of the horse, the seventh day of the people, the eighth day of the valley. The sunny day is full of the things that are in charge of it, and the cloudy day is a disaster. (Among the eight days, especially the human day is important, also known as the "Human Sheng Festival") to seven kinds of vegetables for the soup; cut color for the human, or cut gold foil for the human, to paste the screen, also worn on the sideburns; and create Huasheng to the legacy." Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, composed a poem under the title of "People's Day": "This day, this time people **** get, a talk and a smile commonplace look at each other. The cypress leaves in front of your honor do not follow the wine, and the golden flowers in the victory are skillfully resistant to the cold." Another famous Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin also made a "people day" poem, the poem says: "Skeleton gold for winning Jing custom, cut color for people up Jin style." Among the artifacts unearthed in Xinjiang in the 1960s, there is also a Tang Dynasty Rengsheng paper cutting, with seven women arranged in rows, which is used to decorate the hair bun. In Japan's main warehouse hospital, there are two Tang dynasty huasheng, according to Japan qiheng three years (AD 856 years), "miscellaneous property factual record": "people win two ...... tianpingbaoji yuan year leap August 24 offerings," Japan tianpingbaoji yuan year that is the Tang dynasty to the second year of virtue （The first year of the Japanese Tenpyo Bogyo was the second year of Jide in the Tang Dynasty (757 AD). One of the pieces is inscribed in gold leaf with the following words cut in gold leaf: "A good time for festivals, a blessing for the new year, a million years of peace, a thousand years of life." The other has an intricate border carved in gold leaf and decorated with red and green roses and leaves, and in the center is a child playing with a dog under a bamboo grove. At that time, it was also popular to make small streamers cut out of double silk, called spring streamers, or hansei or chunsei, which were given as holiday gifts on the day of the first day of spring, and were either pinned on the head, hung on willow branches, or attached to a screen. In the poem handed down by Cui Daorong, there is this line: "I want to cut Yichun characters, but spring is cold and people have scissors", and the "Yichun posts" mentioned here are also the "paper-cutting works of art" familiar to people nowadays. The "Yichun post" referred to here is also the "paper-cutting artwork" familiar to people nowadays. Li Shangyin wrote in his poem "Jiao Er Poetry": "Please master the book of spring victory, spring victory, spring day." This means that Jiao Er Gun Shi asked his father to write the word "spring" on the spring streamers made of color cuttings. Because the day of spring for the first day of spring, symbolizing the recovery of all things thriving, so the Tang and Song dynasties, people cut the color of this folkloric activities gradually focused on the day of spring, people cut a variety of streamers, spring streamers, spring swallows, spring butterflies, etc., as a holiday gift. The emperor also received his ministers on this day, and gave them gold and silver streamers or rowan winners. Duan Chengshi "Youyang Miscellany Chopper" said: "spring day, the scholar's family, cut paper for small coiled, or hanging in the head of the beauty, or decorated with flowers, and cut for spring butterflies, spring victory to play. Song Dynasty on paper-cutting records are many. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there has been a paper-cutting as a career artists, some good at cutting "the book of words", some specializing in cutting "the colors of the pattern". Some of the paper-cutting as a gift embellishment, some pasted on the window, some decorative lights, and some cut into the so-called "dragon and tiger" and so on. At this time, the prevalence of shadow, carved shadow material, in addition to animal skin, but also made of thick paper. Zhou Mi "Zhi Ya Tang Miscellaneous Notes": the capital Peiliang "to the old Tiantu Street, there are cut all colors of the pattern, very subtle, as desired and become. And in the tile there are Yu Jingzhi, each cut all the calligraphy are specialized. Later, suddenly a teenager can cut words and flowers in the sleeve and so on. More than two people, so the reputation of the moment." That is, "Kaifeng" House, "cut pattern" refers to the natural "paper-cutting". Song Dynasty female lyricist Li Qingzhao wrote in a song "Bodhisattva Barbarian": "The phoenix hairpin under the candle is bright, and the head of the hairpin is lighter than light." There is a kind of bird, because the head collar has a big golden-yellow crown of feathers is very much like inserting a branch of streamers, and was named Dai Sheng bird, Wei Yingwu "listening to the warbler song" in "Burao flew through the sound of the Bureau of the Mulberry fields green when Dai Sheng," Sheng has become a symbol of the return of spring to the earth. Chen Yuanliang of the Song Dynasty, "the time of the year", "New Year's Day to crow green paper or green silk cut forty-nine streamers, surrounded by a large streamer, or the age of the parents to carry it, or posted in the door Mei. Song dynasty paper cutouts used in craft decoration of an important creation, is the JiZhou kiln porcelain, products such as tealight and vase, pattern subject matter, there are many, phoenix, plum blossom, loquat and auspicious words, etc., modeling vivid, lively, it is the author in the glaze process, paste paper cutouts, into the kiln firing. Modern folk blue printed cloth, is to use skeletonized cardboard scraping pulp after imitation dyeing and presenting patterns, this printing and dyeing process has been very common in the Song Dynasty, Shanxi Province unearthed in the Southern Song Dynasty printed cloth is an example. Ming and Qing people's notes and local histories also have records of famous paper cutters. For example, "Suzhou Province," said: "Zhao Calyx, Jiajing in the production of clip gauze lamps to material paper carved into the shape of flowers, bamboo and birds, with the light and thick halo color. Dissolving wax coating and dyeing, with a light image clip. Reflecting the sun is bright and clear, Fen Fei Xiang dance, indistinct in the light smoke, and the real one can not be identified." The Ming Dynasty is very famous for its paper clip lanterns. It is the paper clip in the yarn. Candlelight reflects the pattern, which is another application of paper-cutting in daily life, and now people call it "horse lantern". Yanzhou Jiande County Records": "Lin Wenyao, the word outline of the Zhai, young that is, work book, blind in middle age, is paper-cutting for the word, the potential to fly as if the dragon and snake, point and draw the hair is not bad. Room people decorated into a shaft, ...... people called the day "Lin shear." Baoding Fu Zhi: "famous women, Zhang Cai Gong's daughter. There are ingenuity, and people talk, the sleeves of the fine cut spring flowers, autumn chrysanthemums, fine grass and poplar. Reckless not into the God; its shear incense (big + area), absolutely exquisite eye-catching, the person who got it treasured. Qing Dynasty Chen Yunber "painting new Wing" said: "Shear painting, the Southern Song Dynasty, someone can cut words in the sleeve, and the ancient masterpieces are no different. In recent years, Yangzhou Baojun most work this, especially the landscape, figures, birds and flowers, grass and insects, all into the wonderful." And there is a poem that says: "cut painting clever than cut book, fly flowers and birds swim endangered fish; any other February spring breeze is good, cut out the poplar fear as well." Qing Kangxi, a court painter Zou Yuandou, painted a blessing at the beginning of the New Year's customary paintings, "the year of the axle" painted on the top end of the painting is hanging five colorful paper-cut "door cage". The form of the door paper is evolved from the spring streamers. In the Qing Dynasty, because the Manchu people have the custom of paper-cutting, resulting in paper-cutting into the court. In the Forbidden City, successive emperors held weddings for the bridal chamber of the Divine Ning Palace, the walls according to the Manchu custom of laminating paper, the corners of the black double happiness words pasted with paper-cut corner flowers, the roof of the center pasted with the dragon and phoenix group of flowers of the black paper-cutting; in the aisle walls on both sides of the palace is also pasted with the corner of the flowers. It is said that some people use paper cut into a deer, cranes, pine "six spring" pattern, to be painted, pasted on the court dress, even the Empress Dowager thought it was embroidered. It can be said that since the birth of the art of paper-cutting, there has been no interruption. Her wide circulation, the number of large, many styles, the depth of the foundation than any kind of art are more prominent. In a variety of folk activities, she is everywhere, everywhere, attached to the beautiful in life, enriching the life, with her unique way of silently evoking the pursuit of life, the belief in life, the country's wealth and prosperity of the people's aspirations; she will be the people's ordinary life embellished with such a magnificent and colorful, fully supported and embodied in the Chinese people on the pursuit of the true good and the beautiful and the aspirations of the Chinese people; she is to meet the people's higher social needs of spirituality And thrive. Nowadays, the world of paper-cutting is much broader, it has long gone out of the small courtyard of the farmers, into the wide world of modern design, in product packaging design, trademark advertising, interior decoration, clothing design, book binding, stamp design, newspaper and magazine title flower, comic strips, stage art, animation, film and television and other aspects of her shadow; she has also gone to the world, known all over the world, and has become the cultural wealth of all mankind and the artistic treasures. She is also famous all over the world and has become a cultural treasure and art treasure of all mankind. With the process of history, many national and traditional things have been gradually diluted and annihilated. However, the sign of true civilization should be the coexistence of traditional and modern culture, *** with the development. May this ancient tree of art be ever green and ever new.

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