The Historical Origin of Straw Painting

Grass painting is one of the unique handicrafts of Han nationality, and it is a kind of paper-cutting art among the people in China. Although it comes from the people, it is very rare, especially because it is a royal tribute. Straw painting began in Sui and Tang Dynasties. It is an art of cutting and pasting, just like paper cutting and cloth pasting. Straw has to go through many processes, such as smoking, steaming, bleaching, scraping, pushing, scalding, cutting, engraving, weaving and painting. According to the luster, grain color and texture of the straw itself, it is generally not colored, and it is cut and pasted as needed. Wheat straw painting has the advantages of bright luster, good cymbal mounting effect and strong artistic appeal. The figures, flowers, birds and animals produced are lifelike, giving people the beauty of simplicity, naturalness, nobility and elegance.

Henan Qingfeng grass-cut paper-cut (that is, grass painting) was announced by the State Council as the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects.

history

According to research, wheat first entered the western region of China from West Asia via Central Asia. When describing Zhou Muwang's westward journey, the tribes in Xinjiang and Qinghai provided food with wheat. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, wheat had entered the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. During the Spring and Autumn Period, wheat has become a common crop in the Central Plains. According to Zuo Zhuan, wheat was produced in Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and Anhui at that time.

From the day when wheat appeared in ancient China, our clever ancestors began to create artistic paintings with wheat straw as raw material. However, due to historical changes and social unrest, the legendary wheat straw painting was hard to find for a long time, and it was not until the excavation of the tomb of King Qinhuai that it was unearthed. Although the original straw paintings unearthed have been corroded for more than 2000 years, they are still bright in color, without losing their original colors, which is amazing. Another legend is that in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu was chased by Wang Mang, but he had no choice but to hide in the wheat field, and the wheat straw immediately became Liu Xiu for forest protection. Therefore, the local people regard the wheat straw as a kind of grass for blessing and welcoming the auspicious, and make wheat straw paintings one by one to worship the court.

According to this legend, the artistic level and implication of straw painting in the Eastern Han Dynasty have been historically developed and sublimated. As the main food for survival, wheat has always been regarded as a sacred thing. By offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, ancient people endowed wheat with a very high status, symbolizing bumper harvest and wealth. Straw painting not only has a strong folk flavor, but also has auspicious and noble symbolic significance because of its material source.

However, in feudal farming society, although straw painting came from folk, it was very rare, and because it was a royal tribute, it could not be popular among ordinary people, and it could only be appreciated and treasured as a peculiar art among royal nobles. The older generation of folk artists painstakingly explored and studied this ancient technology and boldly practiced it, so that the folk treasure of straw painting reappeared in the world.