Legends about kites

There is a custom of flying kites to release bad luck during the Qingming Festival.

The Qingming Festival is a good time to fly kites, as the sky is clear, the breeze is pleasant, and the grass and trees are sprouting. Kite flying is generally known as a cultural and recreational activity, but in ancient times, it also included an ancient custom - "flying bad luck". Thereby, kites also became a kind of amulet for ancient people to avoid evil spirits during festivals.

There is a long history about the making of kites and the origin of their names. Kites are named after the sound of the kite, which is similar to the sound of the kite. According to legend, during the Five Dynasties, a man named Li Ye attached a bamboo flute to a kite, and when it was blown by the breeze, it made a buzzing sound, much like the sound of "earning a kite", thus giving it its name. The history of kites in China can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago, and it is rumored that Master Lu Ban used wood and bamboo to make kites. In "Mozi Luwen", "Gong输子削竹木，以为鹊，成飞之，三日不下......" is an early record about kites. Before the invention of paper, kites are made of wood, shaped like a "magpie", "kite", "three days no longer" shows that the production technology has reached a very high level.

During the Han Dynasty, there appeared the "paper kite" which was made of bamboo frame and held in the air by papier-maché and rope. In the Sheng Tang Dynasty, the craft of making kites was further improved. Gao Jiao in the "kite" poem described: "night quiet string sound sound blue sky, Gong Shang trust to the wind, vaguely like the song can be heard, but also by the wind blowing in a different tune." During the Qing Dynasty, the production process of kites became more perfect, and four major kite producing areas were formed, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Weifang and Nantong. Nowadays, the kites take various forms and the sound is more melodious and pleasant. The kites of Weifang have also flown into the international market. In recent years, before every Qingming Festival, the International Kite Festival is held, where Chinese and foreign guests gather, and it is very lively. Today's kite flying has become an elegant recreational activity.

However, in ancient times, due to the low productivity and underdeveloped science and technology, people were incapable of warding off diseases and all kinds of natural disasters, so they prayed for good luck from heaven. This mentality was manifested in kite flying, which was called "flying bad luck". People write their names on the kites, then release them into the sky and deliberately cut the strings to let the kites fly away, believing that they can let go of "bad luck" and make good luck, thus achieving the purpose of "eliminating disasters and legal difficulties". Since kite flying is to release bad luck, no matter how delicate and nice the kite looks when flying it, you have to cut the strings and let it fly away in the end. At the same time, kite-flying is also taboo, that is, people can not pick up the kite released to re-fly, otherwise it will be stained with "bad luck".

Cao Xueqin in "Dream of the Red Chamber" 70 vividly depicted the Grand View Garden sisters flying various kites such as crabs, beauties, big fish, woven bats, phoenixes, sand swallows and so on. It can be said that Chinese toy kites developed to a high level at this time.

From the Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese kites spread to the world, first to Southeast Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and Malaya, and then to Europe and America. Under the influence of the industrial revolution situation in Europe, the Chinese toy kites developed there toward flying machines, through Kelly in England, Hargrave in Australia and Lilindahl in Germany, and finally in the United States by the Wright Brothers caused the earliest airplanes that could carry people to fly successfully.

Therefore, a Chinese kite hangs in the lobby of the U.S. Aerospace Museum in Washington, D.C., and on its side is written, "The earliest flying machines of mankind were Chinese kites and rockets."

Beijing's sand swallow kites

There are many varieties of Beijing kites, and legend has it that Cao Xueqin's "Southern Harrier and Northern Kite Kao Gong Zhi" contains more than 40 different ways of tying them, and that an existing book, "Beiping Kite Spectrum," collects more than 200 kinds of Beijing kites.

Among the many Beijing kites, there is one that has the best performance, the greatest influence on the whole country, and the most representative kite, which is the "Shayan'er" (or "Zayan'er") with the shape of a "big" character.

The kite is the largest and most representative kite, which is shaped like a "big" shape, "Sha Yaner" (or "Za Yaner").

The head of the "sand yan'er" is a flat deformation of the swallow's head, with its eyebrows raised, two eyes, which are endowed with human feelings, and the pair of scissor tails, which make people think of swallows. It is more lovely than the real swallows, people in accordance with everyone's favorite "big fat boy", tied into the fat sand swallows and baby swallows; and in accordance with the pavilion, slim and beautiful girl, tied into the "thin sand swallows".

According to the love of husband and wife tied into the "Biyi Yan". People in the sand swallow's bladder nest, waist joints and chest, tail feathers, etc. plus the bat, peaches, peonies and other auspicious motifs, in order to imply happiness, longevity and wealth and other good wishes ......

So, people put a black swallow, into a colorful, lively, full of the spirit of the swallows. It has gone through such a development process from anthropomorphism to anthropomorphism, from anthropomorphism to anthropomorphism, and from anthropomorphism to superhumanism, and has formed the present program. Inside this program, it can be changed in a thousand ways, accommodating extremely broad and rich connotations, but it is not the same as the original, so that people know at a glance that it is the Beijing Sand Swallow and not anything else.

The structure of "Shayaner" is simple and concise, consisting of only five bamboo strips forming the main skeleton, and its wings are formed by bending the upper and lower bamboo strips at the end to form a specially shaped "bladder pocket". This can make the Sha Yan Er rise when the wind is small and stabilize when the wind is strong, and its flying performance is better than other types of kites. There are many varieties of kites evolved from "Shayaner" all over the country. For example, the hard-winged fish and character kites of Weifang, Shandong Province, nicknamed "Running Broken Shoes". The hard-winged butterflies and "wheel pots" of Tianjin; the "five sounds of mayflies" of Nantong, and so on.

Tianjin soft-winged kites

Tianjin kites are of many kinds, but soft-winged is the main one. Using the soft-wing structure, not only can they be made into the wings of flying crows or insects, but they can also be made into the clouds floating around the figures of gods and immortals, the fins swimming around the goldfish, or the flags fluttering behind the samurai....... There are also a lot of small soft-wings that can be arranged together to make up a big kite. For example, it is formed with many butterflies around a flower bush. "Hundred flowers bloom", with a lot of birds around the wind phoenix to form "Hundred Wu Chaofeng" and so on.

Tianjin kites also have a lot of "masterpieces" in flying skills. For example, on a main line, a dozen or even ten small swallows are attached to a lot of strings, which fly up and down around the main line and play with each other, which can be called "group swallows".

Tianjin kites are characterized by the following structural features: "buckling wedge", "dismantling folding" and "helmet head". The skeleton of Tianjin kites is a combination of "wedge" and "dao" in many places, and there is no need to tie the strings. The structure of the kite is so delicate that a very big kite can be disassembled and folded up and put into a very small box, which is easy to carry. Cotton paper is glued into thin shells in the molds and made into the heads of various kites, which are not subject to the limitations of paper gluing and are light in weight and beautiful in appearance, which is called "helmet head". Tianjin's fish, shrimp, crab and other aquatic kites, and Fu, Shou, Xi and other word-shaped kites are also known as a masterpiece.

Tianjin kite-making technology has a long history and exquisite craftsmanship, and the Yang Liuqing New Year's Painting of the Qing Dynasty, "Ten Beauties Flying Kites", can be confirmed that there are ten kinds of kites, such as stringed lanterns, pan eagles, monks fetching scriptures and butterflies, etc. These ten kinds of kites have made a great contribution to the production technology of Tianjin kites. The late Wei Yuantai, a kite artist, made a great contribution to the kite-making technology in Tianjin.

He has been engaged in kite making for more than 70 years, and has developed flat beat type, round three-dimensional type and soft winged kites, and also created folded-winged kites, and his work won a gold medal at the Panama World Expo in 1914, which won honors for Tianjin kites.

Tianjin kites represented by Kite Wei have realistic shapes, elegant colors and fine workmanship. Most of the kite surfaces are made of silk, which is light but strong, and the skeleton is made of bamboo with fine texture, long joints and high elasticity, and the materials used are very exquisite. On the basis of inheriting the traditional production technology, Tianjin kites continue to innovate and develop, the shape is more beautiful, the color painting is more exquisite, flying in the clear sky is pleasing to the eye, and can be put indoors for viewing, is the treasures of folk crafts.

Shandong long string kites

Shandong kites also have a long history, of which Weixian County is the most (now Weifang City). Zheng Banqiao has a poem that says: "Paper flowers like snow flying all over the sky, the delicate girl swing playing all around, flying colorful Luo skirt wind swinging, good butterfly fighting spring return." "Weixian Zhi" also recorded: "Qingming, children make paper Yuanyuan, swing play, paper Yuanyuan its system is different, in the cranes, swallows, butterflies, cicadas all kinds of outside, as well as all kinds of characters, all Vimy Vimy, strange and ingenious.

Weifang kites mainly have three basic shapes: string, hard wing and simple shape, in which the dragon centipede is the most prominent. It is said to have been inspired by the keeled waterwheel. Now it has developed into many varieties, the small ones can be put on the palm, the big ones are several hundred meters long, and the shapes and colors are different, from the very simple white paper pasted body, red paper pasted head, not drawing a stroke, not dyeing a color of the centipede kite, to the colorful, painted gold and silver kites of the nine divine dragons. From the wonderfully conceived two dragons playing with pearls to the three dragons flying in the air in the shape of a "y", "Nezha", there are really a lot of variations and a lot of "wonders".

Weifang's long string kites have different themes besides centipedes. Such as "Liangshan one hundred single eight generals" is the Liangshan one hundred and eight heroes do each different forms, vivid, put up to the sky to form a line, each holding the blade, floating with the wind, then you may vaguely feel the war drums, as if they are about to set off to fight the Song dynasty court... ...

April 1984, in Weifang, the north beach put up a giant dragon centipede, the head is 4 meters high, 4 meters long, waist section diameter 1.2 meters, the kite *** long 320 meters, then in the country is the largest.

Nantong Hexagonal Harrier

Nantong is located on the coast of the Yellow Sea, north of the Yangtze River, the ancient people called "Weinan Jiangbei Haixi Tou", is one of the four major kite-producing areas in China, and produces Harrier, which is the only one of its kind in the country. The plate harrier is very large and flat like a board, which is made of hexagonal shapes, and through the combination of changes, it is structured into a series of star-type Nantong kites. The shape of the board harrier is simple and ancient, the painting is fine, and the harrier surface is equipped with dozens or even hundreds of whistles of different sizes, which emit different sounds when they are flown, combining to form a majestic symphony in the air, such as a swarm of planes sweeping through the air, which is deafening, and also like a river and the sea in fury, which is surging and surging. Nantong's modeling kites, Rugao out as a representative of the integration of lanterns, paintings, kites in one, compared with the northern school of kites, more delicate work, flexible and beautiful.

Once upon a time, Nantong Harrier Flying was a big event among the villagers, and it should be offered in the hall before releasing it, with incense, candles, paper and horses, respecting the rituals. When flying, a strong, experienced veteran as the "head handle", with a dozen people pulling the rope, there is a group of people holding the kite flying, called "throw". When the kite soars into the sky, the people will be in an uproar of joy, believing that it is a sign of a good year's harvest and all the best wishes! They believe that the whistle on the kite can shake the sky and earth and deter demons. However, if a harrier breaks its string, falls or lands on someone's house, it is very unlucky and "unlucky". It is necessary to burn the rice market, kowtow and offer incense, and then tear the harrier into pieces and throw it into the river bank or graveyard.

The most interesting thing is that women are not allowed to cross or step on the kite's strings, or else it won't go up to the sky! Of course this is all a superstitious color of the past.

Human society with the progress of science and technology, industrial development, economic take-off, people in order to get rid of the city's noisy environment, adjust the rhythm of life, looking for a natural, cultural and physical combination, good for the physical and mental health of the recreational activities, kite flying is just to meet the needs of the people, so the eighties to date, many countries around the world, kite-flying fever is everlasting.