History of Fans

The main materials of the fan are: bamboo, wood, paper, ivory, tortoiseshell, jadeite, plumes of birds, other palm leaves, betel leaves, straw, cattail, etc. can also be woven or made into a variety of different kinds of daily crafts fan, beautifully shaped, exquisite construction, by the skilled craftsmen carefully skeletonized, carving, ironing, drilling, or celebrities waving poems and paintings, so that the art of the fan multiplied in value. Han traditional fan culture originated in ancient times, our ancestors in the scorching summer, hand-hunting plant leaves or bird feathers, simple processing, used to block the sun produces wind, so the fan has a barricade of the name of the sun, which is the first source of the fan. "to wood said case, to reed said fan", the earliest fan is made of reed power symbols, fan at first function is not used to cool, but the ruling class in order to show their status and privileges of the ceremonial fan. Because the fan is mostly seen in the palace, so the fan is also called "palace fan". After the Sui and Tang dynasties, feather fan and playboy fan appeared in large quantities, and this period of literati and writers love to play with the fan, regarded as "pocket elegant things", some poets and lyricists, in addition to drinking poetry, often shake the playboy fan while reciting poems and gifts, in this period, the fan and fan-related poems appeared in large quantities, such as highest peak of the Fan, Bai Juyi's "white feather fan", Tang Yi and Tang Yi's "The Broken Fan", etc. Ancient literati without a fan in their hands would be like a pet dog without a pet, and would appear to be in poor taste. To the Qing Dynasty, not only the literati, even into the career of officials, accountants, and even at the bottom of the social stratum of all kinds of people also like to shake the fan "pose".

The fan was initially called "Wuming Fan" in history, and it was rumored to be made by Yu Shun. Jin Dynasty Cui Bao's "Ancient and Modern Notes - Public Apparel" records: "five bright fan, Shun made also. Since he received Yao's Zen, he opened his eyes and ears to the world, and asked for assistance, so he made five fans. In Qin and Han, the ministers of state and the scholars were all allowed to use it. In Wei and Jin, the emperor was not allowed to use it." In other words, Shun made the five fans for the purpose of seeking the wise and self-supporting by opening his eyes and ears. From Qin to Han are in use, Zhang hit this fan is to the outside world to show the idea of attracting talent, but to the time of Wei and Jin actually became the emperor's special. Yin and Zhou period has appeared a "Zhai fan", that is made of colorful pheasant tail feathers, so there is a "feather fan" said. "Er Ya" said: "to wood is said to case, to reed is said to fan." From this can be speculated, the early fan may be rectangular reed woven. Early fan is not used to cool, but used as a ruler of ceremonial tools, so also called "ceremonial fan". China after the Qin and Han dynasties, the fan's shape is mainly square, round, hexagonal and other forms, the fan's fabric using silk woven silk, because the palace used more, so it is also known as the "Palace Fan", the Sui and Tang dynasties, the prevalence of the world's mainly playboy fan and feather fan, as well as a small number of paper fans. After the Song Dynasty, the folding fan gradually popular. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Zhejiang, Suzhou, Sichuan and other places produced a lot of folding fans, and inscriptions and paintings were also made in this area. This exquisite skill was introduced to Europe from the Ming Dynasty, and then became popular all over the world.

Liangyou is an alias for fan. Song Taogu "Qing Yi Lu - apparatus": "Shangshan Museum in the window cheeks have eight lines of poetry: 'Pure gentleman sweeping floating dust, cool friends inviting the breeze.' It is the broom and fan clear." The fan was first called "fan" and has a history of more than 3,000 years in China. At first, it was not used to keep cool, but was a ceremonial tool. Gradually, the fan changed from a symbol of status and power to become a cooler, entertainment, appreciation and other daily necessities and handicrafts. The fan was initially a ceremonial tool, used by the ruling class to show off their status and privileges.

The fan was originally a practical object, with its thinness and lightness and large area, it could be fanned to get cool. China has always had a tradition of decorating everyday objects, so there were carvings on the fan handle and bones, and calligraphy and paintings on the front and back of the fan. Earlier carving calligraphy and painting by ordinary craftsmen to complete, slowly a variety of talented and imaginative artists to participate in the fan has evolved into a practical function of the art, so that people have been envious of the heart, the treasure of the intention to become a collection of today's major categories.

Chinese fan has a very early origin, the Shang Dynasty on the prototype of the fan.

There are many kinds of ancient Chinese fans, but only two kinds of folding fan and group fan are really coveted by collectors.

Folding fan a "folding fan", also known as "gathering fan". Folding fan is folded, with the spread, so it is also known as "spread fan". Folding fan produced time is late, its importance is great. It is easy to carry, in and out of the pocket sleeve, fan painting, fan bone carving, is the pet of the literati, so there is "pocket sleeve elegant things" nickname. Fan produced far earlier than the folding fan, because of the shape of the round as the moon in line with the Chinese meaning of harmony and good luck, also known as "Huanhuan fan". And because it is made of silk fabric, it is also known as "playboy fan" or "Luo fan". More due to the Tang Wang Jian "Laughing Order" in the famous line "fan fan fan, beauty and to cover the face", and produced "and face", "the face" and "barrier face" elegant. The "face of the barrier" of the elegant name.

The Ming Dynasty was the beginning of the popularity of the folding fan, perhaps due to the Yongle period of Ming Chengzu's advocacy. Recent excavations of the Ming dynasty vassal king's tomb in the folding fan a lot of things, can be corroborated with the above records. Folding fan production in the country are distributed to the name of the local celebrities known as Hang fan, Cao fan, Chuan fan, She fan, Eagle fan, Pan fan, square fan, yellow fan, Qingyang fan, Liyang song fan, Fengrun painting fan, Wuling clip yarn fan, Jinling Liu's fan, Yin's paper wheat fan, Wu fan, and many other names, but also to the functional use of the spring fan, autumn fan and boot fan varieties. The production of fan stock and fan surface is becoming more and more sophisticated, and each has its own famous artists; fan painting and calligraphy is widely popular, recognized in the literati and elegant people. If the folding fan originated in Japan, at this time has been truly Sinicized, become an integral part of Chinese culture.

The Qing Dynasty was a period of great development of Chinese folding fan. Fans were used more frequently among literati officials. The fan is not only a tool to generate cool air, and not only a kind of art, it becomes a status status symbol of fun and props for their social role. Not only in summer, that is, in the cool weather season, holding a fan, open and close, or hanging in the body, or hidden in the sleeve, have the meaning of personality expression, emotional exchange. Not only the literati, not only men use folding fans. From the mainstream of literati painting and calligraphy fans, there are typical craft fans such as the black paper fan, the traveler's fan, and the opera fan, as well as the rice fan for women. From the fan itself, there were ancillary crafts such as fan bags, fan pendants and fan boxes. Fans also spread from China to other parts of the world, especially Europe. During the Qianlong period, merchants in Guangzhou specialized in producing ivory folding fans that were adapted to the interesting hobbies of European noblewomen. The folding fan became a symbol of Chinese culture and a messenger of cultural exchange with the world.

In the Republic of China, the folding fan maintained its importance in Chinese art and life, but there was nothing beyond the previous generation, and a noteworthy innovation was the set fan. Prior to this, although there were also fans with multiple people collaborating on the same fan to paint, or writing their own signature in sections, the jijin fan was a fan space divided in different ways, and then by multiple calligraphers and painters to make books and paintings respectively. Starting from the least two people combination, to as many as more than a dozen cooperative set of masterpieces, it is indeed refreshing.　Painting and writing on the fan, in the three kingdoms, according to the book of jin, wang xizhi for houttuynia old basil title fan story. In the fan on the book painting has always been loved by the people, the collection. Due to the unique shape of the fan, literati and ink masters painstakingly, ingenuity, based on the shape of the fan surface to draw a thousand pictures, express a pleasant language and poetry. Today's calligraphy and painting collection of celebrities in the past generations of masterpieces in the form of fan or fan form of the works of a considerable number, into the art of calligraphy and painting treasures. Writing and painting on the folding fan is not an easy task, due to the shape of the fan is different, uneven, diverse materials, to create a momentum in the above through, dashing and smooth, praiseworthy works, it is indeed necessary to carefully design, patient management, repeated practice to achieve, from the experience of the ancients, we see more of the following types of chapter design: a long line of a line of the chapter of a short line, such as Figure 1, the use of this form of cursive style of calligraphy Calligraphy is the most appropriate, you can receive a smooth momentum, majestic atmosphere, the effect of beauty. Secondly, the number of words in a line is equal to the chapter, such as Figure 2 (China Generals Painting and Calligraphy Network), this form is suitable for the use of the official script, regular script, showing the effect of ancient and simple, elegant and robust, heavy and durable. The use of seal script, oracle bone, etc. is also very durable. (As shown in Figure 2 China Generals Painting and Calligraphy Network) Third is a word into a line of chapter, this form is suitable for writing large characters, calligraphy style is not limited, along the folding fan arc edge writing, leaving a blank space below, appearing to be ethereal, natural, generous, to give people a pleasing sense of pleasure. The above three forms of chapter, are written along the arc of the fan into an arc, today there are also creative, in the middle of the fan Shuo row into a parallelogram (or round) form, I thought that this form is not natural enough, but as long as the arrangement is appropriate, especially the arrangement of the good paragraph and seal, you can also get the enjoyment of beauty. About the fan (i.e., round mirror) calligraphy, compared to the folding fan to be a little free, can be along the circular fan, can also take the middle of the arrangement into a square, can be half-square and half-circle, you can also write only a single word, but also have some flavor.