This paper discusses the difference between ancient court art and folk art in China.

Paper-cutting is one of the most popular traditional folk decorative arts in China. Because of its easily available materials, low cost, obvious effect and wide adaptability, it is widely welcomed. Because it is most suitable for rural women's leisure production, it can be used as a practical object and beautify their lives. Paper-cutting can be seen all over the country, and even formed different local styles. Paper-cutting not only shows the aesthetic taste of the public, but also contains the deep social psychology of the nation. It is also one of the most distinctive folk arts in China, and its modeling features are particularly worth studying.

At present, the earliest paper-cut objects have been found in tombs in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but scholars believe that it can be traced back to the custom of women cutting gold foil and silver foil into pieces and sticking them on their temples in the Han and Tang Dynasties. Although paper products of the Eastern Han Dynasty before Cai Lun have been found, paper-cutting in a strict sense may not be earlier than that of the Han Dynasty. Early paper-cutting was related to Taoist worship of gods. For example, in Du Fu's poems, it is clearly recorded that "warm soup cooks my feet, and paper-cutting calls my soul". Miao people still have the witchcraft custom of cutting ghosts and sticking them on cowshed or door on New Year's Day.

In the past, people used paper to make objects and portraits of different shapes, and then buried them with the dead or burned them at funerals. This custom can still be seen outside China. Paper-cutting art is generally symbolic, and paper-cutting is also used as an ornament to worship ancestors and immortals. Nowadays, paper-cutting is more used for decoration. Paper-cutting can be used to decorate walls, doors and windows, columns, mirrors, lamps and so on. It can also be used as a gift decoration, and even the paper-cut itself can be given as a gift to others. In the past, people used paper-cutting as a model for embroidery and painting.

Skilled folk artists only need to memorize the manuscript and cut the paper into graphics directly with scissors, while professional artists use a carving knife to make it on a wax board, which is called "carving paper". It is made by typing, cutting, pasting, peeling and trimming, which can cut through multiple layers of paper at one time and improve the output.

Because of the thin material, paper-cutting adopts the plane composition method of symmetrical layout and series connection of objects and images. Rich image decoration, avoid large black and white, and decorate the main characters with exquisite patterns. The clever artist actually created the strange effect of "the mouse is in the transparent cat's belly" when expressing "the cat catches the mouse", and the naive painting style is very intriguing. The method of plane superposition not only creates a strong national flavor, but also expands the capacity of the picture and improves the expressive force of paper-cutting. The vast majority of paper-cutting does not pursue strict realism, but expresses the image in the eyes of the masses. For example, the cows in Shaanxi paper-cut exaggerate the spinning hairs on the cows and become decorative patterns on the cows, which not only increases the dynamic changes of vision, but also strengthens the aesthetic feeling of the form.

Spring Festival custom: lion dance

Around the Spring Festival, many customs and habits have been formed for thousands of years. Some customs, such as meeting gods and worshipping heaven, are superstitious. With the improvement of people's scientific and cultural level, they are gradually eliminated, and some customs have been given new contents, such as setting off firecrackers, posting Spring Festival couplets and New Year pictures, playing dragon lanterns and dancing lions. It is still very popular today.

lion dance

Whenever "firecrackers kill the old year", on the vast land of our country, traditional lion dance activities appear in towns and villages with warm spring breeze and cheerful gongs and drums. For the annual Spring Festival, it adds a rich atmosphere of joy.

Lion dance is a traditional folk sports activity in China, which originated in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

According to legend, in May of the 23rd year of Yuanjia in Song Wendi (AD 466), the secretariat of Jiaozhou in the Song Dynasty was ordered to attack Lin Yi, and Wang Fanyang of Lin Yi also took part in the war with elephant soldiers. Because this elephant soldier rode on the back of a tall elephant with a spear, it was difficult for enemies with only short weapons to get close to it, and the soldiers in Song Jun began to suffer a big loss. Later, Zong Yi, a pioneer officer and general Zhenwu, came up with an idea. He said that all animals are afraid of lions, and elephants may be no exception. As a result, many fake lions are made of noodles and hemp overnight, painted in colorful colors, and their mouths are particularly wide open. Each "lion" was covered by two soldiers and hidden in the grass. He also dug many deep and big traps around the scheduled battlefield. The enemy drove the elephant army to attack, and Zong Yi released the fake lion with a bow. One by one, the "lions" turned their mouths and headed for the elephants.

The elephant turned around in horror, and Zong Yi took the opportunity to order the soldiers to put all the crossbows together. The frightened elephants immediately ran around desperately, many of them fell into traps, and both people and elephants were captured alive. ..... From then on, lion dance was first popular in the army, and then spread to the people. Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote "Missions to the Western Regions", including "Masked Man Zi and Masked Lion, carved with wood as the head and tail; Gold-plated eyes with silver teeth, rising sweaters with ears ... ". It can be seen that there was a modern lion dance in the Tang Dynasty.

Why do people like to dance lions during the Spring Festival? It is said that in the early Ming Dynasty, a monster appeared in Foshan, Guangdong. It appears in the suburbs of Foshan every year, destroying crops everywhere and endangering people and animals. People in the countryside are miserable, so they tie bamboo grates into several lion models and paint them in various mottled colors. When the monster appeared, gongs and drums rang, lions danced together and rushed at the monster. The monster was frightened and turned around and ran away. Therefore, every year during the Spring Festival, gongs and drums are played, and people go door-to-door and dance lions to celebrate the New Year, to show the intention of eliminating holes and insects and predicting good luck.

Besides the Spring Festival, lion dancing is often used for entertainment on festive days. In the folk lion dance, two people play a big lion (some areas are called Tai Lion), one plays a little lion (some areas are called Shao Lion), and the other plays a warrior, holding a hydrangea as a guide, and first kicking to induce the lion to dance. With the speed of the drums, the lion suddenly looked up, turned down, turned to crawl, shook his head and wagged his tail in various ways, which was full of fun. In imitation actions, there are actions such as licking hair, wiping feet, scratching head, washing ears, worshipping and rolling. In terms of skills, there are stairs, overpasses, three mountains, caves, downhill, bowling, spitting and picking green.

Bamboo horses are usually made of bamboo skin or bamboo paste, pasted with paper and painted with color. The bamboo horse is divided into two halves and tied to the performer's waist to make the performer look like riding a horse. Yangcheng County, Jincheng City, Shanxi Province, is full of Chinese-style crotch pants, with a horse's head at one end and a ponytail at the other. The white waistband is the mount part of the performer, plus the horse's head, which is called "pants horse".

During the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, bamboo horse running is usually held in squares or streets. The number of people participating in the bamboo horse race performance varies from place to place in Shanxi Province, and the forms of activities are also different.