The Lost Soul of the Cave: Traditional Window Openings in Zhou Wan (I)

Wuqi County is located in the northwest border of Shaanxi Province, where the Ming Great Wall runs through the Great Wall of Zhou Wan, and the Wuding River originates from the northern foot of Bai Yushan, belonging to the vast Ordos Prairie and Mu Us Desert in Inner Mongolia in the northeast, and connected with Dingbian County, Yanchi County and Hetao Plain in the northwest.

In the mountainous area, the hillside is gentle and the ravines are vertical and horizontal, and the two towns of Zhou Wan Great Wall are sandwiched in the middle, which has been a frontier fortress since ancient times. Zhouwan Town is located in the mountainous area of Bai Yushan, close to three sides (Dingbian Jingbian Anbian). Paper-cut works are full of strong local colors, neutralizing the paper-cut art in the surrounding areas. Different from other parts of northern Shaanxi, it is bold and unconstrained. Paper-cutting has formed a unique style: slender and curved meridians are connected, and yin and yang complement each other. The beautiful and long Shake Mao Mao constitutes its inner beauty, originality, tenderness and delicacy. Among the seemingly slender and neat figures, animals and flowers, the tiny lines and the triangular sawtooth Mao Mao decoration as small as the tip of a needle make Zhou Wan paper-cut vivid and fresh, full of meaning.

Paper-cutting is a folk art with a long history in Wuqi County. According to Wuqi County Records, "Paper-cutting has a long history and unique style". Paper-cutting has a profound historical and cultural background in Wuqi county, which has experienced thousands of years of precipitation. However, under the tide of economy and urbanization, it is facing various difficulties. How to develop in tradition and how to protect this ancient art has a long way to go.

There are various forms of paper-cutting in Zhou Wan, including window flower, wall flower, kang flower, festival flower and religious paper-cutting. Traditional Zhou Wan paper-cut is loved by people in the form of window grilles. The items needed for cutting window grilles are red paper, green paper, a little yellow paper and black paper, and a small pair of scissors. No carving knife is needed, and the tool is simple and practical. The process is divided into sample holding, sample suction, nailing, internal shape cutting and external shape cutting.

In my childhood memory, after New Year's Day, the New Year has just begun. Every family prepares new year's goods. Since the twelfth lunar month, women have prepared traceries for 36-hole windows in caves. The women each have a pair of scissors, a red paper and a green paper. After folding in half, they began to cut the window grilles according to the old window grilles torn from the windows in previous years. Few women can draw windows by themselves.

After the reform and opening up in the 1980s, people in the village began to celebrate the New Year with stick grills. Girls born in the 1960s and 1970s are at the artistic age. They learned to embroider insoles and cut window flowers from their grandmother or mother and aunt ... In the twelfth lunar month, the newly-married wife who had just passed the door embroidered insoles or smoked window flowers, and collected the embroidered insoles and gave them to relatives of the groom's family after the wedding day. Cut the window grilles to the 29th of the twelfth lunar month and stick them on the 36th hole window of the cave. "stick grilles, paste the window with hemp paper, take a picture of the 36-hole window, lick the window open, sister, you are my brother's sweetheart." The lyrics sung by Xintianyou are stick grilles customs.

The window grilles handed down in the village are all traditional styles handed down from generation to generation. The appearance of window grilles is passed down from generation to generation, and the appearance of window grilles comes from the old appearance stuck on the window. Every winter, the girls will collect the old looks on the windows-tear off the old window grilles together with hemp paper and paste the windows with new hemp paper.

There is also a kind called "scraping sample" or "smoking sample"-wet the cut old window grilles with water and stick them on white paper, and smoke them with kerosene lamps. After the white paper is dried by the flame of the oil lamp, the window grilles are removed, leaving white window grilles where the black paper is not smoked-this is the earliest folk "copying" technology.

The appearance of window grilles is "replaced" in this way: relatives pass on relatives, grandmothers pass on grandchildren, and small partners ask for each other ... The appearance has been passed down from generation to generation in the surrounding villages, and a pattern has remained unchanged for decades. If the pattern smoked in the process of cutting is not comprehensive or not cut according to the appearance, it will be laughed at by peers and called "out of shape" by the people! "Similarity" is a standard and a form of beauty generally recognized or followed by local people.

In the long river of history, people's understanding of beauty has formed a specific form. The living conditions of villages scattered in Bai Yushan and the source of Wuding River are caves. There are 36-hole windows in front of the cave. The grilles are small and the grilles look small. There are no wild window grilles in Ziwuling and Luoyuan areas of Xia Chuan, no gorgeous paper-cutting in Luochuan, and no changeable style like Ansai paper-cutting. Zhou Wan's window grilles and three-sided paper-cutting come down in one continuous line, as follows.

About the author: Zhou Jing (Hou Jingzhou) and Wu Qiren, once teachers, editors and journalists, like writing, photography and painting. His works have been published in local, provincial and municipal media and Guangming Daily. Northwest University Art College and Vocational and Technical College employ professional teachers. Published poetry anthology Life under the Great Wall, Walking West along the Great Wall and Farewell to Cave Dwelling.

Please continue to pay attention to the "Bai Yushan Online" platform, and the second part of Zhou Wan traditional window grilles will be launched in graphic form. Like, forward and appreciate is the best support for Bai Yushan Online! It is the biggest publicity for my hometown! (The picture below shows a screenshot of the platform appreciation, comments, likes and sharing interface. )