Introduce a folk craft

Paper-cutting is one of the oldest folk arts in China, and its history can be traced back to at least the 6th century. The animal flowers in the tombs of the Southern and Northern Dynasties are the earliest paper-cuts. In addition, some scholars believe that the predecessor of paper-cutting can be traced back to the custom that women in the Han and Tang Dynasties used gold and silver foil to cut flowers and stick them on their temples as ornaments.

Early paper-cutting was mostly seen in funerals, sacrifices and other ceremonies, which was related to Taoist spiritual affairs. For example, Du Fu's Peng Ya Xing clearly recorded that "warm soup is enough for my feet, and paper-cutting appeals to my soul". Today, Miao descendants still have the witchcraft custom of cutting ghosts and gods in the shape of New Year's Day and sticking them on the cowshed and lintel. There are many magical symbols produced in batches by special paper-cutting workshops in the markets in the southwest mountainous areas for sale, and the details of the stoves and castles of households are also changed every year.

redrawn by imitating the old high-density spectrum. Folk paper-cutting still preserves rich branches. In many places, on holidays, weddings, funerals and weddings, villagers will bring their own paper-cutting to decorate walls, doors and windows, house columns, mirrors and other places to express their wishes for good luck and good luck. Paper-cutting can be seen all over the country, and even different local styles have been formed. The more famous ones are Gaomi paper-cutting and Foshan paper-cutting. Generally speaking, the northern paper-cutting is rough and bold, simple and concise, while the southern paper-cutting is more inclined to beautiful and elegant's lush, exquisite and beautiful. Among them, there are many subjects that people are happy to hear, such as crossing the sea with the Eight Immortals, a hundred years of good lotus, sending a child with a unicorn, marrying a girl with a mouse, and so on ... Substitute flowers, people and gods, free and unrestrained streamline, amazing imagination.

Manchu paper-cut folk arts have always influenced and promoted each other. For example, embroidery, whose patterns are first drawn and cut out with paper, commonly known as patterns, is then pasted on the fabric for embroidery. Another example is the carving of shadow figures, which is also connected with the modeling of paper-cutting.

It's a pity that most young people make a living in the city because of the growing popularity. Nowadays, most of them are old women who are good at paper-cutting in remote villages. With their death, the beautiful paper-cutting art is on the verge of extinction. Relevant people are trying to save it, while collecting the creations from all over the country to replenish their stocks, and discussing the creation of a commercialized environment for paper-cutting art, so that it can directly generate economic benefits, so as to bring forth the new and carry forward it.

There are three most famous artistic styles in Ansai, besides waist drum, there are paper-cutting and folk songs.

Paper-cutting and folk songs are folk arts handed down from generation to generation. Their history is not recorded in literature, but they are passed on hand and mouth from generation to generation. Locals call paper-cutting "ancient flowers". Paper-cutting is a traditional craft of local women, and its pattern, copy, skills and techniques are only passed down from generation to generation from mother to daughter.

in farming civilization, female workers are a compulsory course for women. In northern Shaanxi, paper-cutting and embroidery have almost become a girl's facade. "Clever" is an important criterion for a man to measure a woman. The older generation in northern Shaanxi still remembers the saying that Mo Wen people are blind and good, as long as they are skillful. Ansai's folk song "Wedding Song" said more directly: "Give birth to a girl skillfully, and pomegranate peony will hinge." A woman's cleverness depends on whether she cuts flowers well or not.

According to some data, paper-cutting as a folk art in China originated from the Han and Tang Dynasties. For thousands of years, it has been popular among the people with its unique charm. Every wedding festival, paper-cutting is bound to shine. Think back then, in this barren and monotonous loess plateau, without these colorful pieces of paper, what would people rely on to pass the tedious days?

Hinge paper-cutting and stick grilles are customs handed down from Ansai since ancient times. Especially during the Chinese New Year, anyone who doesn't live in stick grilles will be ridiculed as a "blind window" by the villagers. Under the pressure of this kind of public opinion, even the lonely old man has to ask the clever daughter-in-law in the village for some paper-cuts to stick on the window. As for the stubborn old man who doesn't want to ask for help, he will also come up with strange tricks to deal with it.

In p>1979, Chenshanqiao of Ansai Cultural Center met an old bachelor in Tanjiaying Bath Village, and cut some triangles with red paper and pasted them on the window in disorder. According to the old man, this is mainly to ward off evil spirits-to see the red. What is even more unique is a couplet on his door, which is made of paper or red paper, and the words are spread with an old bowl dipped in pot ash. The couplet is made up of five black circles. The old man is illiterate and unwilling to open his mouth to others, so he has to cope with it. Later, Chenshanqiao saw a couplet posted by a farmer in Xihekou (once a cultural center in northern Shaanxi): the first couplet was "It doesn't matter if you behead"; The bottom line is "Hatoyama gave a banquet to make friends with me". "How do you post such couplets in the New Year?" Mr. Chen is puzzled. The mother-in-law replied, "The child copied it from the book, and who knows what it says."

Now there won't be such jokes any more, not only because there are more people who can read and break words today, but also because even if you don't hang couplets in stick grilles today, you will no longer face the pressure of public opinion. Without pressure, there would be no motivation. In Chen Shanqiao's view, this is really embarrassing.

today, Ansai, the so-called "hometown of paper-cutting", has long been famous, but the villagers in the hometown of paper-cutting themselves don't like paper-cutting. During the Spring Festival in 21, Ansai girl Fan Xiaomei (a rising star of Ansai paper-cutting, who has visited Japan, Canada, Taiwan Province and other places in recent years, and once performed paper-cutting for the Clintons on the wall of the south gate of Xi 'an) returned to her hometown to visit her relatives. Paper-cutting was rarely seen on the windows and walls of various villages. Nowadays, there are all kinds of star photos, all kinds of advertising posters, VCD, radio and television, billiards and mahjong in caves in northern Shaanxi, and there are much more pastimes than before, so people don't have to use colorful pieces of paper to adjust their lives. In the eyes of today's girls, it is a backward way, which is both laborious and laborious. It is difficult for them to feel fun from it, but if someone gives money, it is another matter. Of course, today's young man in Ansai still hopes that the woman is ingenious, but now this "ingenuity" is no longer necessary to prove it with a pair of scissors.

Accompanied by Han Jiehao, director of Ansai Cultural Bureau, we visited the paper-cut exhibition room of Ansai Cultural Center, which is really a world of flowers. The diversity of its categories and rich content are amazing. Roughly speaking, there are window flowers, door paintings, kang flowers, hanging curtain flowers, kiln top flowers, table skirt flowers, pillow flowers, shoe flowers, brand flowers, belly flowers and so on. There are several kinds of contents. First, it is used to beautify the environment during the Spring Festival, symbolizing good luck, such as birds, flowers, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, lions and tigers. Second, it is used to decorate the bridal chamber, mostly pomegranate peony, birds in pairs, etc. Third, the patterns used to make embroidery and cloth toys are mostly double pomegranate, double peach and tiger doll. Fourth, it is used for superstitious etiquette, such as the God of Wealth, the Kitchen God, and the paper men used for evocation. Of course, there are some paper-cut works about modern rural life.

According to Han Jiehao, Ansai paper-cutting is a model for working women in northern Shaanxi to create beauty. The cave paper-cut originally used to decorate and beautify life has been passed down from generation to generation by working women, forming a simple, vivid and strongly free style, reflecting the simple thoughts and feelings of working women in northern Shaanxi and their love for life. Ansai paper-cut has various forms and rich contents, including flowers, birds, fish, insects, fruits and vegetables, livestock and animals, people and trees, and all the beauty in nature.

Chen Shanqiao, the former director of Ansai County Cultural Center, has made extensive investigation and in-depth research on local paper-cutting. He wrote in an article "Ansai people and the art of paper-cutting":

"There are few words for textual research on the history of paper-cutting in Ansai, but ask the living old women: Who did you learn to cut flowers when you were young? They will all answer the same thing: mom taught them. Ansai people still call traditional patterns "ancient flowers". From the paper-cut works sorted out now, we can find traces of Ansai's history and culture. The Dragon and Phoenix edited by 64-year-old Chang Zhenfang reminds people of the time when people experienced the dragon and phoenix dance five thousand years ago, and the chaotic world just created by Fuxi Nuwa when HarmonyOS first opened. The shape of dragon and phoenix is particularly simple, which is similar to the dragon placed in Yangshao tomb in Xishuipo, Puyang. The 67-year-old Bai Fenglan cut the trees, trunks and branches in The Year Plough and The Monkey Eating Smoke to form the deformation of the deer head pattern. Experts believe that it is the remains of the deer totem worship in Ansai as a "phenological calendar" and a symbol of life in ancient China. Gao Rulan's "Catch a Bun Doll", in the opinion of some experts, is a folk culture of Shang Dynasty that has long been lost elsewhere. It cuts two catching buns on the head into two chickens, which is exactly the same as the jade girl of Shang Dynasty collected by the Palace Museum. "Catch a bun doll" holds a bird in one hand (Yang); Holding the rabbit (Yin) in one hand, the combination of Yin and Yang gave birth to life, which is the image remains of reproductive worship. Ansai's ancient patterns can be said to be cultural relics on the ground, and they are important historical materials for studying the national culture and folk customs in northern China. From the perspective of artistic style, it is simple, solemn, concise and generalized, and it has an internal strength, retaining the artistic characteristics of the Han Dynasty art. "

Fang Lili, a researcher in institute of chinese studies, has made a more in-depth investigation and analysis on this, and she attaches great importance to the historical origin and cultural inheritance of this kind of flower called "ancient flower". In an article called "Memory of the Yellow Land", her brush strokes trace back to the source, pointing to ancient times:

"... some paper-cuts that express ancient legends, such as" Erlang Mountain Chasing the Sun "cut by Bai Fengxian. According to folklore, in the past, nine suns suddenly appeared in the sky, which made people unable to work in the fields. Birds died from the sun, trees withered, and Erlang chased the sun on the mountains, killing eight suns and saving mankind and everything. This has the same origin as "Shooting the Sun in Houyi" in the Central Plains, and "Wang Xiang Lying on the Ice" cut by Bai Fenglan is one of the stories of the Twenty-four Filial Pieties. Show the story of Wang Xiang's filial piety to his mother, lying on the ice to get fish.

"The same is true of the' Eagle Treading Rabbit' cut by the late Cao Dianxiang. The eagle is a hero among birds, and birds have a deep meaning here. In Ansai, many painted pottery of Miaodigou type were found in Neolithic period. One of the characteristics of Miaodigou painted pottery is that there are many bird patterns, just as the painted pottery of Banpo type is dominated by fish patterns. Because of the wide application of bird pattern, the bird on it should be the totem of a primitive tribe at that time, and the sun was called' three-legged black' in primitive mythology, so the primitive tribe that worships birds actually worships the sun, so the bird is a symbol of the sun, and it is also called' crow' in local folks. Therefore, birds symbolize masculine gender among the people, and eagles are heroes among birds, so naturally they are masculine gender. The rabbit represents the moon, the moon is negative, and the rabbit naturally represents the negative. Eagles tread rabbits' is a happy flower, which is cut at the time of marriage. Its implication is the love between men and women and reflects the theme of reproductive worship.

"Although Bai Fenglan's father is illiterate, he can tell many stories of ancient times vividly, such as Nu Wa made man, Erlang shouldered the mountain, Mao Yeren and so on. Every rainy day or winter month, her house is always full of plowmen at night, listening to' Chao Gu' with relish. Bai Fenglan always sits in her father's arms and listens carefully. Mother's good flower cutting is admired by the whole village, and it also affects Bai Fenglan. She often follows her mother's example, cutting a pomegranate with peony and a fish with lotus flowers. Her family was poor and couldn't afford paper, so she picked up many pear leaves and put them at home, and cut them with leaves instead of paper. Under the guidance of my mother, I learned how to cut many traditional patterns. Under the influence of her father, she cut many paper-cuts based on ancient legends and folk stories. Besides the aforementioned "Erlang Mountain Chasing the Sun" and "Wang Xiang Lying on the Ice", there are also "Mao Yeren", "Whipping Reed Flowers" and "Cowherd and Weaver Girl". The flowers she cut are simple, mellow, rough and powerful. The pictures of Niu Geng, Monkey Eating Xiantao and Cattle she cut are very close to the stone carving art of Han Dynasty portraits unearthed in northern Shaanxi, especially the shapes of trees in the pictures of Niu Geng and Monkey Eating Xiantao, which are considered as totem patterns in Longshan culture period, providing a basis for studying the traditional culture of China and the inheritance of northern Shaanxi culture. In fact, the images of these trees are similar to those of the mulberry trees on the bronze pot during the Warring States Period. It shows that these decorative patterns are inherited to some extent.

"The inheritance of folk culture and folk art style here is characterized by primitive, ancient and Qin and Han dynasties. The reason is that this area was once one of the centers of Yangshao culture and Longshan culture. Followed by the Song Dynasty. After the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the culture here was in a relatively closed and independent state, and was less influenced by the Central Plains culture and other foreign cultures. The profound cultural traditions and folk customs have a long history from ancient times to the present. Reproductive worship, ancestor worship and totem worship in primitive culture can be found in folk culture and folk art here. "