When was the fan invented? Here are four theories
It originated from the Eastern Jin Dynasty
"Interesting Stories about Fans", "The Origin and Flow of Fans" "" and other books believe that the fan has been produced in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The main evidence comes from "Wenyuan·Yuan Hong" in Volume 29 of "Book of Jin". Xie An gave a fan to Yuan Hong, and Yuan Hong replied: "I should promote benevolence and comfort the common people."
Since the folding fan later became known as the "Benevolent Style", some people believe that the one presented here by Xie An is the folding fan. However, there is no sufficient evidence from the text to prove that the gift here is a folding fan. In addition, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it was popular for ordinary people to use zhǔ tail (a kind of fan) to talk about mysteries and Taoism. "Notes of the Twenty-Two Histories" says: "People in the Six Dynasties were more ordinary than those who used the tail."
Origin from the Southern and Northern Dynasties
There is also a view that the folding fan appeared in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. "Jiao Chuang Hua Fan" writes: "The folding fan is commonly known as the folding fan. It is also called the Jutou fan in ancient times and is also called the Jugu fan. It began in the Northern Song Dynasty and its origin was as far away as the Southern Qi Dynasty. "Book of Southern Qi Liu Xiang Biography" records: "Situ Chuyuan entered the dynasty and wore a waist fan to protect himself from the sun", Hu Sansheng, a Yuan Dynasty man, said in "Tongjian Zhu": "The waist fan was worn on the waist and is now called a folding fan." Qian Yong's "Lv Yuan Cong Hua" Vol. The third "Kaosuo Fan" also advocated this view: ""Tongjian" of the Song Dynasty: "Chu Yuan entered the court" with a waist fan to block the sun.
Wang Xuetao's "Painting Fan" wrote: "Folding fans existed in the Southern Qi Dynasty, and the creation of calligraphy and painting on folding fans began in the early Southern Song Dynasty." Luo Wen's "Fan Talk": "It was introduced in the Southern and Northern Dynasties China." However, Hu Sansheng did not cite any strong evidence from the fact that "the fan was worn on the waist" and "it is now called a folding fan." Therefore, Hu Sansheng's statement is doubtful. The name "waist fan" does not mean that it is "worn on the waist", but that its shape is narrow in the middle and wide at both ends. It is a fan with a narrow waist.
Qing Dynasty scholars who are good at textual research also discovered this problem - the article "Waist Fan" in Volume 4 of "Zha Pu" written by Gui Fu of the Qing Dynasty says: "The waist fan is like a waist drum, which means that the middle waist is slimming, which is different from "The round fan." Zhou Liang strongly agreed with this view. He wrote in "Historical Notes of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties: Waist Fan": "Gui said it was true. The folding fan was introduced in the Northern Song Dynasty and did not exist in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Fang Yizhi's "Tong Ya" 33 "Qi Yong Men" and Liang Yusheng's "Glimpse Notes" both cited works from the Song Dynasty to prove that folding fans began to exist in the Northern Song Dynasty. However, Liang also quoted Hu's note. , thinking that the folding fan has been around for a long time, but this is not the case. "Yao Fan of the Qing Dynasty also pointed out in "Yuanquaitang Notes" that the waist fan mentioned by Hu Sansheng "is also a round fan, which can be rolled up and stretched out, and is similar to what is called gathering today. The head is different."
What's more, the name "waist fan" did not originate from the Southern Qi Dynasty. It was already seen in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was written as "Yao Fan", and the thing existed in the pre-Qin Dynasty. "Huainanzi · Pan Lun": "The Zhou people set up walls." Gao Ying of the Eastern Han Dynasty noted: "The Zhou people also used coffins and coffins, so they were set up on walls. Now they have fans, paintings, and coffins and carriages for decoration."
Jin Zhangchang's "Old Events in the East Palace": "When the crown prince first paid his respects, he asked for one green bamboo fan for the concubine, twenty concentric bamboo fans, and twenty single bamboo fans." "The lacquer fan" refers to the key points of lacquer decoration. fan. The waist fan is a relatively large screen fan. It is named because the waist shrinks in the shape. It mainly serves as a symbol or decoration and is not a folding fan at all. Therefore, Zhao Yi of the Qing Dynasty corrected this in his "Ei Yu Cong Kao": "The things of the three provinces of Hu and later generations are arbitrarily attached to the ears."
It originated from the theory of Tang and Five Dynasties
Also There is a view that the folding fan appeared in the Tang Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty Fang Yizhi's "Little Knowledge of Physics" Volume 8 "Usage·Palace Fan" said: "The folding fan was tribute to Dongyi and became popular in Yongle. ... Wisdom note: Sun Wei's "Yun" "Note: '把(zǒu) Fan' already existed in the Tang Dynasty. "
He Yudu's "Yi Bu Tan Zi" in the Ming Dynasty said that the Sichuan fan "had been made here in the Five Dynasties." Chinese Customs Dictionary believes that the "folding fan" originated in the Five Dynasties period. "Funny Stories about Fans" writes that "During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the production of folding fans that had just emerged was still very crude and difficult to popularize." It is believed that "by the Five Dynasties period, folding fans existed."
Fang Yizhi’s statement is obviously unreliable. First of all, the "Yun" he refers to as "Sun Hui's Yun" is not actually "Tang Yun" compiled by Sun Hui in the Tang Dynasty ("Tang Yun" was lost in the Ming Dynasty), but "Guang Yun" compiled by the Song Dynasty.
During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, Chen Pengnian and others were called upon to publish and compile a series of rhyme books based on the "Qie Yun" handed down from the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods, and then revised them into a "Guang Yun".
In the original text of "Guangyun·Youyun" in the Song Dynasty, it is: "把, another name for the fan." It does not specify what kind of fan "把" is.
Even if it is a folding fan, it can only prove that there were folding fans in the Song Dynasty, but it cannot be used as evidence that there were folding fans in the Five Dynasties. Chen Zhenhui, a contemporary of Fang Yizhi, believed that the fan "is also a folding fan." Moreover, Fang Yizhi wrote in "Tongya" Volume 33 "Usage": "...Dongpo calls the Korean white pine fan , spread out to a width of more than a foot, and joined together to stop two fingers, the current folding fan has been around since the Northern Song Dynasty..."
Secondly, the original text of "Guangyun·Youyun" is as follows: " "把, another name for fan." There is no such thing as "把" or folding fan. In Volume 33 of "Tongya", "Usage", Fang said: "There is a folding fan in "Tang Yun", maybe it is also the germination of a folding fan?" This is a guess. Fang's continuous reading of "把SF" is obviously wrong. Even if the fan is the "germ" of the folding fan, it is not a folding fan in the true sense. What's more, Fang Yizhi was not sure that the fan was the germ of the folding fan.
The "Chinese Dictionary" says under "把": "The name of a kind of fan. It is a folding fan." The explanation of "把fan" is "that is, a folding fan", both of which are based on Fang Yizhi's This is problematic based on the argument. Even if it is a folding fan, it can only prove that there were folding fans in the Northern Song Dynasty, but cannot be used as a basis for the existence of folding fans in the Tang Dynasty.
Origined from Japan
Song Dynasty Zhao Yanwei said in "Yunlu Manchao": "Song people used folding fans with steamed bamboo as the bones and silk ribbons between them. The ivory is made of bone, decorated with gold and silver, and is covered with gold and silver. "Guo Ruoxu's "Pictures and Information" also says that "When people come to China, they may use folding fans as personal items, and the fans are made of crow-green paper." "For it"; Huang Tingjian also wrote the poem "Xie Zheng Hongzhonghui Gaoli Painting Fan". Therefore, it is difficult to say who learned from whom between Korea and Japan.
Japan’s "Japanese and Han Sancai Illustrations and Clothing Toys" records: "During the conquest of the Three Koreans, Queen Shengong saw bat feathers and began to make fans. The fans used in the army today are about one foot and two inches, with one side of paper The sun is painted in gold with vermilion." However, this book was only written in 1712, and Queen Shen Gong was only a legendary figure, so there is no basis for it. Hua Zhen of the Song Dynasty said in "Yunxi Ji·Korean Fan": "Paijun is pasted on the pu and decorated with Nanjin, and when the scroll is rolled up, it is ingenious and thoughtful. Why do you need to cut the ruler with the moon? It will refresh and wash away the troubles. Wave it to vibrate the heron and open it up. "Yu, I have repeatedly removed the palms and have not shown my heart. It is suitable to be diligently rewarded and rewarded, and it is even more worthy to refine the chicken forest."
"Chicken Forest" refers to Goryeo, because Sun Mu, the translator of the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote a book called "Chicken Forest Stories" after he went to Goryeo as an envoy. "It also uses paper and uses Qinguang bamboo as the handle, just like the folding fans made in the market. But the exquisiteness is beyond the reach of China. It can be three or four feet wide, and it can only be about two fingers long. There are many paintings. It looks like a lady riding on a horse, walking in the green, and the ground is decorated with gold and silver chips, and there are clouds, stars, moons, and figures, which are roughly similar in shape. The reason why they come from far away is that the green color is very strange, which is different from China. , specially made of Qinghai green, especially exquisite in recent years."
This shows that China and Korea both make folding fans, but they are not as exquisite and compact as Japan. Xu Jing of the Northern Song Dynasty went to Korea as an envoy, and when he returned he recorded his experiences in the "Xuanhe Envoy to Korea Illustrated Book" and said: "The painting The folding fan is decorated with gold and silver and reproduces the shapes of people, horses and women from the country's mountains and forests, which cannot be done by beauties. It is said that the gold and silver coating on the folding fan is not as good as that of Japan, so there is no reason to say that the folding fan was invented by Japan.
The "History of Song Dynasty·Japanese Biography" records: Monk Nuran "brought in a volume of offerings and a volume of appearance. There was also a set of gold and silver maki-painted fans and a set of twenty cypress fans and bat fans. Two pieces". This cypress fan appeared earlier than the folding fan. Japanese archaeological discoveries have included cypress fans from the Nara period at the Heijo Kyo ruins. The cypress fan is a wooden fan and cannot be called a folding fan. It can only be called a folding fan. The folding fan should be developed from the folding fan.
An ancient annotation by Yan Shi of the Tang Dynasty in "Hanshu·Zhang Changzhuan" said: "It is convenient to cover one's face, so it is like covering one's face with a fan. If you don't want to see people, you will get convenience by blocking one's face." Therefore, it is called instant noodles, also called screen noodles. The bamboo fan held by today's monks has a flat top and a circle at the bottom, which is the instant noodles in ancient times. "Broad means to stretch, and circle means to surround, so instant noodles are likely to be the same." It's a folding fan.