The fan was called sha (sha) in ancient times. "Shuowen": "箑, fan." In ancient times, fans were also called together. Yang Xiong's "Dialect" once said: "It is called a fan from the pass to the east, and a fan from the pass to the west." The fan mentioned here is not It is not the fan we see in hand today, but a tool that is hung in the room and shaken by a rope to capture the wind. To this day, we can still see the relics of this kind of wind-pulling fan in some ancient dwellings in Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Anhui.
Since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, fans have also had two functions. One is to be installed on the cars used by nobles to travel, shaped like an umbrella cover. With the help of the vehicle moving forward, the airflow is impulsive and generates wind, which can provide shade and shelter from the sun. Rain can also generate wind and dissipate heat. Second, it serves as a guard of honor for the emperor and his nobles when traveling. Cui Bao of the Jin Dynasty recorded in "Ancient and Modern Notes·Yufu" that the "Five Bright Fans" were made during the Shun period to show publicity and recruit talents. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, all officials and ministers could use it, but in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it was only used by the emperor. This "Wu Ming Fan" is actually an umbrella cover, which is far from the fan we have today.
As for the fan that can be held in the hand and can be carried and shaken, it may have originated in the Xia Dynasty. By the time of King Wu of Zhou Dynasty, it was almost the same as the fan we see today. Judging from the glyphs, "箑" comes from bamboo, and "fan" comes from feathers. The most primitive fan should be made of bamboo feathers. From the poems and poems since the Han and Wei dynasties, we can see many mentions of fans. Cao Zhi has a "Preface to Fan Fu", which talks about the upper bamboo fan that Cao Cao received as a reward from the emperor. Lu Ji of the Jin Dynasty wrote "Ode to the Feather Fan", which was dedicated to praising the feather fan. It can be seen that during the Han and Wei dynasties, bamboo fans and feather fans were already very popular.
There are many ways to weave bamboo fans, either by cutting the bamboo into strands and weaving it; or by splitting the bamboo into pieces and flattening them. They are woven by various techniques and equipped with various devices. Then it became a bamboo fan. The main raw material of bamboo fans is bamboo. In addition, similar to bamboo fans but using different raw materials, there are also palm fans, sunflower fans, cattail fans, banana fans, wheat fans, betel nut fans, etc., all of which are made of different materials to beat the summer heat. Although the purpose is the same, the complexity of the craftsmanship and the quality of the products are quite different.
Feather fans are mostly made of bird feathers, with various types, such as pheasant tail, phoenix feather, magpie wing, crane feather, goose feather, carved feather, peacock tail, eagle feather, etc. Generally, goose feather and carved feather are used as the main raw material. The fan handle can be made of bamboo, wood or even ivory. The feather fan also has a long history. It is said that during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang and Gu Rong of the Jin Dynasty both used feather fans to command thousands of troops in battle, so the "feather fan scarf" has always been praised by people. Jiangnan has a dense water network and a good environment for raising poultry, so it is rich in lupins. On the other hand, the wind blowing from the feather fan is gentle and gentle, the body is light and portable, and it has a sense of immortality.
If bamboo fans and feather fans are beautiful works of art in themselves, then round fans and folding fans are even more artistic carriers.
The appearance of the round fan predates the folding fan by more than a thousand years. "Ban Jie Yu's Song" says: "The newly made Qi Wan fan is as bright as frost and snow; it is cut into an acacia fan, and the reunion is like the bright moon." Wang Changling's poem "Chang Xin Sorrow" contains: "Follow the broom to level the Ming Qiu palace to open, and use the round fan to shine *Wandering." They are all chants about the round fan. In other words, fans before the Song Dynasty mostly referred to round fans. The materials of Uchiwa fans are mostly made of Luo, gauze, damask, and silk. There are very few Uchiwa fans made of paper. However, in modern Japan and Korea, many Uchiwa fans are made of paper fans. A few years ago, I bought a round fan made of Korean paper in the market in Weihai. It was painted on both sides and was very unique. Fans made of silk fabrics such as Luo, gauze, damask, and silk are generally called Wan fans. Therefore, Jiang Yan has a saying that "the Wan fan enters the Tuan Yue and comes from the elements in the machine."
The shape of the round fan is not necessarily like a full moon. There are also round, oval, hexagonal, etc., which are generally referred to as round fans. Speaking of the round fan, many people would think that it was a special product for women in ancient times. In fact, before the folding fan appeared, men also used the round fan. It is difficult to see the actual round fan before the Tang Dynasty. We can only see the general form of the round fan in some paintings and tomb murals. A Tang Dynasty silk fan was unearthed in Turpan, Xinjiang. The fan handle was very long. From this, it can be inferred that this long-handled round fan may have been held by the waiter to brush the fan for the owner. Therefore, the round fan is also called the palace fan. This kind of long-handled palace fan is most clearly shown in "Pictures of Ladies with Hairpins" by Zhou Fang of the Tang Dynasty, and the fan is also painted with peonies. The actual round fans from the Song Dynasty can still be seen today, especially the paintings from the Song Dynasty. A considerable part of them are painted on the round fans, many of which are by famous artists. Due to its age, this type of fan painting mostly appears in the form of silk fan pages.
It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the fans used by men were gradually replaced by folding fans, and the round fans were reserved for women to a greater extent. The decorations became more complicated, such as using colored ribbons along the edges and decorating them with fan pendants. The plain fans could not only be painted on , and can also be embroidered, tapestry, and drawn yarn. In addition to bamboo and wood, the fan handles are also made of teeth and horns. Overall, the round fans after the Ming Dynasty tend to be more feminine.
The folding fan first appeared in the Southern and Northern Dynasties in the fifth century AD. "Book of Southern Qi" says: "Chu Yuan used a waist fan to block the sun." According to the explanation in "Tongjian Notes", this "waist fan" is "a folding fan." However, it was not popular at that time. In the Northern Song Dynasty, "like the folding fans made in the market...the width of the folding fan is three to four feet wide, and the width of the folding fan is only about two fingers." The market system shows that it is no longer just for a few people.
Today, the folding fans of Qiao Xiangge on Tianjin Ancient Culture Street are the most famous, and they are basically handmade and painted.
According to records, the folding fan is an imported product. A folding fan is mainly composed of three parts: fan ribs, fan leaves and fan surfaces. Ordinary folding fans generally use bamboo wood as the fan ribs and tough paper as the fan surfaces. For those who are more particular about it, there are also poems and paintings on the fans. For high-end folding fans, the ribs and leaves are often made of ivory. Various patterns are carved on it, and most of the fans have calligraphy and paintings of famous people.
The folding fan was invented in Japan. Known as Japanese fans in ancient times, they were brought to China by Japanese envoys sent to the Tang Dynasty as tribute gifts. The folding fan looks like a bat and is known as a spreading fan, a gathering fan, a bat fan, a folding fan, etc. The first folding fan was made of cypress thin sheets sewn together, so it was called a cypress fan. Later it was changed to a paper fan. Folding fans have been around since the early Heian period. According to "Nishinomiyaki", in the early Heian period, every summer, the court nobles gave folding fans to their courtiers, and the folding fans became one of the items carried by the courtiers during palace activities. Later, palace women were also influenced by it and often used folding fans as decorations around them. There has always been great disagreement as to when the folding fan appeared in China. It is generally believed that it originated in the Song Dynasty, or was introduced from Japan or Korea. There is basically no doubt that folding fans have appeared in the Song Dynasty. The most representative material is Guo Ruoxu's "Pictures and Knowledge" of Song Dynasty, which describes the folding fans in detail: "It is made of crow-green paper. The paintings are made of native green, mixed with women's saddles and horses, or with golden sand beaches near the water, lotuses, flowers, trees, waterfowl, etc., and are exquisitely decorated with silver clay in the shape of clouds and moonlight, which is very cute and is called a Japanese fan. "It originated from the Japanese country." Judging from this passage, there is nothing special about the style of painting on the fan. The same is true for the green and golden landscapes and figures of the Tang and Five Dynasties. The only difference is that it is painted on the folding fan. superior. As for the theory that it was introduced from Goryeo, it is mostly inferred from records of folding fans paid tribute by Goryeo envoys. This etiquette of envoys presenting folding fans as tribute existed from the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, some envoys held Jutou fans, which were ridiculed by the current generation. This also shows that folding fans were not widely used or imitated during the Song and Yuan dynasties. It was not until the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty that "the Koreans introduced folding fans. They liked the convenience of unfolding and unfolding, and they ordered them to do it according to the style, which is also called spreading fans." Therefore, it can be said that the popularity of folding fans only began in the early Ming Dynasty. The fans mentioned in the literature before the Ming Dynasty basically all belong to the bamboo fan, banana fan, feather fan and round fan
The painting method calligraphy using the round fan as the carrier began to turn to the mid-Ming Dynasty. After the folding fan, especially the Su fan craftsmanship, took shape, a series of painters including the Wumen School of Painting, the Nine Friends of Painting, and the Four Kings Wu Yun all used folding fans as a creative venue. In addition to professional painters, literati and officials also used inscriptions, calligraphy and painting on fans as a way to meet friends and socialize with each other through literature, and even spread to monks, Taoists and merchants. Throughout the history of painting in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the proportion of fans cannot be ignored. Although its creative space is subject to certain limitations, all the freehand brushwork, scratches and dyes are displayed in it. Landscapes, figures, flowers and feathers are all vividly displayed on it, thus becoming a part of Chinese painting. a special form. It is said that during the Three Kingdoms period, Yang Xiu once painted fans with Cao Cao. Therefore, the fan is mainly used to ward off the heat, and can also be used as a handicraft. People can paint, carve various flowers, birds, landscapes, figures, or write poems on the fans, which is quite elegant. Wang Xizhi, the great calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty, saw an old woman selling hexagonal bamboo fans and wrote five characters on each bamboo fan. The old woman was very unhappy. Wang Xizhi said: "This is a letter from Wang Youjun, so I can ask for a hundred coins." The old woman took it out to sell it, and sure enough, people rushed to buy it. There are many famous fan paintings in the history of our country, such as Zhou Zhimian's Bamboo Bird Fan in the Ming Dynasty, Tang Yin's Dead Wood Jackdaw Fan, Shen Zhou's Qiulin Dubu Fan, Yun Shouping's Chrysanthemum Fan in the Qing Dynasty, Wang Wu's Wu Bird and Purple Shield Fan, etc. . Nowadays, our country's fans are famous all over the world as a kind of handicraft.
Guo Moruo once wrote a poem for the fan factory workers: The cool world comes from the hands. More sophisticated than a ghost axe, more ingenious than a natural craftsman. Flying all over the world, overwhelming the west wind.
Fans can also express a certain psychological state of a person. Su Dongpo used the sentence "majestic and heroic, feather fan and silk scarf" to describe Zhou Yu's demeanor. Du Mu describes the lively posture and joyful mood of the girls with the poem "Qingluo Xiaofan flutters at the flowing fireflies". "Tiaoxiao Ling" written by Wang Jian of the Tang Dynasty says: "Four fans, four fans, beauties come together to cover their faces." It describes the tragic psychology of a beauty covering her face with a fan. "The summer heat is like a fire, and the field fields are half-scorched. The farmer's heart is like boiling water, and the princes and princes are shaking their fans." A fan vividly depicts the features of exploiters who get something for nothing. Some literary and artistic works also use the fan as a metaphor for people and as a token of love. In "The Peach Blossom Fan", it is written that Hou Fangyu gave Li Xiangjun "a handle of the palace fan", which "will always be a token of love." Later, Li Xiangjun resisted the powerful traitors and stained the fan with blood. Yang Longyou dyed it and painted it into a peach blossom fan. Fans are also an indispensable prop on the stage. In "Empty City Strategy", Zhuge Liang's feather fan is gently swaying, which highlights his commanding and confident look. The famous Sichuan Opera actor Yang Youhe has more than 70 gestures using the folding fan alone. In the past, crosstalk actors often held a fan in their hands to highlight their characters.