Generally speaking, the northern paper-cut is rough and bold, concise and lively, while the southern paper-cut tends to be beautiful and elegant, lush, exquisite and beautiful. Among them, there are many themes that the masses like to see and hear, such as crossing the sea with the Eight Immortals, getting along for a hundred years, sending a son to Kirin, marrying a girl with a mouse and so on.
Early paper-cutting is more common in funerals, sacrifices and other ceremonies, which is related to Taoist psychic affairs. Until now, there are still witchcraft customs in some areas, such as cutting ghosts and gods into New Year's Day shapes and sticking them on cowsheds and lintels. 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 such as stoves and castles of every household are also changed every year.
Folk arts have always influenced and promoted each other, such as embroidery, whose patterns are first drawn and cut out of paper, commonly known as patterns, and then pasted on cloth for embroidery; Another example is carving shadow play, which is also related to the shape of paper-cutting.
Development history
It is found from some archaeological remains that the art of paper-cutting appeared in the Northern Dynasty (386-58 1), with a history of 1500 years. At that time, the art of paper-cutting was quite proficient. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the art of paper-cutting became increasingly prosperous. There were also poems describing paper-cutting in the Tang Dynasty.
It depicts the beautiful movements of beautiful women's paper-cutting in the Tang Dynasty and the beautiful effects of flowers, birds, insects and fish cut out. In the Song Dynasty, the paper-cutting industry and famous paper-cutting artists began to appear. In the Song Dynasty, paper-cutting became popular. The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the peak of paper cutting.
Technically speaking, paper-cutting is actually cutting and carving on paper to present the image to be expressed. The working people in China have perfected this art form by relying on their own intelligence and wisdom in their long-term artistic practice and life practice. Formed a variety of techniques such as tearing paper, ironing paper, color matching, color matching, dyeing, sketching, etc., so that the expressive force of paper-cutting extends infinitely in depth and breadth.
As thin as a silkworm spinning silk and as thick as a big brush. Its different forms can be attached to the pendulum lining or hung in the air. Because the tools and materials of paper-cutting are simple and popular, and the techniques are easy to master, it has irreplaceable characteristics of other art categories. Therefore, this art form has spread almost all over the towns and villages in China since ancient times, and has won people's love and praise.