The inheritance of collective consciousness in Chinese folk paper-cut art
Of course, from the perspective of childhood environment, the inheritance of paper-cutting is directly passed down by individuals or families. However, the art of paper-cutting is not established in a single individual environment. It is still within the larger cultural circle of Chinese culture. middle. In the general cultural environment, paper-cut art, as a type of folk art, still embodies the crystallization of its collective creation. The cultural system reflected by paper-cutting is also multi-faceted, including the thinking concepts, living conditions, belief systems of the people, etc., and the inheritance of this system must be collective inheritance. For example, the common yin-yang fish, happy encounters, snakes and rabbits in paper-cut themes are all the result of this thinking mode.
Jung believed that there are three levels in the personality structure: consciousness (self), personal unconscious (complex) and collective unconscious (archetype). The collective unconscious is the unconscious at the lowest level of the personality structure. The activity patterns and experiences of generations, including ancestors, are the genetic traces stored in the human brain. Jung believed that the content of the collective unconscious is archetypes, which are similar to instincts and are the fundamental motivations in personality. Archetypes pursue its inherent goals psychologically, while instincts pursue physical satisfaction. Prototypes are inherited from human ancestors over the generations. They do not need the help of experience. As long as they are in similar situations, people will behave the same as their ancestors. Among the people, generations of paper-cutting artists have created countless paper-cutting works. Although very few works have been preserved, the cultural folk consciousness has been inherited intact, forming a "prototype" composed of the universal experience of folk paper-cutting. Even if this " The "prototype" has not been preserved, but the unconscious thinking that created the "prototype" is engraved in the heart of the paper-cut artist in Figure 4, such as "Nu Wa". The author of this work cut out the snake spirit unconsciously. She did not know who Nu Wa was. But this paper-cut image is just like the appearance of Nuwa. In the process of paper-cutting, the original schema is accidentally transformed into a "self-reappearance of the mythical matrix". Among the people, many such paper-cut works, such as giant salamanders, human dragons, sick dolls and other images, originated from Yangshao culture.Amazing corresponding patterns can still be found in the ruins. Figure 4 also shows that paper-cut artists use original thinking habits and methods in the creative process. This collective unconscious thinking does not depend on individual development and creation, but is a collective thinking habit in a specific cultural background. It is a national The characteristics of cultural awareness appear.
As Brühl believes: "Their way of thinking only has many collective representations of mysterious properties passed down from generation to generation. Among them, they are not governed by any laws of thinking logic. They rely on existing things and objects. The mysterious interpenetration between them." to connect with each other. Relatively speaking, paper-cutting, as a Chinese folk art form, retains more original ways of thinking in art. Judging from modern paper-cut works, the more economically backward areas in China are, the less the impact of the modern economy and culture on their preserved traditional culture is, thus preserving more traditional thinking patterns. In these areas, the works created by paper-cut artists can better reflect the characteristics of collective inheritance.
From the painted pottery patterns of primitive art, to the portrait stones and bricks of the Han Dynasty, to the collection of modern paper-cut patterns, it is not difficult to find that these works will have magical coincidences in their works. Jung once called it the art of magic. In fact, this is the result of the collective inheritance of primitive thinking logic. From this, we can also see that many works of paper-cut art are similar to primitive art in terms of thinking and modeling. This also shows that those ancient people The original experience, through collective inheritance, has been quietly deposited in the deep psychological structure of folk paper-cut artists over the long historical years.
Of course, although paper-cutting has a relatively stable inheritance, it does not mean that paper-cutting is not developing. On the contrary, paper-cutting is constantly innovating while being inherited, but the spiritual essence of the Chinese nation is still intact. This is the essence of paper cutting.
