The origin of ethnic minority folk paper-cutting
my countrys carving craftsmanship originated from the perforation of stone tools in the Paleolithic Age, and has gone through the pottery carving, hollowing, and rock painting art of the Neolithic Age, the bone jade and metal hollowing art of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and the wood carving, lacquer painting, and painting of the Han Dynasty. Embroidery, gold foil cutting, portrait stone art, etc., and the paper-cut art that gradually developed after the Han Dynasty. In the Han area of ??the Central Plains, with the invention of paper, many original thin-cut carving arts used paper as raw material, making the art of paper-cutting penetrate into all aspects of life. As for the relatively isolated ethnic minorities, because paper was introduced later and is more expensive than some of the raw materials that are abundant in the local area, objectively the long-standing cutting and engraving craftsmanship has been inherited among the ethnic minorities and has been It is widely used in folk life. From east to west in northern my country, whether it is the birch bark paper-cutting of the Oroqen people living in the Greater Khingan Mountains, the fish skin paper-cutting of the Hezhe people, the leather cutting and carving of the Mongolian people, or the leather and felt cutting and carving of the Kazakh people in the northwest plateau, they are all handed down in history. The combination of the craftsmanship of engraving thin sheet materials and folk life.
Almost every nation in the world had witchcraft beliefs and practices in the early days, and my countrys ethnic minorities are no exception. Most of them had polytheistic beliefs or primitive religions in the early days, and folk festivals originated from their beliefs. Also more common. The "Ren Ri" festival custom since the Han Dynasty can be traced back to ancient divination activities. The ancient superstitious concepts of omens and the concept of life worship play an important role. The "Ren Sheng" worn by "Ren Ri" is used to dispel evil and suppress ghosts, and to seek good fortune. The spiritual objects that bring good luck and avoid misfortunes later developed into folk soul-calling, begging for children, worshiping ancestors, and praying for blessings, and also appeared as props in life witchcraft. The various "grandma-in-law" goddess statues in Manchu paper-cuts originated from the primitive worship of shamanism. Among the ethnic minorities in the south, the Tujia people in Hunan, Hubei and Guangxi have a paper-cutting Bodhisattva "seeking child" ceremony, the Yao people cut small figures to worship their ancestors on July 14th of the lunar calendar, and the Buyi newlyweds cut eight small figures to "ride a sedan chair" to ask for children. The Zhuang peoples custom of "returning flowers" by cutting children, etc., are all manifestations of the witchcraft of humanoid paper-cutting for seeking children and protecting children. When Bimo of the Yi people in the Richuan and Yunnan areas perform rituals, the various geometric shapes of the sun, moon, stars, etc. are also paper-cut symbols used to seek good luck and avoid disaster, and play a witchcraft role. In addition to primitive religion, the Dai people in Yunnan who believe in Theravada Buddhism also use their piety to carve a large number of common Buddhist images of lotuses, Buddha boxes, elephants, and various common flowers and trees in tropical areas for entertainment. God for good luck.
Ethnic minority paper-cutting is the basis of ethnic minority costumes, and there are long-standing records of ethnic minorities’ “good five-color clothes”. Clothing is an explicit representation of human culture. Different ethnic minority costumes are symbols of different levels of productivity development. They reflect the development of social relations and the richness of human consciousness, and reflect the decorative customs of different ethnic groups and different eras and the hidden meanings in them. aesthetic taste, aesthetic ideal, and aesthetic pursuit. Some of them are the "legacy" of some kind of natural object worship or religious belief, or they show the changes of different national eras, the migration of nationalities, the differences in class and some special property concepts, and show different national characters, national psychology and peoples views on property. Different pursuits of self-actualization. Historically, due to the Mongolian rule in the Yuan Dynasty and the Manchus taking power in the Qing Dynasty, the clothing culture of northern ethnic minorities has gradually entered the palace. The costumes and folk customs of various ethnic groups in the remote south are also gradually developing. The customs of various ethnic groups in ethnic minority areas are "brightly dressed" in festivals, the custom of girls embroidering exquisite wedding dresses and skirts, and the customs of giving exquisite purses and belts during marriage and love. This is an important factor that promotes the continuous renovation and widespread spread of folk paper-cutting patterns of ethnic minorities in the south. With the development and changes of ethnic minority costumes, paper-cut patterns as costume accessories are also constantly changing.
Whether it is a large number of Central Plains people migrating south and west in the Song Dynasty, or the eastward expansion of the Yuan Dynasty, or large-scale population migrations due to official actions such as war and trade such as the "Silk Road" and "Sail to the West", or The small-scale internal migration and relocation of ethnic groups, and the pattern of large-scale mixed living and small-group living among various ethnic groups in Chinese history have formed a pluralistic unity of national culture, and at the same time, there are frequent exchanges. In the early Ming Dynasty and the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Buddhist and Taoist culture were successively introduced to Lijiang in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and related Jingpan paper-cutting was also introduced. The Baisha murals in Lijiang were painted over a period of more than 300 years in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. One of the painters, a descendant of Taoist Zhang Zhang, was good at paper-cutting. Most of the monks in the local Buddhist temples were also good at paper-cutting. Paper-cut artists who appeared in the Qing Dynasty and specialized in carving and cutting embroidery patterns traveled around, carving and cutting while selling, providing urban and rural women with base samples for home embroidery, promoting cross-regional exchanges of folk paper-cutting, and expanding the scope of folk paper-cutting. The influence makes this ancient handicraft art more open and inclusive, and constantly radiates new vitality. In the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu people had the custom of paper-cutting, which led to the introduction of paper-cutting into the palace. Emperors of all dynasties held weddings in the Forbidden City Kunning Palace, which was used as a bridal chamber. The roofs and walls were decorated with black paper-cutting according to Manchu custom. She nationality, Tujia nationality, Songlao nationality, Bai nationality, Yi nationality, etc.We can see a lot of borrowings from the auspicious culture of the Han people in the costume patterns and paper-cuts of the ethnic minorities who live together with the Han people.
The cultural characteristic of ethnic minority folk paper-cutting is an implicit supernatural thinking phenomenon. A leap-forward choice in the application of conventional thinking space is a unique judgment of nature and life. Ethnic paper-cutting is an expression of the souls of ethnic minorities, which corresponds to a certain feeling and experience of the human soul. It appeals to peoples visual, auditory and internal feelings and imagination, and thus arouses peoples new emotions and imaginations. Art is originally a kind of wonderful irrational culture. Its real characteristics are its recessiveness and scale-free nature. The knowledge and understanding of it all lie in comprehension and unspokenness.
