Zhongyang Luliang folk paper-cutting has rich symbolic meaning
The long Nanchuan River flows from ancient times. This fertile soil is clear, sweet and moist, nurturing the ancient and splendid Zhongyang folk culture. Zhongyang folk paper-cutting is like a bright mountain flower blooming on the bank of the Yellow River. Enchanting on Luliang Mountain, it is dazzling and fragrant. Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and President of the Chinese Folk Paper-cutting Research Association commented that Zhongyang folk paper-cutting is a living fossil of history. It vividly preserves cultures that can only be speculated on based on ancient historical legends and underground cultural relics. It bears the footprints of the historical development of the Chinese nation. One of the most important reasons why Zhongyang folk paper-cutting has strong local characteristics and artistic temperament is its unique modeling characteristics.
In Zhongyang, whenever the content of paper-cut patterns is mentioned, people will tell you with familiarity: "The lion chewing the hydrangea" means the pursuit of good luck, "the knife cuts the five poisons" means the end of the plague, and "the five blessings hold longevity" means longevity. One hundred years of life, etc., which shows the extensive and far-reaching use of its symbolic techniques. Jung said: "The significance of symbolism lies in trying to use analogies to clarify phenomena that are still hidden in areas that are unknown to people and in areas that are being formed." This technique is widely used in Zhongyang paper-cutting, which on the one hand reflects our previous It is a national tradition that people strive to be subtle and timeless when expressing their feelings. On the other hand, it is also a concrete manifestation of the "law of interpenetration" of primitive thinking. French anthropologist Levi Breuer believes that the "law of interpenetration" refers to the form of consciousness or the principle of association in primitive thinking that allows different things to compare, interpenetrate, and interact with each other.
So the first thing people pay attention to is the "shape" and "similarity" of things. In Zhongyang folk paper-cutting, we can find a large number of works that imply symbolic comparison thinking. For example: the gourd is regarded as a symbol of the mothers strong production capacity because of its round shape, many children, and strong reproductive ability, which means "pregnancy". There is a saying in "The Book of Songs": "The melons are endless, the peoples livelihood is"Newborn", a melon is a gourd. This poem seems to modern people to be nothing more than a somewhat interesting metaphor, but in the consciousness of ancient ancestors, it was once a truly solemn thing that people worshiped. Indeed, gourds are full of tolerance. The figure can easily evoke an association: in the primitive reproductive worship stage, our ancestors mythologized the image of pregnant women into gourds, and even the word "女" in the seal script looked like a girdle. Gourd, of course, in folk paper-cutting, the prototype of the gourd is also transformed into pots, bottles, jars and other utensils. In Zhongyang folk paper-cutting, accommodation, concealment and hiding are also important features of its shape. The love, union, and Fertility is originally a natural phenomenon of living things, and it is also an eternal theme in artistic creation at home and abroad. However, in folk paper-cutting, this theme is rarely expressed directly, and is often symbolized by flowers and animals. Such as lotus and peony. , plum blossoms, etc. generally symbolize women, while fish wearing lotuses, birds climbing plum blossoms, bees collecting honey, etc. are used to symbolize men, so there are "Dolls Sitting on Lotus", "Phoenix Playing with Peonies", "Two Phoenixes Making Plum Blossoms", Paper-cut works such as "Butterflies and Pomelos" appear to be decorative but actually have rich meanings, and the "Chicken Catching Doll" is revered by the locals as the god of reproduction because of its obvious meaning of marriage.
In fact, our country has been accustomed to using certain animals, birds, flowers, and trees to symbolize artistic images with moral meanings since ancient times. For example, dragons, deers, and unicorns are auspicious animals, phoenixes, cranes, and roosters are auspicious birds, pine trees symbolize longevity, plum blossoms, and chrysanthemums symbolize nobility, etc. These are reflected in Zhongyang folk paper-cut window grilles, and even in peoples real life. Rats, which we hate very much, appear frequently in paper-cut works, such as "The Rat Steals the Pumpkin", "The Rat Marries a Girl", "The Rat Gets Married" and other works, whose actual meaning is to have more children and grandchildren. Of course, with the progress of society, there is a saying that "the picture must be meaningful and the meaning must be auspicious", which means that the above-mentioned symbolic meanings have become more and more secular, and the artistic trend of harmonious sounds and metaphors with shapes has begun to permeate. For example: lotus and fish become (lotus) and there will be more (fish) year after year; monkeys, bees and horses combine to form the title of "bee" (monkey) on horseback; cut a vase and put peonies and sweet-scented osmanthus in it, and you have The saying of wealth (Gui) and Ping (Ping) An.
