Chinese paper-cutting art in Tang Dynasty
The technology of gold and silver flat stripping became more prosperous in the Tang Dynasty. The representative cultural relic is the gold and silver flat stripping mirror of the Tang Dynasty unearthed in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. At this time, leather carving technology also reached unprecedented heights. The leather hats unearthed in Liquan, Shaanxi Province in the 1970s were fully engraved with hollow patterns, with symmetrical and even branches of flowers and complex structures. The two Tang Dynasty "Ren Sheng" objects currently stored in Shosoin, Japan, were recorded in the "Miscellaneous Financial Records" in June 856, the third year of Qiheng in Japan. The word "Sixteen" is a thin gold cut object with painted female figures and other edges. During the Meiji period in Japan, it had been broken into two pieces with nine pieces. A gold foil figure was carved with complex borders and decorated with red and green flowers and leaves. In the center was a child playing with a dog under a bamboo forest. There is a sixteen-character sentence praying for good luck in a gallows grid: "The festival is auspicious, the blessings are new, the peace lasts for thousands of years, and the longevity is guaranteed for thousands of springs." It shows that the cutting and engraving craftsmanship in the Tang Dynasty was widely used in seasonal festivals. Pray for peace and happiness on the seventh day of the first lunar month. It has been confirmed by archaeology that this kind of gold, silver and copper foil ornaments, carved leather, cut silk, cut leaves, etc., which are made of thin sheets of material through hollowing, engraving and cutting, etc., are used in Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Shaanxi, Anhui, Hubei, and Hunan. , Jiangsu, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia and other provinces have been unearthed. ”
Six paper-cut objects made of paper were discovered in Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. They are now in the British Museum. They are decorative paper from the Tang Dynasty. The entire paper-cut pattern layout is square with even and symmetrical corners. Petals of different sizes are cut from various colored papers and overlapped and pasted to form a large double-petaled flower. The maximum can reach 9 layers. Some are also painted with point dyeing, and the petals of each layer are accurately shaped and reduced layer by layer, and some of the petals are hollowed out. In addition, the same type of paper flowers can be seen on the walls and ceilings of other caves in Dunhuang. From this, it can be inferred that this type of paper flowers should be used for indoor decorations.
A "Two-Deer Pagoda Paper-cut" from the Tang and Five Dynasties periods is now in the collection of the Museum in New Delhi, India. It adopts the folding and cutting method. In the center is a symmetrical figure on the tower, with doors and columns, and a triangle on the top of the tower. Dharma wheel and brake lever, the base of the tower is facing birds and facing deer, and on both sides of the tower are facing deer with forelimbs upward. The composition and allegorical meaning of this paper-cut indicate that it is a work related to Buddhist content.
Tang and Five Dynasty double-deer pagoda paper-cuts, unearthed in Dunhuang, now in the New Delhi Museum, India
In April 2019, the "Silk Road Art Exhibition" collected by 9 countries was held at the Tokyo Art Museum in Japan. Among the Pelliot collections were two hollow paper-cut Bodhisattvas and one with a water swirl pattern. Backlit Bodhisattva, one is Pan Bodhisattva. Cut out the image along the black line outline, but maintain a certain ink line. The era should be no later than the Song Dynasty when the Sutra Cave was closed.
Clamping is a complex printing and dyeing process popular in the Tang Dynasty. First, carve wooden boards, leather or oil cardboard, then sandwich the fabric between the two boards and inject dye for printing or place a fabric scraper under the template for printing and dyeing. Then untie the splint, and the pattern will be symmetrical and even. There are selected works from the Tang Dynasty collected in Shoso-in in Japan, some museums in Europe, and India. Three excerpts of the "Nanwu Shi Ying Muni Buddha" from the Liao Dynasty were found in the wooden pagoda of Fogong Temple in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province. The "Eight Treasures Pattern Silk" unearthed from the tomb of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty and the two empresses Xiaoduan and Xiaojing is a three-color composite silk with an earthy yellow pattern printed on the lake blue silk base and a white edge with a slight blooming effect. without losing harmony. In this process of clip printing and dyeing and the later developed blue calico, the techniques of engraving patterns, the modeling of patterns, and the artistic processing are all in the same line as paper-cutting techniques.
