The primitive culture expressed in the collection of folk paper-cut patterns
Among the traditional folk paper-cut patterns, common patterns include "fish playing with lotus", "golden rooster exploring lotus", "egret surrounding lotus", "rooster lying on peony", "butterfly fluttering on melon", "butterfly fluttering on lotus" "Vase", "Two Cats Lying in Basin"... are used to express the meaning of marriage and harmony between the sexes; "Lotus gives birth to son", "Golden Toad spits out son", "Pomegranate collapses son"... is used as a metaphor for human beings to give birth to children and heirs. In these combined patterns, fish, dragons, butterflies, cats, and tigers are commonly used to represent men, and lotus, peonies, gourds, and melons are used to represent women. How did this way of using objects to symbolize people come into being? In addition, how do these objects enter folk paper-cutting? Since the folk paper-cut art still retains the original thinking characteristics of human beings, we are bound to find the source of the answer from primitive culture.
In the primitive stage of human animism, no matter what magical natural objects they were, people generally worshiped them. Therefore, worship of "natural spirits" such as the sun and moon, wind, rain, thunder and lightning, rivers, lakes, seas, mountains and boulders, etc., appeared , the worship of "plant spirits" such as flowers, plants, vines, trees, melons, fruits, and lotus roots, and the worship of "animal spirits" such as birds, beasts, insects, fish, frogs, snakes, snails, and clams, emerged. Therefore, the ancient myths that have been passed down to this day have become the most true reflection of the way human beings in childhood understand the world. Among them, the induction myths about the origin of the nation in ancient China reflect the ancients’ original understanding of the principles of human reproduction.
"Chronology of the Bamboo Book? Chengtang of the Yin and Shang Dynasties" says: "...In the early days of the Gao Xin family, the concubine called Jian Di, and the black bird arrived at the spring equinox.On that day, the emperor worshiped in the suburbs and bathed with his sister on Xuanqiu. There is a black bird holding an egg and dropping it. The five colors are very good. The two men actually took it and covered it with two baskets. Jian Di got it first, swallowed it, and became pregnant. Cutting the chest creates a contract. He grew up as a situ of Yao, became successful among the people, and was granted the title of merchant..." In the Qing Dynasty, Ma Sus "Yi Shi" Volume 12 quoted "Sui Chao Zi" as saying: "Yu was born in Kunshi, married Tushan, controlled floods, and connected Xuanyuan. The mountain turned into a bear. When Tushan saw it, he ran away in shame and turned into stone at the foot of Songgao Mountain. Yu said, ‘Return to my son! ’ The stone breaks through the north and creates Qi. "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty? Southwest Yi" says: "For those who mourned, there was a woman named Shayi who lived in Laoshan. She tasted the fishing water and felt something when she touched the wood. Because she was pregnant, ten men were born in ten months. . Another "Huayang Guozhi? Nanzhong Zhi" says: "There was a woman walking by the waterside. Three large bamboos flowed into the womans feet. She pushed it and refused to go. When she heard the sound of a child, she picked it up and broke it, and got a boy. . ”
Obviously, the above-mentioned induction myths are the product of childhood human beings' "ignorance of the reproduction process of humans and animals, especially the ignorance of the role of males in the reproduction process." In these ancient induction myths, people The reason why children can be born is due to the entry of a divine substance (animal or plant) into a womans body. Human beings can not reproduce through male-female intercourse. Instead, women of childbearing age "react" with certain types of animals and plants, thus Pregnancy and childbirth. For example, "Historical Records of the Zhou Dynasty" discusses Jiang Yuans birth of a son, saying, "When Jiang Yuan went out into the wild, she saw the trace of a giant, and her heart was filled with joy. She wanted to practice on it, and her body moved as if she were pregnant. She lived in the period and gave birth to a son." In human culture, it is these inspired myths that form the original soil for all kinds of narratives and thinking that continue to be connected to myths or are no longer directly connected to myths. These stories, both true and imaginary, have been passed down from generation to generation, and the original images in those divine stories still possess profound magic. Therefore, from primitive art to folk paper-cutting, although the narrative method has changed, the original objects in mythological stories have become representatives of a certain "kind" of things, symbolizing those psychological images that are no longer easy or clear to express. When Guo Moruo discussed the myth of "Xuanniao gives birth to business", he believed: "Xuanniao was originally thought to be a swallow" and "Xuanniao is a phoenix". "But whether its a phoenix or a swallow, I believe this legend is a symbol of genitals. Birds are still another name for (male) genitals until now." After revealing the secret of the bird pattern symbolizing men, we can know that the "heron play" in folk paper-cutting "Lotus", "Golden Rooster Exploring Lotus", "Chicken Playing with Toad" are actuallyIt is a symbol of the union of men and women and is a manifestation of the ancestors' prayers for a prosperous population.
H. Wasinger has conducted some discussions on the nature of myth. In his view, fiction first means an activity of visualization (finger). Fiction is also a kind of composition, shaping and giving form. ,The activities of elaborating and presenting ,models, that is, the process of understanding, thinking, imagining, ,assuming, planning, designing, and conceiving. Its most striking feature is unencumbered and free expression. He believes that the undeniable fact is that the thinking ability of primitive people has been fully developed and exercised in mythology, and its significance to the subsequent development of primitive art is beyond doubt. In the process of inheriting the original art, folk paper-cutting did not follow the footsteps of civilization and evolve step by step, "but continued to remain in the middle of a level that people considered low-level..." Correspondingly, it retained some of the original ways of our ancestors understanding the world. Therefore, Mythical animals and plants
