The hidden demands in Chinese folk paper-cutting
In addition to passively calling for survival and peace through the rituals of primitive beliefs in witchcraft, and actively avoiding disasters, people often express their desire for happiness in all possible forms. Invisible appeals are a form of implicit prayers for happiness and good fortune through allegorical associations, homophonic meanings, and understanding of objects. This is the most commonly used and distinctive form of Chinese folk paper-cutting. It is also the most familiar theme.
The so-called allegorical association refers to the use of homophonic meanings, or the understanding of objects, etc., to make the art of paper-cutting full of idealized spiritual resemblance and the blending of "emotion" and "reason" to express the peoples good wishes in order to express their fantasies and wishes. , interesting in paper-cut patterns, arousing emotional resonance among the people. This is a typical oriental implicit emotional expression; the homophonic meaning uses the homophony of words and the use of patterns such as flowers, birds, fish and insects to express good wishes and seek good luck. As we all know, lotus and carp symbolize "more than one year after another", persimmon and Ruyi symbolize "everything goes well", magpies and plum blossoms symbolize "joy" and so on; knowing things means to combine peoples feelings about certain things with Good wishes are linked together, and with the help of certain animals and plants and other beautiful things, the pursuit of beautiful ideals is reflected in the form of indirect metaphors. For example: mandarin ducks symbolize love, turtles and cranes symbolize longevity, Ganoderma lucidum symbolizes longevity, pomegranates symbolize fertility, plums, orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums represent peace in the four seasons, etc... The expression method of folk paper-cut symbolic metaphors is derived from the original cultural and artistic concepts of the nation. Inherited from the method, Hegel once pointed out: "Various forms of symbols originate from the religious worldview of the entire nation", and "only art is the earliest image interpretation of religious concepts."
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The graphics that are considered auspicious in folk art are often the images worshiped and admired in the ancient religious beliefs of the nation. As a conceptual art, folk paper-cutting art uses the technique of invisible appeal to give full play to the concept of auspicious culture. In the accumulation of thousands of years of national traditional culture, folk paper-cuttingThe art of paper-cutting has formed its own large and rich system of auspicious graphics. Paper-cut themed patterns with auspicious meanings are the largest and most widely distributed type of paper-cut graphics in my country. The way in which this kind of theme patterns convey information is an obvious form of "encoding" and "decoding". The way the north and the south use paper-cut graphics to convey invisible appeals has their own "encoding" characteristics.
The theme patterns of folk paper-cut window grilles in the north, in addition to the remaining primitive witchcraft color elements, mostly rely on graphics of animals, plants and legends and allusions commonly seen in life and production to appeal to happiness and good fortune. This kind of theme is concentrated in the folk paper-cutting in Shanxi and Henan in the Yellow River Basin in northern my country, and Hebei in North China. The south is influenced by the widespread spread of Central Plains culture. Except for ethnic minority areas such as Xiangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan, invisible appeals are the theme of folk paper-cutting in most areas of the south, expressing the flexibility of happiness in a way that has a strong flavor of Central Plains poetry and calligraphy. Appeal, this is a special creative form gradually formed due to the infiltration of civilization.
