In traditional Chinese folk paper-cutting, the bun-grabbing doll has the function of protecting the sick and protecting the sick.
Folk paper-cutting is a consumer art dependent on folk customs, and many creations are realized in the process of folk witchcraft. "In fact, the combination of folk art activities and witchcraft activities, which are the source of national art, is the main feature of folk art." In the past, in rural areas, due to the lack of medical personnel and medical facilities, the main way to treat patients was to Ask a wizard to summon spirits and cure diseases.
The wizard used yellow paper to cut five or seven bun dolls holding hands and put them on the altar to receive the incense. Then they placed them on the patient. They circled the patient three times and chanted: "Whats the patients surname?" What, what is the patient’s name? What is your name? You and the patient were born in the same year, same month, and same day... The patient will be smiling, the paper man will be crying, the true soul is in the patient, you take away all the disasters, and I will send you to the cross. Mouth...", then the wizard burned the paper figure in a bowl of water and dumped it at the crossroads. In peoples ignorant consciousness, they believe that the patient becomes ill because of ghosts, which cause the persons soul to leave the body. The cut-and-scratches doll serves as a stand-in. As the paper man is incinerated, the patient will come back to life and recover. In addition, there is also a hand-held bun doll that is affixed indoors or on the lintel to ward off evil spirits and protect peace. Therefore, there is a saying in northern Shaanxi folk proverbs: "If you are not afraid of the sky and the earth, you are afraid of a fork of the bun doll." .
From the use of bun dolls in folk life, we can see that "chubby dolls" have the witchcraft function of attracting souls to return to the sun, exorcising ghosts and avoiding evil spirits, which also embodies the "animistic view of all things" of primitive humans. Remains in folk art. (Extended reading: The functional meaning of bun dolls in folk paper-cutting)
