The big steamed buns made by grandma have dates and secrets hidden in their belly, just like the thin piece of red paper. Just when you think you have seen through it, a slight twist of the scissors will reveal a world inside.
In fact, paper-cutting is much older than paper.
In an era without paper, what to cut?
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people used leather to carve patterns and used silver foil to perform hollowing techniques. The people at that stage probably could not have imagined that after thousands of years, the skills they used at that time would be called a prototype called "paper-cutting".
The Chu tombs excavated in Hubei and the Warring States ruins excavated in Henan have fine and dense holes, which bear the earliest thoughts of our ancestors.
So, you see, with such ability, chasing paper, the paper has not yet been born, but it is already waiting.
Turpan, Xinjiang, those five group flowers
In 1959, archaeologists discovered paper-cuts from the Northern Dynasties in the Astana Tomb.
It has been drying in the desert for more than five hundred years, and the paper has not rotted.
Flowers for monkeys and flowers for horses. Just lying there quietly, waiting to be seen.
It turns out that the most feared thing is not time, but moisture. Just like some memories, they must be kept in a dry place to keep them fresh.
Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty once wrote: "Warm soup washes my feet, and paper cuttings call to my soul." People in that period would use paper-cutting to summon their souls. How direct, how bold. Do you believe that paper can connect to the gods?
Grandma's hand, the god of the village
I always feel that the craft of paper-cutting was invented specifically for women.
After the Southern Song Dynasty, there were professional craftsmen, but it was the women in rural areas who really supported it.
Nvhong is a compulsory course, and paper-cutting is a basic skill.
They learned patterns from their sisters, first cutting on the spot, then cutting again, then cutting while drawing, and finally they were able to cut out a new pattern with their eyes closed.
They do not feel that they are people engaged in art. They just live up to their inner expectations. One by one, it was slowly released.
Northern paper-cuts, as rough as windy sand, are pasted on the windows to block evil spirits.
The window grilles in Yu County are mainly incised and decorated with rich colors, which makes them look festive.
The southern paper cutting is so thin that you can hear your breathing.
Fine-grained paper was carved in Yueqing, and it can actually squeeze out 52 lines on a one-inch square paper. It's not cutting, it's obviously carving at the risk of one's life.
Cut out a story, do you believe it?
Someone asked, how awesome can paper-cutting be?
In a remote area of Yiwulu Mountain, the Manchu people were doing paper-cutting. Among the objects they cut were the nuns, the ancestor gods, and the tree that reaches the sky.
That's not decoration, that's belief.
What’s even more amazing is Xunyi’s colorful paper-cutting, which you can sing while cutting.
The one I am cutting is "Jiangwa Lama Mei Xiangqi". This person is humming a song. There is a song in the painting, and there is a story in the song.
A piece of paper is a theater.
Under the scissors, there are no rules
Did you notice that perspective is not important in paper-cutting?
It drags the three-dimensional world onto a flat surface.
People in the past will not hinder those who follow. The tables placed inside the house and the trees outside the house can be stacked together.
What the creator thinks is: I know in my heart that it is there, and I have to let it come out.
Whether it's near or far, or what's the relationship between occlusion, you have to listen to your heart when it comes to paper-cutting.
In order to let you see that there are seeds in the belly of the fish, it dares to cut open the belly of the fish and show it to you. In order to let you know clearly that the tiger has bones, it dares to draw the bones on the outside of its skin.
This is called "seeking perfection". What people want is wholeness.
Old craftsmanship, find new windows
I heard that some people in Yuezhou are burning paper-cuts on porcelain.
Some young inheritors felt that the red color was too eye-catching, so they went to borrow the color from Dunhuang and the elegance of Baoxianghua.
Paper-cutting can no longer just be stuck on the window, it stands up and becomes a three-dimensional installation.
Hang it on the refrigerator, stick it on your car, and live it on your phone.
In fact, if you think about it, windows have changed a long time ago, how could paper not change with them?
Those things that are almost forgotten
Sometimes I feel so nervous.
When the Koreans declared the Dragon Boat Festival a World Heritage Site, we were all anxious [user input].
But looking back, how long has it been since we put up the window grilles in our own home?
Shadow puppet play, isn't it the kind of shadow thing formed by paper cutting? There is such a description in "Capital Records" that people in the Song Dynasty initially used plain paper for carving arrowheads, and then replaced them with leather ones. But nowadays, how many children have seen shadow puppets?
It doesn’t mean that you have to hold on to old things.
It just feels like there are scissors like that. When they are constantly rising and falling, the scraps of paper that are broken off contain traces of where we came from.
Finally, tell me the secret
Grandma steamed the steamed buns with dates in her belly.
Those paper-cuts, whether they are for monkeys, horses, grandmas, or Baoxianghua, all contain certain connotations, and they also have corresponding contents in their stomachs.
They pretend to be the farmers’ thoughts, fear, hope, and evidence of survival.
We Chinese are probably the best at hollowing out.
Between reality and reality, light shines through and shadows fall.
The days were cut out one by one.
I'm afraid that's it, I really can't remember it. No matter what, as soon as the red paper is laid out and the scissors are waved, a sense of security will arise in my heart.
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