On May 20th, 2006, the paper-cut art heritage was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. On June 8, 2007, Shanghai Li Paper-cut Master Studio won the first Cultural Heritage Day Award from the Ministry of Culture.
China folk paper-cut handicraft art has its own formation and development process. China's paper was invented in the Western Han Dynasty (6th century BC), before which the art of paper-cutting could not have appeared. But at that time, people used thin materials to make handicrafts by hollowing out carving technology, but it was popular long before paper appeared, that is, cutting gold foil, leather, silk and even leaves by carving, carving, picking, carving and cutting technology. The book Jiantong Di Feng records that in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, after a king ascended the throne, he cut a plane tree leaf into a "reed" and gave it to his younger brother, who was named Hou in the Tang Dynasty. During the Warring States Period, leather sculpture (one of the cultural relics unearthed from Chu Tomb No.1 in Jiangling, Hubei Province) and silver foil sculpture (one of the cultural relics unearthed from the Warring States Site in Guwei Village, Huixian County, Henan Province) were demolished together with paper-cutting, which laid a certain foundation for the formation of folk paper-cutting. China's earliest paper-cut works were discovered in 1967, when China archaeologists discovered two paper-cuts of flowers from the Northern Dynasties in Astana, near the Gaochang site in Turpan Basin, Xinjiang. They use hemp paper, both of which are folded sacrificial paper-cuts. Their discovery provides physical evidence for the formation of Chinese paper-cutting.
The history of paper-cutting handicraft art, that is, paper-cutting in the true sense, should begin with the appearance of paper. The invention of paper in Han Dynasty promoted the appearance, development and popularization of paper-cutting. Paper is a moldy material. In the southeast of China, with humid climate and rainy days in May and June every year, paper products will rot with time, and folk paper-cutting is a popular thing. People won't keep it as a treasure. If they break it, they can cut it again. In the northwest of China, the weather is dry and the climate is dry, and the paper is not easy to be moldy, which may also be one of the important reasons for the discovery of paper-cutting in the Northern Dynasties in Turpan, Xinjiang.
Paper-cutting in Tang Dynasty-Paper-cutting in Tang Dynasty has been in a period of great development. There is a saying in Du Fu's poem, "Warm water fills my feet, paper-cutting evokes the soul", and the custom of paper-cutting evokes the soul has spread among the people at that time. The paper-cut in the Tang Dynasty, which is now in the British Museum, shows that the paper-cut at that time had a high level of manual art and a complete picture composition, expressing an ideal realm between heaven and earth. Popular in the Tang Dynasty, the patterns of carved flowers and trees have the characteristics of paper-cutting. For example, the pattern of "Duiyang" in Masakura Hospital in Japan is a typical artistic expression of hand cutting. In the Tang dynasty, there was also a kind of block printing made of paper-cutting. People carve it into wax paper with thick paper, and then print dyes on the cloth to form beautiful patterns.
In Song Dynasty, the paper industry was mature and there were many kinds of paper products, which provided conditions for the popularization of paper-cutting. For example, it can be used as "fireworks" for folk gifts, "window grilles" pasted on windows, or as decorations for lanterns and teacups. The application scope of folk paper-cutting in Song Dynasty gradually expanded. Jiangxi Jizhou Kiln takes paper-cutting as the pattern of ceramics, and makes the ceramics more exquisite by glazing and firing. Folk also use paper-cutting to carve shadow figures from the skins of animals such as donkeys, cows, horses and sheep. The engraving made by the blue calico process is carved into patterns with oil cardboard, and the scratched patterns are made by paper-cutting techniques, which can be divided into yin-yang engraving. Long lines should be cut off to distinguish facts from truth.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the paper-cut handicraft art matured and reached its peak. Folk paper-cut handicraft art has a wider range of applications, such as flower decoration on folk lanterns, decorative patterns on fans and embroidery patterns, which are all reprocessed by using paper-cut as decoration. More importantly, Chinese people often use paper-cutting as decoration to beautify the home environment. For example, door battlements, window grilles, cabinet flowers, wedding flowers and ceiling flowers are all used to decorate doors, windows and rooms. In addition to the paper-binding pattern craftsmen who appeared after the Southern Song Dynasty, the most basic team of folk paper-cutting handicrafts in China is rural women. Female red is an important symbol of the perfection of traditional women in China. As a compulsory skill of needlework, paper-cutting has become a handicraft that girls have to learn since childhood. They want to learn paper-cut patterns from their predecessors or sisters, and cut out new patterns through cutting, re-cutting, painting and cutting, depicting the natural scenery they are familiar with and love, the scenery of fish, insects, birds and animals, flowers and trees, pavilions and bridges, and finally reach their own will.
China folk paper-cut handicraft is as old and evergreen as ivy, and its unique popularity, practicality and aesthetics have become the symbolic significance to meet people's psychological needs.
Paper-cut art has a long history and is widely recorded in ancient poetry classics:
1. Don? Among the poems left by Cui Daorong, there is such a sentence: "If you want to cut Yichun characters, people who are cold in spring will cut them." The "Yichun Post Station" mentioned here is also called paper-cutting.
2. Don? Li Shangyin wrote in "Full Moon Poetry": "Carving gold wins the popularity of Jing, and cutting the ribbon promotes the prosperity of the people." Ribbon-cutting is also paper-cutting.
3. Don? Duan's Youyang Miscellaneous Notes said: "On the day of beginning of spring, the home of literati, paper-cutting is a small flat, or hung on a beautiful woman's head, or decorated under a flower, and cut into a butterfly in spring, which wins the show with spring."