Linfen Custom Festival Food Taiping Wang’s Dough Sculpture is located in Nanjiagang Village, Fencheng Town, Xiangfen County. It has a history of hundreds of years. A famous saying has been popular here for a long time: "Gold Xiangling, Silver "Taiping" is because Taiping Town (today's Fencheng) is rich in wheat. During grand festivals and weddings and funerals, people in this land use wheat flour to make figures, flowers, birds, and animals to congratulate and pray for blessings. This gradually formed Dough sculpture appears in people's daily life as a plastic art. In the past, it was just a decorated food. Therefore, historically speaking, there are no records of works and no treasures handed down from generation to generation. It is really a pity.
Taiping Wang’s dough sculptures are called noodle flowers among the people. They are used as tokens or symbols for gifts, sacrifices, celebrations, and decorations in folk festivals such as rituals and annual festivals. They are a kind of customs and habits that have accumulated over time. a very representative local culture.
Today, face sculpture is called art, and it is favored by the world for its beautiful appearance. This is precisely because of the accumulation of generations of culture injected into it and the creator’s passion and utilitarianism. Talent and thought make it a simple culture that is out of the vulgar but transcends the vulgar. It is precisely with the help of the "attention" rarely seen in generations and the vast number of people that it has the conditions to survive and develop freely according to its own laws. With its rural characteristics that are less polluted, it is able to survive today. In the convection of refined and popular culture, it stands proudly in the forest of folk art with its unique and complete image
Chinese festival customs originated from the pre-Qin Dynasty and took shape in the Han Dynasty. They are the accumulation of human beings' understanding of nature and their conquest of nature. The Spring Festival is a key festival for people's understanding of the phenological calendar, so the sacrificial activities for the Spring Festival are particularly grand. Exquisite dough sculptures emerged in response to people's psychological needs and became an important form of expression of the festival.
The main function of the Taiping Wang dough sculpture during the Spring Festival is to offer sacrifices and pray to heaven, earth and gods. It is also the embodiment of the ideal life of pursuing abundant food and clothing and all the best. In terms of modeling consciousness, most of the Spring Festival dough sculptures are abstract, faith-based and ideal. Those dedicated to heaven and earth are called Zaoshan, and those dedicated to Kitchen God are called Fanshan and Huagao. They are all larger in shape and are called mountains of rice noodles. Legend has it that they were made to commemorate Dayu's flood control. It is customary to place a sheep in front of the ancestor's spirit as a sacrifice to show piety. The elders give "money dragons" to their children and grandchildren with the intention of attracting money dragons into the house and attracting wealth... There are also various colorful steamed buns with flowers, which are exquisite gifts for entertaining guests and visiting relatives and friends.
Fen City is very particular about the date mountain used by the gods. This is because it came as a sacrifice. People believe that it has some mysterious power beyond oneself and is a bridge of communication between humans and gods. When making, roll the dough into a large triangle, spread a layer of red dates on it, and then use the dough to make Panyun, Panlong, Pantu, and Ruyi patterns, sometimes decorated with Lianli, Yuanbao, Xiashan tiger, Shangshan deer, and melons and fruits. Such as, with whole grains dotted on the nose, steamed out of the pot, soft and honest, the white noodles form an overall contrast in color with the dark red dates, colorful grains and beans. When welcoming the gods on the first day of the new year, it is said that mountains of rice and noodles are offered before the gods, expressing a good wish for abundant food and clothing. In some places, cypress wood is lit on a strong fire to bake steamed buns, which are called steamed buns to ward off evil spirits and ensure that there will be no disasters, no disease, and good fortune for a year. Among the flowers in the south of Shanxi, there are also shapes such as "Five sons ascended to the imperial examination", "Qiao male and Qiao mother", and "Everything goes well".
Whether it is date mountain, rice mountain or flower cake, it can be said that during this grand festival, the people in the countryside created a kind of spiritual worship object and a way to express their wishes. As for the Qianlong, it is a three-legged ideal animal similar to a toad, expressing the people's longing for wealth. In some places, when offering sacrifices to the stove on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, stoves, horses, chickens, etc. are also offered as offerings. These offerings are both offerings and objects of worship. They are still food in essence, and they must be divided and eaten. It is these complex functions that make it the most popular and easily inherited art form.
Taiping Wang’s noodles are simple, vigorous, simple and elegant. They are a comprehensive condensation of nature worship, religious thought, psychological consciousness and modeling language. The shapes are generally neat and general in appearance, and rich in content. They include geometric straight lines, suitable patterns full of Qin and Han Dynasty styles, and more concrete figures, animals, and plants with unique folk styling styles. The integration of various shapes and styles constitutes a unique folk festival content and a special folk art form
The combination of Qingming and Hanshi dates back to the Tang Dynasty. The customs and festivals marked by this time have added complex contents of worshiping gods, ancestors, and worshiping saints. Therefore, the custom of sweeping tombs is particularly popular. If worshiping gods is a characteristic of Spring Festival customs, then Qingming Festival mainly involves worshiping ancestors and people. Confucius said, "In life, things should be done with propriety; in death, burials should be done with propriety, and sacrifices should be done with propriety." Therefore, it is very important to "do things in death as well as in life." The ancestral temple and ancestral tomb are the soul of caste and the root of the family. Noodles are used as tribute in Shanxi, southern Shanxi and northern Shanxi. The southern part of Shanxi is called snake Panpan, and some are divided into single-headed snakes and double-headed snakes. Before worshiping the ancestors, they circle the grave once, and the younger generation eats the snake head, which means that the poisonous head is destroyed. , avoid disaster. This kind of snake coil has a simple shape and few carvings, which seems to be a legacy of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
The essential content of the Cold Food Festival has been transformed from the original ancient fire ban custom to commemorating the virtuous minister Jie Zitui of the Jin Dynasty. Various kinds of cold swallow noodles widely made by the people to signal the coming of spring have also been renamed "Zitui Yan".
In fact, according to the natural geographical location and climate characteristics of Shanxi, spring is the season when all things are reborn, so the village women sense the changes in nature and use soft dough and dexterous hands to create fresh animals. The pieces are full of vitality, showing a wonderful and magical world of folk art. In particular, the Han Yan flying in the sky and the earth made in Dai County, Shanxi Province, was born and raised in water, and all natural things that are seen in the eyes and thought in the heart are shaped. These dough sculptures are exquisite and unique, and they are not too small. The sculpted animals such as tigers, lions, horses, cows, cats, dragons, monkeys, sheep, etc. focus on exaggerating the proportions of the head, enhancing the dynamics of the tail, and depicting the flexibility of the limbs, making people feel similar in spirit and beautiful in form. Birds such as chickens, ducks, peacocks, phoenixes, magpies and various small birds exaggerate the movement of their tail feathers, exaggerate their mouths and eyes, giving them an anthropomorphic effect and creating an emotional connection with the viewer. *Ming. The characters are larger than animals and plants, and there are various dramatic figures, such as crawling dolls, chicken-hugging dolls, lotus dolls, etc. The shapes are unique, elegant and vivid. Plants include various fruits, vegetables, flowers and auspicious patterns. After steaming, use colored dots to dye your face. The colors are rich and contrasting, and the ratio of contrasting colors is very reasonably applied to produce a strong artistic effect. During the Qingming Festival, they give gifts to each other and make them into flower stands and hang them on indoor walls. They feel the spring breeze blowing on their faces and are full of vitality. The root cause may be that these colorful foods were prepared as dry food during the Cold Food Festival when fire was banned. After the fire ban, the custom became obsolete, and the dough-shaped food was preserved as an art along with the custom.
Although Qingming Festival has some deep and mysterious atmosphere due to the combination of cold food customs, it is still a festival of hope, a blessing for the return of spring and a wish for the prosperity of all things. The art of facial sculpture has naturally become the main means and spiritual expression of this kind of blessing. Dough sculpture makes customs a substantial culture, and customs provide soil and air for the occurrence and development of dough sculptures, ultimately making folk art and folk customs a cultural whole.
The formation of each folk festival has its own specific meaning, and this meaning has its own cultural direction and expression.
On the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, every family makes noodle sheep, goes to the graves of ancestors, and gives gifts to relatives and friends. This is a major feature of the folk customs in Fencheng, southern Shanxi. According to traditional customs, July 15th is called the "Ghost Festival", which originates from the Buddhist legend of "Mu Lian saving his mother": the mother of Mu Lian, a disciple of Buddha Sakyamuni, did not do good deeds during her lifetime, and her soul fell into the state of hungry ghosts after her death. During the Tao, the food in his mouth turned into a blazing fire. He endured the suffering, and Maudgalyana prayed to the Buddha. The Buddha told him to hold an Obon ceremony on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, place five flavors and hundreds of fruits, and rely on the kindness of the Buddhas and monks to save the souls of the dead. Save his mother. This theory was integrated with the theory of "local officials pardoning sins" in Chinese Taoism, which deeply affected people's lives. As a result, the custom of making steamed noodles and sheep to pay tribute to ancestors and visit their ancestors' graves was formed every July 15th. In fact, the original intention of worshiping ancestors on July 15th is just as "Tokyo Menghualu" said, "...it means to tell the ancestors about the success of autumn", and it is a wish for a good harvest. The Ghost Festival, which is full of religious connotations, has developed to the point where there are no traces of ghosts at all. It has become a festival of blessings and emotional integration between people. A few days before the festival, the clever women in the countryside gathered together in groups of three to make fine white flour. The parents chatted and laughed, rolling, cutting, pressing, pinning and picking, serving dates and ordering beans. , living creatures jumped out from under his hands: jumping rabbits, silly and majestic tigers, soft and kind sheep, lively fish, lions, piglets, chickens, puppies, each object was given a hand. In wisdom, focus on love. After it is ready, put it into the pot and steam it out quickly. Each one will be white and plump, fresh and flexible, and delicate and delicate. Then it will be decorated with paint and neatly dressed. It will become the best gift for relatives and friends. It is a custom in northern Shanxi to send boys as sheep, which are auspicious phallic objects. Giving a girl a fish is a sign of yin, which is in compliance with the order of yin and yang. The shape of the sheep in northern Shanxi is thick and full, with strong inner strength. In addition, the contrast between the dots and lines on the body makes it very rich in the style of the Han and Wei Dynasties, which is related to the local history, culture and geographical environment. The animal flower steamed buns from southern Shanxi have exquisite shapes, ferocious expressions and strong colors. The so-called "faced sheep" is essentially a pronoun, and there are actually all kinds of birds and animals, as well as the twelve zodiac animals in combination, two sons playing with peach, five sons competing for anus, etc.
Taiping Wang’s dough sculptures are also well-known among the people for their plump, tall, strong and powerful shapes. The shape can be as large as three to five kilograms of white flour, and as small as three to five inches, depending on the gift recipient. The style accurately captures the feature of randomness. On the simplified overall shape, combs, awls and other utensils are used to press out points and lines, or surfaces are used to make exquisite patterns, forming a strong contrast in strength, which is very similar to the use of carved lines on the stone carvings of Huo Qubing of the Han Dynasty. In terms of production techniques, a good sense of proportion is grasped, and the shape is formed but not enough. The natural hair and steam of the noodles are left to complete the work, so as to give full play to the characteristics of the noodles and reflect the texture of the noodles. It is natural, simple and rich, and is fascinating. Can't put it down. In particular, there is a kind of shape called "indistinct". Several chubby dolls are playing together with their arms crossed, so that you can't tell whose arms are whose legs. You can only see a set of beautiful shapes, which are exquisite. The idea is amazing.
Dough sculpture plays an important role in seasonal customs. In various rituals that show the meaning of life, dough sculpture has an irreplaceable position.
The full moon is the first grand ceremony when a person comes into the world, and the dough sculptures are also very particular at that time. In the Huo County area, grandma makes a food called "囫囵" that is more than a foot long, with exquisite shapes of the twelve zodiac signs. Whatever the child's zodiac sign is, she puts a red dot on that sign, which is called "dotting the head."
The exquisite dragon, phoenix or tiger heads placed in the middle of "囫囵" are called dragons and phoenixes to bring good fortune or tigers to ward off evil spirits. Give it to children and share it with relatives and friends who come to visit and celebrate, to avoid disaster. People in northern Shanxi mostly make flower buns called "peach", which are shaped like breasts with red nipples. The buns are decorated with various flowers and plants and auspicious patterns. In ancient customs, peach was originally used to ward off evil spirits. It means "escape" jokingly, which means avoiding disasters. Made into a breast shape, it represents maturity and is a metaphor for maternal characteristics in rural folklore. When the child is one year old, he should also make similar large flower buns or twelve zodiac signs. The shape may be clumsy or clever, elegant or vulgar, all depending on the place.
The custom of wedding has always been a very grand ceremony of life. As the saying goes, "Getting married is better than getting married." It is a custom in northern Shanxi that the bride and groom each eat a pair of "happy fish and lucky rabbits" on the morning of the wedding day. A pair of noodle rabbits connected with red threads are placed on the top of the bridal chamber door to symbolize the jade rabbit. Golden edge. In fact, the original meaning of rabbit is tiger, which is the protector god of folk houses to ward off evil spirits. Wedding dough sculptures must mention the "palace food" from Xinzhou, Dingxiang, Yuanping, and Dai counties. It usually takes three to five kilograms of white flour to make a pair. Most of the shapes are a jade rabbit carrying peaches, a goldfish carrying a pomegranate, and the twelve zodiac signs are exquisitely carved on them. The shape, with fine embellishments, is vivid, interesting, colorful, bright and bright. The combination and contrast of line and surface, point and block, plastic and painting, clumsiness and skill form a strong and touching artistic effect, enhancing the festive atmosphere. , enriching the content of folk wedding customs and adding a beautiful branch to folk art.
When the elderly reach their sixtieth year, younger generations usually celebrate their birthdays. The congratulators steam and steam beautiful birthday peaches to wish the elderly healthy and long life and express their filial piety to the elderly.
Religious teachings tell people that after everyone hastily completed the path of life that they can perceive, the human soul will receive eternal life and sublimation in another world. Therefore, people arrange the funeral procedures to be extremely grand and complicated. This is a kind of praise and affirmation of the meaning of life. The main pasta offerings in this event have different forms depending on the degree of closeness. They are divided into "big offerings" and "small offerings." The large offerings made by direct descendants are also called steamed buns, with bright circles on them. The simple petals, with jujube flowers inserted in them, originate from the ancient custom of offering sacrifices to three animals, while other relatives and friends worshiped small offerings similar to coiled snakes. In the Hongdao area of ??Dingxiang, several or even hundreds of dough-sculpted figures, including drama figures, gods, local officials, etc., need to be sculpted, and then decorated with colored paper. The difference is that the colors used to describe the facial features are very strange, and the eyes are not eye-catching. In terms of proportion, it is obviously different from the aesthetic structure of human objects, which makes people feel a kind of cold desolation in the richness.
Taiping Wang’s dough sculptures generally appear as food in life rituals, but they are given a cultural meaning and have a complex value, thus becoming a reference for the study of folk culture. a material that cannot be ignored.
Folklore makes life full of mystery and fun. If large-scale activities such as annual rituals can be compared to the climax of people's life, general social etiquette activities will naturally make every moment of life rich and colorful, and the participation of dough sculptures is indispensable.
New houses are put up, beams are installed, gossips are drawn, congratulatory couplets are posted, lanterns are lit and firecrackers are lit. Relatives, friends, neighbors and neighbors prepare flower buns to celebrate, which is called "Fu Liang".
The new house is completed and moved in. When new wheat comes on the market, a bucket of white flour must be ground to make a snow-white tribute, and all kinds of exquisite flour flowers must be fried to reward the five soils. We respectfully invite the soil gods to settle down and bless the golden beams and jade pillars for thousands of years.
On July 7th, the Qiqiao Festival, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met on the Magpie Bridge and expressed their sincere feelings. The skillful hands of the Weaver Girl have long become an idol worshiped by women in the world. So every day on this day, girls and wives have to eat "thimbles" and "sewing baskets" made of noodles, hoping that they will be ingenious.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, mooncakes have become a legendary snack. The shapes and patterns are exquisite and unique, pleasing to the eye, and can be called a unique flower of dough sculpture art.
In the first year of the new daughter-in-law’s marriage, her mother’s family will give her daughter lamb buns. A few are given to poor families, and a few or even dozens are given to wealthy families. All come in complete sets, with many shapes and patterns related to life consciousness and reproductive worship.
Taiping Wang's dough sculptures are called "Yanglaoermo" by the locals. In ancient times, "sheep" meant "auspiciousness" and had the meaning of "auspiciousness".
Before the Spring Festival, farm women use the fine powder ground at home to make kittens, puppies, tiger cubs, jade rabbits, chickens, ducks, fish frogs, grapes, pomegranates, eggplants, "bergamot" and other specialties according to local customs. "," "Man Tang Hong", "Qiao Gong Qiao Mu" dough sculptures symbolize all the best, longevity, prosperity, harmony and friendship, and wish all the best.