1, Jingchu characteristics
Traditional Chu culture worships the phoenix and the red. 15 pieces of "Tiger, Bird and Drum Hanging" unearthed from Qinjiazui Chu Cemetery in Chu capital, with the design of Shuang Hu Shuangfeng and Drum. There are also many phoenix patterns on silk books unearthed from Chu tombs. There are many phoenix-based patterns in Mianyang carved paper-cuts, such as phoenix sunrise, double phoenix sunrise, phoenix peony, double phoenix happiness, dragon and phoenix auspiciousness, phoenix spreading its wings, double phoenix, a hundred birds flying towards the phoenix, dragon and phoenix dance, Cai Feng Qi Fei, phoenix dance (a metaphor for a happy marriage and harmony between husband and wife), phoenix coming to make love with friends (a metaphor for young men and women who are affectionate to form a couple), and couples singing in pairs. In paper-cutting, Phoenix's graceful posture, or standing upright, or striding forward, or flying high, shows a kind of self-confidence, upward, bodybuilding and vigorous vitality, and its expression and modeling have maintained the style of Chu culture. Mianyang paper-cut is a kind of clothing paper-cut embroidered with red thread in Qilong. Especially in the wedding custom paper-cutting, they all use red and purple paper, which can increase the festive atmosphere and is deeply loved by the people. Visible Chu culture or heritage.
2. Religious characteristics
"Tradition is culture and witch official culture, and witchcraft prevails among the people." "At that time, people's aesthetic consciousness was full of magic. Therefore, there are a lot of myths and ghosts in the decorative patterns of various arts in Chu culture (The Origin of Hubei Folk Art, page 2, published by Hubei Fine Arts Publishing House in August, 1987). According to Mianyang County Records, Buddhism was popular in Mianyang in the Tang Dynasty. At the end of Qing dynasty, there were 197 temples in the county. 1949 and seats for 149. Therefore, people are often bound by superstitious ideas. When we got married, there were paper-cuts posted in the room according to Kirin's gift. If there are no children for three years, women will go to the temple to ask Guanyin Bodhisattva for a child, burn incense, turn paper into paper and kowtow. When you get home, cut a paper figure yourself (or secretly buy a paper-cutting artist), tie it to your belt, and burn it when you are pregnant. Some people want to be born, so the cut paper men will show their male genitals, thinking that this is enough. Dongyue Temple in Mianyang County, during the Republic of China, there were ten halls of the underworld. There are dozens of horrible clay sculptures in the Ten Halls, such as going to hell, entering the oil pan, crossing the Naihe Bridge and sitting in the blood lake pool. Today's admirers are creepy. Therefore, after the death of a folk woman, the family members wear embroidered shoes of "one road, one crane" for the deceased, which is called "one tie, one genus, and nothing (bridge) when they die." According to the wizard, there is a slender Naihe Bridge on the way for the dead to go to the underworld. Later generations emphasized filial piety and prevented the deceased from crossing this dangerous bridge. They specially made a pair of embroidered shoes of "one toad and one crane" for her to wear. If you walk in the sky, you can build a crane; You can ride a toad on the water. Or embroider two dogs on the shoes and put a basin in the middle, which is called "two dogs drink blood". Legend has it that women shed a lot of dirty blood when giving birth to children. After their death, Yan ordered them to drink clean dirty blood. Future generations will not let their ancestors suffer. So I used two dog to drink blood to help each other.
3. Features of water towns
Mianyang is located in the hinterland of Jianghan Plain. During the Republic of China, Mianyang had a total area of 4,668 square kilometers, with rivers extending in all directions and lakes dotted around. Famous lakes include Honghu Lake, Datong Lake and Paihu Lake. The area of lakes in this county accounts for one third of the total area. In the long-term production practice, Mianyang people are very familiar with lotus, lotus leaf, lotus root, fish and shrimp, crane and kingfisher. Therefore, many of their paper-cuts have themes such as aquatic animals, plants and fishing, casting nets, picking lotus leaves, transplanting rice seedlings, cutting grain and celebrating harvest. The essence of mussel shell and lotus boat paper-cutting are also popular traditional contents.
4, process characteristics
Mianyang paper-cutting and northern paper-cutting have the opposite characteristics of accuracy and boldness, which are nuanced. First of all, its composition is full, and the three-dimensional figure on the plane is represented by "scattered perspective", and the points, lines and surfaces are organically combined. Combination of rigidity and softness, black and white contrast, and virtual reality. There is movement in silence, and there is stillness in movement. Therefore, the characters have both form and spirit, focusing on vivid and realistic modeling, smooth and round lines, and the combination of female carving and male carving, leaving the truth hollow. Broken work (commonly known as knife insertion) is particularly fine. Artists use carving knives to insert radial figures into the appropriate parts of paper-cut works, or use knives to beautify the beards, hairs, costumes, bird feathers and animal hair patterns of figures. The decorative style is strong and the local flavor is strong, which has won the praise of the people and experts.
Professor Zhang Lang of Hubei Institute of Art once enthusiastically commented on the Eight Immortals of Mianyang Paper-cut in 1959 Hubei Culture News: "The Eight Immortals of Mianyang are well-known carved figures, and their composition, movements and expressions are very rigorous, which has played the greatest role in expressing the characters, and the whole picture is roughly equal in weight. The arrangement of hollowing out and retaining solid is just right and echoes. The blade and breaker are used properly. At first glance, it is the artistic style of Jiangnan sculpture, which is slender and soft, decorative and artistic. These characteristics and creative laws are worth learning by our artists. "
5. Jianghu characteristics
The inheritance of Mianyang paper-cut is mostly mentoring, father and son, descendants, brothers, mother and daughter, and sisters. For example, Wang Yahuan, a paper-cutting artist in Yaowan Village, Pengchang in the late Qing Dynasty, taught more than 30 disciples and grandchildren in Pengchang area according to incomplete statistics.
On the eve of liberation, more than 65,438,000 flower sellers spontaneously organized paper-cutting trade associations in Mianyang. Every August 15, we will worship the tablet of Leizu, the mother of Xiling, the originator of paper-cutting, exchange skills and Hu Axiang's new works, and eat sacrificial wine. According to legend, Leizu, the princess of Xuanyuan Huangdi, was once a hardworking, intelligent and handsome girl in the ancient Xiling tribe. She invented planting mulberry and raising silkworms, and was honored as the "silkworm god" by later generations. Later, paper-cut embroidery was invented. One day, Lei Zu went hiking and sat in the shade to enjoy the cool. The midday sun shone through the Woods, reflecting the flowers and leaves on the toes of her shoes.
She thought it was beautiful, so she cut out the pattern according to this projection and embroidered it on the toe. She wears embroidered shoes. Gong E and Cai Nv both learned silhouette embroidery, and then it gradually spread to the people and became popular in Jingchu. Mianyang paper-cutting artists put the monument of the Virgin of Xiling on the altar of the first family. Mid-Autumn Festival sacrifice has become an annual activity of paper-cut artists in Mianyang Jianghu.
Judging from the language and behavior of rivers and lakes, it also has its characteristics of standardization and inheritance. The schoolbag with flowers in it has thirteen pages. This represents the thirteen provinces of the Qing Dynasty; The box selling patterns has five drawers, representing all corners of the country. At the same time, among artists, there is also Jianghu jargon: brothers and sisters meet and are very affectionate. If you meet an artist who has never studied under his teacher, he is despised in the Jianghu. When an artist selling flowers walks through the streets, he carries a pattern box on his left shoulder and a loan drum in his right hand. There is a small gong on the drum. When you walk, shake the rattle, and the drum and gong ring together. After lining, the gongs and drums in Chuanxiang will be played: "Knock, knock". Then he said, "winter is strong, winter is strong, and the new girl is out of the embroidery room." Come and buy patterns, buy patterns. Those who don't buy patterns are bitches, bitches! " On the way home, I shook the vendor's drum and sang, "Knock, knock, busker, go home, go home."
In the past, Mianyang was flooded for years, and artists lived by carving patterns. Changchongkou Town also has Ugly Stone Bay and Pengchang Yaowan. Less land, more labor. In order to subsidize their lives, many farmers are busy farming and selling in their spare time. On the eve of liberation, there were more than 80 paper-cutting artists in Group 5 of Yaowan Village in Pengchang. There are a certain number of paper-cutting artists in Shichouwan Village and Zengtai Village in Changchongkou. The patterns they carved are first traditional samples from the master, then exchanged by their peers, and most importantly, they created them themselves. They produce and sell their own products, turn their works into products and products into commodities. Gradually tend to be professional and specialized. Shortly after liberation, Biyang County Carving Craft Club was established, and later merged into Xiantao Craft Club, which is a carving branch that undertakes the task of paper-cutting for foreign trade export in our province.
In the north, many women cut paper, while in Mianyang, few women carve paper-cuts. Paper-cutting artists are mostly distributed in rural areas, and paper-cutting experts in towns are extremely rare.
6. Characteristics of the Times In the past, embroidery was very popular in Mianyang, embroidering traditional drama costumes and women's and children's costumes. Paper-cutting has a wide range of uses and also played a role in resisting feudal rule. According to the place names of Honghu Lake, at the end of Yuan Dynasty, Pan Jinhua, the wife of Chen Youliang, a famous peasant uprising leader, embroidered a dike in mian yang (now honghu city) and organized villagers to embroider the banner of righteousness and the costumes of the rebel army. During the Great Revolution, Guo Huanzhen, the wife of Lou Minxiu, the founder of Mianyang * * * production party organization, embroidered a plow flag according to the paper-cut pattern; When the Fifth Army of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army in Mianyang, Hubei Province, the production party of China, was founded in Tugebu Port, Mianxi on New Year's Day 1928, local women embroidered a red flag with a sickle and axe. After the founding of New China, embroidery became popular for 10 years. In line with the Party's central movement at that time, artists carved flowers with land reform, resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, developing production, getting rich through hard work, independent marriage, thrifty housekeeping, respecting women and loving their daughters-in-law, letting a hundred flowers blossom, bringing forth the new, making the past serve the present, and details as medium new contents. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, spring swept the earth, everything revived, and the art of paper-cutting was reborn. Embroidery and paper-cutting needed by people's life should be born at the right time. Printed paper-cut patterns appeared on printed cloth, undershirts and vests, and paper-cut patterns were also woven on sweaters.
Well-fed and courteous. The child is over one year old, 10 years old, and the old man has a birthday. In the old society, more embroidery was sent. Now Mianyang is making a birthday plaque. Made of multicolor blow-molded paper. Lightweight and beautiful, very popular. There are pictures, names, date of birth, auspicious words, zodiac pictures of strangers on the plaque, as well as paper-cut decorations such as lace and horn flowers. According to statistics, there are more than 100 stalls making birthday plaques in Xiantao City alone, which meet the needs of urban and rural people in the whole city and surrounding counties and cities. In the wedding activities, the word "Hongxi" is also indispensable on the wedding car, refrigerator, TV, washing machine and other supporting products; On the front of the wedding banquet hall, there are many huge double happiness paper-cut patterns. In funeral activities, houses used to be tied to spirits, but now they are two-story buildings with modern furniture. There are also papers such as cars, boats and boxes. Every piece of paper has paper-cut decorative patterns such as group flowers, corner flowers, double-sided continuous lace and personalized patterns. In the past, paper was mostly yellow, blue, black and white. Nowadays, the temples in the funeral paper are colorful and magnificent, which is not unrelated to the reflection of the improvement of people's living standards in the minds of artists.