According to different production techniques, folk art can be divided into cutting, carving, embroidery (including printing and dyeing), weaving, painting, carving, pasting, performance, decoration and display. There are also scholars who classify according to the shape, but these classifications are relatively simple and cannot fully reflect the close relationship between the extremely rich content types of folk arts and crafts and traditional culture.
If divided by function, according to their different functions, occasions and usage in folk activities, they can be divided into the following categories:
(1) Architectural furnishings and decoration
Architecture, folk houses and their decorative arts mainly include stage, ancestral hall, ancestral hall, temple, folk houses, pavilions, archways, tombstones, horse stumps, city gates, village entrance architectural decorations, various town objects, bridges at the bridge head by the river, dye houses, wells and stone carvings. Urban architecture, shop decoration, signboards, plaques, etc. Can be included. Various building components, such as cornices and arches, tiles, gatehouses, plaques, brick carvings, door drums, door decorations, screen walls, zhaobi, geomantic buildings, shrines, flower walls, flower windows, lintels, riding stones, sitting lions, etc., as well as carvings and decorations in courtyards, have met people's living needs and aesthetic needs through arrangement, combination, decoration and beautification.
(2) Daily appliances
The production of daily necessities and appliances includes farm tools, wagon horses, spinning wheels, craftsmen's appliances, clothing, daily furniture and articles used, such as textiles, textiles (blue calico, tie-dyeing, batik, homespun, brocade, etc. ), clothing and accessories, jewelry accessories; Furniture, lamps, embroidery ornaments, cosmetic boxes, ceramic containers, drinking fountains, tableware, smoking utensils and other daily utensils. They are the product of the combination of beauty and utility, that is, works of art and practical appliances.
(3) Festival etiquette
This kind of folk art includes all kinds of plastic arts needed for festival celebrations, life etiquette and social etiquette. They are not folk works of art used on weekdays, but are used at the right time and on demand, but they are also indispensable decorative items for festivals and ceremonies. For example, auxiliary folk arts and crafts used in life etiquette such as birth ceremony, adult ceremony, birthday ceremony and funeral are carriers of expressing emotions and necessities in various holiday etiquette. Such as weapons used in various performances, props used in festivals and ceremonies, costumes, accessories, dough figurines, suitcases, tableware, gift boxes used in wedding ceremonies, etc. Also belong to this category.
(4) Sacrifice
This kind of folk art mainly refers to decorative art works related to folk beliefs and religions, and some of them are directly evolved from witchcraft props and sacrificial statues, such as various statues, ancestor statues, idols, funerary objects and sacrificial objects. We are familiar with "Big Brother Doll" begging for props, Shi Tian statues, Zhong Kui statues, Kitchen God statues, land and water paintings and so on.
(5) Watch and play.
Ornamental folk art works are often pure works of art that aim at aesthetics and decoration and meet spiritual needs, such as New Year pictures, paper cuts, paper carvings, lanterns (square paintings), fan paintings, kang paintings, screens, iron paintings, pyrography, painted clay sculptures, dough sculptures, decorative ornaments, various decorative paintings and decorative pendants. Ornamental arts, such as traditional folk toys, are small "toys" that can be played in the palm of your hand for the purpose of pleasing people's temperament, and can also be classified into this category. This kind of folk arts and crafts has utilitarian characteristics beyond material use, and is mainly used for "spiritual practicality" to meet spiritual and psychological demands.
(6) Entertainment performances
This kind of art includes props, instruments, musical instruments and decorations used in martial arts and competitions, temple fairs and flower shows, as well as street floats. The characteristic of this art is that its functions can only be embodied through people's participation, such as pasting, dancing, hanging and wearing. Such as shadow play, puppet show, flying kites, nine-ring and other folk toys, diabolo, playing windmills and so on. All belong to this kind of performance.
The functions of these six kinds of folk arts can be transformed into each other. When the shadow play is finished and hung indoors for appreciation, it becomes an ornamental art again. So are lanterns, puppets and some props. In addition, works that were originally sacrificial offerings are also used for viewing and decoration among the people. The function of folk art mainly depends on where and how it is used in folk activities. The exertion of each function has certain limitations, thus defining the functional attribution of folk art.
(7) Dyeing, weaving and embroidery
In fact, folk dyeing and weaving embroidery art includes printing and dyeing, hand weaving, embroidery, brocade, silk reeling and so on.
Printing and dyeing are handicrafts closely related to folk costumes and daily room decoration, mainly including batik, tie-dyeing, blue printed cloth, color printing canvas and so on. , mainly used in clothing, hats, bedding, bed decorations, door curtains, luggage cloth, etc. , is a very widely used fabric.
Embroidery includes four famous embroideries, local folk embroidery and ethnic embroidery. The four famous embroideries are Xiang embroidery, Su embroidery, Shu embroidery and Yue embroidery. Representative national and folk embroidery in various places includes Miao Xiu embroidery, local embroidery, Manchu pillow top embroidery (embroidered at both ends of the pillow), Hubei embroidery and folk hand embroidery in Shaanxi, Shaanxi and Henan.
There are mainly three kinds of brocade, as well as the splendid scenery of ethnic minorities. These three kinds of brocade are Yunjin, Jin Shu and Jin Song. Representative tapestries of ethnic minorities include Zhuang brocade, Dai brocade, Tujia brocade (also known as "Xilankapu"), Miao brocade and Li brocade.
(8) Traditional embroidery
Traditional embroidery in China is divided into folk embroidery and four famous embroideries according to different users, regions and exquisite craftsmanship.
Folk embroidery is a popular embroidery technique in China, which is relative to the "Four Famous Embroideries" with palace culture and literati painting style. Traditional embroidery in China has a long history, which exists with the emergence and development of silk. As early as four or five thousand years ago, embroidery has become an important decorative means in the "Zhangfu System". The embroidery unearthed from Mawangdui tomb in Changsha more than two thousand years ago has been rich in stitches. It can be seen that there were stylized fixing processes with different stitches in the embroidery process at that time. 1982 Embroidered quilts and Zen (single) clothes from the Warring States Period were unearthed from No.1 Chu Tomb in Mashan, Jiangling, Hubei Province. They were embroidered with dragons, phoenixes and tigers, which were vivid and gorgeous.
There is a poem "I have embroidered my waist, and there is light in life" in the Yuefu poem "Peacock flies southeast" in Han Dynasty. During the late Han Dynasty and the Six Dynasties, figures appeared in embroidery themes, which set a precedent for later figure embroidery. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, literati began to participate in the design of embroidery drawings. The poetic and elegant paintings of literati paintings influenced the creation of folk embroidery, and embroidery began to develop in the direction of refinement and literati. In the Song Dynasty, embroidery almost became the most common and important kind of women's embroidery, and the embroidery creation of many well-educated wealthy women made the embroidery process more exquisite and wonderful. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many commercial embroidery workshops appeared in urban and rural areas of China. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, China traditional embroidery first appeared in Shanghai, called Gu Embroidery. It is famous for its exquisite embroidery and ingenious personal style with needles. It is good at embroidering flowers and birds, animals, pictures, hand scrolls and other furnishings, indicating that traditional embroidery has become an independent art from a decorative means attached to clothing. In the Qing Dynasty, several important embroidery schools appeared, such as Beijing embroidery, Kaifeng embroidery, Lu Xiu embroidery, and four famous embroideries praised by later generations.
In the late Qing Dynasty, folk embroidery techniques with local and technical characteristics appeared in various places. However, for a long time, the official culture and elite culture have paid little attention to the folk embroidery skills that have appeared in various places, let alone recorded and commented on them. Folk embroidery is basically in the position of ordinary "craft" which is completely integrated with daily life, but it is the art of this kind of life that makes folk embroidery spontaneously preserved from generation to generation and become the most wonderful, vivid and culturally rich intangible cultural category in traditional art we see today.
(9) Plastic modeling
Sculpture refers to folk works of art, which mainly include clay sculpture, dough sculpture, pottery sculpture, sugar sculpture, rice flour kneading products, paste patting, colored glaze, glass and other plastic arts. Plastic arts often rely on artists to perform arts and shape by hand. Because they are different from sculptures in creative techniques, their artistic effects are also different. Plastic arts are often combined with painting and decorative techniques, and painting is carried out after molding, so as to increase the ornamental, symbolic and auspicious atmosphere of artistic works. For example, typical works in clay sculpture include Hand Trick by Huishan, Jiangsu, Clay Dog by Huaiyang, Henan, noodle soup in Beijing, and works by noodle man Lang. Nami toys, such as Nibobo, Wisdom Fofo Agbo, Fengxiang clay sculpture, Beijing male prostitute, Mid-Autumn moon cake, Tuoguo and Sugar Man, are typical plastic folk arts. Some folk masks and utensils are made of paper pulp, while glass and sugar people use blow molding, which is also a plastic arts.
(10) carving category
Engraving refers to the way of depicting on bamboo, jade, metal and other media. Sculpture refers to the works made in this way, such as lettering, Qi Diao, sculpture, relief and so on. And works of art combining sculpture and modeling. Sculpture and carving are often carried out on hard interface and semi-dry solid interface, while plastic needs to be carried out on soft material, which is the difference between sculpture and plastic. We are familiar with this kind of works, including carved bamboo pen holder, jade jewelry and furnishings, metal jewelry, Wuhu iron painting, brick carving, stone carving and so on. Knives, chisels, drills and some auxiliary tools are often used to create sculptures.
(1 1) painting class
The earliest paintings of mankind are rock paintings created by primitive ancestors about 10 thousand years ago. Folk painting is relative to literati painting, palace painting, religious painting and modern academic painting. The source of folk painting comes from ancient rock paintings, painted pottery decorative paintings and other primitive arts. We usually incorporate ancient stone carvings, religious prints, land and water paintings, video paintings, temple paintings, New Year pictures, screen paintings, architectural paintings, fan paintings, and all forms of folk paintings including modern peasant paintings and cloth paintings into folk paintings.
Folk painting is not only an independent ornamental art, but also an accessory decorative painting as the decoration of environment and utensils, such as shadow play, puppet, face painting, embroidery, paper-cutting, architectural decoration and ceramic decoration. Therefore, a large number of folk painting languages or patterns are used for decoration. Folk painting is characterized by strong regional and national colors, strong stylized colors combined with folk customs, simple and exaggerated shapes, bright colors, meticulous and colorful, elegant and beautiful.