Paper-cutting is a folk art form with a long history and widely spread in rural areas of China. As early as the Han and Tang dynasties, folk women used gold and silver foil and colored silks to cut into a winning fashion, and flowers and birds were decorated with sideburns. Then it gradually developed. In festivals, colored paper is cut into stories of flowers, animals or people and pasted on windows (called "window grilles") and lintels (called "door stickers") as decoration, as well as as as gift decoration or embroidery patterns. Paper-cutting tools generally use only a small pair of scissors, and some professional artists use a special carving knife to carve, which is called "paper carving"

The formation of hand-cut art

China folk paper-cut handicraft art has its own formation and development process. Before Cai Lun invented paper in the Western Han Dynasty, people could use thin materials to make handicrafts by hollowing out carving techniques, that is, by carving, engraving, cutting and other techniques, patterns were carved on gold foil, leather, silk and even leaves, which is the embryonic form of paper-cutting art. It is described in Historical Records Jiantong that in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, when a king claimed to be king, 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 carvings (one of the cultural relics unearthed from Chu Tomb No.1 in Jiangling, Hubei Province) and silver foil carvings (one of the cultural relics unearthed from the Warring States site in Guwei Village, Huixian County, Henan Province) were removed 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 with flowers from the Northern Dynasties in Astana near Gaochang site in Turpan Basin, Xinjiang. They use hemp paper, all of which are folded sacrificial paper-cuts. Their discovery provides physical evidence for the formation of Chinese paper-cutting.

The Development of Handmade Paper-cut Art

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 our country, the climate is humid, and the rainy days in May and June every year, paper products will rot over time. Folk paper-cutting is a popular thing. People don't keep it as a treasure, and they can cut it if it is broken. In the northwest of China, the weather is dry, the climate is dry, and the paper is not easy to get 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 has been in a period of great development in the Tang Dynasty. There is a sentence in Du Fu's poem, "Warm water traps my feet, and paper-cutting evokes my soul". The custom of paper-cutting evocation has long been circulated 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 carved patterns of 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 block printing made of paper-cutting. People carved it into wax paper with thick paper, and then printed the dye 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 uses paper-cut as the pattern of ceramics, and makes the ceramics more exquisite by glazing and firing. Folk also use paper-cutting to carve figures in shadow play with the skins of animals such as donkeys, cows, horses and sheep. Carved version made of blue printed cloth, carved into patterns with oilpaper board, and scratched patterns made by paper-cutting technology, divided into yin and 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 decorations on folk lanterns, decorative patterns on fans and embroidery patterns, all of which are reprocessed with paper-cut as decoration. What's more, Chinese people often use paper-cutting as decoration to beautify the home environment, such as door battlements, window grilles, cabinet flowers, wedding flowers and ceiling flowers, which 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 skill that girls have to learn since childhood. They want to learn paper-cut patterns from their predecessors or sisters, cut out new patterns through cutting, re-cutting, painting and cutting, and describe the natural scenery they are familiar with and love, the scenery of fish, insects, birds, beasts, flowers, trees, pavilions and bridges, and finally reach the realm of their will. In China's folk arts and crafts, there are many such paper-cutting masters, who are the creators of beauty and the inheritors of paper-cutting arts. We must not ignore them when we study the traditional culture of China. China folk paper-cut handicraft art, like an evergreen tree, is ancient and evergreen. Its unique popularity, practicality and aesthetics have become a beautiful symbol to meet people's psychological needs.