Flower cotton, also called "Li Mill" and "Flower Mill", is said to be the product of the evolution of ancient stone gifts and totems. In Heyang County, Shaanxi Province, the production of flour flowers is still very popular. At weddings, funerals and New Year's Day celebrations, folk peasant women use white flour, needle and thread, combs and scissors as tools, and skillfully knead figures such as flowers, birds, insects, fish, pigs, dogs, chickens, turtles, bats, frogs, etc. to show celebrations, festivals and sacrifices. Flower steamed buns, with unique and realistic shapes, can be used to set tea, give gifts to relatives and friends, and can also be eaten. It is also an art with unique local characteristics.
Almost every flower bun made by a clever woman in Heyang, Shaanxi Province is exquisite. What kind of steamed stuffed bun to send and what kind of flowers to insert have been passed down for thousands of years, which shows some connotations of China traditional culture. Heyang flour flower art is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of folk women. Several ingenious women sat around a short square table on the kang, and through simple manual operations such as kneading, kneading, pinching, cutting, pressing and tying, they could make noodles with different shapes. And several people in the production process, one must be the protagonist, and the rest are deputies. The protagonist will have an overall idea of the production process according to the needs of different occasions, and then make them according to his own strengths. There is no special learning process in the art of Heyang Mianhua, and the inheritance of skills is completed in such collective production.
In terms of modeling, the flowers on the river surface can also be divided into three categories: first, simple and vivid decals, similar to relief; Second, exaggerated modeling changes, the selection of flowers, birds, insects, fish, fruits and vegetables and other natural objects, its modeling is wonderful in "between similarity and dissimilarity"; The third is gorgeous flower arrangement, three-dimensional. A big steamed bread can insert seven or eight or even hundreds of small flour flowers. Some even make it into several floors connected from top to bottom, which is very spectacular.
Heyang flower cotton is a kind of pure folk plastic arts, which absorbs the technical characteristics of painting, paper binding and clay sculpture and forms its own unique artistic style.
The history of Shaanxi Mianhua can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Han and Tang Dynasties, Shaanxi flour flowers reached a peak and began to appear at some large banquets. According to the Records of Cooking in Shaanxi Province, the "Plain Steamed Music Department" in the Tail Banquet by Wei Juyuan, the Prime Minister of Tang Zhongzong, is a group of steamed noodles made of dough. Its shape is to divide the dough into 70 pieces and knead them into 70 fairy-like faces, including musicians holding different musical instruments, singing while playing and dancing in dance clothes. This kind of flour flower has reached a high level, sublimated into a pastry art, and at the same time, it shows from another side that flour flower is very popular in Shaanxi, from ordinary people to dignitaries.