Wangcheng paper-cutting
Wangcheng Paper-cutting
Dear friends:
Hello, everyone! Today I would like to introduce to you a local specialty—a folk art called Wangcheng paper-cutting.
When it comes to paper-cutting, the most familiar and renowned styles are those of Yuxian in Hebei, Hailun in Heilongjiang, Ansai in Shaanxi, Fushan in Shanxi, and Wangcheng in Hunan. It is clear that due to different geographical environments and customs, the application and understanding of paper-cutting vary greatly from place to place, and people are far more familiar with northern paper-cutting than with southern paper-cutting. In fact, southern paper-cutting has its own unique qualities. Thanks to its easy production and portability, it has long been a favorite tourist craft. "I have seen the window flowers of the North, artless and robust in flavor. Now I see the paper-cuts of the South, so exquisite and delicate as never before. A single snip of the scissors surpasses the work of the gods; its beauty endures forever in this world!" This is a poem written by Mr. Guo Moruo after viewing a national paper-cutting exhibition, from which one can also see his praise for the techniques and style of southern paper-cutting.
As we all know, China is a country with a long history and ancient culture, and folk paper-cutting, like a living fossil, reflects the light of Chinese civilization. It can be said that from north to south, from east to west, paper-cutting exists in every corner of China, each with its own characteristics. Some are deeply rooted in cultural heritage in terms of subject matter and content—for instance, the Yellow River basin is universally recognized as the birthplace of Chinese civilization, and the folk paper-cutting on this yellow earth is primitive and mysterious, with superb craftsmanship and spiritual resonance, long familiar to the art circles at home and abroad. Paper-cutting along the Yangtze River, in terms of subject matter, mostly features flowers and birds and seems to have no profound connotations, yet the Yangtze River basin was the main area of activity of the ancient Huaxu clan in China, and these flowers and birds are closely related to the sun-bird patterns and Hua patterns of "Huaxu culture." Paper-cutting of ethnic minorities—such as that of the Miao in western Hunan and Guizhou, the Manchu in the Northeast, the Mongol in Inner Mongolia, and the Dai and Yi in Yunnan—all have deep ethnic cultural origins. Some have formed distinctive local characteristics in style and technique, such as the heavily decorative Foshan paper-cutting of Guangdong, the "flowers within flowers" paper-cutting of Nanjing in Jiangsu, the brilliantly colored Yuxian paper-cutting of Hebei, and the peerless fine-line paper-cutting of Yueqing in Zhejiang.
Paper-cutting is one of the most widespread traditional folk decorative arts in China. It is an art form that uses paper as its medium and scissors (or engraving knives) as its tools for creation. The required materials are extremely simple—a pair of scissors or an engraving knife plus a sheet of paper—and the results are immediate and widely adaptable, which is why it is so universally popular. It is also most suitable for rural women to make in their leisure time, serving both practical purposes and beautifying daily life. It not only reflects the aesthetic tastes of the people but also embodies the deep psychology of the nation, making it one of China's most distinctive folk arts.
However, in different regions, with different geographical and living environments, the patterns, content, and styles of paper-cutting naturally have their own characteristics. Even after entering an industrialized society, it stubbornly adheres to its own production methods and forms of expression closely tied to life. Its transmission in rural folk communities depends entirely on the skilled hands of generation after generation of artisans and the passionate emotion that runs through this craft.
As a folk art, paper-cutting is extremely widespread among the people and has a long history. Paper-cutting works dating back more than 1,500 years (paired-horse rosettes and paired-monkey rosettes) were unearthed in Xinjiang. Traces of it can also be seen in later tie-dyeing, decorative patterns on Jizhou and Dingzhou kiln wares, shadow puppetry, blue calico, small embroidery pieces, and paintings. Among the exhibits in the ceramics hall of the Hunan Provincial Museum is a Tang dynasty celadon pillow with paper-cut appliqué patterns of flying butterflies. It was made by pasting paper-cut patterns onto the pillow surface, applying a base powder, removing the appliqué, and then coating it with transparent glaze. It is the earliest known example of paper-cut appliqué craftsmanship. As a form of traditional folk art, paper-cutting occupies an important position in folk customs, and professional folk paper-cutting artisans had already appeared by the Southern Song dynasty. Folk paper-cutting often distills and generalizes natural forms through homophony, symbolism, and implied meaning to create beautiful patterns. In terms of specific uses, it can be roughly divided into four categories:
1. For pasting: directly pasted onto doors, windows, walls, lanterns, and festive decorations as ornamentation. Such as window flowers, wall flowers, ceiling flowers, smoke-lattice patterns, lantern flowers, paper-effigy flowers, and door streamers;
2. For display and accompaniment: used to adorn gifts, dowries, sacrificial offerings, and tributes. Such as wedding flowers, offering flowers, ceremonial flowers, candlestick flowers, incense-basket flowers, and Double Ninth banners;
3. As embroidery patterns: used for clothing, shoes, hats, and pillows. Such as shoe flowers, pillow flowers, hat flowers, bib flowers, sleeve flowers, and carrying-strap flowers;
4. For printing and dyeing: used as printing plates for blue calico, applied to fabrics, quilt covers, door curtains, cloth wrappers, bibs, head scarves, and more.
The earliest surviving examples of paper-cutting are five rosette paper-cuts of animals and flowers from the Northern and Southern Dynasties, unearthed near the Flaming Mountains in Turpan, Xinjiang. Even earlier, before the Han dynasty, women cut thin gold and silver foil and pasted it on their temples as adornment; folklorists point out that this should be regarded as the "precursor" of paper-cutting. Of course, paper-cutting in the strict sense undoubtedly came into being after Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Eastern Han dynasty. Early paper-cutting was probably related to Daoist rituals of worshiping deities and summoning souls, as explicitly recorded in Du Fu's poem: "Warm water washes my feet, paper-cuts summon my soul." Even today, the Miao people still have the shamanistic custom of cutting images of ghosts and gods during the New Year festival and pasting them on cattle pens or doors. Later it gradually developed into decorative and plastic arts. Especially during the Spring Festival, paper-cutting became the most simple and widespread way for Chinese people to express festive joy.
Paper-cutting takes many forms. Skilled folk artisans draft only a mental plan and directly cut the paper into shapes with scissors, while professional artisans use engraving knives on wax boards, which is called "paper engraving." The process involves drafting, cutting or engraving, pasting, peeling off, and trimming. Multiple layers of paper can be engraved through at once, increasing output. Because the material is thin, paper-cutting mostly uses a flat composition method with evenly arranged full-frame layouts and interconnected images. The figures are highly decorative, avoiding large blocks of black and white, and using delicate patterns to embellish the main figures. Clever artisans, when depicting "cat catching mouse," created the peculiar effect of "the mouse inside the transparent cat's belly"—a naive and unrestrained style that is most intriguing. The technique of flat overlapping and spreading not only creates a strong ethnic flavor but also expands the capacity of the picture and enhances the expressive power of paper-cutting. The vast majority of paper-cutting does not pursue strict realism but rather the expression of images in the minds of the people. For example, in Shaanxi paper-cutting, the ox's swirling hair is extremely exaggerated to become decorative patterns on the ox's body, adding visual dynamism while strengthening formal beauty.
The Chu customs favored shamanism, and Hunan was no exception. Hunan paper-cutting inherited the tradition of paper-carving and engraving customs from the Chu region during the Warring States period and the decorative banners of the Renri Festival from the Northern and Southern Dynasties. It has a long history and a broad popular base, with paper-cutting customs permeating every aspect of people's daily lives. At the New Year, paper door streamers are cut; at the Lantern Festival, lantern flowers are cut. When a child is born, the maternal grandmother's family makes egg flowers pasted on eggs as congratulatory gifts; egg flowers mostly feature lotus and osmanthus, implying "continuous births of noble sons." For weddings and celebrations, there are wedding flowers and ceremonial flowers. At the Zhongyuan Festival (Ghost Festival), "paper is cut into clothing" and "burned to honor ancestors." For funerals, paper-cutting summoning banners are hung or posted at the ritual site. For religious activities such as rain-praying, exorcism rituals for longevity, and celebration locks, paper effigies of gate pavilions are made, often with fearsome and grotesque images cut and pasted on them to intimidate ghosts and spirits. In the old days, when a woman gave birth and ominous signs were detected, a shaman would be summoned to perform rituals, and a Nuo mask would be cut from palm fiber and hung at the head of the bed. If a child suffered misfortune, a shaman would be asked to draw a talisman, and a Nuo mask cut from paper would be placed in a small cloth bag and worn on the child's body as a protective amulet for a long time. In Tujia areas, when a child was born, a paper bodhisattva—Amu Bobo (the guardian deity of Tujia children)—would be cut and pasted on the wall panel by the fire pit, watching over the child until the age of twelve. In Wangcheng, the elderly Wen Zhenkun was skilled at cutting mountain sprites and various ghosts and deities—over 300 of them, each with a different form, imbued with the mysterious and romantic aura of Chu culture. Hunan paper-cutting has been passed down through folk customs year after year.
Hunan paper-cutting is rich in mysterious and romantic color. The divine birds and strange beasts that frequently appear in the paper-cutting of the Miao and Tujia peoples in western Hunan often parallel the divine and exotic images in the Classic of Mountains and Seas—such as mountain sprites, fire gods, pardoning officials, horse-faced demons, Thunder God, Lightning Mother, Wind Earl, Rain Master, the Great Golden-Winged Roc, and six-handed six-footed deities. Their transformations are bizarre and their imaginations rich, stamped with the profound mark of shamanic culture. The dragon, phoenix, and tiger patterns favored by the Chu people also frequently appear in Hunan paper-cutting. In terms of modeling, Hunan paper-cutting excels at using the principle of shape-adaptive composition common in folk art, employing composite forms, symmetrical forms, fitting forms, and shared forms to make works appear extraordinary within the ordinary and ingenious within the extraordinary. Changsha's veteran artisan Li Xi'en habitually used composite forms to depict mythological figures. His Guanyin and the attendants "Shancai" and "Longnü" are all composites of human figures and lotus flowers, vividly expressing the identity of the subjects. His "Three Fish Contending for the Head" window flower features three fish bodies sharing a single head at the center of the composition, ingeniously employing the "shared form" modeling method, giving a strong sense of motion while cleverly highlighting the implied meaning of "striving to be first" and "upward striving." Mr. Shen Congwen greatly admired the embroidery patterns on the high waist aprons of Miao women in Fenghuang, considering that "the most distinctive part of the patterns is the chest section of the apron." This section is bell-shaped, and the paper-cutting artisan, using shape-adaptive composition, cleverly interweaves luxuriant flowers, unfurling branches and leaves, and lingering birds and butterflies within it, achieving a full, harmonious, and vivid composition. Another major characteristic of Hunan paper-cutting is its diversity of styles. The elegance and delicacy of Miao paper-cutting, the boldness and vigor of Tujia paper-cutting, the grace and refinement of the Han areas in central Hunan, and the varied compositions of the Dongting Lake region together present Hunan paper-cutting in a rich and colorful, pluralistic appearance.
Among Hunan paper-cutting, chiseled flower patterns are the most distinctive. Chiseled flowers, also called chiseled paper patterns, are prevalent in the ethnic minority areas of western Hunan and in areas where Miao and Han people live together. Their distinguishing feature is that white paper is first fixed onto a wax board and then carefully pierced and carved with a small file. Because they are used for women to follow when embroidering, many pinhole lines must be pricked onto the paper pattern with a fine needle to indicate the embroidery method, giving it a distinctive decorative flavor.
Mr. Shen Congwen wrote an article in his early years titled "Paper-cut Patterns of Tahu," in which he gave a detailed account of the flower-cutting customs of his hometown in the old days: "On the old post road from Pushi to Fenghuang, there is a small village called Tahu, under the jurisdiction of Luxi County in the middle reaches of the Yuan River... about thirty households. For decades they have distributed their products (paper-cut patterns) to the towns and villages of various counties, enriching the lives of young women of both Miao and Han peoples within a radius of over a hundred li. At its peak, some of the products were resold by itinerant peddlers to villages in several neighboring counties of Sichuan and Guizhou, where they were universally welcomed."
The "Tahu" mentioned by Mr. Shen Congwen is today's Tahu Township in Luxi County, western Hunan, also known as the hometown of "chiseled flowers." A folk song circulates locally: "To marry a daughter, marry a flower-cutting lad; he carries his pole and roams the four directions. He leaves home with no silver on him, but returns with silver measured by the basket." The "flower-cutting lads" were local paper-cutting artisans. These artisans, who carried poles on their shoulders and traveled far and wide selling patterns, were mostly men. They earned wealth through their craft and provided women with beautiful embroidery patterns, enriching their lives, and were therefore greatly admired.
Huang Kaotian, a famous chiseled-flower artisan from Tahu Township, began learning chiseled flowers at the age of twelve and stood out among the many flower-cutting craftsmen in his village, becoming a renowned master of chiseled flowers far and wide. His carving and cutting skills were superb, with smooth, meticulously interlocking lines; his compositions were neat, his layouts harmonious, and his decorative flavor rich, possessing the slender elegance and delicate charm characteristic of southern paper-cutting. His representative works include "Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate," "Red Phoenix Paying Homage to the Sun," and "Butterfly in Love with Flowers." Elder Gong Zifang of Tahu Township, skilled at cutting theatrical figure patterns, was a local female master of chiseled flowers.
Central Hunan paper-cutting, represented by Wangcheng paper-cutting, differs from that of many other places: besides auspicious window flowers, there are many paper-cuts related to sacrificial rituals, which is connected to Chu customs. For example, at funerals, summoning banners are hung; for Daoist rituals and rain-praying, paper effigies are needed, with grotesque images cut and pasted on them to intimidate ghosts and spirits.
Wangcheng paper-cutting has an extremely broad influence. Its content is simple and beautiful, its styles diverse, and it possesses a rich flavor of daily life, basically representing the characteristics of folk paper-cutting art in the central Hunan region. Divided by the Xiang River, it falls into two major styles: Hexi (west of the river) and Hedong (east of the river). Hexi paper-cutting combines both cutting and chiseling; a draft is first drawn, with great attention to compositional balance, and it is heavily influenced by shadow puppetry. It features many figure paper-cuts, with plump patterns, sharp contrasts, smooth lines, strong dynamism, and a rich decorative beauty. Hedong paper-cutting requires no draft—it is cut freely by hand, primarily with scissors, and is characterized by simplicity, plainness, cleanliness, and even symmetry, with the remarkable ability to "produce a finished piece at a single stroke," vivid and expressive, pursuing artistic conception. Wangcheng paper-cutting has a wide range of traditional subjects, mostly employing the techniques of implied meaning, symbolism, metaphor, and contrast, drawing on common flowers, grasses, insects, fish, beasts, and figures, and combining them in multi-layered expressions. First, there are those wishing for harmonious marital affection and a happy family life—for example, the character "ge" (dove) is homophonous with "he" (harmony) in southern dialects, symbolizing lasting marital harmony, "fish and water in harmony," and "mandarin ducks in joyful union." Second, there are those praying for the family's peace and safety, mostly featuring phoenixes and birds, reflecting the sun worship of the ancient Chu-Xiang people. Folk belief holds that the phoenix is the divine bird in the sun, and that "misfortune" and "disaster" are "caused by gods and ghosts." Auspicious patterns are used extensively, serving a talismanic function of warding off misfortune and disaster—a reflection of the concept of venerating shamans and believing in ghosts. Third, there are those wishing newlyweds many children and prosperity. Fourth, there are those for celebration and blessing, such as "Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate," "Blessing and Longevity Combined," "Blessing and Longevity in Peace," "Three Stars of Blessing and Longevity," "Magpies Teasing the Plum Blossom," "Good News at the Pearl Garden," and "Eight Immortals Celebrating Longevity."
Wangcheng paper-cutting techniques include cutting with scissors alone, engraving with knives alone, and a combination of both—using engraving knives for small hollowed-out areas and scissors for long lines and outer contours. Scissor-cutting has free knife work and bold compositions, while knife-engraving has rigorous lines, fine and delicate—together forming the unique style of Wangcheng paper-cutting, with strong decorative qualities and a graceful, elegant artistic character. It occupies a place in the domestic paper-cutting art scene and has spread its fame overseas.
The exact time of origin of Wangcheng paper-cutting can no longer be determined. However, in the Changsha County Gazetteer compiled in the tenth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty (1871), there are records stating that "at the Lantern Festival, paper is cut into lanterns, either hung in courtyards and doorways, or displayed on streets, or made into dragon lanterns and turtle mountain lanterns parading through the lanes," and that at the Zhongyuan Festival (the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month), "paper is cut into clothing" and "burned to honor ancestors." From this it can be inferred that "folk paper-cutting in the Wangcheng area was already widely prevalent before the Qing dynasty."
Wangcheng paper-cutting mainly consists of four categories: "wedding window flowers," "lattice flowers" (one type for paper effigy funeral houses, another for decorating lamp lattices of wind-mirror lanterns and revolving lanterns, with themes of blessing, wealth, longevity, and happiness, and flowers and birds), "embroidery pattern drafts," and "paper bodhisattvas" with rich Chu cultural heritage (featuring mythological and legendary figures). Among these, "lattice flowers" and "paper bodhisattvas" are mostly "sacrificial paper-cuts."
Before liberation, there were famous professional artisans for these paper-cuts. For those who cut "wedding window flowers," wealthy families would invite the artisan to their home specifically, and the cutting would last ten days to half a month. In Wangcheng there was an old woman named Zou Qi's grandmother who was most famous for cutting these. She never used a draft—she would just mark the paper with her fingernail and that was enough. The figures she cut were simple and unsophisticated, and the flowers and birds were very vivid. She was invited to people's homes to cut throughout the year, and the paper she cut in her lifetime would fill an entire room. In the 1980s, there were as many as 3,500 people in the county who could cut flowers. In this area, when celebrating a wedding, it was popular to paste "wedding window flowers"—generally everywhere in the house that could be pasted was pasted, especially on the bride's dowry items, even on a teacup lid. There is a saying in Wangcheng: "Paste harmony on the chamber pot"—"harmony" refers to paper-cutting; even chamber pots were decorated, showing how particular people were.
In a historical document about Liu Shaoqi, a description was also found: "Young Shaoqi was quiet and introverted by nature, not very fond of roughhousing with his companions. After class he often sat to one side cutting paper, playing chess, or making little things." Liu Shaoqi's hometown, Huaminglou Tanzichong, is located at the junction of Wangcheng, Xiangtan, and Ningxiang counties, the central area where folk paper-cutting was prevalent—showing how widespread the art of paper-cutting was and how profound its influence. As a folk art, paper-cutting only attracted people's attention in the 1930s. A group of famous artists such as Gu Yuan, Ai Qing, Li Qun, Jiang Feng, and Chen Shuliang continuously collected, organized, and innovated paper-cutting, giving it influence domestically and even internationally. But in recent years, due to various reasons, the art of paper-cutting has been somewhat affected, and in some places it even faces a crisis of survival and development. Therefore, our government applied to have Chinese paper-cutting art inscribed on UNESCO's "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" as one of the first five projects, hoping it can be well protected and developed.
Fortunately, paper-cutting as a folk art has been well developed in Hunan. China's first private paper-cutting museum—the Huaxia Paper-cutting Museum—opened in Wangcheng, Hunan, in 2000. The museum houses over 2,000 works by four generations of Mr. Qin Shijiao, vice president of the China Paper-cutting Association, as well as hundreds of paper-cuts donated by paper-cutting artists from home and abroad. The vivid, exquisitely crafted paper-cutting works are a delight to behold. Among the works are life-filled pieces like "The Farmer" and "Mandarin Ducks Playing in Water," landscape works with strong artistic character, award-winning classic works such as "Tang Monk's Pilgrimage for Scriptures" and "Qu Yuan," and the interwoven color-register paper-cutting uniquely created by museum owner Mr. Qin Shijiao.
The so-called interwoven color-register paper-cutting involves cutting different parts of a pattern from colored paper of different colors, then piecing and inserting them together according to pre-designed seams—without even using glue, yet able to weave seven or eight layers. Color-register paper-cutting looks like one thing from the left and another from the right, yet you cannot tell exactly what it resembles. For example, some paper-cutting works are clearly rooster combs and tail feathers, yet they also resemble an autumn forest—truly delighting and surprising the viewer.
Mr. Qin Shijiao was born into a Hunan paper-cutting family; his mother, wife, sons, and daughters are all skilled paper-cutters. His cutting method is refined, his knife work divine, his technique proficient. The various animals he cuts are remarkably lifelike, and he has been praised by Japanese as a "divine scissor." Over the years he has created more than 3,000 works. Besides being skilled at cutting landscapes, figures, flowers, mythology, and folk tales, he has also become fascinated with cutting roosters and has published "Selected Thousand Rooster Designs," in which no two patterns are alike, each with its own posture and charm.
As for "swaying cutting," it is his special skill. Watch as he holds a pair of scissors in his right hand and a sheet of colored paper in his left, his body swaying gently back and forth—before you can react, his work is already complete. He can even cut the shapes he envisions with his hands behind his back. Some look like traditional Chinese paintings, some like decorative paintings, and some even like Impressionist works. Under his scissors, ordinary paper instantly comes to life. The special skill of swaying cutting came about entirely by accident. Once on a train, he habitually took out his small scissors to practice, and as the train swayed back and forth, he inadvertently created the "swaying cutting method." This kind of paper-cutting breaks the traditional symmetry, with a free cutting method that is naturally formed, possessing a unique charm. Now this kind of paper-cutting work has been selected for use in China's junior and primary school art textbooks.
His love for paper-cutting originated from his mother and their paper-cutting family. His maternal grandfather and grandmother were famous folk paper-effigy artisans in the Baizipu area of Wangcheng County, known for dozens of li around. According to local custom, families needed large amounts of paper-cutting for both happy and funeral occasions. His parents, especially his mother, fully inherited this art and innovated on the foundation of their predecessors. His mother, Wen Zhenkun, enjoyed great renown in Hunan's paper-cutting circles. Her greatest skills were making palace lanterns, revolving lanterns, and wind-mirror lanterns. In addition, her folk utilitarian paper-cuts, such as "sacrificial paper-cuts," were deeply influenced by Chu culture and infused with her own emotions and experience—extremely vivid and expressive. This 91-year-old woman's last paper-cutting was at the request of Professor He Hongyi of the Central-South College for Nationalities and a German professor accompanying her; she cut a piece titled "Butterflies Playing with Golden Melons" on the spot and gave it to them.
His wife, He Yumei, as the third generation of this paper-cutting family, had a great-uncle named He Derun who was a famous Hunan shadow puppetry artist, so her paper-cutting style carries a touch of shadow puppetry flavor. Qin Shijiao himself belongs to the creative type of paper-cutting artisan. In 1984 he was invited to Japan to perform paper-cutting and was praised by the Japanese press as a "divine scissor."
At present, he has written more than ten books on the art of paper-cutting and has passed his art on to the next generation. Today, nine members of four generations of the Qin family are still doing paper-cutting, and many have won national paper-cutting art awards. He himself won the title of "Divine Scissor" at the Shenzhou Charm Folk Art Invitational Competition, his wife won the "Bronze Award at the Paper-cutting Art Expo of the Seventh China Art Festival," and his son has also won national awards. Now, at seventy years of age, he still spends more than ten hours a day on paper-cutting. He says: "We must let China's paper-cutting art be passed down forever, let folk culture flourish endlessly, and be renowned at home and abroad."
History will forever remember those who have contributed to this folk art!