Portable space

When Zhang Taiping returned to the courtyard, Fan Ming had already brought Xiaoxue running around the house, pasting the window grilles.

During the Spring Festival, people in many areas like to paste all kinds of paper-cut window grilles on their windows.In the past, this kind of custom existed all over the country, but it is rarely seen in the south, and only the north still follows this custom.Especially in the Hebei area, the custom of pasting window grilles is the most prevalent. If a family does not post window grilles during the festival, people will wonder if something happened to the family.

The gradual disappearance of this custom in the south cannot but be said to be due to the rapid development of the south. When high-rise buildings replaced small doors and wooden windows, when the desire for money and interests replaced traditional spirit and customs, the window grilles There is still soil for continuation of customs that do not bring any practical benefits and are out of touch with the aesthetics of modern people's fast-paced life.

In comparison, the north is a little behind, and many places in the vast northwestern mountainous area have not been eroded by modern buildings, and even this beautiful local customs are still preserved.

Each art has its own unique artistic style, and paper-cutting has its own artistic style due to the paper-cut materials and the tools used.The art of paper-cutting is a folk art that is "easy to learn" but "difficult to master". Based on the impression of emotion and intuition, the art of paper-cutting is thick, simple, concise and lively, reflecting the unpretentious spirit of farmers.

However, window decorations in modern times have gradually formed an independent art category, but they are called "window decorations" because they originally originated from clip art in folk festivals or folk activities, and were mostly pasted on white paper on rural windows.

The subject matter of window grilles is extremely broad, for example, drama characters, historical legends, flowers, birds, fish and insects, landscapes, real life and auspicious patterns can be the content of window grilles, which can be described as omnipresent.But the most are flowers, animals, and festive and auspicious patterns, often with "auspicious and festive", "auspiciousness in a good year", "abundance of grains", "prosperous people and animals", "more than one year after year", "precious flowers and auspicious birds" as the main body.With its unique generalization and exaggeration, it vividly expresses auspicious objects and good wishes, and decorates the festival in a prosperous and joyous manner.

Fan Ming was climbing up a stool and standing in front of the window, next to Xiaoxue holding two red and festive window grilles to support her on the stool.

"What kind of window grilles?" Zhang Taiping walked over and asked.

"Auspicious dragon and phoenix." Xiaoxue lifted up the window grille in her hand and said.

"Longfeng Chengxiang" is always the theme of folk art. The dragon and phoenix are beautifully shaped, and the depiction is meticulous and accurate, expressing people's psychology of praying for blessings and auspiciousness.

Zhang Taiping looked at these two window grilles carved with dragons and phoenixes, he knew that the phoenix feathers and dragon scales could be displayed on them.The lines are natural and smooth without any sense of jerky, the layout is generous and reasonable, coupled with the use of light and dark knife techniques, it fully embodies "round like an autumn moon, sharp like a wheat awn, square like a green brick, lacking in jagged teeth, and lines like a beard".It can be regarded as a very good paper-cut, and it should be the masterpiece of Mu Hongyu.

Fan Ming still felt inconvenient standing on the bench. Seeing Zhang Taiping approaching, he jumped off the bench and said, "Brother is tall, let's post."

Zhang Taiping took the two window grilles from Xiaoxue's hands, both of them had the same content, they were dragons flying and phoenixes dancing, but the positions of dragons and phoenixes were exactly opposite, and they were pasted on the two windows on both sides of the door to form a symmetry.

"Get some paste here, how can I paste it without paste?" Zhang Taiping said.

Fan Ming stuck out her tongue and said, "Ah, it's sticky, I really forgot." After speaking, he ran into the room.After a while, he shouted "Come here." He came back with a small bowl.

Xiaoxue smelled a strong sour smell from the bowl, and asked curiously, "What kind of paste is this? Why is it so sour?"

"Don't you know? Are you ignorant?" Fan Ming said to the novel with a little pride, and then began to explain to her, "This is a paste commonly used in rural areas. It is made of flour and vinegar. It is used in rural areas to make shoe soles. , window grilles, and couplets are all used, the stickiness is particularly good and it does not change color after drying."

Xiaoxue said with a smile: "I have really learned a lot." She had been living in a big city before, so of course she didn't understand these little wisdoms in the countryside.

After pasting up the two window grilles of playing dragons and phoenixes, Fan Ming took out a large pile of paper-cuts from the room and said, "There are more, there are more."

On the top are two big "Fu" characters, and it's not just a simple "Fu" character, the whole frame is framed by the "Fu" character, and some lifelike flowers, birds, insects and fish are carved in the hollow space in the middle, which looks festive And extraordinarily beautiful.The word "Fu" is turned upside down, symbolizing that blessings descend from the sky.

The old year's blessing was still pasted on it, so Fan Ming put it next, and Zhang Taiping pasted the new blessing on it.

Wang Anshi's quatrain "Yuan Ri" wrote, "The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year, and the spring breeze brings warmth into Tusu. Thousands of families always exchange new peaches for old talismans." Isn't it just talking about the current situation? New "Fu" replaced the old "Fu".

After changing the word "Fu", there are five "beards".The so-called "whiskers" (the first one reads four times) are the things pasted on the door rails during the Spring Festival, which echo the couplets on both sides of the door frame. The top of the door frame will flutter slightly in the slight wind, which is very beautiful.

There are different opinions about this "beard" in various places. Some are pendant-shaped things made of silk, which can be worn with you or hung in the room.The so-called "mustards" in the Guanzhong area are paper-cuts pasted on door frames.

There are five cards in total, with the four characters "Family Joy" plus the word "Fu". The words "Happy Family" are pasted on both sides and the word "Fu" is pasted in the middle, just covering the top of the door frame.It means "five blessings come to the door", "yinfu people's hall", "blessings from the heavenly palace" and other beautiful meanings.

I'm only 28 today. Originally, this "mustard" and the couplet were posted together on the morning of the New Year's Eve. Now that the "mustard" has been posted, fortunately the couplet is also posted.He said to Fan Ming, "Take out the couplet and post it."

Fan Ming was naturally very happy, and ran in to take out the couplets that had been prepared, as well as two red lanterns that were shrunk.Passed the couplet to Zhang Taiping and said: "I also took out the lanterns, the two on top are old, let's call these two new ones."

The couplets were written by the old man, and the handwriting is vigorous and powerful, which is not far behind the so-called masters in modern times.The content on the couplets is nothing special, it is nothing more than welcoming the new year and praying for peace and happiness.

After pasting up the couplets and hanging the lanterns, Zhang Taiping suddenly remembered that he had already made a simple door frame at the gate outside the courtyard. The name mentioned on it was "Zhongnan Mountain Villa". Couplets hang two lanterns.

Then he asked Fan Ming, "Have you prepared couplets and lanterns for the door frame outside?"

The door outside was more of a sign than a door, and naturally there were no such things prepared for the higher-ups at home, Fan Ming shook his head.

Tomorrow is the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, and there will be the last big fair of this year. Zhang Taiping said: "Remember to buy some when you go to the fair tomorrow."

"Will you go to the fair tomorrow? Yes, okay." Fan Ming cheered, and then told Xiaoxue about the excitement and various interesting things at the rural fair.

A lot of paper-cuts were prepared, and the windows and walls in the house were covered all over. The whole yard was filled with joy, and the smell of the New Year came over us.

In the end, there is only one left. This chapter is not quite the same as the previous ones. The carving is jerky and the carvings are simple. It looks like it was carved by a novice.

Zhang Taiping looked at Fan Ming and said, "Whose masterpiece is this?"

"It's mine." Fan Ming said, "I'll stick this on my own window."

What she cut is a picture of a monkey picking peaches, which is very simple and can be outlined with a few lines, which is suitable for beginners to practice.

After she pasted the window grille, two little monkeys, Wukong, immediately attracted them. Standing in front of the window, they looked at the monkeys on the paper closely and curiously, looking a little excited and a little liking.I just wanted to reach out and take it off.