内容提要
胶东窗染花儿
一、土生土长的窗染花儿
在胶东，提起窗染花，上了年纪的人都说，“老辈子呀，家家都贴这玩艺儿”。 窗染花，老百姓都叫“染花儿”“窗越”，而行里人则习惯称之为“半剪半绘剪纸”，因它是通过绘画和剪纸双重语言元素来表达的传统纹样，它在胶东百姓的生活中自然而然地生息流传，反映着人民的生活，传达着无声的感情。烟台的牟平、栖霞一带民间流传着这样的剪纸歌谣：“小纸片，方方正，用它抠花多威风。抠一对鸳鸯，抠一对鹅，抠一对兔儿跑山坡，抠一对小羊吃青草，抠一对小孩闹呵呵。”他们一边唱着，一边剪着，一边憧憬着幸福美好的生活。巧手们说，“俺年轻做姑娘的时候都讲究抠花，那时不管是会说的还是会唱的，都能把它剪出来”。姑娘们出嫁时布置新房，新春佳节时装点庭院，都是展现风采的时候。岁末年初，剪纸处处可见，其主要形式是窗花和过门笺（也叫挂笺）。乡亲们日常生活中流传的典故、传说、戏曲故事以及乡间情趣、习俗活动，甚至家禽动物、花鸟虫鱼、萝卜白菜等，都是窗染花的表现对象。
胶东自古就是文明昌盛之地，在距今7000年左右，胶东的先民就开始用智慧和勤劳的双手在这片肥沃的土地上开拓、创造。胶东，位于山东省胶莱河以东，是山东半岛的一部分。秦代就设立有胶东郡，西汉时期曾设立胶东国，民国初期设立过胶东道，抗日战争、解放战争时期设立了胶东行署。胶东作为辖区，或单独作为州、郡的时间虽短，但受到殷商文化及六国时期齐鲁文化的影响，也逐步形成了相对独立的文化区域，为胶东剪纸艺术的产生和发展奠定了深厚的文化基础。不同的地理环境造就不同的文化特色，胶东百姓的生活既依赖于农耕生产，又有渔盐之利，依山傍海、富足清闲，因而剪纸的风格淳朴平和、细腻纤巧、情趣盎然，不论是小品还是大作都很有地方特色，其中以表现海洋文化特色的风格尤为突出。长期以来，胶东剪纸的基本内涵和表现形式虽然没有根本变化，但也能够在继承传统的基础上随着社会经济的发展不断地完善和发展。清咸丰年间，随商旅队伍而来的天津杨柳青、河北武强、河南朱仙镇及山东潍坊的年画样，先后落户于胶东大地。据《莱阳县志》记载，清同治年间，年节之际家家都有贴灯花、门楣上挂彩纸的民俗。清代，胶东平度的宗家庄木版年画作坊就专门有印制窗染花剪纸线稿的刻版，随年画一起销售。美国传教士尔文1927年以烟台教会爱道女校为基地，招学生72名，利用课余时间制作剪纸，并用卖剪纸的收入办学。他还在烟台毓璜顶创办了胶东第一个剪纸研究会，为胶东剪纸注入了新鲜血液。总之，窗染花剪纸能逐渐地形成胶东独特的艺术风格，是和胶东的自然环境、地理风貌、风俗习惯以及悠久的历史文化分不开的，是由文人与民间巧手互相交流共同创作完善的。正是由于对生活的热爱和自身审美情趣的需要，她们在从事劳作之余，热衷于窗染花的创作、传播，逐渐形成了一支庞大的并且不断发展的窗染花创作队伍。姑娘出嫁时用来布置新房的染花儿，如“喜上眉梢” “葡萄生子”“龙凤呈祥”“榴开百子”“蝶穿牡丹”等，都是她们在婚前为自己精心收集、绘制、剪裁而成。新婚当天，窗染花往往正是婆家和全村人品评新娘是否心灵手巧的物件。招远86岁的李氏老太太说：“俺当姑娘的时候，村里一有将（娶）媳妇的，俺们都要去看，不是为了看新媳妇，俺是去看人家的铰花儿。看到好的，就悄悄地把样子记下，再剪好，等自个儿出嫁的时候好装点新房，俺有好多样儿都是这样留下来的。”老人们说，那时候一边剪着喜花一边唱着歌谣，“黄狗黄，黄狗黄，黄狗地下盖新房。关家姑娘抠鸳鸯，一对鸳鸯一对鹅，一对兔儿在山坡，一对羊儿吃青草，一对孩儿笑呵呵”，新婚的歌谣把少女对幸福生活的美好向往都表达出来了。旧时结婚还讲究压床和铺床。压床就是找个小男孩在新婚的炕上滚滚，还要有全福人念喜歌，“黑小子，黑小子来压床，明天你爹去娶你娘”；铺床后，撒上枣、栗子、花生，还要念“铺床铺床，金玉满堂，先生贵子，后生姑娘”，或是“上床下床，金银满房，先生贵子，后生姑娘”，或是“佳偶上床，喜笑满堂，生了儿子，再生姑娘”。就连新娘的公公为其摆放菜墩子也要念“公公滚墩子，来年抱个胖孙子”的喜歌，意思都是希望早生贵子，儿女双全。这些新婚习俗中的喜歌也会体现在新婚的喜花里。现在娶媳妇的当天还能听得到这样的喜歌唱段，只是念喜歌的全福人少了，全福人要求全福贵（上有二老，有丈夫，有儿子、女儿）的人才能担任。喜歌的内容都一样，祈望天神能尽快给新婚夫妇送来儿女。
福山、蓬莱、莱州一带，旧时婚俗中新娘下轿时，要走过一盘“脚踏糕”，糕上贴有“金鱼穿莲”“凤凰戏牡丹”等寓意恩爱和谐的喜花剪纸。可以说胶东民间在整个婚庆过程中，处处有剪纸的衬托，喜花剪纸所渲染的气氛和赋予人们精神上的愉悦，是其他艺术形式无法相比的。
剪纸在流传过程中，胶东各地的巧手们也在不断地丰富着各种传统剪纸工艺的内涵。从纹样形式分析，这支队伍在20世纪50年代之前非常活跃，但现在随着时代的变迁日渐衰退了。如今要想找到这些“宝贝”，只有拉网式地到农家、渔户中去耐心寻觅，碰着运气好，也许能在哪位巧手婆婆手里碰上珍藏多年的一些单色和染色的剪纸老样子。碰上这些宝贝的时候，我一定会坐下来和老人好好地聊聊，听她说年轻那会儿是如何剪出这么好看的样儿来的。问她花样里剪的有啥讲头，是做啥用的，为啥要这样剪，问她有没有教出几个像她一样的巧手来。老人头脑里有关剪纸的故事、歌谣才是真正的宝贝，也是我们要抢救的非物质文化遗产！我要好好地为老人家珍藏住这些宝贝，不然会后悔一辈子！
二、多姿多彩的窗染花儿
窗染花儿的纹样丰富多彩，主要有以下几种：
戏曲人物
在没有电影、电视以及传播媒介的年代，看戏、听书、扭秧歌、看杂耍就成了广大群众的文化娱乐生活，他们也从中了解了历史知识，学会了辨别忠奸善恶。过节看戏、舞狮、扭秧歌，农闲听书，是老百姓几百年来喜闻乐见的娱乐形式。过去胶东民间戏剧活动非常活跃，人们每逢庙会、山会和传统节日，特别是春节，都要请戏班演出。就连婚丧嫁娶、寿宴喜庆时，也要请上几台戏。大户人家连孩子过百日也要吹吹打打，热闹一番。从胶东各个村寨众多的戏楼旧址，可以看出当年民间戏曲文化的普及与辉煌！这些熟悉的戏曲故事、人物造型、做打场面都为巧手们提供了良好的创作素材，所以剪绘出的人物故事有板有眼、活灵活现。这可能也是影响窗染花儿的另一个因素吧，它使得胶东窗染花儿中戏楼、戏曲、大秧歌及说书唱戏的剪纸纹样非常普遍。戏曲中的各种人物，如：英雄豪杰、帝王将相、才子佳人等，都给人们留下了鲜明的印象。那些巧手婆婆们便依着其中的情节，把演员的神情动态、服装、色彩直接借鉴过来，用传统的吉祥纹样，经过自己审美处理后，以全新质朴的艺术手法进行再创造，抠出染色剪纸贴在窗户上。太阳一照，屋里红红火火的，既表达了吉祥美好的寓意，又把一台台好戏搬到了自己家中，不仅能欣赏到精巧的剪纸，还可以天天在家里看自己喜欢的戏曲，乐在其中，美极了。前邻后舍纷纷熏样去复制，亲属好友相互传送，这些精美的民间纹样于是就传遍了千家万户。
寓言象征
窗染花儿常常用谐音、象征的表现手法，如“五子登科”“福禄寿喜”“龙凤呈祥”“莲（连）年有鱼”“莲（连）生贵子”“金鱼（玉）满堂”“松鹤延年”“鱼戏莲”“葡萄生子”“麒麟送子”“喜报三元”“瓶笙三戟”等，纹样小若方寸，大到尺许。粘贴时可以取左右对称，也可上下或上下左右都采用对称的形式，构图齐中有变、参差错落、雅趣横生。如四条屏窗染花“甜甜的大萝卜”，玫瑰红色的萝卜是采用对称和写实的色彩剪绘、渲染而成的，上面有两对对剪的叶脉，而其中一对叶脉的顶端分别平剪出了一只蝈蝈、一只螳螂。蝈蝈和螳螂都是平和喜庆的象征，蝈蝈肥胖可爱，叫起来声音清亮好听，胶东有“喜叫哥哥”“官上加官”的美称。螳螂身材修长，挺胸昂首，勇敢威猛。一只平和肥大，一只娇美精神，猛然一看似乎很和谐，但由于螳螂和蝈蝈的本性不同，从画面上看去蝈蝈即将成为螳螂捕获的美味佳肴，谚语—“螳螂口头里叫蝈蝈，背后里掏家伙”。画面上的均衡和谐只是表面效果，内里却隐含着危机。这就是窗花的独特韵味，它能借生活中常见的事物，通过谐音、象征等手法，构成剪纸的主题纹样，妙在其中。
十二生肖
十二生肖是窗染花儿的主题纹样。我国民间以十二种动物与十二地支相配，作为记岁的方法，即：子鼠、丑牛、寅虎、卯兔、辰龙、巳蛇、午马、未羊、申猴、酉鸡、戌狗、亥猪。因为古代是以干支纪年的，所以某人生在某年，便依当年地支所配动物，称其为肖某物，如子年生人为肖鼠，丑年生人为肖牛。十二生肖与人们息息相关（胶东习惯称“十二属”），在胶东荣成至今仍保留着面塑生肖的习俗。荣成元宵节晚上，百姓家里都要用豆面加面粉和好后把自家亲人的属相动物造型捏制出来。属相的嘴里多衔着用金、银色纸剪出的“金钱”，背上驮着捏好的小元宝碗，元宝碗内插上蜡烛，这就是属相面灯。属相面灯可通宵亮着，表达祈求家人岁岁平安、连年发财及六畜兴旺之寓意。十二属相的剪纸纹样有许多，表现最多的形式是人物与其属相动物形象的组合，一般是十二生肖成套剪出。人物骑在自己的属相动物的背上有举着兵器的，有举着旗子（旗子上有剪出或写上属相的文字）的，动物周围再配以祥云、花卉，腾云驾雾、气势磅礴，一副战天地、斗鬼神的英雄气概。
庆寿八仙
八仙纹样多出现在用于庆寿纳福活动的剪纸中。胶东地区给老人庆寿是从老人看到孙子出生时，或是从六十岁生日开始，庆寿一旦开始就不能间断，五年一小庆，十年一大庆。庆寿用的窗染花儿多挂在照壁，间或贴在老人居室的窗上，寿窗花的纹样多是吉神八仙。
有关八仙的传说多种多样，胶东有关八仙造型的剪纸纹样也就多姿多彩。如“云中八仙”“坐八仙”“骑驴八仙”“过海八仙”“醉八仙”等，均以不同的形象散存在农家、渔户中。有趣的是，受民间区域环境和剪纸语言的影响，胶东还有“七人八仙”“九人八仙”等纹样，但无论其怎样变化，那八个可爱的神仙形象一眼就能看出来。民间关于八仙的法宝“暗八仙”也有歌谣称颂，如：“钟离宝扇自摇摇，拐李葫芦万里烧。洞宾挂起空中剑，采和一手把篮挑。张果老人知古道，湘子横吹一品箫。国舅曹公双玉板，仙姑如意立浮桥。”形象地唱出了八位神仙随身所带的神奇法宝。“暗八仙”成了固定的图案之后，经常在民间剪纸、建筑、刺绣、绘画等作品上出现，是人人喜爱的吉祥纹样。传说八仙过海的地方就在蓬莱，一位蓬莱88岁的剪纸老艺人说：“耶，俺这个地场的八仙是最正宗、最灵验的！”窗染花儿中的八仙构图形式也有和十二属相的形式相似的，由乘着祥云、拿着法器的单个八仙人物组成，成套剪出（也有单个和角花构图的）。因为有西王母祝寿的故事，所以凡祝寿的人家，都愿意贴八仙的形象，再配上一些诸如“福如东海长流水，寿比南山不老松”的对联，或是麻姑献寿、松树、仙鹤、寿星等同类题材的窗花，也可称得上吉祥如意、富贵满堂了。
三、种类多样的窗染花儿
胶东剪纸的种类是多种多样的，百姓家常见的窗染花儿剪纸主要是用来装饰窗户和窗户周围的墙面。按贴的位置分“窗心”“窗裙花”“窗角花”“挂笺”等。有整幅制作，也有分块剪染，粘贴时再拼组成完整图案的。
整体窗裙花是比较大的， 规格尺寸有80平方厘米—220平方厘米等多种，多是悬挂在屋内窗户内楣上。内容多种多样，有“西厢记”“三戏牡丹”这样的戏曲、神话故事，也有“莲生贵子”“葡萄生子”等谐音的动植物图案， 还有“鱼戏莲” “喜鹊闹梅”等寓意喜庆的纹样，表达的都是祈求生活美满、健康长寿、万事如意等美好心愿。
“窗心”是把整个图案根据自家窗户的窗棂格式，分剪成条状花儿，有四幅、六幅、八幅、十二幅等形式。使用时把各幅依次贴在窗棂间，避开窗棂子的遮挡，再配上相应的角花就又拼成了整体画面。“窗心”的图案内容也很多样化，如用画组成一句吉语、一出戏曲中某个精彩场面、四季花瓶等。
“挂笺”是胶东剪纸中的一个大门类，一般百姓家过年都要贴，民间就流传着“五花纸、罗门钱，贴巴贴巴过新年”的民谣。挂笺主要是贴于门楣或窗户楣上，由于是贴于屋外，要求能经得住风吹雨打，因此挂笺上的纹样要制作得疏密清晰、道道相连且纹理粗犷。胶东人把挂笺也称为门笺、过门笺、罗门笺、门吊、花纸、吊挂、吊钱、纸挂、活门钱等。挂笺除贴门窗楣上以外，也有贴在照壁、大小车辆、农具、衣柜、粮囤、水缸、牲口槽、纺车、织机、柱子这些物件上的，用烟台老人的话说，“起先过年时，贴的管那儿都是挂笺”。
胶东烟台、牟平、福山、栖霞、招远等地的门笺多是半剪半绘的，开始是用剪刀剪挂笺坯样，再上色、勾画，一次只剪3—5张，后来就有专门的艺人用自制的齐头刀来凿制挂笺坯样，每次凿50—100张。在招远、黄县，民间还有一种灌染方法，这种方法主要是用于制作挂笺，就是把用白酒或沸水沏好的品色或色精灌到壶里，用毛头纸或黄表纸凿出坯，凿好坯后不拆开就灌色；先灌黄色，等到七至八成干时，再依次灌其他的颜色；完全干后，再一张张地精心勾画出人物、动物、花卉等纹样。如此染出的挂笺，颜色饱满、色彩艳丽、线条流畅、剔透灵秀，稚拙中兼有细腻，大气地表现出绘画与剪纸语言并用的独特魅力。
“角花”是用来装饰窗户、顶棚及其他地方的角部，和“窗心”“顶棚花”等组合使用，相互衬托。它的种类有：窗心角花、炕围角花、顶棚 角花、纸斗笸箩角花等。
还有一类小件的窗染花儿。胶东的小件窗染花儿，多是巧手们用剪纸剩下的小纸片来剪刻描绘的方寸窗花，有人物、瓜果、鱼虫、鸟兽、花卉、建筑风景等多种类型。小巧精细，且内容丰富集中，它们不受一般窗花的条件束缚，自有其独特的韵味。小件窗花能表现生活中常见的小景，家禽、玩猴、小狗、小猫，信手剪来妙趣横生。百姓称其为“棵”，一棵花、两棵花的可以自由结合，也可以对整个窗户上的窗花进行一番整体设计后组合，称为“一窗”。大棂子窗和长条或小方格棂子窗上，一般为8棵，上下各4棵，中心剪纸图案多以戏曲故事、四季花卉等条形窗心为主，周围配以相应题材的角花和任意组合的小件窗花，既鲜亮又和谐，美极了。
此外胶东的窗染花儿的种类还有许多：绣花样儿，办喜事（儿女婚嫁、小孩百日等）用的喜花（灯花、烛台花、鸳鸯花、勃勃花等），祭祀用的祭花（猪头花、猪蹄花、鱼花等），寿礼上用的寿花（寿桃花、佛手花等），节日（春节、元宵节、二月二、端午节、七月七、中秋节）使用的风俗剪纸，以及装饰使用的笸箩花、纸斗花（荣成威海一带叫笸箩云子）、顶棚团花、灶台花、炕围花、门帘花、绣鞋花、鞋垫花、肚兜儿花、童帽花、云肩花、枕顶花。总之，各种生活场合都可以看到窗染花儿的影子。
四、剪绘互映的窗染花儿
在胶东农家、渔户中，窗染花儿是土生土长的玩意。它的制作方法是：先画稿或熏样，以冒剪的形式剪出纹样的轮廓，叫做“坯儿”，然后再用毛笔在“坯儿”上勾画出相应的纹样。
画稿，胶东也叫“描样”，是窗染花儿的最初形态。主要有两种形式：一种是胶东巧手们自己设计的画稿，她们把平日里对生活的美好愿望，对大自然中美好事物的所见所闻，通过记忆和想象用笔描绘下来；有的粗犷、豪放，有的细腻、灵巧，各种纹样均显现了稚拙天真的艺术效果。另一种画样明显地显现出文人的墨迹，可能是由画家或文人起稿绘制的。据说莱州清代画家张士保，曾帮助妻子画过“八仙庆寿”“鹿鹤回春”等窗染花儿的样稿；他的学生刘鸿宾也曾精心画过“老鼠娶亲”的剪纸画稿，画样明显是以清末贵族富户嫁娶的排场为背景，用拟人的手法把抬嫁妆的、执事的、抬花轿的及各色吹鼓手等浩浩荡荡的“老鼠娶亲”队伍画了出来。文人画稿从内容和形式上均有别于传统样式，内容多是“博古供果”“山水建筑”“诗词歌赋”等。从保留下来的藏品看，这类画稿在山东烟台的蓬莱、福山、牟平等地区多有出现。那些小脚女人、小景建筑、童趣、虫鸟、文房，还有不爱红装爱武装的女学生，甚至20世纪60年代“紧跟毛主席的伟大战略部署奋勇前进”的宣传画，这些窗染花儿的画稿以及画家们来胶东采风创作的画样，从题材到内容无不体现了胶东文人与巧手们的聪明才智。他们不断地受新生活的感染，不断地剪出新人新事物。勤劳的胶东百姓在窗染花儿剪纸制作上，无论是简练粗犷的还是精致灵巧的，都能体现出山之绿润与海之轻柔的浓郁乡土气息。
熏样，胶东民间多用于拓制剪纸纹样，熏样是民间巧手传播剪纸纹样的主要方式。熏样的制作过程是找一块合适的纸，把要复制的窗染花儿样稿铺在准备好的纸张上，用清水喷湿铺平，再吸去明水，这时原样稿就紧紧地贴在纸上了。将纸反过后，在点燃的油灯或松脂、蜡烛的火苗上方慢慢地移动，油烟就熏在纸上同时把原样稿也熏黑，而后将其放在一旁，待晾干后慢慢地取下原样稿，纸上留下和原样稿一模一样的复形，就是熏样。 正是因为巧手们发明了这种最古老的“复印机”，才使那些传统的老样子得以原汁原味地保存并流传下来。讨得熏样后巧手就剪抠各种纹样的轮廓，精心勾画人物的眉眼、衣裳的皴褶及动物的翎毛、花草的叶瓣，再染上品色加以渲染就又做出了一件窗染花儿。窗染花儿的着色过程也很复杂，着色是先将画好的坯子用清水打湿，待干至七八成后，用白酒或沸水融化桃红、蓝、黄三种透明的品色（也有用 “色精”水彩、广告色或自己研制的矿物植物等颜色）平涂、点色、渲染出花卉、人物、动物、风景等纹样。
我们听听招远80岁的李氏老人对这些“宝贝”的感慨：“这些东西，俺快放了一辈子啦！俺除了刚当媳妇时贴了些日子，再往后就是过年过节的贴贴，大儿郎娶媳妇的时候用过几天，后来的这几十年俺再也没拿出来过。这年景，有谁还稀罕这营生！俺有时也想打开再看看它，可俺怕弄坏了，管多会儿也没舍得打开过。等俺死了俺还想让儿郎（儿子）把它和俺一起烧了呢，留着它年轻人也不稀罕，说不定哪天就给撕巴啦！”老人的担心是有道理的，如今胶东的农家小院多数已改成楼房别墅了，白墙红瓦、明窗净几，大扇的玻璃窗上, 有几十年见不到贴那些东西啦！有好几位老人说，这些染花儿连她们的孙子都没有见过，见了恐怕如今的年轻人也不懂得稀罕。今天，我把近20年来走遍胶东大地所搜集珍藏的近3万张民间剪纸中的窗染花儿精选出部分纹样，汇编成集，呈现给同好。在浩瀚的民间艺术宝库中本书只是沧海一粟，如能对你的学习、研究、借鉴、吸收有些启迪或帮助，我将感到无比欣慰，希望能有更多热爱民间艺术的朋友珍爱这些宝贝！^-^^-^Colored Papercutting
in Jiaodong
Guo Wanxiang
I. Colored Window Flowers on their Native Soil
In Jiaodong, at the mentioning of “colored window flowers”, the elderly would say: “In the old days, you could see them on the windows of every household.” Colored window flowers, locally called “colored flowers” or “window covers”, are usually referred to in academic circles as “half cut and half painted papercuts”, because they employ the languages of both painting and papercutting. They are part of ordinary life in Jiaodong, reflecting the themes from daily life and expressing the passion of Jiaodong people. A ballad prevalent in Mouping and Qixia of Yantai goes:
A piece of paper, flat and square,
Is where a window flower bears.
Mandarin ducks, geese, all in pairs,
On the hillside, a couple of hares.
Lambs grazing and bleating,
Kids playing and teasing.
They sing while cutting, in their pursuit of happiness and a bright future. Many talented rural women have been quoted saying: “as a girl I was good at papercutting. I could cut out figures speaking or singing.” Decorations for the bridal chambers at wedding ceremonies and for the courtyards on the New Year’s Day or other celebrations were usually when the dab hands showed their skills. Papercuts could be seen everywhere when the Lunar New Year came around, mainly in the form of window flowers and door curtains (also known as “hanging curtains”). Folklores, legends, drama stories, folk customs, birds and animals, and plants are all common subjects of colored papercuts.
Windows in Jiaodong used to be framed into square or rectangular lattices, on which white paper was pasted to let light through and to keep wind and rain out. During the lunar New Year or other celebrations, such windows were where colored flowers were pasted over the white paper which bloomed like real flowers under the sunlight, thus adding colors and a totally new look to the room.
Jiaodong is the cradle of an ancient civilization. As far as 7,000 years back, ancestors were already tilling the rich soil with their wise and busy hands. Located to the east of the Jiaolai River, Jiaodong is part of the Shandong Peninsula. Jiaodong County was established far back in the Qin Dynasty, which later turned into the State of Jiaodong in the Western Han Dynasty, then Jiaodong Prefecture in the early years of the Republican Period (1912-1949), and then Jiaodong Administrative Office during China’s War of Resistance against Japan (1937-1945) and the War of Liberation (1945-1949). Even though the time when Jiaodong stood either as a dependent administrative area or as an independent county or prefecture did not last long, subject to the influence of the Yin-Shang Civilization and the Qi-Lu Culture during the Warring States Period, Jiaodong gradually developed a culture with its own characteristics, which laid a solid foundation for the birth and growth of its unique papercutting art. Different geographic environments nurtured different cultures. Located between mountains and the sea, Jiaodong is an area where both farming and fishing thrive and people enjoy a relatively rich and leisurely life. This gives Jiaodong papercutting its unique style characterized by simplicity, mildness, and fineness, with papercuts expressing marine cultural themes being the most outstanding. Though its fundamental themes and styles have remained the same over the centuries, Jiaodong papercutting has adapted itself to the socio-economic changes. During the reign of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, travelling merchants brought New Year pictures from Tianjin’s Yangliuqing, Hebei’s
Wuqiang, Henan’s Zhuxian Town, as well as Shandong’s Weifang. The Laiyang County Chronicle records the local custom of pasting flowers onto lanterns and hanging colored paper on door lintels on the New Year or other festivals during the reign of Emperor Tongzhi. During the Qing Dynasty, the Zongjiazhuang New Year Wood-block Prints Workshop in Jiaodong’s Pingdu sold its pictures along with blocks engraved with contours for reproducing cutouts. In 1927, an American Presbyterian missionary enrolled 72 local women into Yantai’s Women's Bible School Presbyterian Mission, where they studied and cut window flowers in their spare time. The money from selling the cutouts supported the operation of the school. Also, in Yantai’s Yuhuangding, the missionary set up the first society of papercutters in Jiaodong and this helped inject new blood and vitality into this local art. In a word, Jiaodong colored papercutting owes its distinctive style to the combined influence from its natural environment, geographic conditions, folk customs, as well as its long-standing history and culture. Its development is also the result of the smooth interaction between men of letters and folk artists. These artists have even been referred to in different ways in different places, such as “dab hands”, “deft hands”, and so on. Over the years, the size of this group of folk artists has been fast growing and it’s a spontaneous appreciation of the beauty of life that has attracted the rural women to the making and dissemination of colored window flowers, aside from their daily toils and chores. Magpie and Plum, Dragon and Phoenix (happy marriage), Pomegranate with Numerous Seeds (blessing for more children), Butterfly in Peonies (happiness in love) and other cutouts with similar auspicious themes are usually a necessary part of the dowry when a girl prepares for her upcoming marriage. On the wedding day, these colored flowers naturally become objects of comments by her husband’s family and other villagers. Ms. Li, an 86-year-old from Zhaoyuan recalls: “As a girl, I used to attend wedding ceremonies, not for the purpose of seeing the bride, but to have a look at her cutouts. Whenever I saw any I felt good, I would secretly note it down and cut one myself for my own future wedding. That’s how I’ve collected so many patterns.” Wedding papercuts, or dowry flowers, best fit for wedding ceremonies, usually carry thematic designs, such as Dragon and Phoenix, Magpies and Plum, Phoenix and Peonies, Carps in the Lotus Pond, conveying blessings for happiness in marriage, while Mouse and Grapes, Kylin Brings the Son, and Pomegranate with Numerous Seeds, expressing wishes for more sons. Among them, Kylin Brings the Son used to be a must-have decoration for the bridal chamber. Even the singing scenes at wedding ceremonies have become a subject of papercutting.
In Fushan, Penglai and Laizhou, there used to be the custom for the bride to walk over a plate of cakes upon alighting from the sedan chair and the plate was usually covered with wedding cutouts, such as Goldfish and Lotus or Phoenix and Peonies, to convey wishes for happiness and harmony in marriage. In Mouping, the bride’s dowry used to include chairs, quilts and parcels, all representing good wishes. There was a time when even cupboards (pronounced guizi in pinyin, meaning “precious son”) became part of it, which is now replaced by leather cases. When the leather case reaches, the bridegroom’s father would use a rolling pin to prize lightly at the corners of the case as a symbol of reaching deep into a treasure bowl. This ceremony is followed by the nailing or hanging of the wedding curtain cutout on the door of the bridal chamber. Through the wedding ceremony, papercuts play an indispensible role, bringing a propitious atmosphere and pleasure as no other forms of art would have.
As the art of papercutting spreads, folk artists in Jiaodong have been doing their bits to enriching its forms and contents. But, as far as the patterns of design are concerned, gone are days before 1950s when local papercutters were so active. Nowadays, however, one needs to go into the farm houses and it takes more than a bit of luck for one to come across these precious single- or multi-colored cutouts and patterns preserved by one of the grannies. When I was lucky enough, I would sit down and listen to her story of how, as a girl, she had learned the art, how she made the cutouts and why. I would go further to inquire if she had trained any students as deft. What I cherish most are the stories and ballads hidden deep in their memories of papercutting, for these are the very intangible cultural heritages we are trying to preserve! I will regret it if I let them go.
II. Motifs and Themes of Colored Window Flowers
I) Portraits of Drama Characters
When there were neither movies, nor TV or any other modern media, watching dramas or variety shows, listening to storytelling, and doing the yangko dance used to be the major forms of public entertainment. From these, rural women acquired knowledge of history and Learned to tell what was good or evil and who was loyal or wicked. In the past, folk dramas were popular in Jiaodong. At temple fairs or traditional festivals such as the Lunar New Year, drama troupes were often invited. Drama performances were staged at weddings, funerals, birthday parties or other occasions, too. The better-off families would invite a theatrical troupe to mark the 100th day after birth of their children. From the former sites of drama stages scattered around Jiaodong’s villages, we can tell the once popularity and prosperity of folk dramas. The stories, characters and fighting scenes became a natural source of inspiration for rural women’s papercutting. This also accounted for the vividness of local papercutting patterns. As a result, stages, dramas, yangko dances and storytelling became most popular themes of Jiaodong papercuts. The heroes, emperors, kings, generals and ministers, as well as gifted scholars and beautiful ladies, all left indelible impression upon the rural people. The rural dab hands reproduced the expressions, postures, costumes and colors of the drama characters in form of simple and unadorned colored window flowers fashioned after traditional patterns and styles. Sunlight through the flower-covered window rendered the whole room brightly and auspiciously red. With the dramas staged on their room windows, they could admire their own proud cutouts while indulging themselves in their favorite stories. Then, neighbors, relatives and friends would come, to make copies and to pass them around. These exquisite cutouts would then travel far and wide, reaching thousands of homes. Drama-themed papercuts came in a rich variety. The cut-out portraits, alone, could feature singles, couples, octuples, or even multiples. And the themes were mostly based on The White Snake, Romance of the Western Chamber, The Butterfly Lovers, Third Madame Brings up her Son, Mulan, Xishi the Beauty, The Story of Susan, Lü Dongbin’s Three Tricks on White Peony and other popular folk dramas. The rural artists might seize any simple scene in a drama and represent it in their window flowers.
II) Homophonic Puns and Symbols
Folk artists tend to employ puns and symbols as a major technique of expression in their creation. Among them are: Wu Zi Deng Ke (The Success of Five Sons), Fu Lu Shou Xi (Fortune, Prosperity, Longevity and Happiness), Long Feng Cheng Xiang (Auspice of Dragon and Phoenix), Lian Nian You Yu (Lotus and Fish, pun for “lasting prosperity”), Lian Sheng Gui Zi (Lotus Bearing Seeds, pun for “birth of sons”), Jin Yu Man Tang (Gold and jade filling the home, or goldfish in a pool, pun and symbol for prosperity and wealth), Song He Yan Nian (Pine Trees and Cranes, symbols of longevity), Yu Xi Lian (Fish in Lotus Pond, pun and symbol for wealth), Pu Tao Sheng Zi (Grapes bearing seeds, symbol of blessing for birth of sons), Qi Lin Song Zi (Kylin brings the son, symbol of benediction for birth of a son), Xi Bao San Yuan (Magpie and Three Gold Ingots, pun and symbol of great future for children), Ping Sheng San Ji (Bottle, reed pipe and three halberds, pun and symbol for “promotion for three continual ranks”), and so on. Such cutouts can be as small as a tiny piece or as big as around 30cm in diameter. They can be pasted in left-right, top-bottom, or even circularly symmetric pairs, the finished products being well-composed and properly proportioned while allowing changes and seeking balance out of imbalance and harmony out of asymmetry. This gives rhythm and elegance to the composition of the window flowers. The Sweet Radish, for instance, presents a rosy red radish in symmetric and realistic colors, featuring two pairs of cross-cut leaf veins. On top of one pair stand a cricket and a mantis. Both symbols of peace and jubilance, the cricket, plump and gentle, and the mantis, slim and robust, look in perfect harmony. But, danger lies behind, for apparently, the mantis is preparing a deadly attack. Therefore, window flowers offer a special charm when they employ puns and symbols of daily things and objects in their thematic patterns.
III) Animals of the Chinese Zodiac
The twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac are another major theme of window papercut decorations. In the Chinese calendar, the twelve animals are associated with the twelve Earthly Branches (Zi子, Chou丑, Yin寅， Mao卯， Chen辰，Si巳, Wu午，Wei未，Shen申，You酉, Xu戌 and Hai亥) as a way to name the years. Hence, Rat charm(子鼠), Ox patient(丑牛), Tiger sensitive(寅虎), Rabbit articulate(卯兔), Dragon healthy(辰龙), Snake deep(巳蛇), Horse popular(午马), Goat elegant(未羊), Monkey clever(申猴), Rooster deep thinkers(酉鸡), Dog loyalty(戌狗), and Pig chivalrous(亥猪). Since ancient times, Chinese have denominated years using combinations of 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches to form sixty-year cycles. In the Chinese zodiac, one of the twelve animals is used to denote the year of a person's birth and this is called a person's shengxiao (sheng means the year of birth, xiao means resemblance) or shuxiang (animal of the year). Thus, a person born in the year of Zi is said to resemble Rat, and a person born in the year of Chou is associated with Ox. Shengxiao, usually called the twelve symbolic animals or denominations in Jiaodong, are held to be of great significance by many Chinese. In Jiaodong’s Rongcheng, people still observe the customs of making symbolic animals for their family members on the night of the Lantern Festival. Made with bean and wheat flour, the symbolic animals usually bear in their mouths money cut from golden or silvery paper, with shoe-shaped gold bowls (also made with flour) astride the backs. In the bowels, people set candles burning. Such animal lights usually are kept burning throughout the night, which is believed to offer protection and bring prosperity. Papercuts themed on the twelve denominations come in a great variety, usually in sets that feature both the figures and their symbolic animals. There are ones that describe figures astride their animals wielding weapons or holding up flags that carry the names of the animals. Around the animals, folk artists usually add auspicious clouds or flowers, thus presenting grand and magnificent scenes of mounting clouds and daring aspiration. Composition is varied of the twelve animals in colored window flowers. Judging from the patterns that passed down from the Qing Dynasty and the Republican Period, we can conclude that most early cutouts followed the upright bar type in a realistic style. Between 1930s and 1950s, traditional forms and compositions largely remained, though the style of cutting and the language of painting had taken on the changes of time. This is especially true in terms of coloring, onto which freehand brushwork was employed. In Qixia and Penglai, colors were even applied directly onto the base patterns of symbolic animal cutouts, thus reaching a very high level of perfection in coloring art.
IV) The Eight Immortals
The Eight Immortals in the Chinese legend are a major motif in birthday papercuts. Birthday celebrations begin for the old when their grandchildren are born or when they are at or over sixty years old. These come every year, a minor celebration every five years and a major one every decade. Such cut-out flowers, mostly with the Eight Immortals as the motifs, are hung on the screen wall facing the gate of the house or glued onto the windows of the rooms for the aged.
Legend has it that, after paying obeisance to the Queen Mother of the West at the Feast of Immortal Peaches for her birthday, the Eight Immortals travel east when they come to a choppy ocean. Lü Dongbin dares the rest of the group by saying “we’d better cross it rather than mount the clouds.” This is the famous story in the Chinese folktale describing the Eight Immortals crossing the sea. There are many versions of the story and, therefore, the Eight Immortals are represented in different ways in Jiaodong’s papercuts, such as the Eight Immortals Mounting the Clouds, the Seated Eight Immortals, the Eight Immortals astride Donkeys, the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, and the Drunken Eight Immortals. It is interesting to note that, in Jiaodong, there are cut-out patterns that feature seven or nine immortals. In spite of different interpretations, the images of the Eight Immortals are readily recognizable in the folk art. In the Chinese folklore, each Immortal can be represented by a tool of power and, together, these eight tools are called "Covert Eight Immortals" (暗八仙) . Their symbols are as follows: Zhongli Quan - a feathery fan; Iron-crutch Li - an iron crutch; Lü Dongbin - a sword; Lan Caihe - a basket of flowers; Elder Zhang Guo - a peculiar percussion instrument made of bamboo; Philosopher Han Xiang - a jade flute; Royal Uncle Cao - a pair of castanets; and Immortal Woman He - a wish-granting wand. These magical tools have also become favorite motifs in folk papercuts, architecture, embroidery, painting and handicrafts. Penglai is believed to be where the Eight Immortals crossed the sea. An eighty-eight-year-old papercutter claimed: “This is the very home of the Eight Immortals!” As in the case of the twelve symbolic animals, the Eight Immortals mostly come in sets and occasionally in singles or on corners, featuring them mounting clouds and each holding their magical tools. With the story describing their obeisance at the birthday party in honor of the Queen Mother of the West, papercuts of the Eight Immortals become a favorite decoration for birthday celebrations, enhanced by couplets, such as “Happiness deep as the east sea, longevity enduring as the southern hills”, or other designs, such as God or Goddess of Longevity, pines, and cranes, creating a bustling scene of good luck, happiness, and wealth.
III. Styles of Colored Window Flowers
Jiaodong paper cutouts feature a rich variety and most colored flowers are pasted on windows or the walls around windows and doors. They can be placed either onto the panes, the lintels, or the corners of windows, or hung atop. The flowers can be cut and colored either in whole or done in parts before being pieced and glued together.
The sizes of lintel decorations vary from 80 to 220 square centimeters. Mostly hung on the interior lintels of room windows, these cutouts feature a variety of motifs from folk operas and legends, such as Romance of the Western Chamber, Three Tricks on Peony, etc. Also included are patterns of animals and plants bearing homophonic puns such as Lotus Bearing Seeds and Pomegranate with Numerous Seeds, and those carrying festive themes such as Fish and Lotus and Magpie Chirping on Plum Branch. Cutouts in this category convey the wishes for happiness, health and longevity.
Papercuts pasted on the panes are usually cut in four, six, eight or twelve stripes according to the patterns of the latticework and then glued in order while avoiding the bars. The paned cutouts form a complete picture with the corner flowers, featuring varied themes, such as a sentence of benediction, a favorite scene from a drama, or vases describing the four seasons.
As a major variety of Jiaodong papercuts, hanging cutouts are a must for almost every household. Like paper curtains, they are pasted on the upper cross girders of doors or windows and they are expected to be firmly composed and well-connected between parts so as to withstand the weathering of wind and snow. People in Jiaodong have different names for such papercuts, such as door curtains, door hangers, colored paper, hanging curtains, hanging money, paper hangers, and flapping door money. The list never seems to end. Zhaoyuan County Chronicle notes that “On the New Year’s Day, golden or silvery paper is cut into money shapes and pasted onto the door’s lintel. Hence the term ‘door money’. When colored paper is used, the cutout, too, is shaped like money.” From this, we can well trace the origin of Jiaodong’s hanging decorations to earlier streamer-shaped headbands and ornaments cut out of golden, silvery or colored paper. Besides door and window cross girders, paper hangers are also glued onto the screen walls facing the gates of houses, carts, farm tools, cupboards, food containers, water vats, mangers, spinning wheels, looms, or just anywhere you could name it.
In Jiaodong’s Yantai, Mouping, Fushan, Qixia and Zhaoyuan, most paper hangers are half cut and half painted. First, the base pattern is scissor-cut before colors are applied and details sketched. At the beginning, only a couple of patterns could be produced. Later, folk craftsmen used special flat-head chisels to produce up to 100 copies at a time. In Zhaoyuan and Huangxian County, folk artists employ a special dyeing process by preparing pots of liquor or boiling water solvent stains into which patterns chiseled out of parchment paper or backing paper are soaked and left to dry. Usually, the patterns are dipped into yellow stain and nearly 80% dried before other colors are added. When the dyed base patterns get dry, contours of figures, animals, and flowers are sketched on. Such colored hangers feature flush and bright colors, gracious lines and compositions, thus best combining the charms of both painting and papercutting. Half cut and half painted hangers mostly take on square or rectangular forms, leaving margins on top and sides and tassels on the bottom. These cut-out and painted hangers, usually carrying auspicious designs and Chinese characters, are pasted on door or window lintels on festival occasions.
Corner flowers are used to decorate the corners of windows, ceilings or other areas of the house, in combination with pane and ceiling cutouts. Therefore, corner flowers usually include pane corners, bed corners, ceiling corners as well as bamboo basket corners.
Jiaodong also produces a rich variety of small colored cutouts made from tiny leftover pieces to present figures, fruits, fishes, insects, birds and animals, flowers and plants, as well as architecture and landscape. Delicate and thematic, such small cutouts are freehand creations out of limits on other varieties of colored window flowers. Folk artists can simply cut according to their hearts when they conceive patterns to describe their daily figures of poultry, monkeys, dogs, and cats. These artists usually refer to such small cutouts as “pieces”. One or two “pieces” of flowers can be combined to form a whole and complete picture, or rearranged and restructured to create a new “window”. Windows with big lattices, strips or small panes usually carry eight “pieces”, with four on top and four on bottom. The patterns are mostly themed on drama stories, flowers or plants in strips or panes, enhanced by correspondent corner flowers and small cutouts.
In addition, Jiaodong’s colored window flowers include a variety of other styles, such as embroidered cutouts, papercuts for celebrations (wedding flowers, lantern flowers, candlestick flowers, pork covers, and bun covers), sacrificial flowers (pig’s head and feet flowers and fish covers), birthday flowers (peaches of immortality and bergamot flowers), and festive flowers (for the New Year, the Lantern Festival, the Dragon-boat Festival…). There are also cutouts for pure decoration on bamboo baskets, paper containers, ceilings, tops of kitchen ranges, heatable brick beds, doors, embroidered shoes, belly-bands, hats, shrouds, pillows, or just anywhere.
IV. Cutting and Painting
of Colored Window Flowers
Colored window flowers grew out of the native soil of Jiaodong villages. The first step in making such cutouts is the preparing of the drawn or smoked pattern before an outline is cut to form the base pattern, on which brushwork is applied.
Pattern drawing, also called pattern tracing in Jiaodong, is the first step in papercutting. These patterns can be designed by either folk artists or educated people. Rural women tend to base more on their wild imagination and memories of daily life and their designs can be bold and unconstrained, or fine and delicate. Other designs clearly bear traces of education, most probably the result of collaboration between professional painters and scholars. It is said that in the Qing Dynasty, painter Zhang Shibao drew such patterns as The Eight Immortals and Spring Comes with Deers and Cranes for his wife. His student and painter Liu Hongbin once meticulously prepared the basic design for The Wedding of the Rats, clearly based on the wedding ceremony of some rich family at the end of the Qing Dynasty to present a bustling wedding scene with rats playing different parts such as the dowry bearers, the deacon, the sedan chair carriers, and the trumpeters. These “educated” designs differ in both form and content from their traditional counterparts to feature such subjects as virtu shelves, landscape, architecture, and poetry. Cutouts in this category can be found in Penglai, Fushan, and Mouping in Shandong’s Yantai, including such motifs as women with bound feet, architecture, birds and animals, stationery, girls in army uniforms, and even propaganda posters of 1960s. Their drawings and the sketches they made during their field trips in Jiaodong represent the wisdom and talents of rural artists and scholars in the region.
Pattern smoking is a traditional technique in Jiaodong for rubbing a copy of an original design and a major way for folk artists to publicize their patterns. The first step is to place the original draft design on a thin sheet of paper. Then, sprinkle it with water, press down evenly and remove surface water. Then, this is held upside down and moved slowly over the flame of an oil lamp or candle light until the paper gets smoked. When it is dry and peeled off, there remains on the paper a stencil underneath which is identical to the original design. Thanks to the creativity of folk artists in developing this ancient technique of “photocopying”, numerous traditional designs have been preserved till today. Based on the smoked design, other deft hands cut out their own patterns before adding brushwork to present the details, such as the looks of figures and the folds of their clothing, the plumes of animals, as well as the leaves of plants and flower petals. As the final step, colors are applied, which is a rather complicated process. Folk artists sprinkle the finished design with water and wait till it dries before painting or stippling such liquor or boiling water solvent transparent colors as pink, blue and yellow (or watercolor, poster color or dyes extracted from minerals or plants) to bring out the patterns of flowers and plants, figures, animals, landscape, etc.
We sensed her regrets when the 80-year-old granny Mrs. Li talked about her collection of papercuts: “I have kept these for almost all my life. They were once used for a while at my wedding, and later on some occasions such as the Spring Festival. When my eldest son got married, they were used for a few days. For the rest of the years, I have never shown them to anybody. Who would care about them these days? Sometimes I wanted to have a look. I just couldn’t help it. But I managed not to do that, as I was afraid they might be spoiled. When I die, I will get my son to burn them with me. Today’s youngsters take them for nothing. They may just tear them to pieces and trash them away. You never know.” The granny sure has her reason to worry. The once small rural cottages have given way to apartments or villas, with white walls, red tiles, and bright windows. Papercuts have disappeared from the casement windows for several decades. Even the grandsons of the granny, some old villagers added, have never had the chance to see her collection. Even if they do, who cares? That’s why I have here today compiled this book by selecting outstanding window decorations from the more than thirty thousand patterns I have collected over the past two decades. I sincerely hope that this tiny drop in the vast ocean of folk art will aid you in your study, research and other endeavors and that more and more people will come to love these treasures of folk art.
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