Archive for category Chinese Arts & Crafts
New Year Picture – Nian Hua
Posted by ancient chinese culture in Chinese Arts & Crafts on August 28, 2010
New Year Picture, also called “Nian Hua” in Chinese, is one of the unique traditional paintings in China. It is a kind of Chinese folk craft which boasts decorative and appreciative values of Chinese people. It is also the reflection of Chinese history, faith and culture.
The history of New Year Pictures can date back to the period of the Han Dynasty (202BC~220). Its original form was a picture of a door god. Later, in the Song Dynasty (907~1279), New Year Pictures was popular and widely spread. During the period of the Qing Dynasty (1636~1911), it was formally known as the New Year Picture.
The four famous New Year Pictures respectively comes from Tianjin Yangliuqing, Suzhou Taohuawu, Shandong Weifang and Hebei Wuqiang. The subjects of the New Year Picture are divided into several categories: secular lifestyle, historical fictions, myths and legends. Among them, Legend of the White Snake, God of wealth have been prevailing across China for a long period of time. Famous pictures like “Surplus Every Year”, “Fat Baby” are also quite popular.
Regarded as the symbol of Good luck and happiness, it is usually updated once a year just as its name suggests. People usually paste it during the Spring Festival, meaning “say goodbye to the past and welcome the future”.
Chinese Batik
Posted by ancient chinese culture in Chinese Arts & Crafts on August 22, 2010
Batik, also known as laran or laxie in Chinese, is an ancient folk handicraft for fabric printing and dyeing in China. Together with tie dyeing and stencil printing, batik is known as one of the three Chinese printing techniques. Batik also has a special feature called “Ice patterns” due to the characteristic of wax of cracking.
The history of batik can date back to the period of Qin and Han Dynasties (221BC~220). In Sui and Tang Dynasties (581~907), it was quite popular. Batik technique is handed down from generation to generation in the area of southwest ethnic minorities, especially in Guizhou Province, the hometown of batik.
There spread a story about the origin of batik. The story goes that, in Miao (one of the ethnic minorities in China) cottage, a girl was not satisfied with the pattern of her clothes. One day, the girl dreamed that she was led by a flower fairy to a flower garden. Flowers there are so beautiful that they attracted the girl and also the bees. However, when she woke up, honey and beeswax were found on her skirt. After washing the skirt, she found various white flowers appeared on it. From then on, the method was adopted to make clothes and people named it Batik. It soon widely spread and many ethnic minorities mastered the technique.
The batik goes through three steps: making knots, dipping and dyeing, and drying in the sun. At the process of making knots, dipping and dyeing, people have no idea what the cloth will look like exactly. However, after that, miracles appear: Surprising and unexpected patterns appear on the cloth.
The batik shows the various patterns with white flowers on a blue ground or blue flowers on a white ground. Nowadays, other colors including red, yellow and green are added into the batik, which formed the multicolor batik. The designs are quite rich and colorful. Most of them are taken from the daily life or folktales.
Wine Vessels
Posted by ancient chinese culture in Chinese Arts & Crafts on August 9, 2010
In different historical periods, there exist various wine vessels. The development of the wine vessel coincides with the economic development in ancient China. It has a long history of more than 7000 or 8000 years.
Generally speaking, its development has experienced five stages:
The first stage is the New Stone Age (about 8000 years ago) – Pottery wine vessel.
The second one is the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties (2033BC? ~771BC) – Bronze wine vessel. A large number of great works appeared during this period, such as the Four Sheep Rectangular Zun.
Then the next stage is the period of Eastern Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties (770BC~220) – Lacquer wine vessel. Later, the porcelain wine vessels also appeared at this period.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties (581~907), wine vessels made of Gold and silver wine vessel, which looked really brilliant, emerged and became popular later.
The last stage is during the period of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties (960~1911) – Porcelain wine vessel was in the mainstream status, while the vessels made of gold and silver were relegated to a secondary position.
Kongming Lantern
Posted by ancient chinese culture in Chinese Arts & Crafts on August 6, 2010
Kongming lantern, also called sky lantern, is the first hot air balloon invented by Zhuge Liang, a famous military strategist in ancient China.
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During the period of Three Kingdoms (220~280), Zhuge Liang was trapped in Pingyang (a city in ancient China) and he could not go out for help. However, Zhuge，who was good at measuring wind direction, made a floating paper lantern to send out a message for help. Before long, he was saved by the army who received his lantern. Later, people call it kongming lantern as Kongming is the style name of Zhuge Liang.
Kongming lantern consists of bamboo frames, the oiled rice paper and a small candle. The frames are covered with oiled rice paper and the small candle inside the lantern. When it is lit, the air inside the lantern is heating rapidly, thus the reduce of the density for the air inside causes the lantern to rise into the air.
In ancient China, kongming lantern was usually used in wars. While nowadays, it is used for expressing the best wishes, especially on Mid-Autumn and Lantern Festival. People of all ages are interested in writing wishes on the surface of the lanterns. Kongming lantern is regarded as a symbol of “harvest success” or “well-being year after year”.
Scented Sachet
Posted by ancient chinese culture in Chinese Arts & Crafts on July 23, 2010
Scented sachet, also called fragrant bags or xiang nang in Chinese, is a small fabric bag containing various herbs and spices (especially bay leaf, thyme, parsley stems, and black peppercorns). It is also known as the native embroidery art and craft, which is used for absorbing sweat, repelling insects, removing evils, etc.
Qing Yang scented sachet is known as the earliest sachet, which originated in 2300 BC. Qi Bo, the author of Huang Di Nei Jing, a seminal text of ancient Chinese medicine, had carried a bag full of herbs to prevent the plague and snake venom. That bag was the original form of scented sachet. As Qi Bo was born in Qing Yang, later, wearing scented sachet during on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar became the custom in Qing Yang. Ancient Chinese believed that it would avoid evil and disaster and brought good luck and happiness. As time went by, it became popular among all the Chinese. The oldest existing scented sachet also has a history of more than 800 years.
For a long period of time, it was a custom of underage boys and girls to wear scented sachets. Later, it became something unique to women. It gradually became a love token in the Qing Dynasty (1636~1911). The cachets with the patterns of double fish or double butterfly are the most popular ones.
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