Kites originated in China, and the earliest kites were made by the ancient philosopher Mo Zhai. After the advent of the Chinese kite, it was quickly used for military needs such as transmitting information and flying over obstacles. During the Tang and Song dynasties, due to the emergence of the paper industry, kites were changed from paper paste, which was soon introduced to the folk and became people's leisure and entertainment toys.

Chinese kites have a history of more than 2,000 years. From the traditional Chinese kite, you can see the shadow of auspicious meanings and auspicious patterns everywhere. In the long years, our ancestors not only created beautiful words and paintings that embody the wisdom of the Chinese nation, but also created many patterns that reflect people's yearning and pursuit of a better life and imply auspiciousness.

It gives people the meaning of festivity, auspiciousness and blessing through the image of the pattern; It integrates the appreciation habits of the masses, reflects people's kind and healthy thoughts and feelings, and permeates the Chinese national traditions and folk customs, so it is widely circulated among the people and is popular among people.

With a history of more than 2,000 years, the kite has been integrated into the traditional Chinese culture, influenced by it, in the traditional Chinese kite, you can see this auspicious meaning everywhere: "Fu Shou Shuangquan", "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang", "Hundred Butterflies in Spring", "Carp Jumping Dragon Gate", "Magu Offering Longevity", "Hundred Birds and Phoenix", "Fish in a Year", "Four Seasons Peace" and other kites all show people's yearning and longing for a better life.

The auspicious pattern uses the images of people, animals, flowers and birds, utensils and some auspicious words, with folk proverbs, auspicious words and mythological stories as the theme, through metaphors, analogies, puns, symbols and homophony and other expressions, constituting the art form of "a sentence of auspicious words and a pattern", giving the meaning of seeking auspiciousness, eliminating disasters and avoiding difficulties, and entrusting people's wishes for happiness, longevity and festivity.

It integrates the scene and objects into one because of the metaphorical meaning and auspicious pattern, so the theme is distinct and prominent, the idea is ingenious, full of interest, and it is rich in unique style and strong national color. For example, a pair of phoenix birds flying against the sun is called "double phoenix chaoyang", which embodies people's healthy and upward enterprising spirit and pursuit of beautiful happiness with rich meanings and varied patterns. Chinese auspicious patterns are rich in content, and there are generally types such as "seeking blessing", "longevity", "festivity" and "auspiciousness", among which there are many patterns for blessing.

People have a common pursuit of happiness. Because of the homonym with "all over the blessing" and "all over the rich", although its image is not beautiful, it has been fully beautified and used as an auspicious pattern symbolizing "blessing". Kites with bat motifs abound, such as in the traditional Beijing sand swallow kite, represented by "Fu Yan", which can be painted with beautified bats on the entire hard arm. Other kites that take their meaning have "blessings in the blessings", "blessings in front of you", "five blessings for longevity", "five blessings for longevity", "blessings for longevity", "five blessings for longevity", "five blessings for longevity", etc., the Zhou Dynasty "Hong Fan" contains "five blessings": one is longevity, two is rich, three is Kangning, four is good virtue, and five is the end of life.

"Good virtue" means the virtue of the good, and "test life" means a good death, not a bad death. According to the meaning of the five blessings, blessings already include wealth and longevity. Other auspicious motifs for blessing include "fish" and "ruyi" (ruyi was originally a bamboo and wooden scratching stick, which was named because it could be used to achieve good results). The auspicious patterns related to this and the kite have "there are fish in successive years", "more than festive", "carp jumping over the dragon gate", "everything is good", "must be good", "peace is good" and so on.

Throughout the ages, people have wanted to live long and healthy lives. There are many patterns that convey and celebrate longevity: there are evergreen pines and cypresses, cranes and colorful ribbon birds that are said to be able to enjoy thousands of years of life, Ganoderma lucidum, which is said to be a hundred years old when eaten, and the fairy peach of the Queen Mother of the West, which can make people immortal.

There are more than 10,000 glyphs of the character "Shou", which pursues and expresses longevity, and the variations are extremely rich. Originated from Buddhism, the word "10,000" means "more than 10,000". In the sand swallow kite, the pattern on the waist is mostly the pattern of the word "10,000". The auspicious patterns and kites related to this include "auspicious clouds and cranes", "eight immortals and longevity" and so on.

Express people's good, happy and happy mood. There are many glyphs in the word "Xi", and "Xi" is a common festive pattern for people. Magpie is the "sign" of happy events, there is the word "Xi" in the kite, the kite touches, etc., and the related kites and auspicious patterns have "happy eyebrows", "double happiness eyebrows", "more than festive", "Fu Lu Shouxi" and "double happiness and blessing". Festive patterns are quite interesting as hundreds of butterflies, birds, flowers, bags, longevity, blessings, joy and other patterns, such as "birds and phoenixes". Happy marriage, harmonious husband and wife, there are mandarin duck pattern kites, etc.

Dragons, phoenixes, and unicorns are the wild birds and benevolent beasts that people imagine. The turtle was a symbol of longevity in ancient times, and was later replaced by a turtle back pattern. In particular, it is necessary to emphasize the topic of dragons, China is a country with dragons, and dragons have a special meaning in our country, dragons have the horns of a deer, the head of a cow, the body of a python, the scales of a fish, and the claws of an eagle, which is regarded as a symbol of ancient Chinese civilization.

The traditional auspicious patterns composed of birds, benevolent beasts and other objects include "dragon and phoenix are auspicious", "two dragons play with pearls", "colorful phoenix double flying", "hundred birds and phoenixes" and so on. Traditional Chinese kites, dragon head centipede long string kites, especially large dragon kites, are loved for their spectacular flying scenes and majestic momentum.

There are four main legends about the origin of kites. One is the hat and leaves; the second is sailboats and tents; The third is that the bird said; Fourth, Li Ye said.

Bucket hat is an ancient rain and heat protection equipment, when human beings from fishing and hunting to farming began to use, especially in the tropics and subtropics is essential, at that time the hat production is very simple, the tether is also made of local materials, with soft bark fibers. It is said that when a farmer was plowing, a strong wind suddenly blew and rolled up his hat, and the farmer hurried to chase after him and grabbed the tether.

It just so happened that the tether was very long, and the hat flew through the air like a kite. The farmer found it very interesting and used to fly hats for the villagers, which later evolved into kite flying. The leaves are said to have come from southern China. It is said that in ancient times, people worshiped the phenomenon of windswept leaves flying all over the sky, so they tied the leaves with hemp silk and other leaves to play, and gradually evolved into a kite flying activity. The Gaoshan people in Taiwan, China, and the Li people in Hainan Island used the leaves of the bread tree to make kites in the early days.

Wooden boats have been used for a long time, as early as 2000 BC, and later sailing boats. Legend has it that there was a sail on the ship when Yu, and the sail was a mechanical concubine with the help of the wind, so people imitated the principle of the sail and tied up the kite to fly. It is also said that kites originated in tents in the north, and that the earliest kites were made by people to imitate the phenomenon of tents flying in the air in the wind, and then gradually evolved into a kind of amusement activity.

Judging from the historical records and discoveries of ancient kites, one of the prominent signs of their structure, shape, and tie-painting techniques is that they are in the shape of birds. Therefore, it was concluded that the original kite was inspired by the flying bird, made in imitation of the flying bird, and named after the flying bird. People advocate birds, love birds, and make kites by simulating birds, which is people's pursuit of a better life.

It is only natural that kites were born from this. The kite originated in China, which is the unanimous conclusion of the world's kite community, and the earliest kite in China was made by the ancient scientist Mo Zhai. According to China's historical material "Han Feizi Foreign Reserve Said": Mo Zhai Julu Mountain (now Qingzhou, Shandong) "chopped wood for a harrier, three years to become, fly one day and defeat." "It means that Mozi studied for three years and finally made a wooden bird out of wood, but it broke down after only one day of flying. The "wooden harrier" made by Mozi is the earliest kite in China.

Chinese kites have a long history and superb skills, which have long been recognized by the world. However, when it comes to careful study, there is not much detailed information about Chinese kites, and even less information on the specific skills of Chinese kites.

Chinese legend Cao Xueqin's "Southern Harrier and Northern Kite Examination Gongzhi" is a monograph describing Chinese kite skills, but not only has not seen the full text of this book, but even whether this statement is true, whether Cao's does have a collection of works on the collection of scrapped arts, there is still a lack of sufficient circumstantial evidence, the academic community is still debating, there is no conclusion.

Other than that, there are some popular notations. For example, it is said that Song Huizong's "Xuanhe Kite Book" is an earlier one, but it has not been seen. The others are the scores collected by individual kite families or kite players, and some can be found.

Although these notations have their own limitations, they are valuable materials after all, among which it is worth mentioning that the book "Kite Spectrum" written by Jin Tiean in the 30s is more valuable, but the disadvantage is that there are no pictures, which may be due to the printing and publishing conditions and financial constraints at that time.

In addition to the "spectrum", China also has a valuable material material - "strip", that is, the standard bamboo strips used to make a certain kite skeleton, which are generally passed down from generation to generation in a large number of kite production families, such as the Beijing "kite Ha" family has a bundle of "strips" that have been handed down for several generations.

This makes up for the shortcomings of the "spectrum" that there is only a picture, no skeleton or only a skeleton without the change of the size and thickness of the specific bamboo strips, so that the transmission of kite skills is more complete. In addition to words, pictures and physical objects, the teaching of Chinese folk crafts mainly relies on "oral transmission", which is the "know-how" used in folk artists.

This is a "song" or "cut" used for memorization and secrecy. Due to the limited cultural level of the artist, these songs or cuts often have no words or words, or there are words and are invisible, and many are lost, modified, and mistaken in circulation. The discussion of kite art in China has mainly been handed down in the light of the above. The limited cultural heritage is used as a reference for the historical background, based on the existing traditional Chinese kites, and analyzed with scientific technology and flight mechanics principles, hoping that it can provide a little reference for the promotion and development of Chinese kite skills in the future.

The skills of traditional Chinese kites can be summed up in four words: piercing, pasting, painting, and flying. Abbreviated as "Four Arts". Simply understand the "four arts", that is, to tie a shelf, paste paper, paint flowers, and fly a kite. But in fact, the connotation of these four characters is much broader, and it contains almost all the technical content of traditional Chinese kites.

For example, "tie" includes: selection, splitting, bending, cutting, and jointing. "Paste" includes: selection, cutting, paste, edge, and proofreading. "Painting" includes: color, background, drawing, dyeing, and repairing. "Release" includes: wind, line, release, adjustment, and receiving. The comprehensive use of these "four arts" should reach the level of kite design and innovation.

In the month, in the open space of Chenghai District, Shantou, Guangdong, Chen Wangsong, the "King of Shantou Kites", flew a "dragon head centipede" kite more than 100 meters long, which brought a primary school student into the sky and realized the kite carrying people. This is not the first time Chen Wangsong has attempted kite records, and in the process of flying kites for 20 years, this farmer child has gradually found his place in life

Weifang folk kites, historically, are relative to court kites and craftsman kites: in modern times, they are relative to modern new kites.

Its features are:

(1) The makers of folk kites, most of whom are farmers and craftsmen, generally speaking, have no special training in the arts. They follow the self

Their intuitive feelings and aesthetic habits of life, unrestrained expression of ideals and wishes, their kites, whether it is shape, materials, color configuration and production style, all have a strong local flavor.

(2) Most of the folk kites are made in combination with the traditional festivals of Qingming Festival and Double Ninth Festival, so their themes are selective and the form is decorative.

(3) Folk kites are generally made of local materials, scorned with paper paste, and are not very particular, but the style is rough and not pretentious.

(4) Folk kites are affected by regional culture, economy, customs and habits, and often observe and consult with each other in the production, coupled with ancestral and hereditary factors, so folk kites have the color of ancient traditions, and are actually a kind of collective creation.

As a result of the emergence of the kite business, full-time kite craftsmen came into being. In the history of Weifang, even many well-known painters also participated in the drawing and even design and production of kites, so that there are very exquisite boutiques in Weifang kites. Of course, these boutiques are not affordable or affordable for ordinary people, and the rich people who buy these kites often make requests and order them to artists, which is the situation that the proverb that has been handed down says "seven points of master and three points of craftsman".

In addition, during the replacement of the old and new dynasties, some court kite artists went to the people, which also promoted the development and improvement of the craftsman kite, making it have the solemn and luxurious characteristics of the court kite. The traditional craftsman party has played a good role in promoting the development of Weifang kite, which has made Weifang kite from a general toy to a valuable handicraft and become an important part of Weifang's local culture.