Spring leaves, a name related to spring. This kind of paper scattered leaves are decorated with F Xinghe, and they are attached to the lemon head flying part of the corridor, which can dress up the New Year's flavor in colorful colors and colorful flags with hunting.

The Spring Festival is approaching, Tongwei County from Xiguan to the square on both sides of the road, full of all kinds of New Year's goods, melons, fruits, vegetables and vegetables, sugar, tobacco and wine, Spring Festival couplets and blessings, each stall presents a similar festive. Kilometers of street markets are only allowed to appear before the Chinese New Year. This scene is similar to that of all parts of the country. In the couplet array, there is also a commodity similar to paper flags, which is a unique "New Year's goods" belonging to the Tongwei people, which is difficult to find in the world. Its name is Haruba.

Spring leaves, a name related to spring. This kind of paper leaves are used to decorate the house, and are attached to the rafters of the eaves, which can be used to dress up the New Year in colorful colors and colorful flags.

Spring leaves, more like the "leaves" that grow from the rafters in the harsh winter, are waving in the wind, indicating that spring is coming. Spring leaves, also known as spring tassels, are also called wind money. The meaning of spring tassel roughly refers to the spring leaves attached to the lemon head flying part of the house, like the ancient crown belt. It is called wind money, which is better understood, and the appearance of spring leaves is composed of money string graphics, implying that spring purple air comes from the east, coins fall from the sky, and the new year has a bright future.

Most of the vendors selling couplets on the streets of Tonghua sell spring leaves, but the products of the vendors are basically from the hands of the Liu Tian people in Xiguan. Xiguan Liu's production of spring leaves has a long history, especially Liu Shengyu is the most famous.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, there are only three stalls belonging to the Liu family, which stretches for several kilometers on the eve of the Spring Festival, which are connected to the edge of the county square. Liu Shengyu's stall was blocked behind a large billboard, the most inconspicuous, "this place sells half goods less than others", Liu Shengyu's son could not hide his complaints.

On the 29th day of the lunar month, it has been nearly a year. At the last stall, the enthusiasm of the stall owners to sell New Year's goods gradually dissipated due to the decrease in customer flow. On Liu Shengyu's stall, the spring leaves have been basically sold out, and there are still a large number of Spring Festival couplets and door gods hanging or spread in the push position. The sun sets early in winter, less than half past five, and the light has been ready to be buried in the mountain city outside the city. A netizen dressed as a city guy approached the booth and said, "I want some spring leaves." "This small one can be installed for you, and the larger one can only be made and not sold." The visitor was a little annoyed when he heard it, "It's so annoying, buy it elsewhere." ”

He patiently treats the last customer of the Year of the Monkey. The tasting continues. He doesn't buy much of it. Another ragged peasant came to Liu Shengshen, but it took a long time to buy. In front of the row, he pointed at Chunye and went to the stalls of Liu Shengyu's nephews. Liu Shengyu with his wife and son.

Bo cell is approaching. The shabby-dressed old peasant left the square of the county seat when he left the square of the county seat in the past year, regardless of whether the enemy was good or bad, walking in the world at the end of the year, and the handful of spring leaves in his hand contained his hope for the future. At any time, life can only move forward better if we are full of hope for the end.

Tongwei spring leaves, unique. Along with the spring leaves, there is also a face covering. The cover is larger than the spring leaves, and it is attached to the door cap, and some people will also stick it on the stove god and the god of heaven. Spring leaves, shades and window grilles are all paper-cut works, but the paper-cuts are cut out with scissors, while the spring leaves and shades are carved with paper chisels. In Longzhong, the paper money used to pay tribute to the dead is carved with a semi-circular paper chisel in pairs to form a circular pattern. The engraving process of spring leaves and face covering is the same as that of engraved paper money molds, except that there are more types of paper chisels, wider flower types, and more delicate body shapes.

Longzhong paper-cut works represented by window flowers and paper fires, where there is a festive wedding or a funeral scene of memorial, are widely used to express sad and joyful emotions, but spring leaves and face covering can only be pasted during the New Year. Different from the meaning of spring leaves, face covering is said to be a piece of cloth or paper hung by people to prevent people from "colliding" with the gods or ancestors when worshiping the gods and ancestors, and later evolved into a festival decoration for people to look forward to auspiciousness, health and a good harvest.

It is said that in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the town was passed on by Henan merchants, and then integrated the local folk culture and aesthetic taste, forming its own characteristics, and then prospering the urban and rural areas of the county.

A legend: "In the Song Dynasty, a Tongwei student entered Beijing to catch the exam and failed to take the exam. Tongwei also has a man according to what he has seen and heard in the capital, imitates coins with paper, and makes money strings, and the candidates paste the spring leaves on the eaves, implying that their own lines form spring leaves, and a small spring leaf is just strung into 28 taels of silver. There is no shortage of money. ”

In the work "Dream Lianglu", which describes the customs and characters of Anhua, he writes about Lichun, "Lei City is decorated with flowers. Sitting on the small spring cow, and the spring width, the spring victory, each offering the bequest and your house will show the omen of abundance. Fortunately, the ministers all drank gold and silver and regretted hanging on the die, and the people congratulated him. ”

"The omen of abundance with spring flags" seems to be very similar to the Tongwei New Year's posting of spring leaves and covering faces. There is still such a folk proverb in Tongwei Maying: "Spring leaves are thick, wheat is more", which means that the spring bucket will be posted in the New Year, and the wheat harvest will be harvested in the coming year.

It can be inferred from this that Tongqing Chunye's "Henan merchant heirs" is more powerful and credible. At present, it is concluded that Chinese paper-cutting originated in the Han Dynasty, and the Central Plains region, which represents the period of "China", must be the birthplace of paper-cutting culture. As a variant of paper-cutting, the spring leaves are a variant of spring flags, and it is a matter of luck that the local people's life hobbies and aesthetic interests are integrated into Tongdong.

Every year on the tenth day of the lunar month, the Chinese lunar calendar enters the small year, from this day on. Chinese have basically started the New Year mode, from this day, Liu Shengyu's spring leaves, face covering sales also officially debuted, the success achieved in a short period of time, is the work of him and his family.

Every year in June, covering the face, a knife paper 100 sheets, Liu Shengyu has to buy the best rice paper early, plan to make spring leaves, fold and cut in half, and first cut out the paper for covering the face. "When the cut must be at a time, each artist can be based on self-knowledge and creation and there is no law, coordination is the current long-term family to close the heart and mind, and the artist's spring leaves, the size of the mask, open knowledge for customers to choose. When spring leaves and face covering, 12 sheets will be made separately binding, making large, medium and small three types of plates, 12 sheets are the limit of rice paper staining and penetration, and the cut paper is formed as a waste product. Liu Shengyu said, "In the past, there were more than 12 bindings, and paper nails were used for spring leaves and masks that could not be adjusted, but now with a stapler, it is much faster." ”

The paper I ordered went into the next process: engraving. The engraving link is the key process of spring leaf production, and the drawing, pattern, and style are all finalized in this link. The center of the mask pattern is mainly peony and flower, and the edge is decorated with pomegranate, bergamot, peach and plum blossom, Guan Qian and other patterns. There are four types of masking composition: diamond-shaped combination, scattered combination, left and right symmetrical upright, and up, down, left and right, straight contrast, mixed martial arts. Symmetry is the value orientation of the solemn and elegant style of Chinese culture in various art forms, and the face covering is no exception. Combined with the main holiday pattern, the mask is often accompanied by Fu Lu Suxi, auspicious Ruyi, spring full of garden and other words that imply ancient auspiciousness, some of them are designed to be four-character idioms in the mask, and some only put a big blessing word in the mask. The degree of proportion and coordination between the characters and the pattern directly reflects the artist's craftsmanship. Compared with the mask, the composition of spring leaves is relatively simple, usually carved with money slips and braids in the upper part, any words in the auspicious language of Fulu Suxi engraved in the middle, and apricot petals are engraved on the upper and lower parts of the font; The lower part is carved with upside-down ears of wheat to pray for a good harvest. The large spring leaves are made up of the lines of the five wishful clouds. The composition is composed on the basis of the small surface leaf, and between the upper and lower parts of the upper and lower parts are added with a Buddha's hand, and the lower part is carved out, forming a money empty shape. Spring leaves, all the patterns of the face, all rely on the artist with a mallet like a paper chisel, a knife to hit the knife is easy to let the pattern connect that break, each knife can not be too strong, not too light, force a kind of texture, the word of the paper corner has a total of nearly 20 kinds of "in the shape of the name of the fast." Wide. City, country. Fang's force is lighter, the paper is not engraved, and the money cannot be empty. Deal with the flattened, coarse.....

Liu Sheng, Yu Yu and his son. The wife planted a lease to play T to carve a total of more than a dozen spring leaves on paper, and the time has entered October. The process finally entered the dyeing link. "Now it's very convenient to buy pigments, and before there were no ready-made pigments, so you had to mix them yourself. Grass ash and egg white were once the basic colors of blending pigments. ”

The dyeing process and the engraving process are all based on experience. Liu Shengyu's spring leaves and face covering are mainly bright red and purple colors, highlighting the dazzling colors and color contrast. "The heart of the flower is yellow and white, then green, then red, then yellow, then red, and finally sky blue. The main thing is that the pattern should be distinct, and the color should be distinct. Liu Shengyu summed up the experience of easy operation of the most critical flower dyeing. For the colorful pigments, first dip the feet with a brush, and then press with your fingers to intensify the pigment infiltration. The brush is dotted, the fingers are pressed, and between the priorities and urgency, it is the trick of experience. "Every day I press the pigment, my fingers hurt."

Some complex color coverings need to be dyed many times to complete, and they must be "dyed with one color and hung on one side to dry, and then put on another color, assembly line dyeing." ”

White is the natural color of rice paper, and in the spring leaves, the shade of the mask is connected in series to cut the key color of other bright colors. Just the right amount of white space retains a trace of elegance and leisure in the thick and intense, and it is gorgeous and bright.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the Jiao family of Maying Jiao Powan made spring leaves, masks and other New Year's goods such as New Year's pictures all year round, and wholesaled them to traders all over the world. In the 190s, spring leaves and pavements were not allowed to be sold on the market, and the production became extinct.

In 178, after the reform and opening up, Wang Dingguo and Jingdi Guangzhong of Dongguan Village, Mazhen gave spring leaves. Suffering from the west opens, this breaks the way to open energy. Subsequently, a large number of artists in various towns and villages of Tongde also appeared, and the production of spring leaves and face covering sales gradually revived. It is said that the earliest descendant of spring leaf production in Pingxiang Town is called Wei Yang Liu Shengyu's creation of the two zodiac theme Yibai

Yu continues to innovate and become more than 9 kinds, "old-fashioned Fu Cheng Shou Xi mask, the font is very clear, but the pattern is missing." Not the American standard, some traditional plate type retired, after improvement, increase the pattern. ”

After selecting the provincial intangible cultural heritage inheritor, Liu Shengyu set a goal for himself, to create a set of twelve lives as a mask before his death.

His plan is that each zodiac sign will be covered with an idiom that reflects the characteristics of the animal. Twelve zodiac signs, twelve idioms, Liu Shengyu, who only has a third-grade education level in primary school, is facing a great test: in addition, covering the face is an important duty to cover the fierce in the people, and there is another layer of more special tests at the spiritual belief level.

In order to realize this ambition, Liu Xingyu did his homework. In addition to strengthening the elements of traditional culture and zodiac, each genus has done research, cultural research, and even the method of asking God to ask for hexagrams has been released into his creative ideas, "Combined with traditional culture, countless times, countless times." Xiao combined the character characteristics of each county and could be elegant and vulgar, and asked in front of the yang, and the temple calculated. "To know a life and easy to send Gao Xiangle idiom, Liu Sheng pushed the picture, repeatedly revised until satisfied. The skin is raw, and the back face is equipped with a diversion in a different flower head. The sexual meeting and the reunification of "the immortal open the sky, the spring cow sends blessings, the tiger is prosperous, the jade rabbit is auspicious, the dragon wind is different, the golden camel is auspicious and the three halves are opened, and the horse is successful, and it is safe." Golden Rooster Annunciation, Tianda Baoyuan, + Living Treasure", Liu Shengyu finally completed this set of zodiac pasta in the summer of 2010. Liu Shenghui spent nearly two years, which was much earlier than he expected, "My set of works is a reward for the country's protection of spring leaves and covering my face, and I must be grateful for the country's Sichuan will." ”

Spring leaves are a piece of nostalgia

Endless loess, endless mountains. Tongwei is located in the hinterland of the Longloess Plateau, which is the most water-scarce area in China. The harsh natural conditions have raised the threshold for survival here, and all the people who insist on living on this land have paid perseverance and forbearance beyond ordinary people. As an area where agriculture nourishes and lives, people's affection for the land is even deeper than that of the land itself. Despite the poverty of life, the people of Tongwei advocate the purity of the spiritual world. The special geographical environment has created a special humanistic quality, and the teachings of cultivating and reading heirlooms are all over the urban and rural areas. Casually break into a corner of the mountain township, the "ploughing and reading brother" font on the farmer's plaque is vigorous and long, and some people summarize the "folk customs are pure and ancient" here. Advocating cultivation and reading heirlooms, the preference for spring leaves and covering faces also reflects the love and awe of Tongwei people for culture.

Liu Fuding's home is in the southwest of Tongwei, and for as long as he can remember, every year before the Chinese New Year, his father would buy spring leaves from the county seat 50 kilometers away or from the horse camp 30 kilometers away. On the afternoon of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, my father was busy pasting the Spring Festival, moving a ladder from himself and his younger brother, climbing the eaves of the three-sided tiled houses in the earthen courtyard, counting the sound of firecrackers one by one. Ran into thousands of households.

The spring leaves of the exhibition quietly pass the custom of the table leaves: "Spring should replace thousands of old families, and the lanterns reflect the new of thousands of homes." Into the small courtyard of the farmhouse,

Someone summed up Tongwei

There is a peaceful farming day dry, and Liu Fudai gradually grows up in the replacement of spring leaves. Life is excessively hard, and people are eager to get out. In the 1990s, by chance, Liu Fuhei got the opportunity to relocate to Xinjiang, and he moved to Xinjiang with his wife and children. Xinjiang is compared with Tongli. Almost the difference between heaven and earth, the convenient production and living conditions allowed him to quickly get rid of the difficult days. However, the improvement of living standards has not annihilated his childhood memories, and many customs and habits have long become living habits, which are difficult to abandon.

One year before the Spring Festival, he called his younger brother who stayed in his hometown and begged him to send some spring leaves to Xinjiang, and the folk customs of Longzhong were sent to the Western Regions a few kilometers away. Liu Fuding's neighbors in Xinjiang have never seen the eaves of the house: the practice of sticker marriage is regarded as a rarity. Since that year, every year in the lunar month, Liu Fuding's younger brother will take a car to the county seat, buy some spring leaves from Liu Shengyu, and send them to his brother in the distance. It is not only a local custom, but also a deep brotherhood, a spring leaf, a leaf of nostalgia.