Have you ever thought about a small question, the United States has Barbie dolls, Russia has nesting dolls, Japan has SD dolls, then do we have our own characteristic dolls in China?
Yes, as early as the Tang Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago, we had the Chinese version of "Barbie", silk people.
I've heard of clay people, sugar men, and noodle people, but who is this silk man?
The Chinese version of "Barbie" is actually a funeral object?
The reason why the silk people are called silk people is that the silk people are made of silk yarn and silk from beginning to end from the inside to the outside.
Silken Jinling Twelve Dynasty Yuan Chun and Wang Xifeng Slippery woods
Tracing the origin of the silk people, the earliest can be traced to the Spring and Autumn Warring States period.
Archaeologists have excavated wooden figurines with fine wood carvings, lifelike eyebrows, and silk clothes in Changsha Chu tombs during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.
Figurines are substitutes for human martyrdom, serving the tomb owner underground, and the identity of the figurines before death is mainly the tomb owner's bodyguards, servants, cooks, singers, maiki, etc., and even includes high-status subordinates, pet concubines and close attendants.
It is precisely because the status of the figurines is reflected by wearing silk clothing. Therefore, there is an inextricable connection between the figurine and the silk man.
Therefore, the figurines are regarded as the rudiments of the silk man.
From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, figurines flourished in large numbers.
The "Puppet Man" in "Quan Tang Wen" introduces its production process: "Take carved wood as a play, Danpuzhi, clothes." Although he is brave, it is not easy to survive."
In addition to historical records, the funerary objects unearthed during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty are also evidenced by physical objects.
In September 1973, ancient tombs were discovered in the Astana area near Turpan County in Xinjiang, among which the tombs of Zhang Xiong and his wife in the Tang Dynasty were excavated, and "silk wood female dance figurines" and "official wooden figurines" were unearthed.
Among them, the "silk wood female dancer" wears brocade cedar, silk sleeves, a shawl, and a colorful floor-falling long skirt with a light gauze over the skirt.
Example diagram
The "official wooden figurines" are all dressed in yellow silk robes and black belts, and their posture is lifelike.
Tang Dynasty eunuch figurines, unearthed in 1973 in Tomb No. 206 of Astana, Turpan City
From the Song Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, figurines gradually went from underground to aboveground, transforming from figurines that entertain gods to dolls who entertain people.
The silk man has a second stage - puppets.
Silky art has become an integral part of folk festivals.
Folk artists in the Northern Song Dynasty could cut aya into people, cut into clothes, and cut human shapes.
A costume silk man produced by Beijing Costume Factory
In the Song Dynasty's "Tokyo Menghualu", there is "a colorful knot of Manjushri, Puxian, a lion, a white elephant, each pointing out the five ways of water with his hand, and his hand shaking... It ends with painted colors, and the characters are papier-pasted and played, hanging on the pole, and the wind moves like a flying fairy".
These records confirm that in the Northern Song Dynasty, silk molding technology began to be combined with paper tie and color tie, and it began to take shape.
In the Tang Dynasty, this silk sculpture art, known as "three-dimensional danqing", began to take shape.
In the Ming Dynasty, silk sculpture arts such as silk people, silk flowers, palace lamps, and "yarn lamps" are more prosperous.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were "flower works" among the various workshops set up by the imperial factories of the Internal Affairs Office.
During the Republican period, every time the people in the south of the mainland held the Dragon Boat Festival, it was also popular to make flat silk people to give to younger generations to ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters. In the north, silk, yarn, silk, and satin are cut and tied into old birthday stars and magu as birthday gifts for the elderly.
Tangrenfang silk people products Dunhuang flying tricks
Most of the images of silk people are ancient beauties, for example, from the ladies of the past generations to the twelve golden beauties of the dream of the Red Mansion, from Mu Guiying to the four beauties of ancient China, and so on.
The silk man's delicate expression, soft posture, fluttering dress, slender jade hands, and instant freeze frame condense the unique beauty of oriental women.
The silk man is dressed in exquisite ancient costumes, wearing delicate traditional hair buns on his head, wearing headdresses of different styles, elegant and delicate makeup, and a smile.
Most of the clothing and ornaments of the silk people from top to bottom are made of high-quality silk and silk yarn.
Can you make a little person out of silk and silk yarn?
From modeling to painting,
The entire doll and decoration are handmade
The silk man can be said to be born with a golden key, a natural nobleman.
Not only are they dressed in silk, but they hide this unique job with every move.
Only by looking closely at them and quietly experiencing them can you feel the unique charm of handmade.
Take the production of silk heads, first carve out a head mold with plaster, and whether the face shape is good or not depends on this head mold.
The head is also difficult to paste the process, which is divided into two layers.
a layer of knitwear with a scrape on top; Then paste a layer of silk, the silk cannot be crooked, and the silk man's head is straight to the top.
If you are not careful, the silk is always crooked, which will affect the effect of paste.
The degree of drying should also be precisely controlled, and in order to make the facial skin rosy and realistic, it is necessary to repeatedly blend when "applying makeup".
The operation is tedious and meticulous, but this is only the basic skill of making silk people, and it is the craftsman who uses time to hone the craft, and it is impossible to do otherwise.
Next, the silk man's hair is made of very fine natural silk, which is fixed with iron wire, and finally made into a bun.
It is said that it is easy to draw people and difficult to draw.
It is even more difficult to make a pair of smart and slender jade hands. This is also the core technology of silk making.
There are three major passwords for making silk hands: wire for bone, cotton wool for meat, and silk for sewn into finger sleeves.
The craftsman first uses 5 thin wires to tie the bones of the fingers, and then wrap them into the shape of the fingers with cotton wool.
The silk man's arms are framed with lead wire, and a trace of cotton is wrapped around to "increase muscle" and appear full, and then covered with gauze to form the skin, and red nails are carefully painted.
All this is done on silk fabrics that are less than 2 square centimeters.
Although the silk man is small, the process is very complicated, a total of more than a dozen processes, dozens of crafts, some of which are still secrets that cannot be disclosed to the public.
Real big heads, in "Sai Embroidery"
The striking thing about this work is the "embroidery" on the silk costume.
What is scebroidery?
Craftsmen do not need a stitch or thread to draw realistic and flexible patterns on the cloth, which is called "squeezing gold" in the jargon.
The embroidery on silk clothes generally appears on the cuffs, collars, skirts, wind belts, etc.
It takes half a month for an ordinary silk man to complete, and sometimes it takes years of work for more complex ones.
The third generation of silk people, Sliding Forest, also broke through the size limit of silk people, and the largest silk people in the past were only between 40 and 50 centimeters, but Sliding Forest doubled it to create a silk figure about 80 centimeters tall.
Part of "Pounding Diagram"
Today, silk people can still be seen, but because they are not easy to make, take too long, and are not easy to transport and preserve, this process is gradually moving away from us.
The silk man has already experienced the "disappearance" in history, but fortunately it is finally "resurrected" by the craftsmen of the silk man.
The misread "Chinese doll" is waiting to break the circle
In ancient times, these silk figures were taken outside the palace by the daughters of some royal families or ministers and entered the people.
Unfortunately, in modern times, there are frequent wars, people have a difficult life, and they have no intention to make these detailed work, which has led to the loss of silk craftsmanship for a time.
Fortunately, a later exhibition made the once extinct silk craftsmanship "reappear" and was injected with fresh blood.
It can be said that the silk craftsmanship is lucky, and its luck is not only to "show its face" again, but more importantly, it has transformed from a former court doll into a precious folk handicraft.
As an ancient work of art in China, the silk man has experienced from something to nothing, from scratch, and has poured the talents and ideas of countless folk artists.
The little silk man is like a small world, condensing the charm and depth of Chinese culture.
During the Beijing Olympic Games, the Q version of the silk man was given to international friends and ladies of many countries as a national gift.
During the Beijing Winter Olympics, the silk people entered the room of every athlete in the Olympic Village as gifts, and now, the Beijing silk people have been listed as national intangible cultural heritage representative items.
Can a doll really take on such a heavy responsibility?
In this era when art could be mass-produced, the silk figure that was completely sewn by hand still maintained its unique style.
What is revealed in the silk man is not only exquisite and gorgeous, but also the soul that folk artists give to the artwork, and it is this immortal soul that makes the silk man shine.
Resources:
1. Yesterday's story. Beijing Satellite TV
2. I'm crazy. Decipher the mystery in "Tinkering Diagram". This is Beijing. Beijing Satellite TV
3. The silk life of "Craft"
4. The First Institute of Cultural Relics Restoration