Before and after the Qingming Dynasty, getting rid of the cold weather, it is a good time to go out and fly kites. In most people's world, the colors are the colors of kites, the colors of spring, and the colors of hometown and childhood in memory.
"The kite season in my hometown is spring and February, and if you hear the rustling of the wind wheels, you can look up and see a pale ink crab kite or a tender blue centipede kite." In the essay "Kite", the kite in the sky of Beijing reminds Lu Xun of his childhood past, and his little brother often "opens his small mouth and stays in the air to see the gods", and even "exclaims" and "jumps" for others.
In fact, in addition to the entertainment function, kite design, modeling, paste, painting, flying and other aspects, so that the traditional craft in a living form in people's daily life, reflecting folk life and folk aesthetic tastes, to achieve the inheritance of culture, has become a often said new topic.
"The earliest flying machine is a Chinese kite"
Kites have existed in the mainland for two thousand years, and are also known as paper kites and harriers, as an entertainment activity that has nothing to do with food and clothing, kites can be circulated in small-scale peasant society for thousands of years, which shows its vitality and influence. Folk art expert Pan Lusheng concluded, "As a cultural folk art, it reflects the characteristics of art, as a folk art of life, it reflects the characteristics of folklore and society", after thousands of years of development and precipitation, kites have long been integrated with the lives of Chinese people and Chinese civilization.
Tracing the origin of the kite, it was made by ancient ancestors to imitate the eagle flying in the air, and it first had the function of military reconnaissance. "Mozi" wrote: "The male loser cut bamboo and wood to think of magpies, and flew into it, and did not go down for three days", and the exhibition hall of the Washington Air and Space Museum wrote that "the earliest flying machine of mankind is China's kite and rocket". It was not until the Tang Dynasty that kites gradually evolved into an entertainment activity, "folding bamboo for mud swallows, adding silk and putting paper kites", and then more and more tricks. In the Song Dynasty, there was a special way to play, when flying kites, deliberately let the silk threads of the kites be entangled together, which kite's silk thread was first broken, the owner of the kite lost the game, and the people recorded: "The young man on the bridge, competing with the paper kites, to seduce each other, to tie each other, to the line is negative"; in the Ming and Qing dynasties, from the court nobles to the common people, the kite as an entertainment activity in spring, more prosperous, the popular verse "Grass long warblers fly in February, whisking the embankment willows drunk spring smoke." Children return from school early and are busy taking advantage of the east wind to release paper kites", it is from the Qing Dynasty poet Gao Ding.
The kite has been carefully drawn by the craftsmen, which is very artistically beautiful, riding the wind, floating freely in the air, and the natural beauty and artistic beauty are integrated, becoming the subject of the literati and inkers competing to sigh. From the Tang Dynasty "to whom to praise the beautiful scenery, just sigh the years." Don't fly high, look back at the paper kite", to the Song Dynasty", "Yuyu Creek water skimmed the embankment, idly watching the village boy Xie Wanqing." Bamboo horses rush to the water, paper kites sing in the wind", and then to the Qing Dynasty "spring breeze swaying in the spring city, idle children to release paper kites", in the pen of the elegant literati, kites symbolize freedom, symbolize childlike fun, soaring in the enchanting sky. In addition to poetry and song, kites are also frequently seen in paintings and porcelain. The Southern Song Dynasty court painter Su Hanbei's "Hundred Sons Diagram" and the Ming Dynasty painter Xu Wei's "Wind Iris Diagram" creatively integrated kites into the picture conceived by the painter. The late Song Dynasty "Baby Play Kite Diagram" porcelain pillow, the Ming Dynasty blue and white boy kite pattern porcelain plate and the Doucai kite pattern porcelain cup, the Qing Dynasty multicolored kite diagram porcelain bowl, these cultural relics that have been handed down to the present day will be painted in the kite exquisitely. If painting and colored porcelain belong to the art of the court nobility, then the frequent appearance of paper kites in Yangjiabu woodblock prints can confirm the status and popularity of kites in folk art.
Much more than just viewing and entertainment value
The kite's wide circulation area and long development history in the land of China, such an activity with both mass foundation and artistic aesthetics, is by no means relying solely on ornamentation and entertainment to support its journey through thousands of years of history and into thousands of households. If the kite is simply treated as a folk plaything, it is a big mistake.
Tang Jianjun, associate professor of cultural industry management at Shandong University, believes that kites contain multiple concepts such as culture, art, sports, science and technology, and nationality, and are a complex complex. "The kite condenses the folk way of life, ideological beliefs, and aesthetic tastes, and its emergence, development and evolution are closely related to the characteristics of the local natural environment, the level of productivity of the times, and the economic and cultural policies of a specific period."
In ancient times, it was widely believed that kites also had the effect of health and fitness. Winter to spring, all things recover, facing the harmonious spring wind, breathing the air with the aroma of grass, people go to the wilderness, feel the vitality of spring back to the earth, pull the silk thread, run on the wilderness, let the kite ride the wind, look up at the kite soaring in the sky, leave the worldly troubles behind, the ancients cloud "greet the sky smoothly, pull the line to concentrate, send the disease with the wind, and go to the disease."
In the traction of the silk line and the wind can make the limbs stretch and relax, look up to admire the paper kites flying in the sky, the mind is indifferent, as if it is integrated with spring, kite sports are loved by children, children can also harvest the effect of sports while playing. In the Song Dynasty's literary notes novel collection "Continued Museum Chronicle", it is recorded: "In the spring, the kites are released, and the lead is up, so that the children can open their mouths and look, and they can release the internal heat." In the research of many domestic and foreign medical workers, kites are considered to have a positive medical effect by modern medicine, and "kite therapy" is applied to treat diseases such as mental depression, neurasthenia, children's mental insufficiency and vision loss.
In folk culture, people believe that flying a kite can "release obscurity", the kite flies into the sky, the silk thread is cut, and the kite floats away with the wind, which also means that they bring their own diseases, disasters and other unfortunate things with them. The saying of "letting go of obscurity" is widely circulated, and in the 70th episode of "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Lin Daiyu rebuilds the Peach Blossom Society, and Shi Xiangyun even fills in the willow words", there is a description of kites that can release obscurity. Li Feng said to Daiyu, "Flying a kite is this music, so it is said that you should put more air, and it is better to take the root of your illness with you." This statement is not unreasonable in modern times, Chinese medicine expert Zuo Xinhe said in an interview with the media that the spring to promote the "upward" movement, the most effective is to fly kites, "when flying kites, the head is raised, the eyes are looking upwards, the arms are lifted upwards, the whole person is stretched upwards, which is very conducive to the rise of yang qi."
In today's society, with the standardization and popularization of sports, kites were included in the national official sports competitions in 1986. After the establishment of the China Kite Association, it has successively held large-scale competitions at home and abroad, such as the National Kite Championship, the National Middle School Kite Competition, and the National Kite Elite Competition. In 2000, at the Fourth National Farmers' Games, kites became an official competition. Kite as a traditional, national sport in the mainland, from the people's leisure competition in the wilderness, to be included in the national official sports competition projects, this ancient sports culture sports in today's social life can still shine, in the entertainment, competitive, artistic, popular comprehensive role, increasingly integrated into the daily social life of the public, the traditional ancient kite sport has been re-recognized and accepted by people, the development of the characteristics and style adapted to modern life.
Kite because of its unique physical properties, but also once became a modern scientific test tool, in the famous "kite test", the American scientist Franklin used the kite to successfully introduce lightning into the Leiden bottle, inspired by the "kite test" to make a lightning rod. Inspired by kite flying in the air, the Wright brothers also developed the world's first powered aircraft.
Why Weifang can become the "Kite Capital"
When it comes to the representative place of kites, the first promotion is Weifang, Shandong. In 1984, the first Weifang International Kite Festival opened, attracting representatives from the United States, Japan, Singapore and other countries and regions and many kite enthusiasts to participate. With the influence of the Kite Festival, Weifang has developed into the "Kite Capital of the World", which has enhanced the city's popularity and influence. The emblem of Weifang International Kite Festival is a butterfly kite evolved from the traditional character "wind", and the design of "wind emblem" not only reflects the artistic beauty of the kite posture and beauty, but also shows the long history of kite development in the mainland and the kite culture with unique national and regional characteristics.
The reason why Weifang can become the "handle" of the kite industry lies in its profound historical and cultural traditions on the one hand. Weifang kites were quite famous in ancient times, and the Weixian Chronicle says: "Qingming, children make paper kites, swing plays" "Paper kites have different systems, in addition to cranes, swallows, butterflies, cicadas, as well as various characters, all of them are wonderful, kitsch." During the Qing Dynasty, He Da, a kite craftsman in Weixian County, held a feast for the Qianlong Emperor to tie a crane boy kite, and a "kite family" famous for tying kites emerged. In 2006, Weifang kites were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
On the other hand, kite craftsmen consciously carry out high-level development and re-creation of characteristic cultural resources in the region, through the high-level transformation of excellent cultural resources, link the intangible cultural heritage with modern life, and use advanced creative concepts for the design and production of cultural products, reflecting modern aesthetics and use needs, forming a more comprehensive and developed kite cultural product system, and constantly attracting new cultural enterprises to gather. The most typical is that Weifang Kite organically integrates the Weifang Yangjiabu Woodblock New Year Painting, one of the three major woodblock prints in China, with kite art, and the New Year paintings with rich themes and natural and vivid paintings are drawn or mounted on kites, and the kites have more national characteristics and artistic beauty under the background of the New Year paintings. In Weifang City, known as "China's first kite village", Wangjiazhuangzi, relying on kite making skills to vigorously develop the kite industry, from the initial single kite processing, developed into a kite handicraft production, sales and other integrated industry chain model, resulting in a large number of kite manufacturing and processing enterprises agglomeration phenomenon, kite scale manufacturers have reached hundreds.
In 2018, the total output of kites in Weifang has accounted for more than 80% of the world, and this number is still growing. At the annual world kite event, a variety of creative kites were displayed, loved by Chinese and foreign exhibitors, and domestic and foreign businessmen rushed to import Weifang kites, which promoted the development of local economy and foreign trade. After innovative inheritance and creative development, Weifang Kite has successfully created a unique cultural brand, gathered kite orders from all over the world to Weifang, and also promoted Chinese kite culture to the world, promoting cultural diversity under the trend of globalization.
(Dazhong Daily client reporter Zhu Ziyu intern Sun Juping reports)