is amazed by the artistic specialties of some areas in the south!
Some time ago, the hairpin headdress in Quanzhou, Fujian Province was on the hot search, and even female celebrities were wearing it and were featured in magazines.
In recent days, I have frequently seen that many workshops in Anhui are actively making tea rice paper. Who would have thought that complete tea leaves can be directly made into paper?
The method of making tea rice paper is also very interesting, a bit like pancakes with vegetables.
is mixed with water and smoothed.
dried.
put it in a big pile, let’s just say, it looks quite appetizing?
Except for the above few links, it is said that making this kind of rice paper requires more than 100 processes.
The quality of the finished product does not disappoint. An ancient poem describes rice paper as "as light as cicada wings and as white as snow, shaking like fine silk without making any sound."
It is said that it will not decay even if it is stored for a thousand years. There is a saying that "paper has a lifespan of a thousand years".
In ancient times, ordinary people would use it to make doors and windows in their homes and even palaces. Rice paper has soft light transmittance, and when the morning light is low, it is full of oriental sentiment.
Without further ado, today we will continue our Everything Can Be Beautiful series and let’s take a look at one of China’s intangible heritage treasures: rice paper.
Paper has a thousand years life
The first of the four treasures of the study?
Papermaking technology was very advanced in ancient China. Why is rice paper so valuable alone?
This starts with the development history of papermaking in China. Since Cai Lun improved papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, different paper representatives have appeared in different eras.
For example, during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, people mostly used hemp paper to write.
However, the smoothness of hemp paper is not that high, the toughness is low, and the color is slightly yellow, and the ink is easy to smudge and spread. Whether it is writing or painting, it cannot carry more delicate brushstroke expressions, and the experience is not that friendly.
In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the paper production technology was further improved, and leather paper and bamboo paper appeared.
rice paper is also gradually produced based on the craft of leather paper.
Fuyang Bamboo Paper
Rice paper was originally produced in what is now Jingxian County. Jingxian County was under the jurisdiction of Xuanzhou Prefecture in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Xuanzhou Prefecture provided rice paper as a tribute to the imperial court, so it got its name.
Why could Xuanzhou produce rice paper at that time?
This starts with the raw material of rice paper. After it was discovered that bark could be used to make paper, people continued to explore new bark types for testing.
At that time, Xuanzhou had a mild climate and abundant rainfall, and was rich in the growth of a tree called Qingtan. This tree has a unique aroma and beautiful texture and is known as the "King of Fragrant Woods".
The bark fiber of the green sandalwood tree is fine and flexible, and contains some natural plant gum. The rice paper made from this bark has the characteristics of fineness, softness and low ink wettability.
is not only suitable for printing, but also for painting and calligraphy, making the calligraphy and painting works more smooth and natural.
It is said to be a military uniform picture painted by Castiglione for Qianlong
Local papermaking craftsmen used green sandalwood leather as the main material, mixed it with Shatian straw pulp in proportion, and washed it with acid and alkali water. The paper produced by
has a pure white texture, clear texture, soft and tough, undamaged, smooth but not slippery, absorbs water and moistens ink, and is anti-corrosion and moth-proof.
Rice paper soon gained fame and became a local specialty in Xuanzhou, famous throughout the country.
After being presented as high-quality paper, rice paper has become the representative paper among the four treasures of the study, known as the king of paper, and has a history of more than 1,500 years.
Let’s take a look at the classification of rice paper.
From the perspective of production technology, rice paper can be divided into raw rice paper and cooked rice paper. According to the thickness, it can be divided into single layer and multi-layer.
Shengxuan is not processed and can be directly used in calligraphy and painting.
Ripe Xuan has been processed by dyeing, wax coating, gold sprinkling, dipping with alum glue, adding rice paste, etc. It is mostly used in meticulous calligraphy and painting, and the paper itself is also more beautiful.
It can also be customized according to personal aesthetics. It is said that Li Yu, the late emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, specially customized a rice paper named "Chengxintang Paper" in order to satisfy his literary and artistic hobbies.
After the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the production technology of this paper was lost. Later, when the literati of the Northern Song Dynasty discovered the papers left by Li Yu, they were amazed, regarded them as treasures, and began to imitate them.
Li Yu's calligraphy on rice paper
Cai Xiang, a calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, asked many people to imitate this kind of paper. It is said that he also collected some authentic Chengxintang paper.
When his eyesight gradually declined in his later years, he used it to record and retain his own calligraphy notes, leaving them as a model for future generations to learn from.
Cai Xiang's calligraphy on rice paper
as well as the gold rice paper with sprinkled gold and the dragon pattern and dragon flower rice paper from the Qianlong period. They are all expensive and luxurious, hard to buy for a thousand dollars, and cannot be used by ordinary people.
Long Hua Xuan, also known as carved paper, was mostly seen during the Qianlong period as tribute. The patterns include double dragons, Sakyamuni, Baoxiang flowers, longevity stars, etc.
Previously, Yang wrote about Emperor Qianlong’s farmhouse aesthetic. Let’s take a look at the rice paper he designed. Is it also full of farmhouse style?
There is also Yunlong leather paper suitable for painting.
It is made by hand using paper mulberry bark + green sandalwood bark + mulberry bark and other raw materials, adding straw, corn silk, tea leaves and other natural plants.
The texture of the plant can be seen in the finished product, which is natural and beautiful.
The rice paper also has the famous coral paper.
It is made of high-quality rice paper, dyed with grass and wood, and added with precious medicinal materials such as agarwood and wild chrysanthemum. has delicate and rich colors, a bit like Morandi color.
It is said that long-term use of this product can improve eyesight and clear the mind.
40Multiple craftsmanship
Rice paper aesthetics
In ancient times, people not only used rice paper to write and draw, but also used this strong and beautiful paper to make tea gift packaging, wallpaper decoration, etc.
Nowadays, rice paper is not only a product, but also a cultural inheritance and artistic expression.
The door is made of rice paper, retaining the natural fiber texture. The light scatters through the light rice paper and the soft texture is soft and powerful.
When the light passes through the rice paper, it emits a delicate shimmer, the figures are looming, and the indoor space has infinite mystery and extension.
rice paper screens are also a must-have.
The silk-like flexible rice paper vaguely reveals the space behind it, acting as a partition without blocking the view.
can softly separate the venue and cleverly separate product display areas, making the use of the space more flexible.
Yang also saw that there are home bloggers on the Internet who teach everyone how to create a wabisabi style space at a low cost.
means: rice paste + rice paper covering the wall.
Because rice paper has a simple texture, you can also choose rice paper with flowers and plants inside. The decorative effect is really cost-effective.
In addition to decoration, there is now rice paper embroidery.
Rice paper embroidery is now listed as an intangible cultural heritage.
This technique uses rice paper as a carrier. It not only inherits the excellent embroidery methods of traditional paper embroidery, but also breaks through the limitation of traditional embroidery only on cloth fabrics.
is so exquisite that one cannot tell whether it is embroidery or calligraphy.
There are also artists who make sculptures on rice paper.
This is a paper work by artist Fu Xiaotong. She used needles to punch holes in thicker handmade rice paper.
The pinholes in different directions accumulate over time, until the veins and undulations of the mountains are slowly revealed.
There are also artists who make colorful sculptures on multi-layered rice paper, such as this series of female bodies by artist Peng Wei.
Ms. Peng is not only an artist, but also a painter.
This is a painting in which she blends modern life into ancient scenes. It does not look conflicting, but is very elegant.
Guo Fengyi, a female artist from the countryside, used a brush to draw her imaginary universe on rice paper in order to relieve the pain of arthritis.
There is also artist Chen Qi who previously held a solo exhibition at the Asia Art Center.
He likes to use the rich ink levels of rice paper to create a realistic texture.
processes the picture to be as realistic and beautiful as a black and white art photo.
The largest project among them belongs to artist Lin Yan, who is famous for his rice paper art creations.
Lin Yan is from Beijing. Seeing that old Beijing buildings were gradually disappearing due to demolition, she thought that she could use the old feel of rice paper to make architectural models.
Since 1994, she has used rice paper to cast the surfaces of old buildings in Beijing, trying to preserve traditional architectural features such as tiles and rivets after they are demolished.
Until now, she has completed several exhibitions of rice paper works with specific architectural features.
It is no exaggeration to say that in the history of traditional Chinese calligraphy and art, rice paper, as a flat material, has once again become the carrier of three-dimensional architecture after recording calligraphy, painting, and text.
It not only records the changes in China's art history and cultural history, but also illuminates the beauty of Chinese traditional crafts.
Today, rice paper is no longer at its peak, but it is always full of vitality and is an item worth cherishing. Its charm and the craftsmen behind it are also worthy of everyone to know more about.
