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CHAPTER ONE

Chinese Style Paper Quilling and Chinese Auspicious Culture

Inheritance and innovation are the greatest characteristics of Chinese style paper quilling. Compared with the traditional Western style, the outstanding feature of Chinese paper quilling is that it absorbs traditional Chinese culture and draws upon traditional Chinese art forms to create novel techniques and express the art of paper quilling in a free, changing, and flexible style. In this book, we choose quilling works with auspicious themes, focusing on the animals that people have favored to present the unique artistic beauty of Chinese style paper quilling.

Auspicious culture has a long history in China, carrying the Chinese people’s yearning for a better life and their prayerful visions. Every country or nation has its own customs, culture, and beliefs, giving birth to different forms and expressions of auspicious culture. It is generally believed that the auspicious culture of China originated from the symbols and totems depicted in ancient people’s sacrifices. Totems are the oldest form of mascots. Ancient people believed that totems had the power to eliminate disasters and safeguard peace. In the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600–256 BC), people began to cast patterns on the bronze wares used for celestial worship or ancestor worship in their prayers for good fortune and avoidance of misfortunes, which embodies China’s auspicious culture. During the Warring States period (475–221 BC), the connotation of auspicious culture was further developed, and more mascots with symbolic significance emerged. With the progression of history, people’s awareness of auspiciousness and those auspicious symbols have gradually developed into China’s traditional auspicious culture.

Auspicious culture can be divided into different categories based on its sources and carriers, and the criteria for classification are not conclusive. The paper quilling works in this book include categories such as zodiac, mythical creatures, animals, homophony, landscapes and figures.

Fig. 10 Landscape Series (Picture Two)

See page 4 for details.

Fig. 11 Pixiu

In Chinese mythology, the Pixiu is one of the nine sons of the dragon. It is a winged, lion-like beast, which symbolizes benevolence and auspice. It can guard treasures and drive away monsters and evil spirits. This work employs simple colors and exquisite techniques to create a majestic Pixiu.

Auspicious zodiac is made up of the twelve zodiac animals, which are applied to record people’s year of birth. These twelve species of animals match the twelve earthly branches in traditional Chinese cosmology. Their status and influence in China are similar to those of the twelve constellations in the West. In Chinese people’s heart, these twelve animals are auspicious, and they have been endowed with positive personality traits.

Auspicious mythical creatures include the unicorn, phoenix, tortoise and dragon, the four legendary sacred beasts, respectively representing benevolence, dignity, longevity, and holiness. For thousands of years, Chinese people have held these four sacred beasts as mascots. The Chinese nation refers to itself as “the descendant of the dragon,” which reveals the high position of the dragon among Chinese people (Fig. 11).

Auspicious animals are those animals found in nature, which the imaginative Chinese people have endowed with unique meanings. Cranes, magpies, peacocks, white tigers, spiders, etc. are all auspicious animals in the hearts of Chinese people.

Auspicious homophony is built on the Chinese monosyllabic characters. There is a large number of Chinese characters with the same pronunciation, making the Chinese homophonic culture much richer than other languages. For example, fu is pronunciation of both the characters of “bat” and “luck”; pronunciation lu or “deer” is a homophone for “fortune,” and hou or “monkey” is a homophone for “nobility.” The combination of multiple homophonic characters can produce new implications, as explained in the works Heron (for Success), Cat and Butterfly (for Wellness) and Elephant (for Peace).

There is also auspicious landscapes, which is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, where the landscape occupies a prominent position. It is not only a significant theme of poetry and painting by the literati, but also the most typical image in Chinese geomancy. In ancient China, according to the trends of mountains and rivers, people summed up the three main dragon veins of China, believing that they affected the destiny and future of the entire people and nation. The mountains and waters are spiritual, and it is believed that there are immortals on the mountains and dragons in the waters. Therefore, the mountains and waters are viewed as the incarnations of the gods to be worshipped by believers. Many Chinese people like to hang landscape paintings in their offices to seek smooth sailing or fortune, or to remind themselves of the spirit and mind of high mountains and great rivers. It can be said that mountains and rivers are the biggest mascots in traditional Chinese auspicious culture (Fig. 13).

Auspicious figures in Chinese culture have a wide range of sources. These come from ancient myths, such as Pan Gu and Nü Wa; from the origin of the Chinese nation, such as Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang; from Taoist legends, such as Jade Emperor, the three stars of Luck, Fortune, and Longevity; from Buddhist classics, such as Guanyin and Maitreya; or from real historical figures, such as Confucius (551–479 BC) or general Guan Yu (?–220). These auspicious figures are popular among the Chinese people, and they have been handed down from generation to generation, continuing for thousands of years (Fig. 12).

Fig. 12 Bole Identifying Excellent Horses

According to legend, Bole lived in the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC) and was skilled in identifying excellent horses. Since then, the phrase “Bole Xiangma” has come to refer to one who is skilled in identifying and selecting talent. In this work, the author combines the image of Qianlima (a good horse) and Bole, showing the attentiveness of Bole as he identifies the good horse and the joy of Qianlima when it meets Bole.

Fig. 13 Landscape Series (Picture Three)

See page 4 for details.