Chapter 18 Section 10 Toys

Toys are children's angels, and no one will ever forget the joy and enlightenment it once gave them.my country's ancient folk toys have a long history and various categories. Its unique craftsmanship and distinctive artistic style are loved by Chinese and foreign people. Children's toys in ancient my country were mainly made of mud, wood, grass, bamboo, and cloth. Since these things are not easy to preserve, there are not many archaeological finds. Therefore, the research on it can only be combined with ancient literature records and excavation of traditional crafts. To analyze and find some clues.

The earliest toys found in our country are Tao Xun [Xun Xun] and Tao pig in the Neolithic Age.Tao Xun was discovered in the Yangshao Cultural Site in Jiangzhai, Lintong, Shaanxi. It is an olive-shaped pottery with a pointed upper end and a rounded lower end. There is a small hole in the upper end, which can make a sound when blown lightly. This may be the forerunner of the later Shaanxi toy "chicken crowing".The pottery pig was found in the Dawenkou cultural site in Tai'an, Shandong Province. It is seven centimeters long and has a rough shape. It is only a prototype. It may be a fired toy.This kind of toy can also be found in other places, some of which are in the shape of chickens.

Toys from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, pottery tigers, pottery sheep, pottery turtles, and pottery fish from the Shang Dynasty were unearthed in Erligang, Zhengzhou.These pottery are well-proportioned in shape and simple in style, and some details (such as eyes, nostrils, teeth, and claws) are depicted with Yin lines, which are very expressive.These may be decorations, but also toys for children. Toys of the Han Dynasty, according to literature records, have false heads, masks (kneaded or fired), bamboo horses, "clay carts, tile dogs, horses and haikus" and so on.However, judging from the unearthed cultural relics, it is far more than that.Many small handicrafts such as small pottery turtles, pottery pigs, green-glazed horse-riding whistles, green-glazed pottery dogs, green-glazed deformed frogs, and green-glazed pottery fish have been unearthed from the cultural sites of the Han Dynasty. The shapes are concise and lively, and they must be toys.From these toys, we can imagine the images of those toys made of clay, silk, and wood and bamboo at that time. Playing lively and innocent demeanor.

Due to the improvement of ceramic technology in the Tang Dynasty, toys also entered the field of "three-color" and porcelain.A three-color toy tiger was once unearthed in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, with its ears raised, its head raised and howling, it is very mighty.Some folk porcelain kilns in the Tang Dynasty also fired many small pieces of ceramic sculptures for people to enjoy. Porcelain toys such as elephants, sparrows, turtles, pigeons, frogs, and lions undoubtedly added a lot of joy to the children at that time.The painted labor clay figurines unearthed from the Tang tomb in Astana, Turpan, Xinjiang, are probably also toys.

There were many toys in the Song Dynasty.Su Hanchen, a painter at that time, painted a painting called "The Merchant".From this painting, we can see no less than a hundred kinds of children's toys.At that time, there were many children's toys and candies in the city. In the category of toy candies alone, there were such names as Dajiaoxi, Xiaxu, Tangyi Niang, and Swings. At the same time, toys such as shuttlecocks, spinning tops, tumblers, and clay models were also very popular.According to archaeological excavations, porcelain toys in the Song Dynasty such as fancy tigers, dragons, double dragons, horsemen, dogs, lying children, panji dolls, crawling dolls, breastfeeding women, sumo wrestling, etc. were very popular.These toys are not only exquisite and beautiful in shape, but also comprehensively reflect the social style at that time.

The most distinctive toy in the Song Dynasty was the "mud boy". "Nud children" have different names in various places, such as "Mohu (houhou) music", "Mohele", "Tuzhi", "Tuyi", "Qiaoer", "Huangpang", "Yellow spring yellow and fat", "soil on the lake is suitable", "spring is suitable for soil" and other names.The production areas include Fuzhou (now Fu County, Shaanxi), Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang), Pingjiang (now Suzhou, Jiangsu), Zhaowen (now Changshu, Jiangsu) and other places.There were also many famous sculptors at that time. In 1976, a group of "mud boys" were unearthed from the Song Dynasty site in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, with the stamp of the sculptor.This group of "clay children" consists of five people, who are made of clay and then fired.Two of the children wrestled, one fell on his back, and the other was dragged to the ground even though he won.The three onlookers showed different expressions due to their respective personalities. The whole group of works is vivid, full of rich life interest and innocent and lively atmosphere of children (Fig. 31).

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, folk toys developed on the basis of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but the porcelain toys decreased significantly, and the clay toys increased.According to incomplete statistics, the toys of this period are probably no less than the following: Clay toys: such as clay figures and animals; pottery figures, animals, impressions, whistles.In the past, some areas were called "nihuo" and "burning goods". Dough figurines: dough figurines, Jiangmi figurines, sugar figurines, etc. Cloth toys: cloth tigers, dolls, sachets, etc.

Bamboo and wood toys: such as spinning tops, diabolos, bamboo dragons, snare drums, dendrobium figures, etc. Bamboo, wood and wire educational toys: jigsaw puzzles, nine chains, etc. Bamboo, brown and straw toys: such as frogs, birds, cicadas, crabs, etc. Paper toys: such as windmills, dragons, etc. Others: such as Mane Man, Hairy Monkey, Shuttlecock, etc. These toys are made locally by artists or farmers from all over the country, and are hand-made according to folk traditions with readily available materials such as mud, bamboo, palm, wood, grass, iron wire, paper edges, cloth heads, waste cotton, and sorghum stalks.Although the materials are simple, the toys made of them have their own characteristics: the mud tiger and the rabbit are majestic and mighty; It is easy to arouse children's interest and hobbies.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, clay and pottery are the most popular toys (cloth toys and paper toys are mostly made at home), and the production areas are also the most extensive.Among them, the most famous ones are Big Fu and Big Cat in Huishan, Wuxi, Jiangsu; Clay Beauty and Clay Babies in Huqiu, Suzhou; Rabbit Lord in Beijing; Clay Tiger and Clay Lion in Fengxiang, Shaanxi; Clay War Horse and Cuckoo in Jun County, Henan. Cuckoo; clay dolls and rocking monkeys in Weifang, Shandong; clay chickens and clay lions in Baigou, Xincheng, Hebei; old birthday stars and big-headed dolls in Pingyao, Shanxi.They have their own characteristics and traditions, and many "playing goods" of different shapes have been produced for children in ancient my country.

The origin of these clay toys also produced many toys of mythical figures, mythological stories, historical figures, historical stories, opera characters, and opera stories. Immortal Sending a Child, Nezha Navigating the Sea, Journey to the West, Master (Guan Yu) Reading Art of War, Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea; Baigou’s Kylin Sending a Son, Little Cowherd, White Snake; Xi'an opera characters (such as Jiang Ziya, Xue Pinggui, Cheng Yaojin, etc.), "Nijiao", etc., have simple shapes and bright colors, which not only vividly reproduce many stories and legends, but also have a festive and joyful atmosphere. It also has a reed whistle that can blow out a crisp sound, which is very popular among children.

Some toys are the products of folk traditions or folk activities, and they are full of the simple traditional moral concepts and sincere emotional sustenance of the working people from the material to the content.For example, the "mud hanging tiger" in Fengxiang, Shaanxi evolved from the masks of local social fires and local operas. Most farmers bought "hanging tigers" and hung them above the lintel, mainly to welcome the new year and avoid evil spirits; the "people" in Huaiyang, Henan Ancestral monkeys, cats and monkeys, polycorns, etc. are generally sold at the "Taihao Mausoleum Temple Fair" from the second day of February to the third day of March in the lunar calendar every year (Huaiyang folk clay toys are collectively called "mud dogs", because Produced near the "Taihao Mausoleum", the hometown of Taihao Fuxi and Shennong, also known as "Ling Dog". Fuxi's local people call it "Fuxi people's grandfather"). ; Beijing's "Rabbit Lord" was originally the image of the "Moon God" for children to worship the moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival (ancient legend says that there is a jade rabbit in the moon that keeps pounding medicine), and later doubled as a toy (Figure 32); According to legend, the prototype is the fairy "Sha Haier" who can subdue the demon lion. Because he brought happiness and peace to the world, he was later molded into a healthy and plump fat baby image, which was supported by every family and named "A Fu". In order to get him to bring more happiness to people... Bamboo and wood toys are mainly produced in Shandong and southern China.For example, white wood carving toys in Ninghai, Zhejiang, bamboo toys in Dongyang and Shengxian, diabolo and bamboo dragonflies in Rugao, Jiangsu, bamboo crabs and bamboo cicadas in Nanxiong, Guangdong, tiger hammers and stickmen in Shancheng, Shandong, etc. A famous specialty. Bamboo and wood toys generally have a certain sound effect. It goes without saying that rattles, shaking drums, bamboo cicadas, etc. are complicated, such as diabolo, which not only spins and sings, but diabolo is also a beautiful physical exercise activity. "Yangliuqing, release the empty bell (diabolo); when the willow dies, kick the shuttlecock." Shaking diabolo vigorously with both arms, opening and closing repeatedly, hand-eye, body, and skillful coordination, is beneficial to enhance lung capacity and exercise arms and waist.There are bamboo and wooden toys with physical exercise properties and spinning tops.The spinning top has been recorded in Zhou Mi's "Old Stories of Wulin" in the Song Dynasty.Due to the simple craft, spinning tops can be purchased no matter how poor or poor, and it is very interesting to play. Therefore, there are many places in urban and rural areas in the north and south of our country, and they are very popular. Educational toys are divided into chess, board and ring.Chess such as "backgammon", "tic-tac-toe", etc., use stones and wood chips as pieces, draw a chessboard on the ground or on a stone slab, and then a game can be formed.Board toys are represented by "tangram".It is composed of seven geometric thin plates (two large triangles, one small triangle and one middle triangle, two squares, and one parallelogram), which can be combined into squares or rectangles. Children's intelligence is very helpful.A richer and more complex jigsaw puzzle than "tangram" is "puzzle map", which consists of 15 geometric thin plates (two large triangles, two small triangles, two large rectangles, two trapezoids, two semicircles) block, four small rectangles, and one parallelogram), they are put together to form a square, and when they are separated, they can be combined to form many artistic graphics, which are full of wit and charm.Similar to "tangram" and "puzzle map", but must move and walk in the chassis according to specific regulations to determine the outcome, there are "rearrangement of nine palaces" and "huarong road". There are many kinds of such toys. The solution, which is creative and quite competitive, has been popular since its inception. The representative of ring educational toys is Jiulianhuan.Jiulianhuan is a toy in which a number of rings made of metal wires are connected together with a "ring rod", set on a sword-shaped ring handle, and the rings are separated from the handle according to certain procedures. There are seven rings, nine rings, 11 There are many kinds of rings and 13 rings, but the nine rings are the most famous, so they are collectively called Jiulianhuan.Jiulianhuan was popularized in the Ming Dynasty, "women and children thought it was a toy", and it was more widely spread in the Qing Dynasty.Its attraction is that as long as you calm down and put the ring on and off the ring handle according to certain rules, you can solve it one by one.If you don't follow the law, acute hairy weeds will be cured and will become more difficult to untie.Therefore, Jiulianhuan is not only an educational toy, but also a toy that exercises human character. There are also many folk-made toys such as rag dolls, cloth tigers, windmills, mane figures (also known as operas in the pan). The mane mane head and base are made of mud, the inside of the body is made of sorghum straw or cotton, and the outer layer is made of paper or cloth. A circle of neat pig bristles is glued to the base, placed in a copper plate, and the mane man "walks" and rotates irregularly when the copper plate is tapped. The mane man's shape is mostly based on opera characters, after the popularity of Peking Opera in the late Qing Dynasty. Folk products), etc., have great ethnic and local characteristics, so I won’t go into details one by one.The toys in ancient my country are mostly based on folklore (myths and opera stories) and common animals. They also have the shapes of various production tools and living tools. Labor, love of life and hardworking and brave education.The artistic characteristics of ancient folk toys in our country are that they pay attention to shape similarity and exaggeration, "very lion with seven heads"; and almost every kind of toy has a series of vivid folk legends behind it, which is easy to inspire children's imagination and creativity, so that they While receiving traditional education, build up the confidence to create a better life from an early age. Chinese folk traditional crafts are rich and colorful, with a long history, far more than those introduced above.Some have been lost, some existing objects are too few, and some were later combined with palace crafts, but rare among folks (such as jade carvings, tooth carvings, lacquerware, etc.), so here I can only introduce a general idea, the purpose is to attract everyone The interest in ancient Chinese folk arts and crafts allows everyone to do further research on ancient Chinese folk arts and crafts. In the past, many people thought that folk crafts were too "earthy" and "red, red, green and green", so they didn't pay much attention to them.This is a superficial understanding.In fact, "earth" does not mean "vulgar" or "shabby".The "soil" of ancient Chinese folk crafts is the natural and pure "soil", the simple and heavy "soil".Its "soil" is deep and its "soil" is prosperous, which embodies the national spirit of China and the aesthetic consciousness of the ancient working people. "Tao follows nature", if handicrafts do not reflect the true feelings of the people, do not embody the national spirit, what vitality does it have? The folk craft of "earth" is the source of all other crafts, including palace crafts and scholar-bureaucrat crafts.For thousands of years, the modeling and decorative arts of folk pottery have promoted the development of bronze art; the accumulation of folk embroidery experience has given birth to the formation of the "Four Famous Embroideries".Without the original black rough pottery bowl, there would be no later famous Jun kiln porcelain; without the original rough stone carvings, there would be no later exquisite jade carvings. The "Country of Silk" and "Country of Ceramics" originated from folk crafts and were promoted by folk crafts.Therefore, we have no reason not to respect, learn from, or inherit the ancient folk arts and crafts of our country, such a mother art that has nurtured various arts and crafts of the Chinese nation.It is difficult for our national crafts to create their own style and style without the basis of folk crafts.Because only works that are full of strong life atmosphere can have real artistic charm; only works with national heritage can truly stand on their own in the forest of world art and have a significant impact on world art. Folk crafts are not equal to primitive crafts, nor are they equal to popular crafts.It is true that due to the restrictions of rural life, folk crafts often have a naive, naive, and rough side, and often have the collective creative characteristics shared by folk art. However, this naive, naive, and art of a specific historical stage in primitive society Cultures are different in principle, and the aesthetic intentions of folk craftsmen are not exactly the same as the tastes and hobbies of popular customs.Folk arts and crafts are the product of social life practice and folk customs; folk arts and crafts not only contain the wisdom, experience and knowledge of the working people, but also embody the cultural customs and traditions of the society.Therefore, our research on folk crafts must focus on a broad social scope, and investigate and study from various aspects such as production, life, culture, education, social interaction, etiquette, and religion.Our country has a vast territory, a long history, numerous nationalities, and folk arts and crafts are richer and more colorful than any other country in the world, which is an extremely favorable condition for us to create socialist arts and crafts.As long as we sincerely go deep into life, put our feet into the soil of the working people's life, experience and discover, we will definitely be richly nourished by folk art, and inspire us to use the creations of folk artists of all ages as a reference to make breakthroughs. Create more perfect arts and crafts that can meet the multi-level needs of working people. At present, folk crafts are playing an increasingly important role in the prosperity of socialist craft creation, the popularization of art education, the strengthening of patriotic education, the beautification of people's lives, and the development of tourism.We hope that on the basis of inheriting the national tradition, folk craftsmen from all over the country will have the courage to explore and open up, so that the old trees of Chinese folk crafts will bloom new flowers, flourish and prosper more and more!We also hope that young people who are interested in researching and understanding Chinese traditional culture will strengthen their exploration of folk crafts, grasp the essence of Chinese traditional culture from the aspects of national spirit and national art, and make their research more solid and full of Chinese characteristics!