A Textual Research On The Hand - Painted Curtain In South Shanxi

Since ancient times, door curtains are Chinese people’s daily life supplies in different areas of many ethnic groups, in addition to sound insulation and heat preservation, which can also block wind and avoid mosquitoes. It has the characteristics such as diversity and practicability. With the development of the society and the evolution of architectural style, the curtain’s shape, structure and uses also changed gradually. Although the hand-painted curtains in the south of Jin have a short history span and small development scope, but their extremely strong regional characteristics is distinctive. Being disappearing in the south of Jin, they have the necessary value for research.Hand-painting on the cloth is an ancient paintings method called Hua Hui. As recorded in Book of Diverse Crafts, Hua Hui, means painting with miscellaneous colors... then the grain work." Since zhou dynasty, Hua Hui process is complete, when painting techniques often involves "both plants and minerals"---underpainting with plants colors, detailed depiction with mineral pigment, foil with white paint finally. The colors and patterns were strictly distinguished to represent different levels of officials. Hand-painted curtains often express the themes in the form of traditional Chinese ink painting, with the signs of painted murals, god paintings, and woodblock New Year pictures, which have outstanding black and white effect and strong visual expression. In some folk customs, like wedding, the decoration of bridal chamber’s door curtains is very exquisite. We can find hand-painted curtains mainly in the south of Shan and Jin. As one of the dowries of pride’s family for a girl, before the groom and the bride go into the bridal chamber, it is hanged by the elder brother of the bride’s family in the wedding ceremony. The origin of the hand-painted door curtains is now can’t be proved, but it is sure that their range of circulation is limited to common people. The embroidery curtain, used in the riches and the honors, is far earlier than that. The hand-painted curtains the author collected is mainly the finished products made in Qing Dynasty, the republic of China and the new China of sixties and seventies. The author noticed in the research that some old women more than 50 years old had the clear memories of hanging curtains when they got married in most villages of the south of Jin. Most lost or scatter to the antique shops, just a few curtains reserved by some families. The makers of the hand-painted curtain included local handy women, some amateur painter, as well as some professional painter, called lacquerer by local people. Luckily, some of the old artists painted door curtains are still alive, who had already passed sixty. Many door curtains used to married daughters in the neighboring villages were from their hands. Although now people don’t buy a hand-painted curtain when they marry daughters, but the function the hand-painted curtain bring in the people’s daily life and the historical and cultural value they carry are worthy of study.Based on the field research method in folk art, the author visited some hand-painted curtain users and makers, investigate the use and inheriting of the hand-painted curtains, discover the historical and cultural information carried by the hand-painted curtain and the evidence of population change, hoping that, through textual research about the hand-painted curtain’s existence, the thesis can sort out the relationship between the hand-painted curtains, the people, and the society.This thesis is divided into introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction introduces the research object, research methods, purpose and significance. The first chapter of the body, first of all, presents the geographical location and cultural background of the south of Jin; The second chapter introduces the contents, forms and cultural connotation of the hand-painted curtains; The third chapter introduces the concrete methods and steps of making hand-painted curtains, as well as their inheritors; The fourth chapter is the conclusion. Through the investigation and study of several inheritors as well as the range of usage of hand-painted curtains, the author hope to record the hand-painted curtains’basic situation used in people’s daily life, provide a detailed and reliable text for the record and inheritance of the disappearing hand-painted curtains.