Because Huangling is located at the junction of northern Shaanxi and Guanzhong, Huangling paper-cutting not only maintains the rough and simple local style of northern Shaanxi art, but also is influenced by the Guanzhong region, with beautiful, delicate and bright artistic characteristics, that is, it is rich in the rich life atmosphere of the Loess Plateau, exudes the fragrance of the soil, and reflects the healthy and progressive sentiments of the people of Huangling and their longing for a happy life. Huangling paper-cutting has attracted many paper-cutting enthusiasts and collectors at home and abroad due to its exquisite skills and wide range of themes. Ms. Bai Yuntai, a German friend, came to Huangling twice and personally visited Yang Xixian, an old man in Zhaizhuang Village, Longshou Town. When she saw Yang Xixian's works with her own eyes, she couldn't believe that they were cut with paper. The colorful crickets that were as bright as rainbows were about to fly, the graceful goldfish seemed to be swimming in the water, and the charming peonies were fragrant and blooming. The German foreign lady feasted her eyes and had to sincerely admire the intelligence and ability of Chinese women. In recent years, after continuous excavation and collation, a large number of excellent paper-cutting authors have emerged in Huangling paper-cutting. The art of paper-cutting is in the ascendant and flourishing. Friends from home and abroad have come to Huangling for many times to observe and exchange ideas in Europe, America, and at home and abroad. It has been highly praised by people from all walks of life and tourists. Under the inspiration and influence of the older generation of paper-cutting artists, although some of them have passed away, the artistic works and artistic personalities they left behind still echo in the hearts of the people of Huangling. Cultural workers in Huangling continue to inherit traditional folk culture, carefully excavate and collate Huangling paper-cutting, and continuously carry forward Huangling's paper-cutting art by holding paper-cutting training courses, folk paper-cutting competitions, folk paper-cutting special exhibitions, etc. At the same time, a large number of excellent paper-cutting authors have emerged. The art of paper-cutting is in the ascendant and flourishing. In the rural areas of Huangling, almost every family will come to Huangling to celebrate festivals, weddings, birthdays, and housewarmings. Every household cuts and pastes window paper-cuts, ceiling paper-cuts, bowl-rack paper-cuts, and kang-surrounding paper-cuts, and gives them to each other as a token of congratulations. They cut phoenixes and plum blossoms to represent happiness; they cut Zhong Kui and Ji Gong to ward off evil spirits; they cut ceiling paper-cuts (large-scale patterned paper-cuts used to decorate the roof) to symbolize reunion, happiness, and auspiciousness; they cut tigers and lions as full-moon gifts from uncles to nephews, implying that the child is healthy and brave. These paper-cut shapes are closely integrated with folk customs, forming a unique artistic style that is rough, simple, and bold, which fully reflects the strong will and good wishes of the Huangling people to fight against heaven and earth, suppress evil spirits, drive away ghosts, and pray for auspiciousness and a long life. It has both local flavor and practical value. Most of Huangling's folk paper-cutting comes from the hands of rural working women. Since paper-cutting is generally passed down from generation to generation, it has been continuously developed and integrated in rural areas through exchanges between mothers and daughters, sisters-in-law and sisters-in-law, and fellow villagers, as well as personal temperament and hobbies, and has become the mainstream handicraft skills of the majority of rural women. In the beginning, it was only relatively simple productions such as cutting shoe patterns, window flowers, and wedding characters, and gradually evolved into a real handicraft skill. In rural areas, basically every family has shoe patterns and every village has a talented person. Especially for unmarried girls, in addition to diligently learning needlework and embroidery, paper-cutting is also a compulsory skill for them. Usually at home, sisters, neighbors, they exchange experiences and skills in paper-cutting. On the day of marriage, all the dowry, whether it is boxes, tables and chairs, clothing, gifts, and beddings, are covered with auspicious paper-cutting patterns. Take a closer look, each pattern has been carefully thought out and filled with joy! Huangling paper-cutting is a realistic expression of the Huangling people's pursuit of a better life. Huangling paper-cutting records the historical changes of Huangling and carries the joys, sorrows, anger, and life of Huangling rural women. The pretty cheeks, the dexterous arms, the colorful papers, and the sharp scissors are all expressed through their natural beauty. Such descriptions constitute exquisite and magnificent paper-cut works. Perhaps they did not care about the meaning of the things they cut out, or perhaps they did not deliberately create art, but through the hands of these hardworking ordinary peasant women, they wrote silent pictures for our folk handicraft art. In their spare time, they cut out paper-cut works with a strong breath of life. Each one is vivid and interesting, just like the magic of nature. Her form, connotation, and strength are in harmony, in tune, and resonant with our national complex and national psychology. It is the treasure of our national culture. Paper-cutting is such a folk art form that is rooted in the people, closely related to people's lives, and adds color and joy to thousands of households. In the old rural areas, people often used the level of paper-cutting skills as a sign of whether the daughter-in-law was clever or clumsy, and rural women naturally became the folk inheritors of paper-cutting crafts. Huangling paper-cutting is an important folk activity. The rich folk customs provide a broad space for paper-cutting to freely gallop. Folk paper-cutting is closely integrated with the local customs and habits of Huangling. It contains the basic qualities of national spirit and national psychology and is an organic part of national traditional culture. All seasonal festivals, residences, clothing, births, marriages, funerals, and birthday banquets are reflected in paper-cutting. Take seasonal festivals as an example. On the first day of the first lunar month, every family hangs spring banners and pastes window flowers, creating a festive atmosphere. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, lanterns are played, and paper-cuts are pasted on the lanterns, making them more gorgeous and attractive. On the Qingming Festival in March, paper-cuts are placed on the offerings to express the feeling of nostalgia for ancestors. On the Dragon Boat Festival in May, "five poisons" are cut and pasted to avoid epidemics. On the Qiqiao Festival on July 7, girls gather together to cut patterns and compete in wisdom. On the Double Ninth Festival on September 9, the Double Ninth Festival is cut and carved, implying a step-by-step climb. On the Cold Farmers' Day on October 1, five-color paper is cut into winter clothes, or made into various styles of clothes, hats, shoes, and quilts, and burned in front of the door or at the grave to express the living's grief for the deceased. Let's look at weddings and funerals. When getting married, red double happiness patterns are pasted on both sides of the door, and the dowry is covered with large paper-cuts such as "Fish Catching Lotus", "Qilin Delivering a Child", and "Mandarin Ducks Playing in the Water" as decoration. The embroidery on the ceiling, pillows, and handkerchiefs is also embroidered with paper-cuts as the base pattern. The paper banners, money trees, gold and silver mountains, and sedans and horses in the funeral procession are all made of paper cuts and pastes. Although these very ordinary paper-cut works are not as luxurious and brilliant as pearls and jade, they are related to everyone's heart and accompany the lives of thousands of households, with a thrilling artistic charm. The themes of Huangling folk paper-cuts are mostly people, animals, plants and flowers. What is valuable is that it can use common things in life to form allegorical artistic pictures through homophony, symbolism and other techniques. For example, "Dragon and Phoenix Presenting Auspiciousness" and "Phoenix Playing with Peony" symbolize the happiness and sacredness of marriage. "Liu Hai Playing with Golden Toad" symbolizes the sincerity of love. "Persimmon and Ruyi" means good luck, peace and happiness in all seasons. "Magpie on the Branch" implies joy and happiness. The decorative pattern on the fat pig is composed of a group of piglets, which is a metaphor for "many children". The new bride holds a baby in her arms, which means "having a son", etc. In the world of paper-cutting art, the skilled hands of the people can use their imagination to depict everything ideal, express the spirit with form, and express ingenuity, novelty and beauty. The style and format of Huangling folk paper-cutting are based on local folk customs and practical needs. The most common is window paper-cutting. Its size is determined by the shape of the window pane. The window format has diamond, round, polygonal and other styles, and the window paper-cutting varies with the window. The small ones are about an inch, delicate and clever, and full of childish fun; the large ones have "round flowers" with four corners, six corners, and eight corners, which are simple and elegant. When celebrating the Spring Festival or organizing a wedding, people would paste "full window paper-cuts", that is, cut out persimmons, ruyi, peonies, Buddha's hands, lotus flowers, osmanthus flowers, and shengs, wishing the new daughter-in-law to be good at needlework, give birth to a son soon, and be happy. Huangling paper-cutting has attracted many paper-cutting enthusiasts and collectors at home and abroad due to its exquisite skills and wide range of themes. Ms. Bai Yuntai, a German friend, came to Huangling twice and visited Yang Xixian, an old man in Zhaizhuang Village, Longshou Town. When she saw Yang Xixian's works with her own eyes, she couldn't believe that they were cut out of paper. The colorful butterflies that were as bright as rainbows were about to fly, the graceful goldfish seemed to be swimming in the water, and the charming peonies were fragrant and beautiful. The German foreign lady was feasting her eyes and had to admire the intelligence and ability of Chinese women from the bottom of her heart. Her works were also issued as stamps throughout the country by the State Post Bureau. Paper-cutting works by Zhang Linzhao, Li Zhuying and others are collected by many museums and cultural centers. At the same time, Tian Qing, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University and the current director of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, compares Huangling paper-cutting with blue printed cloth in Jiangsu, batik in Guizhou, clay sculpture in Fengxiang, Shaanxi, kites in Weifang, Shandong, Lujin in Heze, and New Year paintings in Yangliuqing, Tianjin. These folk aesthetic cultures with strong local characteristics, regional characteristics, people as the center, folk customs as the connotation, and handicraft as the characteristics, give Huangling paper-cutting a high degree of affirmation and appreciation. Mr. Ji Jinzhilin, a famous ancient philologist, historian, and writer, who was a member of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, vice president of Peking University, and director of the Institute of South Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, commented that the creativity, composition, artistic conception, and tailoring of the paper-cutting works of Zhang Linzhao, a paper-cutting master in our county, are similar to those of the works of the art master Picasso. In recent years, under the inspiration and influence of the older generation of paper-cutting artists, although some of them have passed away, the artistic works and artistic personalities they left behind still echo in the hearts of the people of Huangling. Huangling's cultural workers continue to inherit the traditional folk culture, carefully excavate and organize Huangling paper-cutting, and continue to carry forward Huangling's paper-cutting art through holding paper-cutting training courses, folk paper-cutting competitions, folk paper-cutting special exhibitions, etc. At the same time, a large number of outstanding paper-cutting authors have emerged. Paper-cutting art is in the ascendant and is booming. Friends from home and abroad have come to Huangling for many times to observe and exchange with Europe, America and at home and abroad, which has been highly praised by people from all walks of life and tourists. Huangling Paper-cutting Historical Origin Folk paper-cutting art is an ancient traditional folk art of Huangling and one of the most popular folk arts in Huangling. It has a long history and unique style, and is deeply loved by the people of Huangling and people at home and abroad. The history of Huangling folk paper-cutting can be traced back to the Yellow Emperor period in ancient times. Although there was no paper at that time, our ancestors "knotted ropes to record events and cut their heads to paint", using simple artistic expressions to decorate and beautify life. Simple patterns can be seen on the pottery fragments found in the Yangshao culture site of Qiaoshan, Huangling. At the same time, clothes made of animal skins and leaves show that there were primitive pattern combinations at that time. Although it was not paper-cutting in the true sense, it had prepared conditions for the development of paper-cutting and other art categories. During the Warring States Period, people used silk, silk, cotton paper and other writing materials (called paper in ancient times) to make exquisite decorations and other daily necessities through hollow carving and other forms. At present, folk artists in Huangling generally believe that paper-cutting art has existed since the Han Dynasty. Huangling paper-cutting is bright, simple, vigorous, straightforward, and full of romantic spirit, and still retains the legacy of the Han Dynasty, which further confirms this point. From the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, Huangling's paper-cutting art developed to a new historical stage, and paper-cutting art was also widely circulated among the people. A poet in the Tang Dynasty once wrote a poem "I want to cut the word Yichun, but the spring chill enters the scissors", which shows that the art of paper-cutting was already a very common folk art in the society at that time. In the Song Dynasty, the scope of paper-cutting expanded, and many skilled experts appeared at one time. Whether it was landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, insects and fish, opera figures, Buddha statues, etc., through the skills of knives and scissors, they became exquisite and lifelike works. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huangling paper-cutting had been deeply rooted in the daily life of the vast majority of ordinary people. According to the "Central County Chronicles" in the 12th year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty: On the first day of the first month of the year, lights were lit all night, incense was burned, animals were offered, and wine was set up to offer five sacrifices and ancestors. On the fifth day, before dawn, every household cut paper into people and boats and carts, and sent them to the thoroughfare, which was called "sending away poverty". In the years that followed, Huangling paper-cutting was inherited in development and developed in inheritance. Especially in the 1980s, Huangling paper-cutting entered a glorious stage of development and became a folk cultural and artistic treasure with a certain influence in Shaanxi and even the whole country. Basic characteristics of Huangling paper-cutting Huangling paper-cutting has a long history and a unique artistic style. The reason why Huangling paper-cutting can go through a long historical evolution without losing its purity and freshness is closely related to the stable social structure and cultural characteristics of Huangling rural areas. The changes in paper-cutting and the evolution of society are always closely combined. Before liberation, paper-cutting was basically based on praying for peace and wealth. After liberation, paper-cutting mainly focused on praising the party's policies and reflecting life documentary themes, which further released the inherent vigorous vitality of paper-cutting. Huangling paper-cutting has always been closely related to Huangling's unique humanistic and natural environment. It reflects the hardworking, wise, simple and kind local customs of the Huangling people and their yearning and pursuit for a better life, which complement the traditional customs and good morals of the Chinese nation. It is a concrete manifestation of the unique character of the Huangling people and a realistic reflection of the Huangling people's intelligence and wisdom. Generally speaking, it has the following cultural and realistic characteristics. People compare life to an evergreen tree. Then, we say that the art under the scissors is the flowers and fruits on the evergreen tree. Folk paper-cutting is rooted in the folks, spread among the folks, native to the folks, with the fragrance of the earth and the color of the earth, and always exudes the fragrance of art. (1) Huangling paper-cutting is finely crafted and delicately crafted, with strong ornamental and practical value, so it has a high artistic feature. (2) Huangling paper-cutting is closely related to the production and life of the urban and rural people in Huangling and its surrounding areas, and has the characteristics of integration. (3) There is no fixed program in the inheritance process of Huangling paper-cutting art. It is only through subtle influence and personal mind to give full play to imagination, and it continues to develop and evolve, and has the characteristics of self-regulation. (4) From its creation to its development, Huangling paper-cutting has always played a very important role in sacrificial activities. It is an important part of sacrificial activities and has a dependent characteristic. (5) Huangling paper-cutting works are colorful, and all kinds of animals and flowers are lifelike and vivid, so they have ornamental characteristics. (6) The auspicious animals and multi-colored flowers in Huangling paper-cutting contain rich imagination, represent wealth and auspiciousness, and have allegorical characteristics. The main value of Huangling paper-cutting (I) Cultural and historical value: Paper-cutting is a comprehensive cultural art nurtured by the local soil of Huangling. It is a realistic expression of Huangling’s humanities and folk customs. Moreover, it reflects the profound historical and cultural heritage of Huangling and the ideological realm of Huangling people’s pursuit of a better life from different aspects. Its performance is a localized, original, and original art form. The excavation, rescue, and protection of Huangling paper-cutting will greatly drive and promote the development of Huangling folk culture. Its historical origins, basic content, and basic characteristics are rare and precious. Excavating, rescuing and protecting it will not only enrich the content of Shaanxi art history, but also promote the history of Chinese art. (ii) Practical value: The reason why Huangling paper-cutting has been popular for a long time and widely distributed is that it has been deeply integrated into the blood of every Huangling person who loves his hometown and traditional culture. Excavating, sorting out and protecting Huangling Old Yangko will help to further explore the historical and cultural connotations of Old Yangko, better demonstrate the charm of national traditional culture, better show the hardworking, simple, wise, smart, open-minded and cheerful national characteristics of Huangling people, as well as the national spirit of pioneering, innovation, development and inheritance, and the beautiful wish of loving life and pursuing happiness. All these will surely play a positive role in promoting the harmonious development of society.