Dough figurines, commonly known as dough figurines, are made of fine wheat flour and glutinous rice flour as the main raw materials. Appropriate pigments are added to the dough to make dough of different colors. After being steamed in a pot, they are then added with appropriate amounts of antiseptics, moth-proofing agents, and anti-desiccation agents. Then, various lifelike statues are made by hand with the help of tools such as knives, molding knives, small scissors, combs, bone hairpins, and patterned seals. Dough figurines are exquisitely made and lifelike, and are an art treasure with great ornamental value. Caozhou dough figurines, which are popular in Heze City, Shandong Province, are such a traditional plastic art. They are simple to make and highly artistic. They are the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection projects in my country. Heze was formerly known as Caozhou. Caozhou dough figurines originated from Muli Village, Malinggang Town (now Mudan District, Heze City). It was developed on the basis of the "flower offerings" for offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and worshipping ghosts and gods in ancient times. According to legend, as early as the Yao and Shun era, Heze, located in the Yellow River Basin, was often hit by natural disasters due to the Yellow River bursting. At that time, in order to avoid disasters and seek peace, local people often hunted and killed prey, worshiped heaven and earth, prayed to gods, and paid homage to their ancestors. Later, in order to save money, they used flour to mix and knead pigs and sheep to replace living things, which was the so-called "flower offering". This was the early Heze dough sculpture. In the Tang Dynasty, there were three types of raw dough sculpture, cooked dough brushing sculpture and cooked dough dyeing sculpture. "The world's dough sculpture is Muli." Over thousands of years, local dough sculptures have experienced vicissitudes and ups and downs. According to the inscription, in 1852 (the second year of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty), Wang Qingyuan and Guo Xiangyun, rice sculpture artists from Yiyang, Jiangxi, traveled to Heze and came to Muli Village. They cooperated with local flower offering artists Hao Sheng and Yang Baisi to combine rice sculpture with flower offering skills to form today's "Caozhou dough figurines". They used white flour and glutinous rice flour with strong plasticity as raw materials, dyed them into black, white, blue, green, red, yellow, purple and other colors, and developed from sculpting animals and fruits to sculpting people, making dough sculptures initially form works of art. As a result, the dough figurine art was greatly improved. Later, he recruited many disciples and taught them the skills. Therefore, the area around Mulizhuang became the birthplace of Heze dough figurine art. Since then, Caozhou dough figurines have been separated from folk customs and have become a folk handicraft that combines appreciation and play. Caozhou dough figurines are concise, vivid, lifelike, exaggerated and appropriate in proportion, and colorful and simple. They are similar to the Chinese freehand Chinese painting art. They have high artistic research value and are an important representative of Chinese folk culture. At the same time, Caozhou dough figurines are simple and easy to learn, easy to popularize, have strong affinity and a wide audience. They are a gorgeous and colorful flower in the garden of Chinese folk art. They have long-lasting vitality, are deeply loved by the general public, and have extremely high appreciation value. Historically, around 1908, the dough figurine art of Li Chaoxun and others was already famous in Caozhou Prefecture, and they passed on their art to several people including his nephews Li Junyue, Li Junhe, Li Junxing, Li Junfu, and Li Xinqi. Among them, Li Junxing and Li Junfu had outstanding skills. Because Li Junxing was good at sculpting elegant ladies and Li Junfu was good at sculpting military generals, they were known as the "Two Lis of Civil and Military Affairs". Caozhou dough figurines are deeply loved by the general public, especially children. Artists take them as a sideline activity. During the Spring Festival or the slack season, they go to the market and sell them to support their families. Later, more and more artists came to Caozhou and surrounding areas, and began to teach their skills face to face to build their families and establish their careers. They traveled around the country and even went abroad to perform. Since 1920, Li Junxing, Li Junfu and more than ten brothers have left home many times to Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong to sculpt dough figurines, and went abroad to perform in the Philippines, Malaysia, India and other countries; from September 1926 to June 1927, Li Junxing went to the Royal Palace of Laos and the Royal Palace of Vientiane to perform dough figurines; he was praised by the royal palace. In 1928, more than ten people including Li Junxing, Li Junfu, Chang Tianxu, Li Benhua and Li Benchun went to Singapore. Chang Tianxu, Li Benhua, Li Benchun and others stayed in Singapore for a long time and engaged in dough sculpture art. In 1931, Li Junxing went to Moscow to perform dough sculpture. It was well received by international friends. Since then, Caozhou dough figurines have gradually formed a unique art, which is famous throughout the country and the world.