Text and picture/Wang Yuanchang
The year is gone with the sound of firecrackers, and the spring breeze brings warmth to the summer. In the sun, thousands of households always replace the old charms with new peaches.
——”New Year’s Day” by Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty
In the Lunar New Year, different regions have different folk customs; different families have different expectations. But the feelings rooted in the heart and praying for a better life are interconnected and difficult to change. The artistic expression that carries the profound feelings of Yan and Huang, interprets the folk customs and beautifies people’s lives, is indispensable for colorful New Year pictures.
The origin of Chinese New Year paintings can be traced back to the patron sacred paintings such as exorcism and evil spirits in the Qin and Han Dynasties or earlier, including Tao Talismans, Zhong Kui statues, Tianxing PostsKomiks, etc. By the Song Dynasty, with the rise and maturity of woodblock printing technology, New Year’s paintings gradually evolved from patron sacred paintings to colored and colored woodblocked New Year’s paintings, which was the first precedent for woodblock New Year’s paintings in the history of Chinese painting.
In recent years, there have been woodblock New Year pictures from 17 major domestic production areas including Tianjin Yangliuqing, Jiangsu Suzhou, Shandong Weifang, Sichuan Mianzhu, Henan Kaifeng, Shaanxi Fengxiang, and other 17 domestic intangible cultural heritage list.
In my more than ten years of searching for New Year pictures, I discovered that the birthplace of Chinese woodblock New Year pictures, the New Year pictures of “Zhuxian Town” in Kaifeng have a strong aroma of yin and yellow, full of emotions, and vivid folk customs.
Suzhou Taohuawu and Tiantian, which are praised by the world as “Tao and Willows in the South”, are the most dazzling in the north and south. They create based on real life, highlighting the character characteristics of the characters, and the pictures are prosperous and lively, full of expressiveness and attractiveness.
Today, woodblock New Year pictures with a long history and can be regarded as a classic Chinese cultural heritage have been picked up by more and more people, from posting on the four walls of the house in the past to exquisitely produced and framed works of art, bidding farewell to the old and welcome the new, including daily housewarming, newlyweds, etc., and laying out hanging hall shops.
Especially, some New Year’s paintings are produced in the courtyards of the streets and alleys, “always replace new peaches with old charms”, New Year’s paintings hanging in the hall and door gods posted outside the two courtyard doors, and Ji Rui’s blessingsCouplets and festive red lanterns form a beautiful New Year scenery. It demonstrates people’s yearning for a better life and exudes the inseparable beauty in the hearts of the people.
The earliest form of New Year’s painting is the door paintings posted on the door of the New Year, namely the “door god”, which uses colors and techniques in different regions. Figure 1 shows the door god New Year painting created by Yin Guoquan, the national inheritor of Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year painting; Figure 2 shows the door god New Year painting of Yang Liuqing; Figure 3 shows the door god New Year painting created by Tai Liping, the national inheritor of Fengxiang woodblock New Year painting; Figure 4 shows the door god New Year painting created by Yang Fuyuan, the national inheritor of Yangjiabu woodblock New Year painting.
Zhuxian Town, Kaifeng
Having a precedent for woodblock New Year painting
In ancient times, Zhuxian Town was ranked one of the “Four Major Ancient Towns in China”. What made its reputation famous was the woodblock New Year paintings that were popular here and passed down through the ages. Zhuxianzhen woodblock New Year paintings, as an outstanding representative of traditional Chinese art, have been included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
The day I went to Zhuxian Town, I was caught up with a rare heavy snowfall in Kaifeng. The flying snowflakes in the sky made the morning of the ancient town less noisy, and the sight of some shops and vendors cleaning the snow in front of the door. This ancient town that has been covered with wind and rain for thousands of years cannot imagine its glory. The Yuewang Temple, built here during the Ming Dynasty, is located on the side of Yuemiao Street, which is a wooden New Year painting street in the ancient town. Now many old wooden New Year painting brands have been restored. On this old street, you can not only feel the charm of traditional wooden New Year paintings, but also spend a few dozen yuan to buy valuable works by the New Year painting craftsmen.
According to historical records, Zhuxianzhen woodblock New Year paintings, known as the “ancestor of Chinese woodblock New Year paintings”, was born in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. It reached more than 300 New Year painting workshops during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The opening of the canal made Zhuxian Town a commercial center in the Central Plains, and the sales of New Year pictures flourished. Many merchants gathered here from the current Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Ningxia and other regions to buy two-thirds of the country’s New Year pictures.
The prosperity of woodblock New Year paintings in Zhuxian Town is inseparable from the fertile land of Kaifeng. Kaifeng during the Northern Song Dynasty was the center of politics, economy and culture in the country. The huge urban class activated the demand for folk culture and provided a rich soil and market for the creation of New Year pictures.
Meng Yuanlao’s “Dream of Tokyo” records that “In recent years, the market has printed door gods and peach boards., Taotao, etc. “On the River During the Qingming Festival” which depicts the social life of the Northern Song Dynasty, the guise of the “Wang Family Paper Horse” shop near the beginning of the volume is clearly identifiable.
Strive on a New Year’s Painting Street, closely adjacent to the ancient canal, the old houses on both sides are mottled, and the rugged eaves show the vicissitudes of the years it has experienced, and the original taste is full of nostalgia.
A second-story shop is high with the “protect” with black background and yellow characters, and the letter is “Tiancheng Old Shop”. The old house with peeling paint is not decorated, and the four walls are full of New Year’s paintings, with the mighty door god, the iron-faced and curly bearded Zhong Kui’s head, the fifth son wins the championship, the pine crane and the longevity of the lotus, and the precious son of the lotus.
The fifth generation successor of the “Tiancheng Old Shop”, the old man Yin Guoquan, who is in his seventies, dresses simply and sits in front of the stage piled with various colors of paint, href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks With the help of his grandson, he repeatedly applied different pigments and printed New Year pictures in color. It took the old man a month to place a newly-engraved set of carved plates on the stage.
The iron rack next to it was full of colorful greens, and the New Year pictures that had just been printed and dried were very beautiful. Behind the counter was Mr. Yin’s wife, the production table was connected to the counter, a typical traditional workshop.
Every year, it begins to enter the peak period of New Year’s painting production. The picture shows Yin Guoquan, who is fully focused on printing New Year’s paintings. In Yin Guoquan’s view, the authentic traditional skills are facing the danger of losing. Over the past few decades, he has inherited and created more than 30 sets of carved plates and more than 1,500 pieces. He said: “The pigments I printed in New Year’s paintings are carefully processed and boiled with plants such as pine smoke, locust rice, and Zhangdan. Although it takes time and effort, it is correct in color compared to the current industrial pigments. ”
”The things passed down by the older generation cannot be lost. My two sons and grandsons are heirs. “Looking at his hands that were slightly rougher than ordinary people, and the wrinkles on his face that were gullyed by the years, a kind of shock filled his heart.
The “Tiancheng Old Store” connected to the counter of the production stand is full of vicissitudes of time. The content of the woodblock New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town is mostly based on familiar historical stories, myths and legends. The printing technique is mainly woodblocked water color overprinting, six-page set, and some sets are as many as nine-page. The colors of red, yellow, green and purple are bright and exaggerated. The character has a big head and a small body, looking rustic and cute. Most characters use white faces and red eyelids on their faces, which is its unique technique and is also the representative style of Zhuxianzhen woodblock New Year pictures.
The vigorous and ancient lines, simple and symmetrical patterns, and the rough and thick atmosphere reflect the strong local art style of Zhuxian Town, the hinterland of the Central Plains. Mr. Lu Xun once commented on the woodblock New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town. “These woodblocks are simple, with thick and powerful engravings, and they are not stained with powder. The characters are not charming, the colors are strong and very local.”
The special stamp of “Zhuxian Town Woodblock New Year pictures” issued in 2008 is taken from the classic story, Sanniang teaches her children, returning home with a full load, and Feng Xianglan
The real-life theme park Qingming, which was opened to the public in 1998. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema Shanghe Park is located on the west bank of Longting Lake, Kaifeng City. It is a large historical and cultural park with the theme of Song Dynasty culture as a realistic painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” by Northern Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan, and is now a 5A scenic spot.
The Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year pictures are sold all year round. You can learn about the traditional woodblock New Year pictures production in the retro New Year pictures store. Visitors can not only appreciate and purchase, but also participate in the interaction on site.
The ancient and vigorous Zhuxian Town, which has strong local characteristics, has red, yellow, green and purple color, and is bright. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema is beautiful and thick, with an exaggerated character, big head and small body, looking rustic and cute
Suzhou Taohuawu
Carrying beautiful expectations
The ancient city of Suzhou is gentle and versatile., the cultural context that lasts for thousands of years has given Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings a brilliant and outstanding character. During the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, the prosperous period of Taohuawu New Year paintings. Hundreds of painters and printing craftsmen gathered here. The New Year paintings were sold to Southeast Asia, and “Taohuawu” became synonymous with Suzhou woodblock New Year paintings.
Looking through some books recording Suzhou’s cultural tourism or walking in historical districts such as Shantang Street and Pingjiang Road, you can see the shops of “Taohuawu New Year Pictures”. There is also a Taohuawu Street in Suzhou, which is a stone road that is not wide. Houses with pink walls and black tiles are arranged on both sides. The hanging lanterns and Spring Festival couplets exude the joy of the New Year.
In the shops on Taohuawu Street, it is not difficult to find the shadow of New Year pictures. In Puyuan on Xiaochangqiao Road, which intersects Taohuawu Avenue, the Taohuawu Woodcut New Year Painting Museum was found. Walking in, a fresh and elegant Cinema garden came into view, and the New Year Painting Museum was quietly hidden in the lush green shade.
Small bridges and flowing water in Suzhou can be used by everyone.KomiksThe museum currently collects hundreds of ancient New Year paintings collections. The pictures of the word “Fu” are displayed, the pictures of the family, the pictures of Magu’s birthday, the pictures of the double beauty and the pictures of the mysterious view of Gusu, and other treasures. In the real scene display part, the living room is covered with “three stars shining” and “eight immortals crossing the sea”, which means the seats are full of guests; the bedroom is covered with “flowers bloom and wealth” and “becoming a noble son early”, which means the harmony of couples. These New Year pictures that reflect the living conditions of the people in ancient times are loved by modern people.
I saw a table with engraving tools such as engraving, engraving platform, printing platform, brown brush, brown rub, fist knife, etc., and several inheritors in their early thirties were engraving the version meticulously. Holding the knife in his right hand, skillfully carving lines on the woodblock, sweat oozing out of the tip of his nose, but he didn’t care to wipe it off. His concentration looked like he made the most precious treasure in the world.
The antique Taohuawu historical classic woodblock New Year painting “Flowers Bloom and Rich”
According to reports, a Taohuawu woodblock New Year painting is not completed by a painter alone. It requires three steps: painting, engraving and printing, and is created by a collective creation. Compared with New Year pictures in other regions, the characteristic of Taohuawu New Year pictures is that they rely entirely on plate printing, and there is no stroke after printing, which is known for their excellence.
A fist knife that is just clenched by the palm can evolve into four types: starting knife, placing knife, picking knife, and re-knife.The knife technique emphasizes “precisely, pick the knife hard, and lightly shovel the bottom”. The lines should be carved naturally and vigorously, clean and neat. Generally speaking, it takes 5 years to learn the paintings of Taohuawu New Year paintings, 4 years to engrave, and 2 years to print.
One of the main steps of traditional Chinese woodblock New Year paintingsCinemaEmbroidered
In early 2008, a New Year painting “A Mutual Qi” created during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty was successfully reproduced in Puyuan. This can be called the pioneering work of Taohuawu New Year paintings recreating classics. “A Kitchen of Harmony” tells Babaylan to warn the people of the palace to live in harmony and spread to the people’s desire to unite and fulfill their wishes.
《A Kitchen of Harmony” is one of the representative works of Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings. Since history, Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings have carved a unique folk custom, that is, from the content Komiks to the social effect, called Woodblock New Year. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylanpainting but not limited to New Year postings and hangings. Instead, we should follow the seasons and express different beautiful expectations through woodblock New Year pictures when different festivals and solar terms come every year.
For example, when you bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, you should post a “Happy Picture”; when you are in the beginning of spring, you should post a “Mingyuan Picture”; when you are in the Mid-Autumn Festival, you should post a “Moon Palace Picture”… As you paste, the new year is coming again.
Yangliuqing, Tianjin
When I came to Yangliuqing Town, Xiqing District, Tianjin, during the Spring Festival, when I came to Yangliuqing Town, located in Xiqing District, Tianjin, antique buildings with carved beams and painted buildings immediately came into my eyes. Cinema, the frozen ancient canal quietly “hibernates” in the town, and several beautiful arch bridges span the ice surface.
Tianjin Yangliuqing, surrounded by Ziya River, Nan Canal and Daqing River, was an important terminal for north-south cargo circulation and overseas trade during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Yangliuqing woodblock New Year paintings were therefore deeply influenced by multiculturalism.
Tianjin Ancient Culture Street is a Scenery
According to historical records, Yangliuqing New Year paintings first appeared in the Wanli period of the Ming DynastyBabaylan, which reached unprecedented prosperity during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In 1958, the state established the Yangliuqing Painting Club to rescue the New Year painting art, collected and organized Yangliuqing Painting, and cultivated a group of outstanding New Year painting artists.
In recent years, with the prosperity of the reform and opening up and the prosperity of the cultural and tourism market, the demand for Yangliuqing Painting has expanded, making this ancient folk art return to the lives of the people. At the same time, Yangliuqing Painting has also entered the international art sales and collection market.
If Taohuawu New Year’s paintings are like subtle and beautiful beauty, then Yangliuqing New Year’s paintings are lively and straightforward men. From the picture of fat dolls holding carp and lotus in hand to the three-star picture of good fortune and longevity, a unique style of vivid, lively, joyful and full of emotions was created.
Yangliuqing New Year’s paintings inherited the tradition of paintings of Song and Yuan Dynasties, and absorbed the form of woodcut printing, arts and crafts, and drama dances in the Ming Dynasty. The early craftsmanship was basically the same as Taohuawu New Year’s paintings, and both used stereotyped overprints; in the post-production, it took a lot of time to be used for hand-painting.
Yangliuqing Nian Painting Five Sons Take Lotus was once selected as a stamp.
A New Year’s paintingBabaylan needs to go through five main processes: drawing, carving, woodblock overprinting, hand-painting, and mounting, plus more than three monochrome versionsOverprinting. Because of the combination of printing and painting, it has a quiet, elegant and lively visual effect, which is beyond the reach of other folk New Year pictures.
The content of the picture is mainly folk life, fat dolls, maids and historical stories. The most classic one is “After Years of Life”, the doll in the painting has a baby face and a Buddha body, a playful posture, a martial arts stand, a carp in his arms, and a lotus in his hands, which caters to the folk’s beautiful wishes of “praying for blessings and blessings” and “more children and blessings”.
Yangliuqing Door God New Year’s Painting
On the antique Ming and Qing Streets, Yuchengha, Yichengyong, Gu Liuxiang, Huayunzhai and others are dazzling. New Year’s painting workshops are one by one, and there are more than 60 New Year’s painting production workshops and sales stores in Yangliuqing Town. It is one of the best New Year’s paintings that have been restored. It seems that it has returned to the scene of “drawing every family and painting every household” during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Tourists buying New Year’s paintings are endless all year round.
The first woodblock New Year painting museum in Yangliuqing Town holds a series of activities “Appreciating New Year paintings and observing folk customs” every year in the first month.
The northern folk houses in the first floor exhibition hall of the museum, on the stove are posted a “Kitchen God” who represents the saying of good things and the safety of the land; on the water tank is posted a big carp that represents more than a year and has a lively and vivid shape; in the middle of the main hall is posted a painting of the three-star middle hall for blessings and longevity to protect the whole family; on the living rooms on both sides, the mother-in-law lives on the upper house, and the New Year pictures with educational significance; the lower house where the daughter-in-law lives is posted a painting of the New Year with many children and blessings; on the edge of the kang is posted a painting of kang circumference with strong local atmosphere. Visitors to the museum can also experience the production process of woodblock New Year pictures.
Walking out of the museum, what I impressed most is the gorgeous and vividness of Yang Qingnian’s paintings, which is unforgettable to the local people’s persistence in “only posting New Year’s paintings is considered to be the New Year’s Eve.”
Yangliu Youth Painting takes a lot of effort to use hand-painting. The picture shows the painter of “New Year’s Painting” is focusing on the ending of the classic painting “After Years and Years”
Now, the improvement and innovation of New Year’s paintings are the elderly New Year’s painting craftsmen and young painters<a href="httThe new topic faced by the Babaylans. Although it takes time and effort, it can be seen that it has a dense taste of life, rich emotions and aesthetic interests, and the full expression of the New Year culture and the dreams of Yanhuang for thousands of years.
With more than 2,000 years of history, the woodblock New Year paintings created by Chinese local artists are the oldest painting type in the world, an encyclopedia of Chinese folk customs and a “living fossil” full of Chinese civilization elements.
Yangcheng Evening News February 3, 2022 A7 Evening Party Supplement
Link
List of 17 woodblock New Year paintings selected as representative national intangible cultural heritage projects
1. Woodblock New Year paintings in Zhuxian Town, Kaifeng, Henan:
A simple and naive, with a long history, was born in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and was the ancestor of Chinese woodblock New Year paintings.
2. Tianjin Yangliuqing woodblock New Year paintings:
Celebrating the fun of the palace and the interests of the citizens.
The Yangliu Youth Painting “Hometown Happy and Safe” “3. The woodblock New Year Picture of Taohuawu, Suzhou, Jiangsu:
Fine and neat, rich in color.
Suzhou’s small bridges and flowing water can be painted, giving birth to the beautiful Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings
4. Shandong Weifang Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings:
Not bound by nature, rich imagination, and express the theme with generalization, romantic, and symbolic techniques; the composition is complete, full and symmetrical; the shape is exaggerated, concise and simple.
5. Sichuan Mianzhu woodblock New Year paintings:
The writing is thick and the colors are rich.
6. Wooden New Year paintings in Zhangzhou, Fujian:
The regional colors are rich and the themes of gods and Buddhas are rich and diverse.
7. Wooden New Year paintings in Foshan, Guangdong:
The image is delicate, rough and concise, strong and powerful, full composition, and it contains auspiciousness and a strong local characteristics.
8. Wooden New Year paintings in Longhui, Hunan:
The colors are unrestrained, orange-red, and close-to-color matching, line Round strips, strong sense of movement, strong decorative flavor.
9. Hebei Wuqiang Wooden New Year Pictures:
Rough and simple, full of rural atmosphere.
10. Chongqing Liangping Wooden New Year Pictures:
The shape is vivid and lively, the color contrast is strong, and the atmosphere is full of life.
11. Shandong Liaocheng Dongchangfu Wooden New Year Pictures:
The composition is simple, the overall feeling is strong, the characters are exaggerated, and the characters are full of simplicity. Solid; round and smooth lines
12. Wooden New Year paintings in Pingyang, Linfen, Shanxi: Exaggerated shape, vivid image, and strong decorativeness.
13. Wooden New Year paintings in Fengxiang, Shaanxi:
The style is rough and exaggerated, with large blocks of colors, dynamic characters, and powerful.
14. Wooden New Year paintings in Zhangqiu, Yanggu, Shandong:
The composition is plump, well-proportioned and simple.
1 5. Sichuan Jiajiang Wooden Paper New Year Pictures:
Bright colors and exquisite craftsmanship, and was as famous as Mianzhu New Year Pictures and Liangping New Year Pictures.
16. Henan Huaxian Wooden Paper New Year Pictures:
The printing process is detailed and complicated, the composition of the picture is balanced and symmetrical, the image is full and solid, and the lines are strong and powerful.
17. Hubei Laohekou Wooden Paper New Year Pictures:
The carvings are fine and smooth, the lines are rough and powerful, and the characters are modeled. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema vivid and exaggerated.