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.
——Cinema Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty “New Year”
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 posts, 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.
The Suzhou Taohuawu and Tianjin Yangliu Youth Paintings, which are praised by the world as “Taohuawu in the south and willows in the north and south, are the most dazzling. 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 again by more and more people, from posting on the four walls of the house in the past to exquisitely produced and framed artworks, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, including daily housewarming, newlyweds, etc., and setting up hanging hall shops.
Especially, some New Year’s pictures are in the streets and alleys of the origin of the New Year’s pictures, “always replace new peaches with old charms”, BabaylanThe New Year’s pictures hung in the hall and the door god posted outside the two courtyard doors, and Ji RuiThe couplets of the word “Fu” and the 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, which was built here during the Ming Dynasty, is located on the side of Yuemiao Street. It 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 you can buy valuable works by your favorite New Year painting craftsmen for a few dozen yuan.
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, and 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 and sold door gods,Peach board, peach talisman, etc. “Displaying the “Along 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 close 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 flavor is soaked with nostalgia.
A two-story paving high holds up the “guise” with black background and yellow characters, and writes “Tiancheng Old Shop”. The old house with peeling paint<a There is no decoration in Cinema. The four walls are full of New Year pictures. The powerful door god, the iron-faced and curly bearded Zhong Kui's head, the five sons win the championship, the pine crane and the longevity of the lotus, and the lotus will give birth to the son.
The fifth generation successor of the “Tiancheng Laoshop” and the seventh year old man Yin Guoquan dressed simply and sat in a pile of various places. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaIn front of the table with the help of his grandson, different pigments were repeatedly applied over and over again, and the New Year pictures were printed in color. It took the old man a month to place a newly-engraved set of carved plates on the table. 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 300 sets of carved versions 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 today’s industrial pigments. ”
”The things passed down by the older generation cannot be lost. My two sons and grandsons are the heirs. “Looking at him being more suspicious than ordinary peopleThe rough hands and wrinkles on their faces that were ravined by the years filled their hearts with shock.
The “Tiancheng Old Shop” connected to the counter of the production station 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 rugged and thick atmosphere reflect the strong local art style of Zhuxian Town, the hinterland of the Central Plains. Mr. Lu Xun once commented on Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year pictures, “These woodblocks are simple, with thick and powerful engravings, and are not stained with powder. The characters are not charming, with strong colors and very local flavor.”
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 Qingming Shanghe Park, a real-life theme park opened to the public in 1998, is located on the west bank of Longting Lake, Kaifeng City. It is a large historical and cultural park with the theme of Song culture as a model of the realistic painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” by Northern Song 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.
In the ancient and vigorous Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year pictures, the red, yellow, green and purple are bright and thick, the characters are exaggerated, with a big head and a small body, looking rustic and cute.
Suzhou Taohuawu
Carrying beautiful expectations
The ancient city of Suzhou is gentle and colorful, and has a thousand years of cultural heritage, giving Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures a brilliant and outstanding character. During the reigns of Yongzheng and Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, it wasef=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaTaohuawu New Year paintings were at its peak, with hundreds of painters and printing craftsmen gathering here. 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 Taohuawu Street in Suzhou, which is a stone road that is not wide. The 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 Cinema New Year’s 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 garden comes into view, and the New Year Painting Museum is quietly hidden in the lush green shade.
Small bridges and flowing water in Suzhou can be used in paintings
The museum currently collects hundreds of ancient New Year painting 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, engraving platform, printing platform, brown brush, brown rub, fist knife and other engraving tools. Several masters in their early thirties were engraving 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, Taohuawu New Year pictures are characterized by printing entirely based on plate printing, and there is no need to write a single stroke after printing., knowing the excellence of his merit.
A fist knife that is just clenched by the palm can evolve into four methods: starting knife, placing knife, picking knife, and re-knife. It pays attention to “firmly launching the knife, picking the knife, and shoveling the bottom”. The lines should be natural and vigorous, 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 paintings. In early 2008, a New Year painting “A Mutual Qi” created during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty was successfully copied in Puyuan. This can be called the pioneering work of Taohuawu New Year paintings. “A Mutual” warns the people of the palace to be in harmony and spread to the people’s desire to unite and fulfill their wishes.
“A Mutual” 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, so Babaylan is called woodblock New Year paintings, 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 bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, you should post a “CinemaMiddle-planting Cow Picture”; when you pay a “Moon Palace Picture” on the Mid-Autumn Festival… As you post it, the new year is coming again.
Tianjin Yangliuqing
Since the Spring Festival, when I came to Yangliuqing Town in Xiqing District, Tianjin, ancient buildings with carved beams and painted buildings immediately came into my eyes. The frozen ancient canal quietly “hibernated” in the town, and several beautiful arch bridges spanned the ice.
Yangliuqing, Tianjin, surrounded by Ziya River, Nan Canal and Daqing River, was an important terminal for the circulation of goods from north to south and overseas trade during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Yangliuqing woodblock New Year pictures were therefore deeply influenced by multiculturalism.
Tianjin Ancient Cultural Street is a Scenery
According to historical records, Yangliuqing Paintings first appeared in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and 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, collecting and organizing Yangliuqing Paintings, and cultivating 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 Paintings has expanded, which has brought this ancient folk art back to the lives of the people. At the same time, Yangliuqing Paintings have also entered the international art sales and collection market.
If Taohuawu New Year paintings are like implicit and beautiful beauty, then Yangliuqing New Year paintings are lively and straightforward men. From the picture of fat dolls holding carp and lotus in hand to the three-star picture of lucky and lucky fortune and longevity, a unique style of distinctive lively, joyful and full of emotions has been created.
Yangliuqing New Year paintings inherited the tradition of Song and Yuan paintings and absorbed the forms of woodcuts, arts and crafts, and drama stages in the Ming Dynasty. The early craftsmanship was basically the same as Taohuawu New Year paintings, and both used stereotyped overprints; in the post-production, it took a lot of time to be used for hand-painting.
Yangliuqing New Year’s Painting Five Sons Take Lotus and Become Stamps
A New Year’s Painting requires five main processes: drawing, carving, woodblock overprinting, hand-painting, and mounting, plus more than three monochrome overprints. 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’s paintings.
The content of the picture is mainly folk life, fat dolls, maids and historical stories. The most classic one is “After Years of Years”, the doll in the painting has a baby face, a Buddhist body, a playful posture, a carp, and a lotus in the hand, 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 Picture
On the antique Ming and Qing Streets, Yuchenghao, Yichengyong, Gu Liuxiang, Huayunzhai and others were dazzled, New Year’s painting workshops one by one, YangliuThere are more than 60 New Year painting production workshops and sales stores in Qingzhen, which is one of the best New Year painting production places to be 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 purchase New Year’s paintings are constantly coming.
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.
BabaylanThe northern folk house in the first floor exhibition hall of the museum, on the stove, there is a “Kitchen God” who represents the saying of good things from heaven and the safety of the land; on the water tank is a big carp that represents more than a year and has a lively and vivid shape; in the middle of the main hall is 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 upper house where the mother-in-law lives is a painting of the New Year with an educational significance; on the lower house where the daughter-in-law lives is a painting of the New Year with many children and blessings; on the edge of the kang is a painting of the kang with a strong local atmosphere. Visitors to the museum can also experience the production process of woodblock New Year pictures.
When I walked out of the museum, what I impressed most was the gorgeous and vividness of Yangliu Youth New Year’s paintings, and I could not forget the local people’s persistence in “only posting New Year’s paintings is considered to be the New Year’s Day.”
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 More”
Now, the improvement and innovation of New Year’s paintings are a new issue faced by older New Year’s painting craftsmen and young painters. Although it takes time and effort, I found that Komiks has a dense taste of life, rich feelings and aesthetic taste, as well as the full expression of culture and the dreams of Yanhuang for thousands of years.
With more than two thousand years of history, woodblock New Year paintings created by Chinese local artists, it is the oldest type of painting in the world, an encyclopedia of Chinese folk customs and a “living fossil” full of elements of Chinese civilization.
Yangcheng Evening News February 3, 2022 A7 Evening Party Supplement
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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:
Simple and naive, with a long history, was born in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty, and was the founder of Chinese woodblock New Year paintings.
2. Tianjin Yang Komiks Liu Qing woodblock New Year paintings:
Celebrating the fun of the palace and the interests of the citizens.
Contains the meaning of auspiciousness and happiness. The Yangliu Youth Painting “Hometown Happy Safe” is “Hometown Sadness”
3. The woodblock New Year Picture of Taohuawu, Suzhou, Jiangsu:
FineBabaylan is neat and colorful.
Suzhou’s small bridges and flowing water can be painted, giving birth to the beautiful Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings
4. Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings in Weifang, Shandong:
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 pictures:
The writing is rich in meaning and colorful.
6. Wooden New Year Pictures of Zhangzhou, Fujian:
The region has rich colors, 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, with a full composition, which expresses its auspiciousness and is highly distinctive.
8. Wooden New Year Pictures of Longhui Tantou, Hunan:
Use unrestrained colors, eye-catching orange-red, close-to-color matching, round lines, strong sense of movement, and strong decorative flavor.
9. Hebei Wuqiang Wooden New Year Pictures:
Rough and simple, full of rural atmosphere.
10. Chongqing Liangping Wooden-sheet New Year Pictures:
The shape is vivid and lively, the color contrast is strong, and it is full of lifestyle.
11. Wooden New Year paintings in Dongchangfu, Liaocheng, Shandong:
The composition is simple, the overall look is strong, the characters are exaggerated, full and simple; the lines are round and smooth
12. Wooden New Year paintings in Pingyang, Linfen, Shanxi:
The shape is exaggerated, vivid and decorative.
13. Shaanxi Fengxiang woodblock New Year paintings:
Cinema‘s rough and exaggerated style, large colors filled with them, the characters are dynamic and powerful.
14. Zhang Qiu woodblock New Year paintings in Yanggu, Shandong:
The composition is plump, well-proportioned and simple.
15. Sichuan Jiajiang Wooden New Year Pictures:
Bright colors and exquisite craftsmanship, and was as famous as Mianzhu New Year Pictures and Liangping New Year Pictures.
16. Wooden New Year pictures in Huaxian County, Henan Province: The printing process is meticulous and complex, the composition of the picture is balanced and symmetrical, the image is full and solid, and the lines are strong and powerful.
17. Wooden New Year pictures of Laohekou, Hubei:
The carvings are fine and smooth, the lines are rough and powerful, and the characters are vivid and exaggerated.