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 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, woodblock New Year pictures from 17 major domestic production areas including Tianjin Yangliuqing, Jiangsu Suzhou, Shandong Weifang, Sichuan Mianzhu, Babaylan, Henan Kaifeng, Shaanxi Fengxiang, and other countries, and have been selected into the national intangible cultural heritage list.
I have discovered during my more than ten years of searching for New Year’s paintings that the birthplace of Chinese woodblock New Year’s paintings, the New Year’s paintings in Kaifeng’s “Zhuxian Town”, have a strong aroma of yin and yellow, full of emotions, and the folk customs and folk customs are lively.
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 a classic cultural heritage of China 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, bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, including daily housewarming, newlyweds, etc., and hanging hall shops are arranged.
Especially some New Year pictures are produced in the streetsThe courtyard houses in the alley “always replace new peaches with old charms”, the New Year pictures hanging in the hall and the door gods posted outside the two courtyard doors form a beautiful New Year scenery with Jirui’s couplets and festive red lanterns. 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. Komiks. Zhuxian Town, Kaifeng, opened a precedent for woodblock New Year paintings
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 thousands of years of storms, Komiks cannot imagine the glory it once had.
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. 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 national politicalThe center of governance, economy and culture, the huge urban class has activated the demand for folk culture, providing rich soil and a 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, peach boards, peach talismans, etc..” The “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” depicting the social life of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the guise of the “Wang Family Paper Horse” shop near the beginning of the volume is clearly identifiable.
Strive on a New Year 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 full of nostalgia.
A second-floor pavement is high with the “protect” with black background and yellow characters, and the “Tiancheng Old Store” is written on it. There is no decoration in the old house with peeling paint. The four walls are full of New Year pictures, including the mighty door god, the iron-faced and curly bearded Zhong Kui’s head, the five sons win the championship, the pine crane prolongs life, the lotus gives birth to a noble son and other representative themes.
Yin Guoquan, the fifth generation descendant of “Tiancheng Old Shop”, was dressed simply, sitting in front of the stage where various colors of paints were piled up. With the help of his grandson, he repeatedly applied different paints and printed New Year pictures in color. It took the old man a month to place a newly-engraved carving version on the stage. The iron rack next to Cinema is hung with colorful greenery. The New Year pictures that have just been printed and dried are very beautiful. Behind the counter is Mr. Yin’s wife, and the production desk is connected to the counter, a typical traditional workshop.
The peak period of New Year’s picture production begins in early December every year. The picture shows Yin Guoquan, who is fully focused on printing New Year picturesCinema
In Yin Guoquan’s view, the truly authentic traditional skills are in danger of losing. Over the past few decades, he has inherited and created more than 300 sets of carved plates and more than 1,500 pieces. He said: “The paints I printed in New Year’s paintings are carefully processed and boiled with plants such as pine smoke, locust rice, and Zhangdan. Although it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, it is color correct compared to the current industrial pigments.” “The things passed down by the older generation cannot be lost. My two sons and grandsons are heirs.” Seeing him look a little rougher than ordinary peopleThe hands and wrinkles on the face were filled with the years, a kind of shock filled the heart.
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 versions and one set, and some sets are more than Babaylan to nine versions. The colors of red, yellow, green and purple are bright and exaggerated. The character has a big head and a small body, and looks 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 linesBabaylan, the simple and symmetrical patternCinema, the rough and thick atmosphere reflects the strong local art style of Zhuxian Town, the hinterland of the Central Plains. Mr. Lu Xun once commented on the woodblock New Year paintings 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 paintings” 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 public opening to the public in 1998Cinema Garden Qingming 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 culture, based on the realistic painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” by Zhang Zeduan, a Northern Song Dynasty painting artist, as a model. It 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, red, yellow, green and purple are colorful and rich, with exaggerated characters, big head and small body, looking rustic and cute
Suzhou Taohuawu
Carrying beautiful expectations
The ancient city of Suzhou is gentle and colorful, extending for thousands of years, giving Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings a brilliant and elegant character. The Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty were the most prosperous period of Taohuawu New Year paintings. There were hundreds of painters and printing craftsmen gathered here. The New Year paintings were sold to Southeast Asia. “Taohuawu” became synonymous with Suzhou woodblock New Year paintings.
Looking through some books recording Suzhou’s cultural tourism or wandering in historical districts such as Shantang Street and Pingjiang Road, you can KomiksSee the shop of “Taohuawu New Year’s Pictures”. There is also a Taohuawu Street in Suzhou, which is a stone road with small stone walls and black tiles 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 the New Year’s picture. In the Puyuan on Xiaochangqiao Road, which intersects Taohuawu Street, I found the Taohuawu Woodcut New Year’s Picture Museum. Walking in, a fresh and elegant garden comes into view, and the New Year’s Picture 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 pictures collections. Pictures of “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Magua” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Fu” by “Magua” by “Fu” by “Shuangmei Love Flower”, Susu href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks displays treasures such as mysterious view. 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; in the bedroom, “flowers bloom and wealth” and “become 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, printing platform, brown brush, brown rub, fist knife and other engraving tools. Several inheritors in their early thirties are engraving meticulously. Holding Babaylan knife skillfully carves lines on the woodblock, with a little sweat oozing out of the tip of his nose but he doesn’t care to wipe it off. His concentrating look like making the most precious treasure in the world.
The antique Taohuawu historical classic woodblock New Year painting “Flowers Bloom and Wealth”
According to reports, a Taohuawu woodblock New Year painting is not completed by a painter alone. It requires three major 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 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 live in harmony and spread to the people’s desire to unite and fulfill their wishes.
“A Bun 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 content to social effects, it 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 bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, you will post “KomiksHappy Picture”; when you are in the beginning of spring, you will post “Minging Spring Ox Picture”; when you are in the Mid-Autumn Festival, you will post “Moon Palace Picture”… As you are posting, the new year is coming again.
Yangliuqing, Tianjin
Thoughly influenced by multiculturalism
During the Spring Festival, when I came to Yangliuqing Town, 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.
Tianjin Yangliuqing, surrounded by Ziya River, Nan Canal, and Daqing River, was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.An important terminal for north-south cargo circulation and overseas trade, Yangliuqing woodblock New Year paintings are therefore deeply influenced by multiculturalism.
Tianjin Ancient Cultural Street is a Scenery
According to historical records, Yangliuqing Chinese painting 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, collected and organized Yangliuqing Paintings, and cultivated a group of outstanding New Year painting artists.
In recent years, with the prosperity of the cultural and tourism market, the demand for Yangliu Youth painting has expanded, bringing this ancient folk art back to the lives of the people. At the same time, Yangliu Youth Painting has 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 longevity, a unique style of vivid, joyful and full of emotions has been created.
Yangliuqing Nian Painting 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 is basically the same as Taohuawu New Year paintings, and both use the stereotyped overprint of the drawings; in the post-production, it takes a lot of time to be used for hand-painting.
Yangliuqing New Year’s Painting Five Sons of Lotus EverlastingBabaylan was selected as a stamp
A New Year’s painting requires five main processes: drawing, carving and drawing, woodblock overprinting, hand-painting, and mounting, plus more than three monochrome overprinting. Because of the method of combining 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 painting is based on folk cultureCinemav.com/”>KomiksThe main living, fat dolls, maids and historical stories are the most classic ones. The doll in the painting is “After Years of Life”, the baby faces and Buddha bodies, plays and martial arts, carp in the arms, and lotus flowers 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 Paintings
On the antique Ming and Qing Streets, Yuchengha, Yichengyong, Gu Liuxiang, Huayunzhai and others are dazzling. New Year’s painting workshops 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 constantly coming.
The first woodblock New Year painting museum in Yangliuqing Town is held in the first month of every year.
The northern folk houses in the exhibition hall on the first floor of the museum are posted on the stove, representing good things from heaven and the good things to go to the ground to ensure safety; a picture is posted on the water tank. Represents a big carp with more than a year and a lively and vivid shape; a painting of the three-star middle hall of the main hall is posted in the middle of the main hall to protect the whole family;
On the living rooms on both sides, the mother-in-law lives in the upper house, and the New Year pictures with educational significance; the lower house where the daughter-in-law lives is posted with many children and blessings; the kang is covered with a strong local style on the edge of the kang. Visitors to the museum can also experience the production process of woodblock New Year pictures.
Walking out of the museumCinema Pavilion, what I impressed most is the gorgeous and vividness of Yangliu Youth paintings, which is unforgettable to the local people’s persistence in “paying New Year’s paintings is considered the New Year’s Day”.
Yangliu Youth paintings require a lot of effort to paint by hand. The picture shows the painter of “New Year’s Painting” is focusing on the ending of the classic painting “After 5 Years”
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. AlthoughIt consumes time and effort, but it can be seen that it has a dense taste of life, abundant emotions and aesthetic interests, and the full expression of the Chinese 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 Seventeen Woodblock New Year Pictures selected as representative national intangible cultural heritage projects
1. Woodblock New Year Pictures in Zhuxian Town, Kaifeng, Henan Province:
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 Pictures.
2. Tianjin Yangliuqing woodblock New Year painting:
Celebrating the fun of the palace and the interests of the citizens.
The Yangliu Youth Painting “Hometown Happy Safe” is a “Wuchenghao Painting”
3. Wood-print New Year painting of Taohuawu, Suzhou, Jiangsu:
Delicious and neat, rich in color.
Small bridges and flowing water in Suzhou can be painted, giving birth to and nourishing the spiritual and beautiful Taohuawu woodblock New Year paintings
4. Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings in Weifang, Shandong:
Not bound by nature, rich imagination, expressing the theme with generalization, romance, symbolism and meaning; 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. Woodblock New Year Pictures 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, 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 and bright, matching colors, 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 feeling 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, the image is vivid, and the decorative is strong.
13. Shaanxi Fengxiang woodblock New Year paintings:
The style is rough and exaggerated, with large blocks of colors, dynamic characters, 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. Henan KomiksHuaxian WoodblockCinemaNew Year pictures:
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.