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.
——”Year 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 to the patron sacred paintings of 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, highlight the character characteristics of the characters, 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 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.
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. Zhuxian Town Komiks Woodblock New Year paintings, as an outstanding representative of Chinese traditional art, were 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 of Cinema, which has been covered in thousands of years of storms, 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, 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 only 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, 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 have become more and more popular.Sheng, 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, peach boards, peach talismans, etc. Cinema” unfolds 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 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 it is full of colorful greenery, and 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.
Every year, it begins to enter the peak period of New Year’s painting production in early December. The picture shows Yin Guoquan, who is fully focused on printing New Year pictures. 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 versions, 15Komiksmore than 00 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 dan. Although it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, it is color-correct compared with the current industrial pigments of Cinema. ”
”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 and myths and legends. The printing technique is mainly made of woodblocked and water-colored overprints, six-page one set, and some sets are as large as nine. The colors of red, yellow, green and purple are bright and exaggerated. The characters have big heads and small bodies, and look rustic and cute. Most characters have white faces. Face and red eyelids are its unique technique and are also the representative style of Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year paintings.
The vigorous and ancient lines, simple and symmetrical patterns, and the rough and thick atmosphere reflect the strong local art style of Zhuxian Town located in the heart of the Central Plains. Mr. Lu Xun once commented on Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year paintings, “These woodblocks are simple, with thick and powerful engravings, and they are not stained with makeup. The characters have no charm, the colors are strong and very rural. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks earthy. ”
The special stamp of “Zhuxian Town Wooden New Year Pictures” issued in 2008 is taken from the classic story, Sanniang teaches her children, returning home with a full load, and Fengxianglan
The real-life theme park Qingming Shanghe Park, which was 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 the model. It is now a 5A scenic spot.
The wood-panel New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town are sold all year round. In the retro New Year picture shop, you can learn about the production of traditional wood-panel New Year pictures. Visitors can not only appreciate and purchase, but also participate in the interaction on site.
In Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year pictures, which are simple and vigorous and have strong local characteristics, red, yellow, green and purple colors are bright and thick, 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, and has a thousand years of cultural heritage, giving Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures a brilliant and brilliant character. The Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty were the most prosperous period of Taohuawu New Year pictures. Hundreds of painters and printing craftsmen gathered here. The New Year pictures were sold to Southeast Asia, and “Taohuawu” became synonymous with Suzhou woodblock New Year pictures.
See some books recording Suzhou’s cultural tourism or wandering in historical districts such as Shantang Street and Pingjiang Road. You can see href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan to the shop of “Taohuawu New Year’s Painting”. There is also a Taohuawu Street in Suzhou, which is a stone road with small 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 paintings. In the Puyuan Garden of Xiaochangqiao Road, which intersects Taohuawu Street, I found the Taohuawu Woodcut New Year’s Painting Museum. Walking in, a fresh and elegant garden comes into view, and the New Year’s Painting Museum is quietly hidden in the lush green shade.
Small bridges and flowing water in Suzhou can be painted by people. The museum currently collects hundreds of ancient New Year pictures collections. The picture of the word “Fuyou”, the family happiness, the picture of Magu’s birthday, the picture of Double Beauty Love Flowers, and the mysterious view of Gusu. In the real scene display part, the living room is covered with “Three Stars Highlights” and “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea”, which means guests<a The room was full; "Flowers bloom and wealth" and "Given children early" were pasted in the bedroom, which meant the harmony of couples. These New Year pictures that reflect the living conditions of the people in ancient times were loved by modern people.
I saw a table with engravings, engraving platforms, printing platforms, brown brushes, brown rubs, fist knives and other engraving tools were placed on it. Several inheritors in their early thirties were meticulously engraving. Holding a knife in their right hand, skillfully carving lines on the woodblock, sweat ejaculated from the tip of their nose, but they didn’t care to wipe them off, and their concentration was like making the most precious treasure in the world.
The ancient Taohuawu historical classic woodblock New Year painting “Flowers Blooming and Rich”
According to reports, a Taohuawu woodblock New Year painting is not completed by a painter alone. It requires three steps of painting, engraving and printing, and is created by a collective creation. Compared with New Year paintings in other regions, the characteristic of Taohuawu New Year painting is that it relies entirely on printing. After printing, it does not take a stroke and is known for its engraving skills.
A fist knife that is just clenched by the palm can evolve into four methods: starting knife, backing knife, picking knife, and re-knife. It pays attention to “the knife is accurate, picking knife is fierce, and the bottom of the shovel is light”. The lines should be engraved naturally and vigorously, and it should be done. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan is 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.
Cinema 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 reproduced in Puyuan. This can be called the classic pioneering work of Taohuawu New Year paintings. “A Mutual Qi” warns the people of the palace to live in harmony and spread to the people’s desire to unite and fulfill their wishes.
《A Mutual Qi” 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, called woodblock New Year paintings, but not limited to New Year postings and hangings. Instead, in accordance with the seasons, when different festivals and solar terms come every year, woodblock New Year paintings should be used to express different beautiful expectations.
For example, when bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, “Happy Picture” should be posted; when the beginning of spring, the “Mingyuan Picture” should be posted; when the Mid-Autumn Festival, the “Moon Palace Picture” should be posted…Cinema is posted, and the new year is here again.
Tianjin Yangliuqing
Far from the influence of multiculturalism
During the Spring Festival, when I came to Yangliuqing Town, Xiqing District, Tianjin, an antique building with carved beams and painted buildings immediately came into my eyes. The frozen ancient canal quietly “hibernate” in the town, with several beautiful onesThe arch bridge spans the ice surface.
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 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. Its early craftsmanship is basically the same as Taohuawu New Year paintings, and both use the stereotyped overprint of the drawings; in the later production, Komiks, it takes 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 painting requires five main processes: drawing, carving and drawing, woodblock overprinting, hand-painting, and mounting, plus more than three monochrome overprinting. 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 “More than Years”》, the baby face and Buddha body in the painting, playful postures and martial arts, carp in the arms, and lotus flowers in handBabaylan, caters to the folk’s beautiful wishes of “praying for blessings and blessings” and “more children and blessings”.
Cinema Yangliuqing Door God New Year Pictures
On the antique Ming and Qing Streets, Yuchengha, Yichengyong, Gu Liuxiang, Huayunzhai, etc. are dazzling. New Year painting workshops one by one, and there are more than 60 New Year painting production workshops and sales stores in Yangliuqing Town. It is one of the best New Year painting production sites to restore. 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 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.
In the northern house in the exhibition hall on the first floor of the museum, there is a “Kitchen God” on the stove that represents the sayings of good things from heaven and the safety of the land; there is a big carp that represents more than a year and has a lively and vivid shape; there is a painting of the three-star middle hall of blessings and longevity in the middle of the main hall to protect the whole family; there is a painting of the upper house where the mother-in-law lives is attached to the upper house where the mother-in-law lives is attached to the New Year pictures with educational significance; the lower house where the daughter-in-law lives is attached to the New Year pictures with many children and blessings; there is a painting of the kang with strong local flavor on the side of the kang. 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, it can be seen that it has a dense taste of life, abundant emotions and aesthetic interests, and a full expression and inflammation of the New Year culture.Huang Qianqian’s dream for hundreds of years.
With more than 2,000 years of history, woodblock New Year pictures created by Chinese local artsBabaylan people are the oldest painting type 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.
Contains the meaning of auspiciousness and happiness. Yang Qingnian’s painting “Hometown Happy and Safe” is “A New Year’s Pictures” by “Yu Chenghao Painting”. Cinema Liu Qingnian’s painting “Hometown Happy and Safe”
3. Wood-print New Year’s Pictures in Taohuawu, Suzhou, Jiangsu:
Delicious and neat, rich in color.
Small bridges and flowing water in Suzhou can be painted, giving birth to the beautiful Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures
4. Yangjiabu woodblock New Year pictures in Weifang, Shandong:
Not bound by nature, rich imagination, and express the theme with generalization, romance, symbolism and meaning; the composition is complete, full and symmetrical; the shape is exaggerated, concise and simple.
5. Babaylan Sichuan Mianzhu woodblock New Year paintings:
Write is rich in meaning and colorful.
6. Wooden 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 full, Komiks well-proportioned and quaint.
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.