Han Jianfeng

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Han Jianfeng, Male, Han, from Hua, Henan, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Woodblock New Year Pictures (Ⅶ-65). The tradition is documented in Hua, Henan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Woodblock New Year Pictures in Hua, Henan: Huaxian woodblock New Year prints are a folk fine-art form circulating in Huaxian County, Henan Province. Originating in the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming dynasty (the Zhengde era), they have been transmitted through twenty-seven generations and have a history of more than five hundred years. Huaxian lies in northern Henan along the old course of the Yellow River, at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains; villages are dense and weddings, funerals, and New Year and festival customs are frequent, so demand for New Year prints was strong. Print shops were therefore mostly attached to village and town markets, carving blocks during the winter and spring slack seasons and printing for sale before the first day of the New Year. Woodblock New Year prints have a long history. According to legend, they already appeared in the Han dynasty; in the Song dynasty they were called 'paper pictures' (zhihua); in the Ming dynasty they were called 'painting posters' (huatie); and only in the Qing dynasty were they formally given the name 'New Year prints' (nianhua). Huaxian woodblock New Year prints are a folk fine-art form circulating in Huaxian County, Henan Province. Originating in the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming dynasty (the Zhengde era), they have been transmitted through twenty-seven generations and have a history of more than five hundred years.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in July 1968 in Hua County, Henan Province. He was born into a family of New Year picture makers and learned the craft from his elders from childhood. In 1976 he began producing simple New Year pictures. From 1994 onwards he visited many veteran New Year picture artisans in the surrounding areas and travelled to other New Year picture production centres for exchange and study. Through years of effort he collated the Lifangtun New Year picture tradition, whose production process had all but died out, and restored its original procedures and techniques. His pictures are half printed and half painted, using dyeing, rinsing, coating and dotting techniques together with bright colours such as vivid red, yellow and green, so that light brushwork and heavy colouring stand out and colour and line are clearly distinguished; the style is vigorous and expansive, bold and unconstrained, plain and generous. Within the documented technical tradition of Woodblock New Year Pictures in Hua, Henan: Woodblock New Year prints are a popular traditional art form through which ordinary Chinese people welcome the new year and usher in blessings at New Year time. They convey the life ideals of the common people, reflect many characteristics of social life and folk culture, and have become an important component of Chinese folk fine art. Woodblock New Year prints are produced by the traditional woodblock water-printing method, and their emergence is closely related to woodblock printing. Over a development process of thousands of years, a number of relatively concentrated production centers for woodblock New Year prints gradually took shape. Each center maintained technical exchanges with other regions while preserving its own originality in subject matter and form. In terms of subject matter, woodblock New Year prints fall into five broad categories: exorcising evil and warding off misfortune, praying for blessings and welcoming auspiciousness, operatic texts and legends, festive decoration, and scenes of daily life and customs. Their main formats include gongjian (tribute-paper sheets), zhongtang (center-hall scrolls), duoping (paired screens), calendar prints, and kangwei (kang-surround borders). Woodblock New Year prints employ diverse techniques and bright colors, and regional differences have given rise to a variety of styles. They are of high aesthetic quality, possess distinctive artistic features, carry a wealth of information, and embody a profound national psychology and traditional humanistic values. Huaxian woodblock New Year prints take more than one hundred forms of presentation, including genealogy charts, center-hall scrolls (zhongtang), and couplets, with subjects drawn mostly from traditional content such as historical allusions, legends and tales, and auspicious patterns. They are carved on top-quality pear-wood blocks, and the printing process is meticulous and elaborate; compositions are balanced and even, forms are exaggerated yet economical, figures are full and solid, lines are vigorous and forceful, and colors are bright and vivid, displaying the bold and unconstrained character commonly found in folk art of the Yellow River basin. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival record of the craft process": They are carved on top-quality pear-wood blocks, and the printing process is meticulous and elaborate; compositions are balanced and even, forms are exaggerated yet economical, figures are full and solid, lines are vigorous and forceful, and colors are bright and vivid, displaying the bold and unconstrained character commonly found in folk art of the Yellow River basin. "The recovery of Lifangtun prints": Han Jianfeng, born into a print family, travelled to old masters from 1994 and systematically rescued the nearly lost Lifangtun tradition. "The rustic character of folk print": Compared with Zhuxianzhen, Huaxian prints remain plainer and closer to village belief and taste, giving them distinct ethnographic value. "Twenty-seven generations": Begun in the reign of the Ming Wuzong and carried through twenty-seven generations, its fixed old blocks and colour sequences have persisted for five centuries.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Woodblock New Year Pictures (Hua County woodblock New Year pictures), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Han Jianfeng · National Representative Bearer Archive