Wang Zude

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From childhood he learned block engraving, printing and colour-block registration from his father. Within the regional tradition and school record of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Pictures in Suzhou, Jiangsu: Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints took Changmen Gate, Shantang Street, and Taohuawu Street in the northwest of Suzhou as their center for drawing and carving, with print shops, carving workshops, and printing houses distributed along the streets; work was coordinated through a division of labor among the three lineages of drawing, carving, and printing, forming a production-and-sales pattern of shops in front and workshops behind. Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints originated in the Ming dynasty, when several dozen print shops operated in the Qili Shantang area and the Taohuawu quarter inside Changmen Gate in Suzhou, with annual output reaching as high as several million sheets, hence the name Taohuawu. Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints flourished during the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns of the Qing dynasty. At the height of prosperity there were the Zhang Xingju, Zhang Wenju, Wei Hongtai, Lü Yunlin, Lu Fushun, Lu Jiashun, Moxiangzhai, Zhang Zai, Taiyuan, Zhang Lin, and Ji Xiangji shops; those that appeared slightly later, such as Wang Rongxing, Chen Tongsheng, Chen Tongxing, Wu Jinzeng, Wu Taiyuan, and Hongyunge, also exerted considerable influence at the time.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in February 1941 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, he is of Han ethnicity. In 1958 he entered the craft painting programme of the Suzhou School of Arts and Crafts, studying under Wu Yangmu, Xu Shiming, Fei Xinwo and others. After graduating in 1962 he worked in the Taohuawu New Year Picture Research Office of the Arts and Crafts Research Institute, concentrating on research into and creation of Taohuawu New Year pictures. In more than fifty years of practice he has drawn on the characteristics of other art forms and woven them into traditional New Year picture making, forming a style that is rooted in Taohuawu tradition yet carries a distinct contemporary flavour, and producing a large body of award-winning works. His representative works include Ten Views of Suzhou (Suzhou Shi Jing) and Nezha Stirring the Sea (Nezha Nao Hai). From the 1980s to the present he has persisted in transmitting New Year picture techniques and training successors. Within the documented technical tradition of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Pictures in Suzhou, Jiangsu: Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints were once popular in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and elsewhere, were sold as far away as Hubei, Henan, and Shandong, and spread abroad, exerting a great influence on Japanese ukiyo-e and other printmaking arts; collections of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints are also held in Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and other countries. The drawing, carving, and printing of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints are divided into three lineage traditions. Over many years of creative and production practice, veteran artisans with consummate skills each worked out unique experience of their own, forming a complete set of special craft procedures. The production of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints is generally divided into five process steps: drafting the design, carving the blocks, printing, mounting, and facial finishing (kaixiang). The carving step is in turn divided into four parts: transferring the design, carving the block, tapping the base, and revising. Its principal tool is the "fist knife" (quandao), used together with curved chisels (for hollowing out), flat chisels, chive-edge chisels, needle chisels, root-trimming chisels, peg chisels, water bowls, iron rulers, and small palm-fiber brushes. Color-registration printing likewise follows a set procedure, mainly comprising the steps of checking the blocks, mixing pigments with glue, selecting and loading the paper (clip-feeding), smoothing the blocks, aligning the paper, printing, and clamping with water. Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints inherited the woodblock printing craft of the Song dynasty, combining hand coloring with multi-block color registration. Their principal forms are door-god prints, central-hall hanging scrolls, and panel screens, and their themes are mostly prayers for blessing and auspiciousness, the driving away of evil, current customs and events, and opera stories. Over the past thirty years, as people's way of life has changed, the practical function of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints has greatly diminished, while their purely ornamental function has, on the contrary, somewhat increased. Changes in the market have affected the preservation of the traditional skills of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints, and the development of modern printing technology has dealt a heavy blow to the hand-carving and printing techniques of traditional woodblock New Year prints. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of the Working Procedures": The production of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints is generally divided into five process steps: drafting the design, carving the blocks, printing, mounting, and facial finishing (kaixiang). The carving step is in turn divided into four parts: transferring the design, carving the block, tapping the base, and revising. Its principal tool is the "fist knife" (quandao), used together with curved chisels (for hollowing out), flat chisels, chive-edge chisels, needle chisels, root-trimming chisels, peg chisels, water bowls, iron rulers, and small palm-fiber brushes.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Pictures, a fifth-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. Wang Zude · National Representative Bearer Archive