Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Pictures
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Under these circumstances, the print shops of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints have grown fewer and fewer, and the transmission of the traditional woodcarving and dye-printing techniques has become increasingly difficult; urgent rescue and protection are needed. Fang Zhida (record from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1935, native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. In 1948 he apprenticed under Wang Shanzeng, proprietor of the long-established New Year print shop "Wang Rongxing," to learn the printing of New Year prints. He was engaged in the hand printing of New Year prints for sixty years, accumulating rich experience and distilling a complete set of working procedures; he could skillfully solve difficult problems arising in printing, and he made all the printing tools himself. From mixing ink to applying color-registration pigments he had unique techniques; he often used heavier glue, had good control of water-based colors, and achieved precise and even registration. Whatever the size of the block, he could always manage a run of five hundred sheets "in one hand's worth of paper" (yishou liao), completing them in a single flow, and the printed works were vivid in color yet harmonious and even. In 2005, building on traditional methods, he pioneered a new product: three-position registration printing that places different designs within one fan-shaped picture. His representative works include the Qianlong-period editions of "Hehe Zhixiang: Yituan Heqi" (Harmony and Auspiciousness: One Spirit of Harmony), "Fu" (Fortune), "Shou" (Longevity), the door-god print "Shentu and Yulei," and "Kaihua Fugui" (Blooming Flowers and Abundant Wealth). He is a representative inheritor of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints, included in the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects. Wang Zude (record from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1941, native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. In 1958 he entered the craft painting program of the Suzhou School of Arts and Crafts, studying under Wu Yangmu, Xu Shiming, Fe Xinwo, and others. After graduating in 1962, he worked in the Taohuawu New Year Print Research Room of the Arts and Crafts Research Institute, concentrating on the research and creation of Taohuawu New Year prints. In more than fifty years of artistic practice, he proved adept at borrowing the distinctive features of other arts and integrating them into traditional New Year print creation, forming an artistic style that had both a foundation in the Taohuawu New Year print tradition and a distinct flavor of the times, and he created a large number of award-winning works. His representative works include "Ten Views of Suzhou" and "Nezha Conquers the Sea." From the 1980s to the present, he has persisted in transmitting New Year print techniques and training successors. He is a representative inheritor of Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints, included in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Fang Zhida 03-1221
- Wang Zude 05-2573
- Yebaofen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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