Woodblock New Year Pictures
01 · Historical Records
Woodblock New Year prints have a long history; according to legend they first appeared in the Han dynasty. In the Song dynasty they were called “paper pictures,” in the Ming dynasty “picture sheets,” and it was not until the Qing dynasty that the name “New Year prints” was formally established. Pingyang woodblock New Year prints are a folk art form transmitted in the Linfen region of Shanxi Province; they began in the Song and Jin periods, flourished in the Yuan dynasty, and entered a golden age of development in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The earliest surviving treasures of Chinese pasted pictures (prints) — the Song-Jin period works “The Bewitching Beauty of the Sui Dynasty” (《隋朝窈窕呈倾国之芳容》) and “The Seat of the Righteous and Valiant Martial King” (《义勇武安王位》) — are representative works of ancient Pingyang woodblock New Year prints, and were praised by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo as “the essence of world printmaking.” Pingyang woodblock New Year prints were once lost. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, art workers in southern Shanxi widely collected surviving old blocks and New Year prints in the countryside, and in the 1950s planned and established a factory to restore the production of Pingyang woodblock New Year prints.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Woodblock New Year prints are a popular traditional art form used by the Chinese people at New Year time to welcome the new year and receive blessings. 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 art. Woodblock New Year prints are printed with the traditional woodblock water-printing method; their emergence is closely bound up with the art of woodblock engraving and printing. Over the course of a thousand years of development, a number of relatively concentrated production centers for woodblock New Year prints gradually took shape; each center maintained technical exchange with other regions while preserving its own originality in subject matter and form. By subject matter, woodblock New Year prints fall into five major categories: driving away evil, praying for blessings and auspiciousness, opera stories and legends, festive decoration, and scenes of daily life and custom. Their principal formats include gongjian (tribute-slip) sheets, zhongtang (central-hall) scrolls, paired screens (duiping), calendar pictures (lihua), and kang-surround prints (kangwei). Woodblock New Year prints employ a great variety of techniques with fresh, bright colors, and regional differences have given rise to many different styles. They are of high aesthetic quality, with distinctive artistic features and a rich load of information, embodying profound national psychology and traditional humanistic values. The work A History of Printing in Ancient China calls Pingyang woodblock New Year prints the “ancestor” of New Year prints, and A History of Chinese Prints similarly asserts that “printmaking in China began with Pingyang.” Pingyang woodblock New Year prints encompass many categories, including central-hall paintings, door pictures, shadow-wall (back-screen) paintings, doorhead paintings, window paintings, screen paintings, kitchen-shrine paintings, and table drapes. Their subjects are mainly traditional in content; their compositions foreground the central theme, their images are exaggerated and vivid, their colors are bright and gorgeous, and they display strong decorative qualities, giving an impression of boldness and freedom.
A Beauty of the Sui Court
Among the earliest surviving Chinese printed wall pictures, it and the print of the Martial King of Wuan exemplify what Zheng Zhenduo called the essence of world woodcut.
The Martial King of Wu'an
One of the Jin-period prints from Pingyang, illustrating a legendary martial deity and serving as a model for figure work in the local tradition.
Paper picture, painted album, New Year picture
Called paper picture in the Song, painted album in the Ming and officially New Year picture from the Qing, the naming records its move from book illustration to festival art.
The Pingyang museum's recovery work
The museum founded in recent years has excavated, protected and restored the tradition, rebuilding it from old blocks and returning masters to the craft.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Pingyang woodblock New Year prints are a folk art form transmitted in the Linfen region of Shanxi Province; they began in the Song and Jin periods, flourished in the Yuan dynasty, and entered a golden age of development in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The earliest surviving treasures of Chinese pasted pictures (prints) — the Song-Jin period works “The Bewitching Beauty of the Sui Dynasty” (《隋朝窈窕呈倾国之芳容》) and “The Seat of the Righteous and Valiant Martial King” (《义勇武安王位》) — are representative works of ancient Pingyang woodblock New Year prints, and were praised by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo as “the essence of world printmaking.” Pingyang woodblock New Year prints were once lost; after the founding of the People's Republic of China, art workers in southern Shanxi widely collected surviving old blocks and New Year prints in the countryside, reorganizing and restoring the craft in the 1950s.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures · Woodblock New Year Pictures.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, the newly established Pingyang Woodblock New Year Print Museum is vigorously carrying out work to excavate, protect, and restore Pingyang woodblock New Year prints, and has achieved certain results.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Han Jianfeng 04-1808
- Chen Yiwen 04-1809
- Luan Xikui 05-2677
- Zhao Guoqi
- Zhang Rongqiang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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