Woodblock New Year Pictures
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
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
Compared with Zhuxianzhen woodblock New Year prints, the greatest distinguishing feature of Huaxian woodblock New Year prints is that they carry more of the plain simplicity of original, unadorned folk art and give fuller expression to the spiritual beliefs and aesthetic tastes of rural society, demonstrating research value in fields such as folklore studies and sociology. Han Jianfeng (recorded in the official archive of the associated representative inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in July 1968, a native of Huaxian County, Henan Province. Born into a family of New Year print makers, he learned the craft of New Year print production from his elders from childhood. He began making some simple New Year print works in 1976. From 1994 onward, he visited many elderly New Year print artisans in the surrounding areas and traveled to other New Year print production centers for exchange and study. After years of effort, he organized and documented the Lifangtun New Year print technique, whose production process had been almost lost, and restored the original working process and methods. The prints are half printed and half hand-painted, using techniques such as dyeing, washing, spreading, and dotting together with bright colors like vivid red, vivid yellow, and vivid green, highlighting a character of light brushwork with heavy color and clear separation between color and line; the style of the works is vigorous and relaxed, bold and unconstrained, plain and unaffected. Representative inheritor of woodblock New Year prints (Huaxian woodblock New Year prints), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the fourth batch.
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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