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). Around the middle of the Ming dynasty, New Year print workshops had already appeared in Jiajiang County; the locally famous Dongdaxingrong workshop has a history of more than two hundred years to this day. In 1949, Jiajiang's urban center and its immediate suburbs had more than twenty New Year print workshops, which generally printed during the agricultural slack season and sold their goods at the end of the year; their products were sold far beyond the province to Yunnan, Guizhou, and other places, reaching as far as Southeast Asia, with annual sales of more than four million copies.
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. Jiajiang New Year prints are a folk fine-art form unique to Jiajiang County, Sichuan Province. According to the county gazetteer, Jiajiang New Year prints stand on a par with Mianzhu and Liangping New Year prints as one of the three great New Year print traditions of Sichuan. Jiajiang New Year prints cover a rich range of subjects, mainly religious images, door gods, landscapes, flowers and birds, operatic stories, and myths and legends, as well as works reflecting folk life and satirizing social ills; among these, the 'huangdan door gods' are the most popular. The images on the prints are vivid and exaggerated, in harmony with the overall peaceful and festive atmosphere. Jiajiang New Year prints are produced by multi-block color printing, using as few as four and as many as eight color blocks. Their production process differs from that of Mianzhu and Liangping New Year prints: first black soot ink is printed for the ink outlines and for black hair, eyebrows, eyes, and clothing; then yellow is printed; then green, zhangdan (an orange-red mineral pigment), blue, purple, and other colors are overprinted in turn; and finally red is printed for the garment patterns. Jiajiang New Year prints are of exquisite workmanship with distinctive features; their colors are gorgeous and do not fade over time, and they have high artistic and appreciative value, providing useful reference material for the study of folk customs and folk crafts in southwest China.
The Dong Daxingrong workshop
A Jiajiang workshop of more than two centuries, an important bearer of the local tradition, whose premises, tools and blocks are primary sources on Sichuan printing.
Printed in slack season, sold at year end
More than twenty workshops near the town printed in the slack season and sold at year's end, shipping as far as Southeast Asia at over four million prints a year.
Buddhist prints and door gods
Buddhist images, the Celestial Official's blessing, door gods and opera scenes, in strong colours, reflect the many temples and dense popular religion of southern Sichuan.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jiajiang woodblock New Year prints circulate in Jiajiang County, Sichuan, flourishing most in the county seat and its immediate suburbs. In 1949, Jiajiang's urban center and its immediate suburbs had more than twenty New Year print workshops, which generally printed during the agricultural slack season and sold their goods at the end of the year; their products were sold far beyond the province to Yunnan, Guizhou, and other places, reaching as far as Southeast Asia, with annual sales of more than four million copies.
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
Jiajiang lies in the river valley at the confluence of the Qingyi River and the Min River. Its paper stock came mostly from local bamboo and rice straw, and its water and land routes ran down the Min River, so its New Year prints could be exported in large quantities. The locally famous Dongdaxingrong workshop has a history of more than two hundred years to this day. The prints produced there are mainly Buddhist woodblock subjects, 'the Heavenly Official bestowing blessings', door gods, and operatic stories, with strongly contrasting colors and a distinct local flavor of Sichuan woodblock printing; with the spread of machine printing, traditional workshops have greatly declined, and the Dong family line is now sustained by only a handful of elderly artisans.
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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