What are the four major producing areas of Chinese New Year pictures?

Woodblock New Year pictures of Yangjiabu in Weifang, Shandong, Mianzhu in Sichuan, Taohuawu in Jiangsu and Yangliuqing in Tianjin have a long history, and are known as the "Four Great New Year Pictures" in China.

▲ Suzhou Taohuawu

Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures are the main folk woodblock New Year pictures in southern China. Taohuawu is located in the north of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Taohuawu New Year Pictures originated from engraving printing technology in Song Dynasty, evolved from Xiu Xiang New Year Pictures, and developed into a folk art school in Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty reached its peak during Yongzheng and Qianlong periods, producing more than one million woodblock New Year pictures every year. At the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing army besieged Suzhou, and the production of Taohuawu woodblock New Year pictures was seriously damaged, and it never recovered. Until the early 1950s, Suzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles organized artists to resume production, and then established "Suzhou Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Pictures Society", which made great progress in renovation and innovation.

Taohuawu New Year pictures mainly include door paintings, traditional Chinese paintings and screen strips, among which door paintings can be described as the complete works of door gods in past dynasties. Taohuawu New Year pictures are printed by block printing, with one version and one color. Exquisite craftsmanship. A painting has to be overprinted four or five times to a dozen times, and some of them have to go through the processes of "painting gold", "sweeping silver" and "dusting". In terms of color, there are pink, red, blue, purple, green, light ink, lemon yellow and other colors. In terms of artistic style, Taohuawu New Year pictures are rich in composition, colorful, decorative and full of rich life flavor. It has simple, naive, concise and rich folk art characteristics in characterization, knife cutting and color setting, so it has been sold well at home and abroad for hundreds of years and has been collected by museums and art galleries in many European countries.

The printing of Taohuawu New Year pictures uses both coloring and color overprinting. The composition is symmetrical and full, and the colors are gorgeous. Often with purple as the main tone, the atmosphere of expressing joy is basically overprinted. Sculpture, color and modeling have exquisite and elegant Jiangnan folk art style, which mainly shows traditional folk aesthetic contents such as auspicious celebration, folk life, opera stories, flowers, birds, fruits and vegetables, exorcism and so on. Folk painting circles call it "Gusu Edition".

▲ Tianjin Yangliuqing New Year Pictures

Yangliuqing (20 kilometers west of Tianjin) has a 600-year-old folk woodblock New Year picture, which was produced in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. At that time, a folk artist who was good at carving took refuge in Yangliuqing town and carved some door gods and kitchen gods on holidays. People in the town rushed to imitate them. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the Grand Canal was dredged again, and the exquisite paper and watercolor in the south were transported to Yangliuqing, which made the painting art here develop. Yangliuqing New Year pictures were the most popular in Yongzheng, Qianlong and Guangxu in Qing Dynasty. There are thousands of samples (pastels) of Yangliuqing New Year pictures. In the heyday of the mid-Qing Dynasty, Dai Lianzeng's painting shop in Yangliuqing Town produced 2,000 pieces a year, 500 pieces each, reaching one million pieces. At that time, the whole town of Yangliuqing, together with more than 30 nearby villages, was a veritable hometown of painting. "Every family can dye and weave, and every household is good at painting." Rows of painting shops, high-hanging paintings in the shops, and businessmen from all over the world. After the Second Opium War, Yangliuqing New Year pictures declined. 1926, Huo Yutang, a descendant of Huo Pai V, founded the largest "Yucheng" painting village in Yangliuqing Town, and Yangliuqing New Year pictures gradually recovered. After liberation, Premier Zhou Enlai also visited Huazhuang and sent much-needed raw materials of Garcinia. During the Cultural Revolution, Yangliuqing New Year pictures were changed to offset printing, and the traditional crafts were on the verge of extinction.

Huo Qingyou (son of Huo Yutang), the sixth generation descendant of Huo's New Year Pictures School in Yangliuqing, Tianjin, began to inherit his father's legacy in the 1980s, and spent nearly 30 years painstakingly studying traditional techniques such as crocheting, setting, painting and mounting, mastering a full set of Yangliuqing New Year Pictures techniques, becoming the only "five-item" Yangliuqing New Year Pictures artist in Tianjin, making it an almost extinct wood. Today, "Yucheng" painting village has built a family museum and cultural attractions to attract Chinese and foreign tourists.

Yangliuqing New Year Pictures inherited the painting tradition of Song and Yuan Dynasties, and absorbed the woodcut prints, arts and crafts, stage and other forms of Ming Dynasty. The method of combining woodcut overprint and hand painting is adopted. When making, the lines of the picture are carved with woodcut first, then printed with ink, printed in monochrome for two or three times and filled with colored pens. It not only has the flavor of prints and wood, but also has hand-painted colors and techniques. Therefore, folk art is full of charm and Chinese style. Yangliuqing New Year pictures have created a vivid, auspicious and touching style. In the history of China printmaking, Yangliuqing New Year Pictures and the famous Suzhou Taohuawu New Year Pictures in the south are called "Peach Blossoms in the South and Willow in the North".

Yangliuqing New Year pictures show people's beautiful feelings and wishes through various means such as implication and realism, especially the themes that directly reflect current events, customs and historical stories in various periods. For example, in the New Year picture "More than a Year", the doll on the picture is "a baby face, a Buddha's body and a martial arts fight", holding a carp and a lotus in hand, which means that life is rich and has become a classic in New Year pictures and is widely circulated. Yangliuqing New Year pictures are widely used, including historical stories, myths and legends, opera figures, secular customs, landscapes, flowers and birds, etc. , especially those closely related to people's lives and those news with the nature of current affairs. It has not only artistic appreciation value, but also historical research value. The fine tradition of combining realism and romanticism, represented by these excellent works, has formed the mainstream of Yangliuqing New Year pictures and has continued to develop to this day. The artistic characteristics of Yangliuqing New Year pictures are various, and so are the conditions for forming their artistic characteristics. Among them, the most obvious is production. The production procedures of Yangliuqing New Year pictures are roughly as follows: creating manuscripts, dividing editions, engraving, overprinting, painting and mounting. The previous process is basically the same as other woodblock New Year pictures. Are overprinted according to the drawings; However, the post-production of Yangliuqing New Year pictures has put a lot of effort into hand painting, skillfully combining the knife taste of printmaking with the style of painting, so that the two arts complement each other. Moreover, due to the different expression techniques of painting artists, the same blank (ink line or semi-finished products without painting treatment) of Yangliuqing New Year pictures is the same. It can be divided into "precision work" with detailed description and "rough work" with bold style. Different artistic styles, each with its own artistic value.

▲ Yangjiatun, Weifang, Shandong

Yangjiabu woodblock New Year pictures in Weifang, Shandong Province rose in the Ming Dynasty, and were all made by hand in the traditional way. In the early stage of development, they were influenced by Yangliuqing New Year pictures and reached their peak in Qing Dynasty. Yangjiabu once had the grand scene of "hundreds of painting shops, thousands of paintings and tens of thousands of plates", and its products were all over the country. Among them, the largest Dongdashun painting shop has more than 300 sets of paintings, with an annual output of more than one million. Yangjiabu New Year pictures have a wide range of genres, rich imagination, reuse of primary colors, rough lines and simple style.

Yangjiabu woodblock New Year Pictures, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Taohuawu in Suzhou are also called the three major folk woodblock New Year Pictures in China. They began in the Ming Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty. They are festive, colorful and practical, reflecting ideals, customs and daily life, with complete and symmetrical composition, rigid and simple modeling and simple and smooth lines. According to the actual needs of farmers to decorate their living environment, there are mainly door paintings, door paintings, lanterns for praying, beauty bars, stands, crawlers, moonlight, etc., which have a strong folk flavor, local flavor and festive atmosphere.

Yangjiabu woodblock New Year pictures have a wide range of themes and rich contents, including idols, door gods, beauties, golden boys, landscapes, flowers and birds, dramatic figures, myths and legends, etc. At the same time, there are also works that reflect folk life and criticize the disadvantages of the times, but the theme of Yangjiabu New Year pictures is jubilation and auspiciousness. Such as good luck, happy new year, congratulations on getting rich, wealth, more than a year, happiness and peace. Like the blessings of relatives and greetings from friends, it constitutes the characteristics of farmers' peace and happiness in the new year, hoping for wealth and peace. The main contents of Yangjiabu's New Year pictures include six categories, namely, Chinese New Year, marriage, busy farming, getting rich every year, and goldfish all over the body. , the door god, the god of wealth, the birthday girl, the kitchen god, etc. , as well as legends and allusions such as Bao Gong's appointment, three visits to the thatched cottage and crossing the sea by the Eight Immortals, and entertainment satire such as boxing, busking and promotion.

The production technology of Yangjiabu New Year pictures is also very unique. The painter first painted with wicker charcoal sticks and incense ashes, and named it "rotten manuscript" On the basis of the rotten manuscript, he completed the original manuscript, the tracing manuscript, stuck it on the pear board and carved the line version and the color version respectively. Then after color matching, paper clamping, printing, color running, etc., manual printing. After the New Year pictures are printed, they should be painted with various colors by hand to make them look natural and vivid.

The production of Yangjiabu New Year pictures is divided into painting, carving, printing, mounting and other processes, each of which is extremely precise and accurate. The practice is to hook out the black draft of the painting first, stick it on the planed pear wood or Tang board, and carve the main line version. After the manuscript is printed, it will be engraved in different colors, printed in color, and finally modified and mounted.

At the time of prosperity, just in autumn, all kinds of art dealers gathered in Yangjiabu. At night, the streets are decorated with lanterns and New Year pictures. More than 5000 businessmen come to buy paintings every year. At that time, selling paintings and singing short essays, the most popular lyrics were: "Su Dongpo sat in Han Xin and asked Xiao He. This number is not without merit, but it is too verbose now. Credit is like three debts, and asking is like asking Zhuge. "

Yangjiabu woodblock New Year pictures, which were born and bred, have stepped onto the elegant art hall step by step. 1983 Spring Festival, Yangjiabu New Year Pictures were exhibited in China Art Museum. In the same year, Yangjiabu New Year Pictures toured 9 countries in America, Europe and Africa. 1987, Yang Fuyuan, a folk artist, was invited to Singapore to paint, carve and print woodblock New Year pictures. In 1990s, a group of Yangjiabu New Year pictures artists went to Brazil, Japan and other countries to perform live performances, which were well received. In 2002, the 76-year-old folk New Year picture artist Yang Luoshu, an authentic descendant of Tongshunde Painting Shop with a history of 200 years, was awarded the honorary title of "Master of Folk Arts and Crafts" by UNESCO. Yang Luoshu/Kloc-started to create woodcuts at the age of 0/8. His "Water Margin" and "The Emperor's Map" The Journey to the West are all wonderful in composition, exquisitely carved, lifelike and full of local flavor, which are deeply loved by people. Today, Yangjiabu, a small village with only 3 10 households and10/50 people, produces more than 20 million woodcut New Year pictures every year, which are exported to all parts of the country and more than 100 countries and regions around the world. Yangjiabu has become an important stop on the thousands of miles folk tourism line in Weifang, Shandong Province. Here, people can enjoy more than 65,438+000 sets of New Year pictures, witness various tools and originals for making New Year pictures since the Ming Dynasty, and watch the mysterious techniques for making New Year pictures on the spot.

▲ Sichuan Mianzhu New Year Pictures

Mianzhu New Year Pictures, named after Mianzhu County, Sichuan Province, is the hometown of bamboo and paper. Mianzhu New Year pictures have a long history, which originated in the Northern Song Dynasty and entered a prosperous period in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. During the years of Qianlong and Jiaqing, there were more than 300 New Year pictures workshops in Mianzhu County, with more than 0/000 employees/kloc, with an annual output of 654.38+200,000 pictures. Products are not only sold to Hunan, Hubei, Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan, but also exported to India, Japan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Hong Kong and Macao and other countries and regions. At the beginning of 2004, Chen Qiang, the grandson of Chen Xingcai, an old artist of Mianzhu New Year pictures, showed his newly created innovative New Year pictures "Squeezing the Golden Gate God".

Mianzhu New Year pictures are good at painting, with strong national characteristics and distinctive local characteristics. The composition of Mianzhu New Year Pictures emphasizes symmetry, integrity, fullness, clear priorities and diversity. The contrast technique is used in color, and the color is simple, gorgeous and strong, which constitutes a prosperous and enthusiastic artistic effect; The lines are refined and smooth, both rigid and flexible, dense and rhythmic; Exaggerated, deformed, symbolic and moral shapes have humorous and lively effects.

Mianzhu New Year pictures have a wide range of contents, including historical heroes such as Kong Ming and Zhang Fei, wonderful pictures of novels and operas, statues of soldiers, animals and flowers, and so on. Among them, the most interesting are folklore such as a mouse marrying a woman, three monkeys scalding a pig, a dog biting the god of wealth, and a watchman stealing a pot.

Mianzhu New Year pictures are divided into dividend goods and black goods. Red goods refer to painted New Year pictures, including door paintings, gladiators and stripes. Among them, there are many ways to make door paintings: Seiko has "hanging", "printing gold", "hooking gold" and "spending gold"; Rough work includes "routine", "ink painting" and "filling with water" drawings, which are divided into nave, screen, horizontal push and single sheet, and posted in halls, bedrooms, corridors and animal pens. Door paintings have different sizes, such as heavy hair, two hairs and three hairs, which are used to paste doors, halls, doors and stoves. Black goods refer to woodcut rubbings printed with cigarette ink or cinnabar, mostly landscapes, flowers and birds, statues and celebrity calligraphy and painting, with nave and stripes in the majority.

Other famous New Year pictures

▲ Zhuxian Town Woodblock New Year Pictures

The woodblock New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town have a long history and are a pearl in the treasure house of China folk art. In the Northern Song Dynasty, during the New Year holiday in China, especially during the Spring Festival, every household should stick a door-keeper to pray for a prosperous life, good luck, lucky money and ward off evil spirits. Later, the Northern Song Dynasty declined and perished. After several wars, the woodblock New Year pictures declined. In the Ming Dynasty, Kaifeng New Year pictures were revived, but gradually moved to Zhuxian Town. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the flood flooded Kaifeng and everything was deserted. Zhuxian Town became the center of woodblock New Year pictures. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were more than 300 woodblock New Year pictures workshops in Zhuxian Town, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were more than 70 workshops, among which Wantong, Tianxingde, Deshengchang and Tianyide were famous. His works sell well all over the world, so the New Year pictures in Kaifeng area are collectively called "Zhuxian Town Woodblock New Year Pictures", which has far-reaching influence. Zhuxian Town is 10 km south of Kaifeng City, Henan Province. Although it is a small town, it was listed as one of the four ancient towns in China in ancient times. Especially in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei led an army here to defeat the nomads from Wu Shu, and Zhuxian Town is more known to Chinese people. In order to commemorate the achievements of Yue Jiajun, Zhuxian Town built a large Yue throne, and now Zhuxian Town Woodblock New Year Pictures Society is located in this ancient temple.

Zhuxian Town woodcut New Year pictures are mainly divided into two types: negative engraving and positive engraving. There are two forms of black-and-white painting and color matching painting, and manual watermarking is used. There are more than 2000 forms such as civil and military door gods, statues, scripts and hanging notes. The woodcut New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town have five characteristics: first, the lines are rough and the thickness is alternating; Second, the image is exaggerated, with a big head and a small body; Third, the composition is full and symmetrical; Fourth, bright colors and strong contrast; Fifth, the door gods are many codes, serious and dignified. New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town can be divided into two categories, one is pictures of gods, such as the kitchen god, the god of heaven and earth, and the other is the door god. There are the most door gods in Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year pictures, and Qin Qiong and Wei Chijingde are the main door gods. In those paintings of door gods, big and small, the two military commanders are dressed differently or in different shapes: taking off the whip, riding a horse, returning the whip, holding the whip, erecting a knife, wearing a robe and so on. No less than 20 styles. In addition, there are various civil and military door gods. Scholar Wuzi, Nine Lotus Lantern, Fu Lushou. Wumen God is often a loyal minister, a righteous man and a variety of heroes in traditional Chinese opera. Door gods with different contents are often posted on different people's doors: "God gives a son", "Give birth to your son" and "Three mothers teach a son" are posted on the doors of married children; Middle-aged people put "increase official positions" and "step by step promotion" on the door; Stick "Songhe Yannian" and "Shouxing" on the old man's door; The children's bedroom door is plastered with "Wuzi wins the championship" and "Liu Hai hits the golden toad".

Zhuxian Town Woodblock New Year Pictures not only have high artistic collection value, but also have high ornamental value. Many celebrities have collected the woodcut New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town, and Mr. Lu Xun gave a high evaluation: "The woodcut New Year pictures in Zhuxian Town are very good, with thick and powerful lines, which are different from other places, not finely carved. These woodcuts are simple, with no makeup and no coquettish characters. The color is very strong, it has a local flavor, and it has the unique characteristics of the northern woodcut New Year pictures. " This well summarizes the artistic characteristics of Zhuxian Town woodblock New Year pictures. At present, the Shanghai Lu Xun Memorial Hall also houses 26 New Year pictures of Zhuxian Town collected by Lu Xun.

▲ Wuqiang New Year Pictures

Wuqiang New Year pictures are popular folk woodblock New Year pictures in northern China. Named after it is mainly produced in Wuqiang County, Hebei Province, it is known as the "hometown of New Year pictures". Wuqiang New Year pictures are folk local art developed under the influence of primitive farming methods, Buddhist ideas, traditional concepts and ancient national habits. It is a woodcut print made by color overprinting through three processes: painting, carving and printing. Wuqiang New Year pictures originated before the Yuan Dynasty, took shape in the early Ming Dynasty, and reached its peak in the period from Kangxi to Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1662 to 1820). Until the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, there were still 144 painting shops in Nanguan, Wuqiang County, and 1587 folk workshops in 68 surrounding villages were engaged in the production and sales of paintings, with thousands of employees. There are more than 1.80 wholesale villages in other places, and the highest annual sales volume reaches 1 100 million pairs.

Wuqiang New Year pictures have a wide range of themes, diverse forms and strong local flavor. The composition of the work is full, the theme is prominent, the structure is compact, the lines are rough, and the colors such as black, red, green, yellow, purple and pink are used, which are bright and decorative. There are door paintings, window paintings, lamp paintings, bucket paintings, tribute paintings, nave paintings, kang paintings, ceiling paintings, hoard paintings, couplets and banners. Even the cowshed and stables have specially posted New Year pictures. There are fine, coarse and fine carving methods, especially bold, rough and natural carving methods, mainly male carving, and some female carving. Through the contrast between black and white, it shows the wooden taste of the knife and the ink meaning of the pen, making it a unique simple and naive style. The main themes are operas and stories, customs and fashions, holiday meanings, dolls and beautiful women, flowers and scenery. His masterpieces include Xun Mei Walking in the Snow, Sanniang's Godson, and Zhaozhou Stone Bridge.

With the strong support of the state, Wuqiang New Year pictures industry has made great progress and established Wuqiang New Year pictures Society. 1985, with the approval of the cultural relics department of Hebei province, Wuqiang New Year Pictures Museum, the first special museum of New Year Pictures in China, was established in this prestigious "hometown of woodblock New Year Pictures in China". Two sessions of "China Wuqiang New Year Painting Art Festival" were held in 1992 and 1994. 199365438+February, the Ministry of Culture officially named Wuqiang as "the hometown of folk woodblock New Year pictures" in China.

▲ Foshan New Year Pictures

Popular folk woodblock New Year pictures in southern China. Produced in Foshan Town, Guangdong Province (now Foshan City). It began in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty and flourished in Qianlong and Jiajing period of Qing Dynasty. Foshan New Year pictures are divided into original pictures, woodcuts and woodcuts, including door pictures and idol pictures. The selected themes are all kinds of gods, historical figures, drama stories and so on. Its characteristics are rigid, extensive, concise lines and interesting woodcuts. In color design, red, orange, yellow, green and other colors are used, and some of them also absorb the characteristics of local copper-lined paper-cutting art, and add gold and silver patterns to the armor robes of the figures in the paintings, making the statues resplendent. This strong decorative style is a major feature of Foshan New Year pictures.

▲ Fengxiang Woodblock New Year Pictures

Woodblock New Year pictures posted in front of Taizengke's home in Xiaonan Village, Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province. Taizengke, who has been engaged in the production of woodblock New Year pictures, has now given up this craft. Fengxiang woodblock New Year pictures have been loved by people in northwest China for many years, but in recent years, woodblock New Year pictures have been impacted by offset printing, and the market is extremely depressed. At present, only Tai Liping and Wang Huifang are engaged in printmaking in Fengxiang County, and there are no descendants so far, so the printmaking skills are facing loss.

▲ East Fengtai Woodblock New Year Pictures

Tianjin Dongfeng Woodblock New Year Pictures had a glorious history and enjoyed a high reputation as Tianjin West Yangliuqing New Year Pictures. However, due to the lack of attention, pictures, finished products and other physical objects have disappeared, and it is not easy to see now. Fengtai Town, Tianjin is located at the junction of Ninghe, Baodi, Feng Run and Yutian, with convenient transportation and numerous merchants, and is known as the "first town in JD.COM". COM”。 In order to be separated from Fengtai District in Beijing, it is called East Fengtai. Dongfengtai New Year pictures have a long history, which can be traced back to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and there has been a prosperous scene of "painting by every family". At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were more than 10 famous painting shops and 13 large paper dyeing workshops in this town, which was one of the largest distribution centers for New Year pictures in eastern Hebei. Although the East Fengtai New Year Pictures inherited the characteristics of Yangliuqing New Year Pictures, they were also influenced by the folk customs in Northeast China and East Hebei, and formed their own style. Comparatively speaking, the use of color is more vivid and the picture is more rough and exaggerated. In addition, the layout is also unique, and some boldly use auspicious words, even occupying the main body of the picture; Have a plenty of pictures in window format, 10 more than one drawing board splicing overprint, seamless; Others reproduce the dramatic plot, and the picture can be framed as 16. On the occasion of the Spring Festival in 2004, Tianjin folk literature and history workers came across a batch of Dongfengtai woodblock New Year pictures nearly a hundred years ago in the descendants' home of an old workshop in Fengtai Town, Ninghe, Tianjin. These old-age paintings with strong visual impact have a wide range of contents, including God bless the people, door gods, nine phoenix rising sun, beautiful pictures, teenagers who send money and so on.