All about New Year paintings

Every Spring Festival, people like to buy some bright and colorful New Year's paintings, pasted on the door or indoor, to add the peaceful atmosphere of the Spring Festival. Chinese New Year paintings have a long history in China. New Year's paintings, the ancient name "door god painting", its earliest name is called "door painting". According to "Customs", in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasty, the religious beliefs of the New Year's Day have been sacrificed to the customs of the door, so God Tantui, Yubi became the earliest Division of the God of the Door in our country. The main duties of the Jin Dynasty, "the Jing Chu chronicle", said: "the first day of the first month, to the two gods posted around the door, the left Shentian right Yubi, commonly known as the door god."

Ancient books recorded that the two brothers, Shencha and Yubi, specialized in overseeing the hundred ghosts, and when they found harmful ghosts, they tied them up and fed them to tigers. So the Yellow Emperor painted the images of Shencha and Yubi on the gateway to prevent ghosts. This myth is the cause of the later "door god" painting. It is said that the emperor of the Tang Dynasty ordered Wu Daozi to draw Zhong Kui's image, and copied and engraved it to reward the ministers to hang it to prevent ghosts. About the "door god painting" there is an interesting legend, according to legend, Tang Taizong Li Shimin, the palace is haunted, Li Shimin scared distracted, his generals Qin Shubao, Yuchi Gong will be a sword, a fork, day and night for Li Shimin guards courage, the palace only calm down. Li Shimin felt that these two generals are too hard, so he ordered the painter to two generals of the mighty image painted on the palace door. Later this form was spread to the people.

After the emergence of engraving technology in the Song Dynasty, woodblock prints provided the technical production conditions, which led to the continuous development of new year paintings. With the wide circulation of Nianhua, its content and function were also enriched. By the Qing Dynasty, the development of Nianhua reached its peak. From being used as talismans to ward off evil spirits, they gradually added subjects such as good luck, many children, many lifetimes, dolls and ladies, and thus also had the function of expressing good will in the new year and beautifying the environment. At the same time, there were also contents expressing the real life of farmers as well as folklore and stories, which enriched the cultural life and spread the knowledge of Chinese New Year paintings.

Nianhua is a kind of Chinese painting. Most of them are used for New Year's posting, decorating the environment, containing the blessing of New Year's auspicious and festive meaning, so the name. Traditional folk New Year's paintings are mostly made of watermarks on wooden boards. The main places of origin are Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Taohuayu in Suzhou and Weifang in Shandong, etc. Shanghai has "month card" New Year's paintings, and other places such as Sichuan, Fujian, Shanxi, Hebei and even Zhejiang. Old New Year's paintings due to the size and processing of the number of different titles. The whole sheet of large called "Gongjian", a paper of three called "Sancai". Processing more and more detailed called "painting Palace tip", "painting Sanjai". Those painted with gold powder are called "Jin Gongjian" and "Jin Sanjai". The products before June are called "green version", and the products after July and August are called "autumn version".

New Year's paintings in various places are called differently, Beijing is called "painting", "Wei painting", Suzhou is called "painting", Zhejiang is called "flower paper", Fujian is called "flower paper", Fujian is called "flower paper", "flower paper", "flower paper" and "flower paper". Flower paper", Fujian called "talisman", Sichuan called "Doufang" ...... to name a few. Today, all over the New Year's paintings gradually agreed to be shortened to "New Year's paintings".

Nianhua is a folk craft of the Chinese nation to pray for blessings and welcome the new year, is a form of folk art that carries the people's visions of a better future. Historically, the folk of the New Year's paintings have a variety of names: the Song Dynasty called "paper painting", the Ming Dynasty called "painting stickers", the Qing Dynasty called "paintings", until the Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty, the literati Li Guanting wrote in his article During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, the literati Li Guangting wrote in an article: "After sweeping the house, we put up New Year's paintings, which is a child's play." The name "nianhua" (New Year's paintings) was thus given to it.

Chinese New Year Paintings*** There are nine well-known products, respectively: Shandong Weifang Yangjiabu woodblock prints, Sichuan Mianzhu New Year Paintings, Jiangsu Peach Blossom Dock New Year Paintings, Tianjin Yangliuqing New Year Paintings, Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints, Wuqiang New Year Paintings, Foshan New Year Paintings, Fenghuang Wooden New Year Paintings, and Dongfengtai Wooden New Year Paintings, etc. The origin of New Year Paintings has always been the same. The origin of Chinese New Year paintings has always been divided into two major centers: in the north, it is in Yangliuqing, Tianjin and Hanting, Weixian, Shandong; in the south, it is in Taohuaowu, Suzhou and Foshan, Guangdong. Their output and production have their own distinctive styles, and the market range is also large. Among them, Yangliuqing, Taohuayu, Mianzhu and Yangjiabu Nianhua are called the four major Chinese Nianhua.

Nianhua paintings have simple lines, bright colors, and a warm and pleasant atmosphere, such as the Spring Cow Picture, the Age Dynasty Picture, the Jia Sui Picture, the Playing Baby Picture, the Family Happiness, the Lantern Watching, the Fat Dolls, and so on, and they also have gods and goddesses, historical stories, and dramatic characters as their subjects. Many of them are used as door paintings for posting, mixed with the concept of "gods and goddesses protecting the house", such as "Shentian Yubi", "Tianguan", "Qin Qiong Jingde", etc., and the style (or style) of the paintings is different from that of the other paintings. "and so on, the genre (or form) of the door painting (single and folio) four screen strips and horizontal and vertical single open single and so on. Song Dynasty has been recorded on the New Year's Paintings, the earliest woodblock prints seen is the Southern Song Dynasty engraved and printed "with the fairness of the country's face". In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it was especially popular. After the founding of the country, the new year paintings in the tradition of the foundation of the dwarf, colorful, more popular with the people.

The art of New Year's Paintings is the forerunner of Chinese folk art, but also a reflection of the history, life, beliefs and customs of Chinese society. Whenever the Lunar New Year to buy two New Year's paintings pasted on the door, almost every family is so, from the door to the hall, are plastered with a variety of flowers, symbolizing good luck and wealth of New Year's paintings, the reason why the New Year is full of joyful and lively atmosphere, New Year's paintings play a role in this. By and large, the more affluent people, in the hall room always like to hang the old life star, Zi Wei Xing, Fu, Lu, Shou and so on. To the plum orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemums and other birds and flowers, naturally also welcome.

Origin and development

Chinese New Year's paintings, according to legend, began in the Tang Dynasty. It was popularized in the Song Dynasty, but the gods of doors were still posted, so New Year's paintings could include the gods of doors.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Japanese had found two kinds of Song Dynasty New Year paintings in Gansu: one is Ban Ji, Zhao Feiyan, Wang Zhaojun, Green Pearl's four beauties, all for the high guest long-sleeved palace dress; the other is Zaowang and Guansheng Di Jun. The two paintings are stamped with "Pingyang Ji family carving Lang" store characters, which shows that in the Song Dynasty character yearbook has been on a large scale.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang advocated the posting of Spring Festival couplets for the New Year, New Year's paintings were particularly well developed as a result of this development. Today is preserved, there are the most popular color overprinting of the Ming Wanli years of woodblock prints of the three stars of the blessing of life, Tianguan Zhifu, etc., carving is quite exquisite, and so far is still the folk of the method. There are also practical calendar paintings, such as: spring ox, Zao Ma, Mang Shen, etc.; there are also historical stories of "Mencius mother teaching her son", "Yue Fei picking a small Liang Wang". There are also historical stories such as "Meng mother teaching her son", "Yue Fei picking off Xiao Liang Wang", "Cowherd and Weaving Maiden", "The Legend of the White Snake" and so on. As for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and other classical literature masterpieces, was also adopted for the subject matter of the painting. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, Tianjin Yang Liuqing, extremely famous, the content of the picture is also more and more rich.

The Qing Dynasty was full of talents, and the subject matter of New Year's paintings was even wider, in addition to figures, flowers, landscapes and other works of art, there were also satirical paintings such as "The Mouse Marrying Her Daughter" and "The Queen's Maiden Scolding the Chicken", as well as comic strips composed of hermetic phrases, which gave a sense of humor to the people. sense of humor. There are various kinds of printing, including woodblock, lithography, offset, Chinese painting, watercolor, pattern, and single-line lithography. There are charcoal, antique, creative, and even reprints of Western paintings, such as Gusu New Year's paintings in the "Western Theater" is.

Origin of New Year's Paintings

The origin of New Year's Paintings has always been divided into two major centers: in the north, Yang Liu Qing in Tianjin and Hanting in Weixian County, Shandong Province; and in the south, Taohuayu in Suzhou and Foshan in Guangdong Province. Their production and production, each with a clear style, and the market range is also very large. This is because, since a long period of time, New Year paintings have been the art works created and loved by the folk. Though the New Year's paintings already had a prototype scale in the Song Dynasty; but its real formation was in the Ming Dynasty, and the oldest qualification should be counted as the products of Yang Liuqing in Tianjin.

Tianjin Yangliuqing New Year's Paintings

Yangliuqing (formerly known as Guliukou), is a town 30 miles west of Tianjin, when the lower reaches of the Daqing River, the scenery is pleasant, the transportation is convenient, the residents of the town operating the business of New Year's Paintings accounted for about two-fifths of the business by the end of the Ming Dynasty Chongzhen years opened so far, there have been more than three hundred years of a long history. Peak period is in the Qing Guangxu ten years ago, each year to sell more than 20 million copies, marketing in North China and Northeast China, as far as the northwest of Xinjiang. Such as Qi Jianlong, Dai Lianzeng, Meiliji, etc. printed in the early years of the name of the New Year's Paintings, in the mainland has become a treasure, in the overseas even more rare. f

Shandong Weifang Hanting (Yangjiabu) New Year's Paintings

Secondly to say to the Hanting New Year's Paintings, the town of Hanting, Weixian, Shandong Province, about forty miles northeast of the city of Shandong, but the production of the New Year's Paintings are not in the town of Hanting, but in the Hanting near the village, the most famous of which is West Yangjiabu, the village, and the town of Hanting. Among them to the West Yangjiabu most famous, almost more than a hundred families operating in the New Year's paintings, most of them are just a family side business, specializing in this business, but a few, of which the "Tongshuntang" one of the largest, with a strong capital, the output of the product in addition to marketing in the counties within the territory of Shandong, the South to the Yangtze River Basin, the North from the Northeastern provinces, the West is up to the area of Zhengzhou, it is not to say that the not wide.

Hanting yearbook a **** can be divided into six categories:

The first category is the gods and horses like, the god of the door, the god of wealth, the king of the stove, the Eight Immortals and so on is.

The second category is crop life, like spring plowing picture, fall harvest picture, New Year's picture and so on is.

The third category is auspicious portraits, such as richness and prosperity, fortune and longevity, and even the birth of a son are.

The fourth category is the portrait of pleasure, fishing and woodcutting, spring, summer, fall and winter.

The fifth category is story portraits, such as the Twenty-four Filial Piety, Liang Shanbo Zhu Yingtai, and so on.

The sixth category is theater portraits, the Tang Monk fetching scriptures, the Peach Garden and so on are. The expression and movement of each character in the painting are appropriately portrayed.

Hanting theater paintings, mostly taken from the stage costumes, which can be divided into two kinds: one is completely in accordance with the form of the stage and paintings; the other is the form of the stage to embellish, for example: the warriors will have to ride a horse, the battlefield is equipped with landscapes and trees, and indoor doors and windows and furnishings can also be added. However, the costumes of the characters are still modeled after those of the stage, especially the flower faces, which are also sketched according to the style of the play. It is said that the theater paintings in Hanting got a lot of new manuscripts from Wang Shoutian, a famous painter in Tianjin, and thus became famous together with Yang Liuqing.

The above six types of New Year's paintings, the first type of the earliest; but the door god, the king of the stove is not enough to meet the requirements of people's artistic appreciation, so the second and even the third type of the cage will come out one after another. However, the theater paintings produced in the area of Hanting, it seems to be very similar to the output of Yang Liuqing, just a slight change in color.

Suzhou, Jiangsu, Peach Blossom Square New Year's Paintings

Suzhou Peach Blossom Square New Year's Paintings again, the opening of the age of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in about the years after the Tianjin Yangliuqing, Foshan, Guangdong, is a tripod and three of the famous New Year's Paintings production area. In addition to Suzhou is the center of the market, more far and Hunan, Hubei and Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian, Gan places, a number of years has been consistent. There is also a famous painter Wang Tieshan, his font is very elegant, rich in calligraphy, especially with the reality of landscape painting brushwork, writing West Lake scenery, known as a masterpiece.

Taohuayu New Year's Paintings, the most fashionable in addition to the three-star picture, Tianguan Zhifu, etc., there are funny New Year's Paintings and New Year's Paintings of common sense. The former, such as: "Mouse marrying", "five ghosts", "six children", "afraid of his wife", etc., all have a satirical meaning. The latter, such as: "Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs", "Hundred Birds Picture." The latter, such as "Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs," "The Hundred Birds," "The Five Lunar Figures," "Eighteen Scenes of West Lake," and "The Three Friends of the Year." Three Friends", etc., are sufficient for people to check and appreciate. It also focuses on theater paintings, such as Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, Qin Xianglian, Southeast Peacock Flight, West Wing, Autumn River, Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, etc., are from the handwriting of famous painters, and is by no means vulgar.

Foshan, Guangdong New Year's Paintings

The last one is Foshan, Guangdong New Year's Paintings. Foshan was originally a large town in Nanhai County, the peak period of its sales of New Year's paintings, is in the late Qing Dynasty between the civil cuts to the rural areas as the main market, including Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian, Hunan, Guizhou part of the region, and as far as the South China Sea Islands. But to our country before the war against Japan, that is gradually declining, which is due to four reasons:

① Foshan's commercial status was replaced by Guangzhou;

② is the stone instead of the traditional traditional brown brush woodblock printing the old method;

③ is the people's wisdom is gradually open, with a strong superstitious color of the gods and goddesses paintings, can not adapt to the public needs;

4 is the decline of the rural economy, the purchasing power is weak. The purchasing power is weak.

Sichuan Mianzhu New Year's Paintings

In addition to the above two major centers of New Year's Paintings in the North and South, Mianzhu City, Sichuan, also produces New Year's Paintings; however, they are only marketed in Sichuan and several regions in the Southwest. The history of Mianzhu New Year paintings began as far back as the late Ming Dynasty, and the most prosperous period of its development was during the Qianjia (Qianlong, Jiaqing) years of the Qing Dynasty, when Mianzhu operated rows of New Year paintings and markets, and there were two to three hundred New Year paintings stores with tens of thousands of New Year paintings craftsmen in the city at the time of the most prosperous period.

There are two reasons for the development of Mianzhu New Year paintings:

One of them is that Mianzhu once had a large number of folk painters, who were recruited to engage in the decoration of the building, painting and sculpture of the temples, murals and so on in all parts of Sichuan. These painters have a certain painting attainments, when they return to their hometown to live, occasionally itch, they became the production of New Year's paintings.

The second is the paper industry in Mianzhu, since ancient times has been very developed, the printing of New Year's paintings on the ground, the portion is sufficient and the cost of light, the county has a specialty of powder tip paper, can be a longer period of time to maintain the bright colors and does not fade.

Because of the regional relationship, Yangliuqing and Taohuawu New Year's Paintings, it is easier to absorb the influence of foreign forms; but Mianzhu because it is located in the western border, the past transportation is inconvenient, the local painters seldom subject to foreign influences, and therefore they painted the New Year's Paintings, a stronger folk atmosphere, more rich in the bold, ancient and clumsy fun.

By and large, the production of New Year's paintings, woodblock is more interesting than lithography, first of all, the design of the composition, the design of the draft to take into account the public's psychology, those woodblock auspicious celebratory New Year's paintings, will always occupy the chief position in the marketing.

The second point of the manuscript design, is that the work of the painting is exquisite, where the lines are detailed, color appropriate, will be welcomed by the public. However, the manuscript design, each family has its own version of the pattern, not the same, even if the same drawings, but also to try to make some differences, or pose a slight change in parts, or line color slightly changed, always to show a neat and meticulous for the best.

Woodblock prints are traditional folk art in China; however, they are not easy to keep for a long time, and after a few years of use, they need to be reproduced, and once they are reproduced, they will lose some of their splendor. Initially, the woodcut overlay, and then changed to a colorful stone printing, although its paper quality and color are very poor, but represents the simple form of folk art, and take the price is low, so it can still meet the general public's hobby.

Because of the rapid progress of printing technology, New Year's paintings also followed a new look. It uses the old form, into the new content, the selected subject matter, but also up to hundreds of kinds. Photocopying with seven-color rubber plate, colorful, distinctive image, before and after the war, the new yearbook, called the month card, once dominated for a period of time, it is from the Yangliuqing and picking the flowers of the woodcut metamorphosis of the dock. At that time, Zhou Muxing was the master of figure painting, followed by Xu Yongqing's landscapes, Xie Zhiguang's fashionable beauties, and Zheng Mantuo's and Hang Wanying's ladies' paintings, which were rich in the flavor of the times and became household names.

Orthodox New Year's paintings, most of the folio, triptych, quarto screen, and is the use of color printing on Dowling paper, can compete with the popular beauty of the monthly cards, so lithographic offset instead of the art of woodblocking, and later even more Ko photocopying, the original rural handicrafts industry can not be avoided for the city's light industry, and become a large number of copies of the color prints.

Nianhua originated from the ancient door god painting, which appeared as early as in the Yao and Shun period. According to the Eastern Han Dynasty's "The Dictator", folk in the Han Dynasty already had "Shencha" and "Yubi" rising images posted on the door. The earliest surviving yearbook is the Song version of the "with the fairness of the country's face", the painting is Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Banji, green beads, known as the "Four Beauties".

Wooden Plate New Year's Paintings

Origin

Yangjiabu is known for producing wooden plate New Year's Paintings, together with Yangliuqing in Tianjin. Peach Blossom Dock in Suzhou is known as the three major painting markets of China's folklore. Yangjiabu's woodblock prints have a history of more than 300 years. It is rumored to have originated during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and was quite developed during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods of the Qing Dynasty. The village appeared Yongsheng, Gongmao, Jisheng, Wanshun, Guangshengtai and so on more than a dozen store. To the Qing Dynasty Xianfeng, Guangxu years, the development of a hundred workshops. Painting more than a thousand. Carved wood engraving plate, household depiction of painting. Legend has it that in the late Ming Dynasty, a eunuch went back to Yangjiabu to visit his relatives, and brought back a colorful portrait of the God of Door from the palace, which was very much liked by the townspeople. At that time there was a good carving people, cleverly copy it down, carved into a woodblock, color printing, so that the townspeople are also posted on the Palace's door god statue. From then on, woodblock prints gradually flourished in Yangjiabu.

Features

Yangjiabu New Year's Paintings is a wonder of Weifang folk art. For many years. It attracts the masses with its unique artistic charm. It draws on folk life, but is not bound to real life, not subject to the limitations of time and space, and highly summarizes and figuratively exaggerates the contents of the expression. It makes use of our traditional hook and line technique, with symmetrical and full composition, bold lines, bright colors, mainly red, green, blue and yellow, strong contrast and prominent theme. The characters in the painting are simple and generous, exuding a strong flavor of the townspeople.

The genre of Yangjiabu New Year's Paintings is wide. They are rich in imagination. Portraits of door gods such as Shentan Yubi, Qin Qiong, Zhong Kui, etc., reflect the farmers' hope in the protection of the door gods, hoping for the well-being of the family, ＜Deer and Crane (Liuhui) in the same spring＞, ＜Longevity star＞, ＜Cat (eighty) butterflies (venerable) playing peonies＞. Reflecting people's desire for longevity and health, the symbols of "Goldfish (Jade) Full of Fish", "Money Tree" and "Treasure Bowl" are used to express people's desire for wealth and prosperity. They express people's wish to become rich and wealthy, and ＜Men Ten Busy＞ and ＜Women Ten Busy＞ summarize men's and women's activities in ten festivals into a single picture, showing farmers' hard work and love of life. Some New Year's paintings are also sent to the people to get rid of disasters and live in peace and work in contentment. In short, Yangjiabu woodblock prints express the vivid and complex ideals and wishes of the farmers.

Craftsmanship

Yangjiabu New Year's Paintings are produced through several processes, including painting, carving, printing, and framing, each of which is extremely delicate and accurate. The practice is to first outline the black line draft of the painting, paste it onto a planed pearwood or tongwood board, and carve out the main line plate. After the main lines are printed out, different colors are engraved on the plates, and the colors are printed in sets, and finally the plates are repaired and mounted.

Pingyang Wooden Plate New Year Paintings

The art of wooden plate New Year paintings originated from Pingyang (ancient Linfen) in the Song Dynasty and was widely developed in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. After the fall of the Song Dynasty, the Yuan rulers forced many printers to move from the south to Pingyang, making it the center of the printing industry, which gave rise to Pingyang woodblock prints. Most of the Pingyang woodblock prints were carved and printed in their spare time by farmers with this hobby. Drawing on local customs and legends, the content of the woodblock prints is mainly flowers, birds, fish and historical figures. Adopting exaggerated and vivid depictions and vivid colors, the pictures are full of local flavor, reflecting the healthy, brave and romantic character of the local people. There are different kinds of Pingyang New Year paintings according to different purposes. Some are hung in bedrooms, some are pasted on doors and windows, and some are used to decorate kitchens or tables.

With the passage of time, some superstitious and backward concepts in the old New Year paintings were gradually eliminated. New Year's paintings have only been preserved as a very popular and popularized art form. Since the middle of this century, at different historical stages, New Year's Paintings artists have created new forms of New Year's Paintings and used them to express real life. Up to the 1950s and 1960s new year paintings have been thriving. It has switched to new printing techniques, with a huge print run and circulation. It can be said that, so far, no other type of painting can be published in the same quantity as that of New Year paintings. New Year's Paintings are the most widely read type of paintings in the world.