Development of Jiangzhou Woodblock New Year Pictures

As an ancient folk art, Jiangzhou woodblock New Year pictures were born in the Northern Song Dynasty and experienced the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. They grew rapidly in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, reached the peak in the late Qing Dynasty, and began to decline in the late Republic of China, which lasted for more than 1000 years and became an indispensable part in the history of China painting.

According to historical records, the earliest preserved woodcut New Year pictures in China began in the Northern Song Dynasty, when the Buddha said the Big Dipper Classic. The woodcut printed by Song Shouzhen in Jiangzhou Xia Guo has become an orphan at home and abroad, which has high research and investigation value. This woodcut is called the originator of China woodcut New Year pictures.

In the thirty-third year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1907), in the former site of the Black Water City, which belongs to Inner Mongolia, Russian Ke Zlov discovered four beautiful pictures engraved with "The Good News of Ping Xu Shui" on the woodcut of Song and Jin Dynasties in China. This first painting of a folk book, printed in popular handwriting, is engraved with "Pingyang Ji Jia Engraved Chapter".

In the second year of Venus (12 18), Jiangzhou was promoted to Jin 'an House, and it was established for three years, governing eight counties including Zhengping, Yicheng, Quwo, Wenxi, Yuanqu and Taiping. "Pingshui JOE" is under the jurisdiction of Gujiang Prefecture. At that time, Jiangzhou was the commercial and cultural center of southern Shanxi. Because the Ming Dynasty advocated "benefiting human relations, respecting customs" and "respecting gods", folk woodblock New Year pictures were popular for some time. There are producers and publishers of Jiangzhou woodblock New Year pictures.

By the mid-Ming Dynasty, woodcut had been extended to people's daily life, becoming increasingly mature woodcut New Year pictures, and Jiangzhou had also become the main production base of Jinnan New Year pictures.

Daoguang and Xianfeng reached their peak in the Qing Dynasty, when Jiangzhou City was known as "Three New Year Picture Workshops with Seven Houses", among which "One Generation" painting shop opened in the early Qing Dynasty printed more than 100,000 woodcut New Year pictures every year and sold them to the northwest provinces.

Before liberation, in the bustling streets of Jiangzhou City, shops marked with New Year pictures, such as Tianfu City, Yisheng City, Sheng Mao Painting Shop, Jingji Paper Bureau, Guangqiantang Printing Bureau and Yongningbao, printed hundreds of thousands of woodblock New Year pictures every year and sold them to more than ten provinces and cities in North China and Northwest China. Especially in the old calendar year, people bought Jiangzhou woodblock New Year pictures in succession.

In April, 2008, Gujiangzhou (now Xinjiang, Shanxi Province) was identified as one of the main producing areas of 18 woodcut New Year pictures in China, which was included in the national intangible cultural heritage rescue and protection project, and has been bundled to declare the world intangible cultural heritage.