The second round of Chinese zodiac stamps stamps introduction

The first design adopts the paper-cutting technique of folding and cutting, and the name is "Monkey Peach Ruishou". Monkeys are most fond of eating peaches, and in folklore, peaches are the fruit of longevity, symbolizing longevity, and the combination of monkeys and peaches corresponds to the folk saying "Monkey Peach Ruishou". In the pattern, a pair of bat color blocks on both sides of the monkey's ears, which take the harmony of "Fu", are combined with peaches to form the hidden meaning of "Fortune and Longevity". The bee and peach on the monkey's hip, although it is an embellishment, but the bee (harmonic "Feng", "Feng") and the monkey's harmonic "Hou" peach (metaphor for longevity), but also has a "Marquis hanging seal", "longevity and abundance" of the auspicious symbolism, the face of the rose red as the background color, yellow monkey body for the Golden Monkey's fame; red and yellow contrast, but also make the whole picture looks peaceful, cheerful, set off the festive atmosphere of the festival. The second design is called "Magpies Dengmei", with the red magpie and plum blossom folk paper-cut curtain pattern as the background, and the word "monkey" in seal script in the center. Magpies and plum blossoms are common motifs in folk paper-cutting, and the two magpies on the branches of a plum tree, which is also known as the "Double Happiness" motif, are harmonized with the Chinese characters for "plum" and "eyebrow". The two magpies on the plum branches also have the meaning of "double happiness".

Dec10 chicken, issue date 1993.1.5, issue quantity (2-1) 20 cents rooster 30,065,000, 50 cents four seasons 250,625,000. Total 7,832,000 plates. Photo-engraving overprint.

The first one features a large paper-cut rooster with its head held high, symbolizing the soaring China in the new era. The second design features the character for chicken in seal script. The character for chicken in seal script boldly employs a combination of exaggerations, deformations, and displacements in the art of paper-cutting in the treatment of shapes and lines. The upper part of the 'Xi' side is exaggerated and tilted, harmonizing and balancing with the excessive slanting strokes and undulating borders of the 'Bird' side. The image is surrounded by peonies, lotus, chrysanthemums and plum blossoms, symbolizing the auspiciousness of the four seasons. Adopting the method of folk paper-cutting, all created by Cai Lanying, the whole set of stamps is designed to be red-hot and warm, full of rich local flavor, showing the characteristics of folk customs and folklore.

The Year of the Dog in the Year of the Hundred Days of the Hundred Days of the Past, with an issue date of 1994.1.5, and an issue quantity of 213,409,000 stamps for the 20-cent Peaceful Family Blessing and 160,113,000 stamps for the 50-cent Xiangrui Prosperous Prosperity. Total 5,003,000 plates. Photo-engraved overprint.

The first stamp features a clay toy dog from Hebei province, created by painter Zhang Ermiao, with a yellow body, a big round head, two upright front legs, and a reclining hind leg, and a crimson background color on the red wall of the Forbidden City, fully expressing the meaning of peace and prosperity brought by the dog in folklore, as the dog guards the house and brings good fortune to the family. The second stamp features the character for dog in seal script, surrounded by a windowpane with rolling branches of flowers and a double dog figure cut out of paper, meaning a good year of life, peace and good fortune.

The Year of the Pig, 1995.1.5, Issue Quantity (2-1) 20c Fat Pig Arch 10,065,000 stamps, (2-2) 50c Welcoming New Year 80,625,000 stamps. Total 2,519,000 plates. Photo-engraving overprint.

The first design is based on the folk toy cloth pillow pig in Baoji, Shaanxi Province, and was originally created by Chen Mei'e of Long County. The background of the ticket is white, and the key arching gestures of the piglet, such as arching its shoulders, probing its head, shrugging its nose, and crossing its mouth, are vividly depicted through the choice of perspective, signifying the arching of a fat pig. The second design is a windowpane with the word pig in black script with a white border, and the windowpane is orange-red in color, overflowing with joy and peace. The windowpane with double pigs below is particularly eye-catching, symbolizing the wish for the Year of the Pig Nongjiajia, celebrating a prosperous year in the year of Bohai, and the prosperity of the livestock industry.

The Year of the Rat, issue date 1996.1.5, mintage (2-1) 20 points of the bright prospect of the lights of the house of 90,097,000, (2-2) 50 points of the rat bites the sky to open the universal celebration of 74,817,000 pieces. Total 2,338,000 plates. Photo-engraved overprint.

The designer of the first design, Lv Shengzhong, used humanized and exaggerated cartoon techniques to depict a mouse holding a lampstand, wearing a colorful coat, with a long whisker and a long beak and a wry wit, implying a bright future for all families. The second picture for a round of red sun out of an official script mouse character, around the sky in the colorful haze, showing six small gray mice, meaning that the mouse bites the sky to open up the sky, celebrating the New Year with the same, the New Year's Spring Festival good wishes.

Legend has it that the rat bit through the chaos and separated the yin and yang, which gave birth to all things in heaven and earth. Therefore, the rat is the first of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs to be matched with the "Zi", the first of the earth's branches. In ancient timekeeping, Zi Hour is in the middle of yesterday's yin and today's yang, a key moment of light and darkness. The designers used the folk New Year's painting technique, based on the legend of the mouse marrying her daughter and the mouse biting the sky, to complete the design of this set of stamps, reflecting the meaning of the image of the mouse in traditional Chinese culture.

The Year of the Ox in Dingshou, issue date 1997.1.5, mintage (2-1) 150-cent golden ox hoofs 82.81 million, (2-2) 50-cent ox plowing yearly abundance 93.47 million. Total 2,588,000 plates. Photo-engraved overprint. (Decimal points in the following issue quantities are ignored)

The first design is based on the paper-cutting of Qi Xiuhua from Gaomi County, Shandong Province, and is recreated with a rough and sturdy ox body on a white backing, a long tail hanging down to the ground, crescent-shaped horns, and the ox body decorated with a variety of auspicious elements, which fully expresses the simplicity of the simple, simple and honest farming ox, showing the strength and the spirit of hard work and practicality, which is meant to be a golden ox fighting to keep up with its hooves. The second picture is on an orange background with a large red lantern hanging high, showing a striking Chinese character for ox in clerical script. The top of the lantern depicts two magpies and plum blossoms, a metaphor for magpies ascending to plum blossoms, and the picture gathers motifs symbolizing auspiciousness, happiness, affluence, and festivity, which is a metaphor for affluence and peace, and for a good year of farming for the ox.

The Tiger in the Year of Wu Yin, issue date 1998.1.5, mintage (2-1) 50 cents, Tiger Tiger, 100.28 million, (2-2) 150 cents, Aura Rainbow, 85.56 million. Total 2,674,000 plates. Photo-engraving overprint.

The first design uses the front face of a cloth tiger created by Gao Qiuying of Licheng, Shanxi Province, with the tiger's head protruding from the blue background, its limbs splayed out, its head facing forward, its large eyes staring at the people in a concentrated manner, and its two ears standing up. The thick and powerful tail is high up, showing that it is smart and capable, overflowing with a majestic and heavy temperament and lively and vigorous vitality and tiger tiger. In the second picture, the cursive character "tiger" from General Pei's Poem written by Yan Zhenqing, a great calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, is taken as the picture. The red cursive character is elegant, the painting is heavenly, and the whole picture is simple, with a long rainbow. The character "tiger" is chosen for its coherent charm, which is a metaphor for the smoothness of the whole year.

The tiger is known as the king of beasts in China. In ancient times, China used the tiger symbol and the tiger festival as the token for dispatching troops and the symbol of military power. Folk regard the tiger as a sacred beast, by its might and courage and Zhenchong evil, blessing peace, and to the tiger as the theme of the art works are also endless.

Rabbit in the year dao, issue date 1999.1.5, issue quantity (2-1) 50 points jade rabbit for the moon 102.12 million, (2-2) 150 points auspicious 83.69 million. Total 2,619,000 copies. Photo-engraved overprint.

The first design is based on the clay rabbit fabricated by the fourth-generation heir to the Tianjin Clay Man Zhang, a white rabbit prostrate on the ground, with its ears tucked back, appearing docile and kind. The second picture used in the Qing dynasty paper-cut moon picture, the center of the black cursive rabbit character, surrounded by Ruyi auspicious patterns, the choice of this cursive character seems to look more beautiful, especially the penultimate stroke of the hook, very dynamic, and the first match, but also allows people to taste from the "quiet as a child, moving as a rabbit" meaning. The paper-cut moon on the backing explains the name of the first piece, the Jade Rabbit, as the name of the moon. The rose-red background color is considered to be more appropriate for the red and yellow, and also gives a sense of joy and good fortune.

Gengchen year dragon, issue date: 2000-1-5, issue quantity (2-1) 80 cents dragon flying 95.27 million, (2-2) 2.8 yuan rising sun 73.8 million. Total 2,306,000 plates. Photo-engraved overprint.

The first design uses the blue dragon decoration engraved on a piece of Han Dynasty wadang unearthed in Shaanxi Province as the main picture, with the water ripples as the background and the gold color as the background, showing the black dragon leaping over the rolling waves, which is very eye-catching. In the collection of 48 sets of 96 drawings, the dragon drawing designed by stamp designer Huang Li and young artist Guo Chenghui*** won the top spot, using yellow, black and red colors, showing the charm of a dignified and simple beauty. The second picture is selected from the Tang Dynasty calligrapher Huaisu's ink, a single word with a single stroke of the cursive dragon character as if it were a swimming dragon, black thick ink cursive dragon character, white ticket base around the background of the waves set off the rising sun, symbolizing China's dragon leaps and soars, implying the rising sun. This also shows the long history of dragon culture.

The hometown of the dragon is in China, and the Chinese people are the heirs of the dragon. According to historians and archaeologists analyze, the Neolithic era of the Taigao clan has been enshrined in the dragon as a totem. Experts believe that the earliest original form of the dragon was a snake or green python, which was later deified as a dragon. At that time, the Xia Clan, which used the snake as a totem, was the most powerful. It is said that the Yellow Emperor, Emperor Yandi after the defeat of Chi You, in order to convince people, ease the contradiction, the Yellow Emperor proposed in the snake totem prototype on the basis of the totem from the clans to take their specialties in a part of the totem, such as the eagle's claws, deer's horns, fish scales, etc., to create a dragon compound, as a total of all the clans totem. In this way some clans saw that part of their totem image had appeared in the dragon, and their souls were comforted. Thus, the clans united under the banner of the dragon and became members of the great family of the dragon. The image of the dragon is, in fact, a symbol of the unity and solidarity of the Chinese multi-ethnicity, and the dragon represents China. Because of the lofty image of the dragon in people's minds, the dragon culture is particularly colorful, including myths and stories, historical legends, folk proverbs, poems and paintings, arts and crafts, and so on. In the dragon idiom, the vast majority of them are words of joy and auspiciousness.

Snake in the year of xinsi, issue date 2001.1.5, issue quantity (2-1) 80 cents Xiang Snake blessing 80 million, (2-2) 2.8 yuan Xiang Yun Puzhao 65 million. Combined 2,031,000 plates; another version of two (prize-winning snake) 1,660,000 plates. Photo-engraving overprint.

The first pattern prototype used Shanxi folk artist Bai Xiu'e's paper-cut snake. The snake's head is intentionally elevated and enlarged, the eyes are exaggerated, the snake's head is slightly lowered, and there is a plum blossom pattern on the body, with a white background. The snake's body is like a daffodil flower from the appearance, reflecting the dynamic beauty of the lines, making it appear stable, spiritual and lively. The second picture uses the work of Shaanxi paper-cutting artist Jia Sigui, a picture of a coiled snake facing each other in a gnarled pattern, holding a lotus flower in the opposite direction, with a green backing, a yellow snake's body, and the word snake in red regular script in the center, and shows two snakes clustered around a round of the rising sun, signifying the auspicious clouds shining down on them.

Renwu Year of the Horse, issue date 2002.1.5, mintage (2-1) 80 cents Horse to Success 55 million, (2-2) 2.80 yuan Renwu Daji 48 million. There are 1.5 million plates, and another 1.66 million plates of plate 2 (prize-winning horse). Photo-engraving overprint.

The first pattern is chosen to be a clay toy horse from Fengxiang County, Baoji, Shaanxi Province, which is the second time that Baoji folk crafts have appeared on the Zodiac stamps, following the Long County folk crafts of the pillowed pig that was chosen for the Zodiac stamps in 1995. The background color is big red, and the horse body is black flower color, containing a variety of auspicious elements. The second picture is a white background with a large red flower-colored bucket, with a black regular script horse character in the middle, and the background is lined with a number of calligraphic horse characters. It was created by stamp designer Wang Huming. The symbolism of this set of stamps is the success of the horse in the former and the great fortune of the nonnyu in the latter.

Sheep in the Year of the Declining Sun, issue date 2003.1.5, mintage (2-1) T Declining Sun 80 cents 46.2 million stamps, (2-2) T Triple Sun 2 yuan 38 million stamps. Combined 1,188,000; another edition of two (sheep small edition) 800,000 edition edition of three (prize-winning sheep) 2.3 million edition.

The first design is a clay sheep toy from Liuying, Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province. The horns of the sheep are bent backward in the shape of a snail, and the body of the sheep is painted with a four-petal osmanthus flower run in red, with a white background, which makes the sheep even more colorful and signifies great luck in the decalogue. The second picture of the screen green ticket base, the use of paper-cutting techniques, the two sheep pattern and the Chinese character black regular script sheep, combined into three sheep, a metaphor for the three sheep.