Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints Details Book

Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints are one of the ancient traditional crafts in China. As the originator of Chinese woodblock prints, they are mainly distributed in Kaifeng, Zhuxianzhen and its surrounding areas in Henan Province. Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints are full of composition, rough and simple lines, simple and exaggerated shapes, and fresh and bright colors.

On May 20, 2006, Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints were approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

Basic introduction Chinese name: Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints Place of origin: Zhuxianzhen, Kaifeng City, Henan Province Time of birth: born in the Tang Dynasty, the rise of the Song Dynasty Form of subject matter: the fighting gods, the life of New Year's Eve paintings, house painting, etc. Production method? Production method: Combination of woodblock and openwork, watermarking and overprinting. Representative works : "Pine and Crane", "Five Sons Winning the Championship", etc. History, Artistic Features, Expression, Technological Features, Color Application, Composition Techniques, Production Techniques, Inheritance and Development, Forms of Subject Matter, History Zhuxianzhen Wooden New Year Paintings were born in the Tang Dynasty, developed in the Song Dynasty, and flourished in the Ming Dynasty. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Tokyo, the capital of the Song Dynasty, was the political, economic and cultural center of the country, and merchants from all over the world flocked to the capital in large numbers. The large citizen class promoted the development of secular literature and art, and the active secular literature and art provided rich soil for the creation of New Year's Paintings. In addition, the invention of movable-type printing pushed China's engraving and printing industry to prosperity. Since then, New Year's paintings have also shifted from brushstrokes to engraved printing. At that time, the printing and sale of woodblock prints in Tokyo was unprecedented. Not only were there private workshops all over the capital, but even the Song official court also hosted workshops for the printing of New Year's Paintings. The integration of government-run and private workshops made the development of woodblock prints inevitable. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the invasion of the Jin soldiers, Kyoto fell, and the prosperous civic culture gradually depressed. A large number of New Year's paintings artists were displaced to the south of the Yangtze River, and the woodblock prints industry in Tokyo moved to Zhuxian Town, 45 miles away from Tokyo. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhuxianzhen became a commercial town in the Central Plains with its well-connected river. Woodblock prints were quickly restored in the prosperous commercial port, and the trade flourished and became famous. It is reported that there were more than 300 families engaged in this industry in Zhuxian Town at that time. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, due to the blockage of the river in Zhuxian Town, the channel is impassable, woodblock prints and other commercial are increasingly depressed. In the early Republic of China, the town has more than 40 production workshops, more than 2,000 people engaged in yearbook production, shandong, anhui, hebei, jiangsu and other places of the customers come and go, business is very close to the business of the painting store has wantong, jin chongtai, day xingde, de shengchang, day yi de, day cheng de, big days into the second days into the long, get source, wansheng, three cheng yi, and so on. Before the outbreak of the war of resistance against Japan, Zhu Xian town woodblock print industry moved to Kaifeng, since then and set off the third climax of woodblock print prosperity. At that time, there were more than 60 workshops of woodblock prints in Kaifeng, mainly concentrated in East Street, West Street, Zhongshan Road and Bookstore Street. The famous old stores were Huichuan, Zhenyuanyong, Yunji, Hongji, Tianfuli and so on. After 1949, Kaifeng City successively set up Kaifeng New Year Painting Society, Henan Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Printing Society and other organizations to excavate and organize the traditional craft of woodblock prints. Artistic Characteristics Expression Method Zhu Xianzhen Wooden New Year Paintings come from the folk, circulated in the folk, different from the gentle and elegant style of the court literati paintings of the past generations. It has rough and unrestrained lines, vivid and touching plots, full and proportional compositions, simple and vivid images, thick and strong colors, very rich in decorative effects, and distinctive local characteristics. In terms of expression, Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints draw on traditional painting techniques and colorful decorative techniques to create lifelike stories of characters, but the background of the characters is not intentionally depicted, and it can be done appropriately. Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints use simple, bright and exaggerated techniques to deal with the picture and portray the characters. The portrayal of the deities is characterized by a particularly prominent head image and exaggerated body proportions, which are highly infectious. The characters are handsome and healthy without being charming, which is the most prominent feature of Zhuxianzhen New Year Paintings. Zhuxianzhen New Year paintings originated from the folk, through the hands of generations of artists and into the national traditional culture of the aesthetic concepts and worship of God's consciousness, reflecting the peasants wishing for a bumper crop, wealth and prosperity, harmony and goodwill, peace and good luck, the six animals and other beautiful life wishes, as well as to support the right to drive away the evil, the ideological feelings of love and hate. Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints inherited the fine traditional art techniques of ancient China and formed its own local characteristics: the whole picture is full, compact, tight, basically leaving no blanks, and it can do the main and secondary, the main body is prominent, not cumbersome, and it shows the decorative flavor of the even symmetrical pattern. On the screen, the artist also adopts the "scattered perspective" of Chinese painting, so that everything can clearly show the main body and serve the main body, and the arrangement of the screen will not make people feel that there are irrational places. Craft characteristics Zhuxian Town woodblock print production using a combination of woodblock and skeleton plate, watermark sets of colors, a wide variety of raw materials used for the process of shelling, paper, colorful, solemn deep Zhu thick, most of the subjects and content taken from historical drama, novels, myths and folklore. New Year's paintings are rich in local flavor and strong in folk interest, with unique local colors and simple and ancient national style. Zhuxian Town woodblock prints have rough and bold lines, thick yin and thin yang, and strong contrast between yin and yang. Especially in the portrait of the deity painting on the clothing pattern is more prominent, there is a rustic flavor, with the northern peoples of the pure, thick, robust, neat art style. The use of color Zhu Xianzhen woodblock prints pay much attention to the use of color, with minerals, plants as raw materials, grinding their own handmade pigments, grinding out the pigment color is very pure, with which the printed New Year's paintings are bright and vivid, and do not fade for a long time. Zhuxianzhen New Year's paintings pay great attention to the appreciation habits of the Chinese people, mostly using the three primary colors of green, yellow and red, and the total number of colors used can be up to 9 to 10. Folk often say: "yellow see purple, ugly death", and Kaifeng Zhuxianzhen New Year's paintings of yellow and purple with the color of heavy, contrasting, not only no ugly suspicion, but bright colors, and folk New Year's happy atmosphere coordinated. Zhuxianzhen New Year's paintings advocate the use of warm colors, such as Dan red, wood red, peach red, acacia yellow, orange yellow, etc., appear warm and unrestrained. The color plates are: black line plate (black embryo), water black plate, red plate, face plate (wood red), purple plate (sunflower purple), green plate (copper green), green plate, blue plate, yellow plate (plate yellow), etc., which, except for the yellow plate, are all wood plate overprinting. The colors of the characters' costumes are mainly wood red, copper green, and koi violet, and the colors of secular life are blended into the religious color pattern of the worship of gods and goddesses. For example, Zhong Kui (Zhong Kui) has a red crown and green robe; Zao Ma (Zao Ma) has a red robe for the Zao Master and a green robe for the Zao Milk; and Guan Master has a red face and green robe. The eyelids of the characters are also unique style of Zhu Xian Town New Year's Paintings. For example, Zhao Kuangyin and Yang Kuangyin in "Fotang Zhai" (Copper Hammer for Jade Ribbon), Guo Ziyi in "Taking the Bands to the Court", Lu Deng in "Jiu Ji", Jiu Jiu in "Jiu Ji". "Lu Deng, Chai Rong in "Chai Wang Cart", Li Ji Yuan and Wang Yanzhang in "Gou Jia Tan", Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong in "Whip on the Horse", etc., so as to show the distinctive aesthetic value of the characters, such as Jiu Ji, Jiu Ji, and Yang Jiu. In this way, the distinctive aesthetic personalities of the characters are expressed. Compositional Skills Zhu Xian Town woodblock prints are full of composition, with bold and simple lines, simple and exaggerated shapes, and fresh and bright colors. The characters' heads are big and their bodies are small, which is both comical and comfortable. In some places, the faces of the characters in the New Year paintings are decorated with red cheeks, while the New Year paintings in Zhuxian Town do not have red cheeks, which looks very natural and harmonious. In traditional Chinese folk crafts, people often make or paint tigers as yellow or red tigers, while the New Year paintings of Zhuxianzhen are black tigers. This kind of creative method, which is not confined to tradition, has been valued and praised by Chinese and foreign art circles. Production process The production process of woodblock prints in Zhuxianzhen is very delicate.

The first step is to choose the best solid pear wood for engraving, engraving before the first vegetable oil coated on the surface of the board three to four times, naturally cooled and dried, and then rinsed with the top boiling hot water. Then use a special scraper to scrape off the surface of the board floating oil, artists call "cooked version". Wooden plate carving tools in the early years, mostly self-made, there are carving knife, net sewing knife, article file, Gong file, scraper, spatula, hammer and so on more than 20 pieces. Later, plate carving masters are also using sets of specialized carving knives.

The printing tools of the New Year's paintings are mostly made from local materials, using the top of the local wild plants of the hair and brown, with a rope trapped and become.

Grass conical color brush, a color a brush can not be mixed.

There are also hammers, sandbags, dip brushes and other auxiliary tools.

New Year's paintings with paper, the old days, more than the use of local cheap soil paper, burlap, since the Qing Dynasty, New Year's paintings began to use specifications, good toughness of the Japanese oil paper. And then more traditional Chinese Xuan paper printing.

200 for a "block" of New Year's paintings. Printed paper according to different sheets according to the "block" clamped on the homemade bamboo clip. Paper clamps firmly, one end inserted into the "pipe nail", one end placed in a homemade cinderblock groove, paper folded in the "S" shape.

Printing black line version of the need to use both hands to force, the line is clear, solid. The whole set of actions and processes, the requirements of the eye and hand fast, hand and eye close coordination, must be fully committed to meticulous.

The color version of the line version of the color content is large, the force is too heavy paper is easy to rot, the force is too light color block is not solid. The left hand manipulation "trip" as a flat sweep, each process needs to be carefully operated.

High-grade New Year's paintings and idol painting character's eyes, beard, clothing need to be added to the set of ink, gold dust, color sets can be up to nine times. Ordinary New Year's paintings in black, yellow, red, Dan, green, purple six colors, first light and then heavy, in order to overprint and become.

Set of paintings set of colors in order, the first print black, then yellow, then red, green, green, some paintings also need to be added to the water red, or print face.

Painting printed need to stop for a few hours so that the color "eat" into the paper. Night and then "dry", drying to be just right.

Zhu Xianzhen woodblock prints with color is very careful. Artists use the traditional frying, boiling, filtering and other multi-channel color matching process, carefully concocted. Make the color of the New Year's paintings more bright and colorful. They add alum and lime in green and purple. Purple and green colors should be fully fermented, modulation should be adjusted to foam, the color is calm, durable and charming. Will also add the color of the residual tea water, drying paintings, not sticking to each other and so on. Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints Heritage Development The origin of Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints is actually not entirely in the town. The town is surrounded by small and large villages where artists have set up small workshops to produce the works, and Zhuxianzhen is only a collection and distribution center. The town's large and small workshops up to more than three hundred, showing its scale, the highest annual output of woodblock prints up to 3 million, in addition to the province of Henan, but also exported to Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Ningxia and other places, the sales radiation nearly half of China, showing the impact of the great. In 1961, the restoration and development of woodblock prints, the establishment of the "Kaifeng City, Zhu Xian Town, New Year's Paintings Production Cooperative". In 1983, the provincial news and publishing business administration approved the establishment of "Kaifeng City, Zhu Xian Town woodblock print society". In 1986, under the support of Kaifeng Tourism Bureau and Zhuxian Town Party Committee and Government, Kaifeng Zhuxian Town established "Kaifeng Zhuxian Town Woodblock New Year Picture Society". It took up the excavation, collection and organization of woodblock prints. Zhuxian town woodblock print society was established, marking the Zhuxian town woodblock prints have inheritance, development opportunities, Zhuxian town woodblock prints inheritance and development of a professional organization. In 1987, Kaifeng City Federation approved the establishment of the "Zhuxian Town woodblock prints and paintings Research Association". In October 2003, Zhuxian Town was awarded the title of "Hometown of Chinese Woodblock Printing Art" by the state. In 2004, Kaifeng City Museum set up "Kaifeng Zhuxian Town woodblock prints research and protection center". In May 2006, Zhuxian Town woodblock prints were listed in the first batch of "National Intangible Cultural Heritage List". In June 2006, Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints participated in Hangzhou World Leisure Expo and won the gold medal. In July, 2006, participated in China Midwest Crafts Fair and won the gold medal. In 2006, with the provincial, municipal and county people's associations to complete the "Chinese woodblock prints integration - Zhuxianzhen New Year scroll" compilation work. In November 2006, it was qualified for export through Henan Department of Commerce. In October 2006, Zhuxian Town Woodblock Prints Society was named "Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Replicas Research and Development Base" by Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Administration. In 2006, Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints were designated as the practical training base for art, film and television by Zhongyuan Institute of Technology, Zhongyuan Film and Television Institute and Zhengzhou Light Industry Institute. Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints not only have high art collection value, but also have great ornamental value. Kaifeng has been excavated, sorted out the old version of the yearbook has more than two hundred and twenty blocks, reprinting the history of the old version of the yearbook more than three hundred sets, and the compilation and printing of the Kaifeng Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints selected "Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints" Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints Collector's Edition "Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints Story Collection" and so on, for the protection of the traditional woodblock prints has done a lot of useful work. The town government of Zhuxian Town has increased the cultivation of talents and the protection, inheritance and development of old artists. As of 2010, there are more than 70 people engaged in printing woodblock prints in Zhuxian Town, 1 person named "first-class folk artist" by UNESCO, 5 members of China Folk Literary and Artist Association, 5 folk arts and crafts masters in Henan Province, 6 craftsmen, 25 members of Provincial People's Associations, and 4 natural protection villages of woodblock prints. . One of the important reasons hindering the development of woodblock prints in Zhuxian Town is that quality traditional woodblock prints are affected by the impact of low-priced commodities, and the market foundation of traditional woodblock prints is relatively weak, and due to the homogenization of commodities in the market of woodblock prints, shoddy work, second best and other means of unfair competition are constantly appearing, and it is very hard for Zhuxian Town woodblock prints to get a long-term foothold in the market if it does not get the encouragement and support of all parties, thus resulting in Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints this traditional culture development crisis. In 2016 by the Kaifeng xiangfu district government and rhinoceros will (Beijing) information technology group joint venture state-owned group - Kaifeng zhu xianzhen woodblock prints and paintings group came into being at the right time. Group authorized by the Kaifeng municipal government, has the only right to operate the Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints. And Kaifeng Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints Group produces all Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints will be printed with pure vegetable mineral dyes, although this process has been lost for nearly a century with the change of time, but Zhuxianzhen Woodblock Prints Group finally restored the ancient method of printing with vegetable mineral dyes through the craftsmanship development of the ancient formula and the long-term repeated experiments. The paper used is the national "non-heritage" paper Lianshi paper, with traditional technology and craftsmanship of Zhuxianzhen woodblock prints, but also combined with the development of the current era, so that under the premise of retaining the traditional characteristics of the current people's aesthetics, the continuation of the traditional culture and craft works, the inheritance of traditional technology and craftsmanship. Subject Matter Form The most painted woodblock prints in Zhuxian Town are the fighting gods, which are mainly Qin Qiong and Yuchigong, the two military generals. They are either dressed differently or in different forms: no less than 20 kinds of styles, such as whip under the step, whip on the horse, whip back to the horse, hold the whip, vertical sword, cloak, etc. In addition, there are various kinds of civil and military fighting gods. In addition, there are a variety of civil and military fighting gods. Man fighting god has five, nine lotus lamp, Fuk Luk Shou, etc.; martial arts fighting god is often in the theater of the loyal and righteous and all kinds of heroes and heroes. Different people's room door often posted different content of the God of Fighting: married children's room door paste "Tian Xian send son", "even birth", "Sanniang teach children"; middle-aged people's room door paste "plus official", "step by step lotus birth"; the elderly room door sticker "pine and crane" and longevity and so on; juvenile living room door sticker "five sons to win the championship ", "Liu Hai play Golden Toad" and so on. Life class of the paper map for adults to play games (similar to checkers), painted white Ding, Xiu Cai, Jiu Ren, Jinshe, Scholar to the Court, step by step to promote the title of the official position, so it is called "promotion of the map". Printed with Yuanbao, jewelry, firewood, keys and other spiral upgrades of the game map, is designed for children's games, commonly known as "catching the small map". There are also dragon and phoenix qi used for betrothal (exchange of small posts), flower paper and wrapping paper for landscaping, paper painting fans used for the Dragon Boat Festival, and "Moonlight Bodhisattva" used for the Mid-Autumn Festival moon festival. There are also varieties specially designed for "social fire", with many characters and large scenes, mostly folios and full-size sheets. There are many varieties of "table skirts" used for covering debris and decorating the environment, and many of them have been lost. Jiatang painting is dedicated to the deceased three generations of the image of the ancestors, also known as the ancestors of the God, for the general poor peasant family humble ancestral places used. Figure is divided into three layers, painted on the great-grandparents, grandparents; parents in the parents; under the engraved sky officials, boys, girls, money tree, treasure bowl, halberd, helmets, gold ingots, jewelry, etc., generally have "the whole family celebrates the New Year with joy," the words. In order to pray for the ancestors in heaven to bless the family prosperity and well-being: to inspire the future generations to the earth, the glory of the ancestors. Because more than one posted in the middle of the hall, so called "family hall", there are a variety of different specifications and styles.