The Development History of Woodblock New Year Pictures

Woodblock New Year pictures are a traditional folk culture and art form of Han nationality with a long history in China, with a history of 1000 years. Door gods in New Year pictures have the longest history. As early as the Han Dynasty, the embryonic form of the gatekeeper general appeared. Since the Tang Dynasty, the development of Buddhist scripture prints, the maturity of engraving technology and the development of folk culture in the Song Dynasty have greatly promoted the prosperity of woodblock New Year pictures. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a "painting market" specializing in selling New Year pictures, which was called "painting paper" at that time. During the Song and Jin Dynasties, there appeared such exquisite woodcut prints as Simitu, which is the earliest existing woodcut prints. During the Daoguang period, the word "New Year Pictures" was formally put forward in Li Guangting's book "The Interpretation of the Country". Since then, the so-called "New Year picture" has a fixed meaning, that is, it refers to the annual custom decorations that are overprinted with wood blocks that are replaced every year. After nearly a thousand years of development, folk New Year pictures reached their peak in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.