Peony Evening News all-media reporter Wen Jie
Woodblock New Year painting refers to the traditional ornaments of woodblock color overprinting and changing every year, which is a traditional folk culture and art form with a long history in China, with a history of more than 1,000 years. Caozhou woodblock prints are a folk art style used by the people of Heze to celebrate the New Year, pray for blessings and disasters, and are engraved and pasted, which is an important part of the mainland New Year painting art system, and has been introduced to our region from Tokyo during the Northern Song Dynasty for more than a thousand years. Most of the existing prints and engravings are cultural relics of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. On January 25th, the Chengwu Museum Zaowang Series Woodblock New Year Exhibition was officially displayed to the public, aiming to advocate the inheritance of excellent folk culture. It is reported that the 101 woodblock new year paintings selected in this exhibition are all based on the theme of "King of the Stove", provided by the collector Mr. Ren Honglei, and the wood carving version is provided by the Wenting Folk Museum.
January 25 is the 23rd day of the lunar month, the small year, but also the traditional Chinese culture of folk stove, dust sweeping, eat stove sugar day, many citizens will sacrifice the stove god on this day. "When I was young in the past, I invited the portrait of the stove prince home, and then pasted it up, so that there was a more atmosphere of the new year, now it is rare to see these new year paintings, seeing these stove king new year paintings, I remembered the scene of the New Year when I was a child, I really missed," In the exhibition area, the audience who came to visit carefully looked at each New Year painting.
The King of Stove, commonly known as the King of Stove or Soap King, also known as "Situ Order Bodhisattva", "Stove King Sixi", "Old Stove Master", "Soap King", etc., is the legend of the Jade Emperor who is responsible for managing the dry fire of the people, named the "Nine Heavens East Kitchen Commandery Stove King's Palace King". On the 23rd day of the lunar month in the mainland, there is a custom of "sacrificing stoves", and on that day, people will ask a painting of the New Year of the King of the Stove to be pasted next to the stove. Stove King New Year painting belongs to a kind of god portrait painting, folk originally for wood carving hand-printed, with a variety of styles, not only printed with the stove king, generally also printed with the calendar of this year, written "human supervision god", "East Kitchen Division", "lord of the family" and other words, on both sides of the "heavens say good things, the netherworld to ensure peace" and other auspicious couplets.
In this exhibition, the zaowang series of woodblock prints from the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China to the modern era are displayed, and the woodblock prints of the Zaowang series displayed not only cover the New Year paintings of various counties and districts in Heze, but also the New Year paintings of Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing and other regions, showing the style and characteristics of the New Year paintings in different regions. At the same time, the display cabinet also shows the wood carving plates used to make new year paintings, and the reporter learned that Caozhou woodblock prints are generally printed by 6 engravings and chromatic prints, with big red, water red, grass green, eggplant purple and sweet yellow as the main colors.
The reed-tied brush is dipped in ink, evenly brushed on the woodblock, the white paper is laid out, brushed flat with a handle, and gently unveiled, a monochrome door god Year painting is completed. In order for the audience to have a deeper understanding of the Woodblock New Year Paintings of the Zaowang Series, an experience area was specially set up at the other end of the exhibition area, and interested visitors could also try it on the spot and bring back a handmade New Year painting.
"This exhibition is a special exhibition created with the theme of the Zaowang series, which can not only set off the taste of the New Year, but also learn about the history of woodblock prints and folk tales of the Zaowang through visiting the exhibition, so that the audience can understand the cultural and artistic values contained in the woodblock New Year paintings through visiting the exhibition, and feel the changes in the life of Chinese civil society and the changes of the times." Guo Li, director of the Chengwu County Museum, told reporters.
The reporter learned that with the rapid development of the economy and society, woodblock New Year paintings have gradually withdrawn from the historical stage. However, as a peasant art that exudes an earthy flavor in southwest Lu, it condenses the artistic talent and industrious wisdom of the working people in our region, always maintains a broad and close connection with the people's lives, expresses the pure and simple thoughts and feelings of the people of southwest Lu and the strong yearning for a better life, and is an integral part of the history, culture and living customs of the southwest Lu region.