□ Li Xuepu
There have been many names in Chinese history, such as paper painting, flower paper, painting Zhang, Wei Mozi, Dou Fang, etc., and the custom of pasting New Year paintings for the New Year has a history of more than a thousand years.
In the beginning, the New Year painting began with the God of The Gate. The Eastern Han Dynasty Liang Zongyi's "Records of the Jingchu Years" says: "On the first day of the first month, the two gods were painted on the left and right, the left god and the right Yulei, commonly known as the door god. During the Warring States period, the Classic of Mountains and Seas also had the same record. Around the Ming Dynasty, the door gods became Qin Shubao and Wei Chigong. China has a vast territory, and there are many differences between the north and the south regarding the custom of sacrificing stoves, and there is also a saying that "officials, three people, four boats, and five ships" is also said to be "officials, three people, four boats, and five" on the day of the sacrifice stove. The sacrificial supplies are even more diverse, showing local characteristics, but one thing is the same as the north and south, that is, the New Year painting with the image of the god Vesta.
The Song Dynasty was a peak period of Chinese feudal society, and the urban population developed very quickly. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the population of Kyoto Bieliang (present-day Kaifeng City) was more than one million; in the Tang Dynasty, there were only more than ten cities with more than 100,000 households, but by the Song Dynasty, it increased to 30 or 40; the "collection" of trade activities in the north and the "ruins" of non-governmental trade activities in the south were continuously expanded and fixed in the Song Dynasty, and developed into a city filled mainly for trade activities and handicraft production.
From the perspective of the history of Chinese painting, the genre paintings of the Song Dynasty were particularly developed, which may be related to the fact that many painters began to create a large number of festive and auspicious paintings in order to meet the needs of the masses. In addition, the Song Dynasty people's appreciation of paintings is said to have some relationship with Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty. After Zhao Kuangyin destroyed the Western Shu and Southern Tang dynasties in the south, he collected all the celebrity calligraphy and paintings collected by the two national painting academies of the Western Shu and Southern Tang dynasties to the court. It is said that once when Zhao Kuangyin looked at the calligraphy and paintings collected by the Western Shu Painting Institute, he asked the managers what these calligraphy and paintings were for. The manager said, "Serve the lord." "That is to say, it is reserved for you to see." Zhao Kuangyin said: "Leaving me alone, it is better to take it out for everyone to enjoy together." So he gave these paintings to the liquor store outside the Donghua Gate of the capital. This liquor store has celebrity calligraphy and paintings given by the emperor, which naturally attracts many people to watch, and the sale is of course booming. When other liquor stores saw it, they followed suit to buy celebrity calligraphy and paintings, and hung them in the liquor store to attract viewers. In the Song Dynasty, tea houses, liquor stores, hook bars, tiles, pharmacies, and pawnshops were all over the city, and for a while they followed the example of hanging calligraphy and paintings. This provided people with many opportunities to appreciate calligraphy and paintings, and the literati of the Song Dynasty helped to get involved in Danqing and participate in the collection, appreciation, and appreciation of calligraphy and paintings. For example, Su Shi, Mi Fu, Wen Tong, Sima Guang, Ouyang Xiu, Shen Kuo, Huang Tingjian, and Wang Yi, who were well-known in the literary circles of the Song Dynasty, were all experts in painting, calligraphy and collection appreciation at that time. Therefore, professional painters who sell paintings for a living came into being and began to create a large number of festive and auspicious paintings suitable for the public's appreciation and taste to meet people's needs. During the New Year, people want to decorate their homes brightly and festively. While buying and pasting the idols of the gods, it has become a natural thing for people to buy these festive and auspicious paintings to decorate the environment.
Festive and auspicious paintings mainly represent women, children, multiple children, longevity, fortune, and blessings, but also flowers and birds, myths and legends, folk tales, historical stories and other content. According to Qian Xing Estate's "History of the Development of Chinese New Year Paintings", many well-known painters in the Five Dynasties and Two Song Dynasties have painted festive and auspicious paintings suitable for New Year stickers. For example, during the Five Dynasties period, Jing Hao painted "Chuxiang King Meets God Figure", Zhou Wenju painted "Qiu Hu Gu Shi Tu" and "Li Yan Shi Nu Tu", Wang Qihan painted "Dragon Girl Figure" and "Chu Xiang Wang Dream Goddess Figure", Xu Xi painted "Changchun Tu" and "Peony Tu", Xu Chongsi painted "Chunfang Tu", and Fang Congzhen painted "Xue Tao Inscription Poem Map". The content of these paintings is festive and the story is strong, which is very in line with the characteristics of the paintings of later years. When Xie Kun introduced and commented on Su Hanchen's painting "Baby Drama Diagram" in the "Records of Calligraphy and Painting", he said: "There is a volume, painting several branches of colorful lotus flowers, and several babies, all naked and tied red belly, playing and dancing on the side. The first wonder is that the flowers are as big as a bowl, and the people are not close to the foot, and their quaintness is incomparable. Gu Bing also said in the "Painting Notation": "He writes about babies, with fresh clothes and a body like life." ”
Judging from these evaluations of people at that time, the appearance of the festive and auspicious paintings popular in the Song Dynasty was extremely similar to the festive and auspicious paintings in the later popular New Year paintings. These paintings are actually the "New Year paintings" posted by the Song Dynasty people, but in the Song Dynasty, the term "New Year painting" has not yet appeared.
Paintings posted on the New Year, such as idol paintings and festive auspicious paintings, are collectively called "New Year paintings", which was first called up by Li Guangting, a folklore scholar in the Qing Dynasty. Around the Time of Daoguang, when Li Guangting lived, it was the period when folk New Year painting flourished. He wrote a book on the folk customs of the Qing Dynasty called "Rural Dialect Interpretation", which contains a passage describing the folk New Year's activities at that time: "After sweeping away, I posted New Year paintings, and the children's play ears." However, such as "Filial Piety Diagram" and "Crops Busy", let the children see it, explain it, and it is not necessary to cultivate one end. Since then, people have also followed the collective name of the paintings posted in the New Year as "New Year paintings".
Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, because printing had not yet been invented, the New Year paintings at that time were directly painted on peach wood plates. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, due to the invention of woodblock printing, woodcut New Year painting began to rise. During the Song Dynasty, woodcut New Year paintings developed greatly, and colored and chromatic New Year paintings began to appear. One of the earliest surviving woodcut New Year paintings is the Song carving "Sui Dynasty Miao Miao Presents the Fangrong of the Country", which depicts Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Ji, and Lu Zhu, four famous beauties in ancient times, so it is also known as "Four Beautiful Pictures". At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, painting was mainly woodblock New Year paintings, but there were a large number of hand-painted forms, which were influenced by style characteristics, subject matter content, expression techniques, folk functions and regional differences.
Due to the different needs of folk new year paintings, in order to adapt to different customs and habits in various places and different positions, times and environments of decoration, folk New Year paintings have formed their own unique genre styles, including horizontal and vertical squares, sizes and posting parts. The rich and diverse genres of New Year painting are closely related to their functions, according to the genre, there are tribute notes, middle halls, screens, screen strips, couplets, three cuts, kangwei, window paintings, windowsides, window tops, Mao Fangzi, moonlight, table, door gods, door boys, beauty strips, calendar paintings, bucket squares, lamp paintings, dusting paper, flower paper, hanging, gods, paper horses, charms, groove paintings and other 20 or 30 varieties.
In the history of Chinese painting, custom themes are also expressed in folk festival woodblock prints, including a large number of seasonal genre paintings, such as the New Year, Lantern Festival, February 2, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and other festival celebrations, expressing the cheerful mood of the people when celebrating the festival and increasing the festive atmosphere. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, woodblock new year paintings gradually became more and more prosperous, and there were well-known "three major folk woodcut New Year paintings" at home and abroad: Yang Liuqing in Tianjin, Taohuawu in Suzhou and Weixian New Year paintings in Shandong. "Yang Liuqing" New Year painting originates from Yangliuqing Town, Tianjin, which is the "hometown of New Year paintings" and "every family will be dyed, and every household is good danqing". "Yang Liuqing" New Year paintings are widely used in materials, with unique composition, uniform brushwork and bright colors, which are deeply loved by friends at home and abroad.
Weixian County, Shandong Is also the hometown of woodblock New Year paintings, which have prominent themes, diverse genres, exaggerated shapes and colorful colors. Suzhou Taohuawu New Year Painting has a complete composition, simple image, bright colors and strong decoration. The three major folk woodcut New Year paintings have a long history of more than 300 years and have an important position in the history of Chinese and foreign printmaking.
Suzhou Peach Blossom Wood New Year Painting was introduced to Britain, Japan and other countries very early. In particular, the Japanese "ukiyo-e" prints formed in the Edo period (1603-1867) were greatly influenced by Chinese woodblock prints in terms of expression and artistic style. In addition, as early as the Southern Song Dynasty, Fujian began to engrave the printing of New Year paintings, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Fuding, Fu'an is the southeast of China woodcut New Year painting production center, the products are exported to Southeast Asia, deeply loved by overseas Chinese.
The production of Shandong New Year paintings is widely distributed geographically. Shandong is bordered by the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea in the east, Hebei Province in the northwest, Henan Province in the southwest, and Anhui and Jiangsu in the south. The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal passes through the Luxi Plain, driving the development of ports, docks and towns along the river. Yanggu, Zhangqiu, Acheng, Liaocheng and Linqing on the banks of the Shandong section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal have gradually developed into well-known commercial centers and cargo distribution centers.
Linqing New Year painting production process
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Liaocheng was one of the most important areas along the canal, formerly known as Dongchang Fuzhi, known for its commercial development, known as "the throat of Cao bang, the elbow of the capital of heaven" and "a capital of Jiangbei", which has a pivotal position. In addition, at that time, there was a saying that "there was Suhang in the south and Linzhang in the north", and "Linzhang" referred to the town of Zhangqiu in Linqing and Yanggu Counties (formerly part of Shouzhang County). Linqing City, with frequent trade and commerce, is known as one of the five major commercial ports in Jiangbei, known as "Little Tianjin". At that time, merchants and merchants gathered, hundreds of industries were prosperous, the canal was full of sails, and the shore was full of cars and horses. This provides convenient conditions for the production and development, exchange and sales of New Year paintings.
Shandong New Year paintings are widely distributed, and can be roughly divided into two major systems: east and west. The eastern New Year paintings are represented by Weifang Yangjiabu, Weifang Gaomi, Qingdao Pingdu New Year Paintings, the Western New Year Paintings are represented by liaocheng Dongchangfu New Year Paintings, and The Tancheng in Lunan and Juancheng in southwest Luzhou have also appeared in the New Year painting workshops, forming unique New Year painting works.