Like the Spring Festival, pasting New Year paintings is also a traditional custom of Chinese folk for celebrating the Spring Festival.
Pasting New Year paintings began with the God of Sticking Doors. Legend has it that a long time ago, the two brothers Shendi and Yulei specially supervised the hundred ghosts, and when they found out which ghost was misbehaving, they tied it up and fed it to the tiger. So the Yellow Emperor painted the statues of Shendi and Yulei on the door to prevent ghosts. In the Tang Dynasty, the emperor ordered Wu Daozi to paint a statue of Zhong Kui and carved it out to give the minister affixed to avoid ghosts. According to relevant historical records, the term "New Year Painting" was first called in the 29th year of Qing Daoguang. The development of the God of Sticking Doors into the Painting of the Pasting New Year is to make the Spring Festival more festive and auspicious. There is a process in the development of New Year paintings, from monochrome woodblocks, to multi-color woodblocks, to watermark woodblocks, and then to later paintings, the content has also developed from the initial exorcism of ghosts and evil spirits, to the character stories and drama stories of "loyalty and filial piety", as well as custom stories, folk tales and landscape flowers with festive and auspicious colors. Looking at New Year paintings in the New Year has both an entertainment function and an educational role. At that time, children all accepted the influence of the Culture of New Year Painting and increased their knowledge in entertainment, and at the same time, New Year Painting also affected people's world view, outlook on life, values and concept of honor and disgrace. Yue Fei, Qi Jiguang, White Snake, Cowherd Weaver Girl... Since childhood, it has been engraved in our memories through New Year paintings.
Woodblock New Year Painting "Flower Gun"
Xiangyang has a long history, historical figures and historical story resources are very rich, and many of the themes in the New Year paintings are taken from Xiangyang. As early as the Qing Dynasty, there is a scene of Liu Xiu attacking Luoyang in the Shandong New Year paintings, and there are also depictions of the Flooded Seventh Army in the Paintings of Wu Qiangnian in Hebei. In the flooded Seventh Army Year painting, Guan Yu waved the flag to command, Guan Xing stood on a high place to intercept, Zhou Cangsheng captured Pound, stopped him and hugged him, the picture is very vivid. In the Republic of China, Tianjin Guangkai Fuhua Foreign Painting Company published the "Flooded Seven Army", the picture is more abundant, the level has also risen to a higher level, "Liu Xiu Walking the Country" and "Three Gu Maolu", character modeling, color use, have reached a very high level.
Qing Dynasty woodblock print "Flooded Seven Armies"
The most prosperous and prosperous period of New Year paintings was after the founding of New China, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, when the creation, publication, distribution and sales of New Year paintings reached an unprecedented level. Many places have set up special New Year painting creation groups. Xiangyang painters He Rongqing, Wu Xiangfeng and Li Bingyan have all created many paintings for many years. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, various publishing houses rush to launch many kinds of New Year paintings, and the New Year paintings in Xinhua Bookstore are dazzling. People look at New Year paintings, pick New Year paintings, buy New Year paintings, and paste New Year paintings, which has become a fashion and spiritual enjoyment. When I was a child, I went to bookstores and visited various homes to visit the New Year, and my favorite thing was to see which one had more New Year paintings and which one painted well. During this period, xiangyang-themed New Year paintings were more colorful, and the most expressed were dramatic stories, such as "Female Pony", with dozens of varieties, including straight, banner, single, multi-, painting, and photography. The "Flower Gun" New Year painting, which shows the story of Luo Yi, a great general of the Xiangyang Tang Dynasty, has monochrome woodblocks, colored woodblocks, single sheets, and multiple paintings. In addition to painting New Year paintings, there are also New Year paintings made according to theatrical photography. In addition, New Year paintings such as "Peerless Biography" and "Pearl Tower" also have different versions. Performed by the Second Troupe of Shanghai Yue Theatre and published by China Drama Publishing House in October 1984, many new year paintings of "Pearl Tower" were popular with people as soon as they were listed.
The Qing Dynasty Shandong Nian paints the scene of Liu Xiu's capture of Luoyang
In addition to dramatic stories, character stories are another important part of Xiangyang's New Year paintings. Such as Guan Gong in "Scraping Bones to Cure Poison", Wu Zixu in "Passing Zhaoguan"... One of the most popular themes is the story of the young hero Xun Guanniang. The Jin Dynasty Xiangyang defender Xun Song was surrounded by enemy troops, and when he was cornered, the thirteen-year-old Xun Guanniang dressed as a man and went out of the city to rescue the soldiers and relieve the siege of Xiangyang. This story became the stage of drama, the creation of comic strips, and the content of various literary books. The New Year painters also created a variety of "Xun Guan Niang", and their varieties and forms can be comparable to "Female Pony", or even surpass "Female Pony". The famous figure painter Ren Zhiying alone created three or four paintings of "Xun Guanniang". The four screens that show the young hero and the hero of the towel are also willing to show this Mulan-style young heroine.
New Year Painting "Three Gu Maolu"
Early New Year paintings mostly express historical themes. After the founding of New China, the number of realistic theme New Year paintings gradually increased and surpassed that of historical themes. The New Year painting "Liberation of Xiangyang" was created by the famous painters Zhongliu and Zhang Shanping, published by Hubei People's Publishing House, and is a number of consecutive paintings, similar to short comic strips. After I watched it when I was a child, I was extremely impressed, and later I wanted to collect a set, but I didn't find it.
Nowadays, except for a few places in the countryside, the average family no longer posts New Year paintings. New Year paintings have become a kind of collectible, which is sought after by collectors and enthusiasts of New Year paintings. Xiangyang theme of the New Year paintings, is one of the important varieties of new year painting collection, I hope that archives, museums, group art halls, libraries do not despise the collection and display of new year paintings. In the era when there was no television, the role of the New Year painting was equivalent to that of television. Collecting the New Year paintings of different periods is a painting version of the history of Xiangyang's development.
Source: Xiangyang Evening News (January 28, 2022, 14th edition)
Author: Fanfu
Edit: Gao Yuan
Proofreader: Huang Yu
Review: Yang Mingyang
Final Judge: Cai Jianwei