Wu Baisuo and Li Hua hold the song and Yuan dynasty version of the "Diagram of the Mother of the Earth After the Sacrifice of the Emperor"
Dragon Ship Diagram (Song and Yuan Dynasty Ancient Edition Printed "Emperor Sacrifice After the Mother of Earth Lady Fenliu Map" part)
Dai Prefecture (绛州) is an ancient place name in Shanxi, whose seat of government is in present-day Xindi County, Yuncheng. As a water and land wharf and transportation hub, Daizhou has gathered merchants and talents since ancient times, and the intangible cultural heritage represented by woodblock New Year paintings is rich in categories, simple in style, distinctive in character and timeless in connotation. How to study, inherit, develop and protect the precious cultural heritage of Daizhou woodblock prints is an important mission to dig deep into the connotation of Jinshang culture and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
Wu Baisuo, founder of the Daizhou Ertianmen Woodblock New Year Painting Society, is the provincial inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of The Daizhou Woodblock New Year Painting, and he and Li Hua, the wife of the outstanding folk arts and crafts artists in Shanxi Province, have long been committed to the inheritance and development of the treasure of the Daizhou Woodblock New Year Painting, and have collected more than 3,000 ancient plates and more than 2,000 old paintings and old paintings from various periods since the Ming Dynasty for more than 40 years. Referring to the rich collection of the Daizhou Ertianmen Woodblock Print Society, you can get a glimpse of the spiritual core and inner connection between the traditional folk art of Daizhou and the folk beliefs of Jinnan.
The folk beliefs embodied in the Woodblock New Year paintings in Daizhou are of a mass nature, reflected in the deep mass foundation reflected in the content of creation. Since ancient times, out of reverence and piety for all kinds of gods and auspicious things, people have created the secularization of New Year paintings and the stable maturity of the theme style, making it a unique art form that is appreciated by both the common customs and the all-encompassing themes of the works, and also enables people from all walks of life to draw spiritual nutrients from the New Year paintings and enrich their respective spiritual worlds. Taking the "Diagram of the Mother of the Earth After the Imperial Sacrifice" as an example, the whole map is more than three zhang long, reflecting the grand scene of the emperor leading the fleet of ships down the Fenhe River and landing on the east bank of the Yellow River to sacrifice at the Houtu Ancestral Temple. There are 17 large and small ships in the picture, and there are as many as 26 groups and 114 people. Such a magnificent and exquisite woodcut is rare in ancient and modern times, which not only shows the superb skills of the author of the Daizhou woodblock prints, but also confirms the deep mass foundation of the folk beliefs in Daizhou.
The folk beliefs embodied in the Woodblock Prints of Daizhou are harmonious. From ancient times to the present, people are accustomed to believing that the harmony between people and nature can lead to the prosperity of the family and the prosperity of their children and grandchildren. In the Daizhou woodblock new year painting "Yuqiao Joy Map", children wear bucket hats, fishing rods in their hands, hang fishing baskets on their shoulders, tie a scarf belt around their waists, and insert firewood axes on their bodies, making joyful play, implying that the fishing trees live in harmony and live and work in peace. The pairs of magpies and peaches outside the window, as well as the double happiness and shou character patterns on the woman's body, also symbolize the meaning of longevity and auspiciousness. This kind of life-oriented theme in the Woodblock New Year Painting embodies the willingness of folk beliefs to integrate and unify man and nature, the world is peaceful and harmonious development, embodies the aesthetic psychology of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty, and also reflects the local people's gentleness and generosity, small wealth and peace, and the inner pursuit of a warm homeland.
The folk beliefs embodied in the Woodblock Prints of Daizhou have human nature. From all kinds of "divine horses (paper horses)", all kinds of gods such as Guan Gong, Zhong Kui, etc., or ladies, dramatic characters, etc., all of them take character paintings as the main line, and their style is clear and their skills are fully displayed in image shaping. The artistic path with figure painting as the main object of creation has established an artistic image of personified gods and living characters. Compared with the source and attribution of the image of the New Year painting, people are more concerned about whether the gods and characters in the New Year painting conform to the inner imagination, which not only reflects the flexibility and adaptability of folk beliefs in creating gods, but also inherits the simple ideological origin of civil society. Taking "Guan Gong Reading Spring and Autumn" as an example, the illustrator superbly depicts Guan Gong who is reading "Spring and Autumn" with a dignified demeanor, bright eyes, a long whisker under his chin on his chest, clear and smooth lines, and in one go, showing the majesty and elegance of the hairdresser to the fullest, and the humanistic characteristics and humanistic care of the painting are also fully displayed.
It can be seen that as a precious living resource library of traditional folk art, the Daizhou woodblock prints strongly demonstrate the close spiritual connection between folk art works and nature worship and ancestor worship. Folk arts and crafts are the product of the spiritual needs of the people, and praying for smooth wind and rain, a happy family, the elimination of evil and the promotion of good, and then the desire for home and national rejuvenation constitute the simple and positive spiritual connotation of such traditional art works. Studying, protecting, inheriting and developing this unique historical and cultural heritage well has irreplaceable important value and immeasurable spiritual strength for inheriting Shanxi's humanistic spiritual genes, preserving Shanxi's historical and cultural memory, enriching Shanxi's cultural connotation, and thus opening up Shanxi's new cultural frontier.
Wu Bing Wu Ser