Point Shizhai lithograph "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" embroidered image
For the embroidery of novels, I, like many people, have had a special affection since I was a child. Those vivid characters fluttered between the paper scrolls, which made people have a special interest. Take a piece of white paper and cover it on the embroidered image, and use a pen to outline the lines of the image in the shadows; Or adjust the color paint and paint the embroidered image to a flowery green, which is a very favorite thing to do in childhood. The amorous Brother Bao, the sentimental Sister Lin, or Lin Chong who strayed into the White Tiger Hall, and Lu Zhishen who uprooted the weeping willows, most of the deep-rooted characters have always come from the embroidered images of novels I saw when I was a child.
Almost all of these embroidered images are attached to the frontispieces of various lithographed novels. In terms of the impact on ordinary readers, the lithographic novel embroidery is obviously much greater than the traditional woodcut prints of the Ming and Qing dynasties. But there is no doubt that in the many lithographed novels, most of the embroidered images are shoddy, and there are very few that can really be called "fine picture books".
Some of the novels printed by Guangbai Song Zhai deservedly belong to the "fine picture book". For example, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Romance of the Gods" and other books, the frontispiece is accompanied by a large number of embroidered portraits of the characters of the god Bi Xiao, and the other is accompanied by exquisite illustrations, which are pleasing to the eye and can't bear to release the volume. Among them, like the Guangbai Song Zhai lithograph "Image of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there are 94 embroidered portraits of characters. The 240 illustrations in the book are like a comic book, depicting the thrilling scenes of the whole book.
The finely illustrated novels printed by Dianshizhai are most famous for "The Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty". The frontispiece of this lithograph is embroidered with 48 portraits of 24 leaves, and there are also 2 fine drawings of 1 leaf in each episode, totaling 216 pieces. Because of its "exquisite illustration and clear ink color, it is allowed by the gentlemen at home, and it will go away", so that "there are people who shoot profits, and they forget their righteousness when they see profits, that is, they use the original book to print them, so as to mix the pearls". In addition, novels such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Mirror Flowers" printed by Dianshizhai are rare "fine picture books".
Mr. Huang Shang once recalled his childhood reading experience: "I took the risk of taking my father's hidden "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Strange Tales from Liao Zhai", and peeked at the illustrations in front of it. These are all lithographs of the old Tongwen, and the drawings and printing are quite exquisite. I couldn't understand the story, but Brother Bao and Sister Lin immediately knew each other from these 'embroidered images'. The "old Tongwen" mentioned here refers to the same bureau. At that time, many classical masterpieces were reprinted by the same bookstore, and the embroidered images attached were very exquisite. Just like the "Water Margin" printed by the Clerk's Office, the frontispiece character embroidery is mostly borrowed from Chen Laolian's "Water Margin Leaves" in the Ming Dynasty, and the lines are delicate and vivid. The praise on the embroidered portraits of the characters is mostly taken from the woodcut novels of the previous generation, which greatly enhances the cultural connotation.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mr. A Ying compiled the "Repertoire of Lithographic Novels and Operas in the Late Qing Dynasty", which recorded the "finely illustrated versions" of many lithographic novels, such as "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" printed by Xiangqizhai, "Popular Romance of the Twenty-four History" and "Dream of Red Mansions" printed by Guangbai Song Zhai. This is a special section on lithographed "illustrated novels". Many of the lithographed novels in this bibliography are now quite difficult to find. There are several books in Hanzhai, which are very finely engraved and embroidered.
As far as the collection of Hanzhai is concerned, such as "Dream of Red Mansions" printed by Qiu Bu Zhai, "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue" printed by Zhenyi Book Company, "The Legend of Children and Heroes" printed by the Yuying Museum, and "The Romance of Sun Pang" printed by 100,000 volumes, etc., the attached embroidered images can be remarkable. These lithographed "finely illustrated" novels still inherit the remnants of traditional printmaking, adopting the traditional embroidered image layout of one picture per person, one picture or two pictures each time. Most of them are quite ingenious in layout design, especially the use of a large number of pattern borders, which has become a major feature.
In recent years, the value of lithographs has received more and more attention as it deserves. In particular, the "fine picture books" in lithographic novels can often be auctioned for thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan at auction. For example, "Mirror Flowers" printed by Dianshizhai was auctioned at an auction in the autumn of 2010 at a price of 4,200 yuan; In the 16th year of the Republic of China (1927), the lithograph of "Dream of Red Mansions" by Shanghai Youzheng Book Company was sold at an auction in 2008, from a starting price of 500 yuan to 9,350 yuan. Like Guangbai Song Zhai's "Journey to the West", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with the Bookstore, etc., the price of the full set is about 10,000 yuan or 20,000 yuan. The lithographs with embroidered images on the frontispiece have become a treasure that many collectors are keen to collect.
The proportion of "finely illustrated books" in lithographed novels is not too high. Looking through the lithographs, the most common figure embroidery is the "group portrait type", that is, on a page of one page, there are multiple characters embroidered, often as few as two or three people, as many as seven or eight people. The use of "group portrait" to draw portraits of people, on the one hand, can save paper costs, on the other hand, it is also convenient for the painter's creation, which can be said to be a kind of "cutting corners" in artistic creation, resulting in more and more serious facial tendencies. In addition, the illustrations of these inferior editions mostly adopt the "upper and lower" layout, that is, the content of two chapters is depicted in a single picture, separated by thin lines or moire. The artistic achievements of the illustrations of these lithographed novels are different from those of the few "finely illustrated books".
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