Chapter 9 Chapter Three Ancient Ornamental and Playful Folk Crafts

As the name suggests, New Year pictures are related to celebrating the New Year.In ancient times, people often had the custom of posting pictures during the Spring Festival to embellish and add to the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival, but there was no such thing as a New Year picture at that time.The term New Year paintings only existed in the late Qing Dynasty.The term "Nianhua" that we see now originated from "Xiangyan Jieyi" written by Li Guangting in the 29th year of Daoguang (AD 1849).The book "Ten Things of the New Year" said: "After sweeping the house, post New Year pictures, which is a joke for children. However, such as "The Picture of Filial Piety" and "Busy Crops", let children look at them and explain them. Also." At the same time, the author also wrote a poem: "Still like a gourd, spring returns from the painting; the hands are not hindered by cold, and the heart is contrary to lying and traveling. Earning children's joy can give birth to luxuriant plants; the picture of plowing mulberry is the best, It’s like a fat family.” From this we can see that the so-called New Year pictures at that time, that is, the woodblock color printing pictures pasted after the houses were cleaned up during the Lunar New Year in the countryside, most of the contents were “Busy Harvest” which reflected the joyful and bumper harvest of the working people, and “Busy Harvest” which expressed the etiquette of life. Filial Piety Picture" and historical figures, opera stories, etc.Its main function is to make "plums grow radiant", and to entrust the wishes and ideals of the working people to yearn for a good agricultural harvest, a harmonious family, and a stable life.

Documentary records and archaeological excavations show that the custom of posting New Year pictures on the New Year originated from the ancient door god.As early as more than 2,000 years ago, Zheng Xuan, a great Confucian scholar in the Han Dynasty, annotated the "Book of Rites", which recorded the custom of offering sacrifices to door gods in ancient my country.The living conditions in ancient times were poor, and insects, snakes and beasts often broke into the house.In order to seek good luck and avoid evil, the ancients hoped that the gods on the door would take more responsibility, so they often worshiped the door gods to drive away ghosts, avoid harm and protect the door.But at that time, the door god was only an abstract concept and did not form a fixed image. "Zhou Li Chunguan" has a record that "the Shi family lives on the left side of Humen, and the Si Dynasty". There are tiger guards here, which obviously use the tiger as the door god. In the summer of 1978, when the "Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng" was excavated in Suixian County, Hubei Province in the early Warring States Period, a humanoid monster with a pair of spears was found next to the door on the left and right panels of the inner coffin. Zeng Guo's popular door god.A large number of gatekeeper statues with ferocious faces and flying beards on the gates of ancient tombs discovered by archeology probably have the same effect.

In the Han Dynasty, the door gods could not only be tigers and gods, but also ancient heroes.According to the "Hanshu" records: Liu Yue, King Hui of Guangchuan, painted a portrait of the ancient warrior Cheng Qing on the gate of the palace. The figure wore a long sword and was heroic and mighty.The most popular door gods in the Han Dynasty were Shentu and Yulei.Wang Chong, a famous thinker in the Eastern Han Dynasty, once recorded in detail the stories about Shentu and Yulei in his "Lunheng Dinggui": In the vast sea, there is a mountain of Dushuo, and in the mountain there is a big peach tree, which stretches continuously. 3000 miles.There is a ghost gate among the east branches of the tree, which is the place where all ghosts come and go. There are two gods and men on it, one is Shen Tu and the other is Yu Lei. They are in charge of checking the whereabouts of all ghosts. Get up and give it to the tiger to eat.So the Yellow Emperor made a ritual custom, painting Shentu and Yulei on the door to prevent the invasion of mountain ghosts.In this way, Shen Tu and Yu Lei became tiger generals wearing armor and holding axe. They have been regarded as door gods for a long time, exorcising evil for people.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a new form of door god appeared, in which chickens were pasted on the door.Wang Jia of the Jin Dynasty described the reason why the chicken was pasted on the door in his "Supplementary Notes": In ancient times, when Yao was in power, a bird with two pupils was offered by Zhi Zhi, which was shaped like a chicken and sang. Like a phoenix, it can fight off fierce beasts, tigers and wolves, so that monsters and evils cannot do harm.This bird sometimes comes several times a year, sometimes not for several years.When it doesn't come, people carve wood and copper into its shape and place it between the doors, so that the ugly and ugly people will be shocked and retreat when they see it.It can be seen that this kind of door god is also based on myths and legends.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhism was prevalent. In order to make people believe that Buddhism can help people escape the sea of ​​suffering, Buddhist temples made extensive publicity on Buddhist Dharma Protectors or Heavenly Kings.They not only painted plastic medicine forks or heavenly kings as door gods on the temple gates, but also painted various Buddhist paintings on the doors of warehouses and kitchens to ward off disasters and ensure safety. The concept of being a door god is not a small shock.At that time, Zhong Kui's style also appeared in the painting themes posted on New Year's Day that implied exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters.The story of Zhong Kui is recorded in detail by Shen Kuo, a scientist in the Song Dynasty, in his "Mengxi Bi Tan": It is said that during the Kaiyuan period, Li Longji, Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty, said that on Wuli Mountain, after returning to the palace, the disease occurred, and the witch-doctor skills were poor and there was no way to cure it. .One day, Tang Minghuang suddenly dreamed of two ghosts, big and small. The little ghost stole Concubine Yang's purple sachet and Tang Minghuang's jade flute, and fled around the palace. , caught the imp, gouged out its eyes, and ate it.Tang Minghuang asked who the big ghost was, and the big ghost replied: The minister's name is Zhong Kui, he failed in the martial arts examination, and vowed to sweep away the evil spirits in the world for your majesty.After waking up from the dream, Tang Minghuang's illness disappeared, so he happily called the painter Wu Daozi and ordered him to paint from his dream.Tang Minghuang was very satisfied with Wu Daozi's imaginative creation, and he criticized: "Spirits only respond to dreams, and all illnesses are cured [chou shuai]. Martyrs who eliminate demons must be awarded. Because of the abnormality of the picture, it is obvious that there is a division. It is advisable to know all over, to dispel evil spirits, and calm the demon atmosphere. It is to inform the world and inform the committee." From then on, Zhong Kui, who was ugly in appearance but beautiful in heart, upright in nature, and jealous of evil, became the god of exorcising evil and slaying ghosts. "Stick on the door wall" or decorate the house wall screen and become a new door god.

Most of the gate god paintings before the Tang Dynasty were hand-painted. Although woodcut prints had appeared at that time, they were mostly used to engrave Buddhist scriptures or divination books.After the Northern Song Dynasty, hand-painted door god paintings were still popular, but woodblock printed door god paintings have begun to appear.The workshop of the woodblock printing door god painting is Zhimapu. "Paper horses" are statues of gods and Buddhas printed on five-color paper for burning and offering sacrifices.At that time, the paper horse shop not only printed Buddha statues, but also often printed Zhongkui, Caima, Huihuima and other things to give to customers before the new year's festival.This kind of woodblock engraved Zhong Kui, Caima, Huihuima, etc. is the embryonic form of Chinese woodblock New Year pictures. In other words, although it is not a real New Year picture, it has prepared the technical conditions for the appearance of woodblock New Year pictures.Because at that time, many folk paintings describing the joyous activities of the New Year or expressing auspicious and happy life appeared in the paintings of the Song Dynasty (the former such as "Sui Dynasty Picture", "Light Viewing Picture", "Spring Society Picture", "Dragonist Picture", and later) There are also many paintings dedicated to beauties and dolls), and there are also many painters who are good at seasonal decorative paintings (such as Su Hanchen, etc.).Later, in order to meet the needs of the society and greatly increase the output of popular genre paintings, these painters who specialized in seasonal decorative paintings were liberated from temples and studies, and combined with folk engraving techniques. Workers have jointly created a new form of woodcut stickers that can meet the large demand of the market. This is the real New Year picture - "paper painting".

The selection of materials for "Paper Paintings" in the Song Dynasty paid attention to the festive characteristics of the New Year, and strived to be beautiful, lively and decorative in artistic expression, which laid the foundation for the development of New Year paintings later.The earliest New Year picture engraving center in the Northern Song Dynasty was in Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan). After Bianjing was captured by Jin soldiers in 1126 AD, some folk painters and engraving artists settled down to Lin’an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) with the officials and people who fled south. Along with the actors and internal officials, they crossed the Yellow River and arrived at Pingyang (now Linfen, Shanxi).Since then, the art of New Year paintings has expanded to the north and south, forming two major production areas of New Year paintings with Pingyang as the center and Lin'an as the center.Among the New Year pictures printed in Pingyang, we can now see "Yiyong Wu'an King", "Four Beauties", "Dongfang Shuo Stealing Peach" and so on.

"Yiyong Wu'an King" is a rectangular portrait of Guan Yu.In the painting, Guan Gong wears a soft towel, brocade gown, and high boots with a cloud head on his head. He clenches his fist sideways and sits on a chair with a solemn expression. "Four Beauties" depict Wang Zhaojun, Zhao Feiyan, Ban Jiehao and Lvzhu, embroidered with flower crowns, beautiful in appearance, well-fitting dresses, and smooth pleats (Fig. 21). "Dongfang Shuo Pirates Peach" is named after Wu Daozi's brush, and the painting Dongfang Shuo wears a scarf on his head, a gown with wide collar and large sleeves, a gourd of medicine hanging on his waist, holding a branch of fairy peach in both hands on his shoulder, running forward with his feet, looking back with a smile on his face.The color printing of this picture is accurate, the line engraving is strong, the proportion of the figure painting is appropriate, and the expression is vivid and interesting.

These three New Year pictures are the early forms of New Year pictures in my country, and they are representative works of New Year pictures in the Song and Jin Dynasties, marking the maturity and finalization of New Year pictures in my country. After a brief period of depression in the Yuan Dynasty, New Year paintings gradually revived in the Ming Dynasty.The Ming Dynasty was the heyday of classical printmaking art, and the range of printmaking applications and technical sophistication have greatly surpassed those of the previous generation.For example, the "Luoxuan Biangu Jianpu", "Shizhuzhai Painting Book", "Shizhuzhai Jianpu" printed at the end of Ming Dynasty, etc., are gorgeous and exquisite, which are hard to bear.There are not many New Year pictures handed down from the Ming Dynasty, including "Nine Nine Cold Dispelling Picture", "Shouxing Picture", "Eight Immortals' Birthday Picture", "Filial Piety Picture", "Four Sages Picture" and so on. There are 81 petals of plum blossoms in the center of "Nine Nine Cold Dispelling Picture", surrounded by "Nine Nine" and "Nine Nine", respectively, with the auspicious content of New Year's greetings, lantern viewing, plowing, spring outing and cornucopia. , the folk atmosphere is very strong. "The Picture of the Four Sages" is divided into four screens: "Yang Zhen upholds integrity", "Tao Qian upholds festivals", "Li Mi's filial piety", and "Kong Ming's devotion to loyalty", which are vividly refined and colorful.The New Year paintings of the Ming Dynasty paid more attention to works with auspicious themes.It is said that several emperors in the Ming Dynasty liked New Year pictures with the theme of celebrating birthdays and offering blessings. At that time, the living standards of the people also improved to a certain extent, so New Year pictures with the content of implying auspiciousness and disaster relief and welcoming prosperity developed.Zhu Jianshen, Emperor of Chenghua, painted a picture of "A Group of Harmony" in 1465 AD. It is based on the allusion of "Three Laughs at the Tiger Creek", implying that the Chinese monks, Taoists, and Confucians live in harmony and all are happy.However, after this theme was spread among the people, it became an auspicious New Year picture, which no longer meant the integration of the three religions.

The Qing Dynasty was the golden age of woodblock New Year pictures.From about the middle and late Ming Dynasty, many central production areas for printing New Year pictures appeared all over the country.In the early Qing Dynasty, with the stability of the society and the development of the economy, the central production areas of these New Year pictures continued to expand and increase, presenting a scene of prosperity and prosperity.Famous artists include Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangjiabu in Weixian County, Shandong, etc. There are many New Year pictures in these areas, which have great influence and have made important contributions to the development of Chinese New Year pictures.

Yangliuqingnian paintings were created around the Hongzhi and Jiajing years of the Ming Dynasty, and had been printed in large quantities during the Wanli and Tianqi periods, and were most prosperous during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.It is now known that the earliest painting shops in Yangliuqing were Dai Lianzeng and Qi Jianlong. Later, the Dai and Qi systems branched out into many painting shops. By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it had developed into a new year painting production centered in Yangliuqing Town, including 32 villages in Nanxiang. base.Yangliuqing New Year's paintings are greatly influenced by northern prints and Song Dynasty academy paintings. They are exquisitely crafted and include various processes such as painting, engraving, printing, tracing, and face-opening.According to statistics, in the middle of Guangxu period, there were hundreds of painters and engraving artists gathered in Yangliuqing.Most of the local farmers and even women and children take part in the work, some as their main job, some as a side job, and those who don’t know how to paint and carve are dyed and colored, making Yangliuqing an art village where “every family can dye, and every household is good at painting” . There are many famous painters in Yangliuqing Painting Shop, such as Zhang Junting, Wang Runbai, Dai Lishan, Zhang Yaolin, Han Zhuqiao, Xu Rongxuan, Xu Sihan, etc., but Gao Tongxuan is the most famous.Gao Tongxuan (AD 1835-1906), named Yinzhang, once set up the "Xuehongshan Pavilion" studio, and produced manuscript samples, printed and printed them for sale.His works include "Wen Ji Returning to Han", "Crossing the Autumn River Lately", "Treading the Snow to Seek Plum Blossoms", "Children's Pleasureland", etc., which are representative works of folk New Year paintings in the late Qing Dynasty. Yangliuqing youth paintings take people as the main theme. In the early days, they mainly showed auspicious and beautiful children's dolls and women caressing infants. The representative works include "Teaching Children to Fame", "Liansheng Treasures", and "Happy Calling Brothers" printed by Qi Jianlong's painting shop There are also some genre paintings depicting men farming and women weaving, such as "Picture of Leisure and Busy" and "Busy Crops".In the last years of Qianlong's reign, opera troupes from all over the country came to Beijing to perform in succession, and opera became popular in Kyoto for a while.Affected by this, Yangliuqing New Year's paintings have produced a large number of opera themes and forms, such as "Qing Dingzhu", "Rui Caotu", "Nuanxiangwu Trial Production of Spring Lantern Riddles", "Three Kings and Green", "Grandma Liu Touring Grand View Garden", etc. (Figure 22).In the late Qing Dynasty, current affairs paintings also appeared. Yangliuqing New Year paintings are classified by size and fineness of production. The whole paper is called "Gongjian", and the ones cut into three pieces are called "Sancai". Among them, the large-scale New Year pictures are the characteristics of Yangliu Qingnian paintings. Yangliuqing's paintings have a unique style in the use of color.It pays attention to the sharp contrast and coordination of soft colors (light, transparent, pink colors) and hard colors (strong, opaque, relatively pure colors), so that the colors are rich and colorful, and harmonious and pleasing to the eye.The figure modeling of Yangliuqing youth painting pays attention to skill and structure, and is good at portraying the figure with refined and exaggerated character dynamics, which gives people a sense of distinct personality and achieves the artistic effect of seeing from afar. New Year pictures in Taohuawu had already been printed in the Ming Dynasty, and they were more developed during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty.At the beginning, New Year picture shops were mainly distributed in Shantang, Taohuawu, and Beisiqian.The New Year pictures in Shantang mostly use strokes, and the New Year pictures in front of Taohuawu and Beisi mostly use woodblock printing.After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, most of the painting shops were concentrated in the Taohuawu area, so it was called "Taohuawu New Year Paintings". Most of the authors of Taohuawu New Year paintings are unknown, but known ones include Ding Yingzong, Liu De, and Cai Weiyuan in the Qianlong period, and Li Zuiju and Jin Chunshun in the Daoguang period.Wu Youru and Zhou Quan, who often painted for Dianshizhai Pictorial, also created manuscripts for New Year pictures, which promoted the development of Taohuawu New Year picture art (Figure 23). In Suzhou in the Ming Dynasty, the style of engraving illustrations of novels and legends prevailed.Affected by this, Taohuawu New Year pictures are mainly carved and dramatized. Most of the content is based on novels, dramas or Tanci such as "Pearl Tower", "Jade Dragonfly", "Legend of the White Snake" and so on.Taohuawu New Year pictures also created many genre paintings, auspicious allegory paintings, and legend story paintings.In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Taohuawu New Year paintings absorbed Western light and dark perspective painting methods, and published many anti-imperialist current affairs paintings, which became the most prominent works among New Year paintings all over the country at that time. The forms of Taohuawu New Year pictures are divided into door paintings, hall paintings, hanging screens, lanterns, incense flags, cake baskets, tea and food gift boxes, etc.The paintings are exquisite and engraved, the colors are contrasted strongly, rich and dazzling, vivid and lively. Usually, red, yellow, blue, green, purple, gray, black and other seven colors are preferred, and gold and silver are also added, which is bright and elegant. New Year paintings in Weixian County, Shandong Province were already very famous in the Ming Dynasty, and they were the most prosperous in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.Weixian New Year paintings were influenced by Yang Liuqing's painting style in the early stage, and later formed a system of their own.The themes of New Year pictures are divided into three categories: auspicious pictures, opera stories and myths and legends. Weixian New Year pictures are well carved, vivid in shape, thick and strong, reuse primary colors, and have a relatively simple style of painting, among which Yangjiabu New Year pictures are the most distinctive (Figure 24). In addition to Yangliuqing, Taohuawu, and Weixian County in Shandong, Wuqiang in Hebei, Zhuxian Town in Henan, Linfen in Shanxi, Fengxiang in Shaanxi, Mianzhu in Sichuan, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Fujian, Foshan in Guangdong, and Fuyang in Anhui are also colorful and colorful. It has made a contribution to the garden of Qing Dynasty New Year pictures decorated with colorful colors. New Year pictures in the Qing Dynasty were popularized in vast urban and rural areas of China, reflecting a wide range of social life.In addition to the traditional pictures of abundance (such as "Daqing Fengnian", "Auspicious Snow", "Spring Breeze", etc.), farming and weaving pictures (such as "men's ten busy", "women's ten busy", etc.), and auspicious pictures (such as "Shou Xing" "Hundred Sons Picture", "Happy Family", "Liansheng Takako", etc.), doll ladies, door gods (such as Shen Tu, Yu Lei, Zhong Kui, Qin Qiong, Yuchi Gong, etc.) God codes (idols worshiped on New Year's Day, such as Kitchen God, God of Wealth, God of Fortune, Avalokitesvara, Guandi, etc.), all themes of history, reality and mythology can be reflected on the screen, up to the Ming Lord visiting the virtuous, the faint king mourning the country, the loyal ministers dare to advise, the honest officials love the people, and the martyrs donate their lives , traitors misleading the country, evil officials corrupt, officials forced the people to rebel, local tyrants bully others, down to heroes rescue, knights repay favors, virtuous mothers teach children, righteous daughters filial piety, male marriages and female marriages, even gods and Buddhas save the world, fairies save the poor , Linquan Gaoshi, patriotic scholars, scenic spots and landscapes, exotic grasses and fairy flowers, everything is available; whether it is praise, criticism, romance, satire, encouragement, or flogging, it contains praise and criticism, and it is like an encyclopedia of folk life. the whole book.In the New Year pictures, there are many plots of novels such as "The Complete Biography of Jing Zhong", "The Romance of the Yang Family", and the dramas of "Bao Gong", "Peng Gong", "Shi Gong" and so on. Fairy tales and some folklore about exhorting good and punishing evil also account for a considerable proportion.These historical stories, literary stories, and fairy tales are painted as New Year's pictures, pasted on screen walls, gates, house walls, windows, table surrounds, lamp screens, rice tanks, grain stores, courtyard walls, and troughs. It not only beautifies the environment, but also brings prosperity and entertainment to people, and enables people to receive traditional education in the prosperity and entertainment.Therefore, New Year pictures have always been popular in folk cottages with a strong local flavor, and they have lasted for a long time, and there is a tendency to return to the city.