Zhangzhou woodcut New Year pictures

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Zhangzhou woodcut New Year pictures

Applicant: Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province

Item No.: 303

Project No.: Ⅶ - 4

Time of publication: 2006 (the first batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Fujian Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province

Protection unit: Zhangzhou Art Museum

Introduction to Zhangzhou woodcut New Year pictures:

Applicant: Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province

Zhangzhou woodcut New Year pictures mainly spread in Xiangcheng District, Southern Fujian and Lingnan areas of Zhangzhou, and are exported to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

In the Song Dynasty, the book engraving industry in Fujian began to flourish, which rapidly promoted the development of folk engraving technology. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Zhangzhou woodcut New Year pictures began to be popular. The rise of Zhangzhou Yuegang brought favorable conditions for the export of woodcut New Year pictures. At the beginning of the 20th century, a large number of New Year picture shops were concentrated in Zhangzhou Lianzi street, Hong Kong Road and Taiwan Road, and there were still 89 until the 1950s.

Various folk activities are the basis for the survival and development of Zhangzhou woodcut New Year pictures industry. The main themes of Zhangzhou Folk Woodcut New Year pictures are to ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters, pray for good luck, historical drama stories and decorative patterns. The majority of Zhangzhou New Year pictures are door paintings, which are divided into rough, young gods, Wen and Wu gods. Thick God refers to the door painting printed on red or vermilion paper; young god refers to the new year painting printed directly on natural color paper and printed in light red on the background of the characters; Wen God refers to the new year painting in which the characters do not ride horses or carry flags; Wu God's new year painting is opposite to Wen Shen's, in which the characters usually ride horses or carry flags.

Zhangzhou woodblock New Year pictures are first engraved on wooden plates (color separation plate and ink line plate), and then printed on paper by short plate method. There are two kinds of engraving: positive and negative. The engraving with the background color (red) of "young god" is negative, which is unique in China. The edges of all lines and color blocks on the engraving plate are inclined outwards, which is convenient for adjusting moisture during printing. Printing version overprint, first color version after black line version, the picture effect is very clear. Most of the plates are made of pear wood, acacia wood, Hongke wood and pomegranate wood. All the papers are made of Minxi paper, such as Fushu paper from Longyan, yukou paper from Changting, Shanghang and Gutian, and tin paper from Qingliu. Zhangzhou woodblock New Year pictures workshop can be divided into "red room" and "black room". The "black room" refers to the workshop of printing books, while the "red room" refers to the workshop of printing new year pictures. The boss of the workshop usually takes on the work of painting and engraving, or both. He also employs hired workers to do chores. In the process of annexing small workshops in the late Qing Dynasty, Yan's workshops gathered a large number of old versions and new versions of the same generation. In 1957, Yan Jingming, a descendant of Yan's family, donated all the workshop and shop products to the government and changed his profession to practice medicine.

With the deepening of social change, the traditional consciousness is gradually eliminated, and the folk custom activities have changed. The appreciation of Zhangzhou Wood New Year pictures relying on local folk customs is enhanced, while the practicability of tending to good fortune and avoiding evil is weakened, resulting in the depression of the New Year pictures market. With the shrinking of the original folk New Year pictures market, the number of people engaged in the production of Zhangzhou Wood New Year pictures has greatly decreased. If we don't work out specific measures to rescue and protect them as soon as possible, the production skills of Zhangzhou Wood New Year pictures will inevitably die out.