Woodcut New Year pictures (Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: woodcut New Year pictures (Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures)

Applicant: Linfen City, Shanxi Province

Project No.: 841

Project No.: Ⅶ - 65

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Shanxi Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Linfen City, Shanxi Province

Protected by: Linfen Pingyang woodblock New Year pictures Museum

Introduction to woodcut New Year pictures (Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures)

Applicant: Linfen City, Shanxi Province

Woodcut New Year picture is a popular traditional art style for Chinese people to welcome the new year and receive blessings on the occasion of new year's festival. It conveys the life ideals of the general public, reflects many characteristics of social life and folk culture, and becomes an important part of Chinese folk art. Woodblock New Year pictures are printed by traditional woodblock watermarking method, which is closely related to woodblock printing. Woodcut New Year pictures have a long history. It is said that they appeared in the Han Dynasty. They were called "Paper paintings" in the Song Dynasty and "Huatie" in the Ming Dynasty. They were officially named "New Year pictures" in the Qing Dynasty. In the course of thousands of years of development, a number of relatively concentrated woodblock New Year pictures producing areas have gradually formed. Each producing area not only maintains the technical exchange relationship with other regions, but also maintains its own originality in theme and form. From the perspective of subject matter, woodcut New Year pictures can be divided into five categories: driving away evil spirits, praying for good fortune, drama and legend, festive decoration, and living customs. The main styles include Gongjian, Zhongtang, duiping, Lihua, Kangwei, etc. Woodcut New Year pictures have various techniques and bright colors, and have various styles due to regional differences. It has high aesthetic taste, distinctive artistic features, large information carrying capacity, and contains profound national psychology and traditional humanistic concepts.

Pingyang woodcut New Year picture is a kind of folk art style spread in Linfen area of Shanxi Province. It began in song and Jin Dynasties, flourished in Yuan Dynasty, and entered the golden period of development in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The history of ancient Chinese printing called Pingyang woodblock New Year pictures as the "ancestor" of New Year pictures, and the history of Chinese woodblock printing also had the conclusion that "Pingyang is the head of woodblock New Year pictures". China's earliest Poster (print) treasures -- the song and Jin Dynasties' "the Sui Dynasty is elegant and graceful, showing the beauty of the country" and "the king of Yiyong Wu'an" are the representative works of ancient Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures, which were once praised by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo as "the essence of world print". Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures were once lost. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, art workers in southern Shanxi extensively collected old woodcut New Year pictures in rural areas. In the 1950s, they planned to build a factory to resume the production of Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures. At present, the newly established Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures Museum has made great efforts to excavate, protect and restore Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures, and has achieved certain results. Pingyang woodcut New Year pictures include nave paintings, door paintings, shadow murals, door paintings, window paintings, strip screen paintings, kitchen niche paintings, table skirts and other categories. Their themes are mainly traditional contents, with prominent themes, exaggerated and vivid images, bright and gorgeous colors, showing strong decoration and giving people the impression of bold and unrestrained.