Tom in China

New Year Woodblock Engravings from Taohuawu

By staff reporters LIAO ZENGBAO & HUO JIANYING Chinatoday

NEW Year woodblock engraving

NEW Year woodblock engraving, a type of watercolor block printing, is a folk art that dates back hundreds of years. The whole process includes drawing, block cutting, printing and color processing. Woodblock engravings became popular in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and were an integral feature of Chinese New Year celebrations.

Where Peach Blossoms Bloom

Taohuawu, in the garden city of Suzhou in southern China, literally means Peach Blossom Basin. To the Chinese people, peach blossoms symbolize tranquillity and beauty. Tao Yuanming (376-427), a great scholar of the Jin Dynasty (265-420), described in his, “Source of Peach Blossoms,” a paradise on earth where misery and war are unknown, and where peach blossoms bloom everywhere.” Since then, the Land of Peach Blossoms is to China what Utopia and Shangri-La are to the West.

Suzhou has been a beautiful and prosperous city since ancient times. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Suzhou produced four outstanding artists. Tang Yin, the most popularly remembered artistic genius of the four, lived and died in Taohuawu, where he created a great number of masterpieces, much sought after by collectors in China and abroad.

Taohuawu also produced many folk artists. The area became known for its woodblock printing techniques during the Ming Dynasty, when many woodcuts and illustrations for novels and theatrical scenarios originated in Taohuawu. By the Qing Dynasty, its woodblock printing techniques had become widely used for the production of New Year pictures, which were wholesaled from Taohuawu, not only to other parts of China, but also to Southeast Asia and Japan. Many masterpieces were produced at that time.

During the Taiping rebellion, (1851-1864), Manchurian troops besieged Suzhou, and the city burned for seven days. New Year picture workshops and stores in Taohuawu also fell prey to the fire, and few wood blocks survived. Most of the older New Year Pictures found today are printed from blocks originating in the late Qing Dynasty, or are duplicates of those of the mid-Qing Dynasty.

In the first half of the 20th century, New Year picture production declined because of constant warfare and turmoil. After the founding of new China in 1949, great efforts were exerted in Suzhou to restore this folk art, and over 200 representative draft drawings were collated and printed. Old wood blocks were permanently shelved, and, unfortunately, during the “cultural revolution” (1966-1976), owing to insufficient storage protection, the blocks rotted. However, in the 1990s, this folk art was once more rejuvenated.

Deities and the Spring Festival

Before 1912 China had used the lunar calendar. The first day of the lunar year (usually in early February) is the most festive occasion for the Chinese people. In some places celebration of the Spring Festival can last as long as a month. According to Chinese philosophy, the Spring Festival ushers in the regenerative period of nature, and signals the start of a new cycle of life.

Posting and renewing New Year pictures is an important aspect of preparation for the Spring Festival, being the medium through which people express their expectations for the coming year. Themes of good fortune and happiness, manifested by deities and auspicious symbols, are, therefore, dominant in New Year pictures. ” Deities” from Taohuawu is representative of such works.

This new year woodblock engraving measures over a meter in length, which is unusually large for a new year picture. It contains 68 characters, in a composition on five levels, separated by auspicious cloud patterns. A cluster of characters in one picture is not rare in Chinese paintings, but a concentration of dozens of characters from different religious and philosophical schools is. The characters on the first level of the engraving include Sakyamuni, Confucius and Lao Zi, representing respectively Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. On the second level is the Goddess of Mercy, and Yan Di and Huang Di, two progenitors of the Chinese nation. On the third level is the Jade Emperor, and depictions of celestial temples and dwellings. The fourth level is devoted to warriors, such as Guan Yu, a great military figure from the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280). The fifth level depicts the celestial, terrestrial and water officials.

The combination of celestial and terrestrial, and of imaginary and real figures is typical of folk Chinese art. The common people care little about differences between religious and philosophical schools. They simply believe that deities personify justice and protect their interests. To them, there is no strict delineation between deities and human beings. Deities must come from somewhere, and no small number of them are the sages of humankind. For instance, in his life on earth, Guan Yu was a great general and an upright person. Upon his death, therefore, he was worshipped as God of War. All of the 68 characters in this picture are figures of great virtue and merit in Chinese history, no matter what their origins.

Pictures That Tell Stories

In old China, education was limited to a small elite, and the majority was illiterate. Woodcut pictures based on theatrical works and folk stories were, therefore, very popular, being the most amusing and easily comprehensible.

Taohuawu has many such woodblock engravings. They mostly tell stories of loyalty, benevolence, filial piety, righteousness and retribution, as a means to instilling morals and norms of conducts. “Yang Family Generals,” comprises two engravings, each containing eight pictures that tell an episode in the Yang family story. The 16 pictures, spanning the entire Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), depict how the three generations of the Yang family fought foreign invaders and defended their country. Another engraving in this category describes the military genius and eventual tragedy of Yue Fei, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), who was wrongfully accused, framed and executed. Yue Fei has since remained an heroic figure in Chinese history, and Qin Hui, the vicious minister who caused his death, a target of condemnation and contempt.

“Spring Cattle,” a work created in 1899 during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, contains six pictures. Other than cattle and mascots for happiness, emolument and longevity, there are four story pictures. The first picture tells of a devoted widow who supports her family by weaving, and whose son finally passes the highest imperial examination. The second is about a woman whose son dies a sudden death after she murders her own baby daughters. The third depicts an unfilial son who mistreats his mother and is then bitten by a snake. The fourth is about a woman who mistreats her daughter-in-law and who, in her following reincarnation is herself a daughter-in-law, frequently beaten.

All these engravings exhort people to treat others kindly and with respect, as this kind of treatment will surely be reciprocated. In old China, such picture stories and other folk art forms, rather than books, were the medium for disseminating the philosophy of life, morals and social etiquette.

Spiritual Enjoyment

To allay one’s hunger by drawing a pancake is a Chinese proverb, which suggests that things spiritual are no substitute for the tangible. However, in real life people often resort to spiritual appeasement. In old China, for example, no matter how penniless they were, poor people would buy a picture of the Door God to post on their door, in order to ward off debt collectors. Those who wanted children would buy the picture depicting Kylin (the Chinese unicorn) Offering a Son. Scholars might buy a picture suggesting officialdom, but every family would have pictures of the God of Wealth and the Kitchen God, since money and food were common concerns.

Beautiful women have always been a popular motif in traditional Chinese paintings, and this is also true of Taohuawu New Year pictures. Tang Yin was believed to be the best painter of the female form, and folk artists from Taohuawu are also skilled in this respect. Like traditional Chinese paintings, Taohuawu woodblock engravings celebrate formal Oriental beauty. They portray exquisite females, with the oval faces, pointed chins, fine, arched eyebrows, almond shaped eyes, straight noses and small mouths considered as features typifying classic Oriental beauty, clad in sophisticated and gorgeous costumes.

Ten Beauties Playing Ball is a masterpiece of such works. There is not much difference in the facial features and costumes of the depicted females, all being clothed in costumes of the Qing Dynasty. However, their expressions and postures are distinctive, particularly the three girls with the ball at their feet. These 10 gracefully feminine figures are further complemented by beautiful scenery.

Folk artists from Taohuawu have summarized the three main aspects of their artistic creations. One, a picture should tell a story, to catch the interest of observers. Two, the depictions and words in the picture should be auspicious, so they will feel rewarded. Three, characters in the picture should be good-looking, so the viewers might gain pleasure from looking at them. Taohuawu has many types of New Year pictures, and most of them are created according to these principles.