The gaiety of the Chinese Lunar New Year, in recent years also known as the Spring Festival, is echoed in bright colored decorations, among which the New Year print has long had a very important role. In token of the season, the stores selling New Year prints during the Ching Dynasty were referred to as "gaiety stores," and the New Year prints, "gaiety prints."
On the 24th day of the lunar twelfth month, according to Chinese tradition, the year's labor finally comes to an end. After sending the Hearth God off to heaven to report to the Jade Emperor on the family's behavior for the year, every household begins to clean up to welcome the New Year. Then the family altar is furnished with fresh flowers and offerings are prepared. Adding to the happy mood via traditional "invitations" to good fortune during the coming year, the nien hua (New Year prints) are essentials for the holidays.
No existing document records the exact origin and date of the New Year print. But according to Tung Ching Meng Hua Lu, by Meng Yuan-lao (Northern Sung Dynasty), it was a common practice for residents of Pienching (capital of the Northern Sung, 960-1128 A.D.) to buy their nien hua and paste them up at year-end.
Block printing had already under-gone considerable development from the late Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) to the Five Dynasties (907-959 A.D.), making not only possible, but profitable, the mass production of New Year woodcut prints from the Northern Sung Dynasty on.
Some scholars hold that the origins of the nien hua are to be found in the "door print," popularized in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.). Shen Shu and Yu Lu, two formidable door gods (they are in exclusive charge of governing ghosts and feeding tigers in the nether world) were painted with maopi (a Chinese writing brush) on the two door leaves to scare away evil spirits. In any case, not until the invention of block printing, scholars believe, did the New Year print develop as an independent folk art.
According to ancient legend, nien (literally "year") was a kind of monster who became active at year-end and ate whomever it met. The ancients wanted to ward nien off, along with other evils, and the painted door gods were their means. Generation after generation gradually extended this precaution against evil with colorful prints and joyful celebration.
Folk art, by definition, arises from the people, and the New Year print, true to its calling, illustrated the common hopes of all people for the future. The extensive subjects, abundant content, and straightforward styles of the nien hua made them welcome in the villages as well as the towns.
The professional theme range of the nien hua is described in six well-worn phrases: "Skillfully portraying scholars, farmers, workers and merchants; masterfully picturing the Wealth God and Bodhisattva; thoroughly depicting major events all over the country, while also telling the stories of neighborhood lanes; never dividing customs from south to north; and painting anecdotes, ancient and modern."
The traditional aspirations of the Chinese people looked to a happy life marked by official rank, wealth, longevity, many sons, and general good fortune, aspirations depicted often in nien hua by images of like-sounding words-homonyms. As of old, people today still desire all these wonderful things.
Using "homonym images," representations of objects with like-sounding names to the thing desired to symbolize propitious messages, is a kind of traditional Chinese game perpetuated in New Year prints. For instance, a painting of a lotus (lien, the homonym for, consecutive) with a carp (li-yu, yu, homophone for, bounty) implies a "bounty in consecutive years." Picturing a goldfish (chin-yu, homophone for gold & jade) in a pond (tang, homophone for hall) carries the message of "a hall filled with gold and jade." Bees and monkeys (feng & hou, homonyms for being granted high rank) connotes "winning a promotion", etc.
Chu pao pen (the treasure-multiplying pot), yao chien shu (the money tree), the Wealth God, and "gold and silver mountains" are especially well-loved among images for the prints.
The traditional Chinese desire for numerous sons and grandsons, especially in rural areas, is reflected in prints portraying children, such as the familiar "one hundred sons," "five sons struggling over a warrior's helmet (kuei, a homonym for, chief)," and the "son bringing goddess," a particular favorite of newly married couples.
Symbolic plants or flowers also promise blessings for the new spring, among them representations of five good-luck symbols-the Chinese toon tree, the day-lily, the orchid, a huge rock, and a bamboo, respectively signifying father, mother, brother, sound, and peaceful; in other words, the whole family is sound and the family foundation stable. The literati used to favor images of the "five pure essences" (a bright moon, green bamboo, pine tree, Mei blossoms, and mountain spring) and the "three companions of winter" (pine, bamboo, and Mei blossoms) to suggest lofty morality.
Humorous New Year prints are designed especially for children, usually including images from familiar folk legends and children's stories. Among the favorites: "the marriage of the mice," "monkeys fighting for a straw hat," "nine sons disturbing the class," and "five little genies teasing the God of Justice."
In ancient times, when schooling was rare, New Year prints also told stories from history and illustrated moral lessons. So in addition to New Year decorations, they had a teaching function approved by the family elders. The most well-known in this category include: "the 24 filial children" (selected by Kuo Chu-ching of the Yuan Dynasty); Pilgrims to the West, a popular novel concerning the adventures of Tang San Tsang (a Buddhist priest) and his three disciples on a journey to India; The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a classical historical novel; Breaking the Loom to Teach the Child, a story from the philosopher Mencius, learned at his mother's knee; and Tale of the White Serpent, a romantic opera.
Deity prints, including the door god pictures, pay close attention to superstitions concerning colors and, traditionally, guard against evil influences or bestow blessings. Most current deity prints involve the various door gods Shen Shu and Yu Lu (see above), Chin Shu-pao and Yuchih Ching-te (two generals of the Tang Dynasty, 618-907, deified as door gods in later generations); Chung Kuei —and among others, the Wealth God, Hearth God, and Kuan Kung (a general of the Three Kingdoms, 220-265 A.D., later deified as God of War).
THE development of Chinese woodblock printing during the Ching Dynasty (1644-1910, China's last, was not so vigorous as in the Ming (1368-1644), when the prevailing trends in New Year woodcut prints brought great vitality, a new era for all block printing. During the Ming period, the production of nien hua prospered in special districts throughout China, the most influential centers being Yang Liu Ching, near Tientsin, and Tao Hua Wu in Soochow, Kiangsu Province.
Yang Liu Ching, a big town west of Tientsin bordered by the Tzuya and Taching Rivers and the Tayunho (the Grand Canal), during the Ming years was a famous commodity distribution center. Its poetic name Yang Liu Ching (Willow Green), was echoed in the abundant weeping willows in its environs. The beautiful scenes of this small city earned the admiration of ancient poets, who called it the "small Soo-Hang (denoting the Soochow-Hangchow area) of north China."
The production of nien hua in Yang Liu Ching preceded the effort in Tao Hua Wu. By the late 16th Century, the town was mass-producing the prints and totally in control of sales in north China.
The pioneer printstores of Yang Liu Ching were famous: Tai Lien Tseng and Chi Chien Lung, which started business at the time of Ming Emperor Ssutzung (1628-1643). Then, during Ching Emperor Chien Lung's reign (1736-1796), new printshops sprang up like mushrooms. Reportedly, Tai Lien Tseng alone printed (during the reigns of Emperors Hsien Feng and Tung Chih, 1851-1874) more than one million copies a year.
The prosperous New Year print business was deliberately extended to Yang Chia Pu in Shantung Province; a number of artists, carvers, and other artisans from Yang Liu Ching were dispatched to found the shops, bringing print designs along with them.
Most of Yang Liu Ching's residents participated in nien hua production, some as a regular occupation, some as a sideline. Those who could not design or carve the blocks might mix the colors, make up bundles, etc. After the autumn harvest, farm women would help with the tinting in the printshops to augment household incomes. Two well-known verses (in Chinese) describe this colorful folk-art village: "Every household is masterful at color-mixing; every family excels at print tinting."
Yang Liu Ching followed traditional techniques in producing its New Year prints: First of all, the sketch outlines were duplicated in a carved woodblock, then block-printed in dark ink on paper. Colors were filled into the outlines by hand. Bright colors were very carefully spread, not too heavy nor too light. The faces and limbs of ladies in the prints were first covered with a crystalline powder (ceruse) and rouge for a controlled, even color, then the eyebrows and eyes were carefully drawn in with an ink brush. Lore has it that the beauties of the town were the most skillful at depicting beautiful features.
Yang Liu Ching's New Year prints reached their zenith during the reign of Emperor Kuang Hsu (1875-1908), a climb linked to the participation of two master artists, painters Kao Ying-chang (1835-1906) and Chien Hui-an (1833-1911).
By his 30s, Kao Ying-chang had become a professional painter. He was invited by the Ching Court in 1866 to paint a portrait of Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi (1835-1908). In the process, he was allowed to enjoy tours of the exclusive scenery of the Imperial Palace Garden, a great resource for his New Year print designs in later days.
During the later reign of Emperor Kuang Hsu, under the pressure of Western lithographic printing, the popularity of Yang Liu Ching's New Year prints began to decline. But quality persisted, and innovation also, as the style of the Yang Liu Ching prints began to change, largely due to the influence of artist Chien Hui-an, who came to the town from Shanghai.
According to Shen Tai-mou's Chung Feng Tsai Feng Chin, a Ching Dynasty opus, "In the Kuang Hsu period, Chien Hui-an arrived in Yang Liu Ching and brought with him a new approach. He often illustrated stories and the ancients' verses, and the use of colors was lightened." Heretofore, Yang Liu Ching's tints were more sharply contrasted.
Chien's prints were especially admired by scholars. And, though the style might not have been so appreciated among the common people, he is widely credited as being a refreshing influence on all New Year prints.
The nuclear value of true folk art lies in its blending of art with daily life, and a consequent "intuitive" appeal to the majority of people. Yang Liu Ching's nien hua met these criteria via an explicit formula: "There must be stories in the prints so that they are worth seeing a hundred times without the viewer being bored; words uttered must be auspicious so they will duplicate people's wishes; the people depicted must be good-looking so they will loved by all."
Above, there is paradise, and below, there is Soo-Hang (Soochow and Hang-chow)." The affluence and beautiful vistas of the Soochow area are celebrated in this folk proverb, known to Chinese through the ages.
In the history of the Chinese New Year print, Soochow had a southern parallel for Tientsin's Yang Liu Ching—a print producing center in Chiangnan, south of the Yangtze River.
Judged from extant Chinese New Year prints in collections in Japan, Soochow began nien hua production during the late Ming Dynasty. But it was during the reigns of Ching Emperors Kang Hsi (1662-1722) and Yung Cheng (1723-1735), that Soochow prints were at their height, a particularly gracious style having been developed.
According to relevant records, the most prosperous centers of print production were along Shan tang Road, which ran through Huchiu and Changmen, and the famous community of Tao Hua Wu.
Midway into the Ching Dynasty, more than fifty print stores were operating in line along Shantang Road. Each year from the ninth lunar month, Huchiu was crowded with print buyers from all over the country. The golden age for Huchiu ended with the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), when Shantang Road was devastated by a conflagration lasting seven days. The once flourishing print stores of Huchiu were turned to ashes, living on only as historical names. A few printers moved their businesses to downtown Tao Hua Wu.
According to Ku Tien-ching's Tung Chiao Yi Chao Lu, the most prominent painters of Shantang became involved in the prints. Members of the Sha family were regarded as being especially skillful in the depiction of ladies' facial features, so much so, their style became known as "Sha features."
Tao Hua Wu's nien hua had their own particular character throughout. For instance, the deity images it produced, as compared with Yang Liu Ching's, were more delicately gracious, if less powerful, and rich in decor. And the tots it created, with big, round heads and chubby bodies, were lovely, naive, and cute.
Most Soochow New Year prints depict children's auspicious futures, catering to the hopes of parents. Five children playing, with some holding scrolls awarded for passing the official examinations (wu tzu teng ke) is an example of such works.
Materials from traditional operas, interestingly, were always rendered with no background. Opera figures, as in the operas themselves, were thus cleanly and clearly presented.
Soochow landscape prints for the New Year were cut from sketches of real scenery, some also depicting everyday social situations: Wan-nien Bridge in Kusu and Picture of Kusu Changmen depicted Soochow city scenes, and Huchiu Scenery, the suburbs.
New Year prints in series form were special Soochow innovations. The paper was blocked into squares, which were then filled in according to the sequence of a story. Simple stories might be finished on one piece of paper; complex stories might need more.
Some series prints also offered lyrics, which were sung by the peddlers hawking them along the streets. The picture-song prints extended the medium's range of interest and were most loved by children and rural people.
Two sharply different styles arose in Soochow New Year print designs. One was "ancient-imitation": no matter what the content, composition demands, lines, or colors, the artists carefully modeled their work on styles of previous dynasties. The other was "imitation-Western" style. The Cheng Inking House (1590-1605) published the pioneer prints from four copperplate etchings brought to China by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci, arousing a great uproar both at the Imperial Court and among the public, but especially among artists. Matteo Ricci was active in Nanking in the late Ming Dynasty, and following in his wake was a spreading Western-culture. Books carrying copperplate etchings, illustrations, and Western paintings were gradually imported via Soochow harbor; all directly influenced the Soochow New Year print.
Western painting then differed from the Chinese tradition especially in its emphasis on perspective, enforcing feelings of distance, but also in the contrasting employment of shade and light.
Examining images of women and children in selected Soochow nien hua, we find that their clothing folds are shaded-very probably learned from the Western imports.
Soochow prints were sold almost throughout the Yangtze River valley and influenced print production in other areas, such as Shanghai, Yangchow, and Nantung.
In the past, nien hua were only short-term decorations for the New Year festival. People bought them and pasted them casually on the walls, but few purposefully preserved them. The paper used was of the most common quality. After being exposed to air for a long time, they deteriorated and were torn down and thrown away. Some scholars despised them as "unrefined." And few of Soochow's nien hua were ever preserved in China.
But in China's neighbor, Japan, people did collect Soochow New Year prints. In the Japanese Edo period (1606-1866), Chinese resident in Nagasaki hailed mostly from Soochow; each year, they imported a great quantity of nien hua from Soochow, via commercial vessels, for holiday decorations. In the Taisho and Showa periods, art fanciers in Japan began collecting the most "Chinese-styled" of these New Year prints, and these lived on, also, through their influence on the Japanese ukiyo-e art genre.
Some Soochow New Year prints reached Britain, Germany, and France; most probably, they were collected in Southern Asia: vessels from Soochow, in accordance with orders from Chinese in Southern Asian countries, transported the prints among other commodities. At that time, the area was mostly colonized by European countries.
When, during the reign of Emperor Kuang Hsu, Shanghai introduced lithography printing techniques, woodcut New Year printing faded; it was never again able to recover its former splendor. Customers preferred "modern" lithographed prints-the colors more even, the lines more clear. And very soon Tao Hua Wu nien hua were unmarketable; one by one, its printstores closed down. During the Chinese War of Resistance against Japan, which broke out in 1937, almost all extant woodblocks were destroyed, many being burned for firewood.
The production and safe of nien hua in Foshan Town, Kwangtung Province, were not so extensive as in Yang Liu Ching or Tao Hua Wu, but its woodcuts of deities had a unique style.
Foshan, in the middle of Kwangtung Province, was once listed as one of the four most famous towns of China; during the Ching Dynasty, it was an art and handicraft center for South China.
The deity prints of Foshan clung closely to the beliefs of the local farmers. With the peasants of South China as their main sales target, Foshan printmakers focused on good harvests, peaceful living, and the dispelling of evils.
Thick and rough lines distinguish the Foshan nien hua. Not so delicate as the Yang Liu Ching and Tao Hua Wu prints, they bring out the full character of the woodcut medium.
Taiwan's ancient nien hua were evidently heavily influenced by Foshan's, both in style and subject matter. In Taiwan, New Year print production centered in Tainan, a very old island town. The most famous Tainan printery was the Wang Chuan-ying Paper Store, founded 200 years ago.
The store was started by Wang Chiang, who crossed the Strait from Chuanchow, Fukien Province, carrying with him a Chuanchow-made door god design and various New Year prints. As immigrants from the China mainland to Taiwan proliferated, Wang's store began reprinting (and also re-carving blocks for) Chuanchow-style New Year prints.
The categories for the Taiwan nien hua did not go beyond those familiar in Fukien Province. The door gods dominate-military door gods like Shen Shu and Yu Lu, and Chin Shu-pao and Yu-chih Ching-te, and civil deities such as Chia Kuan and Chin Lu, and Tsan Hua and Tien Kuan.
After its occupation by Japan, Taiwan was gradually forced to abandon nien hua production because this was considered to be a folk art too heavy with national color. A few early-age prints still preserved are now island treasures.
Today, colorful nien hua are mass produced on Taiwan in modern printing plants. But many households, preferring a "homier" look, do their own, or patronize artists who paint a few for the season.
No matter their origin or nature, they are to be found everywhere, still posted from the Chinese New Year just past.