New year paintings are a type of Chinese painting and a unique folk art in my country. The ancient "door god paintings" began in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty and are officially called New Year paintings. They are a unique painting genre in China and an art form that is popular among rural people in China. Most of them are used to post posts during the New Year to decorate the environment, with the meaning of wishing the New Year auspiciousness and joy, hence the name. Traditional folk New Year pictures are mostly made with woodblock watermarks. The main producing areas are Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Taohuawu in Suzhou and Weifang in Shandong. There are "calendar" New Year pictures in Shanghai, and other places include Sichuan, Fujian, Shanxi, Hebei and even Zhejiang. Old New Year pictures have different names depending on the size of the picture and the amount of processing. The whole big one is called "Gong Jian", and the three-folded one is called "Sancai". Those with extensive and detailed processing are called "Hua Gongjian" and "Hua Sancai". The colors painted with gold powder are called "Jin Gong Jian" and "Jin San Cai". Products produced before June are called "Green Edition" and products produced after July or August are called "Autumn Edition".
Traditional New Year pictures are mainly woodcut watermarks, pursuing a simple style and lively atmosphere, so the lines of the paintings are simple and the colors are bright. The content includes flowers and birds, fat children, golden roosters, spring cows, myths, legends and historical stories, etc. It expresses people's hope for a good harvest and longing for a happy life, and has strong national characteristics and local flavor.
The four famous "hometowns of New Year pictures" in China are: Mianzhu New Year pictures, Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin, and Weifang in Shandong. The New Year pictures produced in these places are deeply loved by urban and rural people.
The names for New Year pictures in different places are completely different. Beijing calls them "Pictures" and "Weihua", Suzhou calls them "Huazhang", Zhejiang calls them "Huazhi", Fujian calls them "Shenfu", and Sichuan calls them "Doufang". "...and so on. Today, New Year pictures are gradually referred to as "New Year pictures" in various places.
New Year pictures are a kind of folk handicraft used by the Chinese nation to pray for blessings and welcome the new year. It is a form of folk art that carries the people's longing for a better future. Historically, people have had many names for New Year pictures: "paper paintings" in the Song Dynasty, "paintings" in the Ming Dynasty, and "pictures" in the Qing Dynasty. Until the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, the scholar Li Guangting wrote in an article: "After cleaning the house, Post-it New Year pictures are a child's play. "This is how the New Year pictures got their name.
The New Year pictures have simple lines, bright colors, and warm and joyful atmospheres, such as pictures of spring cows, New Year's Day pictures, Jiasui pictures, pictures of babies playing, family carnivals, watching lanterns, fat dolls, etc., and there are also pictures of gods and history. Stories and dramatic characters as themes. Many of them are used for door paintings, mixed with the concept of "gods protect the house", such as "Shen Tu Yu Lei", "Tian Guan", "Qin Qiong Jing De", etc. The genre (or form) includes door paintings (single piece) and facing) four-screen strips and horizontal and vertical single-frame single-frame, etc. There have been records about New Year paintings in the Song Dynasty. The earliest woodblock New Year painting seen so far is "The Sui Dynasty's Slim and Slender Appearance with the Beauty of a Country" engraved in the Southern Song Dynasty. It was especially popular in the mid-Qing Dynasty. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, New Year paintings were innovated on the basis of tradition, became rich and colorful, and became more popular among the people.
The art of New Year pictures is the first of Chinese folk art, and it is also a reflection of the history, life, beliefs and customs of Chinese society. Every time during the Lunar New Year, I buy two New Year pictures and stick them on the front door. This is the case in almost every house. From the front door to the living room, they are covered with all kinds of colorful New Year pictures that symbolize good luck and wealth. The reason why the New Year is full of joy and lively atmosphere , New Year pictures play a certain role here. Most wealthy families like to hang old longevity stars, purple stars, fortune, fortune, longevity, etc. in their living rooms. Pictures of flowers and birds such as plum blossoms, orchids, bamboos and chrysanthemums are naturally also welcome.
For thousands of years, New Year pictures have not only been a colorful embellishment of the New Year, but also a carrier and tool for cultural circulation, moral education, aesthetic dissemination, and belief inheritance; they are also a kind of popular reading material that can read pictures and read words. ; New Year pictures with current affairs themes are still a kind of media that everyone likes to see. This kind of folk art has an encyclopedic content and contains a complete Chinese folk spirit.
New Year pictures are also a dictionary of regional culture, from which the distinctive cultural personalities of each region can be found. These individual factors can be recognized at a glance not only in the subject matter, but also in the style, color, lines and different layout styles used in each New Year painting production area.
Through New Year pictures, you can get to know all the Chinese people.