Liangping New Year pictures are an ancient folk art of Han nationality, belonging to color-matched woodcut prints. Originated in the late Ming Dynasty, it is known as one of the "Three New Year Pictures in Sichuan" (Mianzhu, Liangping and Jiajiang). It is also called "Liangping Three Musts" with Liangping Bamboo Curtain and Liangshan Lantern Opera. Once known as a wonderful flower in eastern Sichuan, it was rated as one of the top ten Quyi in Bashu in 2000. In 2006, it was listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list.
Liangping New Year Pictures are color-matching woodcut prints, which are known as one of the "Three New Year Pictures in Sichuan" (Mianzhu, Liangping and Jiajiang). Liang Ping's New Year pictures are romantic, full and concise, simple and rough in shape, vivid in performance, complete in composition and strong in contrast. Their themes are exorcism, blessing, auspicious celebration and historical stories, which are of great artistic value. It is also called "Liangping Three Musts" with Liangping Bamboo Curtain and Liangshan Lantern Opera. Once known as a wonderful flower in eastern Sichuan, it was rated as one of the top ten Quyi in Bashu in 2000. In 2006, it was listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list.
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Liang Ping's New Year pictures originated in the early Qing Dynasty. By the Qing Dynasty, Liangping woodcut New Year pictures had become "famous in Beijing" and sold well in Southeast Asia. In 1930s and 1940s, it was collected by museums in the Soviet Union, the United States and France, and became famous at home and abroad. At the end of the 20th century, the traditional Liangping woodcut New Year pictures were included in such large picture books as The Complete Works of China Fine Arts, The Complete Works of China Folk Fine Arts, The Three Gorges Folk Fine Arts and Folk New Year Pictures.
"Teacher Zhu, who is idle in Pingcheng, has a new yellow color on the official green list and is more famous in Beijing Province." This Zhuzhi Ci is about the heyday of Liang Ping's New Year pictures in Qing Dynasty. In the early years of the Republic of China, there were more than 30 workshops in liangping county with hundreds of employees. New Year pictures developed from monochrome to multi-version color overprint, and were hand-painted on this basis. Craft from simple to complex, the variety is constantly enriched, and it has become one of the famous producing areas of New Year pictures in China.
From 19 13 to 1934, Liangping New Year pictures entered its heyday, producing millions of pictures every year, which not only met the demand of local farmers for new year's goods, but also exported to Shashi, Yichang, Wuhan, Hanzhong and Guiyang. With the change of history, Liangping New Year pictures gradually declined, and the handicraft workshop stopped production on 1958.
As early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were 20 or 30 manual New Year pictures workshops in Ping Jin and Yuan Yi towns of this county, each accounting for half of the streets in the two towns. They were called "semi-brush house street" and produced New Year pictures of different specifications for many years. From 19 13 to 1934, Liang Ping's New Year pictures reached their peak. Millions of paintings are produced every year, which not only meet the needs of local farmers for new year's goods, but also are exported to Shashi, Yichang, Wuhan, Hanzhong and Guiyang through land and water transportation. According to the Records of Liangping County, there were branches in Yichang, Shashi and Hankou during the reign of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty. Liang Ping's New Year pictures had a "golden age" in history, but during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, the sales volume was once low due to the war.
In the early years of the Republic of China, Liangping New Year pictures were sold in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces and Southeast Asia. At that time, the agent of Hankou New Year Pictures also mailed it to Germany. During the Anti-Japanese War, American allies built an airport in Liangping, and the Liangping New Year pictures were taken to the Soviet Union, the United States and France by builders and pilots, and they were amazed and rushed to collect them.
composition
Liang Ping's New Year pictures are full and concise, sparse and dense, virtual and real, static and dynamic. Some goalkeepers usually add one to five children at random in the lower corners of both sides, and the whole picture looks steady and balanced. "Heroes have no items, beautiful women have no shoulders, literati are like nails, and Beowulf is like a bow". The characters in Liang Ping's New Year pictures are simple and elegant with vivid expressions. In particular, the door gods draw characters, exaggerate the head to highlight the five senses, and shorten the lower limbs as much as possible. The whole body is only three or four heads long.
The painter opens the portrait of the figure, and the shape of the five senses is unique; The distance between the two black eyes is very close, which seems to be "eye to eye", but the eyes are intense, which makes the characters particularly powerful; Furthermore, in the five senses of a character, such as the upper edge of eyebrows or eyes and the inner side of temples, touch the black block with large hand-drawn strokes, and at the same time draw several parallel ink lines on the lower edge or outer side of them. This combination of thick and dense lines and faces forms a three-dimensional intermediate tone with strong contrast and distinct rhythm.
When dealing with the nose, folk craftsmen usually use a special nose contour board with a small top and a large bottom like a wooden pestle to print ink lines in the center of the face, and then draw the five senses one by one on this basis, and then paint two red lines on the lower part of the cheeks. This is the unique artistic feature of Liangping woodblock New Year pictures. Usually, folk artists overprint flesh-colored or white powder on their faces, and before they are dry, they paint them with two stripes of red, or simply write with their fingers, dip them in ochre red and then dip them in a little white wine, and quickly wipe them off.
In this way, the color of the whole picture of the face can still jump out clearly under strong contrast. Especially in the paintings of door gods, the majestic image of God is very funny and life-oriented, and the festive and peaceful atmosphere is increasing day by day. Liang Ping's meticulous facial description and vivid oval blush treatment are in contrast to the regularity of block printing. They are humorous and interesting, and they are unique in China folk New Year pictures.