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most of the early suzhou new year paintings are kept overseas, and the overall understanding of them is still incomplete. in recent years, as more and more image materials have been disclosed, gathered and studied, a complete image of suzhou new year paintings has gradually become clear. this article starts from the suzhou new year paintings themselves and briefly discusses some issues in the early suzhou new year paintings.

the city of wu is surrounded by mist and water, and the changmen gate is a ripple of green water. green willows line the shallow and deep alleys, and green boats come and go. there are thousands of red doors in the houses, and hundreds of red pillars in the buildings. the light of the water sways in the bay, and the color of the grass can be seen on changzhou island.

——(tang dynasty) li shen's "twenty-four rhymes of passing wumen"

suzhou has had natural, geographical and transportation advantages since ancient times: the water of taihu lake soaks the countryside; it is adjacent to songhu in the east, nanjing in the west, hangzhou in the south, and the yangtze river in the north; the grand canal flows through it. during the ming and qing dynasties, suzhou became an important city with prosperous commerce. economic prosperity also brought about the prosperity of culture and art. during this period, a large number of famous painters lived here. in terms of woodblock printing, suzhou had become one of the important woodblock printing centers at that time in the ming dynasty, gathering a large number of folk painters and woodblock printing craftsmen. when commenting on the status of the printing industry in the late ming dynasty, hu yinglin said: "i have seen that the current woodblock printings are the best in suzhou and changzhou, followed by jinling, and hangzhou is the next." "there are three places for engraving, wu, yue, and fujian... wu is the best in terms of quality; fujian is the best in terms of quantity; yue is the second." suzhou's status at that time can be seen. suzhou new year paintings developed and flourished on such an economic and cultural basis.

at present, the early suzhou new year paintings of the first two periods that we can see are mainly collected overseas. like dunhuang, the early collection and research also started from overseas. in the domestic works on the history of printmaking and new year paintings, there are many references to the achievements of suzhou new year paintings. zheng zhenduo, a ying, liu ruli, guo weiqu, wang shucun, bo songnian and other gentlemen have all devoted a lot of attention to the "gusu edition" in their works. early suzhou new year paintings are mostly collected overseas, and the understanding of their overall appearance is not comprehensive. in recent years, domestic researchers have also begun to pay attention to suzhou new year paintings. in addition, there are collection studies specifically for public and private museums and libraries overseas. in recent years, there is an ongoing publication project of "rare chinese new year paintings in overseas collections", which mainly targets previously undisclosed new year paintings. these provide a better foundation for more detailed and in-depth research in the future. as more and more image materials are disclosed, gathered and studied, the image of a complete suzhou new year painting is gradually becoming clear.

like new year paintings from all over the country, the themes of suzhou new year paintings include door gods, auspicious occasions, historical stories, etc. among them, the historical story new year paintings with plot narratives drawn from legends, novels and operas are particularly wonderful. these works, with their rich composition and complete storylines, have left a very strong mark in the history of new year paintings. starting from the images of suzhou new year paintings themselves, let's briefly talk about some issues in the early suzhou new year paintings.

(qing dynasty) twenty-eight stars in kunyang woodblock watermark 37.7 cm in height and 58.8 cm in width (japan) collection of haidu art museum

the literati style and the western style in the prosperous times

regarding "suzhou edition", it is generally believed that the definition was first given by japanese kuroda genji. in the appendix of his book "catalogue of ancient chinese prints", he proposed that "suzhou edition" refers to works produced under the influence of western copperplate engravings. it is a rare large-scale print with excellent technology in the history of chinese printmaking. what deserves special attention is that it can accurately grasp the imagery obtained from western copperplate engravings, integrate it into the theme of traditional chinese painting, and express the characteristics of western painting in a natural form. in recent years, researchers such as zhang ye, gao fumin, and li wenmo have discussed the connotation and extension of the concept name of "suzhou edition" in their articles in combination with the review of relevant research. generally speaking, "suzhou new year pictures" can be used to cover the print illustrations and some hand-painted paintings that appeared in this area that were not printed in books.

suzhou new year paintings have always been known to the outside world as taohuawu new year paintings. together with tianjin yangliuqing new year paintings, they are called "southern peach and northern willow". in fact, the appearance of taohuawu new year paintings, which are more common in china, is only a part of suzhou new year paintings. the development of suzhou new year paintings can be divided into three stages. the first two stages were from the late ming dynasty to the mid-qing dynasty, and reached their peak during the kangxi and qianlong periods. they are called "gusu version" or "suzhou version" by researchers. the third stage was the burning of the painting plates by the taiping rebellion, and the new year paintings in suzhou area took on a different look.

early suzhou new year paintings have not yet broken away from the relationship with book illustrations. the earliest batch currently seen is a group of 29 works in the british museum, formerly known as the "k mpfer collection". this batch of works is not large in size, most of which are within 30 cm square. the creation period is believed to be the kangxi period, including "pan an throwing fruit", "pansi cave", "seven steps to poetry", "zhaojun going to the frontier", "peach blossom record cui hu stealing shoes", "yang guifei visiting the garden", "guifei playing chess", "li mi herding cows and reading books" and other works. zhang ye has made a detailed investigation of the source and ownership of this batch of works in the book "research on western style suzhou edition". it is very similar to the famous ming dynasty color print "illustration of the romance of the west chamber" and the color erotic prints collected by the british woodblock fund, with a strong literati style of illustrations.

this type of small-sized color prints are mainly light gray. the price should be relatively low, and the size is suitable for small indoor space decoration. according to experts such as zhang pengchuan, "this type of work can be mounted as a small scroll and hung, or inlaid in a screen, partition or lattice window." when this style of new year paintings developed to a mature period, the composition became more complex and full. although the size is not large, the picture is full and there are many characters. it still maintains bright and elegant lines and bookish atmosphere. it is a very high-quality work among folk new year paintings.

in addition to this type of works that are closer to the literati style, there is another type of work that is considered to be a shining and innovative work in the development of suzhou new year paintings, namely the "western-style" new year paintings that combine western perspective and shadow expression.

"western painting" refers to the western painting method that was gradually introduced into china during the ming and qing dynasties. there are many works in suzhou new year paintings that "imitate western painting techniques" and "imitate atlantic painting style". this type of western-style new year paintings are relatively large in size. they use the perspective method commonly used in western copperplate engravings to arrange the buildings, and place the story plots and characters in them. the size often reaches 100 cm in height. this large size also provides spatial possibilities for the attempt of western-style perspective and shadow methods. the mature gray cover, embossing and arch flower techniques are also fully utilized. there are currently a considerable number of such works left, but most of them are collected by public libraries and private individuals overseas.

this type of work has gone through a process from traditional style to absorption and integration, from rough to sophisticated use. the works signed "mo langzi" in the early suzhou new year paintings are considered to be specimens for studying the style changes of this period. there is no way to verify mo langzi's life. only in "west lake stories: ancient and modern relics" published in the 12th year of kangxi (1673 ad) can we see the title "ancient wu mo langzi collection", but whether the two are the same person is still undecided. there are currently four groups of works signed by mo langzi, all of which are historical story themes, namely "the complete romance of the west chamber", "wen ji returns to han", "qingjian autumn and winter beauty", and "tang and song palaces".

among them, the screens of the complete romance of the west chamber and wen ji's return to han are currently both kept in japan, while qingjian autumn and winter beauty is kept by feng debao and was also seen at the 2017 taihe jiacheng "all things in one - special sale of chinese ancient new year pictures since the 17th century" auction. tang and song dynasty palaces are collected in the boston museum of fine arts in the united states. in these four works, we can see the obvious process of trying to use "western methods". from the initial exploration of using perspective and shadow expression in the pavilions in wen ji's return to han, to the mature use of qingjian autumn and winter beauty and tang and song dynasty palaces, and then to the complete romance of the west chamber, as a classic western style work, the composition has almost become the basic mode of this type of large-scale overhead effect prints, and even the completeness and maturity are not inferior to the "twelve months" in the palace of the qing dynasty. from this, we can also see the popularity of western style painting and composition from the palace to the people, which also proves the cutting-edge nature of suzhou in cultural exploration after its economic prosperity at this time.

in fact, there were some attempts at perspective methods in the development process of yangliuqing new year paintings. however, compared with the more mature "suzhou version", although its place of production, tianjin, is closer to the capital and is deeply influenced by the court style, it is slightly inferior in terms of innovation.

these early suzhou new year paintings, with their profound engraving background and exploration of new techniques, have left a strong mark in the history of chinese new year paintings and even printmaking. unfortunately, as an important city in the south of the yangtze river, it became the main battlefield during the taiping heavenly kingdom revolution. the area around huqiu and shantang was burned for seven days and nights, and almost all the engravings preserved in various new year painting workshops were destroyed. this was a catastrophe in the history of the development of suzhou new year paintings. afterwards, the new year painting workshops in suzhou moved to taohuawu one after another. the number and quality of printing could not be compared with the previous ones, and the painting style also changed. the new style was mainly based on the new year paintings of wang rongxing and other painting shops, and no longer tried the huge western style. the historical story themes of this period also began to change to the more popular drama scenes.

(qing dynasty) woodblock watermark of the four concubines (uk) collection of the british museum

export and use of early suzhou new year pictures

as mentioned above, early new year paintings are basically preserved overseas. except for a few museums and private collections in china, few works from this period are seen. this is due to the war of the taiping rebellion in the late qing dynasty, and it is also related to the nature of such works.

at present, the collection of early suzhou new year paintings is mainly concentrated in japan. the kaido museum (formerly the rajgir museum of art), waseda university library, tenri library affiliated with tenri university, etc. in japan all have a large collection of early suzhou editions.

takimoto mizuno also mentioned: "in japan, most of the works introduced before the meiji period were collected as 'tang objects' and preserved after being framed. these works were called 'suzhou' and 'suzhou prints'." this kind of mounting situation can also be seen in the "four concubines" collected by the british museum in the uk and the "tang and song dynasty palaces" by mo langzi collected by the boston museum of fine arts in the united states. coincidentally, the collection sources of these two works are also japan.

in addition to the collections in japan, suzhou new year paintings in europe have also been gradually valued and discovered by researchers in recent years. the european collections are mainly in the british museum in london, england and the dresden state art gallery in germany. in addition to the above collections, some suzhou new year paintings used as palace decorations have been discovered and identified one after another. for example, the "gusu version" decorated in milton hall and saltram house in the uk, das wörlitzer landhaus, nymphenburg palace, lichtenwalde castle in germany, and esterházy palace in austria. these "gusu versions" were pasted on the walls of the palace as wall decorations and wallpapers or inlaid with picture frames, neatly arranged on the wall.

an examination of these suzhou new year paintings popular in europe reveals that there are not many works with stories as the theme. they are mainly "chinese style" popular among european royal families and aristocrats, mainly flower and bird paintings, ladies, landscapes, customs, and still life paintings. themes that are relatively unfamiliar to europe, such as operas and stories, are rarely chosen, reflecting the influence of user needs on the subject matter.

the purpose of the "suzhou version" is becoming increasingly clear. judging from the form and subject matter, suzhou new year paintings of this period were made entirely to meet the needs of consumers. some of these suzhou new year paintings collected overseas have been modified into other styles. researchers have inferred based on the size and style of the new year paintings that many were used as screens. however, gao fumin believes that it is not too early to draw conclusions and should be treated with caution in the current lack of physical objects. judging from european collections, some paintings are indeed customized for screens.

the rise and fall of taohuawu new year paintings were accompanied by the history of the late ming dynasty and the qing dynasty. the changes in painting style, size, and the rise and fall of painting shops all followed the same pulse of the times, like the development process of historical negatives. what is rare about these precious images is that most of them have relatively clear and reliable production dates. the advantage of engraving books gives suzhou new year paintings a unique soil for expressing works with historical story themes, and these images have shaped the plot versions of local novels at that time. some novels even no longer exist. in the case of unclear plots, these new year paintings have become the only material to fill the gap. some researchers have called new year paintings the most popular opera images, advocating the study of new year paintings based on opera, and it seems that this statement is also true in reverse. in recent years, new year paintings have become more and more popular among collectors, and special auctions have begun to appear. many precious new year paintings have returned from overseas, including the "suzhou version" that has never been seen before. it can be predicted that the fragments of the "suzhou version" will be glued together again, and the overall appearance will appear more and more clearly in the future.

in addition, it is worth mentioning that the currently published catalogs often only focus on the pictures, and rarely mention the mounting or preservation of the works. it is difficult for us to see the complete appearance of the works, and many other important information is not reflected. take the "qingjian autumn and winter beauty" picture, which is fully recorded in the "all things in the world - special session of chinese ancient new year pictures since the 17th century", as an example. there is a stamp of the painting shop on the outer edge of the frame that has not been noticed before - "yonghehao, chu yuwenchen fa ke, the west end of guansi lane". looking through the shop names that have been recorded before, we can see that next to "anshi rebellion picture" there is a stamp of "zhengmaohao, chu youchen fa ke, the west end of taohuawu". both of them have the surname chu. whether the two have a blood relationship and whether there is a heritage relationship between the painting shops, more evidence is needed. i believe that future records will pay more attention to the details of the target works.

(ming) calling zhuang sheng from the color print collection "feng liu jue chang" woodblock watermark 22 cm in height and 22 cm in width collection of the british woodblock foundation