Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 23. (Budapest, 2004)
Mária FERENCZY: Door Gods. Art and Craftsmanship in the various styles of Chinese New Year Pictures
MÁRIA FERENCZY DOOR GODS Art and Craftsmanship in the Various Styles of Chinese New Year Pictures In the early 90s, when publishing a number of New Year pictures of the Chinese Collection, I got great help from Pál Miklós. It was then that in my range of interest, basically centred on cultural history, there emerged a topic which he considered significant in terms of history of art and sociology of art alike. He encouraged me to conduct further work, so much the more as that time international special literature started to deal with Chinese New Year pictures seriously. Then I did not have the opportunity to take his advice; let the first attempt of the hoped-for continuance be published in his memory. Lunar new year is the most important one of traditional Chinese festivals (named as Spring Festival in the People's Republic of China). Formerly, the festival was preceded by circumstantial preparations. People should settle their debts, conclude matters in dispute, clean everything and give the house a good turn-out. The houses were decorated, and symbols and/or pictures to stall off demons were painted or fixed on doors. 1 To keep off demons, first, symbols and pictures of protection were carved with knife or painted with earth colours on the doors; as for aristocrats, they most probably used paintings. Very little is known about all this. Woodcut monochrome and colour sheets were produced probably from the H lh-13 lh centuries on and on a large scale certainly from the 15 ,h- 16 th centuries on. 2 Besides protective pictures that staved off demons, there appeared symbols and pictures (with puns) to invite good fortune and to send sons and, later, pictures of a "narrative" type, that is, depictions of tales, myths, short stories and plays occurred. The latter brought the festival into the house and through their known content (and/or pictorial details) extended the range of good wishes. The comprehensive name to denote these wood-cut pictures is New Year pictures (nian hud)} In the more or less closed and largely illiterate society of the former China, New Year pictures had some significance beyond their primary purpose; irrespective of their style, they served as a medium to hand down the tradition to the new generation. At the same time, regardless the fact that certain pictures have numerous legendary and mythical elements, the world of these pictures represented Chinese life itself and elevated the depiction of everyday life to the level of a festival. Consequently, new elements of reality find their way to filter into traditional depictions spontaneously. Moreover, authority ordered or suggested certain subject matters for didactic purposes. New Year pictures embraced these subject matters with the flexibility of living folklore; however, as a consequence, they began to lose some of their original atmosphere and naive charm. The collection and research of New Year pictures in China started in the 1950s; however, it is only in the last two decades - as the value of these pictures as pieces of art and as documents were realised - that it assumed considerable proportions in China and abroad alike. 4 It was exclusively under special circumstances that old New Year pictures survived. Nevertheless, there remained specimen pages and sample-books in the possession of families whose members have been producing and selling New Year pictures for centuries. At the beginning of the 20 ,h century, European scholars have already been collecting such pictures in the course of their study tours. 5 In addition, there survived printing blocks i.e. carved wooden tables whose research has been rendered possible recently, which promises to provide an inside view of the history of the evolution of the pictures and the formation of the styles. When selecting the topic of this essay, I have chosen but a small section of the exceedingly
