Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 10. (Budapest, 1967)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Huszár, Flórián: Three Wood-cuts from the Time of Boxer Rising

FLÓRIÁN HUSZÁR THREE WOOD-CUTS FROM THE TIME OF BOXER RISING On New Year's day one used to decorate in China the flat, the doors and gate with coloured pictures and double inscriptions (tui-lien). According to the tradition these New Year-pictures brought good luck to the dwellers and defended them from the ghosts. One used to stick such pictures and inscriptions before greater feasts or even without any special occasion as simple decorations. There were two towns in China famous of making wood-cuts : Yang-liu-ch'ing in the neighborhood of Tientsin, and Soochow (T'ao-hua-wu) in the Southern part of China. The wood-cuts made here w

7

ere almost known all over the country. At the end of the 19

th century in both towns the making of wood-cuts flourished. There were also such cuts, which represented actual events as for instance "Liu-Yung-fu destroys the French army", or the cut representing the May 4th movement

1

, moreover there are to be found actual Chinese themes on Vietnam popular cuts as for instance "Li Yüan-hung makes a military survey"

2

. Our Museum keeps 3 wood-cuts representing the first stage of the foreign imperialist intervention in 1900 in order to suppress the Boxer rising. Dimensions: 1

st

: 31,3X54,8 cms, 2

nd

: 31,5X54,9 cms, 3

rd

: 31,7X55 cms. Each one is on separate page. Colours used: green, red, yellow, black, blue and grey. The text of the first cut with big characters : The Northern Fleet (Peiyang-chün) bombards the settlement. Next to it with smaller characters: printed by Hongkong Newspaper Publ. House (Hongkong Jih-pao Kuan). Above, on the left side of the picture a town-wall is to be seen with Chinese soldiers on it. Below, in the left corner Chinese troops in a battle formation attack on the foreign troops fallen in a line on the right side. From the townwall they put gun fires on the Western troops. There is a church on the right upper part. Below, in the right corner Chinese soldiers are confronting with Western troops. In the narrow "no-man's land" there is an inscription : "clash" (hui-chan). Behind the Chinese soldiers an inscription: "the volunteers accepted the battle" (I-min ch'u tui). Below, in the right corner of the picture an inscription: Western troops suffered big losses and were put to shames. The title of the 2

nd picture : The fleets of the countries crowded at Tientsin T'ang-ku-k'ou. The greater part of the surface of the picture is filled with 1 See: Ch'en Yii-yin: Soochow T'ao-hua-wu. mu-k'e nien-hua ti i-shu chi ch'i yinghsiang. Wenwu, 1960. No. 2. p. 31. 2 Durand, Maurice: Imagerie populaire vietnamienne. Publications de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, Volume XLVII. Paris, 1960. p. 413.