With cracker's cracking noise the old year passed away, The vernal breeze brings us warm wine and warm spring day. The rising sun sheds light on doors of each household, New peach wood charm is put up to replace the old.
This is a famous poem about the Spring Festival written by Wang Anshi, a renowned Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) politician and poet. In the poem, the "peach wood charm" later evolved into what is now known as New Year paintings, or "年画 nianhua" in Chinese.
In ancient China, the New Year paintings joined firecrackers to ward off "evil spirits." In addition, people wrote the names of evil-catching gods on peach wood blocks, which were hung on doorways to exorcise evil spirits.
Over time, the names of gods were replaced by visually perceptible images of gods, and peach wood blocks gave way to more affordable paper materials.
With the invention of the block printing technique, hand-painted pictures were soon replaced by printed paintings, which ruled the rooster in the Chinese society. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368–1911), different production centers of New Year paintings emerged, and New Year paintings became quintessential symbols of the Spring Festival. During the holiday, red lanterns, festive couplets and colorful New Year paintings adorn the streets.
Traditional woodblock painting
The custom of "New Year paintings" can be traced back to ancient times, and drawing deities on gates even had its origins in the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 BCE–220 CE).
The "New Year paintings" as we say today refer generally to the traditional woodblock paintings massively produced in the Northern Song Dynasty by block printing, coinciding with the maturation of block printing techniques and the flourishing commodity economy. Records of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) available today all tell that, as the Spring Festival approaches, New Year paintings with exorcism functions appeared on markets.
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A Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) woodblock New Year painting depicts children striving to invite the God of Wealth.