In 1994 I went Christmas shopping in the town of #朱仙镇 (Zhuxian) near Kaifeng in Henan province, one of the cradles of woodblock printing in China.
I met a family of artists keeping this ancient tradition alive. They showed me techniques and shared stories behind the characters.
#WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚
Title page of 武王伐紂書, a plain narrative about the Shang-Zhou transition, filled with supernatural elements. The title page includes an illustration of some men on horseback and some people standing in front of them paying homage.
Because the last Shang king's favorite wife is actually an evil fox spirit, this book includes a lot of images of graphic cartoon violence that she demands for her own amusement. This image just has topless women wrestling while she and her husband look on from a balcony above.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 24 - Five editions of fully illustrated plain narratives 全相平話 五種, Yuan dynasty - Printed by Yu 虞 in Jian’an 建安, Fujian, these five early vernacular-ISH narratives are a lot of fun! - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
A sample illustration that appears at the top of the page, lots of detail here
Another sample illustration, this time with a big boiling cauldron of some kind!
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 24 December - Five editions of fully illustrated plain narratives 全相平話五種, Yuan dynasty - five examples of the genre all published in Jian’an 建安 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
One of the illustrations that opens one of the volumes
A very similar illustration from the start of a volume
A detailed list of the types of swindles described, on the title page
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 23 December - Historical Overview of Brigands and their Swindles, Newly Carved, New Edition 新刻江湖歷覽杜騙新書, late Ming 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Detail from the first of four illustrations in the story collection, featuring some monster/demon-like creatures. Two are on horseback, one walks ahead of them holding a flag. They also appear to be in the middle of the water.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 23 - Historical Overview of Brigands and their Swindles, Newly Carved New Edition 新刻江湖歷覽杜騙新書 - One illustration per volume for these stories about late Ming dishonesty, fraud, & crime - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
Printed landscape image with black line drawings as the base image depicting a beautiful isolated seeming home in the mountains surrounded by trees. Not too isolated though as two figures are approaching it from the left on path. The trees have been printed with a green overlay, and the rocks of the mountains are shaded with blue, brown, and more green to convey depth and texture.
A starker landscape image - no people, a few small houses but in the background, and the only color printed over the black line drawing base that depicts the house, trees, and other plants is a gray wash. Maybe it's nighttime. (I'm not an expert, please don't ask me about this.)
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 21 - Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, 芥子園畫傳, ca. 1679 or 1701 - Volume 5 only of this beautiful painting manual, another example of multicolor woodblock printing! - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
Two sample two-page spreads from the fifth fascicle of the book, showing landscape paintings.
Rectangular landscape compositions this time, two examples.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 22 December - Painting Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden 芥子園畫傳, ca. 1679 or 1701 - learn to paint rectangular, round, and fan shaped! 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Illustration of a ghostly woman haunting the man responsible for her death. We can tell she's a ghost both because of how terrified the man looks and the spooky clouds under her feet that she seems to be floating in on.
Unfilial daughter in law is *checks story* - transformed into a white dog. The illustration features a distressed pig-like creature dressed in women's clothing writhing on the ground in front of her non-plussed looking mother in law. Her husband, however, is flailing his arms in the air in shock.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 21 - Illustrated Stories of the Tract of the Most Exalted on Action and Response 太上感應篇圖說 1757/8 - Spoiled for choice with today's text, so many creatively illustrated morality tales! - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
Some people working with books
An illustration from p. 61 of the scan - how you know that the party's really started
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 21 December - Solstice/Yule/冬至 - Illustrated Stories of the Tract of the Most Exalted on Action and Response 太上感應篇圖說 1757/8 - one of innumerable versions of this text 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Text and illustration describing the land where people have eyes on the backs of their heads. The person is indeed facing away from the viewer but still keeping their eye on you......
A lot of text describing the land of dogs, but really the illustration is what is key here - a normal human person stands behind a dog walking on two legs. The dog is also wearing a loincloth because it's not a barbarian!!!
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 20 - Illustrated Record of Foreign Lands 異域圖志, 1489
- Some foreigners we may still recognize, but also wondrous strange places where animals rule & some people have extra limbs - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
Depiction of a Japanese person
Depiction of a Thai person
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 20 December - Illustrated Record of Foreign Lands 異域圖志, 1489 - Illustrations and descriptions of people living outside of the central plains civilized sphere 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Two facing pages - the R is an illustration related to a scene from Pipa ji, it shows a man standing at a table and painting a portrait, and the illustration also includes an elaborate landscape painting hanging behind the man. The L page shoes the three-register format where each register has a different selection of lyric/play running across it.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 19 - A branch from the forest of lyrics 詞林一枝, 1606/7 - Late Ming drama miscellany with a fun triple-register format for the text and some nice half folio illustrations - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
The book uses a three register page layout
An example illustration from the book
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 19 December - A Branch from the Forest of Lyrics 詞林一枝, 1606/7 - an anthology of scenes from plays 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Two illustrations from the 24 filial exemplars. The son who dresses up and performs to entertain his elderly parents, and Yang Xiang (who in some versions is male and in others is female) who saves their parent from a tiger attack.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 18 - Newly carved Twenty Four Filial Exemplars; Revised and Expanded Compendium of Daily Stories in Large Print 新刊二十四孝故事,新鍥重訂補遺音釋大字日記故事大成, Wanli era (1573-1620) - A textbook! - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
Illustrations from the book, showing model filial figures from history.
A sample page from near the end of the book, showing the layout.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 18 December - Newly Carved Stories of the 24 Filial Exemplars; Revised and Expanded Compendium of Everyday Stories in Large Print 新刊二十四孝故事 新鍥重訂補遺音釋大字日記故事大成, ca. 1573-1620 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent #WoodblockWednesday @thianun.bsky.social
An illustration on how to identify a fine horse
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 17 December - Broad Records from a Forest of Facts 事林廣記, 1492 - A fascinating encyclopedia of knowledge of all types, such as how to identify a fine horse 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Drawing of a horse - the title above it ways this is about how to identify traits in a good quality horse - around the horse are many different text labels each with a link drawn connecting them to the part of the horse they're describing.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 17 - Broad Records from a Forest of Facts 事林廣記, 1492
- Ming reprint of a Song daily use encyclopedia, filled w/ info to help any reader broaden knowledge or fake a little expertise - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
An illustration from the book of a boat arriving at port
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 16 December - Illustrated Records of the Traces of the Queen of Heaven, Holy Mother [Mazu] 天后聖母聖跡圖誌, 1832 - a nice edition with lots of illustrations 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
A very fuzzy (and wonky) late 15th century bunny!
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 15- Complete Secret [Knowledge] of Animals 新刊禽遁大全, 1496 - The secret knowledge refers to astrology, which I know nothing about. What I do know? The animals are amazing - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
Illustration of a starry leopard?
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 15 December - Newly Carved Compendium of Animal Secrets 新刊禽遁大全, 1496 - A wild collection of info on animals of all sorts, lots of astrological charts as well 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024
#WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Illustration of the Jade Emperor taking a meeting with Guanyin. Bad things keep happening to a family that seems to be good, so Guanyin gets to investigating the case with her heavenly buddies!
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 14 - Illustrious Tales of Retribution by Virtuous Ghosts and Spirits 鬼神之為德昭然報應傳, 1794 - Simple, cute illustrations across the top of each page bring vivid morality tales to life - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
An illustration and captions from the book - one of these characters seems to be a ghost!
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 14 December - Illustrious Tales of Retribution by Virtuous Ghosts and Spirits 鬼神之為德昭然報應傳, 1794 - A series of stories of justice wrought through supernatural means 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Illustration paired with the story of Cui Xiaoxuan 崔小玄, who was born after her mother was pregnant for fourteen months and bore an inscription on her hand at birth revealing her fated husband. Cui was a banished heavenly being, and once her time on earth was completed, she ascended back to being an immortal. Here, however, she is just a little baby getting a nice bath in a basin while her very tired mother looks on from bed.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 13 - Newly Carved Stories of Female Immortals Xinjuan xian’ai jishi 新鐫仙媛紀事, 1602 - 188 finely illustrated short stories (not all have pictures) about goddesses and immortals - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
The illustration for 太一元君
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 13 December - Newly Carved Stories of Female Immortals 新鐫仙媛紀事, 1602 - nine fascicles in four volumes, stories of women transcendent beings with some fine illustrations 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024
#WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Illustration featuring Mencius' mom scolding her son, the future great philosopher, for not attending to his studies. She has cut the fabric on her loom to illustrate that a woman who does not attend to her gender-appropriate labor is just as bad as a man who does not study.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 12 - Illustrated Three Character Classic 圖像三字經, ~1800s - A primer likely from in the Song. Widely used for centuries after. Confucian values in catchy verse, what's not to love? - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
One of the pages from the primer, with a top register containing two maxims and an illustration, somewhat related to the theme of the main text on this page
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 12 December - Illustrated Three Character Classic 圖像三字經, ca. 1800s - a fairly simple edition of one of the essential primers used in imperial China to start learning Classical Chinese 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Illustration paired with a morality tale about a woman who killed ants with fire, so in retribution more ants ate her baby, as one does.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 11 - Illustrated tract of hidden virtue 陰騭文圖說, 1867 - Variants and elaborations on Yinzhi wen, originally revealed by Lord Wenchang, were a popular type of morality text in the Qing - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
A procession marches up a set of stairs
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 11 December - Illustrated Tract of Hidden Virtue 陰騭文圖說, 1867 - an illustrated commentary to a morality book, attributed to Wenchang 文昌 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024
#WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Part of an illustration from the text, showing a little thatched hut and a bridge
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 10 December - Landscape Illustrations and Commentary, from the Kaibao Canon 開寶藏, 1108 - one survivor from the first printed Buddhist canon in China 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Detail from the second illustration preserved in the fragments from the Kaibao Buddhist canon - a scholar appears to be greeting a monk, who gestures in the direction of (out of frame here) a group of monks gathered under a grove of trees. They will need to follow a wooden pathway built onto the side of a mountain along a river to get there.
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - Dec 10 - Landscape Illustration and Commentary from the Kaibao Canon 開寶藏, 1108 - Only fragments remain now of this beautiful example of Song printing, including 2 landscape illustrations - #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent 🀄📚 @sudasana.bsky.social
