指尖上的堅守

指尖上的堅守

Hanging-on by the Fingertips

Text by Madeline & Zhang Meng Photos by Zeng Jian & Wang Yuanchang Translation by Sonia

Changes in the social ecology have gradually eliminated the room of survival for traditional New Year picture art, and this thousand year old traditional artwork has slowly faded out of existence. Despite so, a number of persistent craftsmen have continued to follow their

hearts to retain or add innovation to this art with their brush pens

and chisel knives so the New Year picture art may be passed down to future generations.

社會生態的改變使傳統木版年畫逐漸失去了生存的土壤，流傳了千百年的傳統藝術日漸淡出江湖。盡管如此，仍有一批執著的匠人，用畫筆和刻刀堅守著一份初心，或留存，或創新，讓年畫能夠傳承下去。

The Secret Formula of Eternal Red

Feng Bingtang, the national-level inheritor of Foshan woodblock New Year pictures, is 80 years of age. The painting worktable that has been there all his life is even older than he is – this proudly dented wood table has not been moved for over a century.

“The painting worktable cannot be moved. Once moved, it will be diffi cult to realign the printing plate properly” Feng explained.

“Printing plate” is the second process following“engraving plate.” Feng Bingtang, who grew up in “Woodblock Painting Street” located in Foshan, Guangdong, learned from his father the secret of precise process printing. The paintings take layers of printing in four colours – black, red, green, and yellow. Any errors here will lead to off-registration. Thus, as easy as this step may seem, it is a huge challenge to the craftsmen's skill.

Unlike the northern woodblock New Year pictures, the white space on Foshan woodblock New Year pictures, especially door gods pictures, are usually painted red to match the lunar new year's joyous atmosphere. To prevent the paintings from fading

easily and improve durability, Foshan painters adopted vermillion, a local ingredient, to create the rust-proof and acid-proof dye “Eternal Red”, and Feng is the only person alive who knows the secret recipe.

After the Cultural Revolution, the New Year pictures declined. There were as many as two hundred New Year picture shops at the time from late Ming dynasty to early Qing dynasty; all of them went out of business. The Feng family is the only one that resumed business. As the mechanism of multi-shop collaboration is no longer in place, Feng Bingtang had to learn the whole manufacturing process from tracing the lines, engraving the plate, colouring the face, fi lling in the red, to painting in gold – all has to be done at his own shop.

Although the prospects for Foshan woodblock New Year pictures may not seem bright, Mr. Feng is still optimistic, “Will the art of Foshan woodblock New Year pictures be lost? Not in my hands!”

Feng may once again fi nd the way to preserve this valuable, intangible cultural heritage of the Lingnan area, like he preserved the formula of “Eternal Red.”

Feng Bingtang Representative Inheritor for National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project of Foshan Nianhua

馮炳棠

佛山木版年畫國家級非物質文化遺產項目代表性傳承人。

萬年紅的秘方

佛山木版年畫的國家級傳承人馮炳棠今年80歲高壽。而與他一輩子作伴的印畫臺，甚至比他更老——這張驕傲地留有深淺刻痕的木桌，逾百年來幾乎未曾移動過。

“印畫臺不能動。因為移動了印版就很難對準。”馮炳棠解釋道。

所謂“印版”，指的是繼“雕版”之后的第二道工序。在廣東佛山細巷“木版年畫一條街”長大的馮炳棠，在父親的手把手傳授下學會了精準套印的秘訣。由于要分黑、紅、綠、黃四種顏色分次套印，失之毫厘就會錯位。因此，這道步驟雖然看似簡單，實際上非?？简瀻煾档墓Φ?。

與北方木版年畫不同的是，佛山木版年畫中的門神，紙張上的空白處通常都會被染紅，以配合過年喜慶的氛圍。為了避免褪色，使年畫更好地對付日曬雨淋，佛山版畫會使用一種由當地特產硍硃調配出的防銹防酸的染料——“萬年紅”，馮炳棠成為這一填丹秘笈的獨家傳承人。

“文革”后，年畫式微，原先在明末清初時多達 200 家的年畫店坊紛紛倒閉，得以復業的僅剩馮氏一家。多家作坊分工合作的機制不再，馮炳棠不得不學會全套制作工序，從繪制線描稿、雕版、開相，到填丹、描金，全部都得自家完成。

盡管佛山木版年畫的未來堪憂，馮老卻仍然抱有信心 ：“佛山木版年畫會不會失傳？——至少在我這里不會！”

或許，馮氏能夠再一次像保存“萬年紅”秘方那樣，為這項寶貴的嶺南非物質文化遺產找到它的獨家長存之道。

Rebirth of “Zhang's New Year picture”

Yangliuqing Town of Tianjing City is located at the main traffi c junction between the north and the south, where the art of New Year picture is also infl uenced by the diverse cultures of the north and the south. The “Zhang's New Year picture”founded by Mr. Zhang Keqiang is renowned in the New Year picture fi eld because he has dared to add innovation to the inherited art tradition. Zhang stated, “I feel that as people's artistic pursuits and aesthetic requirements evolve, New Year pictures must also innovate with the times. Of course we must not digress from the origin and lose the charm of the painting.” In addition to the traditional wood engraving and printing, “Zhang's New Year picture” has also adopted the modern“silk screening” method to draft the ink patterns for New Year pictures. The result is precise lines that can meet the painting enjoyment demands of modern people.

Although people have different views over the improved New Year picture method, Zhang believes that, “The Yangliuqing woodblock New Year pictures represent a certain period of history and have their own artistic charms, but they also have inadequacies such as the wooden panels are not suited for long-term preservation.”

Traditional art must also absorb new innovations in order to develop further. The greatest advantages of the improved New Year picture craftsmanship are the ability to create intricate lines, illustrate delicate emotions, showcase harmonious screen colours, and achieve high-volume batch printing for the New Year pictures.

As the artistic path forges ahead, Mr. Zhang's New Year picture craftsmanship has formed a distinctive style and gained acceptance by more people. Today, he engages in this novel art creation method with passion and hopes to add more splendour to this art. “The Yangliuqing New Year pictures are a rich artistic treasure composed of thousands of varieties and tens of generations of hard work from ancestors who have selfl essly passed on the craftsmanship process to the new generation. Increasingly more people are learning this craft, especially the young people who can pick up the art of painting rather quickly. I believe its future development trend should be the exquisite pieces of art that can meet the painting enjoyment demands of the modern people. This is what gives life to the art.”

“年畫張” 的重生

天津楊柳青地處南北交通要道，年畫藝術也受到南北多元文化的影響。張克強始創的“年畫張”，就以其繼承傳統且敢于創新而聞名年畫界。“我覺得，隨著人們的藝術追求和審美要求的不同，年畫創作也要適時創新，當然萬變不離其宗，整個繪畫的韻味不能丟。”張克強說?，F在，除了傳統的木版印刷方式外，“年畫張”還運用一種叫“絲漏”的現代絲版印刷的技術做年畫的墨稿，線條精確，符合現代人的觀賞趣味。

對于改良的年畫，盡管別人有不同看法，但是張克強認為，“楊柳青木版年畫，我認為它代表了一段歷史，有它自身的藝術魅力，但也有不足，比如，木版不適于保存?！?/p>

傳統藝術也要吸收新的東西才能發展。他們改進的年畫制作工藝最大的好處就是能使年畫的線條格外精致，情感細膩，畫面色調和諧，并且可以實現大批量印刷。

隨著在藝術道路上的不斷求索前進，張克強的年畫藝術已經形成了鮮明的個人風格，并被更多的人們接受。今天，他正以飽滿的熱情進行著新的藝術創作，希望古老的楊柳青年畫更加絢麗多彩?！皸盍嗄戤嬍且粋€豐富的藝術寶庫，上千個品種，有幾十代人的不懈的努力，有很完善的一套繪制過程，都是先輩毫無保留地流傳至今?，F在學畫的人越來越多了，特別是年輕人學畫學起來就更得心應手。它將來的發展趨勢，我認為應該說是那種適合于現代人審美要求的精美的藝術作品，這樣它才是有生命力的?！?/p>

Zhang Keqiang, Inheritor of the craftsmanship of Yangliuqing New Year Picture.

楊柳青年畫技藝傳承人張克強。