NEW Year pictures may have been the most widely accepted art form in ancient China.

For thousands of years, Chinese people have hung these colourful pictures on their gates and walls at the beginning of a new year, with new ones used each time.

The early works depicted frightening looking gods. Two of these were hung on the front gate to drive away evil ghosts. According to legend, an exiled leader was once sent to Kaifeng of Central China¡¯s Henan Province, the capital city of North Song Dynasty (960-1279). When he saw the pictures on a household gate he wrote a couplet beside each picture. From this time on people began to write New Year couplets bearing good wishes.

It was not only gates exposed to the street that were decorated with these colourful pictures. Special paintings were made for almost all the rooms in a household, even chicken sheds and pigsties were hung with auspicious pictures. In southern provinces, cat pictures were hung up to frighten rats and special pictures were even dedicated to protect silkworms.

Mercy reminder

It was said that in the Tang Dynasty (617-907), the emperor invited the famous painter Wu Daozi to create New Year pictures and then gave them away as gifts to his ministers. Although historians have questioned the truthfulness of the legend, it is believed that printed New Year pictures started to appear in the Tang Dynasty and became very popular in the dynasties that followed.

Printing techniques developed and different local styles were formed. Among the most famous sources of New Year prints, Taohuawu of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, Yangliuqing of Tianjin Municipality, Yangjiabu of Weifang in East China¡¯s Shandong Province, and Zhuxian Town in Kaifeng are especially well-known.

The New Year printing technique in Yangjiabu of Weifang was said to have started in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, had been a travelling monk before attaining power. After ascending to the throne, he remembered that when he had been begging for alms in Yixian County of Shandong, nobody had taken pity on him and he had almost died of hunger.

He sent a marshal to mop up the county. The marshal mistook the message, thinking the emperor wanted to sweep the whole province. Though reluctant, he set out on the march. When his army arrived in Weifang, a plague broke out, killing the marshal, his soldiers and many citizens. Shandong, one of the earliest origins of Chinese civilization, turned into a wasteland. The emperor then ordered a migration from southwest China¡¯s Sichuan Province to re-populate the region.

A family book in Yangjiabu recorded that the Yang family had moved from Zitong County of Sichuan to Weifang in the 14th century, and brought with them the family trade ?making New Year prints. One of the family¡¯s early productions depicted Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang¡¯s childhood ?where he was born and how he had already acted as the emperor in his childhood games. The print somehow reached the emperor himself, arousing his pity, and leading him to decide never to trouble the Shandong people again.

Evolution of prints

In the early Ming Dynasty prints, the main subjects were gods: gate-guarding god, gods of fortune, for the kitchen, for mercy. Living in constant insecurity, people prayed for protection from these deities.

Many people in Shandong still believe that they originally came from Sichuan Province. In ¡°Red Sorghum? a novel adapted into director Zhang Yimou¡¯s first successful movie, a boy cried as his mother died: ¡°Mom, go southwest? This actually meant that, even if people could not return home alive, their dead soul could still head southwest to their hometown in Sichuan.

Shandong people now still say ¡°I need to ¡®jie shou?(to release hands) when they use the toilet. It is said that the saying started among the migrants, whose hands were bound on the long trip from the southwest to Shandong. They would have to ask the escorting soldiers to untie their hands when they needed to answer the call of nature.

New wars started with the change of dynasties, decreasing the population of Shandong substantially. As soon as the wars ended and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) consolidated itself, people in Yangjiabu picked up their old trade. New subjects appeared in the pictures of the time. Portraits of children and beautiful women reflected people¡¯s longing for a peaceful life. Dramatic scenes from folk opera plays became very popular. Some printing studios established a business reputation all over the country,

In years of drought, one studio, known as the ¡°Yong Sheng?shop, thought of a way to help. The shop owner initiated a charity project to build a city gate. Any people could receive free food as long as they worked on the building site. The project went on for months, saving many people from starvation.

By the end of the 19th century, Western printing techniques were introduced. New prints made by the imported technique had more interesting new subjects, better quality and lower price. Traditional Chinese folk prints entered into decline.

Yangjiabu prints had a temporary revival after 1949, when artists with formal education participated in their creation. Modern subjects such as reservoirs and high-tension lines appeared on the prints.

Now, long after these bright-coloured prints have gone out of fashion in rural China, they are being re-discovered by art and antiques lovers. Old plates from the 18th century are now sold for prices unheard of by country folks. Business people want new prints too, but only the most traditional patterns are welcome. The god of fortune is back on the newly decorated walls of luxurious offices.