Study on Yangzhou Woodcut Prints in the Qing Dynasty

Abstract

Ever since the appearance of woodblock printing in Yangzhou during the Tang Dynasty, the development of Yangzhou woodcut prints has been rapid in Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, which flourished in the Qing Dynasty. Compared with the previous dynasties, the printing industry of Yangzhou woodcut prints in the Qing Dynasty has more variety a larger scale. As people begin to attach more attention to the artistic value of Yangzhou woodcut prints, therefore this paper carried out an analysis and research on Yangzhou woodcut prints in the Qing Dynasty. Yangzhou has been an important cultural and economic town in Ming and Qing dynasties due to its location at the junction of canal and the Yangtze River. With continuous development of Yangzhou woodcut prints printing technology in the Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou woodcut prints also made a very outstanding achievement, forming a very important part of the history of ancient woodcut prints in China. Yangzhou woodblock printing was renowned throughout the country at that time, the current offset printing in Yangzhou has quite a lot of workshop printing, family printing and official printing copies, on account of its high artistic achievement, it also ranks top in the famous engraving books in our country. Yangzhou is one of the center cities of woodblock printing in Ming and Qing dynasties, also the only city reserving the full range of ancient China's woodblock printing technology. Currently, Yangzhou roughly has a collection of three hundred thousand ancient book copies of Ming and Qing dynasties, in which there are many exquisite woodcut prints. The earliest Yangzhou woodcut prints had a comparatively unique style and remaining quantity, with a relatively distinct artistic style and characteristics, which are possible to well reflect indigenous aesthetic taste.