Hu Zhengyan's "Tenzhuzhai" Two-spectrum Study

"Shizhuzhai Shuhuapu" and "Shizhuzhai Jianpu" are two significant process printing books responsibly authorized by Hu Zhengyan in the Wanli and Chongzhen years of Ming Dynasty.These two books are of great significance in the development of China prints and the heritage of traditional Chinese painting.In the Ming Dynasty,the technology of watercolor block printing was continuously improving with the development of economy and culture,and multi-color printing in watermark engraving method pushed the traditional engraving press technology to a new peak.The multi-color printing technology like watercolor block printing,arch flower and others represented by Hu Zhengyan's “Shizhuzhai” has been honoured as "the re-creative art" by virtue of its superb skills and high reduction of its original works.The multi-color block printing technology in "Shizhuzhai" relies on the high expertise and audacious initiative spirits possessed by Hu Zhengyan and his team.By virtue of woodcut paintings' special replicability,Chinese painting can spread widely.Because of the needs of society,China prints has become attached to Chinese painting and completed the purpose of duplicating Chinese painting.And at the same time,the traditional Chinese painting has the same cultural background and pulse with watermark print,and the traditional watermark woodcut and Chinese painting have adopted the same way in the use of pigment and the choice of paper,so watermark woodcut can convey the unique charm of Chinese painting more vividly.Just as Yang Wencong said in the short preface of "Shizhuzhai Shuhuapu-Lingmaopu" : “The stylus was taken as glume,and the pear-jujube was regarded as silk paper.” Knife took the place of pen in the woodcut paintings,and portrayed with details,which was fully embodied in the paintings.Chinese bird-and-flower painting combined with the unique "water taste" and "wood taste" of watermark woodcut,and showed its neat and charm pictures,so that the unique spirituality and color of bird-and-flower painting was expressed vividly.Those “Shizhu” painters,coming from the literary world of the Yuan Dynasty,are elegant and gentle,and in the inheritance of the traditional,they took the original intention of paintings into attention,making their paintings unique but suit both refined and popular tastes.Therefore,with the progress of the times,by mutual absorbing and promoting,Chinese painting and traditional Chinese watermark prints initiate a joint develop.