Traditional Chinese woodblock printing was first engraved or overlaid on wood and then printed on paper. The first wood engraving was made in 868 in the Chinese Tang Dynasty and it was named The Lonely Tree. According to researchers, most of the early Chinese woodblock prints were used as illustrations in books; the art reached a development peak in the Ming Dynasty. Since then woodblock printing has been used to make New Year painting. With the adoption of metal printing and some new printing technology, woodblock printing gradually declined.　

In the 1930s, some young Chinese revolutionists started woodblock creation again under the influence and with the support of Lu Xun, a leading Chinese revolutionary writer of the time. The new woodblock printing was influenced by both traditional Chinese wood engraving skills and Western woodblock printing styles, and used more realistic methods to show actual life. Representative woodblock prints of the time include Li Hua's Please Shout, China, Hu Yichuan's Going to the Frontline, and Zhang Wang's Injured Head. Though the techniques of these works had not reached a mature stage, the painters were fully involved in their artistic creation, and their works were full of vitality and truly reflected the spirit and life of the people. During the War of Resistance against Japan and the Liberation War, Chinese woodblock print makers used their woodblocks as weapons to fight against the enemy to save their country. The woodblock print is easily made and is quickly accepted. In the harsh environment of the Chinese Revolution, it became a main art form for expressing people's ideas. Representative works are Conquering the Castle and He Is Not Dead by Huang Xinbo, Tax Reducing Meeting and People Bridge by Gu Yuan, Adequate Food and Clothes by Li Qun and Trial by Yan Han. These works establish the cruelty of the enemy and show the hard struggle of the people. Different woodblock print makers had different artistic styles; some styles were filled with a vivid life atmosphere, some were vigorous and fresh in order to encourage people to continue with the struggle, still others were meticulous and sad like an epic poem.

Woodblock print making gained a good opportunity for development after the founding of the People's Republic of China. With the beginning of a new life, the artists had new sentiments and looked at their lives from a new perspective; their themes and me-thods of expression through woodblock prints took on more variety. The new paintings showed working scenes in the factory plants and farming fields, conveying people's confidence in their new life and their optimistic spirit.

Chinese wood-block prints from different areas have different styles. The Sichuan woodblock prints are mostly black and white; they include Niu Wen's Dong Fang Hong (Oriental Red), Feng Zhong-tie's The Sea Run-ning to the East, Li Huanmin's On the Way to the Golden Road, Wu Fan's Dandelion (Fig.2-58) and The Host by Xu Kuang and A Ge. In Northeast China, woodblock printing was first used to describe the life of exploration to document in the wastelands, and then to document social organization and daily life. Representative works are September in the North (Fig.2-59)and Cloudy Scene by Chao Mei, Return From Herding by Zhang Zhenqi, Missing The Hometown by Hao Boyi and Plateau In Summer Night by Li Yiping. Most of the woodblock prints of the Northeast are colored woodcuts. The water woodcut was initiated in Jiangsu Province in the 1960s, and it incorporated traditional Chinese printing skills to form a special effect in order to reveal the delicate and beautiful views of the cities along the southern bank of the Yangtze River. Representative works from that region include Mount Mao by Wu Junfa, Spring Water and Wind on The Southern Bank of the Yangtze River by Huang Pimo, and The Green Southern Bank by Zhang Xinyu and Zhu Qinbao. There are also woodblock print artists in the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Guang-dong.

After the 1980s, the artistic concept of woodblock printing changed dramatically. It began to take on more patterns and styles, learning from other Chinese painting forms to enrich its content and methods of expression. At the same time, the other Chinese painting forms absorbed skills from the woodblock prints.

Editor: Li Guixiang.