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New Year Picture - Festival Web |
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 A New Year picture is an important and popular Banhua in China. Its original form was a picture of a door god fashioned during the Qin Dynasty. Later, more subjects, such as conventions, carnivals, the Kitchen God, women and babies were included. Customarily, as each Chinese New Year arrives, every family modifies its New Year picture in order to "say goodbye to the past and welcome the future".
Banhua
Banhua is the Chinese umbrella term for any printed art objects, and especially for those made in the Chinese style. As printing first appeared in 3rd century China, artists started to use woodblock printing or other methods to spread their works. Buddhist classics, novel illustrations, and the banknote were among the first public works to be printed in China. From the 17th century, prints of New Year pictures became popular.
 Door God
A door god is a Chinese decoration placed on each side of an entry to a temple, home, business, etc., believed to keep evil spirits from entering.
"The custom dates back to the Tang Dynasty, whose founder Emperor Tang Taizong (599 - May 26, 649) honoured two of his most loyal generals - Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde - by having their painted portraits hung on his front door. Ordinary families soon adopted the imperial custom, putting woodblock prints of the ever-vigilant generals on their front gates in the hope of attracting good luck and fending off evil spirits. The Door God business soon spread throughout China, adding other folklore heroes and mythological figures to the repertoire."
The door gods usually come in pairs, facing each other; it is considered bad luck to place the figures back-to-back. There are several different forms of door gods. The most frequently used are Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde.
Origins of Door Gods
Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde - Qin Qiong (also known as Qin Shubao) has pale skin and usually carries swords; Yuchi Jingde (also known as Yuchi Gong) has dark skin and usually carries batons. Qin and Yuchi (aka Yuchi Jingde), in a Tang dynasty lengend, were told by the emperor to guard the door because of a ghost harassing him, thus resulting in sleepless nights. When Qin and Yuchi were called, they guarded the emperor's door. Thus, the emperor had a blissful sleep. The next day, the emperor, not wanting to trouble his two generals, called on men to hang portraits of the two men either side of his door.
Other Door Gods
Shentou and Yulei carry a battle axe and a mace, respectively. Shentou and Yulei were immortals who were ordered by the Jade Emperor to guard peach trees which demons were gnawing at. The people of China thus respected the two immortals for their ability to ward off demons.
Ghost Catcher
Zhongkui - strictly speaking not a Door God but a mythical exorcist (ghost catcher); nonetheless his image is often displayed as the "backdoor general". The practice of placing door god figures is fading as of late, after a brief revival in the 1980s. In the novel Journey to the West a fictional account of Li Shimin's invention of the Door god is mentioned.
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