In the Song Dynasty, due to the invention of movable type printing, woodblock New Year pictures began to be widely popular and developed among the Han people. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, four distinctive and largest Chinese New Year Pictures production centers were formed: Mianzhu New Year Pictures in Sichuan, Yangliuqing New Year Pictures in Tianjin, Weifang New Year Pictures in Shandong and Taohuawu New Year Pictures in Jiangsu, which are also called the four famous New Year Pictures in China.
In the middle of Qing Dynasty, when building guild halls in urban and rural areas of Sichuan, Mianzhu painters and sculptors were hired to sculpt statues and draw beams and walls, so that artists could develop their art in practice. Mianzhu paper industry has been continuously developing and innovating, and the experiment has been successful. The management of the New Year pictures workshop is perfect, the division of labor is meticulous, the art industry is specialized and strives for perfection, no matter the engraving, it has reached a higher level and has a distinct genre and personal style; Provincial and local art dealers play the role of media. Mianzhu County Chronicle: "It is sold as far away as Shaanxi, Gansu, Yunnan and Guizhou, and it is easy to paint when it comes to the city wrapped in silver. It follows the south of the city and buyers are all over the king."
During the years of Qianlong and Jiaqing, Mianzhu New Year Pictures entered its heyday due to economic prosperity, and the New Year Pictures Guild was established accordingly, with more than 900 professional employees and more than 300 workshops, with an annual output of more than 6,543,800 copies. Products are not only sold to Hunan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan, but also exported to India, Japan, Vietnam and Sichuan.
Art dealers, such as crucian carp crossing the river, buying, selling, hoarding and trafficking have become the business content of the paper industry.
Mianzhu County Records in Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty said: "If the benefit of bamboo paper is less than ten thousand households, it will be printed as a book, used as a peach symbol, and painted as a colorful temple to decorate the new year."
At that time, there were large and small New Year pictures markets in Mianzhu County. This small city is located in Shibeiheba and Qingdao Township. From Qingdao township, it should be placed in Nanxuan Temple not far from the city, about fifteen miles away. The market is located in Nanhua Palace in the city. From the first day of the twelfth lunar month, it is sold every day until the thirtieth of the twelfth lunar month. Mianzhu New Year pictures were spread by painters, not only widely posted by people in the province, but also exported to Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, and exported to Vietnam, Myanmar, India and Southeast Asian countries.
During the Republic of China, poor people's livelihood greatly affected people's purchasing power of New Year pictures. In addition, Mianzhu County was ravaged by tyrants and bandits, large and small paper mills were robbed or burned, and New Year pictures workshops closed down one after another. Mianzhu New Year pictures, which used to be well-known at home and abroad, have always been the declining scene of "Danqing into pieces".
Mianzhu New Year Pictures were reborn because of the birth of New China. Since then, Mianzhu New Year pictures have been constantly brought forth new ideas. Under the guidance of the older generation of artists, a group of young New Year picture writers have grown up rapidly. They earnestly studied and absorbed the expressive techniques and characteristics of traditional New Year pictures, and gave full play to the rich expressive force of modern art, creating a number of New Year pictures.