Dong Jie
Zhejiang People’s Fine Arts Publishing House 浙江人民美术出版社, 2022
About the book: 版画作为中国艺术的一个重要分支，在明代万历中后期起，进入最为绚烂的阶段。明代也是戏曲发展的繁荣阶段，《牡丹亭》《义侠记》《红梅记》等大批名作均诞生于此时，元杂剧和南戏代表作《西厢记》《琵琶记》等作为戏曲创作的范例，被不断刊行。版画与戏曲的诗化、写意、象征进行互动交融，出现了许多精品。
中国美术学院教授董捷以自己近二十年专题研究戏曲版画所取得的成果为依托，择海内外公私珍藏中100种明清善本，精选插图700余帧，成《中国古代戏曲版画菁华》7册。书中将中国古代戏曲版画的重要版本几乎搜罗殆尽，很多图版都是首次公开。全书前5册精心辑录98种戏曲版画，后2册以经折装形式全本再现凌瀛初刻朱墨套印《千秋绝艳图》以及闵齐伋刻彩色套印《会真图》。每册后附研究论著“枣梨工房杂缀”，详细考析所选版画。董捷在论著中对整部中国戏曲版画史重作梳理，对一些关键问题，给出了全新的解读。
董捷说，编著《中国古代戏曲版画菁华》这部书，出发点很朴素：一是为版画史研究提供接近于真迹的图像，底本、扫描、纸张、印刷、装帧，每个环节都不敢疏忽；二是借机梳理二十年来的研习心得，也为版画史学科的继续发展积累一些可供深入的线索。如果说，有什么超出版画史研究范畴的愿望，便是想窥见一点古人“书籍之为艺术”的堂奥，并使这种高妙的意趣，不因为时过境迁，而被人们所遗忘。
Woodcut Illustrations to the 16-17 Century Chinese Drama Books (with Commentary), compiled by Prof. Dong Jie, consists of 7 volumes. The first 5 volumes include selected woodcut illustrations to 98 drama books. The last 2 volumes are concertina binding forms, which respectively record Ling Yingchu’s Qian Qiu Jue Yan Tu 千秋絶艷圖 and Min Qiji’s Huizhen Tu 會眞圖. In all aspects of paper, printing and binding, this book aims to restore ancient books, thus providing images that are closest to the original works for the study of the history of printmaking, so that readers can appreciate the elegant taste of the ancients which can be defined as the concept of “books as art”. Each volume is accompanied “Commentaries by Woodcut Research Studio” (Zaoli Gongfang Zazhui 棗梨工房雜綴), which provides a detailed analysis of the selected woodcut illustrations.
An interview with Prof. Dong, in which he discusses the publication and also his stay at Harvard-Yenching, has been posted on the CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Art) website.
About the author: Dong Jie was a HYI Art History Training Program Visiting Scholar from 2010-11.