In the 80s of the last century, among the many comic book sets published by publishing houses across the country, the long-form comic book "The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty" organized and drawn by the China Quyi Publishing House is undoubtedly one of the best. This set of comic strips is based on the long traditional commentary "The Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty", and was well received by readers as soon as it came out.
Beginning in March 1981, Quyi Publishing House republished one of the "Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty" published by the Popular Literature and Art Publishing House in 1956, "The Flower Lantern", which opened the prelude to the publication of the traditional commentary "The Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty". This commentary has a total of 10 volumes, including "Flower Lantern", "Nanyang Pass", "Jiajialou", "Wagangzhai", "Qunxionghui", "Siping Mountain", "Hongni Pass", "Yangzhou Meeting", "Grab Three Passes", and "Lock Five Dragons", with a total of 140 volumes.
The commentary "The Biography of the Xing Tang Dynasty" is narrated by Chen Yinrong, a famous storyteller in Beijing, and compiled by Jin Shoushen, Dai Hongsen, and Tuo Shiming, mainly describing the historical process of the peasant uprising with Wagangzhai as the main line at the end of the Sui Dynasty until the overthrow of the Sui Dynasty and the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.
The illustrations in the commentary "The Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty" are written by Mo Lang and Ren Shuying, representatives of the comic strips Beipai Jie in the fifties and sixties of the last century. The comic book "The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty" was created by Fu Boxing and Lai Wenyang, which also made this set of books quite interesting, and the joint creation of the two accounted for more than one-third of the whole set of books, which is also one of the highlights of the whole set of books.
The comic strip "The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty" comprehensively and vividly shows the historical process of the peasant uprising led by Wagangzhai at the end of the Sui Dynasty to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, and completely and comprehensively shapes the images of reckless heroes and heroes of Wagangzhai such as Qin Qiong, Cheng Yanjin, Xu Maogong, Luo Cheng, and Wei Chigong. The cover of the book was carefully painted by the famous painters Chen Huiguan, Sheng Henian and Huang Shannong, and was compiled and painted by 23 young and middle-aged painters such as Fu Boxing, Lai Wenyang, Wang Chongyi and Ji Jinye over a period of five years. The whole set of books with line drawing Chinese painting techniques, the character modeling, clothing, weapons, etc. have been unified, the set of books has a total of 34 volumes, each volume is 126 pieces, a total of 4,284 pieces, its number of volumes, the participation of painters, the high degree of popularity among readers, is also in the 80s comic book set among the best.
The reason why this set of comic books attracts many comic book lovers is that the theme of the story is good, the story is wonderful, and readers like it. Secondly, the cover design and inner page paintings are wonderful, especially the 12 books co-painted by Fu Boxing and Lai Wenyang. Among the 34 volumes, Fu Boxing and Lai Wenyang painted 8 books, Fu Boxing, Lai Wenyang, and Wang Chongyi painted 4 books. Third, due to the "five major shortcomings" in this set of books, it is difficult to match, which also adds a touch of charm to this set of books.
Fu Boxing, born in 1939 in Huzhou, Zhejiang, is the former director of Zhejiang Daily, art editor, scholar of Southern Song Dynasty history, and has published many books about the Southern Song Dynasty.
Lai Wenyang, born in 1943. A native of Xiaoshan, Zhejiang. He is good at Chinese painting and printmaking, and has served as the dean and professor of the School of Arts of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, and a member of the Chinese Artists Association. He is good at figure painting, landscapes, flowers and birds, freehand characters, and has created many comic books such as "The Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty" (in cooperation with Fu Boxing, Wang Chongyi, etc.), "Tao Yuanming", "Du Mu", "Southern Song Dynasty Fengyunlu" (in cooperation with Fu Boxing).
The 12 comic books created by Fu and Lai, the line drawing technique is very good, the war scenes of the sword and horse people are very attractive, the image of the characters and horses is full and vivid, and the armor and weapon paintings are delicate, which can be called a model of fine brush painting. In particular, "Nanyang Pass", "Luo Cheng Breaking the Array", "Yangzhou Winning the Jade Seal", "Breaking the Bronze Flag Array", "Shan Xiongxin Recruiting Relatives", "Capturing Xiangyang" and other volumes are particularly prominent. The other 22 books strive to be unified in terms of characters and armor and clothing, of course, due to the large number of painters, the quality of the paintings in each fascicle is also uneven, but on the whole, the comic book of "The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty" is also a distinctive comic book set.
"The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty" comic book has three major characteristics
First, the distribution span is long, and there are many compilers
After the launch of the first volume of the "Xingtang Biography" commentary, "The Flower Lantern", Quyi Publishing House immediately organized personnel to complete the first volume of the comic book "The Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty" in June 1981, "Qin Qiong Sells Horses", and officially published it in October of the same year, which was the beginning of this long comic book. There are as many as 17 writers and 21 painters. In terms of the entire publication time, it took two and a half years before and after the publication of the 10 volumes, that is, from March 1981 to August 1983. The publication of this 34-volume comic book took four years and three months (from October 1981 to December 1985), and it can be seen that the publication of 10 volumes of the book was a huge undertaking before the recreation of the 34-volume comic book.
Second, the number of issuances is not clear
The comic book "The Legend of the Xing Tang Dynasty" has a complete set of 34 volumes, and there are only 7 copies printed on the back cover, with a minimum circulation of 920,000 and a maximum circulation of 1.2 million, and the rest are not printed. According to the speculation of market stock and market price, except for the five major short copies, the circulation should be around 1 million copies. The exact number of the five missing copies has become an unknowable mystery. We refer to the two major missing copies of the comic book "History of the Song Dynasty", "Wang Anshi's Change" and "Jingkang's Change", both books have a circulation of 10,000, but the scarcity and market price are significantly higher than the five major missing copies of "The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty", and then refer to the "Story of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" in which "Gou Jian Dominates" has a print run of more than 110,000 copies, and "Lying Salary and Taste Courage" has a print run of more than 100,000 copies, and other "five missing copies", the scarcity and market price are not much different from the five major missing copies of "The Legend of Xingtang Dynasty". From this, it can be inferred that the circulation of the five major missing copies of "The Biography of the Xingtang Dynasty" should be about 50,000 to 80,000 copies.
3. It is rare for a painter to sign a signature
The 8 books co-painted by Fu Boxing and Lai Wenyang have signatures in the corner of the last page, such as "Boxing Wenyang painted on the shore of West Lake". Fu Boxing, Lai Wenyang, Wang Chongyi co-painted four books, in addition to Wu Jianzhang scolded the palace did not sign, the other three also have signatures in the corner of the last page, such as "Chongyi Wenyang Boxing painted in Hangzhou in June 1983" and so on. It is still rare for a comic book artist to sign the page, which is also a feature of this set of books. (pictured)
"The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty" comic book collection market
Although the comic book of "The Legend of the Xingtang Dynasty" is not easy to match due to the scarcity of the five major shortages, it was published in the 80s of the last century, and it is relatively difficult to complete the set. According to the market transactions in recent years, the overall price of this set of books mainly depends on the lack of books, and the price of missing books accounts for 5 to 70% of the price of the complete set of books.
Xingtang Chuan (set) Chinese Quyi 1985 Jiuwu Pin sold for 9,300 yuan, and the transaction date was March 11, 2024
Xingtang Chuan (set) Chinese Quyi 1985 nine products sold for 8,000 yuan, and the transaction date was January 25, 2022
Xingtang Biography (set) Chinese Quyi 1985 Jiupin sold for 7,800 yuan, and the transaction date was April 11, 2022
Xingtang Chuan (set) Chinese Quyi 1985 85 products sold for 3,500 yuan, and the transaction date is March 6, 2024
Xingtang Chuan (set) Chinese Quyi 1985 85 products were sold for 4,500 yuan, and the transaction date was July 17, 2023
Luo Cheng called Guan, China Quyi 1985, the transaction price of ten products was 1,700 yuan, and the transaction date was July 20, 2021
Luo Cheng called Guan Zhonghua Quyi 1985 Jiuwu Pin at a transaction price of 1,400 yuan, and the transaction date was August 17, 2023
Luo Cheng called Guan China Quyi 1985 Ten Products at a transaction price of 1,300 yuan, and the transaction date was May 1, 2022
The transaction price of the ten products of Datang Founding China Quyi in 1985 was 1,850 yuan, and the transaction date was March 17, 2021
The transaction price of the ten products of Datang Founding China Quyi in 1985 was 1,700 yuan, and the transaction date was December 4, 2016
The transaction price of Suowulong Chinese Quyi 1985 Jiuwu Pin is 2,200 yuan, and the transaction date is February 28, 2022
The transaction price of Suowulong Chinese Quyi 1985 Jiuwu Pin is 1450 yuan, and the transaction date is July 13, 2021
The transaction price of Suowulong Chinese Quyi 1985 85 products was 800 yuan, and the transaction date was March 17, 2021
Shan Xiongxin recruits pro-China Quyi 1985 Jiuwu products at a transaction price of 1,700 yuan, and the transaction date is December 2, 2023
Shan Xiongxin recruited a pro-China Quyi 1985 nine products at a transaction price of 1,115 yuan, and the transaction date was April 8, 2018
The transaction price of the 1985 ten products of Xiangyang Chinese Quyi was 2,400 yuan, and the transaction date was August 19, 2016
The transaction price of nearly the whole product of Xiangyang China Quyi 1985 is 1,300 yuan, and the transaction date is November 12, 2019
The transaction price of Xiangyang Chinese Quyi 1985 Jiupin is 1,280 yuan, and the transaction date is October 3, 2023