T28 - Galloping Horses

Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿) was primarily known for his shuimohua (水墨畫, Chinese ink paintings) of horses and birds.  He was also regarded as one of the first to create monumental oil paintings with epic Chinese themes - a show of his high proficiency in an essential Western art technique.

The famous Chinese painter Xu Beihong (1895-1953) was born in Yixing, Jiangsu Province.  Xu Beihong began studying classic Chinese works and calligraphy with his father Xu Dazhang (徐达章) when he was six, and Chinese painting when he was nine. 

Xu Beihong went to Tokyo in 1917 to study arts.  When he returned to China, he began to teach at Beijing University's Arts school at the invitation of Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培).  In 1919, Xu started his study of oil painting and drawing at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA), the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.  After his study, Xu's travel around Western Europe allowed him to observe and imitate Western art techniques.

Xu returned to China in 1927 and, from 1927 to 1929, gained a number of posts at institutions in China, including teaching at National Central University (now Nanjing University) in the former capital city Nanjing.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xu became president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and chairman of the Chinese Artists' Association.  After his death on September 23, 1953, the Chinese government built the Xu Beihong Memorial Hall in memory of his contributions to art.

The T28 stamp set of 10 and souvenir sheet, issued on May 5, 1978, were selected from Xu's drawings at the Xu Beihong Memorial Hall.  Most of the drawings were done during the 2nd World War Period, symbolizing the fighting spirit of the whole nation against invaders.

(10-1) 4 fen, Galloping Horse 
(10-2) 8 fen, Galloping Horse 
(10-3) 8 fen, Galloping Horse 
(10-4) 10 fen, Galloping Horse
(10-5) 20 fen, Galloping Horse
(10-6) 30 fen, Galloping Horse
(10-7) 40 fen, Galloping Horse
(10-8) 50 fen, Galloping Horse
(10-9) 60 fen, Galloping Horse
(10-10) 70 fen, Galloping Horse

(10-1)【Galloping Horse】This painting was completed in 1951, at Xu's residence in Beijing.  The Chinese inscription on the painting “山河百战归民主，铲除崎岖大道平" meaning "Hundred of battles lead to democracy, levelling of  bumpiness gives wide avenue".  This painting was done to glorify the setting up of People's Republic of China, expressing love and hope for the future of the new nation.

(10-2)【Galloping Horse】This painting was completed in 1945.  The Chinese inscription on the painting "敷孟吾兄教之，卅四年岁阑悲鸿" meaning "Xu received a teaching from a freind Ren Fumeng (任敷孟) when he was at age 34".

(10-3)【Galloping Horse】This painting was completed in June, 1948.  The Chinese inscription on the painting "卅七年六月悲鸿想象汉时盛世天马涞从西极陟流沙九夷服", showed Xu's excitement on the Liberation of China.  He equated the new era to the Han Dynasty when the nation was in prosperity and the minority frontier tribes all paid tribute to the Han Dynasty.

(10-4)【Galloping Horse】 This painting was completed in 1942, during the heights of the Sino-Japanese War.  The Chinese inscription on the painting "水草寻常行处有，相欺效死得长征" reflected Xu's strong sentiment against the Japanese invaders.

(10-5)【Galloping Horse】 This painting was completed in 1941, at Penang, Malaysia.  In order to help the refugee of wars back in China, Xu held four arts exhibitions in South-East Asia and donated all earnings back to China.  The Chinese inscription on the painting "辛巳八月悲鸿时客槟城" meaning "August 1941 Xu at Penang".  

(10-6)【Galloping Horse】 This painting was completed in 1941, at Chongqing, in a small wooden hut.  At that time, Xu was teaching at National Central University and his paintings were fetching good prices.  Xu lived a simple life as he had used most of his money to help the poor and sick peoples.  The Chinese inscription on the painting "问汝健足裹何用，为觅生刍尽日弛"  meaning "Why you tied your strong feet? Use them to work, seek and to run".

(10-7)【Galloping Horse】 This painting was completed in the summer of 1942.  The Chinese inscription on the painting "壬午夏悲鸿" told of the time of the painting. 

(10-8)【Galloping Horse】This painting was completed in May, 1941, at Singapore.  The Chinese inscription on the painting "自新先生雅教。骋容与兮，距万里兮；安匹兮，龙为友。甘八年五月。星洲客中遣怀悲鸿", which gave the time and purpose of the painting, and also expressed the artist's lofty aspirations. 

(10-9)【Galloping Horse】This painting was completed in October, 1939.   The Chinese inscription on the painting "己某卯十月悲鸿", gave the time of the painting.

(10-10)【Galloping Horse】This painting was completed in winter of 1944 at Chongqing.   The Chinese inscription on the painting "卅七年冬至悲鸿客重庆" gave the time and place of the painting. 

T28 – Galloping Horses  奔马 Issue Date: 1978.5.5
Serial Number:	T28
Scott No.:	1389-1398
Michel No.:	1399-1408
Number of stamps in Set:	10
Denomination:	4 fen for stamp 1 8 fen for stamp 2, 3 10 fen for stamp 4 20 fen for stamp 5 30 fen for stamp 6 40 fen for stamp 7 50 fen for stamp 8 60 fen for stamp 9 70 fen for stamp 10
Quantity of Issue:	25,000,000 fen for stamp 1, 2, 3 15,000,000 fen for stamp 4 500,000 fen for stamp 5 250,000 fen for stamp 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Perforation:	P11½ X 11 for stamp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 P11 X 11½ for stamp 7, 8, 9, 10
Sheet Composition:	50 (10 X 5) for stamp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 50 (5 X 10) for stamp 7, 8, 9, 10
Size of stamps:	30 X 40 mm for stamp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 40 X 30 mm for stamp 7, 8, 9, 10
Original Artist	Xu Beihong  徐悲鸿
Designer:	Liu Shuoren  刘硕仁
Printing Process:	Photogravure
Printing House:	Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T27 - Learn from Dazhai in Animal Husbandry and Build New Pastoral Area

Animal husbandry requires vast grassland.  China's grassland mainly distributed in the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and Tibet.  At the founding of the Peoples' Republic of China, animal husbandry was still very much under-developed and primitivistic.  After the implementation of scientific breed selection, breeding, management and other technique, animal husbandry developed in leaps and bounds.

In 1975, the slogan building Daizhai-type counties through the nation was proposed in the national congress of "Learning from Dazhai in Agriculture".  To commemorate and showcase the development in animal husbandry, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of PRC released a set of three stamps on June 30, 1978.

(3-1) 8 fen, Building artificial pastures on a large scale  大搞草库伦建设
(3-2) 8 fen, Raising livestock scientifically  科学养畜
(3-3) 8 fen, Mechanization in animal husbandry  牧业机械化

(3-1)【Building artificial pastures on a large scale】Grass Cullen (草库伦) is a form of pasture fence or enclosed grassland.  "草库伦" is Mongolian, meaning "grass circle."  Enclosed pasture lands are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, etc.   The stamp depicted a Grass Cullen in Inner Mongolia.  Near the end of cultural revolutionary era, the "gang of four" came out with some rubbish simplification of the chinese characters, which were removed from use nowadays.  In this stamp, there is one of such word.  The character "寨" in the slogan on the red flag "牧业学大寨" ("Learning from Dazhai in Animal Husbandry") was a rubbish simplified character.

(3-2)【Raising livestock scientifically】The stamp depicted a scene at Xinjiang, with high mountains, forest, flowing river, electricity transmission tower in the background; and flock of sheeps in the foreground.  The stamp showed Uighurs and Kazakh people selecting livestock for scientific breeding to improve the breed.

(3-3)【Mechanization in animal husbandary】The stamp depicted a scene at Tibet, with undulating mountains and vast pasture lands in the background.  The stamp showed mechanization that are being used there.

T27 – Learn from Dazhai in Animal Husbandry and Build New Pastoral Area              牧业学大寨，建设新牧区 Issue Date: 1978.6.30
Serial Number:	T27
Scott Number:	1412-1414
Michel Number:	1422-1424
Number of stamps in Set:	3
Denomination:	8 fen for stamp 1, 2, 3
Quantity of Issue:	12,000,000 for stamp 1, 2, 3
Perforation:	P11½
Sheet Composition:	40 (10 X 4) for stamp 1, 2, 3
Size of stamps:	31 X 52 mm for stamp 1, 2, 3
Designer:	Cheng Chuanli 程传理
Printing Process:	Photogravure
Printing House:	Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T26 - Iron and Steel Industry

China is one of the earliest countries in the world that invented and started iron working.  At the founding of the Peoples' Republic of China, the Iron and Steel Industry was still very much under-developed.

With assistance from Soviet Union, Anshan Iron and Steel (鞍钢), Wuhan Iron & Steel (武钢), Baotou Iron and Steel (包钢), etc, were built and after that the Iron and Steel Industry in China grown by leaps and bounds.  The annual steel production volumes increased from 18th in the world in 1952 to 9th in the world in 1957.

In the 1960's and 70's, the standard of China's Iron and Steel Industry continued improving, with many new products developed for the modernization of agricultural, industrial, national defence and scientific fields. 

To reflect the importance of iron and steel industry to the whole national economy of China, a set of five stamps depicting the five essential stages of iron and steel industry production process was issued on July 22, 1978.

(5-1) 8 fen, Coking  炼焦
(5-2) 8 fen, Iron making  炼铁
(5-3) 8 fen, Steel making  炼钢
(5-4) 8 fen, Steel rolling  轧钢
(5-5) 8 fen, Finished products  成品

(5-1)【Coking】The coking process consists of heating coking coal to around 1000-1100ºC in the absence of oxygen to drive off the volatile compounds (pyrolysis).  This process results in a hard porous material - coke.  Coke is produced in a coke battery which is composed of many coke ovens stacked in rows into which coal is loaded.  The coking process takes place over long periods of time between 12-36 hours in the coke ovens.  Once pushed out of the vessel the hot coke is then quenched with either water or air to cool it before storage or is transferred directly to the blast furnace for use in iron making.  The stamp depicted the coking operating scene in Capital Iron and Steel Company (首都钢铁厂).

(5-2)【Iron making】Iron ore is mined in around 50 countries – the largest producers are Australia, Brazil and China. Around 98% of iron ore is used in steel-making.  During the iron-making process, a blast furnace is fed with the iron ore, coke and small quantities of fluxes (minerals, such as limestone, which are used to collect impurities).  Air which is heated to about 1200°C is blown into the furnace through nozzles in the lower section.  The air causes the coke to burn, producing carbon monoxide which reacts with the iron ore, as well as heat to melt the iron.  Finally, the tap hole at the bottom of the furnace is opened and molten iron and slag (impurities) are drained off.  The stamp depicted the iron making scene in Maanshan Iron and Steel Company (马鞍山钢铁厂).

(5-3)【Steel making】The most commonly applied process for steel-making is the integrated steel-making process via the Blast Furnace – Basic Oxygen Furnace.  In the basic oxygen furnace, the iron is combined with varying amounts of steel scrap (less than 30%) and small amounts of flux.  A lance is introduced in the vessel and blows 99% pure oxygen causing a temperature rise to 1700°C.  The scrap melts, impurities are oxidised, and the carbon content is reduced by 90%, resulting in liquid steel.  The stamp depicted the Oxygen Furnace in Shanghai Iron and Steel Company (上海钢铁厂).
 
(5-4)【Steel rolling】In steel making, rolling is a metal forming process in which steel stock is passed through a pair of rolls.  Rolling is classified according to the temperature of the steel rolled.  If the temperature of the steel is above its recrystallization temperature, then the process is termed as hot rolling.  If the temperature of the steel is below its recrystallization temperature, the process is termed as cold rolling.  The stamp depicted the steel rolling scene in Wuhan Iron & Steel Company (武汉钢铁厂).

(5-5)【Finished products】After steels are made into final products, they are shipped, mainly by trains, to other factories or places where there are demand for steel.  The stamp depicted the busy finished products shipping scene at Shanghai Iron and Steel Company (上海钢铁厂).

T26 – Iron and Steel Industry  钢铁工业 Issue Date: 1978.7.22
Serial Number:	T26
Scott Number:	1415-1419
Michel Number:	1425-1429
Number of stamps in Set:	5
Denomination:	8 fen for stamp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Quantity of Issue:	14,000,000 for stamp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Perforation:	P11½
Sheet Composition:	35 (5 X 7) for stamp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Size of stamps:	62 X 26 mm for stamp 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Designer:	Sun Chuanzhe 孙传哲
Printing Process:	Photogravure
Printing House:	Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works