On February 22, Beijing Postal Branch launched the first meter stamp of the series of colored promotional postage meter stamps Five Oxen, and for the first time tried the online scheduled mail reservation services for promotional meter stamp products.

The online scheduled mail service launched this time is available for customers to reserve at both the Taobao shop “China Post Cultural Creativity Products” and the official Wechat account of Beijing Postal Branch “I love Post”. Customers can pre-order, at a time, all the five different indicia being launched successively in this set of Five Oxen CX51 colored promotional meter stamps, which will be posted in turn from Niujie Post Office.

Since the establishment of themed Post Office of Beijing Zodiac Culture at Niujie Post Office on December 28 last year, it has launched a wide variety of philatelic activities much adored by philatelists and local citizens. Many visitors from outside Beijing are also attracted here. In order to meet customers’ needs, Beijing Postal Branch issued envelopes and postcards for sale at Niujie Post Office, which match the designs of the Five Oxen promotional meter stamps.

The painting of Five Oxen, also known as The Five Oxen by Han Huang of the Tang Dynasty in honor of the painter, is one of the top 10 masterpieces in the country’s art history, and also one of the few extant original paper paintings of the Tang Dynasty. The entire painting, measuring 20.8 by 139.8 centimeters, features five oxen horizontally lined up on flax paper, vividly and elegantly rendered in different postures. It is recognized as the earliest extant paper painting in China with a history over 1300 years. This painting is said to be painted by Han Huang when he spotted some farm cattle in the field on his excursion. The story goes like this: one day, Han Huang saw several farm cattle grazing and a shepherd playing the flute leisurely on an ox's back. In the distance, one other ox was looking upward and running and several others were mooing. Inspired by this sight, Han then asked his attendant to take out the brush and paper and concentrated on sketching out different scenes of farm cattle. After modifications in over a month, he finally completed the portraits of the five oxen, vividly rendered in different postures. Hence the painting entitled Five Oxen.

Beijing Zodiac Culture Post Office planned and launched the series of Five Oxen promotional meter stamps for the purpose of integrating ancient Chinese paintings with philatelic culture and recurring the fantastic scenes of this masterpiece. This campaign is also one of the events staged by this post office to heat up the issuance of the Five Oxen stamps on March 20.