Wu Hufan Cuihe 137×57cm, 1959
Collection of Chinese Painting Academy, Shanghai
The Chinese people are subtle and do not like to be blunt, so they prefer to borrow things to illustrate things. For example, placing red dates, peanuts, cinnamon balls, and lotus seeds on the marriage bed at the time of marriage implies the blessing of "early birth of your son". The lotus of the lotus flower is homophonous with "harmony" and "union", and naturally has the meaning of harmony, peace, happy knot connection and so on.
Lotus flowers have many beautiful names since ancient times, such as hibiscus, lotus, hibiscus, Lingbo fairy, water palace fairy, jade ring, Zezhi, shuihua and so on. There are sentences in the "Book of Poetry • Zepi", "Pi Ze Zhi Pi, there is Pu and Qi" and "Pi Ze Zhi Pi, there is Pu Han Ling", of which "蕳" is the elegant name of the lotus seed lotus, and "Han Li" refers specifically to the lotus flower with buds, which shows the chinese ancients' preference for lotus flowers.
Zhang Dazhuang Hetang Qingxia 48.5× 30.5cm age unknown
Folklore says that the lotus flower is the incarnation of the maid Yuji who is beside the queen mother, and it is said that Yuji covets the life of the world, secretly goes down to the mortals, but lingers and returns to the heavens, and is suppressed by the queen mother with the lotus throne in the mud of the West Lake, and is never allowed to ascend to the south heaven again. Since then, there has been a kind of peaceful and noble flower in the world.
Legend has it that it is only a beautiful vision of the world, but in fact, in the eyes of the ancient ancestors, lotus was only a plant that could grow lotus seeds, lotus roots and other fruity ingredients. The earliest record of the real garden ornamental plants should be that in the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu Wang Fuchai built the "Guanwa Palace" on the Lingyan Mountain in present-day Suzhou in order to please the beauty Xi Shi, and there was a "play flower pond" to transplant a large number of wild lotus flowers.
Tang Yun Lotus 90×45cm, 1981
The lotus flower has a light and elegant temperament, and is often described as a beauty by literati and inkers. Sima Xiangru once compared his knotted wife to the water hibiscus. The Song Dynasty notebook novel "Northern Dream Trivia" records such a story, saying that during the Tang Dynasty and the Wu Sergeant Su Changyuan met a beauty who was "plain red-faced and beautiful", fell in love with her, frequently met with him, and gave a jade ring as a souvenir. One day he was admiring lotus flowers by the pond of his home, and found his jade ring in the bud of a white lotus, but "because of this, the demon was extinguished." Since then, the lotus flower has also been called "jade ring".
In "Dream of the Red Chamber", Qingwen Xiangxiang and Bao Yu specially composed "Furong Daughter Recitation" for her: "If it is quality, then the gold and jade are not enough to describe its preciousness; if it is sex, then the ice and snow are not enough to describe its purity; if it is a god, the stars and days are not enough to describe its essence; if it is a look, then the flower moon is not enough to describe its color." ”
Pang Zuoyu Lotus Kingfisher 102×45cm, 1963
There is also a word about lotus flowers and beauties, called "step by step lotus", which describes the light gait of a woman. This allusion comes from the "Miscellaneous Treasure Sutra • Deer Lady's Origin" "The deer girl has a lotus flower at every step".
The "Nanshi Qi Jixia and The Deposed Emperor Dong Xiahou" records: "He also chiseled gold for the lotus hua to the ground, and ordered Concubine Pan to go up to it, and this step gave birth to the lotus Huaye." "Emperor Xiao Bao rolled on the ground and pasted lotus flowers with gold leaf, ordered the pet concubine to step on it, and artificially created the effect of stepping on the lotus, which can be described as the effect of the Eastern Shi Gong. However, it can also be seen from the side that the ancients loved lotus flowers at that time.
Especially after the Northern Song Dynasty's great Confucian Zhou Dunyi's sentence "out of the mud without staining, Mao Qing Lian without demon", the lotus flower has achieved the reputation of a gentleman.
Zhang Guiming Lotus leaf like cloud incense continuous 68×68cm 1988
Ancient poets also flocked to lotus flowers. For example, the Song Dynasty poet Yang Wanli's "small lotus only shows sharp horns, there are dragonflies standing on the head" "the lotus leaves are infinitely blue, and the lotus flowers are different red". For example, the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi "Lingye Lingbo Lotus Wind, Lotus Deep Boat Pass". For example, Ouyang Xiu's "The West Lake is good after the lotus blossoms". Another example is the Tang Dynasty Wang Changling", "Wu Ji yue Yan Chu princess, competing for lotus boat water wet clothes" and so on.
Among them, the most beloved is the Southern Dynasty Music House "Xizhou Qu", although the author is no longer available, but the poems are still touching people's hearts. Some people may like the elegance of "looking down at the lotus seeds, the lotus seeds are as green as water", while the author prefers the romance of "the south wind knows my intentions and blows dreams to the west continent". Source: Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting