Qing Yongzheng pastel lotus jade pot spring bottle, collected by the Palace Museum
Huadao, which can be described as China's long-standing aesthetics of life, not only creates an elegant space atmosphere, but also can see things clearly, sweep away the dust of the heart, and enjoy endlessly.
The integration of grass and trees into the natural life scene is not only a new interpretation of the aesthetics of utensils, but also makes the utensils turn into "flower utensils". The elegant grade of the flower is not expressed purely in terms of value, but with the concept of "the use of the instrument is supreme, the use of it is beautiful", the flowers are folded into the bottle, and the true value of the utensils can be "used" is reinterpreted through the "birth, beauty, silence and extinction" of the flowers.
Folding flowers into the room, like flowers in the wild, is very interesting
Outside Chang'an City, the poet Du Mu Xingyuan traveled in the spring, and there was a poem cloud that "Mo Wei Apricot Garden was haggard, and there were many flower arrangers in the city." "Flower arrangement" here should be the language of hairpin flowers and flowers, but it is more or less possible to peek at the fun of flowers, which has existed since ancient times.
Lu You also has the poem "Flower Arrangement", the poem Yun "There are flowers that are not inserted, there are wine lords who do not hold, when the flowers are empty, the old wine households are declining." This year, when the illness stopped drinking, the chrysanthemum was vain. Early plum line can be explored, the home is full of green, Jun is not strong and drunk, and the years have passed. New poems should also be given, not words poured. It can also be seen that "flower arrangement" has a long history.
Northern Wei glass vase flower ware
There are also flowers with pindi, and there are many types of flowers, and the "flower qi" is different, such as peony grace, summer lotus day, magnolia Qingya, begonia autumn beauty, rhododendron, and even han plum is not in contention for spring, etc., four times are different, all are appropriate. If placed in it, the sleeping accommodation is all among the flowers, like butterflies, there is a sense of tranquility.
The "flower feelings" that are pleasing to the eye and entertaining, then the "flowers" are also like poetry, and they must be exquisite. Under the pear tree, it is like "washing makeup for the pear blossoms, fragrant and golden urn", and playing flutes in the peach forest, then "looking for the spring red of baihui, not ashamed to be a flower slave". Therefore, "it is common to be the same as the window before the moon, because there are flowers embellished with different stools." ”
In fact, as early as the "Book of Poetry", it is written that "The Uighurs and the women, Yi Qi, give them peony medicine", know that men and women who love each other pour out their hearts with flowers, and there are also scenes of "offering flowers before the Buddha" in the "History of the South", such as "There are lotus flowers for the Buddha, and the monks use poppy water to decorate their stems, and do not wilt with desire" is to express their devotion to the elegance of the flowers and express their sincere beliefs.
"Flower affairs" are popular, flowers and shadows are fragile, so the ancients visited famous flowers and trees, so that "the car and horse are crazy, the Chang'an flowers are expensive", Bai Juyi's "Buy Flowers" has a poem cloud "The imperial city is twilight in spring, and the noisy car is madu." When you share peonies, go with the flowers. Expensive and unequal, the remuneration depends directly on the number of flowers. Burn a hundred red flowers, and hold five bundles of pigments. ...... A bunch of dark flowers, ten households. Among them, the "five bunches of su" refer to a peony with a hundred flowers, and the price is as high as twenty-five horses.
It can also be seen that the heart of the literati and scholars who "cherish flowers" and the fun of "appreciating flowers" can be described as flowers gradually becoming charming. And with the flower shadow people, allegorical sense of all things, the wind of the "flower road" is even more rising. In the late Tang Dynasty Luo Qiu's "Flower Nine Tin", it is written that "Hua Jiu Xi, also Shu Lan, Hui, Mei, Lotus Generation can be approved, if the hibiscus, the hedding, the wangxian, the mountain wood, the wild grass, the straight only Ear, Shang Xi's hu? Heavy top drapery (幛風), golden scissors (scissors), Ganquan (dipping), jade jar (storage), carved platform (placement), drawing, turning, beauty (appreciation), new poems (yong). This was recorded earlier as "flower arrangement".
By the time of the Song Dynasty, the literati folded flowers into the room, such as flowers in the wild, not a bit of bookish fun, such as Wu Zimu's "Dream Liang Record" with "tea, incense burning, hanging paintings, flower arrangement" collectively known as "four kinds of idle things". Flower arrangement has become the first of the "four idle things". In Song Huizong Zhao Tuo's "Listening to the QinTu", there is also a depiction of "flower arrangement".
Wu Changshuo paints "Years of Dynasty Qing Dynasty"
Later, in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Yuan Hongdao's "History of Bottles" said: "The beauty of flowers is in the spirit, the spirit of people is not created, the meaning is in the object, and the self-satisfaction." "Using flowers as a unique way for literati to communicate and blend with the spirit of nature is in line with the "Cheng Huai Enlightenment Dao" advocated by the "Confucian Tao". Zhang Qiande's "Vase Flower Spectrum" and Tu Benyi's "Vase History and Moon Table" are also specially written for "flower arrangement", so "flower arrangement" as a "book to clear offering", indispensable, full of style.
In the "Six Records of Floating Life" of the Qing Dynasty Shen Fu, it is also written that "but every year the hedges are chrysanthemums bloom, and the accumulation of prosperity becomes a habit." Like to pick the bottle, do not like to play in the pot. ...... Its flower arrangement, the number should be single, should not be double, each bottle to take one, do not take two colors. ..." Is the scribe jade vase for flowers, the table is absolutely victorious, there is a great sense of borrowing the environment to adjust the heart, hidden in the wild, no wonder Yang Wanli Shiyun "Empty fast is not no autumn and summer, summer is not cut off by the cost." Many famous artists in the Qing Dynasty painting world, such as Gao Fenghan, Lang Shining, Leng Ming, Jin Tingbiao, Wu Changshuo, etc., often use the theme of "flower offering" in their paintings, and the humanistic atmosphere is full of atmosphere.
For example, the Palace Museum in Beijing collects Wu Changshuo's "Illustration of the Qing Dynasty of the Year", which is composed of bottle plums, daffodils, pucao, and xiushi, and placed in bottles and basins and other utensils to show as a clear offering on the desk. In the painting, a red plum is inserted in a flower-blue thin-necked long-necked ancient vase, and the dark incense floats, which is very elegant and elegant. The poet Lu Kai once had a poem "Folding Flowers and Sending Them to the Longtou People." Gangnam has nothing, talk about giving a branch of spring. "That is, the red plum of the sparse flower is placed in the bottle to be offered." There are also emerald green daffodils in the pots, and the grasses in the big cup are colorful in the spring, and the elegant and beautiful are also beautiful.
Chen Hongshou's works, with thick and rounded lines, ancient shapes and ancient colors, make people impressed by the "ancient", "elegant", "clumsy" and "strange" of the works. Lu Xun also highly respected, believing that "Lao Lian's paintings are masterpieces of a generation". And his "Year Dynasty Map" is also a high-style, ice-clear jade "white plum", brilliant zhuxia, dansha dyeing "red peach blossom", both sharp color contrast, but also bright and warm spring. As a "flower vessel", the ancient vase has a beautiful shape, classical ornamentation, and natural meaning, which can also highlight the bones of the god of flowers.
It is precisely in line with this that many literati and scholars today combine "artifact aesthetics" with "contemporary calligraphy and painting" through the "art of flower arrangement", presenting a new oriental "spatial aesthetics", and at the same time conveying the new literati life concept of "utensils as the first, using them as beauty", in order to have a hidden world, immerse themselves in the place of spiritual restoration, day and night, good ancient minzhi, and express their chest.
Chen Hongshou paints "Qing Confession"
Suitable for the fun of the bookstore, can be used as a "flower utensil"
Chinese flower ware is the first to open a "flower arrangement" precedent, and it is also the most exquisite. Gao Lian's "Method of Vase Flowers" in Gao Lian's "Eight Notes on Zunsheng" has a choice of flower utensils, such as "If the study vase is arranged, it should be short", or the flower arrangement in the hall, then "the bronze flower is placed on the top, or the kiln is fixed in the vase, and when the flower is arranged, the flower is arranged in the vase to collect the aroma". Zhang Qiande's "Vase Flower Spectrum" also said that "copper is used in spring and winter, and porcelain is used in summer and autumn... Precious porcelain copper, cheap gold and silver, Shang Qing Ya also. Therefore, the "selection instrument" of flower arrangement must be suitable for category, shape and system, etc., otherwise it is afraid of vulgarity and disharmony, and the main and secondary are difficult to understand, and it is flowing in the market. And fold the flowers into the bottle, then the vessel to carry the road, the flowers to send affection.
There are many kinds of Chinese flower utensils, which are suitable for the fun of study, and can be used as "flower utensils".
Its Chinese period faience pottery, Zhan Han gray pottery, Han green glaze, etc., is very rich in the beauty of high ancient pottery. Compared with the porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as Yongle Sweet White, Yongxuan Qinghua, Chenghua Doucai, Jiawan Wucai, Qing Dynasty Official Kiln, etc., the high ancient porcelain of the cultural period or the Warring Han Dynasty is simple, elegant, updated and full of mystery. Its shape is simple and clumsy, its style is bold and rough, and its artistic tension and vitality are full of vitality.
Han Dynasty green glaze flower vessel
For example, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the "Blue Glazed Lotus Zun" honored the skimmer, the long neck, the bulging abdomen, and the high foot hollow outer skimming. What is particularly special is that the shoulders and abdomen are decorated with plastic paste and carving techniques to decorate the "lotus pattern" ornamentation, including the lotus petals, the lotus petals, and the bodhi leaves, etc., the lotus petals are fat, the petal tips are upturned, and they are very beautiful. In addition, the decorations such as lotus petals, tuanhua flowers, and flying heavens on the deity were also in line with the Buddhist beliefs that prevailed at that time. If you fold a green lotus in this way and offer it to the Buddha, your heart will be pious and knowable.
And Song porcelain is elegant and timeless, and there is no shortage of admirers. It not only inherits the Tang Dynasty's Zhong Lingyu Show, but also takes the ultimate elegance as the beauty, and the view is clean and loose, and the dust of the heart is swept away. For example, the Song Huizong Emperor approved the Ru kiln: "Where the rain passes through the sky and the clouds break, the color of the person does the future" it can be known that the poetry contained in the Song porcelain is full of poetry, the sky is high and the clouds are light, which arouses people's reverie. The Qianlong Emperor also wrote a poem, praising: "There was no fire, but it seemed to have clouds." It can also be seen that he has a deep love for Song porcelain.
As a major peak of flower ware, among the Song porcelain, the five famous kilns play an important role in the history of porcelain. Its color is more white, blue, purple, blue, the shape of the instrument is not complicated, occasionally carved flowers and other ornaments, flowers and leaves are covered, rich in charm, painting on the paper, the shape of the instrument is also elegant and pleasant, the craftsmanship is excellent, it has a dignified beauty, and it can also be known that the Song porcelain is hidden in the simple and beautiful, deep and quiet.
The bottle originated from the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty prevailed in the antique style, which was modeled on the appearance of the Zhou Dynasty Yu Chun and changed. For example, the Forbidden City's collection of "Longquan Kiln Green Glaze Qun-style Bottle", the whole body is glazed, the glaze color is lustrous and bright, the fine fragment pattern is opened, the square straight abdomen, and the four sides are decorated with raised horizontal and vertical lines. The Qianlong Emperor himself examined the Qun as a counterweight for the ancients to carry heavy objects, and he also formulated the Qun as a copper liner for use as a pen holder or a court flower arrangement.
Ming Yongle blue and white butterfly pattern jade pot spring vase, collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei
During the Ming Dynasty, such vases were also commonly used as vases of "yarrow bottles", which were basically the same as Yarrow bottles in terms of instrument type. In Xiang Yuanbian's "Atlas of Famous Porcelain in Past Dynasties", there is also a piece of "Song Ziding Small Yarrow Bottle", which is no different from the Zhen-style bottle, and the inscription "Small Yarrow Bottle, connoisseurs think that the flower vessel is made of the best product, this bottle is of moderate size, for the most wonderful flower arrangement." ”
In addition, traditional Chinese culture is inclusive, and during the Tang Dynasty, the Central Asian glass vases that were traded to China were also a major chinese flower ware. "May when I attain bodhi in my next life, my body will be like glass, clear inside and out, pure and unblemished", which is the state of mind that the Buddhists seek to be clean and clear, and the glass is also regarded as the crown of the Seven Treasures of Buddhism. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the volume of the "Cultivation Book" also contains the words "When there was a woman, holding a vase of flowers. The Buddha shines light, illuminates the vase, and turns into glass. See each other inside and out. "The same Buddhist believers planted flower branches in glass purification bottles, hoping for light and blessing.
Therefore, for a long time, the glass bottle has been valuable because of its transparency and depth, subtlety and introvertedness, and it has been a treasure of the Buddhist family and loved by the upper class. In addition, Huang Tingjian's "Sixteen Songs of The Praise of the Luohan of Nanshan" mentions "glass flower pots", the "Luohan Tu" in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei depicts the arrangement of green glass plates, and Zhang Daqian's "bottle lotus" held by the auspicious goddess of the Yulin Grottoes, etc., are all examples of "glass offering flowers". At the same time, the use of glass bottles can not only show the openness of Chinese culture, but also know that the custom of "artificial jade" in "jade culture" has been established since ancient times, and it also has physical reference significance for the aesthetics of ancients.
Therefore, the literati are keen to use glass as a flower vessel, and its mysterious beauty and noble temperament and sense of high-class, like a little gold leaf, reflected in the soft and colorful millennium dream, natural flow, and flowers shine brightly, which is fascinating.
Qing Yongzheng kiln change glazed string pattern bottle, the Collection of the Palace Museum
The Yuanming Qinghua, Doucai, early Qing Dynasty imitation of ancient porcelain, pastels, etc., have not been long ago, and as "flower tools", it can be said that they abound. Among them, the "Yuanming Qinghua" enamel is lustrous and white, the blue and white flowers are light and bright, and the various patterns painted, such as tangled lotus patterns, peony patterns, etc., are also more rigorous and full, the lines are sparse and beautiful, the layers are clear, the dizziness is natural, the dynamic is full, there is the beauty of ink painting, the meaning is auspicious. As a flower vessel, it can be described as a very high grade.
The Palace Museum collects the "Spring Vase of Blue and White Jade Pots in the Early Ming Dynasty", which is used by the court as a royal object, painting blue and white ruyi head pattern, back pattern, curly grass pattern, tangled lotus pattern and lotus petal pattern, etc., its shape is solemn, the ornamentation is simple, the composition is full, and the layers are clear, which can be described as good porcelain. And its slender neck, round abdomen drooping, circle feet, and the enamel is lustrous and white, blue and white light and bright, the view of fresh and soft, tangled branches are also known as "longevity vine", meaning auspicious celebration, the bottle takes the harmonic sound of "ping", meaning "peace". If the flower arrangement of the flower vessel in this form has the meaning of "New Year Peace", and also fulfills the wonderful rhyme of the jade pot spring bottle, and "the jade pot buys spring", the search for the fang does not feel drunk, the literati are elegant, and it is more rare than holding the pot.
It is worth mentioning that in the early Qing Dynasty, if the collection of ancient porcelain, the best tools appear frequently. According to the "Tao Cheng Chronicle" of Tang Ying, the governor of the tao at that time, the imperial porcelain used by the court from the Song Daguan, the ming Yongle, Xuande, Chenghua, Jiajing, Wanli official kilns, as well as the Ge kiln, Ding kiln, Jun kiln, Longquan kiln, Yixing kiln, Western and Oriental utensils, all have been imitated. Such as Chenghua Doucai, the Kangxi Dynasty was highly respected, and there were many imitations, and by the time of the Yongzheng Dynasty, it changed the thick and ancient style of the Kangxi Dynasty, and the imitation kiln works had been said to be "Ming see Chenghua, Qing look at Yongzheng". The blue and white porcelain imitation, its color is light and fresh, compared with the previous porcelain art charm is not less than more. The imitation of Song porcelain treasures in the Qianlong period is almost perfect, inheriting the porcelain glaze type of the Song Dynasty, and some of them also take the modeling elements of bronze ware, which are manywhat innovative. For example, the shape of the ear-piercing zun instrument is taken from the Shang Zhou Zun Yi, which is stable and atmospheric, and it is quite popular at that time.
Therefore, with the "early Qing Dynasty imitation of ancient porcelain" as a flower vessel, its shape is not only royal style, but also the glaze color is the Confucian aesthetic of the Song Dynasty literati; or the blue and white hair color is contrasted with the porcelain white glaze, giving people a beautiful and elegant beauty; or the various ornaments or inscriptions on the bronze ceremonial vessels that are integrated, like ancient totems, showing the fashion of "plucking and anger", etc., have a natural loneliness, ancient meaning, fresh and mellow.
Qingyongzheng pastel blue glaze engraved flower phoenix pattern bottle, the Collection of the Palace Museum
In addition, in modern space, it is not easy to find "large flower utensils" as decoration. Therefore, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were large urns produced in the north and south, because the age distance was not too long, and the shape was appropriate, and there was classical beauty, and the flowers were colorful and the urns were quiet and simple, and the contrast was sharp, which was quite suitable for modern space landscaping.
Nowadays, the combination of ancient artifacts and contemporary art to create a space aesthetic is just red, both classical artistic conception, but also no lack of modern aesthetics, the intersection of time and space with each other, literary beauty, material beauty, jumei, you can see the beauty of the eyes, wonderful, interesting and vulgar. In the future, it is also expected to integrate utensils, flowers and spaces, bring the aesthetics of utensils into life, and build an artistic life in the new era.
Author: Lin Xueqiong
Editor: Fan Xin
Editor-in-Charge: Xueying Wang
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.