Screens are a very common piece of furniture in traditional Chinese culture, and screens are almost always placed in the homes of the ancients. It is said that the screen appeared as early as the Zhou Dynasty, but at that time only zhou tianzi could enjoy it, and it was also used as a symbol of power and status. From the name, it can be known that the screen was used to block the wind in the early days, and later with the improvement of people's aesthetics, the screen has the role of beautification, coordination, separation and so on. If the selection is appropriate, it can often form a natural beauty with other furniture in the home, but the screen is also slowly declining in the long history, and the number of people using it is getting less and less.
The screen partition is a very old piece of furniture, according to historical records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. It is also recorded in the "Chronicle of History": "The Son of Heaven stands on the screen." The emperor used the screen as a symbol of power and dignity, the ministers used the screen as a tool to warn themselves, and the literati and scholars used the screen as a work of art and placed it on the desk to admire, and everyone injected spiritual sustenance into the screen. After a long period of development, the screen began to spread to the people, entered the homes of ordinary people, and became an important part of the interior decoration of the ancients.
The psychological influence of the screen on Chinese is very far-reaching, and Yayun Mahogany believes that this is closely related to the philosophy of Chinese since ancient times. The ancients paid attention to subtlety, pursued the middle way, paid attention to privacy, and did not make a fuss. Therefore, everyone can find the function they need from the screen.
Of course, in addition to the ancient books, we still hope to see some physical objects as confirmation. However, there are not many such opportunities, and the earliest we can see a screen from the Western Han Dynasty unearthed by Mawangdui. Fortunately, many famous paintings and ancient paintings in history faithfully depict the style of the screen at that time. From it, we can peek into the leopard and witness the development of the screen in the long river of history.
The screens of the Eastern Jin Dynasty still played the most basic function - wind blocking. At that time, the house was quite ventilated, and when sleeping, I was afraid of catching a cold, and I would put a screen near my head. At this time, the functionality of the screen is much greater than the decoration.
During the Han and Tang dynasties, almost all rich families used screens. Its form has also increased compared with the previous generation, from the original single fan screen to a multi-fan screen spliced curved screen, stackable, can be opened and closed, before the Han Dynasty, the screen was mostly painted on wooden boards, painted, since the invention of papermaking, mostly paper paste.
In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, in addition to landscape paintings, the decorative patterns of the screens even had screens that were drawn in the screens. Among the famous paintings in ancient China, the one that depicts the most screens is Gu Hongzhong's "Han Xizai's Night Feast Map" in the Five Dynasties period.
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, a situation of feudal division was formed, and the history was called the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. At that time, the Southern Tang Dynasty was the strongest, and successively attacked the State of Min and the State of Chu, but due to the decline of national strength due to repeated troops, it was finally defeated by Later Zhou.
The Southern Tang chancellor Han Xizai lived in such a turbulent era. His life was bumpy, and he had several ups and downs in the eunuch sea. The first two emperors of the Southern Tang Dynasty were very important to Han Xizai and appointed him as a Zhongshu Sheren and Hubu Shilang. But after Li Yu ascended the throne, Han Xizai's fate changed.
Han Xizai's arrogant personality aroused Li Yu's suspicions. Han Xizai simply stopped going to the court and feasted and reveled at home every day, indulging in sex.
Li Yu very much wanted to know what Han Xizai was doing at home, so he sent the court painter Gu Hongzhong to infiltrate Han Xizai's home and paint all the scenes of his life one by one, which achieved the "Han Xizai Night Feast Map" that was passed down to later generations.
Listening to music, watching dances, resting, blowing, and sending off, Gu Hongzhong's "Han Xizai's Night Feast" has left a real life scene for posterity in the southern Tang Dynasty. There are five sections in the whole volume, each of which uses a screen as a natural boundary, so that each piece of the picture can be independently divided into chapters.
Han Xizai was sitting on a three-screen bed, with landscape paintings on three sides, and a large seat screen in front of him, which showed the drunken gold fans of the southern Tang Dynasty at that time.
Paintings from the Song and Yuan dynasties. Among them, the screen has been slightly complicated, but more effort is spent on the content of decorative paintings, and the requirements for wood and woodwork on the base are not strict.
After the Ming Dynasty, there were hanging screens, which have exceeded the practicality of the screen and become pure ornaments. It can be divided into seat screen and surround screen.
Seat screen: It is composed of two parts: interstitial screen and base. The interstitial screen can be installed and removed, with hardwood as a frame and a screen core in the middle.
Screen: Composed of an even number of screen fans, it can be folded. The screen is composed of a screen frame and a screen core, and there are also plate-like screen screens without a screen frame, and each fan is connected by a screen twist chain. Some small-sized screens can be set on the kang for decoration, called kang screen.
The screen accompanies Chinese culture and has a glorious past. However, after Chinese history entered the Republic of China, with the change of lifestyle, the screen also began to decline. Among them, the widespread use of glass is an important reason for the decline of screens.