Since the Beijing Winter Olympics were held, the mascots "Ice Pier" and "Snow Rongrong" have become the presence of everyone's attention.
The "ice pier" that integrates national treasure pandas, rock sugar gourds, ice ribbons, astronauts and 5G elements is full of futurism, and the lantern shape + snow cube + paper cutting + double Olympic city + red and golden festive elements of "snow rongrong" conveys warmth to the world.
Whether it is "ice" or "snow", it is the most common presence in nature.
And China's most romantic literati seem to prefer to pour their heavenly creativity into the "snow" that falls from the sky, so much so that there are dozens of elegant names for "snow" in ancient Chinese poetry.
The most accurate - snow has six petals
Reverence for nature is a mark engraved in the genes of the Chinese descendants.
If the fireworks in the world are full of ordinary customs, then the snowflakes that fall from the sky and have not yet fallen to the ground are the most in line with the will of nature, the purest, the most authentic existence.
The most intuitive and accurate observation of snowflakes by the ancients is to find that snowflakes have 6 petals.
If we were modern people, we would probably say that snowflakes have 6 horns.
But the romantic ancients seemed to prefer to compare snow to flowers. Both are flowers, there are petals, the ancients called the petals "out", so the 6-petal snowflake has a romantic simple and intuitive name: six out.
Flying pre-spring snow, because of the upper plum.
One branch is gradually emerging, and six out have been opened at the same time.
- Tang Yuanshu, "Endowed with Spring Snow And Early Plum"
The Qing Dynasty poet Zhao Yi also jokingly asked: "Why is the cold condensed and solidified, why is there six pieces of furniture?" "The Play"
Why are snowflakes all 6 petals?
This question, the romantic and curious Zhao Yi could not answer, so he could only ask himself without answering.
And if a modern natural science scholar crosses over to him, he will probably proudly popularize:
"Long story short — because snowflakes are made of ice crystals. Ice crystals have a stable hexagonal structure that is not easily deformed, so the shape of the 6 corners will remain during the process of the ice crystals generating snowflakes and falling to the ground. So whether it is you ancient people or our present people, most of the snowflakes that can be observed by the naked eye are 6 horns. ”
This is exactly how many degrees the world has gone through vicissitudes, and the snowflakes are still there.
The ancients were extremely impressed by the six petals of snowflakes, in addition to "six out", there are also "six flowers", "six Ying", "six leaves", "six catfish", all refer to snowflakes.
Self-dressed warm, who worries about the snow and flowers. - Don Jia Dao, "Sending Orders to the Fox and The Fox"
Liu Ying Flutter Dance Piece is good, who works with the carving. --Song Li Gang, "The Long Sentence of The Second Rhyme Zhihong Seeing The Spring Snow"
Gently jade folded to the wind, placket sleeves who can recognize the six leaves. --Don Lee Ham in "Heren Yongxue"
The severe wind rises, the six kaspers flutter, and the Jianzhang Palace is ji Qiongyao. ——Ming Lu Cai, "Huaixiang Ji Chengming Snow Feast"
"Peach Blossom Origin" has a saying: "The herbs are delicious, the fall is colorful", and "Ying" is also a flower.
霙 (yīng) is an ancient word that refers to both snowflakes and petals in ancient books.
The most beautiful - snow like flowers
Snowflakes have 6 petals, which is the most accurate and intuitive description of snowflakes by the ancients, but if you want to give a beautiful explanation for snowflakes, snowflakes are "flowers" - natural and pure flowers that fall from the sky:
"Smallpox", "Flying Flowers", "Flying Ying", "Hanying", "Zhai Shui Hua", "Snow Calyx"...
The ceiling is falling endlessly, and the cold door is sparse and the wind flows. --Kim Coats on "Snow"
Regardless of the night of the lanterns, the flying flowers are everywhere cold in spring. ——One of the Northern Song Dynasty Su Rui's "Three Absolute Sentences of Snow before the Shangyuan Dynasty"
The interrogation was speechless, vaguely jealous, and the sky flew in the air. --Southern Song Dynasty Xin Renjie, "Yong Yu Le Fu Mei Xue"
Last night, Providence suddenly replied, and the shade was full of cold ying. Cut into pieces of six out, chemical creations are so exquisite. --Northern Song Dynasty Fan Zhongyan, "Yi Yun and Ti Punishment Tai Bo Jia Xue"
Dongjun did not break the spring rui, and the young girl flew first to splash the water. ——Southern Song Dynasty Fan Chengda, "After Spring, a Night of Snow and Sunshine"
The turbulent night half shook the city, and the snow calyx Joan broke through the blue sky. --Yuan Zhao Wen, "Qionghua Heavenly Song"
翦 (jiǎn), originally meaning a newborn feather, is extended to neat feathers, but also refers to the neatly trimmed feathers. "Splash" should be a metaphor for the hexagonal shape of snowflakes regular and neat.
Calyxes are small green leaves wrapped around the bottom and exterior of the flower. "Snow calyx" should refer to light snow.
It is worth mentioning that Su Rui's "No matter the night of the Shangyuan lights, the flying flowers are everywhere cold in spring". This is exactly the snow on the day of the Lantern Festival, which should be a big red day of heaven and earth, but the snowflakes come to "grab the mirror", and what is contained in "no matter" is the natural reverence of "Providence cannot be violated".
The purest - snow like jade
If the combination of snow and flowers is romantic, then the relationship between snow and jade is probably purity.
A gentleman is like a jade.
The ancient Chinese regarded jade as the crystallization of the essence of heaven and earth, and jade was not only a symbol of status, but also a sojourn of gentleman's virtue.
Many of the elegant names for snow written by the ancient Chinese literati are related to jade:
"Yusha", "Yushu", "Yuhua", "Yuying", "Yurui", "Yuxia", "Qionghua", "Qiongying", "Qiongbao", "Xuanhua", "Yaoying".
"Shijing Weifeng Papaya": "Cast me with a peach, and repay it with Qiong Yao." "Mao's Biography": "Qiong Yao, Mei Yu." ”
Qiong, Yao, xuan, are all beautiful jade.
The heavenly wind flew jade sand, and the grace returned to Mu Xiu early. - Su Shi of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Drinking QingXu Tang to Show the King Dingguo"
The branches of the door are scattered, and the jade is falling. - Sima Guang of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Xueji Dengpuxian Pavilion"
Long sky roll jade flower, Tingzhou Bai Haohao. --Yuan Chen Fu, "Twilight Snow in Jiangtian"
The clouds are white, and the dawn jade is like weaving. - Northern Song Dynasty Su Shi, "Minus Magnolia Snow"
……
The most affectionate - snow like a fairy/beauty
Snow has 6 petals, snow like flowers, snow like jade, accurate, beautiful, pure, but not sentient enough.
Snow, tangled and fluttering, fell from the sky and embraced the earth.
Isn't this a gift from Heaven to mortals? Isn't this a gift from the gods and goddesses of heaven to the human world?
Such a scene is called sentient.
So, there were fairies;
However, after all, fairies are not mortal, immortals are different, if they are mortal, they are more affectionate.
So, there are beauties.
In the imagination of the ancients, snow is a fairy in the sky, or to open the way for higher-ranking gods, or to sing and dance in the sky, so there is snow fluttering.
Bai Ni first opened the tu, from the Wan Yu Concubine. - Tang Hanyu, "Xin Di Nian Xue"
The bearded cloud han fluttered white, and the dancing jade moth in the air was within reach. - Yuan Xue Angfu, "Duan Zheng Gao Yin"
Yunkai Cave House, press the Qiongfei Dance. Thirty-Six Peaks Picture, Zhang Sujin, Column Icicles. --Yuan Zhang Kejiu, "Frost Horn, Xin'an Eight Views, Huangshan Xueji"
"Wan Yu Fei", "Jade Moth", "Qiong Fei", are all fairies.
In the Song Dynasty, Chen Fuliang's "Re-he and Lin Yizhongxi Snow Rhyme" is quite interesting, he did not compare snow to a fairy, but also did not directly compare snow to beauty, but compared snow to plum blossom makeup on the forehead of a beauty:
"Willow with a song, plum pieces fall on the forehead."
Ancient women depicted plum blossoms on their foreheads as ornaments, called "plum blossom makeup". Yuan Yuling of the Qing Dynasty", "Xilou Jiji Jiyan": "Lu Hua lightly fainted Zhaoyang white, and taught you plum blossom makeup." ”
Therefore, "plum pieces fall on the forehead" means that snow is like plum blossom makeup falling from the forehead of a beauty.
This anthropomorphism can be described as very agile and emotional.
Winter is the most severe season, everything withers, and the whole heaven and earth are monotonous white.
However, Lejing can write mourning, and if the person who writes poetry can have the eyes to find beauty and the heart to feel beauty, the monotonous snow will also have its unique beauty.
This is the color of snow, but also the color of nature.
-Author-
Chasing fish, lovers of traditional culture, hope to use words to make what is thought and seen in the dusty history feel, in this era, once again full of humanity.