Ancient Chinese architecture, rich in colors and thousands of shapes can be seen everywhere.
In gatehouses, window mullions, ridges, floors, etc., or in the wood grain, or masonry imprints, Chinese pattern culture has been embedded in the depths of time.
Due to the particularity of architectural decoration, it is impossible to directly depict and carve out a specific plot like painting and sculpture, so it mostly uses symbolic and analogous methods to express certain content, and also uses images of animals, plants, utensils and other objects with specific symbolic significance, individually or in combination to show a certain content.
Animal tattoos
It is passed down to its gods, and the form of the god hides auspiciousness
Ancient craftsmen who painted patterns may have never learned to paint, but they can find inspiration from nature, and the lifelike animal patterns add a lot of color to the traditional Chinese patterns.
Mainly in ground carvings, leaky windows, architectural details and landscape sketches.
dragon
The divine dragon was a totem symbol of the Chinese nation long before the ancestor of Han Gaozu called himself the son of the dragon, so in the palace building, although the dragon became a symbol of the emperor and stipulated that it could not be used elsewhere.
However, in the people, the dragon has become a symbol of sacredness and festivity and is widely used in temples, ancestral halls and other buildings.
The figure of the divine dragon can be seen on the brick ridge of the roof of the houses everywhere, on the beams of the stone archway, and in the brick decoration of the brick door head and door face.
There are dragons with dragon heads and claws, as well as grass dragons and kidnappers with dragon heads and tattoos.
Suzhou Jinshan Shishi
lion
The lion with a fierce personality, commonly known as the king of beasts, has long been a protector beast in Buddhism, and after it spread to China, it became a protective beast that guarded the gate.
In front of the building gate, a pair of lions are juxtaposed left and right, with a lioness with a lion cub on the right and a male lion on the left receiving hydrangeas, which has become a fixed format.
In front of the palace temple there are independent stone lions, and in front of the gate of ordinary houses, the lions are carved into the gate pier stone.
Interestingly, in the people, when the people celebrate the New Year, a lion dance and lion play activity rises, and the fierce lion becomes lively and cute, so the lion not only has a powerful symbolic meaning, but also shows a festive atmosphere.
turtle
The turtle is an aquatic animal, but it can climb ashore to stay on land for a while, unlike fish and shrimp that cannot survive once out of the water.
The turtle has hard armor on its back, and in case of external aggression, the glans head and limbs can be shrunk into the carapace for self-defense.
Tortoise shell was often used in ancient times for divination, and the matters and words of fortune were engraved on the armor, called oracle bones, which became an important material for early writing and history.
The turtle is one of the longest-lived beasts among the beasts, and has long been listed as one of the four sacred beasts along with the dragon, phoenix and tiger, so the turtle has the symbolic meaning of divine and longevity.
On the components of brick and stone materials, in addition to using turtles as the base of stone monuments, its overall image is rarely used for decoration, and it is common to use hexagonal shapes on the back of the turtle, called turtle back patterns, as decorative patterns.
This turtle back pattern is linked to each other and often appears on masonry elements as a decorative shading.
fish
Fish appeared as a decorative pattern very early, and thousands of years ago, humans used pottery products to have the image of fish.
Fish has a lot of symbolic significance, fish has strong fecundity, symbolizing that many children are of great significance in Chinese feudal society that attaches great importance to family derivation.
The homonym of fish is "yu", whether it is blessings and happy events, there are more than every year, and every household has more than enough, which is what people expect.
Therefore, the image of the fish often appears in brick carvings and stone carvings.
Deer and cranes
Deer are tame. The newborn antlers on the deer's head are called antler velvet, which is a valuable medicinal herb that has a great supplement to the human body.
The deer is a mysterious and sacred animal in traditional Chinese culture, and it is a fairy beast that symbolizes longevity in Buddhism.
The homonym of the deer is "Lu", which means that the ancient official is the servant of the official, and the high-ranking official is thick, symbolizing wealth and prosperity.
The crane has a thin neck, pointed beak, long legs, and stands tall. If the skin on the top of the crane's head is bare and red, it is called a "red-crowned crane", and the image is more beautiful.
The crane pattern was first seen in the Tang Dynasty. The crane is a rui bird, often carved on the gatehouse in combination with a pine tree, which also symbolizes longevity, which means that the pine crane prolongs its life; It is also often combined with deer prints, called "Six Contract Spring" or "Deer Crane Same Spring", representing people's pursuit and yearning for a better life
Cranes are the longest-lived among birds, so the crane and lotus that call the high life of a person "crane age" are put together, and the homonym of the two has the meaning of "harmony and happiness".
bat
The color is gray, hiding in the dark during the day, afraid of seeing the bright bat only because it has a nice name, the homonym of the bat is "all over the blessing" everywhere is a blessing, so it frequently appears in the decoration of the building,
Their images are often seen in the brick carvings on the front of the door and the shadow wall, but this unassuming animal has been greatly beautified by craftsmen, and some are almost like a flower butterfly with spread wings.
There are also elephants, unicorns and other animals with auspicious meanings.
Geometry
Change in its line, immerse in Chinese heritage
Geometric patterns, named for the various regular geometric figures composed of dots, lines and surfaces, are the earliest and most concise ornamentation.
Common geometric patterns in Chinese construction include back lines, ice cracks, ruyi patterns, etc., which are widely used in building construction and landscape construction.
Wrinkles
The back line, composed of horizontal and vertical short lines folded, is named after the shape of the word "hui", which means auspicious and long. The independent back pattern is often used as the interval or edge pattern such as beams, moon cave doors, and paving, and the continuous back pattern is used as architectural decoration to decorate the neat and uniform delicate effect.
Ice cracks
Ice cracks, as the name suggests, are patterns formed by the explosion of ice blocks after a high degree of abstraction, just as ice cracks melt, which means that all unsatisfactory things will pass, and beauty will come as scheduled; It is often used for floor paving and window mullions decoration, and the looming visual perception adds a touch of charm to the garden.
Ruyi lines
Ruyi pattern is named because the ornament is taken from the Ruyi shape, borrowing the metaphor "satisfied" and "ruyi",
Together with "bottle", "halberd", "pan" and "peony", it forms auspicious patterns such as "peace ruyi", "auspicious celebration ruyi" and "rich ruyi" widely used by the people,
Used in Chinese architectural construction, the common ruyi pattern is the decoration of hanging fish.
Glyphs
It is a picture, and the brushstrokes are auspicious
Since ancient times, "Ji" has been the eternal pursuit theme of human beings. The Chinese characters generated from the totem, Wan, Fu, Lu, Shou, Xi, Cai, An... None of them fall into the category of auspicious, and are expressed in architecture, mostly in the form of carvings and paintings.
Swastika pattern
The swastika pattern, that is, the Sanskrit "swastika" ornament, means "collection of auspicious places".
It is precisely because of this meaning that ancient craftsmen built the 33 houses in the Old Summer Palace in the shape of a "swastika" in the water, forming a unique swastika xuan.
Although the swastika pattern is composed of straight lines, it is in the form of rotational symmetry, without the slightest sense of dullness, solemn, strict, lively, free, often used in the decoration of leaky windows, railings, and hangings, which means long fortune, long life, and ten thousand years.
Shouji pattern
The word "Shou" is known to every Chinese to its meaning.
The "Shou" character pattern mostly appears in the drop tile, with the combination of the long "Shou" character pattern and the bat pattern, which means "five blessings to repay life", and the round "Shou" character pattern is combined with the lotus pattern and Ruyi ear to mean "Fu Shou Ruyi".
Plant grains
Beauty in its shape, every inch of craftsmanship
With the emergence of primitive agriculture, people's lives have been closely related to plants, and plant patterns have also been widely used in faience, utensils, clothing, houses...
In Chinese window leaks, cave doors, floor paving and landscape decoration sketches, plant patterns such as Ganoderma lucidum flowers, begonia flowers, lotus flowers, and curly grass are often used, forming rich artistic expressions through exquisite compositional combinations.
Abesque
Vine grass, also known as auspicious grass, jade belt grass, Guanyin grass, etc., is a curly grass ornament used since the Tang Dynasty.
The arabesque pattern is mostly taken from the lotus, honeysuckle, bodhi and other Buddhist patterns such as huacani, Falun, and Yingluo, which not only have the ethereal curve but also have the rhythm of moving clouds; "Man" homophony "wan", vine grass shape like a belt, "belt" homophony "generation", symbolizing wealth and wealth and happiness.
Lotus pattern
Lotus, also known as lotus, hibiscus, water bloom, etc., has a deep cultural origin in China, and began to be used as ornaments in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and was revered as a gentleman among flowers, symbolizing purity. Often in the form of carvings, decorated in landscape sketches and architectural details.
Natural lines
Faith in painting, thousands of years to build a flourish
Chinese beauty, beauty in its artistic conception. Picking the full moon in the sky and placing it on the plain wall has the beauty of the artistic conception of the moon cave gate.
Sun, moon, stars, clouds, waves in astronomy and geography... All have become beautiful wind objects that the ancients placed on them, or take their shapes, or take their righteousness, and construct an aesthetic outside the heavens and the earth.
Sun-like lines
The outer circle of the sun-like pattern resembles the shape of the sun, and the pattern of rotating from east to west in the circle represents the image of the sun rotating rapidly from east to west and rising flames.
Since the Qin Dynasty, sun-like patterns have been applied to paving floors, and sun-like patterns are common in drum stones and leaky windows.
Moire
The cloud pattern originated from the human worship of nature, and the clouds floating high in the air symbolized the ascension of official positions.
The decorative pattern of porcelain with clouds began to appear in the Tang Dynasty, and with the development of thousands of years, cloud patterns have evolved into rich forms, such as four-in-one clouds, ruyi clouds, multi-clouds, flowing clouds, cirrus clouds, etc.
Wave patterns
The pattern of sea waves, shaped like the flow of water, has been present since the Northern Song Dynasty. On the ancient official uniform, also known as the "seawater river cliff pattern", it represents the awe of the ancients for the ocean.
It is mostly displayed by carving technology, making the water texture more three-dimensional.
With the passage of time and the change of times, the fanghua of traditional Chinese patterns has long penetrated into the architectural fabric and solidified into China's unique cultural language.