Gao Jie is one of the most respected characters, so the plums in plants and cranes in birds have been particularly favored by people since ancient times. As a mascot, the cultural meaning of the crane is multifaceted.
The crane is the head of the feather tribe and is known as the "Ichibu bird". The auspicious motifs include "Yi Pin Dang Chao" and "Yi Pin Gao Sheng", the former is the pattern of the rock of the head of the crane standing tide (harmonic "Chao"), the latter is the pattern of the crane flying in the clouds, and "Yi Pin" refers to the crane. There is also the "finger rising sun", which is a pattern of cranes flying at sunrise. The complement pattern of the Ming and Qing dynasty official uniforms, the civilian officials are all cranes. In short, in the traditional flower and bird culture, the crane is "below one person, above ten thousand people", and its status is second only to that of "phoenix" (queen), and it is the ultimate subject of people. The reason why the crane has become a bird of honor, of course, has its outstanding features.
There are many ancient texts about the virtues of cranes. In a nutshell, that is to say, the crane walks in a disciplined manner, like a gentleman; Not lustful, pure and womb; The voice is loud and loud, comparable to a talent. These are the reasons why cranes are regarded as a bird. At the same time, in ancient times, the crane was also used as a metaphor for the virtuous, so the edict for recruiting the sages was called "Crane Plate", the body of the book on the Crane Board was called "Crane Book" or "Crane Head Book", and those who cultivated themselves and had a good reputation were called "Crane MingShi". In connection with this, the auspicious pattern has "Qin Yihe", which means that the officials are clean and honest, not corrupt and not corrupt.
After the crane was ethicalized, it was used to represent the way of father and son. The I Ching Zhongfu 92 says, "The crane is in the yin, and its son is in harmony." It means that the son should be with the voice of the father, and by extension, it is absolutely obedient to the will of the parents. This is in line with the traditional ethical norms of fatherhood and sonhood. In the old days, there was the so-called "Lunshu Tu" (also called Wu Lun Tu), which was a crane to represent the father and son of the crane and the longevity fairy bird. (The Crane Sutra on the Way of the Skin calls it "immeasurable longevity," and the Huainanzi says "Crane Shou Chitose.")
In the traditional view, cranes and turtles are the kings of longevity. Therefore, later generations often use "crane life", "crane age", and "crane calculation" as words to celebrate longevity. Some people, in order to express their desire to live a long life, name it after a crane, such as "Crane Shou", "Crane Year", "Crane Age" (similar to "Turtle Year", "Pine Age", etc.). Similarly, cranes are also used to celebrate birthdays, and in addition to shou lian, they are mostly used for paintings or carvings of shou paintings, shou screens, or other objects.
The crane is a fairy bird, and people say that it has a fairy wind bone. It has a close relationship with Taoist immortals. According to legend, the immortals crossed (rode) cranes, which were called "crane driving" and "crane driving", and later used to refer to immortals and Taoists. The auspicious motif has a "Qunxian Xianshou" figure, which is a pattern of the old life star flying in the air with a crane and the eight immortals (or qunxian) looking up, which can be used to celebrate the birthday.
Cranes are used in auspicious patterns a lot, and there are single-use cranes, such as tuanhe, double cranes, etc.; More are in cooperation with other long-lived animals and plants, such as with pine, there are many titles, such as "pine crane spring", "pine crane with spring", "pine crane age", "crane longevity pine age". In addition, there are turtles and cranes, turtle cranes, deer cranes and so on.