Throughout the ages, people’s daily lives have always been decorated with thousands of auspicious patterns. The unique decorative style and national artistic language of auspicious patterns convey people’s desire to seek good fortune and avoid evil and their yearning for a better life.
Auspicious patterns first originated from people’s pursuit of "auspiciousness" meaning, which is a remarkable expression of the traditional auspicious concept of the Chinese nation. Such as pine and cypress, crane indicating longevity, Yuanyang and butterfly symbolizing beautiful love, Guan Gong and Zhong Kui who keep the town safe, and the three immortals who symbolize happiness, auspiciousness and longevity. China people’s daily activities, such as basic necessities of life, weddings, funerals and weddings, sacrifices and prayers, festivals and celebrations, are all branded with the concept of praying for good luck.
There are many auspicious records in ancient Chinese books. From the Book of Changes, "auspicious things are auspicious, like knowing things, accounting for things"; In Zhuangzi’s Life on Earth, it can be seen that "auspiciousness" is the spiritual hope of people around the simple propositions of human beings such as survival and reproduction. Because of this, China people’s pursuit of good fortune has become a tough bond, which has been passed down from generation to generation, and has formed a national cultural phenomenon rooted in our daily life in the historical circulation of thousands of years.
So when did the traditional auspicious patterns in China begin to appear?
According to the records, the totem of "auspiciousness" began to appear on rock paintings, sculptures and pottery in ancient times. In primitive culture, the ancestors worshipped and conquered nature through conscious labor and hunting. They carved decorative symbols on rock paintings and pottery to achieve the purpose of survival, luck and totem worship. For example, the bird patterns and frog patterns on pottery unearthed in Banpo and Miaodigou in Shaanxi Province are the quasi-symbols of the early sun and moon, and they are the materialized carriers of the sun and moon gods revered by people in their imagination. Primitive ancestors carved these symbols to express their worship of nature and gods and their prayers for good weather.
Since then, from the rich and solemn patterns on bronzes in Xia and Shang Dynasties, Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, such as gluttonous patterns, dragon patterns, bird and beast patterns, to the tomb murals in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the tree patterns, animal patterns with Buddhist and metaphysical colors and the auspicious theme of Kui Wen; From the rich auspicious elements in art forms such as flower-and-bird painting, porcelain and paper-cutting in Song and Yuan Dynasties to the unprecedented prosperity of folk Yangliuqing, Taohuawu and Weifang New Year pictures in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the traditional auspicious patterns in China have gone through a long evolution process, and with the development of the times, they gradually deviated from the pure worship of gods and tended to be secular, and entered the lives of ordinary people from emperors and nobles.
In the long process of development, auspicious patterns bear the hope of China people for a happy life, forming a complete system with national characteristics, and their shapes and forms are gradually enriched and diversified, especially in folk auspicious art, there are many lively, joyful and free shapes, which generally show a diversified development trend.
In addition to a long history, auspicious patterns are rich in types, which can be divided into animals, figures, plants and utensils according to their performance contents, all of which have a beautiful meaning of seeking luck and receiving happiness, reflecting the rich imagination and superb artistic level of China people.
For example, all kinds of animal patterns that have appeared since ancient times are mostly presented in abstract and generalized forms, including all kinds of birds, animals, fish and insects, as well as dragons, phoenixes, unicorns and "four gods" endowed with auspicious meanings in people’s imagination. Ancient Kirin was regarded as a godsend, with a beautiful meaning of praying for the continuation of children; Crane is the representative of longevity, and "The Millennium of Crane Life" and "The Longevity of Pine Crane" are all common themes. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, cranes were also embroidered in the clothes of officials as a product to show auspicious and status. Deer with the same sound as the word "Lu" in "Fu, Lu and Shou" are used to indicate prosperity; Butterflies with beautiful images and love flowers are used to symbolize happy love, etc. Cats and butterflies often appear together in traditional Chinese painting, which is homophonic and symbolizes longevity. All these are too numerous to mention.
Characters are also very common types of auspicious patterns, including stories of characters, gods of characters, historical and dramatic figures, etc., which usually have the meaning of exorcising evil spirits, praying for marriage and children, punishing evil and promoting good, and reflecting people’s happy life and pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. For example, in the Song Dynasty, with the development of urban economy, there appeared many custom auspicious paintings with auspicious meanings, such as peddlers’ pictures, beauties’ pictures and babies’ plays. Su Hanchen, a famous painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, created a picture of a baby in the autumn court, which depicts a scene in which two babies, one big and one small, are playing in the courtyard. The characters’ faces are round and richly dressed, showing a lively and naive state, and the background is set against plants with auspicious meanings such as hibiscus and chrysanthemum. The game of "pushing dates and grinding" played by them also implies the meaning of early birth.
In addition to animals and figures, plants are also a large category of auspicious patterns, such as plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, peony, pomegranate, pine and cypress. Other artifacts, such as longevity bottles, harps, ruyi, and silver ingots; Runes, such as auspicious clouds, eight diagrams, palindromes, swastikas and other types. Most of them come from the extraction of real-life materials and appear in the same auspicious pattern in the form of combinations. For example, auspicious clouds are often accompanied by dragons, magpies fall on plum branches, which means happy events are connected and beaming, and pine and cypress, longevity stones and cranes are more common birthday themes, which convey various auspicious meanings.
With the development of the times, auspicious patterns are constantly absorbing new cultural elements, playing notes that conform to the current aesthetic taste, adding new content with the times to traditional culture, and demonstrating the strong vitality of this folk art. For example, the new year pictures of door gods are a widely circulated type of traditional auspicious patterns. People post them on doors as guardians to guard doormen, ward off disasters and ward off evil spirits, and pray for good luck. Up to now, many areas still retain the custom of posting new year pictures of door gods during the Spring Festival. This auspicious pattern with a history of thousands of years has been constantly given a new look in the evolution of the times.
During the Anti-Japanese War, literary and art workers in the base areas created many new New Year pictures. On the basis of drawing lessons from the traditional creative techniques of New Year pictures, the artist added the images of the Eighth Route Army, militia and common people to the paintings of door gods, which endowed the works with rich times. Among them, the most representative is the New Year painting "Defending the Border Region" created by the famous artist and art educator Wang Zhanfei. In this New Year picture, the author depicts the left and right door gods as the images of the border militia and the people riding horses with guns and wielding knives. The figure on the left side of the picture is wearing a military cap, holding a pistol and a Grenade at his waist, holding his head high and showing a determined and mighty look. On the other hand, the figure on the right is armed with a long knife, dressed in a sheepskin coat with the characteristics of northwest China and wearing a towel, and his eyes are bright, reflecting a mighty fighting posture. The slogan "All the people in the country are United as one heart" is engraved on the New Year picture, which fully shows the people’s hard work and simplicity, the fighting enthusiasm of one heart and the purpose of art serving the people and the war of resistance. On the one hand, such New Year pictures draw lessons from and absorb the modeling style of traditional door-keeper New Year pictures, on the other hand, they add new significance to traditional auspicious patterns in terms of characters and works connotation.
During the period of fighting against the epidemic, many new door-god paintings with the characteristics of the times also appeared. During the Spring Festival in 2020, out of the hope that the epidemic situation will disperse as soon as possible and people’s production, life and health will be guaranteed, many artists created new year pictures of door gods with the theme of epidemic prevention propaganda, which were widely loved by the people. For example, Murong Yindao, the original animator, used the paintings of door gods created by two historical figures, Huo Qubing and Xin Qiji, which meant to "get rid of illness" and "give up illness", hoping to disperse the epidemic as soon as possible. Another example is the anti-epidemic New Year picture created by Hu Guangkui, director of Mianzhu New Year Picture Museum in Sichuan Province, together with several non-genetic inheritors of New Year pictures. In the picture, Zhao Gong, the god of the town house, was put on a mask, and the propaganda slogan of "enhancing the awareness of prevention" was written. In addition, there are many folk New Year pictures creators, teachers and students from major art colleges involved in the creation of anti-epidemic New Year pictures. They incorporated elements related to epidemic prevention and control into traditional New Year pictures, making this ancient auspicious pattern closer to people’s lives. Many new New Year pictures are becoming more and more popular among young people. While keeping pace with the times, these works also bring into play the functions of traditional New Year pictures, such as keeping the house safe and praying for good luck, so that traditional culture can glow with the vitality of the times.
In addition, in the 2008 Olympic Games, the 2022 Winter Olympics and other large-scale sports events, we can also see many modern innovative applications of traditional auspicious patterns. For example, the mascot of the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games "Snow Rongrong" is designed on the basis of "Lantern", a traditional auspicious symbol with China characteristics. Lanterns are often hung on auspicious festivals, such as New Year’s Eve and Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, and have beautiful meanings such as jubilation, warmth and light. "Snow Rongrong" is based on lanterns, with bright and auspicious China red as the overall color tone, and the traditional auspicious pattern "Ruyi Wen" is added at the top, and the white space on the face and the top of the head indicates snow, which not only echoes the hosting season of the Winter Olympics, but also has the beautiful meaning of "auspicious snow and auspicious years". The overall image is very lovely and is widely loved by domestic and foreign audiences.
The traditional auspicious patterns in China concentrated on expressing people’s pursuit of good luck, adding happiness and longevity, driving away disasters and avoiding harm, expressing people’s universal yearning for a better life, and in the process of evolution and development, they became a unique symbol of China folk art, reflecting China people’s rich imagination and superb artistic level, with aesthetic value deeply rooted in people’s hearts. With the development of the times, auspicious patterns are constantly endowed with new connotations and new forms, which makes this ancient and excellent traditional culture play a new movement in line with the aesthetic taste of the times.
(Author: Chen Huijun, Associate Professor of Hunan Vocational College of Arts and Crafts)
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