How did the geometric circle become a culture in China?

The "circle", whether as a geometric figure or as an aesthetic image, has penetrated into almost every aspect of human life at all times and in all countries. China people regard "circle" as a kind of spiritual implication, combine the natural operation law with subjective aesthetics, and endow it with a strong national color, making it a unique cultural phenomenon that has influenced so far. It can be said that people in China love the "circle" as much as people in any other country in the world.

At the beginning, our ancestors did not have the concept of "circle". According to the transformation of the shape of the moon and their long-term observation of the moon, they realized that the shape of the moon was round on the fifteenth day. Mozi had a cloud as early as two thousand years ago: "A circle is equal in length", that is, a figure with equal length from the center to the circumference is a circle. The concept put forward by Mozi is hundreds of years earlier than the definition of circle given by Greek Euclid. Therefore, China is the first country to give a clear definition of circle.

("circle" in western culture)

The reason why "circle" can be regarded as an aesthetic object is that it is a unique shape, and the curved and rounded lines can give people a pleasant aesthetic feeling. Moreover, the birthplace of ancient civilization in China is mainly farming, and labor and life cannot be separated from the sun and the moon. The sun shines on the earth, everything is prosperous, and light and heat are supplied. People work at sunrise and rest at sunset. At night, the moon shines on Wan Chuan, and the moon continues to play the role of lighting instead of the sun. There are gains and losses every month, so people have more hopes for the "perfection" when the sun and the moon alternate. There are 24 solar terms, and the ancients cultivated and harvested according to the law.

Ancient ancestors longed to understand and conquer nature, but the sun and the moon were sacred, and their behavior would never be changed by human power. The sun is radiant, the moon is quiet and hazy, and the profundity and mystery of the sun and moon inspired the imagination of the ancients: I wanted to take off the sun, so I started to race with the sun day by day. When I was thirsty, I drank all the Wei water of the Yellow River and died of thirst on the road in a daze. Chang 'e took the elixir of life from the Queen Mother of the West and lived alone in Guanghan Palace. These magical legends are the embodiment of ancient people's reverence and fear for the sun and the moon. While people respect the sun and the moon, the circle has also become an abstract psychological meaning, a spiritual totem and emotional sustenance. Not only that, people turn the spiritual worship of the circle into material and ideology, which permeates many aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

"Circle" Culture (2)

China culture has been passed down from generation to generation, and the emotional experience of the "circle" has also continued to the present age. People's life still leaves a lot of "round" aesthetics.

The beauty of "circle" can be seen everywhere in the material form. In China garden architecture, "round door" and "round window" have auspicious and beautiful meanings, and also can best show the aesthetic feeling of the integration of man-made and nature. Even outside the garden art, people will still integrate the concept of "circle" into home design. Round, full and soft. Although China's square characters are full of square rigidity, artists in ancient and modern times also emphasize the rounded beauty of the pen.

From the perspective of immaterial ideology, China's film and television dramas are different from the aesthetic taste of tragedy and incomplete beauty in western countries, and like to end the story with a happy ending of family reunion, lovers' families and heroes' success. Most contemporary film and television works in China also inherited this tendency. The circle has the characteristic of "the beginning and the end are one", and the change of day and night and the change of years are all due to this cycle. Therefore, China people believe in good and evil, cause and effect, and reincarnation, and also emphasize the harmony of life and the perfection of merit, and combine the practice of Buddhism's birth with the way of entering the WTO in Confucian culture, so as to practice hard and cultivate one's morality.