What are the auspicious decorations in China?

Also known as "animal face pattern". One of the common decorative patterns on bronzes. The pattern symbolizes the face of Taotie, a gluttonous beast in ancient legends, with many variations.

The word taotie is found in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals: "The Taotie was created in the Ding of the Zhou Dynasty, with a head and no body, and it harmed its body before it swallowed the food, so as to say that it was more than just a reward."

The Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty is often used as the theme of ornamentation on the objects, mostly lined with cloud and thunder pattern. After the late Western Zhou Dynasty gradually promote the prominence of the theme of ornamentation, commonly used to imitate the ear or foot decoration.

Since the Song Dynasty Xuanhe Bogu TuLu called this type of decoration Taotie, the name has been used throughout the ages.

Dragon pattern

One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. The dragon is an animal in the legends of the ancient gods. Generally reflecting the image of its front, are the nose as the center line, placed on both sides of the eye, the body to the sides of the extension. If its side for the image, it became a long body and a claw.

The image of the dragon originated very early, but as a bronze decoration, the earliest in the Shang dynasty Erligang period, after the late Shang dynasty, the Western Zhou dynasty, the Spring and Autumn period until the Warring States period, there are different forms of dragon pattern.

The Shang Dynasty mostly showed a flexed form; the Western Zhou Dynasty mostly showed several dragons coiled around each other, or with the head in the center and separated into two tails.

Legend has it that the appearance of the dragon is related to water, "Kao Gong Ji - painting and coloring things" said: "water to dragon, fire to huan." It is the image of the dragon that is used to symbolize the god of water, so there are more occurrences of scrolls or three-dimensional images of dragons in bronze water vessels.

Based on the knotting of the dragon pattern can be roughly divided into crawling dragon pattern, scroll dragon pattern, cross dragon pattern, two-headed dragon pattern and double body dragon pattern several kinds. Since the Song Dynasty in the records, in the bronze, where a claw such a pattern, also known as the "kui" or "kui dragon pattern".

Crawling dragon

One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. Usually for the side image of the dragon, for crawling, the dragon head open mouth, the upper lip rolled upward, the lower lip downward or upward rolled to the mouth, the top of the forehead has a horn, the middle part of the torso, under a foot, two feet or only fins and feet of the shape, simple also have no feet, the tail is usually for the curved upward. The tail is usually curved and curled upwards. Most of them are arranged symmetrically. Prevalent at the end of the Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Curled dragon

One of the decorative patterns on bronze. The dragon's torso is curled, the head and tail are connected, or spiral coiled, often decorated in the center of the plate. Yi Li - Yu Zao: "Dragon scroll to sacrifice." Zheng Xuan's note: "Drawing the dragon on the clothes." Kong Yingda's commentary: "The dragon rolled to sacrifice, rolled means curled, painted this dragon shape curled in the clothes, to sacrifice to the temple." Ancient thought that the dragon, snake belongs to the same kind, so the dragon painted as a snake body coiled shape. Since the Yinxu to the Warring States period of bronze have such decorations, only the image structure is different.

Double body dragon pattern

Also known as "double tail dragon pattern". One of the decorative patterns on bronzes.

The shape of the dragon's head as the center, the torso to the sides of the expansion, this kind of decoration in the form of a band, so that the body has a full expansion of space, in fact, is a symmetrical figure of the dragon's overall development. Prevalent in the late Shang and early Zhou. Mostly applied to the square Yi or square tripod mouth edge.

Cross-dragon pattern

One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. It is a pattern of two or more dragons' torsos intertwined with each other. The structure is different, there is a single connected type, the dragon's torso is regularly intertwined in the same direction connected, there are also very many dragons intertwined together into a multi-stacked type. Rites of Passage - Hajj Rites: "Carrying the dragon flag in a bow case is the court." Zheng Xuan's note: "The dragon is the flag, built by the lords." Zhouli - Chunguan - Sishang: "The king builds the great flag, and the lords build the flag." Zheng Xuan's note: "The vassal draws the intertwined dragons, one resembling its ascension to the court, and the other its descent." It is a picture of intertwined dragons. It was prevalent from the late Spring and Autumn period to the early Warring States period.

Kui dragons

One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. The pattern represents a legendary animal that resembles a dragon, the kui, mostly with one horn and one foot, the mouth open and the tail curled upwards. In the records since the Song Dynasty, all reptile-like objects on bronzes with one foot are called kui or kui dragons, which is related to the ancient record of "kui with one foot". This is related to the ancient record of "Kui one-footed", which reads: "Kui, god, is like a dragon with one foot." Some kui dragons have developed into geometric decorations with great variations. Commonly, the body is made of two ribs, or the body is made of diagonal lines, with a kui head at each end. Prevalent in the Shang and Western Zhou period.

Snake

A kind of decoration on bronzes. There is a triangular or rounded triangular head, a pair of prominent large round eyes, the body has scaly joints, curled long stripes, snake features are very obvious, often as an accessory to shrink very small, some people think it is the silkworm pattern. Individuals have as the main pattern, seen on the Shang Dynasty bronzes.

Snake pattern of the late Shang and early Zhou Dynasty, most of the single arrangement; Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, most of the snake pattern is very small, for the coiled spiral interlinked, the old name "coiled venomous pattern".

Vicious pattern

One of the decorative patterns on the bronze. The image of the coiled bend of the snake, forming a geometric figure. Prevalent in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States.

Coiling Insects

One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. The pattern represents a legendary dragon without horns, with a slanting mouth, curled tail, and coiled curvature. Prevalent in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Bird pattern

One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. The bird has a long plume and a drooping tail or a long tail curled upwards, looking forward or looking back. Most of them are arranged symmetrically on the bronzes.

The Liangzhu culture unearthed on the jade cong has a clear bird pattern. The earliest appearance of bronze is the Erligang period of deformed bird pattern. Yinxu period has bird pattern as the main decoration. Bird motifs appeared in large numbers from the early Western Zhou Dynasty until the Spring and Autumn Period.

Shang Dynasty bird motifs are mostly short-tailed, and Western Zhou bird motifs are mostly long-tailed and high-crowned. Bird motifs include phoenix motifs, owl motifs, luan motifs and geese motifs arranged in groups.

Jade Department:

Many ancient jade objects will be faceted with some patterns, which are called ornaments, each of which has its own specific meaning and popularity of the era, therefore, the ornaments on ancient jade objects have a more important significance for the break of the ancient jade, and at the same time, all kinds of ornaments make the jade carving artwork look more exquisite and luxurious, which makes people love it. The following is an introduction to some important ancient jade decorations:

Grain pattern: the shape is like a tadpole with its tail circled, so it is commonly known as the tadpole pattern. In fact, the grain pattern is the appearance of sprouting leaves of grains, which symbolizes the awakening of everything, the vibrant scene and people's hope for the spring. Grain originated in the Warring States period, after the Han dynasty is not common, the Song and Qing dynasties only a small number of production, but the faceting is not as good as the Warring States and Han dynasty, the arrangement of loose grains, not full, touch not "hand", is the possibility of the latter imitation is greater.

Vortex pattern: is a circular geometric pattern, in a circle decorated with lines similar to the water vortex pattern of decoration, the structure of this pattern is identical to the structure of the word Ming in the Jinwen. Vortex is the meaning of light, and the light must come from the fire, the ancient record of "fire like a circle", so the vortex pattern is actually the image of a fire, which began in the Shang and Zhou Dynasty, prevalent dry Han Dynasty.

Beast face pattern: beast face pattern is a beast animal head pattern, there are cattle, sheep, tigers and other images, are composed of procedural techniques, they have a head without a body, so it is called beast face pattern. Prevalent in the Shang and Zhou, is the totem of the generation of human beings on the animal worship of the legacy, a symbol of might, bravery, justice, called Yunlei pattern;

Yunlei pattern or Thundercloud pattern, is a geometric figure composed of continuous cyclorama lines. Some of the continuous composition of a circle, referred to as the cloud pattern, and some of the continuous composition of a square, referred to as the Lei pattern, Lei Yun pattern prevalent in the dry Shang and Western Zhou.

Silkworm pattern: the pendant body is bent, the head is round, and the two eye septums are protruding, which is mostly used for the decoration under the mouth edge or the foot part of the artifacts, and it is prevalent in the dry Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty.

Chi dragons: head like a cat and the mouth is more square, the ear for the "several" shaped under the iterative ear, or concave and small, or horns, or no horns, the five palace vivid, eyes are larger, eyeballs raised and rounded, the mouth seems to be raised or three-segmented, and chi dragons mouth is slender and like a cone, thin body and fat waist, the tail for the rolled filament or bifurcated rolled to the sides. It was more popular in the Han Dynasty, and was produced from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, but its charisma is far removed from that of the Han Dynasty.

Hook cloud pattern: there are two kinds of hook cloud pattern, one is a small hook cloud pattern of Yin line grinding and carving, the other is to reduce the ground raised hook cloud pattern, hook cloud positive and negative connected to the arrangement of the dense, these two kinds of hook cloud pattern are popular in the Warring States period to the Han Dynasty, after the Song Dynasty, imitation of the hook cloud pattern is larger, sparsely arranged.

Persimmon pattern: as the name implies, like the lower part of the persimmon, four or five petals, this type of decoration is mostly used in the dry Warring States period on the jade, in the Han Dynasty jade sword head is often found in the Han Dynasty, after the Han Dynasty is not common.

Pu Pattern: The Pu pattern is a shallow and wide horizontal or diagonal line that divides the surface of a jade object into hexagonal shapes similar to the arrangement of a beehive, and the hexagonal shapes are sometimes also faceted with a shaded valley pattern. The Shuowen explains Pu: "Pu grass, which can be used as a measure." Later generations referred to this type of carved and organized decoration as Pu. Pu Xu popular dry Han Dynasty, between the Song and Ming also have a small number of production, Han Dynasty Pu pattern split line is wider, and with glass light, milling method is clean and sharp, later generations of imitation of the split line is generally smaller, and more rough, ornamentation is smaller not atmosphere.

Shan-shaped pattern: its shape such as the "Ding" character, the two ends of the playful not rolled, positive and negative hook, only in the Han Dynasty.

Milk ding pattern: Milk ding pattern is called milk ding pattern as it cuts out an orderly arrangement of dots on the jade. Milk ding pattern may be changed from the grain pattern, which appeared on the jib and usually represented the stars in the sky, and it was seldom seen before the Song Dynasty, but used more in the Ming Dynasty, and was mostly adorned with jade jibs and utensils.

Taotie Pattern: Taotie is a kind of gluttonous beast in legend, shaped like a fierce and majestic animal face. In the Zuo Zhuan (左传), Du Prefix wrote: "Greed for money is taotie, and greed for food is taotie." The taotie carved on jade is less popular, popular between the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Warring States period, mostly a ferocious and majestic animal face, with only eyes and nose, but no chin, the meaning of which may be to abstain from greed. There are a small number of imitations during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.

String pattern: the string pattern is the upper half-arc form of the lower half-arc, where the two half-arc pattern, usually called the string pattern, the string pattern is popular in the early years of the ancient three generations, to the Song and Ming period is still produced.

Cicada pattern; a cicada shape, depending on the era of change is also more. Cicada represents eternal life and not eat earthly fire of purity, mostly used for burial containing cicadas. There are also a small number of wear cicadas and hat cicadas. Cicada pattern from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, all generations have been made, but the Han Dynasty is the best .

The Baoxiang flower pattern: Baoxiang flower is not a general natural flowers, but a concentration of lotus, chrysanthemum, peony flowers and other flowers of the form of the characteristics of the comprehensive composition of a symbol of good luck of the pattern, which has a lot to do with the prosperity of Buddhism, the Tang and Song dynasty factory for the popularity of the pattern.

The trailing grass pattern: trailing flowers and grasses constitute a lively and full of ornamentation, with a happy color, because of its continuous modelling characteristics, people give it continuous auspicious connotations, the trailing for the band resonates with the "Bandai", popular in the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.