What are the traditional Chinese color applications

In China's thousands of years of history, in addition to the pre-Qin Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty, people for the use of color in a very long time is colorful, with today's people know the opposite, the ancient people before the Ming Dynasty is not particularly concerned about the red.

"Color" means color. But the meaning of the word "color" in ancient China was not exactly the same as today's, and initially referred only to the color of the face. For example, in "Chu Rhetoric - Fisherman's Father", there is "color haggard", and "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "Yan, between the eyebrows is also; color, Yan Qi is also." Duan Yucai's commentary is: "All shame, joy and sorrow is called color", because "the heart reaches the qi, and the qi reaches between the eyebrows", so it can be seen that the initial "color" refers to the color of the face, not the color of all things. In the Tang Dynasty, "color" has the meaning of the color of nature. For example, Du Fu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "The Bottom of the Flower": "I know the color is good, but I don't want to make it into mud and sand." The idiom "colorful" also reflects this meaning of "color".

Monochromatic worship was chosen during the time of the Yellow Emperor, around 5,000 BC. After the Yellow Emperor, through the Shang, Tang, Zhou, and Qin Dynasties, the emperors chose color symbols based on the doctrine of the five elements of yin and yang (the order of the five elements is water, fire, wood, gold, and earth, which corresponds to black, red, green, white, and yellow, respectively). Because the ancient Chinese believed that the five elements are the five elements that produce the origin of all things in nature, the origin of all things is so, color is no exception. In the "self-generated its bright" and "first black and white" on the basis of the difference, and gradually to color and the natural movement of the five elements of the laws of nature to establish a relationship. They also according to the spring, summer, fall and winter natural phenomena of change and according to the five elements to choose clothing, food, horses and vehicles, changes in the residence. Thus the doctrine of the five colors was formed.

The traditional Chinese five-color system regards black, red, green, white and yellow as the positive colors.

Black is considered the color of heaven in the I Ching. The saying "heaven and earth are black and yellow" originated from the ancient people's feeling that the northern sky was mysteriously black for a long time. They believed that the North Star was the position of the Emperor, so black was the king of all colors in ancient China, and also the longest monochrome worship of the color system in ancient Chinese history. The ancient Chinese taiji diagram, in black and white, represents the unity of yin and yang.

White has multiple meanings in the ancient Chinese concept of color. The "Five Elements" theory of white as opposed to gold proves that the ancient Chinese felt that white symbolized light and was included as a positive color, denoting the essence of purity, light, and abundance.

Red symbolizes auspiciousness and joy in folklore.

Yellow is the central color, symbolizing the color of the earth. In China, there is a "yellow born of yin and yang", the yellow color as the Lord of the color. It is the orthodox color in the center, the color of harmony, above all colors, and is considered the most beautiful color.

The color cyan (including green) symbolizes the vibrant spring.

During the pre-Qin period, ancient Chinese color symbols showed a tendency to diversify. Confucius, out of the maintenance of the Zhou rites, designated yellow, green, white, red and black as the "right colors" and "upper colors", and combined the five colors with benevolence, virtue and goodness, and used them in the form of "rites". The Zhou Dynasty revered the color red. Lao Zi advocated the original spontaneous color nature, proposed "five colors make people blind", so the Tao chose black (basil) as the symbol of the Tao.

During this period, color symbolism became the main basis for Chinese ancestors to grasp the seasons and directions. They titled the seasons with color names and directions. Spring is Qingyang, the direction of the main east, the guardian deity is the Qinglong; summer is Zhuming, the direction of the main south, the guardian deity is the Vermilion Bird; autumn is Su Baiqiu, the direction of the main west, the guardian deity is the White Tiger; winter is Xuanwinter, the direction of the main north, the guardian deity is Xuanwu. Yellow for the ancient five emperors center of the symbolic color. In China, yellow has a special symbolic meaning, it is located in the center of the five elements is a symbol of the color of the earth.

221 BC Qin Shihuang united China, still according to the ancestors of the tradition of viewing objects and images of the other black and white fixed a respect for water Germany "to winter October for the first year, the color on the black". After the reign of Qin Shi Huang, "easy to dress color and flag color for black".

Since the Qin Dynasty, the symbol of color gradually to color decorative function, the ancient Chinese color also went to the rich and splendid development.

After the Han Dynasty, the yellow color became the symbol of the royal color with the splendor of nearly gold, and the common people were not allowed to use red and yellow as clothes. And the successive generations of different officials clothing using different colors. Usually people call the mixture of red, yellow, green, white and black as the next five colors. The next five colors in the bright purple in the Han Dynasty is often used as a rare color. In the Tang Dynasty purple for more than five official clothes and the royal favorite color, purple edge for the elegant color.

In Chinese culture, color and craft, color and art, color and poetry, color and customs are inseparable.

The use of color in urban construction, murals and paintings is also diverse. For example, after the Ming Dynasty, in the imperial capital Beijing, only the royal relatives could live in the red walls and yellow tiles of the buildings, the people's buildings could only be green bricks and green tiles . But in the carved beams and painted columns, the use of color is also very rich. Folk buildings are mostly black tiles and white walls.

And in the Dunhuang Grottoes, more than 1,500 years ago, more than 10,000 precious murals are preserved, but the colors of the murals in different periods are also different. For example, the Northern Wei Dynasty mainly used reddish-brown tones with blue and black; the Tang Dynasty added yellow, and the application of color was colorful, bright and ornate; while the Song Dynasty was dominated by blue-green tones.

Chinese painting is mainly through the ink to express the charm of the painting, such as "ink in five colors", "not applied to the painting, the light shines", between the intensity of the realization of the transcendent artistic realm. "Ink is divided into five colors, i.e. burnt, thick, gray, light and clear. Painter's eyes of the water color of the four seasons are very clear, Guo Xi "Linquan Gaozhi" cloud: "water color: spring green, summer blue, autumn green, winter black." There is no lack of color in Chinese paintings, as recorded in the Record of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty, where Li Si Xun's green and green landscape paintings were once described by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty as "the first of the country's landscapes". This kind of court painting color with stone green, stone green, stone yellow, cinnabar, rouge, lead powder, clay gold, etc., the first color lele and then fill in the color, the color is gorgeous and rich. And the Chinese are good at using a large number of minerals and plants in nature, from which the pigments are extracted, so the brightness and saturation of colors in Chinese paintings are more series and rich.