What is the historical experience of ancient Chinese art and design? (Ceramic art design, bronze design, design of lacquer and jade and other objects)

Symbolism of Ancient Chinese Art Design in Ancient Chinese Ceramics

Ancient ceramics, no matter from the design concept, or the design process and the actual use of the works, are all based on the principle of practicality, and do not particularly pursue the uniqueness of the shape and the complexity of the decorations, but no matter the shape and the decoration are all rooted y in traditional Chinese culture, which implies the creator's thinking, and to a large extent It contains the thinking of the creators, and to a large extent, it expresses a certain symbolism.

(1) the shape of the symbolic

Ancient Chinese ceramics symbolism is based on the traditional cultural background of the Chinese nation as the foundation, ceramic modeling accumulated social values and content, but not purely objective and mechanical depiction of nature, but a high degree of condensation and sublimation of the external nature, so that the object has a high degree of aesthetic function and meaning. Ceramic shape design has experienced a biomimetic, like life, realistic expression gradually to the abstraction of the process, and in the process, ceramic shape of the symbolic also slowly followed and appeared. They are often in the practical based on the expression of people's hopes and hopes, a large part of the symbolism contains drive away the evil, pray for blessings to protect the auspicious. 1975 unearthed the "green glaze dragon handle chicken head four system pot", the neck in the middle of the tightly bound, decorated with two weeks of convex string pattern. Shoulder in front of the chicken-shaped flow, after the dragon head handle connected to the mouth and neck, each side of the square horizontal system of two branches, the body is slender, the center is reasonable and stable. Long handle set not only adds to the momentum of the shape of the vessel, but also to facilitate the hand to hold, and the dragon handle chicken head shape is not only easy to use, and chicken resonates with the sound of "good luck", in order to meet the purpose of the use of the people at the same time, gives the object a certain spirit of hope, is a symbol of good luck and give people the spirit of pleasure. Ceramic shape in addition to the chicken pot, there are sheepshead pot, gourd pot, mandarin duck shape objects, etc., they are either because of the pronunciation of the harmonic auspicious, such as the chicken pot, sheepshead pot; or with the habit of the thing itself. For example, mandarin ducks, because wild mandarin ducks have always been in pairs, and therefore have always been regarded as a symbol of conjugal love.

(2) Symbolism of decoration

Pattern is a general term for decorative pattern, also known as pattern, pattern, in terms of its artistic nature, it must be attached to the body of the artifacts, in this sense, it does not have an independent value; but it is often expressed in people's awareness and agreed concepts, which has an independent aesthetic value and spiritual value. Decoration as a universal artistic and cultural phenomenon, from the date of the emergence of pottery, by the designers, makers of the attention and use, it is more than modeling to reflect the spiritual world of people, more expressive of some kind of people's emotions and send some kind of desire, whether it is practical ceramic ware decoration, or artistic ceramic ware decoration, "decoration is not simply like the 'beauty decoration' as involving beauty, nor does it simply imply the addition of a separate ornament." The ornamentation is either with something that exists in the objective world or something that is constructed with human ideas.

From the simple motifs of ancient times to the auspicious patterns of the Ming and Qing dynasties, many of them are symbolic. The symbolism of ceramic decoration often has different symbolic meanings as does the shape. In the Chinese traditional decoration in the most representative and for the public to enjoy should be the dragon and wind pattern. The dragon is the cultural symbol of the Chinese nation, and it is the product of imagination that accumulates the characteristics of various beasts. After the Song Dynasty, it mostly represents the son of heaven and power; in folklore, it represents auspiciousness, festivity, valor and divine power. The phoenix pattern, which appeared in the late Shang Dynasty, is more gorgeous than the bird pattern, which is an imagined divine bird and is endowed with auspicious meanings, mostly with good and auspicious meanings.

Different patterns have different symbolic meanings, they can not only be used individually, but also in combination, on the one hand, add to the beauty of the object, on the other hand, give the object a richer symbolic meaning. Now in the National Palace Museum of the "five-color phoenix openwork bottle", decorative set of openwork, relief carving and painting techniques in one, giving people a sense of elegance and beauty. The mouth is carved with one week of ruyi cloud-head motifs, which have the same structure and are arranged in a well-proportioned manner. The neck is carved with three groups: the upper part of the pattern is a double-layered banana leaf pattern, with folded and scattered flowers and butterflies between the banana leaves; the middle part of the ring is raised and carved with a lion's face and two auricles, with a group of longevity motifs between the auricles and a group of flower motifs between the drooping clouds. Shoulders painted on all sides of the blue and white rhombus-shaped open light, open light painted blue and blue colorful flowers and fruits, open light outside the rhombus color brocade ground decorated with folded flowers, composed of band decorative motifs; abdomen engraved with nine phoenixes, nine phoenixes have nine phoenixes sunrise, phoenixes singing nine sky meaning. The shin is engraved to show eight parties, surrounded by painted diamond-shaped brocade text, eight holes decorated with eight treasures between the pattern. There is a lot of symbolism in the decoration of this object: the Ruyi cloud-head pattern, the phoenix and bird group of flowers, the Eight Treasures pattern, etc. symbolizes good fortune, the butterfly pattern and the group of longevity is a symbol of longevity; the twining branches of the lotus is the auspicious meaning of continuity and longevity and goodness.

(3) the symbolism of color

Compared with the shape, pattern, the aesthetics of color is a very early attention. Ancient Chinese poetry has long been: "far from the color near the flower" of the famous line, the color of ceramics is a variety of, but in feudal society, the yellow symbolism is the strongest. Yellow is one of the five colors, "I Ching" said: "Tian Xuan and yellow." In the ancient doctrine of yin and yang five elements, five colors with five elements and five directions, earth in the middle, so yellow is the central color. The I Ching also says: "The gentleman is yellow in the center, the right position in the body, the beauty of which is in the four branches of the smooth, hair in the cause, the beauty of the most also." So yellow since ancient times has been taken as the center of the orthodox color; ceramics in the yellow glaze is the royal control of the most stringent glaze color, gold for the supreme color, "yellow" and "royal" homophonic, Ming and Qing dynasty yellow glaze can only be used by the royal family. Private yellow glaze to kill, the qing dynasty regulations outside the yellow glaze for the empress dowager, empress with, white glaze outside the yellow glaze for the royal concubine with, yellow green dragon for the concubine with, the following concubine is not allowed to use the yellow glaze porcelain, only permitted to use the green glaze and green glaze purple dragon ware and green glaze red dragon ware. Here, the color has become a conceptual interpretation and symbolic than attached, and is no longer just a purely visual form of expression or sensual form of perception.