The meaning of orchids

Since ancient times, people have regarded orchids as a symbol of nobility, elegance, patriotism and faithfulness. Orchids symbolize nobility, elegance and faithfulness. Orchids are regarded as "gentlemen" in the valley, but also show piety. Orchids are elegant and extraordinary, and can be used as a symbol of intellectuals. Orchid economy as an investment may also bring good economic benefits, so orchids can also be used. The relationship between Lan, the initiator of the profound "orchid complex" in Confucianism, and the personality orientation in Confucian tradition is related to its biological characteristics: the orchid leaves are graceful, the colors are evergreen, the flowers are fragrant and noble, and it has a form that conforms to the national aesthetic taste; Its sociological significance has a long history. With its unique charm, it first intervened in all aspects of classical aristocratic life, was first recorded in historical classics, and entered the aesthetic vision of Confucianism. Perhaps it is also related to his strange and mysterious experience: Confucius, who is not talented enough, saw the interaction between orchids and other grasses in the hidden valley and felt a sense of life experience, thus establishing the internal connection between orchids and Confucian personality, and this thinking mode of sharing flowers with people comes from human totem worship. Orchids are people's favorite flowers. People are more accustomed to interpret the symbolic meaning of orchids from their appearance, posture, living environment and internal temperament. And it has become a fixed symbol and direction code. All people who love orchids, plant orchids, appreciate orchids and chant orchids draw moral strength from orchids, thus consciously shaping, upgrading and sublimating their personality and mind. Its cultural connotation can be developed into Confucius' ideal of "being king" and his personality belief unmoved by poverty and frustration, and can also be developed into the maintenance and pursuit of Qu Yuan's personal virtue. Anyway, orchids. Adhere to ethics, be indifferent to self-sufficiency and remain independent. Totem and Orchid: The original totem culture involved in human spiritual life is a part of primitive culture, which originated from the primitive thinking mode of animism. As a personal totem, orchids have three characteristics: first, people are totems, and totems are people. Secondly, people often use totems to make their own names. Third, man and totem live and die together, and they are one. The flashing patron saint. Totem worship gradually faded and became a distant and vague memory of human beings, but it can still be found in later life. The Three Years of Zuo Zhuan Gong Xuan recorded the totem story that Zheng Mugong's birth and death were all related to orchids. Yan, the "concubine", dreamed that an angel gave her an orchid and told her to "take it as her son", so she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, named Lan, Zheng. He said, "The orchid is dead, and I'm afraid I'm going to die, too. I was born on it. " So "I died cutting orchids." The meaning of "picking orchids" in this story is the embodiment of totem culture. Without totem culture, we can't understand the mystery and particularity of orchids in the story. There are traces of totem culture not only in historical classics, but also in literary works. Han music shows the characteristics of ancient personal totem traces. Lan Zhi, namely Lan Zhi and Lan Zhi, is an orchid. The totem meaning of "Lan" is also obvious in the poem. For example, before Liu Lanzhi threw himself into the river, Jiao Zhongqing said to his mother, "Today, the wind is cold, the cold wind destroys trees, and first frost is harsh." I'm afraid I'm going to die ",which is the deep restriction and potential influence of the orchid totem culture. Through the study of "prototype", we can reveal "incomprehensible mysteries carefully preserved by profound worship traditions for centuries". Lan is such a "prototype" Lan had a wide influence on the early aristocratic and folk life. People have established various relationships with Lan in the activities of catching Lan evil, offering Lan affection, offering sacrifices to Lan, holding Lan to welcome the auspicious, sending Lan to court, burning Lan Xiang, and borrowing Lan to offer sacrifices. These initial forms of orchid culture fully show that people engaged in political activities and sacrificial activities (we can regard them as the predecessors of Confucianism) have a lot of contact with orchid, and the use of orchid, although related to utilitarian purposes, is not. But it provides an important premise for Confucius to define the aesthetic image of orchids in the future. Confucius and Orchid: It laid the cultural connotation of orchid "Orchid should be king fragrance". Confucius traveled abroad for more than ten years, but he was never appointed. On the way back to Shandong for self-defense, he saw that the orchid finger was unique, so he was deeply touched: "Fu Lan should have been the king's fragrance, but now he is unique, interacting with all kinds of grass, and comparing those who still have virtue with those who are out of date and despised. "In fact, it is self-comparison, saying that he traveled around the world, but he was born at an untimely time and could not be reused. Like a unique orchid mixed in the grass, he had to associate with a humble husband. Confucius' emotion has the greatest influence on later generations, and it will be mentioned in almost all articles and works involving orchids. The original intention of this sentence is that orchids want to offer incense to the king, which is what orchids want. It is also a metaphor from the perspective of sages being ministers and assisting monarchs. However, in later orchid research works, it was changed to "orchids have the fragrance of kings" and "the fragrance of kings". For example, Pan Tianshou's "Stone Map of Youlan" says: "Idle like a gentleman's shadow in spring, clear as ice and snow. To push the king from the style, it is not enough to spread incense. " The personality symbol of orchids is noble and quiet. Gentleman Xiu De, don't change the poor life. "This sentence comes from Confucius' Urko Language. Moreover, the virtue realm of Confucius' orchid "no one is without fragrance" has also become the knowledge of pre-Qin Confucianism, such as Xunzi's especially written: "The husband was born in the deep forest, not without fragrance. The study of a gentleman. Worry will never fail. "Later generations' poems on orchids have interpreted and exerted this. Zhu's Lan Jian: "Light and wind cross Bixi, and the blue sun withers. No one can find it, only when it is cultivated. " Kangxi's poem about the orchid: "graceful flowers grow long leaves, and whoever comes with the wind hides incense in the valley." Don't worry. If you don't live well, you will be absorbed by it if you don't smell it for a long time. Dan hides red, and your painting hides black. Therefore, a gentleman must be cautious. " (six books of Confucius' Notes). Here, Lan Zhi's fragrance symbolizes the virtue of a gentleman, emphasizes the educational influence of morality, and embodies the characteristics that Confucianism attaches importance to social functions. The fragrance of orchid is pure, and it is noble and harmonious with the virtue of a gentleman. For example, Tao Yuanming's Drinking: "Orchids are longer than vestibules, and they are fumigated by the breeze. When the breeze comes out, Xiao Ai sees it. " "Orchid is the king's fragrance", "Orchid is born in the deep forest, but it is not odorless", "When you enter the orchid room, you will not smell its fragrance for a long time". Confucius discovered the echo and agreement between the natural attributes of orchids and Confucian personality characteristics, and with the help of orchids. Lan: As the mainstream of China's traditional culture, the expansion and extension of its cultural connotation has maintained its own values-the foundation of this culture's existence-in the long process of social development, and at the same time, it is constantly coping with the challenges brought by the current turmoil. The most violent social unrest in China is the change of ownership, especially when the regime falls into the hands of foreigners. At this time, Confucian personality is often manifested as: loyal character and publicity personality. This personality orientation can be fully reflected in Zheng Sixiao's painting style. Zheng Sixiao, a famous poet and painter at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, lived in seclusion in Suzhou after the death of the Song Dynasty to show that he did not forget the meaning of the Song Dynasty. According to the records of adherents, he was "good at China Moran, and he has been better since then." "He painted bare orchids, soilless orchids and pinned his thoughts on national subjugation. Zheng Sixiao's recitation of Lan Shouzhi became a model for future generations. For example, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Ni Zan wore a bamboo hat on his boat, and his "Title Zheng Suo Nan Lan" said: "Qiu Lan has blossomed, and the desolation of the south has disappeared. Only Suo Nan's heart has not changed. Tears and ink write Li Sao. "The similar reality in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties made Zheng Sixiao become the object for more painters to learn. Zhu Da, a descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang and a native of Badashan, said in the poem "The Basket Stone": "Wang Sun painted a natural posture, and he longed for silk. He borrowed ink flowers for a long time, and now all the leaves are blown to the south. "Zheng Sixiao's tradition of painting orchids has a direct impact. Don't stick to one method-draw orchids instead of soil, and emphasize individuality. The Orchid Map of Yi People in Ming Dynasty (collected in Lushun Museum) contains a poem by Wu Wang: "Zheng Sheng is too pedantic to paint orchids without painting soil. What is the heart of creation? Spring breeze contains vomit. You'll know who took it when you go. Qing Zhu Sheng Zhu Lan Atlas. There is also a poem entitled "What can I take away from the dust? ",mainly adopts the painting style of Xu Wei, Yuan Ji and others, and is also good at painting orchids, especially Wang, Shan Li, Li and Zheng Xie. In the orchid poems and paintings from Zheng Sixiao to Yangzhou, advocating integrity and publicizing personality have become the same theme. It can be seen that some changes have taken place in the personality characteristics of Confucian tradition. For example, from advocating the elegance of "the king's fragrance" to advocating the publicity of individuality, from the self-appreciation of "not being alone but not fragrant" to the firmness of not changing the will, this is the evolution of the Confucian tradition of paying attention to individual moral cultivation in the new realistic environment. They did not break through or escape from the Confucian value category, but supplemented and extended the traditional personality orientation. Chen and Lan: The attachment of cultural drifters. The Orchid Without Roots written by Chen makes people move to the United States equally uneasy. "The mountains and rivers of the motherland are not only flowers and trees, but also touching stories and poems, the noisy laughter of children and the quiet graves of ancestors, which are beautifully decorated." Finally, the author wrote: Zheng Sixiao, a painter in the late Song Dynasty, painted orchids, and even the roots and leaves floated in the air. People asked him why, and he said, "The ground fell and the roots fell." The country is the root, and people without the country are grass without roots, which will wither without being tortured by wind and rain. This topic comes from the story of painting orchids, but the whole article hardly introduces the shape, color and fragrance of orchids. It just revolves around the idea of "where is the root of the country", using "root" as a metaphor for native land, "orchid" as a metaphor for people, and "rootless orchid" as a metaphor for "rootless orchid" by Chen, which shows his profound Confucian cultivation. Because orchids are symbolic images with China traditional cultural characteristics, they have accumulated a period of national history. From the discourse level, the author misses the "flowers and plants", "the stone steps of the Forbidden City" and "mother" in his hometown. Judging from the historical implication, he misses the traditional culture, because "the mountains and rivers of the motherland are not only flowers and trees, but also touching stories and poems, which are the noisy laughter of children and the quiet graves of ancestors". Chen said: "How many years of history have produced a little tradition; It takes years of tradition to produce a little style. " This treasure of disappearing traditions and styles is the deep meaning of "rootless orchids". The difference between him and Zheng Sixiao is that orchids, as a symbol of Confucian traditional personality, only lost their land in Zheng Sixiao's works, but their cultural roots still exist. However, Chen's orchids lost their land instead of their land. That is the pain of "losing roots". Therefore, Chen is not only a wanderer in the regional sense, but also a wanderer in the cultural sense. It can be seen that Lan has a close relationship with the personality orientation in the Confucian tradition. As a symbol of personality, the connotation of orchid is not single, but multiple. Since Confucius endowed it with cultural connotation, orchid culture has shown its own extensibility. Adjust and supplement Confucian personality in different cultural backgrounds. When people say "orchid", "painting orchid", "chanting orchid" and "writing orchid", they actually interpret themselves and their spiritual realm in the character of orchid. So, isn't it an appreciation and treasure for the values they choose? However, in all kinds of changes, one thing is consistent, that is, Lan has the status of "king" in the symbolic pedigree of Confucian personality, which can be traced back to the psychological mechanism of totem worship, but it also shows a strong "Lan complex" in Confucianism.