What is the profound significance of jade to the history of arts and crafts in China?

In the long years of development, the Chinese nation has created a unique, elegant and eternal craft creation style for the history of human craft culture with diligence and wisdom. China arts and crafts are saturated with the cultural spirit and aesthetic consciousness of the Chinese nation, and have distinct aesthetic personality, which is mainly reflected in:

1, harmony China's traditional artistic thought attaches importance to the relationship between people and things, utility and beauty, literature and quality, form and spirit, heart and hand, material and art, and advocates "harmony" and "appropriateness". The pursuit of the ideal realm of "harmony" and "appropriateness" makes China arts and crafts present a high degree of harmony; The material form of appearance and the spiritual meaning of connotation are harmonious and unified, practicality and aesthetics are harmonious and unified, perceptual relationship and rational norms are harmonious and unified, and material technology and artistic structure are harmonious and unified.

2. symbolic. China's craft thought has always attached importance to the influence of creation on ethics. It emphasizes the connection between the sensory pleasure of things and the emotional satisfaction of aesthetics, and requires this connection to conform to ethical norms. Constrained by strong ethical consciousness, China's traditional craft creation usually contains specific meanings, and often symbolically expresses ethical and moral concepts through modeling, volume, scale, color or ornamentation. This symbolic pursuit often makes the arts and crafts of the court or literati show pure ethical concepts, resulting in a pretentious state or damage to utilitarian effects. In contrast, more folk arts and crafts symbolized by the producer's own utilitarian will are vigorous, unpretentious and full of vitality.

3. Agile. China's craft thought advocates the unity of mind and matter, requires "handy", "quality is human, and the image is yin and yang", which fully embodies the life spirit of the subject in his creation. China's traditional craft creation has always maintained the S-shaped structure paradigm in modeling and decoration. This structural paradigm is full of the rhythm of life and endless sense of movement, which makes China's craft works actively change in strict norms, sparse and ethereal.

4, natural interest. China's craft thought attaches great importance to the natural quality of craft materials, advocates "managing materials with materials" and "applying arts with materials", and requires "shaping with materials and applying arts with quality". China traditional arts and crafts always respect the stipulation of materials in modeling or decoration, and make full use of or show the natural beauty of materials. This excellent craftsman has made China's craft creation have natural, naive, quiet and elegant tastes and feelings.

5. process. Emphasizing and attaching importance to technology is a consistent tradition of arts and crafts in China. Rich creative practice makes craftsmen pay attention to the aesthetic effect of the craft and consciously pursue the aesthetic ideal realm of the craft in two different interest directions: the natural craft of deliberately carving traces and the unique lacquer carving craft.

2. Briefly describe the artistic achievements of bronzes in Xia, Shang, Zhou, Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period?

Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties are called "Bronze Age"

At present, there are few bronzes in Xia Dynasty, and they are fragmentary.

Shang Dynasty was a prosperous period of bronzes, which were mostly found in ritual vessels or weapons. The biggest one is Simu Wuding (up to now), and the most exquisite one is Siyang Fangzun (then). At the same time, there are Sanxingdui bronzes in Sichuan.

Bronzes were used for civilian and daily use in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Bronzes in the Spring and Autumn Period include gold and silver dislocation technology and carving and casting technology. The best bronzes are the Lotus Crane Square Pot which represents the highest level of Chinese bronzes (one pair was unearthed, one pair was handed over to the state, and the other pair is the treasure of the town hall), and the Ceng Houyi bronze chime which was later unearthed in Hubei. It is a perfect combination of bronze technology and music technology and can still be played after thousands of years.

Iron appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period, which began to replace bronze and gradually withdrew from the historical stage.

3. Summarize the aesthetic significance and cultural connotation of jade in China ancient culture.

Jade occupies a very important position in the traditional culture of China. Hanyu is world-renowned for its exquisite craftsmanship and exquisite quality, and is used in etiquette, sacrifice, funeral, decoration and daily necessities. The shapes and patterns of jade articles in Han Dynasty are vivid, peculiar and beautiful, forming a unique artistic feature.

Jade carving art is a dazzling treasure in China's traditional history and culture, and also a wonderful flower in the world art, with distinctive national characteristics. The Han Dynasty was a glorious period for the development of jade articles in China. Hanyu is famous for its exquisite craftsmanship and exquisite production, and has been used in etiquette, sacrifice, funeral, decoration and daily necessities.

In the eyes of the ancients, jade melts the aura of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and the moon, and has beautiful natural attributes of moist, clean, crystal clear, bare and dense. In the long process of human life practice, jade and "human nature" are integrated into one, becoming the object of "virtue over jade" of gentlemen and becoming the symbol of power, status and wealth.

China is the earliest and most experienced country to use jade articles in the world. Judging from the archaeological achievements so far, it has a history of about 10 thousand years. From the aesthetic point of view, a large number of scholars believe that the development of ancient jade in China can be roughly divided into three historical stages.

The first stage is from the middle and late Paleolithic to the late Shang Dynasty. During this period, influenced by the way of understanding the world, jade works condensed witchcraft cultural factors such as nature worship, totem worship, ancestor worship and ghost worship, which mainly became tools for people to communicate with heaven and earth, offer sacrifices to God and pray for blessings, and showed mysterious and simple aesthetic characteristics in jade modeling, decoration and jade use concept.

From Zhou Dynasty to Han Dynasty, it is the second stage of the development of ancient jade in China. This period was the formation and development of feudal society in China, and Confucianism played a leading role in the contention of a hundred schools of thought. A gentleman is "better than jade". Jade not only continues to carry the function of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, but also contains rich Confucian culture and ideological content. It has become a special object with social and moral significance and an important material carrier to express the concept of ethical education and distinguish the norms of interpersonal relationships. At the same time, the understanding of the world has gradually matured and systematized, and the jade production in this period has become more rational and standardized. Because of its profound and intensive rational content, jade embodies sacred and neat aesthetic characteristics in aesthetic tendency.

Wei and Jin Dynasties to the end of Qing Dynasty is the third period of the development of China and ancient jade. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the jade industry entered a trough, but it still has its important significance. Wei and Jin Dynasties was a great change in the history of China's cultural thought, which broke the long-standing tradition of using jade in etiquette in concept and practice, while Sui and Tang Dynasties, which paid equal attention to Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, opened and established the direction of jade life. With the continuous improvement of productive forces, the commodity economy and urban economy in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties continued to develop, and the citizen class continued to expand, and their aesthetic taste gradually became the mainstream. Jade articles in this period have the aesthetic tendency of popularization and secularization, and have the aesthetic characteristics of sensibility, secularization and nature.

The beauty of jade is "gorgeous and extremely plain". Natural jade has been artificially recreated, which is even more icing on the cake and beautiful. The ancients not only showed superb skills when creating jade articles, but also showed exquisite artistic ideas and beautiful ideals. Jade articles in each era show a specific aesthetic fashion, which is the crystallization of a specific aesthetic consciousness.

The Han Dynasty is an era of strong national strength in the development history of feudal society in China. Judging from the jades unearthed from the Han tombs, there were many jades in the early and middle Western Han Dynasty, with good quality and high artistic value. From the late Western Han Dynasty to the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the quantity was small and the quality was poor. Jade articles in Han dynasty are mainly jade and jade, which partly inherit the characteristics of Qin dynasty and pre-Qin dynasty and tend to be simplified in utensils. Huang Hu is more decorative, but Zhang Zhang is almost absent. Jade jade in Han Dynasty was developed from jade jade jade in Warring States Period. It represents the highest achievement of ancient jade jade in China with its regular shape, fine workmanship and exquisite decoration. Jade jadeite is generally carved with dense pu grain and valley grain on both sides, accompanied by net grain and moire. On this basis, some intertwined and balanced animals, such as dragons, phoenixes, dragons and tigers, were added to the outer edge. From the aspects of modeling and ornamentation, since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the production characteristics of jade bi have changed obviously. The jade in the new jade era is shiny, plain and simple in shape. The walls of Shang and Zhou Dynasties were uneven in thickness and irregular in shape, and most of them were not round enough inside and outside. Jade articles since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are relatively regular, including silkworm patterns, valley patterns, cattail patterns, animal patterns and so on.

Yuchan is a common jade ornament in Han Dynasty, which is lifelike and full of movement. Jade articles in Han Dynasty showed high artistic achievements, and trinkets were good at grasping the typical characteristics of animals and their performance in specific situations. After a few knives, they were full of interest. Jade articles are mostly carved with knives, commonly known as "Han Ba Dao".

Influenced by the theory of Huang Lao, the Han people, especially the ruling class, showed the pursuit of immortality, so the jade burial in Han Dynasty developed greatly. Archaeological data show that the complexity of making jade clothes in Han Dynasty is almost incalculable. At present, there are more than 20 sets of jade clothes excavated. Judging from the excavation results, there is a strict hierarchy in the use of jade clothes.

Jade in Han Dynasty is a wonderful flower produced by the fusion of Central Plains culture and Chu culture. Chu is a country with strong witchcraft. They came from primitive society, seldom influenced by reason, and kept more the legacy and fashion of clan society. They imagine a rich, strange and weird regional culture with a fresh, free and romantic style. Most of the rulers of the Han Dynasty were Chu people. On the one hand, they inherited the Central Plains culture with reverence, and inevitably infected the Central Plains culture with the characteristics of Chu culture, and integrated the Central Plains culture with Chu culture. The jade of the Han Dynasty fully embodies this point. There are exquisite images of flying dragons and flying phoenixes on the regular jade walls engraved with popular prose and ancient prose, which are neat and rigorous, and have whimsy of flying, reflecting the artistic spirit of combining deep rational spirit with bold romantic imagination in Han Dynasty. The carving and carving techniques of jade articles in Han dynasty are more decorative, showing the romantic style of Chu culture and having a unique aesthetic feeling. The most prominent jade in Chu culture is the jade fairy galloping horse in Han Dynasty. The image of flying horses stepping on white clouds reflects the desire of Han people deeply influenced by Huang Lao's thought to get rid of the fetters of reality and become immortals. The simple, exaggerated and neat style embodies the artistic style of flying and flowing Chinese paintings. In addition, grotesque jade to ward off evil spirits and jade-town beasts also reflect the rich imagination and romantic feelings of Chu people. It can be seen that on the one hand, the jade in Han Dynasty inherited the tradition of the previous jade, on the other hand, under the influence of the imaginative Chu culture, its shapes and patterns were more vivid, strange and beautiful, forming magnificent artistic characteristics.

The spirit of jade is the precious wealth of traditional thought. For thousands of years, it has exerted a subtle influence on people's ideas and behaviors, injected positive vitality into the formation and stability of traditional excellent national psychology and national character, and cultivated China people's noble sentiments. The image temperament of elegance, implication, gentleness and comity in the East is, to a certain extent, the reappearance of the virtues of jade materials, which has a unique charm.

In short, the long history, profound connotation and influence on all aspects of society have finally established the lofty position of jade in the eyes of the Chinese nation, won the treasure and love from generation to generation, and become one of the important symbols of ancient China culture, shining with eternal glory.

4. The perfect combination of aesthetic characteristics and practical functions of furniture modeling and decoration in Ming Dynasty.

Understanding and mastering the style characteristics of Ming dynasty furniture is a necessary condition for us to appreciate and evaluate furniture. The style characteristics of Ming dynasty furniture are analyzed in detail from the following four points:

1. Simple shape, mainly lines.

Strict proportional relationship is the basis of furniture modeling. Let's take a look at the Ming dynasty furniture in the picture above. The proportion of parts and decoration is extremely symmetrical and coordinated with the proportion of the whole form. Such as chairs, tables and other furniture, its upper and lower parts, its legs, legs, backrest and pillows, their height, length, thickness and width all make people feel impeccable symmetry and coordination. But also meets the functional requirements, without unnecessary burden, and the overall feeling is the combination of lines. The lines of all its parts are very high and beautiful. Combining rigidity with softness, the lines are rigid but not stiff, soft but not weak, showing the beauty of simplicity, simplicity, elegance and generosity.

2. Rigorous structure and meticulous workmanship

The mortise and tenon structure of Ming dynasty furniture is very scientific. No nails, less glue, not affected by wet or dry natural conditions, and the method of saving edges is adopted in production. Between the long-span parts, there are inlaid teeth plates, teeth strips, ring mouths, coupon mouths, short and old, overlord, Luo Guo, clip flowers and so on. , both beautiful and strengthened the firmness. The structural design of Ming dynasty furniture is an excellent combination of science and art. Today, after hundreds of years of changes, furniture is still as strong as ever, which shows that the mortise and tenon structure of Ming dynasty furniture is highly scientific.

3. Proper decoration, simplicity and simplicity

The decorative techniques of furniture in Ming dynasty can be said to be varied, such as carving, engraving, embedding and painting. Decorative materials are also very extensive, such as enamel, Luodian, bamboo, teeth, jade, stone and so on. However, we will never covet stacking and carving, but make appropriate local decoration according to the overall requirements. For example, a small area is carved or inlaid on the back of the chair, and the desk part should be short and old or with flowers. Although it has been renovated, on the whole, it is simple and exquisite; It can be described as appropriate and icing on the cake.

4. The wood is hard and the texture is beautiful.

It can be clearly seen from the above pictures that the wood grain of Ming dynasty furniture is natural and beautiful, showing the image of a feathered animal face, which makes people have endless reverie. It is another outstanding feature of hardwood furniture in Ming dynasty to make full use of the texture advantage of wood and give full play to the natural beauty of hardwood materials. The hardwood furniture materials in Ming Dynasty were mostly Huang Huali, rosewood and rosewood. Wood, etc. These high-grade hardwoods all have the natural beauty of hue and texture. When making, the craftsmen not only worked carefully, but also did not decorate with paint or in a large area, and made full use of the unique color and texture of wood, forming their own unique aesthetic taste and style. This is another feature of Ming dynasty furniture.

To sum up, the style and characteristics of Ming dynasty furniture can be summarized in four sentences: simple shape, rigorous structure, moderate decoration and beautiful texture. The above four sentences can also be said to have four characteristics, which are not isolated, but interrelated and isomorphic, forming the style characteristics of furniture in Ming Dynasty. When we look at a piece of furniture and judge whether it is Ming-style furniture, we must first grasp its overall feeling and then analyze it item by item. It is not enough to look at only one point, and only one feature is inaccurate. These four characteristics are interrelated, and they are both external and internal, so it can be said that they are indispensable. If a piece of furniture has the first three characteristics, but there is no fourth point, you can be sure that what he said is not Ming Dynasty furniture. Furniture made by later generations imitating the above four characteristics is called Ming furniture.