What kind of life concept does China ancient furniture embody?

In the splendid starry sky of Chinese civilization, classical furniture is comparable to bronzes, jades, paintings and ceramics, and it is one of the most influential core value symbols in China traditional culture. The essence of making classical craft furniture is to make culture and art. This column will tell the history and culture of classical furniture, industry predecessors and industry books one after another, look up at the stars, pay tribute to the pioneers, and at the same time open up for us in the search.

The inspiration of ancient literati followed the track of The Book of Rites? "University" shows: "The ancient desire is obviously superior to the world: governing the country first; If you want to govern your country, you should first get your family together; If you want to reunite with your family, you should first repair your body; If you want to repair your body, you must first correct your heart. " Therefore, the pursuit of literati's life is nothing more than integrity, self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world. The greatest wish of a scholar-bureaucrat in his life is nothing more than standing, being a good person, making contributions and making a speech. These grand ambitions are closely related to "home". Creating an elegant, harmonious, comfortable and comfortable home environment is of great benefit to self-cultivation and career achievement.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the development of social economy and the germination of capitalism, it became fashionable to pursue culture, art and exquisite life. A group of people devoted themselves to research and wrote many works, such as Wen Zhenheng's Long History, Gao Lian's Eight Notes on Respecting Life, Tu Long's Notes on Other Things and Li Yu's Essays in the early Qing Dynasty, which were handed down from generation to generation. The book expounds the aesthetic concept and spiritual life of traditional literati, and these cultural heritages still have important reference significance today.

The layout and interior furnishings of the first house reflect the lifestyle and cultural taste of residents. While paying attention to material needs, we should also pay attention to spiritual needs in order to improve our life taste and cultural interest.

Aesthetic standards of ancient literati

The ancients were very particular about the layout of the first house. In many works, they described in detail the design and layout of halls, mountain villages, Zhang rooms, Buddhist temples, tea rooms, piano rooms, courtyards, pavilions and pavilions, which reflected high cultural and aesthetic accomplishment.

Taoism advocates the idea of "harmony between man and nature", "natural inaction" and "using less and getting more", which has a far-reaching influence on ancient home culture.

The home layout and interior furnishings in the Ming Dynasty were a combination of tradition and were very literati. The general feature is an open, simple and elegant style. Not only the living room structure is spacious, but also the indoor furnishings are advocated to be few and not many. The chairs and stools on the console table should be spacious, and the furnishings on several cases should not be too much. In short, life makes people feel comfortable, elegant, clean and clear.

The ancients first paid attention to the living environment, which is an important condition for the communication and integration between man and nature. So The Chronicle of Long History is in Volume 1? In Shi Lu's article, it was put forward at the beginning that "those who live between mountains and rivers are the best, followed by the suburbs of the village." Even if you can't live in a mountain village, you should be "elegant and clean, and the room is clean and beautiful." Pavilions and pavilions are full of scholars' thoughts, while Zhai Ge is full of secluded people. It is also a strange kind of bamboo (strange bamboo). Chen Jinshi's books make the living forget their old age, the lingering forget their return, and the swimmers forget their fatigue. People think that the entrance to the wall of the house should be "wooden, nailed horizontally with Fei Xiang bamboo, or four or two, not six" "Make spring stickers with two boards, be sure to take the best from Tang Lian and carve them on it at will. If you use a stone bundle (stone threshold), you must go to the door. The quality of stone magnolia is not bad. " The steps are "from the third level to the tenth level. The taller they are, the older they are. They must be stripped with aragonite (a natural and beautiful stone). " The railing "the stone fence is the oldest and the wooden fence is elegant." Columns should not be too high, nor should they be carved in the shape of birds and animals. "Let's look at the wall." There is a literary wood like Douban Nan (that is, Ya Nan), which is really beautiful and elegant. " Wen believes that the home environment is simple and elegant.

Li Yu said in the bedroom department of Volume IV of Random Thoughts: "Civil affairs is the most taboo. It is especially important for bandits (not only) to be frugal in the homes of ordinary people, but also for governors. The living room system is expensive, refined but not beautiful, novel and elegant, not exquisite and brilliant. People who are no longer rich are not rich, because they can't create new things and they don't have the knowledge of wealth, so they must bear this responsibility. " Li Daiweng made it clear that residential buildings are not rich and luxurious, but only natural and simple or elegant and exquisite, with their own characteristics. At present, many luxury houses we see are magnificent, but just like clubs and even office buildings, they are inevitably vulgar.

Tu Long wrote in the Textual Research of the Shanzhai: "It should be bright and clean, not too open. Bright and clean can refresh, and macro-opening hurts the eyesight. There are one or two excellent bonsai orchids in the atrium, and there are five or seven golden scales in the basin by the window, just next to Xiyan Lake. " The room where the ancients lived in Yan was called Zhai, and the mountain house was a room in the mountains, which was mostly used for seclusion and study. As for the tea room (where tea is made), it is "to build a small room next to the study, where tea sets are placed." Teach a boy to specialize in tea service, so that he can have a long talk and sit on a cold night. The first one is for you, don't waste it. " It can be seen that the pursuit of tranquility, elegance and leisure is the life interest of the old literati.

In the courtyard of the first house that a scholar likes, a pavilion is usually built, which naturally fits in with the surrounding scenery and is elegant and natural. Gao Lian's "Eight Chapters of Honor" describes that Mao Ting "is covered with white grass, four structures are like pavilions, or covered with brown slices for longer. The four pillars below it are made of four old palm trees with skins in the mountains, which are not only simple and elegant, but also durable. There are one or two bamboos outside the fence, tied in the shade of pine trees and planted in lush forests, which is called Qingshang. " The cypress pavilion is "planted by four old cypress trees and completed with a gardener's bamboo rope." The single eaves are good, round and elegant, and the hexagonal eaves are very vulgar. " The Chronicle of History also talks about pavilions: "When building a platform, it is advisable to avoid hexagonal corners. If it is built on a mound, it will be elegant to use thick boards around it. " We can see that Gu Zhuo's nature is the aesthetic standard of ancient literati.

From the above excerpts, it can be seen that the ideal home environment for literati in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties is to meet spiritual needs, conform to aesthetics, advocate nature, put elegance first and pursue the realm of harmony between man and nature. Nowadays, many people spend 10 million yuan to build luxury houses, which are based on showing off their wealth and desires, but they can't satisfy their cultural taste and life interest.