What is the meaning of "the culture of the square"?

"Square" and "circle" are a pair of unique concepts in traditional Chinese culture, a unique outlook on life brought together by the evolution of Chinese civilization and inherited by the Chinese nation for generations. "Square" and "circle" are no longer purely geometric, but contain the spirit of Eastern culture and unique spatial awareness.

Square and round in the Chinese culture and the Western understanding of the concept is different, the Chinese culture of "heaven and earth", Taoism believes that: "round" refers to the sky, the turbulence and uncertainty of "heaven and round" refers to the heart of the roundness, the heart of the roundness, the heart of the roundness, the heart of the roundness of the roundness of the roundness of the roundness of the roundness of the roundness of the earth. According to Taoism, "Circle" refers to heaven, which is volatile, and "Heavenly Circle" refers to the harmony of the heart in order to be able to communicate; "Square" refers to the earth, which is astringent, and "Place" refers to the strict rules and regulations of the life affairs. The "Heavenly Circle and Earthly Places" is an embodiment of the doctrine of yin and yang in traditional Chinese culture, which not only represents the Chinese personality orientation of "outer circle and inner square", but also has the Chinese view of life of "between heaven and mankind, between the square and the circle". The Chinese view of life. Therefore, "heaven and man, between the square and the circle" has become the guidelines for doing things, but also become an indispensable content of all kinds of architecture and design.

The "square" and "circle" in the development of Chinese design culture

Traditional culture is an important part of human civilization and activities, and design culture is the expression of traditional culture in the design behavior and the way of existence. Attention to the interactive relationship between Chinese traditional culture and design culture, and highlighting the connotation of traditional culture in design are becoming one of the important ways to inherit our traditional culture. All along, the form of design art is shown in human form, which changes orderly with the changes of times and cultures of different times, reflecting the changes of human civilization and subjective consciousness and thoughts. Tracing the development of ancient Chinese design art, it is not difficult to find that "square" and "circle" have always played an important role in the long history of design. The culture of "square and circle" is a pair of ancient and typical aesthetic cultural categories in ancient Chinese culture and art, which contains the spiritual connotation and aesthetic interest of the Chinese nation, and through the evolution of symbols, the square and circle have been given more meanings and multiple interpretations, and people of different times and cultural backgrounds have made generalizations and refinements as well as intrinsic meaning to the symbols of the square and circle by virtue of their own perceptions. People of different times and cultural backgrounds, by virtue of their own perceptions of the symbols of the square and the circle to summarize and refine the beauty and the excavation of inner meaning.

With the knowledge and grasp of "square" and "circle", people gradually realize the truth of "no rules, no circle". Mastered the "round so that the movement, the square so that the static" law, and even the "heaven and earth" ideological concepts and emotional patterns to measure the "square" and "circle "This reflects the aesthetic taste and spiritual connotation of the Chinese nation. During the development of Chinese human civilization, the doctrine of "heaven, roundness and place" has had a crucial influence on the traditional Chinese art of creation, which has been carried on for thousands of years from the ancient Chinese coins, utensils, patterns, costumes, architecture and gardens, etc., to modern times, and has been inherited and permeated by the concept of "squareness" and "roundness" from the smallest jewelries and digital products, to the largest home decorations and architectural designs. The concepts of "square" and "round" have been inherited and permeated by all of them. Square and round gradually form the typical modeling elements of design, in all architecture and design products, through the cognition and acquisition of square and round forms, so that our living environment and spiritual outlook is refreshed, with the symbols of square and round to express the sense of culture, the square and round as a symbol of the world view and outlook on life.

The inspiration of "square" and "circle" culture to design

The concept of square and circle is becoming a new fashionable symbol in the design world. Today, people's values and outlook on life tend to be diversified, which also shows that people for the form and shape of the complexity of the consciousness tendency, where the "complexity" does not mean the complexity of the form, but the complexity of people's ideology, which is also exactly the same as the traditional Chinese "outside the circle, inside the square" personality orientation. This also happens to coincide with the traditional Chinese "round outside and square inside" personality orientation.

1. The external revelation of "square" and "round" culture to design

Products have the characteristics of aesthetics, technology and quality, and "square" shape has the characteristic of straight line. The "square" shape is characterized by straight lines, which mainly reflects the character through folding lines, with male and strong character traits; the "round" shape is characterized by curves, which mainly consists of smooth curves, reflecting female and soft character traits. Since ancient times, both architectural design and product design have realized this characteristic from different levels, which is also a clever use of the Chinese idea of "heaven is round and earth is square", reflecting the results of thousands of years of traditional cultural influence on the Chinese people. As shown in Fig. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, for the modeling of ancient Chinese coins, the architectural form of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and the design of modern sanitary wares, the modeling of the square-hole round money contains a wealth of Taoist dialectical thinking, with the tangible circle, to make up for the invisible sky; with the contentless "imaginary square", the tangible "field", highlighting the reflection of the Chinese "heaven and earth" idea. "This reflects the Taoist theory of yin and yang, which is a concrete embodiment of the idea of the unity of heaven, earth and human beings, and the relative relationship between existence and reality. The Temple of Heaven in Beijing is one of the most complete preservation of the masterpieces of the ancients, the main design idea of the Temple of Heaven building is to highlight the vastness of the sky far away, with a round expression of the supremacy of the "sky", the square expression of the entire Temple of Heaven building dignified, majestic, distinctive. Bathroom as the most cozy and quiet environment in the family, is also the best space to relax yourself, so the square and round design method for us to bring the entry point of the design, with the square and round the simplest lines and forms to interpret the cleanest space is the most apt, square and round, as the most simple, the most fundamental form of space for human beings, the washbasin to the square and round geometric lines to express the design concepts, modeling is simple and stylish, and can make people every morning and evening, and can make people every day. And can let people every day in the morning and evening wash to understand the way of doing things.

Square and round are not only embodied in the tangible shape of the design, as the material elements that only have visual surface attributes without a sense of form, they can also be expressed through the contrast between square and round to show the design qualities of rigidity with softness, softness with rigidity, rigidity and softness, where "square" represents the material's " rigidity" and "square" represents the material's " rigidity". Here, "square" represents the material's "rigidity" and "round" represents the material's "softness". Similarly in the product design style through the same square and round design shows a variety of different styles embodied through the curve and straight, square and round, soft and hard contrast to produce a harmonious melody, to experience the cultural connotations of the square and round.

Today, the square and the circle are becoming the new expression of various product designs, and have become a popular new form trend in modern design. Product design and architectural design embodied in the roundness of the sky, square in the round, round in the square, both can highlight the angles, but also part of the roundness of the smooth, angularity shows the principle of being a person, smoothness shows the way of people's way of dealing with things. "Square" and "round", seems to be a pair of different styles, the two opposite forms, in fact, in the design of the combination of square and round has never been interrupted, and has never been subverted, they are the world's most perfect, most harmonious combination, almost no any one form can be comparable to them. form can be comparable to them.

2. "Square" and "round" culture on the design of the inner revelation

In the traditional thinking of the Chinese people, the outer circle and the inner square is a kind of personality orientation, and there is "Mencius - Li Lou on" in the road: "" Li Lou of the Ming, Gongshu Zi". Li Lou's bright, Gongtu Zi's skill, not by the rules, not round." Fully demonstrates the way to do people, can be a long way. Doing design is also the same, design with the road to maintain ecological balance and sustainable development. In today's resource environment is seriously challenged and threatened, how to break through the barriers, designers in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development to really play the role of designers, to stimulate the moral values of the community and enterprises, which requires designers to do both square and round, "square" refers to the morality of design, "round" refers to the designers and enterprises, "round" refers to the design of the moral nature, "round" refers to the designers and enterprises. The "square" refers to the ethicality of design, and the "round" refers to the smooth communication and solution between designers and enterprises. The biggest obstacle encountered in today's sustainable development is the mentality of quick success and quick profit, which is reflected in both enterprises and society. Enterprises are eager to achieve success and overly focus on economic benefits, but neglect to design and consider the long-term development of society. This is not a question of capacity, but a question of perception. Although today's enterprises and society have begun to pay attention to this aspect of the problem, for some enterprises and suppliers, the first thing that comes to their mind is "will it be too much trouble", thus making the concept of sustainable development remain only on paper. Enterprises have a responsibility to optimize the human living environment and improve the ecological balance, which should be accomplished through the role of designers, who should be aware of their own sense of responsibility, and maintain the principle of "square" on the ethical bottom line of design, and at the same time use the attitude and method of "round" to maintain the "square". At the same time, it is also necessary to use the "round" attitude and method to maintain the interests of enterprises and meet the needs of consumers, rather than just to meet the requirements of customers and break through their own moral bottom line. Today's judgment standard for design is no longer the aesthetic concept of stimulating consumption that has been maintained for half a century, but a new design judgment standard, which is the aesthetic concept of saving energy and advocating reasonable consumption, maximizing the saving of resources, slowing down the speed of environmental degradation, reducing consumption, and meeting the needs of human life. Designers in the "square" design ethics in the search for "round" solution to achieve harmony and unity of design and the environment.