Lotus Culture Exploration Handbook

In Buddhism, it is regarded as the symbol of the Western Pure Land, where the soul is nurtured. The Buddha's body is often placed on top of the lotus flower, so the Buddha's seat is also called the lotus seat. Throughout the ages, poets have praised the lotus flower as a gentleman, giving it a holy image. Lotus flower is also known as lotus. It is a stem of double flowers of the lotus, is the omen of longevity and the symbol of pure love. It is the only flower in the hundred flowers that can flower, fruit (lotus root) and seed (lotus seed) coexist. The lotus flower mainly symbolizes beauty, love, longevity and holiness.

2 Lotus, the Chinese June Flower God, facing the summer sun is showing her stunning color, "light qualifications light JuanJuan, dotted garden pool is also poor": the Humble Administrator's Garden "four walls of the lotus three willows", the art garden pool incense darkness, Yiyuan is green incense! Red dance, embracing the Lotus three thousand, Retreat Garden also has a cold fragrance fly on the verse ...... sunny days, like the water on the green cover, cover but red makeup spit colorful lotus, after the rain to see the pool, jasper tray to get the crystal ...... the ancients said: "Tour no beauty in the spring platform, flowers no more than the hibiscus". Flowers are more than the hibiscus", sincere not false also.

The lotus flower is also known as lotus flower, lotus flower, water chi, water hibiscus, lotus, etc., perennial aquatic plants. The rootstock (lotus root) is fat and knobby, and is born horizontally in the mud under the water. There are many varieties of flowers in red, white, green, purple and mixed colors, and the varieties include two-flowered lotus on one stalk, four-flowered four-faced lotus on one branch, and even ten-flowered ten-faced Guanyin on one stem, as well as the small-flowered lotus like jujubes in a bowl, which is very colorful and varied.

Li Yu said the lotus has "three can" wonderful, one said that the eye: out of the water on the day, it will be dotted with green waves, stems and leaves on the day on the day, there are swaying, curling posture. Nymphaea blossomed, and was in full bloom. When the flowers are ready to be shed, a canopy is born under the tip of the flower, and the canopy bears fruits, which are independent and stand on their own, along with the green leaves. The second is that the nose: the fragrance of the lotus leaves, the lotus flowers of the different fragrance, to avoid the summer heat for the retreat, cool and cool by the birth of the cool. Three said delicious, lotus and lotus root, are listed on the dinner plate, mutual fen teeth and cheeks. Even if the frost in the defeat of the leaves, can also be picked and hidden, ready to wrap things for the rest of the year. Therefore, it is said that "there is no moment, uncomfortable ears and eyes of the view; there is no one thing, a trace, not prepared for home use" ("Idle Happenings").

Lotus, in Chinese culture, is also the three religions **** appreciation.

In Chinese culture, the lotus flower is also an object of appreciation for the three religions. Lotus" cloud: "peanuts in the most beautiful. All things first China and after the real, only this real Qi Sheng, a hundred sections of the sparse, ten thousand exquisite, Pavilion things table, out of the mud without dyeing, flowers in the gentleman also." Become a representative of beauty, purity and chastity. In "Poetry Classic", there is "Scorching lotus flowers", which is beautiful in its form, and Qu Yuan "made lotus as clothes and hibiscus as clothes", which is clean.

Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, the lotus flower has infiltrated the Buddhist meaning. Buddhism was created from the arid, hot India, the Indian green shade of blue water complex is inherent, naturally love the green leaves such as the disk of the lotus, according to legend, Brahminism is sitting on the lotus of the Great Brahma was born. Buddhism caters to the public's love of the lotus, in order to promote Buddhism. Buddhism believes that the real world is a piece of dirt and sludge, and Buddhism is to make people uncontaminated, transcendental, to achieve a pure and unobstructed realm, so the use of stained lotus as a metaphor.

According to legend, Mrs. Moyer sat on the lotus seat and gave birth to Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, and when Siddhartha Gautama was born, a thousand-leaf lotus flower was born in the pool. Therefore, the lotus flower became the Buddha's bed, called "Lotus Seat", the seat is called "Lotus Seat Potential". According to the Sutra of the Ordination of Guanyin Bodhisattva, both Guanyin Bodhisattva and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva were also born from the lotus flower. The Chinese monk Huiyuan created the White Lotus Society in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and later the Pure Land Sect was also called the "Lotus Sect", and the lotus flower became the symbol of Buddhism.

Buddhism has the legend of the birth of the lotus flower, according to the "Buddha's original collection of scriptures? Tree under the birth of the product", Shakyamuni in the Lumbini Garden "has been born, no one to support, that is, walking in all directions, the face of the seven steps, step by step to raise their feet, out of the big lotus flower". There is also the legend of the deer maiden step by step lotus. Miscellaneous Treasures Sutra? Lady Lotus Edge" records that, in the snowy mountain side of the immortal Brahmin Tibaiyan, "often urinate on the rock, there is a stream of spermatic flow fell down the rock dang. A female deer came and licked the place where he urinated, and he was pregnant." She gave birth to a daughter, who was so beautiful that she was called "Deer Maiden", and when she grew up, "she was able to walk, and when she stepped on the ground, lotus flowers came out". The Deer Maiden later became the consort of King Udyan, and gave birth to five hundred sons, all of whom became "Paijibuddhas". The lotus blossom is a symbol of the sacred path to purity and liberation. This should be the sacred meaning of the lotus flower pavement in the garden.

Lotus, in Taoism and become one of the Eight Immortals in the hands of the Hexian nun magic weapon. Also monks and Taoist Zhu Da, choose to live in the environment is also "bamboo outside the thatched roof oak pavilion, half a pool of lotus leaves and half a pool of diamonds" ("title lotus").

Chinese love of lotus since ancient times, as early as the Zhou Dynasty bronze and pottery, there are lotus decorative patterns, it is also a variety of architectural decoration, sculpture and living vessels on the most commonly used and most beautiful pattern decoration and modeling.

Qing Zhang Chao said, "Lotus to Lianxi as a confidant" ("Dream Shadow"), referring to the "Lianxi self-title" of the Song Dynasty philosopher Zhou Dunyi, room on the Lotus Peak under the creek, wrote a blend of feelings and rationality, charm and charm of the "love of the Lotus". Zhou made a detailed and vivid depiction of the lotus flower, praising its fragrance, purity, pavilion, and neatness, as well as its elegance and elegance, and comparing it to human nature, which is good, pure, and untainted. The characteristics of the lotus flower and the gentleman's character are fused together, and in fact, the karma of Buddhism is also blended, which constitutes the mood of Suzhou garden attractions such as "Yuanxiang Hall" and "Lotus-root Fragrance Pavilion" in the Humble Administrator's Garden. Zhou Dunyi's "Love Lotus" is like an immortal "Ode to the Lotus", "won the fame of ten thousand years".

Lotus elegant and clean, become a symbol of love. In ancient times, there was a tradition of picking lotus flowers in the fall, and the famous love poem "Xizhou Qu" of the Southern Dynasties, with "lotus root" pun "even" and "lotus" pun "pity", has a meaningful flavor.

The poem "Xizhou Qu", with "lotus root" punning "even" and "lotus" punning "pity", is meaningful and expresses the nostalgic affection for the beloved one.

Lotus is delicious as mentioned, but the lotus into the food, the Chinese literati also eat elegant. Three Kingdoms, there are people with lotus leaves made of wine cups, so that "wine flavor mixed lotus gas". Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty used the morning dew on the lotus leaves to cook tea, called lotus dew tea. Suzhou Shen Fu's wife, in the summer months when the lotus first bloomed, the evening contains and the dawn release, she used a small gauze capsule pinch tea leaves a little, placed in the heart of the flower, take out in the morning, cooking Tianquanzhu soak, the aroma is particularly excellent. This is to drink the elegance, is "the world for the extraordinary" aesthetic. Shen Fu also interestingly describes the process of cultivating bowl of lotus: "the old lotus seed grinding thin both ends, into the eggshell so that the chicken wing, once the chick into take out, with a long time swallow's nest mud plus asparagus two-tenths of the ten, mashed and mixed well, planted in a small vessel, filling the river water, sunrise; flower hair as big as a wine glass, the leaf shrinks like a bowl, Pavilion lovely." (Six Records of a Floating Life) ("Six Records of a Floating Life") aesthetic philosophy of the profound and intellectual spiritual life in the spirit of the spirit of all in this narrative naturally flow out.

The lotus flower "has the reality of the five grains, but not its name; both the length of a hundred flowers, but each to its shortcomings" (Li fisherman, "Idle Happenings"), do not do anything to publicize, is really respectable, lovely. Lunar June 24 is the birthday of the lotus, let us celebrate beautifully. (Cao Lindi)