The Symbol and Implication of Hua Niaowen

Flower-and-bird decoration symbolizes a beautiful meaning and shows a vigorous life.

The image of flower-and-bird decoration is exquisite and changeable, and it is often used by people to convey beautiful meanings. The appearance of flower-and-bird ornamentation has added auspicious and beautiful additional meaning to many things and won people's favor and pursuit. It is very popular and frequently appears in various fields such as architecture, clothing and ceramics.

Ceramic flower-and-bird decoration rose in the Northern Song Dynasty, reached its peak in Ming and Qing Dynasties and flourished in modern times. Flower-and-bird ornamentation has strong lyricism and sustenance, and many literati and princes like to express their beautiful and unspeakable feelings with flower-and-bird ornamentation.

Birds are singing and flowers are fragrant, and a flower and a bird are all life bred by nature. Flower-and-bird decoration on ceramics pays more attention to the vigorous and smooth brushwork and rich and changeable colors to express the prosperity of natural life, and gives people a visual feeling of "birds suddenly changing" with linear patterns.

Pattern characteristics:

A traditional decorative pattern of ceramics, named after it, consists of flowers and birds. It was first seen in the underglaze porcelain of Changsha kiln in Tang Dynasty, and mainly seen in the white and black porcelain of Cizhou kiln and the blue glazed and carved porcelain of Yaozhou kiln in Song Dynasty.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hua Niaowen decoration prevailed in Jingdezhen kiln colored porcelain, such as the blue-and-white loquat plate with bird pattern in Xuande in Ming Dynasty, which depicted the vivid image of birds pecking at loquat and became the representative work of colored porcelain Hua Niaowen.

The theme of flowers and birds on porcelain in Chenghua period was more common than that in Xuande period. There are more kinds of birds, most of which live on branches and are lively and active. Hua Niaowen on Kangxi porcelain in Qing Dynasty was more meticulous in Chinese painting, which made the painted flowers and birds more vivid.