In ancient society, flowers were a symbol of elegant life. Scholars in Song Dynasty carried out various elegant daily activities and cultural exchanges around "flowers", which greatly promoted the artistic aesthetics in Song Dynasty. In the history of traditional art in China, flowers are extremely important aesthetic objects, so they are quite common in the history of traditional literature and painting in China, and they also show various styles, reflecting the aesthetic humor of past dynasties.
With the continuous development of commodity economy in Song Dynasty, the city showed a prosperous scene. With the development of the city, the citizen class appeared and began to grow. In this case, literature and art in Song Dynasty gradually became citizens, and citizens' lives were full of artistic representations. Art began to be civilian and daily, benefiting from the changes of society and social class in Song Dynasty.
Art originated from daily life. The daily life of citizens in Song Dynasty took "flower" as the carrier, showing a variety of combinations of life and art. "Flower" widely entered people's daily life, became a social fashion, and deduced many aesthetic meanings.
First, in the mood for love, men love to turn hairpin flowers into fashion.
In Song Dynasty, Zanhua became a fashion in social life. Men and women, old and young, all walks of life regard hairpin flowers as a fashion, and the Song Dynasty was the only time in history that men generally wore hairpin flowers. In people's daily life or holiday customs, people should wear hairpin flowers, which have a beautiful meaning, symbolizing fame, identity and status, and are also the lifelong pursuit of some literati. It can be seen that praise has become a kind of social culture and etiquette, which penetrated into people's lives in the Song Dynasty. People express their feelings and their melancholy through hairpin flowers.
In the Song Dynasty, when the national ceremony was held, the emperor held a "smell wedding banquet" for new scholars in Joan Lin Yuan, and presented them with famous flowers. It is a great honor for literati to wear famous flowers. Zanhua was very common in Song society. People use flowers as decorations and wear them in their hair to show their looks. There are many kinds of flowers, and you can choose according to your hairstyle. In the Song Dynasty, they paid attention to details and paid great attention to the shape and color of flowers, so they should show the best effect in decoration. This has also become the most characteristic fashion in the Song Dynasty. Zanhua reflects the Song people's love for "flowers", on the one hand, it reflects the Song people's attention to beauty as a decoration, and at the same time, "flowers" as an image also entrusted the Song people's feelings.
The common people love hairpin flowers, which reflects the popular fashion of the common people in the Song Dynasty, also shows the aesthetic taste and unique characteristics of the times in the Song Dynasty, and also reflects the open and free psychology and the connotation of splendid culture throughout the Song Dynasty.
Second, enjoy flowers and go to the streets to enjoy big flowers.
In the society of Tang Dynasty, flower appreciation prevailed. Princes and nobles planted flowers and enjoyed them, which was inherited and developed in the Song Dynasty. Flower viewing has become a pleasure in people's daily life, and it is deeply loved by people from the upper class to ordinary people. China has a vast territory, diverse terrain and great climate difference, so there are many kinds of flowers. With the development of flower viewing activities, many works of art related to flowers were born. Scholars like to enjoy flowers and make friends, hold banquets, drink and enjoy flowers, and everyone sings poems and writes poems, talking and laughing.
"Old Wulin Stories" records: plum blossom in Meitang, apricot blossom in Fangchuntang, peach blossom in Taoyuan and Haitang Pavilion in Jinling. As for Zhong Meitang, enjoying big flowers is extremely prosperous. It can be seen that flower viewing is extremely exquisite, and the placement and layout of flowers are stipulated. In the court, hundreds of officials of the emperor also enjoyed flowers and made friends. Through these activities, the communication between the monarch and his subjects was strengthened, which not only reflected the importance of etiquette, but also promoted the understanding between the monarch and his subjects.
In Song Taizong's time, the monarch and his ministers began to enjoy flowers and fish, which became a routine in Song Zhenzong's time and became the main leisure activities in the court. Driven by the flower viewing movement of the upper rulers, a large number of poems praising flowers and paintings depicting flowers appeared along with this activity.
The flower spectrum written by the literati in the Song Dynasty is rich and colorful, which pays attention to the integration of literature and art, and contains the observation and creation of the literati in the Song Dynasty, leaving a lot of historical materials for later generations. In the Song Dynasty, the folk society also had the custom of enjoying flowers. Whenever spring is in full bloom, men and women often enjoy flowers together and enjoy the beautiful scenery of spring. Dream of China in Tokyo records the number of flower beds and the blooming of flowers in the Song Dynasty. Of course, flower viewing, as an activity, often has different purposes and meanings, some for social gatherings, some for showing off political achievements, and some for praising the ruling class.
Scholars in Song Dynasty began to plant flowers by themselves, contacted with flower farmers, and personally learned and mastered the relevant knowledge of flowers. The world's flower appreciation is influenced by its own cultural literacy, and the level of flower appreciation is different. In Song Dynasty, Shao Yong wrote in "Appreciating Flowers": People are not good at appreciating flowers, but only love the appearance of flowers; People are either good at appreciating flowers, but only love the beauty of flowers.
In Song Dynasty, flower appreciation paid attention to psychological level, artistic sentiment gradually sublimated, from sensory aesthetics to spiritual deepening. Flowers can improve the cultural quality of literati to a certain extent. Scholars leave different forms of literary works by appreciating flowers, which also enriches their spiritual life. Literati vividly describe flowers through brushstrokes, and convey their feelings through flowers as images, which also promoted the prosperity of flower culture in Song Dynasty and made Song Dynasty occupy an important position in the cultural history of China.
Scholars like to paint flowers, mainly plum blossom, chrysanthemum, lotus flower, orchid and peony, showing noble quality, wealth and good fortune, which shows the painter's ideological pursuit and inner spirit. Flower viewing activities not only reflect the artistic taste and sentiment of literati, but also play an important role in political life. Flowers are not only a leisure activity to make friends, but also an important link to strengthen understanding between monarch and minister, which shows the multiple significance of this activity in the Song Dynasty.
Sending flowers to friends: the communication fashion of literati in Song Dynasty
Sending flowers is not unique to the Song Dynasty. In the history of traditional culture, there have been many communication activities through flowers. For example, in the Book of Songs, it is recorded that a Wei Shi and a woman teased each other and gave them peonies. In Song Dynasty, literati generally used flowers as gifts to express their feelings. In the upper class, the monarch presented flowers to ministers to show their courtesy and glory.
As a work of art, flowers have become the embodiment of the pursuit of elegance by literati in the Song Dynasty, and sending flowers also shows the artistic atmosphere and noble quality of people in the Song Dynasty. At the same time, flowers are pure and noble things, and they are the convergence of aura and nature in all things in the world. Sending flowers also shows respect and friendship for each other. At the same time, flowers themselves also carry the unique meaning of flowers. By sending flowers, you can show the true thoughts of the giver and implicitly pass them on to each other through the bed where the flowers are sent.
In the Song Dynasty, people thought that flowers contained auspicious and rich meanings, especially peony flowers, which made the world more warm. Bai Juyi's "Peony Square" describes the scene of peony in full bloom: the flowers bloom and fall for 20 days, and the people in a city are crazy. People in Song Dynasty loved peonies, and the rich and full posture of peony flowers was given a symbol of wealth by the world, which also made people pursue peonies, often competing to buy peonies for others at high prices. Scholars in Song Dynasty exchanged flowers to express their feelings. Influenced by Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, the flower quilt endowed human morality and embodied personality, so sending flowers to friends actually implied various meanings.
Fourth, eat all the flowers by the stream with flowers.
Flowers in the Song Dynasty also became a kind of diet, and eating flowers became a way of keeping in good health, which was highly respected. With the economic development in Song Dynasty and the completion of the shift of economic center of gravity to the south, the north and the south converge and the diet is rich and diverse. The diet in Song Dynasty began to pay attention to the delicacy, color, aroma and taste of ingredients, and at the same time paid attention to the function of health preservation. Therefore, flowers in the Song Dynasty became the darling of the diet, feeding on flowers, showing the poetic life of the Song people.
In the Song Dynasty, the food recipe "Shanjia Qinggong" recorded many delicious foods made of flowers, such as plum blossoms with honey stains, fish bags in Lotus Palace and Ziyingju soup. Adding flowers to food can not only keep the fragrance of flowers, but also keep the original natural flavor of food, providing a different kind of food for Song people.
In Song Dynasty, people often used chrysanthemum, plum blossom, lily, gardenia, osmanthus and other flowers to cook. The food often has a good appearance and taste, and at the same time has the effect of health preservation, which is loved by people in Song Dynasty. In addition, flowers are often used to make wine and tea. Song people like drinking, which is often used to brew chrysanthemum wine, Mei Huajiu, etc., and it can also be seen everywhere in the cities of Song Dynasty.
The diversity of flower varieties and the north-south integration of cooking techniques in the Song Dynasty made flowers enter the daily life of Song people as food. Although flowers are light to eat as food, they are full of life interest, which further promotes the relationship between flowers as a culture and the people in Song Dynasty. At the same time, Song people paid attention to health care, and the relationship between flowers and health care efficacy also developed greatly in Song Dynasty.
Conclusion:
Song people love to plant, sell, enjoy, eat and send flowers. Through these activities related to "flowers", we can observe the daily life of the people in the Song Dynasty, and at the same time we can see the diversity, freedom and openness of the culture in the Song Dynasty. The "flower" culture in Song Dynasty is unique in the ancient cultural history of China because of its uniqueness and extremes.
Scholars in Song Dynasty left many popular poems and songs by virtue of "flowers", and the world also conveyed their emotional ideals and enriched their spiritual life through flowers. Take "flowers" as popular items, give full play to the role of "flowers" and further enhance their aesthetic concepts. Through "flowers", people's life in Song Dynasty became more colorful, and they also made great contributions to China's art history and cultural history.
References: Tokyo Dream China, Wulin Old Story, Shanjia Confession, Good Flower Appreciation.