Flowers were a symbol of elegant life in ancient society. Scholars in Song Dynasty carried out all kinds of elegant and daily behavior activities and cultural exchanges around "flowers", which greatly promoted the artistic aesthetics in Song Dynasty. In the history of traditional art in China, Huadu is an extremely important aesthetic object, so it is quite common in the history of traditional literature and painting in China. It also shows various styles and reflects 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, the literature and art of the Song Dynasty gradually became citizens, and citizens' lives were full of artistic representations. Art began to be civilian and daily, which benefited 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 hairpin flowers into fashion.
In Song Dynasty, Zanhua became a fashion in social life. Men and women, old and young, and 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, symbolize 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 melancholy through hairpin flowers.
In the Song Dynasty, during the national ceremony, the emperor held a "smell wedding banquet" for new scholars in Joan Lin Yuan and presented them with famous flowers. Wearing famous flowers is a great honor for literati. Zanhua was very common in all parts of society in Song Dynasty. People use flowers as decorations and put them in their hair to show their appearance. There are different kinds of flowers, which are chosen according to their hair styles. In the Song Dynasty, they paid attention to details, and they were extremely particular about 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 love of "flower" in Song Dynasty, on the one hand, it reflects people's attention to beauty in Song Dynasty as a decoration, and at the same time, "flower" as an image also entrusts people's feelings in Song Dynasty.
The people love hairpin flowers, which reflects the popular fashion of the people in the Song Dynasty, and also shows the aesthetic taste and unique characteristics of the times in the Song Dynasty, which also reflects the open and free psychology and the connotation of splendid culture throughout the Song Dynasty.
Second, enjoy the flowers and go to the streets to enjoy the big flowers.
In the society of Tang Dynasty, flower appreciation prevailed. Princes and nobles planted flowers and enjoyed them, and the Song Dynasty inherited and developed the style of enjoying flowers in the Tang Dynasty. Flower viewing has become a pleasure in people's daily life, and it is deeply loved by the upper class and the common 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 has fun.
"Old Stories of Wulin" records: plum blossoms were enjoyed in Meitang, apricot blossoms were enjoyed in Fangchuntang, peaches were watched in Taoyuan, and Jin Jinling was decorated with Haitang Pavilion. 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 were also enjoying flowers and making 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.
During the period of Song Taizong, the monarch and his ministers began to enjoy flowers and fish, which became a routine during the period of Song Zhenzong 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 created 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. The folk society in Song Dynasty 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 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 varies. Shao Yong in Song Dynasty 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 their beauty.
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 at the same time convey emotions through flowers as images, which also promoted the prosperity of flower culture in the Song Dynasty and made the 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, and interpreting 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. Flower viewing is 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: the communication way of literati in Song Dynasty
Sending flowers is not unique to Song Dynasty. In the history of traditional culture, there are many activities of communication through flowers. For example, in the Book of Songs, it is recorded that a Wei 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 his ministers to show his courtesy and honor to them.
As an artistic object, flowers have become the embodiment of the pursuit of elegance by literati in the Song Dynasty, and the gift of 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, which 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 bear the unique meaning of flowers themselves. By sending flowers, the real thoughts of the giver can be displayed through the bed where the flowers are sent and passed on to the other party implicitly.
In the Song Dynasty, people thought that flowers contained auspicious and rich meanings, especially peony flowers, which made the world more enthusiastic. Bai Juyi's "Peony Square" describes the scene of peony in full bloom: flowers bloom and fall for 20 days, and a city is crazy. People in the Song Dynasty loved peonies, and the rich and full posture of peony flowers was given a symbol of prosperity by the world, which also made people pursue peonies and often competed to buy peonies for others at high prices. Scholars in Song Dynasty exchanged flowers to express their feelings. Influenced by the rationality of Song and Ming Dynasties, the flower quilt endowed human morality and reflected personality, so sending flowers to friends actually implied various meanings.
Fourth, eat up 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 the Song Dynasty and the completion of the shift of the economic center of gravity to the south, the north and the south gathered together and the diet was rich and varied. The diet in the Song Dynasty began to pay attention to the exquisite ingredients, full of color, flavor and taste, and at the same time paid attention to the role of health preservation. Therefore, flowers became the favorite in the diet in the Song Dynasty, which showed the poetic life of people in the Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, the gourmet cookbook "Shanjia Qinggong" recorded many delicious foods made of flowers, such as plum blossom with honey stains, fish bag in Lotus House and Ziyingju soup. Adding flowers to food can keep the fragrance of flowers or keep the original natural flavor of food, which provides a different kind of food for the people in Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, people often used chrysanthemum, plum blossom, lily, gardenia, osmanthus and other flowers for cooking. The food often has a good appearance and taste, and at the same time has the effect of health preservation, which is deeply loved by people in Song Dynasty. In addition, flowers are often used to make wine and tea. Song people like drinking. They used it to make chrysanthemum wine, Mei Huajiu, etc., which can also be seen everywhere in the cities of Song Dynasty.
The diversity of flower varieties and the north-south integration of cooking technology in Song Dynasty made flowers as food enter the daily life of people in Song Dynasty. 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 of Song Dynasty. At the same time, people paid attention to health care in Song Dynasty, 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. Taking "flowers" as a popular item, they fully played the role of "flowers" and further enhanced their aesthetic concept. 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: Dream of China in Tokyo, Old Stories in Wulin, Confessions of a Mountain Family, Enjoy Flowers, etc.