A seat of breeze is drunk and fragrant
Hangzhou Daily News It is unusual and elegant for Hangzhou people to enjoy the lotus in summer. In the early summer, look for “Xiaohe just shows its sharp corners”; in the midsummer, watch “New Lotus Flowering in the Marsh and Leaf Fields”; in the midsummer, enjoy “Lotus leaves in the sky are infinitely bright”; in the autumn and frost, you can “leave the residual lotus to listen to the rain”; even in the wind and after the rain, there are “leaves with cool breeze and flowers making shadows” and “Jasper compass making crystals”.
Recently, the exhibition “Lotus Culture and Hangzhou West Lake” sponsored by Zhejiang Provincial Museum was exhibited in the West Lake Art Museum. This exhibition displays 170 lotus-themed cultural relics and handicrafts from Neolithic period to modern times, leading the audience to enjoy the lotus viewing apparatus and feel the charm of the lotus culture.
The large-scale planting of lotus flowers in Hangzhou West Lake can be traced back to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Lotus was decorated on the artifacts of the Six Dynasties because of its character of being in mud but not stained, which not only conformed to the fashion at that time, but also had considerable aesthetic value. During the Tang and Five Dynasties, the lotus landscape has become an important garden landscape in Hangzhou. Lotus decoration is also common in architecture, painting, bronze mirrors and stone carvings.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, lotus was widely distributed in the West Lake, with the beauty of “Sanqiu Guizi, Shili Lotus”. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the lotus landscape became an important garden landscape of the court and house, and appreciating the lotus became a trend. Yang Wanli’s “West Lake used to belong to a wild family, but now it belongs to a heavenly family, not to him. There are willows in front of the Shuiyue Pavilion, and the lotus flowers are under the Jifang Garden. ” Write the magnificent scenery of the lotus pond with ten miles of splendid West Lake and swaying lotus flowers. Zhou Dunyi, a great scholar in the Song Dynasty, closely combined the lotus image with the literati’s cultivation with his famous work “On Love Lotus”, and the lotus became the flower of a gentleman and the thing of a scholar’s “virtue”. Under the leadership of the literati’s interest, the elegant play of the study, the furnishings of the furniture, and the fragrance of tea and wine are all attached to the lotus, and they are full of fun while enjoying it.
In the Ming Dynasty, after several renovations and expansions, the West Lake finally reappeared the scenery of “lotus flowers are planted all over the lake, and wicker grows in the bank” and “the two lakes are bright and fragrant, and people are overwhelmed if they enter the mountain.” In the late Ming Dynasty, the wind of offering sacrifices to the Qing Dynasty and worshipping the ancient times prevailed in Jiangnan area, and the literati were fascinated by it and often expressed their feelings through things. Lotus leaves can be seen, flowers can be seen, and fruits can be collected. The appreciation period is almost as long as its life cycle, and there is nothing to be discarded, which is both eye and ear appreciation and practical use. Ming people became addicted to lotus, and wrote a lot of books to discuss the way to enjoy.
In the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, the “Quyuan Hefeng” was rebuilt in Yuehu Lake, which straddles the west of Hongqiao in Su Causeway. Emperor Kangxi changed “the wind in Quyuan” to “the wind in Quyuan”. After Kangxi and Qianlong’s southern tour, they brought Jiangsu and Zhejiang culture to the north. The lotus garden in Yuanmingyuan, Quyuan Fenghe, was built according to the layout of the West Lake Quyuan Fenghe. The lotus culture in Qing Dynasty further moved towards the secular direction, and the auspicious figures and words related to lotus were deeply rooted in people’s hearts, and the concept of auspicious was also realized through the sound, shape and meaning of lotus..Externalization and inheritance have become popular cultural symbols from court nobles to the general public.
In the minds of traditional literati, everything is concerned with love. Lotus blossoms, lotus flourishes and lotus falls, bearing noble quality and poetic life. Thousands of years ago, Zhou Bangyan, a native of Qiantang who had been visiting the capital for a long time, wrote the graceful posture of the lotus pond in the south of the Yangtze River with the words “the water is clear and round, and the wind lifts the lotus pond one by one”. In addition to the graceful lotus leaves, there is also the eager pursuit of spiritual home that is hard to leave home.
The exhibition will last until September 7.