2012年3月9日星期五

The Four Gentlemen Of Flowers In Chinese Art----orchids


Grown in deep mountain valleys, orchids are one of the top ten well-known flowers in Chinese culture. Chinese people usually link orchids with elegance owing to their delicate fragrance that refreshes people’s minds and the elegant figures swaying slightly in the wind.
Becoming popular during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), orchids arrived later than plum blossoms and people didn’t pay much attention to orchid paintings until Song Dynasty (960-1279). It is said that Sushi (a famous poet in Song Dynasty) once painted orchids with some thorns between them, implying that a gentle man can tolerate a mean person.With the downfall of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), people in the early Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) expressed their unyielding integrity by painting orchids. The masters in that time were Zhao Mengjian and Zheng Sixiao.
The most noted painter of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) was Zheng Suonan whose paintings implied definite connotations. The orchids he painted were never with roots, as if floating in the air, which manifested Zheng’s feeling of homelessness with the downfall of the Song Dynasty.
The excellent orchid painter of the Qing Dynasty was Zheng Banqiao who attached great importance on the nature of orchids. He had a preference for painting wild orchids; he once planted potted orchids by himself and transplanted them in the mountain after spring with the expectation of them growing naturally.

More information about Chinese culture ,please check:www.no-1chineselearning.com

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