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.

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The Four Gentlemen Of Flowers In Chinese Art----plum blossom

The plum blossom is one of the most beloved flowers in China and has been frequently depicted in Chinese art and poetry for centuries. The plum blossom is seen as a symbol of winter and a harbinger of spring. The blossoms are so beloved because they are viewed as blooming most vibrantly amidst the winter snow, exuding an ethereal elegance, while their fragrance is noticed to still subtly pervade the air at even the coldest times of the year. Therefore the plum blossom came to symbolize perseverance and hope, but also beauty, purity, and the transitoriness of life. In Confucianism, the plum blossom stands for the principles and values of virtue. More recently, it has also been used as a metaphor to symbolize revolutionary struggle since the turn of the 20th century.

Because it blossoms in the cold winter, The plum blossom is regarded as one of the "Four Gentlemen" of flowers in Chinese art together with the orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo. It is one of the "Flowers of the Four Seasons", which consist of the orchid (spring), the lotus (summer), the chrysanthemum (autumn) and the plum blossom (winter). These groupings are seen repeatedly in the Chinese aesthetic of art, painting, literature, and garden design.

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