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IN the West, red roses are a symbol of romantic love, yellow roses of friendship. To observe Valentine’s Day, various kinds of roses are marketed on China’s streets and lanes. In ancient China flowers symbolized sentiments. For instance, twin lotus flowers on one stalk or two trees with branches interlocked were imagined to be devoted couples. The lotus flower connotes nobility, and the peony, wealth and rank. For thousands of years these flowers have been key elements in the composition of bird-and-flower paintings.
Lotus Flowers: Elegance and Purity
In ancient China the lotus flower was admired for its statuesque elegance and purity, as described by the Song Dynasty Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) in his essay A Tale of the Lotus Lover as “Born out of sludge but unstained; delicately poised but without guile.” Zhou Dunyi likened himself to a lotus, holding himself aloof from politics and material pursuits. Since then, this flower has become a favorite motif for Chinese artists, and lotus flowers, one of the most common elements of bird-and-flower paintings. Its changes over four seasons and throughout the day are akin to specific auspicious meanings.
Yu Zhizhen (1915-1995) was the woman artist best known for her renderings of lotus flowers in the 1950s and 1960s. She was especially skilled at depicting the flowers in full bloom. In 1937, to learn from the more experienced older generations of lotus painters, she joined the Palace Museum’s Traditional Chinese Painting Research Institute. The artist started out by copying and researching important works from various dynasties in the museum’s collection. In 1946, she was formally apprenticed to Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), famous for his lotus flower paintings. In the 13 years from 1971 to 1984, she painted the huge bird-and-flower painting, employing the meticulous gongbi brushwork, for Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, with lotus flowers as the main theme. In 1983, she produced a large painting entitled The Lotus Pond Delights Again for the Hall of Purple Lights in Zhongnanhai, headquarters of the Communist Party of China and the central government. Now Yu Zhizhen’s works are used as models for students of fine art.
Li Kuizheng (1942 - ) was a student of Yu Zhizhen. After decades of exploration, Li has formed his own unique style of painting lotus flowers. All his students know that Mr. Li never paints lotus flowers in class. He explains, “It is intolerable to sully the sanctity of the lotus flower by painting it in class, which is a blasphemy against the flower.” Li Kuizheng regards himself as a commoner whose selfish desires taint the purity of his soul, and painting lotus flowers as a way to purify it again. He prepares to paint the lotus by first taking a bath and changing into clean clothes. Then he cleans his studio, lights a burning joss stick, and plays some soft, light traditional music. After that he sits quietly, closes his eyes to banish distracting thoughts from his mind, and begins to unfold the paper and grind his ink stick. White Flowers in the Jasper Lake (a legendary place where the fairy Queen Mother of the West lives) is a large painting he did for the Jingxi Hotel, representative of his lotus flower works. In the painting, green lotus leafs cluster around graceful white flowers, and the leafs flutter in the breeze. In executing this work, Li Kuizheng adopted many non-Chinese techniques, such as French Neoimpressionists, which produces an image stroke by stroke. In his opinion, an artist can use any means to achieve the desired effect.
Since lotus flowers comprise the Buddha’s lotus seat, many people regard withered lotus leaves as symbols of Nirvana. A line of the famous poet Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty reads, “Withered lotus remains in the open listening to the pattering of autumn rain.” This image was often evoked in works by artists of later generations. Jia Mian (1952- ), a female artist, often depicted withered lotus, and made inscriptions like “Gilded Buddha remains in the open listening to the pattering of the rain,” or more straightforwardly, “Nirvana.”
The aesthetic value of withered lotus was acknowledged by ancient Chinese artists, and in ancient times there were artists who specialized in depicting them. Zhu Da (1626-1705) of the Qing Dynasty was one of them. His works depicting withered lotus deeply impressed viewers for their unique compositions and desolate atmosphere. One of his representative works is Lotus Flowers and Birds. In this long, narrow painting there are withered lotus leafs and a small bird perched alone on a strangely shaped rock, with the whites of its eyes clearly visible. Zhu Da was a survivor of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty who went into hiding and lived as a hermit deep in the mountains. He missed the Ming Dynasty and loathed the Manchu Qing that toppled and replaced it but was unable to turn the tide. What he could do was express his complex emotions through his art.
Qi Baishi (1864-1957), a great 20th-century artist, also created works depicting withered lotus. But his work differed completely from Zhu Da’s in that although the lotus leafs are withered, the seedpods are erect and straight, signaling the happiness brought by a bumper harvest.
Peony: Great Wealth and High Position
The peony is liked by people for its elegance and charm, known as the “national beauty and heavenly fragrance.” Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), an eminent scholar of the Song Dynasty, was deeply in love with peonies. He wrote a prose piece entitled The Record of Luoyang Peonies. One sentence reads, “During the 20 days when peonies are in full bloom, the whole city goes mad for the blossoms,” showing the extent to which people can become infatuated with this flower. Zhou Dunyi compared the peony with the lotus flower in his A Tale of the Lotus Lover, noting: “The peony demarks wealth and rank.” Therefore, peony patterns decorated the homes of royal families and high-ranking officials. The head ornament of the noble Manchu women is the peony in full bloom.
Painting the peony is practically a required course for every artist attempting bird-and-flower paintings. Li Tang, a Southern Song Dynasty painter who did not depict peonies when he was young, composed a poem in his old age: “If I had known my works were not liked by my contemporaries, I would have bought more rouge to depict peonies.” When the peony is combined with other flowers and birds, it adds beauty and complexity to the symbolism. For instance, the combination of peony and Chinese crabapple flowers is called “man tang fu gui,” which means “Wealth and nobility fill your hall,” since Chinese crabapple (hai tang) has the same sound as tingtang (hall). The combination of peony and lotus flower is called “rong hua fu gui,” which means “glory, splendor, wealth and position,” since the lotus flower is also called “fu rong hua,” which has the same sound as rong hua (glory and splendor). The combination of peony and Chinese bulbul is called “fu gui dao bai tou,” which means “Great wealth and high position at a ripe old age,” since in Chinese bulbul is called “bai tou niao” (white-headed bird).
The peony is often selected for beginners of bird-and-flower painting for its big corolla, monochroic color and distinct image. But it is no easy job to paint a peony. While doing sketches of peonies Yu Fei’an (1887-1959) found that spring is the best season to capture the peony – when it is in full bloom and its leaves are sparse and thin. By summer, the leaves have grown big, green and sleek, but the flowers have withered. In summer the thick leaves tend to also shade the stems, so compositions appear to be a pile of green leaves. In autumn when the leaves are partly fallen, the stems appear, albeit indistinctly, and the flower takes on poetic proportions. After years of research, Yu Fei’an found a mode of expression that departed from the older generations of artists. He combined the corolla of spring, the leaves of summer and the stems of autumn, so as to present the peony’s best features in one painting.
Wang Daozhong (1931- ) is a student of Yu Fei’an, so good at painting peonies he is known as “Peony Wang.” When he was young he lived near the Forbidden City in Beijing, often haunting the Imperial Ancestral Temple (present-day Working People’s Cultural Palace) to do sketches of peonies in full bloom. He learned the art of painting peonies from his teacher, but when he was about to give full play to his ambition, he was labeled a “Rightist” by the political movement of the time. Banished to remote Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province to be re-educated in the city’s printing and dyeing plant, he clung to his dream of being a fine artist while he designed patterns for quilts and pillow covers. In the beginning, he had difficulty accepting the cruel reality of his banishment. Later, the warmth and kindheartedness of the workers deeply touched this university graduate from Beijing. He realized that the peony has universal appeal to both men of letters and common people. After repeated reworkings, he designed a whole series of peony patterns for fabrics. In the 1970s and 1980s almost every Chinese family had quilts with pink peony patterns on a red background designed by Wang Daozhong.
Although Wang Daozhong did not exceed his teacher’s artistic accomplishments, his contribution to combining the painting technique of gongbi zhongcai (fine brushwork in heavy color) and industrial printing and dyeing, and in popularizing the technique, have proved ineffaceable.
Chinese artists of various generations rack their brains to create variations on the peony’s image as a symbol of great wealth and high position. Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) thought the big corolla and bright colors could not fully express opulent wealth and exalted rank; he resorted to using gold powder to trace the lines of the corolla. These gilded peonies glitter on the wall.
Li Kuizheng (1942- ) was not satisfied with tracing the flowers in gold. He borrowed the techniques of Western watercolorists and other modern forms, replacing the original colors with gold to create the painting Gold Peony. The compositions by Li Kuizheng’s teacher are based on a grid, so corollas, leafs and stems each occupy a part, without a single visual focus dominating. Inspired by the Song Dynasty painting Lotus Flowers Out of Water, Li Kuizheng omitted all the stems, leaving only a big flower and some leafs. By doing so he streamlined the elements, and let the viewer absorb the main motif at a glance. He also used a radiating composition, like sun rays, which was a great success in executing the Gold Peony.
Day Lily: Forget Worry Grass
In traditional Chinese painting, the day lily is often combined with ornamental Taihu rocks or pine trees, and inscribed with sayings like “forget worry grass” or “birth of boys.” This is because in the eyes of the Chinese people the day lily is a kind of magic grass you can wish upon. According to the Book of Songs, the earliest collection of poems in China, a woman whose husband was on an expedition far away grew day lilies in the courtyard of her home. Its golden flower is pleasant to the eyes and edible, and the woman tried to dispel her worries with this plant. Therefore, the day lily is known as “forget worry grass.” Zhang Hua (232-300) of the Western Jin Dynasty wrote in Records of Myriad Things (Bowu Zhi): Eating day lilies can make people forget their worries. Pregnant women will give birth to boys by wearing the grass plant. Therefore, the day lily is also called “birth of boys.”
It is hard to prove whether the day lily can make worries pass or bring boys to pregnant women, but one thing is certain: Chinese people like this plant. In traditional Chinese paintings, the combination of day lily and rocks and pines symbolizes longevity and prosperous offspring. Flowers and Butterflies, a painting by female Qing Dynasty artist Ma Quan, depicts such a combination. By the side of a strangely shaped rock are day lilies and corn poppies in full bloom. One butterfly hovers over them and another stands on the day lily flower. This outstanding work is effused with harmony and peace.
Finally, in traditional Chinese paintings, pines, plum blossoms and bamboo are called “three friends of the cold winter,” the best combination to symbolize the unyielding integrity of scholars and academicians.
Lotus Flowers: Elegance and Purity
In ancient China the lotus flower was admired for its statuesque elegance and purity, as described by the Song Dynasty Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) in his essay A Tale of the Lotus Lover as “Born out of sludge but unstained; delicately poised but without guile.” Zhou Dunyi likened himself to a lotus, holding himself aloof from politics and material pursuits. Since then, this flower has become a favorite motif for Chinese artists, and lotus flowers, one of the most common elements of bird-and-flower paintings. Its changes over four seasons and throughout the day are akin to specific auspicious meanings.
Yu Zhizhen (1915-1995) was the woman artist best known for her renderings of lotus flowers in the 1950s and 1960s. She was especially skilled at depicting the flowers in full bloom. In 1937, to learn from the more experienced older generations of lotus painters, she joined the Palace Museum’s Traditional Chinese Painting Research Institute. The artist started out by copying and researching important works from various dynasties in the museum’s collection. In 1946, she was formally apprenticed to Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), famous for his lotus flower paintings. In the 13 years from 1971 to 1984, she painted the huge bird-and-flower painting, employing the meticulous gongbi brushwork, for Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, with lotus flowers as the main theme. In 1983, she produced a large painting entitled The Lotus Pond Delights Again for the Hall of Purple Lights in Zhongnanhai, headquarters of the Communist Party of China and the central government. Now Yu Zhizhen’s works are used as models for students of fine art.
Li Kuizheng (1942 - ) was a student of Yu Zhizhen. After decades of exploration, Li has formed his own unique style of painting lotus flowers. All his students know that Mr. Li never paints lotus flowers in class. He explains, “It is intolerable to sully the sanctity of the lotus flower by painting it in class, which is a blasphemy against the flower.” Li Kuizheng regards himself as a commoner whose selfish desires taint the purity of his soul, and painting lotus flowers as a way to purify it again. He prepares to paint the lotus by first taking a bath and changing into clean clothes. Then he cleans his studio, lights a burning joss stick, and plays some soft, light traditional music. After that he sits quietly, closes his eyes to banish distracting thoughts from his mind, and begins to unfold the paper and grind his ink stick. White Flowers in the Jasper Lake (a legendary place where the fairy Queen Mother of the West lives) is a large painting he did for the Jingxi Hotel, representative of his lotus flower works. In the painting, green lotus leafs cluster around graceful white flowers, and the leafs flutter in the breeze. In executing this work, Li Kuizheng adopted many non-Chinese techniques, such as French Neoimpressionists, which produces an image stroke by stroke. In his opinion, an artist can use any means to achieve the desired effect.
Since lotus flowers comprise the Buddha’s lotus seat, many people regard withered lotus leaves as symbols of Nirvana. A line of the famous poet Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty reads, “Withered lotus remains in the open listening to the pattering of autumn rain.” This image was often evoked in works by artists of later generations. Jia Mian (1952- ), a female artist, often depicted withered lotus, and made inscriptions like “Gilded Buddha remains in the open listening to the pattering of the rain,” or more straightforwardly, “Nirvana.”
The aesthetic value of withered lotus was acknowledged by ancient Chinese artists, and in ancient times there were artists who specialized in depicting them. Zhu Da (1626-1705) of the Qing Dynasty was one of them. His works depicting withered lotus deeply impressed viewers for their unique compositions and desolate atmosphere. One of his representative works is Lotus Flowers and Birds. In this long, narrow painting there are withered lotus leafs and a small bird perched alone on a strangely shaped rock, with the whites of its eyes clearly visible. Zhu Da was a survivor of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty who went into hiding and lived as a hermit deep in the mountains. He missed the Ming Dynasty and loathed the Manchu Qing that toppled and replaced it but was unable to turn the tide. What he could do was express his complex emotions through his art.
Qi Baishi (1864-1957), a great 20th-century artist, also created works depicting withered lotus. But his work differed completely from Zhu Da’s in that although the lotus leafs are withered, the seedpods are erect and straight, signaling the happiness brought by a bumper harvest.
Peony: Great Wealth and High Position
The peony is liked by people for its elegance and charm, known as the “national beauty and heavenly fragrance.” Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), an eminent scholar of the Song Dynasty, was deeply in love with peonies. He wrote a prose piece entitled The Record of Luoyang Peonies. One sentence reads, “During the 20 days when peonies are in full bloom, the whole city goes mad for the blossoms,” showing the extent to which people can become infatuated with this flower. Zhou Dunyi compared the peony with the lotus flower in his A Tale of the Lotus Lover, noting: “The peony demarks wealth and rank.” Therefore, peony patterns decorated the homes of royal families and high-ranking officials. The head ornament of the noble Manchu women is the peony in full bloom.
Painting the peony is practically a required course for every artist attempting bird-and-flower paintings. Li Tang, a Southern Song Dynasty painter who did not depict peonies when he was young, composed a poem in his old age: “If I had known my works were not liked by my contemporaries, I would have bought more rouge to depict peonies.” When the peony is combined with other flowers and birds, it adds beauty and complexity to the symbolism. For instance, the combination of peony and Chinese crabapple flowers is called “man tang fu gui,” which means “Wealth and nobility fill your hall,” since Chinese crabapple (hai tang) has the same sound as tingtang (hall). The combination of peony and lotus flower is called “rong hua fu gui,” which means “glory, splendor, wealth and position,” since the lotus flower is also called “fu rong hua,” which has the same sound as rong hua (glory and splendor). The combination of peony and Chinese bulbul is called “fu gui dao bai tou,” which means “Great wealth and high position at a ripe old age,” since in Chinese bulbul is called “bai tou niao” (white-headed bird).
The peony is often selected for beginners of bird-and-flower painting for its big corolla, monochroic color and distinct image. But it is no easy job to paint a peony. While doing sketches of peonies Yu Fei’an (1887-1959) found that spring is the best season to capture the peony – when it is in full bloom and its leaves are sparse and thin. By summer, the leaves have grown big, green and sleek, but the flowers have withered. In summer the thick leaves tend to also shade the stems, so compositions appear to be a pile of green leaves. In autumn when the leaves are partly fallen, the stems appear, albeit indistinctly, and the flower takes on poetic proportions. After years of research, Yu Fei’an found a mode of expression that departed from the older generations of artists. He combined the corolla of spring, the leaves of summer and the stems of autumn, so as to present the peony’s best features in one painting.
Wang Daozhong (1931- ) is a student of Yu Fei’an, so good at painting peonies he is known as “Peony Wang.” When he was young he lived near the Forbidden City in Beijing, often haunting the Imperial Ancestral Temple (present-day Working People’s Cultural Palace) to do sketches of peonies in full bloom. He learned the art of painting peonies from his teacher, but when he was about to give full play to his ambition, he was labeled a “Rightist” by the political movement of the time. Banished to remote Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province to be re-educated in the city’s printing and dyeing plant, he clung to his dream of being a fine artist while he designed patterns for quilts and pillow covers. In the beginning, he had difficulty accepting the cruel reality of his banishment. Later, the warmth and kindheartedness of the workers deeply touched this university graduate from Beijing. He realized that the peony has universal appeal to both men of letters and common people. After repeated reworkings, he designed a whole series of peony patterns for fabrics. In the 1970s and 1980s almost every Chinese family had quilts with pink peony patterns on a red background designed by Wang Daozhong.
Although Wang Daozhong did not exceed his teacher’s artistic accomplishments, his contribution to combining the painting technique of gongbi zhongcai (fine brushwork in heavy color) and industrial printing and dyeing, and in popularizing the technique, have proved ineffaceable.
Chinese artists of various generations rack their brains to create variations on the peony’s image as a symbol of great wealth and high position. Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) thought the big corolla and bright colors could not fully express opulent wealth and exalted rank; he resorted to using gold powder to trace the lines of the corolla. These gilded peonies glitter on the wall.
Li Kuizheng (1942- ) was not satisfied with tracing the flowers in gold. He borrowed the techniques of Western watercolorists and other modern forms, replacing the original colors with gold to create the painting Gold Peony. The compositions by Li Kuizheng’s teacher are based on a grid, so corollas, leafs and stems each occupy a part, without a single visual focus dominating. Inspired by the Song Dynasty painting Lotus Flowers Out of Water, Li Kuizheng omitted all the stems, leaving only a big flower and some leafs. By doing so he streamlined the elements, and let the viewer absorb the main motif at a glance. He also used a radiating composition, like sun rays, which was a great success in executing the Gold Peony.
Day Lily: Forget Worry Grass
In traditional Chinese painting, the day lily is often combined with ornamental Taihu rocks or pine trees, and inscribed with sayings like “forget worry grass” or “birth of boys.” This is because in the eyes of the Chinese people the day lily is a kind of magic grass you can wish upon. According to the Book of Songs, the earliest collection of poems in China, a woman whose husband was on an expedition far away grew day lilies in the courtyard of her home. Its golden flower is pleasant to the eyes and edible, and the woman tried to dispel her worries with this plant. Therefore, the day lily is known as “forget worry grass.” Zhang Hua (232-300) of the Western Jin Dynasty wrote in Records of Myriad Things (Bowu Zhi): Eating day lilies can make people forget their worries. Pregnant women will give birth to boys by wearing the grass plant. Therefore, the day lily is also called “birth of boys.”
It is hard to prove whether the day lily can make worries pass or bring boys to pregnant women, but one thing is certain: Chinese people like this plant. In traditional Chinese paintings, the combination of day lily and rocks and pines symbolizes longevity and prosperous offspring. Flowers and Butterflies, a painting by female Qing Dynasty artist Ma Quan, depicts such a combination. By the side of a strangely shaped rock are day lilies and corn poppies in full bloom. One butterfly hovers over them and another stands on the day lily flower. This outstanding work is effused with harmony and peace.
Finally, in traditional Chinese paintings, pines, plum blossoms and bamboo are called “three friends of the cold winter,” the best combination to symbolize the unyielding integrity of scholars and academicians.