Author: Su Wei.
The ancients said, "Self-cultivation and Qi family rule the country and level the world", but the life experience of the great poet Su Shi seems to be reversed: from becoming famous at a young age, living in a temple, and then to being imprisoned and repeatedly belittled, Su Dongpo after falling from a high point, shrinking his life back to the origin of "home".
September 29, 2021, Guangzhou. People visit the "Dream of the Red Chamber" cultural exhibition at the Guangdong Provincial Museum. (Photo: Visual China).
In the fourth year of Shaosheng of the Northern Song Dynasty (1097), Su Shi, who was already 62 years old, accompanied by his son, floated across the Qiongzhou Strait in a small boat and arrived at Danzhou, the boundary of the Chinese's geographical imagination a thousand years ago - Danzhou on Hainan Island.
With the help of the locals, Su Shi and his son built a grass hut in the bamboo forest. Even in such a humble home, the poet carefully decorated a small auspicious occasion - planting a cluster of chrysanthemums in front of the door. It is autumn, and the chrysanthemums in front of the grass house are in full bloom, just like with the completion of the new home, the noble sentiment and life elegance in the flowers are gradually stretching and blooming. "The wind and rain are cold, and the chrysanthemum is novel", the pen is indifferent and warm.
This distant island records the most difficult derogation of the poet's life, but it is in this wild land that the poet rebuilds the physical body of his home with a grass house, and decorates the spiritual charm of his home with small auspicious flowers such as chrysanthemums. Packing up the spirit, stretching the body and mind, selflessness and comfort, Su Shi finally reached the realm of his pen "this heart is my hometown" in the most distant derogatory place, and also demonstrated to people thousands of years later how to build a home of body and soul in difficult situations, and how to use auspicious points to dye the charm of home.
Rui" is the Chinese's sense of ritual for home.
As long as a cluster of chrysanthemums with auspicious meanings can help the great poet anchor the imagination of home, which has been a key element in the journey of Chinese to shape "home" with architecture for thousands of years.
If "the unity of nature and man" is a main line running through Chinese culture and the spirit of the Chinese, then "home", as the most important physical and spiritual space of the Chinese, is the key place to condense Ruiqi and express nature with Ruiqi.
According to the saying in "Shuowen", "Rui is a believer in jade". The natural jade is the earliest embodiment of auspiciousness for the people of this land. Dating back to Liangzhu 5,000 years ago, our ancestors have learned to carve exquisite jade, using those elegant lines to "do things with jade", in the era before the appearance of writing, to entrust a hazy and beautiful imagination of the future.
In the thousands of years since the Chinese civilization flourished, this hazy imagination has been integrated into the brick and tile of the home in an increasingly subtle way. When reaching the world and helping the world, home is the starting point;When thinking about oneself and one's loved ones, home is a harbor. And what is home?Many auspicious rui have built an ideal family picture that belongs exclusively to the Chinese.
Ruiqi is first and foremost the shaping of the building itself.
A common town house ridge beast in traditional Chinese architecture. (Figure Pexels).
Yoshi, Zenya;Xiang, Fu also. "Smooth fulfillment is the common wish of people, and the pattern engraved on the building has become the best medium for this kind of voice. Whether it is architectural decoration in the form of wood, stone and brick carvings, or furniture design in tables, chairs, beds and stools, Xiangrui patterns can be seen everywhere in Chinese homes.
For example, all kinds of auspicious birds and beasts: the dragon is festive and exorcise, the phoenix and the song are harmonious, the lion's head is printed on the roof tile to the town house, the bat flies under the eaves with the homophony of "Fu", and the rest have running deer, unicorn, koi, etc., each with its own meaning. Another example is all kinds of auspicious textures: there are longevity patterns, turtle back patterns, clean and elegant Bogu patterns, and more well-known back lines and cloud patterns. In addition, auspicious flowers and fairy spirit animals are also common elements.
As the saying goes, "the picture must be intentional, the meaning must be auspicious", auspicious gathering, the wishes of the ancestors are fixed in a table, a chair, a corridor and a column, and passed down in a year and a year.
Ruiqi is also indispensable for daily decoration.
Feng shui layouts such as water diversion, moving mountains, and looking at qi" permeate the reverie about "auspicious rui", which is the ritual sense of Chinese for home. (Source: Poly Tianrui).
In ancient times, the house of good fortune liked to hang the "Five Rui Map" in the front hall. It is called "Wurui", but there are more than five kinds of flowers and trees that represent auspiciousnessThe Tsubaki tree is old and wishes for the longevity of the elderlyLegend has it that daylilies are eaten to forget worries, and it is also used to refer to the nurturing kindness of parents;Zhilan symbolizes the gentleman;The green bamboo climbs without losing the discipline;Even a stubborn stone in the painting has a good implication of stability and safety. Caring people not only hang the "Wurui Map", but also plant the Wurui in the painting one by one and place it at home, filling the home with grass, wood, bamboo, and stone.
Not to mention the placement of calligraphy and painting, jade, bronze, porcelain and other utensils, as well as the feng shui layout of "diverting water, moving mountains, and looking at qi", how to infiltrate the reverie about "auspiciousness" bit by bit. Whether it is an ordinary house or an ordinary house, "Rui" has always been a ritual sense of Chinese home.
Therefore, the most common sentence "Huatang Jirui" when the new house was completed was never a lie, but a belief that lasted for thousands of years.
In the depths of the heart, put a bunch of wormwood".
According to the division of the ancient Chinese, Xiangrui also has a division. In the Tang Dynasty's book "Ji Rui", "Rui" was divided into five categories: the divine beast belonged to Jiarui;The auspicious sign of the mountains, rivers, sun and moon is Da Rui;Beautiful beasts for Shangrui;Colorful birds for China and Switzerland;The fairy grass plant is Xia Rui.
When the wheels of the times roll into modern times, Chinese move from courtyards to buildings, and then move into various apartments, villas, dormitories, efficiency has increasingly become the only yardstick of home, space utilization has become the common pursuit of residents, want to completely reproduce these auspicious rui is a luxury, how to present auspicious rui with modern materials in modern architecture, is a major practice of "home" today.
Looking back on the past, the performance of the Chinese who had just "gone upstairs" to "Rui" was still simple and straightforward: since it is difficult to collect auspicious plants such as calamus, pomegranate flowers, dragon boat flowers, and garlic, and it is difficult to move into high-rise buildings with classical furniture carved auspicious, then at least a bunch of wormwood can be inserted on the cold security door.
Xiangrui plants have gradually evolved into a kind of home decoration culture of ordinary people. (Source: Poly Tianrui).
Yanjing Years Chronicles recorded: "Ai Zi is inserted next to the door, so that it is ominous." "The Chinese living in high-rise buildings naturally no longer need to use wormwood to drive away mosquitoes, but the wormwood hidden in the corridor has gradually evolved into a decorative culture, which bakes a faint atmosphere of warding off evil spirits and seeking good fortune, it involves long-term group memory, it simply replaces other mascots to bear the heavy responsibility of stopping the plague, peace, protection, and peace, and it also constitutes the memory of childhood home after the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Today, the Chinese people, whose living environment is constantly improving, have a richer level of understanding of "home", and the pursuit of "Rui" has also been more diverse—more advanced design concepts and technological applications are also enough to support these presentations: on the flashing screen, young people paste the electronic word "Fu";The fleshy on the small windowsill is endowed with a new meaning of health and hope by young people - "white and fat, full of hope", and the auspicious words chosen by young people are humorous and straightforward;New Chinese home furnishings are being embraced by more and more young people, who are recreating the ancient meaning in simplicityIn addition to the family space, the community space has also been re-emphasized, with the arrangement of plants and trees, porch arches, pavilions and water pavilions, and the harmony of Chinese gardens have become the favorite ...... of young owners
Even the simple arrangement of plants and trees carries the expectations of generations of Chinese about "Rui". (Source: Poly Tianrui).
Chinese home 20" era, the vision of "Huatang Jirui" implicates history and guides the future, and many auspicious elements of culture not only outline a better life, but also make Chinese families regain the realm of "unity between nature and man".
It turns out that the elegance of the chrysanthemums planted by Su Dongpo, the fragrance of the bouquet of wormwood planted in front of the door in childhood, and the expectations of generations of Chinese about "Rui" are endless and never broken, and at this moment, a new picture of "home" is evolving.