Research on the localization of lotus patterns from the perspective of the philosophy of design

Van' Jinbo PhD in Art History Postgraduate student, the department of Theory and History of Art, Moscow State Pedagogical University 109052, Russia, Prospekt Ryazanskii oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Ryazanskii, 9 739830087@qq.com Other publications by this author

1. Prerequisites in the formation of the traditional Chinese lotus ornament

Since ancient times in China, people have created various images of fish, flowers, birds, as well as many other images on ceramic products. Traditional decorative patterns of the ancient Chinese were associated with the artistic representations of the Chinese people, which formed a unique aesthetic perception in Chinese society ^{[1, p.5]}. Among such types of ornament, geometric patterns are often found, as well as patterns presented in the form of animals. The ornament's own development in ancient China developed separately until the reign of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). During this period, there was a clash of traditional culture with elements of the Mediterranean and Indian civilizations, which had a significant impact on the further development of ornament in China. Indian art played a special role in this process, where there was a tradition of decorating images with ornaments in the form of various plants.

The American art critic William Henry Goodyear considered the lotus to be one of the key sources of various decorative motifs in China, presented in the form of plant ornaments, a significant part of which is based on various variations of the lotus ^{[2, p.7]}. At the same time, it should be noted that the Chinese floral ornament appeared later than similar decorative elements of other civilizations. The widespread use of floral ornaments in China is the result of the influence of Buddhism ^{[3, p.26]}. Buddhism appeared and began to spread actively in China during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) ^{[4, p.22]}.

Most of the decorative patterns of plants that came to China with Buddhism were short-lived. Only the lotus pattern, which personified the transcendent existence of the "botanical principle", was able to take deep root in the Chinese cultural environment. Thus, the lotus ornament as an artistic device has become a materialized form of manifestation of Buddhist thought in the relationship between religion and art in Chinese society ^{[5, p.7]}.

"It is useless to try to explain why some ornaments or artistic forms have been preserved after millennia, while others have disappeared without a trace. Any art critic always has doubts when explaining these issues" ^{[6, p.324]}. The combination of practical benefits and abstract ideas allowed the lotus ornament to be widely spread and developed in Chinese society. Influenced by the peculiarities of Chinese traditional aesthetics, the lotus ornament not only inherited many elements originating from Indian culture and the culture of the peoples of the Mediterranean Sea, but also elements of early Chinese geometric patterns, as well as patterns represented in the form of animals. Many elements of these ornaments related to certain abstract ideas and beliefs of other cultures were gradually absorbed and assimilated by Chinese culture, which allowed forming the basis for the further development of Chinese art. For example, animal and plant motifs have become two spiritual pillars of Chinese decorative art, forming a complex and unique system of ornaments ^{[7, pp.137-139]}.

Japanese researcher Ikeda, considering the peculiarities of the relationship between cultures, noted: "The cultural influence of civilization is achieved not only by the military power of the state, but also with the help of spiritual power, which is formed through the exchange of philosophical ideas of various representatives of the East and West. The spiritual power of civilization has a direct impact on the art form" ^{[8, p.9-11]}. Thus, the lotus ornament has received significant development within the framework of Chinese art, becoming one of the key and most recognizable features of Chinese culture, as well as contributing to the transformation of Chinese aesthetics. The history of the development of the lotus ornament demonstrates the way of penetration and further transformation of an element of one culture in a new environment. The evolution of this ornament made it possible to generate in Chinese society many new artistic forms that arose as a result of the fusion of components of traditional Chinese art and aesthetics with elements of other cultures. 

2. Features of the internal content and aesthetics of the lotus ornament

Before the Han Dynasty, animal patterns were the predominant form of decorative art in China, while botanical ornaments only rarely appeared among all images belonging to this period. In the period before the penetration of Buddhism into the territory of China, floral and botanical motifs remained isolated and undeveloped ^{[9, p.20]}. This direction of patterns did not have much variety, since images with plants appeared in Chinese society more often than images of animals. In his book "The Problem of Style", researcher Alois Ligel explains the root cause of this inequality: "Animals are mobile, they can move at will, and they attract human attention much more than plants. Moreover, animals play a greater role in human life than plants. This is expressed in the worship of certain objects related to animals" ^{[10, p.29]}. Despite this, the lotus is one of the most ancient traditional Chinese decorative patterns ^{[11, p.5]}. Ma Chengyuan in his work "Chinese Bronze" gives a description of the earliest form of the lotus ornament found at the moment: "Ware of the Western Zhou dynasty period, having a square body on which there is an ornament with a high lotus petal, and also having a tapering lower base with an ornament in the form of animal ears" (Fig. 1) ^{[12, p.214]}. German researcher Herman M. Wallinger commented on the peculiarities of the development of artistic consciousness in various cultures: "The existence of a ready-made artistic consciousness as a determining factor in the artistic activity of the people obviously leads to the separation of artistic activity from the factors governing it, and to the existence of separate theories" ^{[13, p.12]}. In other words, decorative art does not have a separate status. "The ritual vessel is a symbol of the attitude to power, and decorative motifs have symbolic meaning, since they are attached to the vessel as decoration. Such a vessel is also a symbol of the spiritual content that it represents, implies and presupposes" ^{[14, pp.86-87]}.

Figure 1: Bronze vessel of the late stage of the Western Zhou Dynasty

Source: Ma Chengyuan, Chinese Bronze, p. 214

Understanding the features of decorative elements in Chinese culture is inextricably linked with its conceptual apparatus, where animism was one of the key elements in Chinese art. The modification of decorative elements is also directly related to the transformations in the cultural, philosophical, religious and everyday life of society. For example, the images of key mythological heroes of Chinese legends, such as Yao and Shun, the image of the male and female Yin and Yang, the image of the Five Elements began to gradually disappear during the Eastern Han Dynasty as the teachings of Buddhism were further strengthened in Chinese society. During this period, Chinese self-consciousness is undergoing not only transformations associated with the discovery of new teachings and acquaintance with new cultures, but also a partial return to the thoughts and ideas of previously forgotten philosophers such as Laozi and Chuangzi. Buddhist, Persian, Greek and other exotic Chinese art forms were presented, bringing new experiences and ideas for the development of Chinese culture. It was at this time that the active spread of floral ornament in China took place. Initially religious in its meaning, the lotus symbol merged with the Chinese philosophical and artistic tradition, having been reinterpreted, becoming an element of folk aesthetics. Within the framework of these transformations, the lotus ornament lost its elite application, characteristic of the clergy and aristocracy, having penetrated widely into society and giving rise to a system of national ornaments based on the image of plants.

3. Ideological roots and theoretical foundations of localization of the decorative design of the lotus

3.1 Ideological roots of artistic awareness of the "botanical principle"

In deep Chinese antiquity, the worship of the sun as a source of life was widespread. The relationship between the petals of plants and the sun can also be seen in ancient images, where the petals of the plant stretching upwards reflect their connection with the sun, and also graphically convey the propagation of its rays descending to the earth (Fig.2). The image of the "Tree of Life" found during the excavation of the grave of Prince Yi Tseng, dating back to the Warring States period (475-221 BC), demonstrates the existence of the idea of a "botanical beginning" at an early stage of the development of Chinese society ^[15]. During the same period, the lotus pattern was understood by man as a symbol of fertility, since it was externally associated with female genitals ^{[16, p. 3-6]}. Chinese researcher Lin Yi in his article "Buddhist Art and Decorative motifs: lotus" writes that "early Buddhists valued the lotus based on its fertility" ^[17]. Another Chinese scientist Lin He, while conducting research on the folk customs of Hunan Province, also noted that many people traditionally perceive flowers as a source of life ^[18]. Thus, the Indian Buddhist concept of the "viviparous lotus flower" coincides with the traditional Chinese idea of the "botanical origin", which explains the ideological basis for the formation of stylistic characteristics of lotus motifs, which were formed as a result of the merger of religious and aesthetic elements of Buddhist and Chinese cultures.

Figure 2: Grave of Prince Tseng and the Warring States period.

Source: Zhou Xia, Not Lu. A philosophical study of the decorative ornament of the lotus of the period of the Six Dynasties. Art History Magazine, 2014, (01)

3.2 Symmetry and balance as a source of aesthetic perception

In Chinese traditional patterns, symmetry and balance are the key forms of composition, as well as the most important aesthetic criteria ^[19]. In China, symmetry and balance have been one of the main aesthetic criteria for evaluating the beauty of patterns for centuries, spanning the rule of many dynasties. These criteria were developed in accordance with human observations and perception of the beauty of things in nature, as well as in accordance with the needs of the rigid social hierarchy of the state system of ancient China, which led to the formation of a special aesthetic orientation ^{[20, p.7]}. Symmetry in the composition of Chinese traditional ornament emphasizes the central point or axis on both sides. At the same time, the ornament has an equal number of elements on both sides and unity of color. The formal features of this approach in the creation of ornaments made it possible to achieve to a large extent the visual aesthetic unity of the image, to create a sense of harmony and order in the image ^{[21, p.15]}. For example, during the Northern Wei Dynasty, the shape of a lotus petal appeared, in which the petals were "paired", and the symmetrical part of the petal resembled the shape of the letter "n" ^{[22, p.8]}. In later images, curved lines appeared, continuing to diverge symmetrically to the sides. This style of image is more typical for the art of the Wei and Jin dynasties, where curved forms reached the peak of their development (Fig. 3). The appearance of such patterns is a manifestation of the gradual evolution of the localization of the lotus ornament in Chinese art.

Fig. 3: Scheme of variation of the lotus pattern

Source: Xu Lijuan. The evolution of the Chinese traditional lotus pattern and its application in modern design. Hunan Pedagogical University, 2012. p. 15

The above examples of the lotus pattern not only reflect the Chinese aesthetic perception of "symmetry", which is unique to China, but also reflect the cumulative process of transformation and adaptation of foreign elements in traditional China. Thus, the lotus ornament has undergone a process of localization in Chinese society. In the process of merging art and religion, the lotus drawing and the religious content inherent in it were not only partially perceived by the Chinese aesthetic consciousness, but also received processing that took place through the prism of Chinese culture. The approach of creating an artistic form in relation to the natural elements of being is a key feature of the Chinese interpretation of design. In this process, intuitive comprehension of the world as a universal whole, going beyond the abstract language of logic, is a traditional part of Chinese aesthetics, which widely uses a combination of abstraction with natural forms of the surrounding world.

4. The importance of traditional Chinese patterns in modern design

Chinese traditional patterns were used throughout the development of the Chinese nation and were endowed with spiritual overtones, forming a unique identity of Chinese ornaments that arose as a result of merging with elements of other cultures ^{[23, p.40]}. In modern art design and the aesthetic philosophy of traditional patterns, an external assessment of the characteristics of some classical drawings is often considered, where their main content, contained in the history of the origin of the ornaments in question and the cultural context, is ignored. It is the imperfection of the modern approach in the evaluation and study of traditional ornament that is the key to the development of design with the help of Chinese traditional culture ^[24]. This expansion is possible primarily through an in-depth study of traditional patterns and other art forms characteristic of Chinese culture, as well as studying the history of their origin and cultural context. All this may allow researchers and society to improve their understanding of traditional Chinese culture ^{[25, p.9]}. In addition, the philosophy of culture has common origins and can be integrated with other artistic disciplines and scientific and technical fields, drawing on successful experience from other areas at the forefront of development. Based on modern design concepts and traditional symbolic elements, the use of new technologies and materials, new ideas and design combinations, it is now possible to make traditional art forms more colorful, allowing them to meet modern aesthetic needs ^{[26, pp.58-60]}. Thus, the process of localization of traditional ornaments in Chinese culture and art developed in stages. The representation system that emerged as a result of this development is also an important part of the modern Chinese design philosophy. No matter how open and modern a nation is, the manifestation of localization in art means the preservation of originality and a sense of belonging to a particular culture, which allows the formation of new artistic styles and trends. Rethinking the origin and essence of art from the point of view of traditional Chinese philosophy and culture can deepen the understanding of design, which, in turn, will allow artists to create new concepts and develop innovative techniques in art. All this will best enable contemporary artists to meet the ever-changing and expanding material and spiritual needs of society.

Conclusion

The lotus ornament is one of the most famous and key traditional patterns in China. The pattern of the lotus flower has been modified through many historical periods. In the course of its evolution, this ornament acquired a unique form and meaning, and also gradually turned into a visual symbol, which is the most important element of traditional Chinese culture and Chinese aesthetic ideas. Initially narrow and elitist in its application, the lotus has spread widely in Chinese culture and has become one of the main decorative patterns in the history of Chinese design. The lotus has not only evolved conceptually, but has also become a Chinese symbol, acquiring a range of distinctive characteristics in the process of evolution. The process of evolution of the lotus occurred by mixing and combining some original characteristics related to the cultures of other states with elements of Chinese culture. In different periods of Chinese history, the original characteristics of this ornament, including its shape, methods of creation and internal content, gradually changed depending on the needs of society, as well as the cultural and political situation. In addition to its unique artistic form, deep historical and cultural content, the lotus is also able to contribute to the emergence of new ideas within the framework of the development of Chinese modern design.