Chinese traditional style art and modern design

-- Peng Mei (Graduate School of Design, Southern Yangtze University)

Before the birth of the script, human beings began to use graphic symbols to express their feelings. The pottery patterns of the Neolithic Age and the rock carvings carved on the cliffs all recorded the human understanding and understanding of the natural world, and they the heart of the wish and hope. These graphics Over time, the changes of history, with the continuous evolution of science and technology, materials technology, as well as the continued integration of foreign culture and continuous extension of Evolution, to form China's unique system of plastic arts. This plastic art system embodies the wisdom of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, and also inherits the unique artistic spirit of the Chinese nation.
Today, we are living in a highly modern and information-based society. The constant emergence of new materials and new technologies has left us with a dizzying array of new ideas, new ideas, and a surge of overseas art trends. In this situation, we face the question of how to understand the relationship between traditional plastic art and modern design, that is, the traditional plastic art in our modern design. The question of where to go. It is obviously not desirable to completely deviate from the tradition. Pure imitation and simple embezzlement of western modern art will cause our art to lose its national identity; while it is necessary and inevitable for traditional inheritance, the creation of any new things is based on On the basis of tradition, China’s modern design art must embark on its own path. It must be based on China’s traditional foundation. The road to success of some famous designers in Hong Kong fully illustrates this point. However, inheritance does not mean rigid feelings. The history of civilization of thousands of years has left us with a treasure trove of artistic treasures. However, we are obsessed with traditional traditions and simply pursue the “occupationism” in our designs. "Without the injection of fresh blood, it will lead to the stagnation of the development of traditional ethnic arts. Ultimately, it will only leave a large number of antique copies of our time without design.
The inheritance of tradition is inevitable, and how do we inherit it? This first requires us to make a deeper consideration of traditional Chinese plastic arts.

From the history of “shape”, we will discover that from the primitive society’s graphics and symbols all the way to the separate arts of the late feudal society, there are always some constant themes, and their manifestations are also their modeling methods. However, with the change of each historical dynasty, it always adapts to the local materials and crafts, artistic skills and social trends at that time, and often has distinctive characteristics of the times and regions.
For example, the image of the most representative dragon in traditional graphics can be said to be different from the DPRK and the DPRK, and there are changes from generation to generation. The dragon's embryonic form appeared as early as in the Neolithic Age. After experiencing the formation stage before the Shang Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty had basically established its shape: the big head, the big mouth, the long body, the claws, and the first-born twin horn. From the Shangzhi to the Warring States period, The period of time is the beginning of the period of bronze ware. The styling of the dragon is also adapted to the decorative style of the bronze ware at that time. It is mostly patterned sideways, single-angle, and single-claw. The beauty of the pattern and the structural features of the pattern during this period make Dragon's ever-changing and gorgeous style has been brought to an end. In the Han and Wei period, the shape of the dragon developed to an important stage. The regime in the Han Dynasty was consolidated, the state was strong, and the rulers claimed to be the dragon's son, which enabled the dragon to show a new mental outlook. The dragon was strong in this period, or Mercedes-Benz, or soaring, realistic style with a moderate exaggeration, both form and spirit, romantic and free and easy, these features not only in the rough style of the brick has been reflected in the beautifully painted Western Han Dynasty paintings can also be clearly seen. In the Tang Dynasty, the country was unified, the economy was developed, and exchanges with foreign countries increased, and Buddhism prevailed. These all enabled the dragon's image to be enriched and developed. Tang Long was plump, full of figures, dorsal fins, plastrons, claws, elbows, All organs and organs such as crickets and crickets are fully prepared and are very rich. After the Song Dynasty, as the emperor who was a "real dragon emperor" issued a strict ordinance restricting the use of dragons, he pushed the dragon to a supreme position, which further normalized and fixed the image of the dragon, although this standardized dragon pattern became more uniform. It is perfect, but it has lost the majestic momentum and vision of the Han-Wei period. The dragon's dragons in the Yuan Dynasty have changed from the Song Dynasty. They are physically and mentally strong, with long necks and long sleeves, freely flowing postures, and lively images. They are the most exotic dragons after the Tang and Song dynasties. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China’s feudal society began to decline. The artistic style became more and more tedious, and the dragon symbolizing the kingship became dignified and gradually became old.
Not only the dragon's changes, but also other representative traditional Chinese figures, such as phoenix, moire, fish, vortex, etc., we can all explore the development and evolution of its manifestations in various historical periods. This "shape" extension is the inheritance and continuation of the original motif, and it is also the derivative and expansion of its external form.
In addition, we can also see that the intersection of integration of foreign culture and native culture also the source of the birth of the art of styling, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in varied and colorful curly grass pattern, (also known as "arabesque") is actually in the Han and Wei The period was created on the basis of the Western grassland introduced into China's honeysuckle; and the most typical pattern of the Tang Dynasty is based on the lotus of our country. It combines the peony and the sea pomegranate introduced by Persia. Patterns of the characteristics, and gradually formed a very Chinese style of ethnic patterns. In addition, the grape pattern, the pattern of bud lotus flower, and the lion pattern are patterns that have been introduced into China from the Central Asian region. However, these patterns have not been imprinted with foreign art. Instead, they have integrated Chinese and foreign cultures and gradually became the traditional Chinese plastic art. Part.

The reason why the extension of "Italian" stretches people's painstakingly drawing a figure repeatedly is not only because of its aesthetic appearance, but also behind these graphic symbols we can see, it often contains deep symbolic meanings. It is only the external way in which these intrinsic meanings are expressed. It is "the externalization of ideas." Most of these meanings originated from natural worship and religious worship, which led to hope for the auspicious symbolic meaning of “life reproduction, prosperity, recreation, and disaster relief”. It is precisely because of people’s longing for and hope for a better life. It is precisely because people The persistent pursuit of this kind of "idea" enabled the "form" to be handed down from generation to generation, and led to the development of many leftward branches. It can be said that the historical extension of "idea" gave birth to the historical derivative of "form". For example, the legend of "Urumchi, Urumqi" and "The Mysterious Bird of the Heavens, descending from the commerce," the people's worship of the yang bird's totem made the traditional Chinese bird pattern have the positive evolution of the yang bird--Suzaku--the phoenix; The "fish-shaped ornamentation" of the "Yin-Yang" motif in the Taiji diagram has its different manifestations in the decoration of the dynasties.
From the historical extension and evolution of this "shape" and "meaning" of the graphical symbol, we can see that the evolution of the "form" in each historical period is not a complete negation of its original "motif", but rather The new aesthetic concept gives it a new form, so that these "motifs" are continuously enriched and expanded.

Although "God" inherits the fact that the changes of "Form" in each period are often quite different from the previous period, we can still feel the ethos that is unique to these various forms, whether it is infancy or not. Birds and frogs, sturdy enamels on bronze wares, or the phoenix patterns on the lacquerware of the Han dynasty, after a long time of panning, still evokes a breathtaking vibrancy that touches our modern people. . The inheritance of the charm of this charm comes from the Chinese traditional concept of styling, that is, the unique philosophical concept and aesthetic consciousness of the Chinese nation.
Starting from Plato, Western culture has always been about the subject and the guest. Therefore, the prominent feature of Western aesthetics is "being individual as the beauty," emphasizing the image, vividness and novelty. This is different from Westerners' aesthetic taste. The Chinese traditional aesthetics emphasizes more on the "integral consciousness" of the subject and the guest. They believe that everything is a harmonious unity and all follow the same essential laws. Therefore, the ancient Chinese artists have always been committed to the creation of "being as a whole." It regards heaven, earth, people, art, and morality as a dynamic organic whole, giving human emotions to the form of objects, borrowing things, lyricism, “writing in Italian style” and “having both form and spirit”.
Under the view of this "world-man and unity" whole world view and the aesthetic concept of "me and me", China's plastic art manifestation does not emphasize "realism" and "transmitting the word of God," and does not emphasize "reproducing" and stressing " "Performance" pays attention to the momentum of the performance of the overall model, rather than a complete picture of the objective object. The styling of the dragon is a typical representative. This literary image that does not exist in the real world, regardless of dynasty, whether it is sturdy, graceful, or mighty, is full of life. The phoenix lacquer on the lacquerware of the Han dynasty even took off the original shape of the performance object, and only extracted some styling elements embodying the characteristics of the phoenix bird to make changes and combinations, making the pattern resemble a phoenix like cloud, comfortable scroll, emphasizing a romantic and elegant temperament. In addition, in the artistic conception of the traditional plastic arts in the pursuit of "big voices and thin voices, invisible elephants, Daqiao Ruoqiang" realm, focusing on the performance of material things, often intended to be so far, never delay, "just right." For example, in the Han Dynasty, the graphic symbols on the watts, the portrait stone, and the various shapes on the portrait bricks, the images are concise but without losing vitality.

Through the historical extension of traditional plastic arts, we can see that plastic art itself is an open system, constantly updated and expanded under the impact of new technologies and concepts, and the subsequent connotation and spirit are ethnic history of long-term accumulation of results, is unique to the Chinese nation, but also where the national form of the soul. Therefore, in order to allow China's traditional plastic arts to be extended and developed in the modern design and create new national forms, we should adopt its "form" and extend its "idea" on the basis of understanding so as to spread its "god".

Take its "shape"
To take its “shape” is not simply copying and copying, but recreating traditional forms. This kind of re-creation is based on understanding, using modern aesthetic concepts to transform, refine, and apply elements of traditional forms, giving them the characteristics of the times; or applying the modeling methods and expressions of traditional forms to modern times. Designed to express the design concept, it also reflects the national personality. In terms of the extension of the “form”, there are already many excellent examples. For example, the logo of Phoenix TV’s Chinese station borrows the bird's phoenix on the painted pottery, and uses the Chinese “Happiness Meet” structure, which reflects a A rich cultural heritage, and the relative rotation of the wings of the phoenix bird is very dynamic, reflecting the characteristics of modern media.

Extension of "Italian"
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