There are thousands of kinds of flowers in the world, each with its own unique beauty. People combine different kinds of flowers and put them in various containers, thus creating flower arrangements. Various flowers complement each other and together form a beautiful shape, following the same theme of the creator, with a unique soul, conveying a feeling to people and making people pleasing to the eye.

The concept of flower arrangement actually existed more than 2,000 years ago. Whether in China, which has a long history, or in the West across the ocean, the idea and prototype of flower arrangement have long existed. Until now, flower arrangement has become an art, an elegant skill. People express various pleasing charms through different compositions, different flower vases, and different types and quantities of flowers.

Due to differences in region, environment, cultural background, artistic style, etc., we roughly divide flower arrangement into three categories: Eastern flower arrangement, Western flower arrangement, and modern flower arrangement, each of which has different characteristics.

Don't worry, we'll talk slowly. Today, let's talk about oriental flower arrangement first.

Flower arrangement became popular during the Tang Dynasty and was prevalent in the royal court. In temples, it was used as an offering before the Buddha on the altar.

During the Ming Dynasty, flower arrangement was not only widely popular, but also monographs on flower arrangement began to appear, such as Zhang Qiande's "Pu Hua Hua" and Yuan Hongdao's "Shi Hua".

The art of flower arrangement reached its peak by the Ming Dynasty, when it was quite mature and complete in both technique and theory. In terms of style, it emphasized natural lyricism, graceful and simple expression, elegant and bright colors, and concise shapes.

The origin of Japanese flower arrangement can be traced back to the Asuka period in Japan, when the Japanese emperor sent a special envoy, Ono no Imoko, to Japan three times to learn about culture and Buddhism. It was at this time that the art of flower arrangement was introduced to Japan in the form of offering flowers to the Buddha. Later, Ono no Imoko converted to Buddhism, absorbed the essence of flower arrangement, combined with Japanese culture and customs, formulated the norms for altar flower arrangement, and pioneered Japanese flower arrangement.

Today, Japanese flower arranging is called "ikebana", and is mentioned together with calligraphy, kendo, chess, and tea ceremony, and is divided into three major schools: Ikebana-ryu, Obara-ryu, and Sogetsu-ryu.

So what are the characteristics of Eastern flower arrangement?

Eastern flower arrangement advocates nature and uses simple flowers. It does not win by quantity but by posture and quality. It not only pays attention to expressing the beauty of flowers, but also attaches importance to the expressiveness and seasonal feeling of branches, leaves, fruits, etc. According to the natural growth form of plants, different forms of flower arrangement such as upright , inclined and drooping are used.

The basic skeleton is three main branches, one long, one short, and one in the middle. This is more intuitive.

▼ Upright type

▼ Tilted type

▼ Drop type

Oriental flower arrangement, like Oriental painting art, is based on natural lines as the main composition, and requires the expression of the beauty of its content, that is, the beauty of artistic conception, through the coordination of lines, styles and colors. Its composition layout is staggered in height, echoing up and down, and sparse and dense, and the works are elegant and fluent.

First, let’s take a look at a group of flower arrangements at random.

In addition to the diverse shapes, the selection of flower vases is also exquisite. Simple and elegant vases are often used, which match the artistic conception of the flowers, presenting exquisite shapes, elegant colors, profound artistic conception, and intriguing.

▲Photo from Sina Blog: @泪鱼儿

The essence of oriental flower arrangement lies in the artistic conception. The original offering of flowers to Buddha was like this: a branch of elegant flowers in a simple vase can make people feel peaceful.

▲Photo from Douban: Zhuang Chu

Two or three pleasing branches, low-key and humble, are equally pleasing to the heart and the eyes , as if the beautiful things in the world are as simple as this, it turns out that the most beautiful technique is to have no technique.

Okay, let me shyly post a picture at the end. It’s the first Chinese flower arrangement in my life. Since I’m posting the picture with such sincerity, you are not allowed to complain that it’s ugly.

If you also love flower arrangement, please send me your oriental flower arrangement works on WeChat platform. We can show them to everyone in the next issue so that we can learn from each other~

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