Study On The Propitious Design Patterns On The Decoration Of The Buildings Of The Guild Hall Of Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu Province In Kaifeng

The Chinese traditional propitious design is one of the most important expressions of Chinese folk propitious art. Till the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, the propitious design had developed into a mature period, in which every design in use must mean something propitious. It also had spread on every aspect of people's living conditions, especially on construction decorations which are closely linked with people's daily lives.The guild hall is a kind of social organizations developed in the Ming and the Qing Dynasties. In Central Plains there are a great number of guild halls. Most of them were built by merchants who went to Henan to do their business. Constructed broadly in scale, decorated splendidly, those guild halls form a unique folk construction expression. On decorations of the buildings, propitious design patterns are massively gathered. Along with considerations of special cultural atmosphere of guild halls themselves, those designs and patterns show richer meanings. The author has undergone on-the-spot investigation many times. The diversity of decoration and abundance in contents of decorations make the guild hall of Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu province in Kaifeng basically a reflection of folk propitious culture for the Qing Dynasty. Therefore the author chooses the propitious design patterns on decorations of the guild hall of Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu province as the object, and launches the case study.This text contains four parts. The preface demonstrates why this theme is choosen, what is happening now on this subject, the way of researching and meanings of this article. The second part contains chapter 1 and 2, which give a general report about the guild hall of Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu province in Kaifeng and the meaning of traditional propitious design patterns. First, the article talks about its history, culture and construction decorations. Second, it analyzes the distribution, modeling, and themes of propitious design patterns on decorations of the guild hall of Shanxi-Shaanxi-Gansu province. The third part consisting chapter 3 is the key part of this text. It discusses relations between the design, themes of the guild hall and folk believes. It refers to the folk belief culture which comes from the representative pattern, such as"Guandi"belief, Reproduction belief, and magical things belie, etc. All of them conclude to a common propitious theme. The pursuit of propitious life which propitious patterns of the guild hall reflect is the voluntarily plan about people's life believes. The forth part contains chapter 4 and the conclusion. It argues the culture conformity and inherits of art form on the propitious patterns of the guild hall. Within the development of society and our change of esthetics, propitious patterns as a representative of folk art forms, will blaze a new trail when facing difficulties.