Research On Gold And Silver Ornaments Of Song Dynasty From Folklore Perspective

Gold and silver are among the metal earliest used by human beings. With its natural charm, crafted by people, gold and silver are bestowed with double values of wealth and art, becoming the goal chased by people. Though gold and silver accessories are small, they accompany people closely, being the best ornaments for people to manifest their glamour and status as well as the fashion vane of the times. So a research history of gold and silver accessories reflects the productivity development level, material, culture, aesthetic ideals and other historic features of certain period of time.In the Song Dynasty, the commodity economy developed quickly, and gold and silver accessories began to move from royal members and nobles toward the common people. Thus gold and silver accessories had a most important time feature of plebification in the Song Dynasty. Compared with previous dynasties, gold and silver accessories had different types and styles in the Song Dynasty. The alternation of aesthetic fashion was the major influence factor; while the manufacturing techniques were also a direct influence factor for the utensils shapes and ornaments. The folk-custom environment of the Song Dynasty provided broad survival and development spaces for gold & silver accessories, extravagance began to be in vogue in two Song Dynasties, and people’s pursuing of unconventional or unorthodox clothes facilitated the increase of quantity demanded for gold & silver accessories. At the same time, gold and silver accessories were deeply involved into more folk activities, such as marriages, funerals, whoring, child rearing, donation, interpersonal communications and festival celebrations. The convention of binding the feet of women became popular in the Song Dynasty, resulting in changes of woman lifestyles, which promoted the population of gold & silver accessories indirectly. As the participants in various folk activities, themes of decorative patterns and schema layouts of gold & silver accessories had most outstanding features of displaying the style of localization, having a strong life flavor, and being combined with folk-custom belief and items, embodying the folk aesthetic characteristic of suiting both refined and popular tastes. With well-developed folk gold and silver manufacturing in the Song Dynasty, gold and silver accessories found by far were largely made by folk gold and silver craftsmen. These gold and silver accessories have magnificent decorative patterns, with elaborate and exquisite workmanship, fully manifesting the intelligence and wisdom of folk gold and silver craftsmen in the Song Dynasty, laying a good foundation for the future development of the folk crafts of fine metal of gold & silver in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. During the development process, the gold & silver craft in the Song Dynasty also attach importance to the combination with other materials and techniques, giving full play to the characteristics and benefits of the gold and silver craft. The production and operation of gold and silver accessories of the Song Dynasty must be supported by the general folk backgrounds of matter production at that time. With relatively better development system of handicraft industry at that time, the private workshops of gold and silver accessories went towards a healthy development road. It had various modes of production and operation. The inscriptions of products display the custom of commodity advertisement at that time; while the inheritance ways of the gold and silver crafts show the custom of craftsmen. The meanings of the existence of gold and silver accessories lie not only in beautifying a person’s looks and manifesting the status and wealth, but also in the rich expression of affections and the psychological suggestions. Furthermore, the using and wearing of gold & silver accessories also had the characteristics of stratum, regionalism, and propagation; while in the spreading process, their types and styles also had the features of steady and changeability, which are special basic folk features. Thus it can be seen that there were countless connections between gold and silver accessories and folk cultures in the Song Dynasty.Based on the textual research of real subjects, images and bibliographic retrieval, with a folklore perspective, this essay explains the styles, decorative patterns and crafts of gold and silver accessories of the Song Dynasty and explores the folklore phenomena on every level in the Song Dynasty reflected by gold and silver accessories and their folklore characteristics, showing the unique charm and historical value of gold and silver accessories and the folk culture in the Song Dynasty.