The Generalization Of Five Colors System And Chinese Painting Color

Five Colors System was formed in ancient China. As a cognitive color system, it had distinctive ethnic characteristics and was the show of Five Elements Thinking Pattern in the cognitive area of color. It was also the result of the ancients' attempting to turn the the complex color external world into a psychological structure at a low level of awareness.In the early days, Five Colors System existed mainly as a symbolic system,and played political and ethical functions. So the practical function of Five Colors System was limited.When Five Colors System was put into practice, it was faced with challenges. Even in the areas of architecture and apparel whose colors had utilitarian features and symbolic functions, the default standards of Five Colors System were still often rewritten at will by the rulers in order to achieve their political purposes.With the rise of the level of awareness, the emotional experiences about colors accumulated in daily life were brought to people' attention, at the same time, the symbolic functions of Five Colors System gradually reduced and finally condensed into cultural symbols. Five Colors System eventually became a loose structure of thinking in the practical application. Even so, in that process, the basic core principles of the Five Elements Thinking Pattern were inherently abided by the Five Colors System , such as the stability and order of the colors were also be emphasized. People were still inclined to put a variety of color experiences into this comprehensive thinking structure, and made them more specific and profound.This paper attempts to explore the cognition and application of Five Colors System mainly from the perspective of philosophy and cognition. Firstly, it derives from the formation and characteristics of Five Elements Thinking Pattern and then focuses on the formation and characteristics of Five Colors System.The development and variation of Five Colors System will be started in the areas of architecture and apparel. Additionally, the Wu De Zhong Shi theory will be concerned because it's weakening trend had speeded up the the generalization process of Five Colors System which resulted in a transition in colors' application which was from limited symbolic field to broad practical field.Different from the architecture and apparel, painting in ancient China was a spiritual activity rather than a material activity. The colors in painting played an important role in modeling and were less susceptible to the impact of political will, and had less symbolic features too. Therefore, the colors of painting had not been subjected to the impact of Five Colors System obviously, because it mainly followed the self-discipline of development. But we can also find the thinking characteristics of Five Colors System in it, the deep impact could be embodied in the concept of dominant color and coloring according to the types of things. In detail, the colors in Chinese painting had experienced the processes that from monochrome to complex colors, from mineral colors to plant colors, and from color to ink. In addition, the improvement of coloring techniques in painting had also promoted the development of cognitive process of colors.