Research On Animal And Plant Patterns On Bashu Archways In Qing Dynasty

The archway occupies an important position in traditional Chinese architecture,and has profound artistic and cultural connotations.It has various social functions,such as memorization,recognition,decoration,identification,etc.Most of the existing archways in Bashu region were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties,among which the vast majority was in the Qing dynasty.Up to date the relevant researches on archways focus on the shape,structure,inscriptions,etc.,while they are relatively few studies on the animal and plant patterns on the archways.There are a lot of Qing dynasty archways in Bashu region,however,due to natural or manmade causes,the animal and plant patterns on the archways are damaged seriously and it is urgent to study the animal and plant patterns.This paper sets the animal and plant patterns on Qing dynasty archways in Bashu region as the research object,and the relative well-preserved archways and patterns are chosen from abundant fieldwork data and studied.The main methods in this paper are field research,text interpretation,and image analysis.These methods are combined with the theories of art psychology,art culture,art sociology,etc.The design,characteristic,art and culture connotation,ethics,etc.of the animal and plant patterns on the Qing dynasty archways in Bashu region are studied.The first part of this paper is the introduction,expounding the value,significance and method of the research,defining the research scope,meanwhile reviewing the domestic and foreign literatures.The second part is the first chapter of the thesis,which attempts to summarize the relevant situations of the archways along with animal and plant patterns in Bashu region,and to collect the basic information of the patterns from the database which is currently within control.The third part summarizes the themes of the animal and plant patterns,and analyzes the symbolic meanings of these patterns.The fourth part is the third chapter,this chapter analyses the profile of animal and plant patterns respectively and finds the common points and uniqueness of the patterns,further lists the featured patterns on Bashu archways in the Qing dynasty and discusses the rules of profiling and modelling that are followed in the carving process.The fifth part is the fourth chapter of this paper,the cultural composition of animal and plant patterns is analyzed in three levels,including harmonics,legends,people's blessing,the worship of nature and the pursuit of a variety of elements,etc.,further the traditional Chinese morality and ethics in theanimal and plant patterns are discussed.