Talk about the gentleman image of lotus.

Su Shi once said that you can't live without meat and bamboo. In the eyes of scholars, it is a spiritual satisfaction to have your favorite flowers and plants in your place of residence. This is Lin Bu, the son of Zhu, a great scholar. Lian also participated in the life of literati students with its unique charm and became the narrator, bystander and maintainer of their life experience.

Wang Wei raised his glass on the pavilion near the lake. When toasting under the porch, the hibiscus was on all sides, and he raised his wine heartily to the surrounding lotus flowers. The scenery was so beautiful and comfortable.

Jiang Kui wrote about Fan Chengda's retirement from Shihu in his later years. He lives in Shihu, but he doesn't live in Shihu. He can't open the Lotus Gate in many places (the second stone lake fan rhyme). When he lived in seclusion in Shihu, lotus flowers adorned the scenery at the door, which not only wrote the peace of mind, but also implied the purity of the heart.

Yang Wanli said goodbye to his friends and saw the beautiful scenery of the West Lake in June. The next day, the lotus leaves are infinitely bright, and the colors of the lotus reflected in the sun are different ("seeing the forest at dawn"), which is quite imposing. The beauty of the lotus here has more visual impact than other places.

Lotus has many aliases, such as lotus, lotus, hibiscus, water, zezhi, cloud water, culvert and so on. How to distinguish? This is explained in Er Ya: Harmony and Fu Qu. Its stem eggplant, its leaves, its roots and its flowers are actually lotus flowers and its roots.

It can be seen that in the eyes of the ancients, lotus is lotus, lotus is the name of the whole grass. If subdivided, lotus is a flower, lotus is a fruit, and lotus root is a root. Further subdivision, when the flowers are not in bloom, they are lotus flowers.

In fact, in literary works, lotus, lotus, lotus are universal and all refer to the well-known lotus. The slight differences between them are often ignored, and they are unified into a gentleman's image in China literature: Lotus.

In the pre-Qin period, Qu Yuan used lotus as his clothes: making lotus as his clothes, picking hibiscus as his clothes (Lisao), and using lotus as his cover: building a house in water and repairing the lotus cover (Mrs. Xiang) all expressed his mud and purity with the help of lotus's purity and fragrance, and kept quiet in the troubled times.

When Cao Zhi wrote about the lotus flowers in Wei and Jin Dynasties, he saw the splendor of hundreds of flowers, without the spirit of Worcester. Rooted in the thick soil, the lotus stems are wiped with clear water, vividly depicting the elegant shape and clean quality of the lotus.

The Lotus of Autumn written by Guo Gong in the Tang Dynasty was well received by its roots. If he refuses, he will go with the wind (A Lotus in Autumn Pond), independent and strong, but determined.

In the Song Dynasty, Su Zhe's neighbors gave him some lotus roots. Su Zhe planted them in flowerpots. After the flowers bloomed, he saw that the white lotus was muddy and irrelevant ("white lotus in a basin"), and the noble realm jumped from the paper.

Among many works of chanting lotus, perhaps Zhou Dunyi's "Love Lotus" in Song Dynasty can best summarize the character of lotus and best reflect the pursuit of life of literati. Lian's image of a gentleman runs through China's literary creation for thousands of years. Zhou Dunyi's works can be said to have established Lian's image as a gentleman.

In this article, he wrote:

Love lotus alone, dirt-free, clear but not demon. Straight outside, not crawling, fragrant and clear. It is slim and elegant, so you can look at it from a distance without looking ridiculous.

How to compare Lotus with Germany? Zhou Dunyi compared chrysanthemums to hermits in flowers, peonies to riches in flowers, and lotus flowers to gentlemen in flowers. The gentleman of flowers symbolizes the pursuit of noble sentiment and noble character, pointing directly at the heart.

This sentence can be said to be unprecedented, and there will be no one after it. It vividly depicts the lotus that emerges from the mud without dyeing, and is washed with clear water without seduction. It highly summarizes the image and character of the lotus, which is tangible and sacred. The lotus here is clean, noble, tall and straight, dignified, and can be viewed from a distance, not for fun.

My virtue is clear, and my virtue is fragrant. Zhou Dunyi has been an official for more than 30 years, but he is not greedy for money and indifferent to fame and fortune. Huang Tingjian called him a man of noble character, with a free and easy mind. So is he, and so is the lotus he loves. In the Song Dynasty, Chai Zhongxing said that the dust would never dry (the second part of Mr. Lian's Book Hall), as if reading this article would have the power to stir up turbidity and cleanse dirt.

For thousands of years, through the continuous writing and description of literati and painters, the connotation of lotus has been enriched and slowly precipitated in the long river of history, thus forming the lotus we see now. In contemporary times, lotus is even more homophonic, and in its gentleman connotation, it highlights the meaning of incorruptibility. In this way, in the body of Lotus, elegance, cleanliness, indifference, incorruptibility and other implications are integrated into one, showing an extraordinary charm in literature and life.