What is the flower language and symbolic meaning of the lotus? Read this one article to understand
Speaking of the lotus, besides thinking of Xia Yuhe by the Daming Lake, everyone will probably also picture beautiful words such as “purity” “loyalty” and “nobility”. So, what are the symbolic meaning of the lotus and its flower language?
1. The symbolic meaning of the lotus
1. Symbol of love
Bai Juyi said in “The Song of Everlasting Sorrow”: “Her face like a lotus, her brows like willow leaves.” The lotus is also known as the water lotus and the water hibiscus, and it symbolizes loyal and beautiful love. Two lotuses growing from one lotus root is called “twin lotuses with one heart,” and the twin lotus flower is even more a symbol of love. Therefore, the lotus is most suitable as a symbol of pure and beautiful love; moreover, “lotus root” is homophonous with “couple,” and when the lotus root is broken the fibers still connect, and “twin lotus flowers bloom,” all of which are very fitting to express the endless entanglement of love.
2. Symbol of honesty and uprightness
As is well known, the lotus is also called the green lotus, used as a metaphor for an official whose style is upright, honest and just. For example, a painting composed of a green lotus and a white egret, titled “All the Way Honest and Upright,” was placed in their studies by many literati and refined scholars, so the symbolic meaning of the lotus also includes honesty and uprightness.
3. Symbol of innocence
The lotus flower is beautiful and moving, its delicate fragrance spreads far, its emerald leaves are like green canopies, and it is very elegant. Growing in the mud yet not stained by the slightest bit of dirt, it is thus taken as a symbol of innocence.
4. Symbol of good fortune
Anyone who knows about Buddhism knows that in many places in Buddhism the lotus is used as a symbol of good fortune. “The Legend of Journey to the West” also records auspicious things such as the lotus seat and the lotus platform. In addition, quite a few Bodhisattvas and kind-hearted people in Buddhism are born from lotus flowers, so in traditional Chinese culture the symbolic meaning of the lotus is good fortune and wishes coming true.
5. Symbol of holiness
In both ancient and modern times, in China and abroad, the lotus has always been praised by people; it has always symbolized nobility, innocence and holiness, and it is recorded in many epics. So no matter what time we live in, we should learn from its holy and noble qualities.
6. Symbol of friendship
Besides symbolizing love, the lotus is also used as a metaphor for the pure friendship between people. In ancient Chinese folk tradition, there was the custom of breaking off plum blossoms in spring to give to a distant friend and gathering lotus seeds in autumn to remember someone far away, so giving a lotus to a friend is also a very good choice.
7. Metaphor for a beautiful woman
In the “Classic of Poetry” there is a record of comparing the lotus to a beautiful woman. In “Guofeng · Chen Feng · Ze Bei” it says: “On the waves of that pond, there are cattails and lotuses. There is a beautiful person, what can I do about my sorrow? Awake or asleep I can do nothing, my tears and snot pour down like rain.” It describes a man who compares the lotus to a beautiful woman he has long admired, and who is heartbroken at not having seen her for so long. Whether awake or asleep, his tears and snot flow down uncontrollably like rain.
2. Introduction to the flower language of the lotus
The lotus is one of the four gentlemen among flowers, and its flower language is steadfastness, purity, innocence, good fortune and love, and so on. In the hearts of many people it is a very holy plant, and it even carries the proud and aloof feelings of Chinese literati. Many people use it to describe a person's simple inner heart, not drifting with the tide.
The lotus is not only elegant and moving and beyond the ordinary, but is even more a symbol of beautiful things in people's hearts. May we all, like the lotus, after sailing through a thousand sails, still return as a youth.