Tangled lotus is a classic Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain ornament. The characteristic of the ornament is that the vine branches and flowers are long and entangled, without interruption, and have a beautiful meaning such as long life and long-term descendants.
The face of the lotus flower embodied in the tangled lotus pattern, the lotus branch embodies the line, the lotus leaf embodies the point, and the combination of dots and lines makes each piece of porcelain have a sense of stability and liveliness.
The tangled lotus pattern is dignified and neat, elegant, neutral, peaceful, introverted and calm, and free to stretch, retract freely, fully embodying the aesthetic idea of traditional Confucianism "neutralizing and great beauty", so it is loved by the royal family and the upper class; while ordinary people like the refreshing, elegant, pleasing, natural characteristics and auspicious meaning of the tangled lotus, and also add an interesting taste to their lives.
If you look closely, the tangled lotus is not quite the same as the water lotus we know, because this lotus is called passionflower. Although the passionflower flowers resemble lotus flowers, they are indeed not aquatic plants, but herbaceous vines, because they often climb other plants, which are also named "tangled lotuses".
Not only porcelain, but also in architectural decoration, passionflower patterns are often used. Passionflower is mentioned in "Dream of the Red Chamber", which is a pattern of architectural decoration in the Grand View Garden.
"Jia Zheng first looked at the door, only to see the five main doors, above the tile loach ridge, the door railing and window mallets are new patterns in the fine carving, and there is no vermilion paint. A group of water mill walls, white stone steps below, chiseled into a passionflower-like shape. Looking left and right, the snow white powder wall, the tiger skin stone below is textured, not falling rich and vulgar, I like it (the 17th time)"
Passionflower originated in India and was introduced to China with Indian Buddhist culture. Now we know that passionflower is passion fruit, native to the South American continent, widely planted in the tropics and subtropical regions, then step by step from South America to Southeast Asia, and then introduced to China is also in line with the origin of the name "passionflower", the word "passionflower" is enough to indicate that it comes from abroad. Due to its beautiful flower type and color, passionflower was originally introduced as a flowering plant, and the promotion of the name passion fruit was postponed until the 1990s.