With its many seeds considered a symbol of numerous offspring and good fortune, the pomegranate often appears as a decorative design in Chinese folk art. But just as the fruit itself originated beyond the borders of the Middle Kingdom so did its artistic representation. Pomegranate patterns, along with those of grape clusters, played a fairly important part in the history of artistic interchange between East and West and appeared in Chinese art more than a thousand years ago at least.
The pomegranate patterns preserved in the Tunhuang caves from the T'ang dynasty (618 to 907), for example, are mature and ornate in style, and some of the wall paintings show bodhisattvas holding pomegranates or pomegranate blossoms. Viewed from the history of design development, pomegranate patterns were similar to those of Persia during the Northern Wei dynasty (386 to 534) and became more realistic during the Sui dynasty (581 to 618). But the fancy "ocean pomegranate" patterns that arose in combination with China's unique cloud patterns and which continued right up to the Ching dynasty (1644 to 1911) grew increasingly complex as they were further combined with patterns of lotus flowers and lotus leaves. The most elaborate of Chinese decorative patterns, called pao-hsiang hua-wen, developed in turn from ocean pomegranate patterns.
The pomegranate was accorded sacred attributes originally in the ancient West. After coming to China it gradually attracted an array of symbolic implications, the chief ones being many children and good fortune, which in fact are similar to the views of the ancient Persians, who saw it as a symbol of fertility.
The earliest record of the pomegranate being considered a symbol of offspring and good fortune probably occurs in fascicle 56 of the History of the Northern Dynasties:
"Yen-tzung, the An-te emperor of the Northern Ch'i dynasty, took as concubine the daughter of Li Tsu-shou of the prefecture of Chao. The emperor later attended a banquet at the Li residence, where the concubine's mother, n?e Sung, placed before him a pair of pomegranates. None of those asked being able to explain their significance, the emperor discarded them. Li said, 'The pomegranate has many seeds. Your majesty has taken a new concubine, and her mother wishes that this union may produce numerous descendants.' Greatly pleased, the emperor commanded that Li be presented with two bolts of beautiful brocade and made an imperial minister."
In course of time the pomegranate became an indispensable fruit at wedding banquets and at offerings during the Mid-Autumn Festival. It also became a popular subject with literati painters, under whose brush it still signified numerous descendants, such as in this inscription to a painting of pomegranates by Wang Ku-hsiang of the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644):
Break open a pomegranate; the gorgeous pulp is set with seeds like teeth of coral. Spread open this picture and take a look: it declares a paean of numerous sons.
In folk art, pomegranate designs are widely used as decorations on buildings, furniture, everyday articles, pictures, and household ornaments. Titles like "A Pomegranate Bursting with a Hundred Seeds" and "The Three Plenties" have become well-worn phrases in popular idiom.
Despite its foreign origins in both physical reality and artistic representation, the pomegranate has been able to express even more of its charm in China. Well suiting the Chinese national spirit, it has long been broadly popular among the people, as well as marking a pleasant footnote in the history of cultural and artistic interchange between East and West.
[Picture Caption]
A wall painting at Tunhuang from the Five Dynasties period (907 to 959).
