What are the carved patterns on the railings of the Yangtze River Bridge?

This is an article about Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.

A large-scale art decoration project on the bridge is the relief on the steel plates on both sides of the bridge, which consists of countless five-pointed stars and sunflower patterns on the railing and the theme relief on 200 steel plates. Next to these exquisite works of art, there are sidewalks and slow lanes that people are not generous. Without special attention, these rich artistic creations may be ignored. Carving all kinds of god beast patterns on the railings on both sides of the bridge is the main decoration method of ancient bridges in China. For example, the "flying dragon beast" on the railing of Zhao Zhouqiao, a famous ancient bridge in China, and the lifelike lions on the railings on both sides of Lugou Bridge are exquisite stone carvings. There are two kinds of sunflower patterns on the bridge railing, both of which are repeated and countless small. There are 98 big ones. The petals of sunflower are 3 1 petal, surrounded by four leaves, which symbolizes the yearning of 3 1 100 million people in the world for the red sun in all directions. Sunflower was the most widely used pattern in the mass art movement during the Cultural Revolution, ranging from architectural component decoration to book illustrations and newspaper tails. In a word, this important symbol is indispensable in most places where artistic patterns appear. The wide application of sunflower pattern is the product of the "three loyalties" activities during the Cultural Revolution (that is, infinite loyalty to the great leader Chairman Mao, infinite loyalty to Chairman Mao's ideological system, and infinite loyalty to Chairman Mao's revolutionary line). Of course, this activity is not just about making various works of art. But a series of activities including art, dancing, singing and "morning and evening worship" (a fixed ceremony of bowing in front of Chairman Mao's statue every morning and evening, singing revolutionary songs, learning supreme instructions and finally shouting slogans). Chairman Mao's icon, red sun, sunflower, sun pattern, wave pattern, etc. constitute a complete series of symbols that can be combined at will like machine parts. No matter how they are combined (the common combination is a brilliant red sun with the image of Chairman Mao superimposed on it, and the latter half of the red sun and Chairman Mao are surrounded by several wave lines and sunflower flowers), they all aim to use these intuitive and easy-to-understand symbols to explain the two revolutions of Dongfanghong and Sailboat on the Helmsman. In relatively remote rural areas, today, we can still see the "Three Loyalties" series of art works during the Cultural Revolution on the walls of some old houses. For example, in this cultural relics survey, we found that there are still a large number of artistic relics of the "Cultural Revolution" on the wall of Weijiapo Village, Chaoyang Town, Mengjin County, Luoyang City, Henan Province. The murals mainly include various portraits of Chairman Mao, sunflowers and red lanterns. In addition to pictures, there are slogans of that era, such as the idea that revolution depends on * * *, and so on. These pictures and slogans are painted on the wall with ready-made templates, not hand-painted. This method is most likely to be copied on a large scale when the operator has no artistic creation ability. Except sunflower, other reliefs on the bridge railing have their own unique contents. For example, Daqing Oilfield, chengdu-kunming railway, Dazhai Brigade, Beijing Railway Station, Angang, Fushun Coal Mine, Xin 'anjiang Hydropower Station, Island Women's Militia, Desert Camel, Shanghai 10,000-ton Ship, Inner Mongolia Prairie, etc. Although they all have specific contents, they all have a unified theme, that is, the new look of the motherland and the achievements in the construction of new China. But these reliefs are also full of typical symbolic elements of that era, such as the fiery red sun shining brightly, the train running in the smoky mountains, and the tall factory chimneys smoking. These images with fixed explanations are often rigidly set in irrelevant environments. For example, in a relief, the main image is desert and camels in the desert. But above these main images is a towering chimney with thick smoke. Just like those cliches in literary works, these additional images often seem stiff and even funny, but it is these seemingly uncoordinated and rigid symbols that reflect the real intention of the creators, such as the sunshine in many reliefs, which represents the light of * * * and guides our direction; For example, the chimneys that often appear reflect people's industrial worship psychology and understanding of modernization at that time. These reliefs are not explained in words, which makes our interpretation a little difficult today, but it is not difficult for the "readers" of that year. It is these fixed and rigid symbols that are used everywhere that act as commentary and tell people what the "meaning" of this work is. Of course, there are many political slogans of that era on the relief, which are more propagandistic, such as Daqing in industry.