« 2026. # 3 (189)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 3 (189), 747—768

UDK7.048:394.9(510:477)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

CONCEPTUAL AND TERMINOLOGICAL FIELD OF CHINESE AND UKRAINIAN ORNAMENTS RESEARCH: RITUAL, ETIQUETTE, SYMBOL

FAN Shen

• ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009­0004­4990­7663
• Lecturer in the History of European and Chinese Art,
• Science and technology college Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, China;
• Postgraduate Student, Department of Theory and History of Art, NAOMA,
• 20 Voznesensky Uzviz, 04053, Kyiv, Ukraine,
• Contacts: e­mail: shen.fan@naoma.edu.ua

Abstract. The article carries out a comparative analysis of the ornamental systems of China and Ukraine within the context of their historical and cultural development. The relevance of the study is determined by globalization processes and the increasing need for a deep understanding of the dialogue between Eastern and Western civilizations. The author focuses on the fundamental differences in the semantics and functioning of ornament as a marker of ethical and aesthetic traditions.

The research emphasizes that in the Chinese tradition, ornament has historically functioned as a visual equivalent of the Lǐ (礼) system. Unlike the European tradition, where «sumptuary laws» primarily regulated economic consumption, the Chinese decorative canon served as a tool of state and cosmological hierarchy. The paper analyzes how specific motifs, such as the dragon (Long 龙) or the phoenix (Fenghuang凤凰), were legally and ritually fixed to represent social ranks. Using Charles Peirce’s semiotic triad, the author classifies these ornaments as indices of social power and symbols of the cosmic order described in the I­Ching (易经).

In contrast, the Ukrainian ornamental tradition of the Modern period is analyzed as an attribute of an agrarian society. The study points out the absence of rigid state regulation, which allowed Ukrainian folk art to maintain a «living», variable nature based on customary law and oral tradition. The comparative analysis reveals that while Chinese ornament acts as a «Visual Law», Ukrainian ornament functions as a «Visual Prayer» and a form of communal self­reflection.

The article concludes that despite the outward similarity of some ancient motifs (spirals, meanders), their functional foundations are fundamentally different. The study of the Chinese experience of ritualization and systematization of ornament opens new perspectives for Ukrainian art criticism in searching for the lost meanings of its own sign culture.

Keywords: ornament, China, Ukraine, symbolism, ritual, etiquette, Lǐ (礼), I­Ching (易经).

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