For the literati, the lotus represented distancing oneself from vulgarity. It was a metaphor that related to contemporary utopian notions, but was surely connected as well to the Buddhist ideal of "keeping apart from the world, like the lotus."
士大夫的蓮花超逸脫俗，潔身自處，雖與當時社會人心思有清明社會相關，正好也與佛教「不著世間如蓮花」思想契合。