The Origin of Lotus Peony

Lotus symbolizes purity, peony represents wealth; Personally, I prefer lotus flowers.

There are many legends, and the lotus is of greater religious significance. A lot of things say-

Around 500 BC, lotus was introduced into Egypt, probably brought by Persians. The ancient Egyptians decorated "lotus buds" on the top of the pillars of the temple, imitating water lilies, while Homer's epic "Odyssey" actually drank a drink made of dates (unrelated to lotus flowers) and entered a state of forgetting troubles. Herodotus, a Greek writer, wrote when describing Egyptian plants: "There are some lilies like roses growing in the river; This kind of fruit grows in a pod, like a yellow honeycomb. There are many fruits the size of olive stones to eat, fresh or dry. " He was talking about the lotus.

Besides practical value, lotus is the most commonly used plant, as a symbol of religion and philosophy.

It expresses sacredness, feminine beauty and purity, resurrection, elegance and the sun.

Hinduism

An ancient Indian poet described his lover in ancient Sanskrit: "Your eyes are like lotus, your hands are like lotus, like lotus root." In the myth of Brahmanism, it is said that the God of Creation appeared from the lotus born in Vishnu's navel when he entered the country. The Birol people who live in the middle of the Indian subcontinent have a similar statement when explaining the origin of the world: "At first, there was water all over the world, and the lotus came out of the water. At that time, the giant god lived in the underworld and came out into the water through the lotus stem, taking the lotus as the seat. "

The earliest known works of art related to lotus are also the combination of lotus and God. It is a naked goddess with a lotus flower on her head. It was unearthed in the Ganges valley of India and is a relic of 3000 BC. The record of the Indian lotus goddess in the literature was first found in the Vedic literature in India, saying that the lotus god was born in the lotus, stood on the lotus and wore a lotus wreath.

Buddhism

After the emergence of Buddhism, Buddhists also adopted lotus as the main symbol of Buddhism. It is said that after the birth of Prince Siddhartha, who later became a Buddha, he immediately took seven steps to the ground and gave birth to lotus seeds step by step. So the lotus became the symbol of his birth. Since the first century AD, Buddha statues have often sat on the lotus platform. His sitting posture, either lotus or auspicious, has become a typical sitting posture of Buddhist monks in meditation. According to the explanation of the Great Sun Sutra, "the left foot is the upper right first, and the right foot is the upper left, which is called lotus sitting; One foot on the right is called auspicious sitting. "Buddhists believe that lotus can reflect the level of practice, and that a monk sincerely recites Buddha, then a lotus will be born in the Qibaochi in the west. If he is diligent, his flowers will grow bigger and bigger; if he is lazy, his flowers will wither. I also believe: "People in the heavens, even those who fly and climb, who go to live in the Amitabha Buddhist Temple, were born in the Lotus in Qibaochi. "

Lotus has spread to every corner of Asia with Buddhism. Pictures of lotus flowers can be seen in the Brahmaputra Buddhist altar in Java, Burj ancient city in Myanmar, temples in Sukhothai and Angkor Wat in Thailand, bell tower in Sri Lanka, Burial Blue in Bali and symbol of Tibet. In the famous six-character mantra of Tibetan Buddhism Lamaism, "Hey, it's beautiful."

Lotus has a profound cultural origin in China. After Buddhism was established as the state religion in the Tang Dynasty, lotus was deeply loved by people. The hometown of Buddha Sakyamuni is rich in lotus, so Buddhism often refers to the lotus itself. "Compendium of Materia Medica" states: "The use of application is cited as an example, and all the wonderful principles exist." Buddhism also refers to the place where lotus flowers live. Also known as "Lotus World". Buddhist scriptures are called "Lotus Sutra", Buddhists are called "Lotus Platform" or "Lotus Platform", Buddhist temples are called "Lotus Room", temples are called "Lotus Clothes" and so on. Lotus design has also become a symbol of Buddhism. Buddhist buildings, decorations and utensils also have lotus patterns.

Lotus is one of the four auspicious flowers in Buddhism, one of the eight treasures and one of the nine symbols of Buddhism.

Buddha Sakyamuni sits on the lotus throne in Daxiong Hall, with kind eyes and drooping lotus eyes. Amitabha, the head of the "Three Sages of the West", and Avalokitesvara, the compassionate bodhisattva, also sat on the lotus. Some of the other bodhisattvas hold lotus flowers, some step on them, or make lotus gestures, or throw lotus flowers (such as heavenly daughters) to the world. Temple walls, algae wells, railings, sacred tents, tables, sachets and worship mats are also carved, painted or sewn with various lotus patterns everywhere. It can be seen how close the relationship between lotus and Buddhism is.

There is also a wonderful story of "Mrs. Lotus" in Buddhist scriptures. A deer gave birth to a beautiful woman, and the fairy raised her. Wherever she goes, the lotus will grow. This is the origin of the word "step by step lotus", which is now used to describe the glory of experience. ...

Lotus in China Literature and Folklore]

The deepest relationship between lotus and culture is China, who is honored as a gentleman in China. Since ancient times, people in China have loved this kind of plant, thinking that it is a symbol of the noble character of leading an honest and clean life, so the poet praised it as "lotus born in mud, which is out of tune with mud". In China literature, there are countless poems and songs related to lotus flowers.

"Qunfangpu" said, "Everything comes first, then it is true, and only this China can live together. A hundred knots are sparse, exquisite, graceful and gorgeous, and the mud is not stained, and the gentleman in the flower is also. " Later, there was Zhou Dunyi's Love Lotus, which linked Lotus with various types of characters. "Chrysanthemum is a hermit in flowers; Peony, blooming with wealth; Lotus, the gentleman of flowers. " , far-reaching. "Compendium of Materia Medica" says: "The husband is honest and dirty; The south is soft with rigidity, and the bottom is introverted. Fine holes, implicit yarn, born in tender and weak, hair for stem and leaf flowers; Revive the bud and continue the pulse of life. It is edible at four o'clock, which makes people feel happy. It can be said that it is a spiritual root! "

Beihai Park near the Forbidden City in Beijing was originally a royal garden. There is an artificial lake in the park. Most of the lake is covered with lotus leaves. Sometimes the lotus leaf is nearly two meters from the water surface, with thousands of elegant and fragrant flowers. You can sail under the lotus leaf.

In folk customs, there are many words related to lotus in China. One flower and two flowers in the lotus is called love in the third place, which means that men and women are in harmony and husband and wife love each other. There are often "two-winged birds live forever and evergreen trees, spend a long time to save their homes" and so on. Another example is a broken heart knot, which means that although men and women broke up, their feelings are still there. Lotus homophones are "clean" and "clean" (life), and folk customs have homophones such as "one product is clean" and "Lian Zi is born".

Another example is the golden lotus. It is said that in the fifth century AD, Nanqi was in a daze, waiting for "cutting gold for lotus to attach to the ground, so that Pan Fei could walk on it" and said, "This step by step gives birth to a lotus!" Therefore, later generations called the footsteps of beauty lotus and the feet of women lotus.

Lotus in Japanese folklore

However, the folk culture of some countries and regions is different, which can not be ignored. For example, Japanese folk customs do not think that lotus is so chaste as "getting out of the mud without being stained", but regard lotus as a "humble" flower. The Japanese mainly associate lotus with death and ghost world. The typical method of Japanese flower arrangement is to use semi-withered lotus leaves and lotus buds, newly opened lotus leaves and lotus buds, and unopened lotus leaves and lotus buds to represent the past, present and future respectively.

Lotus poetry

★ Note: From the descriptions of lotus shapes in ancient Chinese poems, it can be seen that these lotus flowers mentioned by the ancients are not strictly water lilies, but lotus flowers.

[fragments of love theory]

The flowers of land and water plants are very fragrant. Tao Jin Yuanming loves chrysanthemums alone; Since Li Tanglai, the world loves peony very much; Love lotus alone, dirt-free, clear but not demon. Straight outside, not crawling, fragrant and clear. It is slim and elegant, so you can look at it from a distance without looking ridiculous.

Want to call chrysanthemum, the hermit of flowers; Peony, blooming with wealth; Lotus, the gentleman of flowers. Hey! The love of chrysanthemum flowers is rarely heard after Tao; Who gave the lotus love? Peony love is suitable for many people.

Nineteen Ancient Poems (6)

Picking hibiscus by the river, Lanzeduo fragrant grass. Who is eager to leave? Thinking far away. Looking back at my hometown, it's a long way. I am bent on leaving home and worried to death.

Song of Xizhou

Miss Mei wants to go to Kau Xizhou and break plum blossoms on the north bank of the Yangtze River. Thin clothes are as red as apricots and hair as black as crows. Where is Xixi Jiao? The two oars on board can be placed at the ferry pier of the Kau Xizhou Bridge. At dusk, Shrike came and the wind blew the tallow. Under the tree is her home, and her emerald hair is exposed in the door. She opened the door and didn't see her sweetheart. She went out to pick red-violet flowers. Autumn, autumn Nantang, she is holding a lotus seed, and the lotus grows taller. Bow your head and get lotus seeds, green as water. Hide lotus seeds in your sleeve. Lotus seeds are red and transparent. Miss my husband, but not yet. She looks up at the swan in the sky. The sky was full of geese, and she went up to the tower to see her husband. Although the tower is high, she can't see her husband. She leans against the railing all day. The railing bent and bent into the distance, and her hands were as bright as jade. The curtain is so high, rippling like sea water, empty and generally dark green. If the sea is as long as a dream, then you are sad and I am sad. If Nanfeng knows how I feel, please blow my dream to Puxi Island.

[Book Huai presents Liang Zai (excerpt), the governor of Jiang]

Like the lotus of water, it has the nature of nature.

Overflow of quatrains (7)

The diameter of poplar flowers is covered with white felt, and the lotus leaves in the stream are stacked with green money. No one has seen the young child with bamboo shoots. The young child in the sand sleeps next to his mother.

Dead lotus

All hands are green and lotus is exhausted, and gulls sleep in the rain without shelter.

At that time, the stack of green money was full, and it was late autumn in Kenxintang.

lotus

Chisel moss to make a small pool, and the lotus flowers are green and uneven.

Dawn comes in waves of smoke, like painting a real princess taking a bath.

white lotus

Last night, in the middle of the night, Chang 'e fell into the Hosta.

Feng Yi dare not accept, holding out Ranbo's heart.

white lotus

Su Guo was cheated by others, and this flower finally landed in Yaochi.

Ruthless and hateful, everyone sees it, and the moon and the breeze fall.

Attached to the poem of modern people chanting water lilies:

Ode to water lily

There is more charm in the rustling wind and more ecstasy in the drizzle.

Fairy Ling Bo wants to sleep, so don't disturb the sleeping beauty in the pool.

-(Shanghai) Zhang Zhizhen

Chu Xiao Jingci Temple saw Lin Zifang off.

Yang Wanli

It is the scenery of the West Lake in June, which is really different from other seasons.

Lotus leaves will not turn green the next day, and lotus flowers are particularly bright red in the sun.

Transparent small container

The silence of spring is because I don't want a long stream of water, and the shadow reflected on the water is like sunny days and breezes.

The delicate lotus flower bud shows a sharp corner from the water, and a naughty little dragonfly stands on its head.

Mudan Xue Tao

Last spring was over, and my tears were wet and red. I am often afraid that I will break up with martial arts. Why is there the Wuling period?

Every time you express your love, you should know it without saying anything. I just want to put a pillow by the bar and talk about acacia at night.

Mudan Li Xiaoguang

Rich and romantic, flowers bow their heads and worship the incense dust. Draw columns embroidered with rubies, clouds covered with green flowers.

The sky has its own strength and the country is colorless. Famous flowers are also difficult to cultivate and require great efforts.

Luoyang Peony Map Ouyang Xiu

Luoyang is the most suitable place for pulse flowers, especially peony.

Qing Pingbai (Tang Dynasty)

A red dew is fragrant, and the rain is heartbroken. Who looks like Han Guan? Poor Yan Fei relies on red cosmetics.

Title Royal Pen Peony Wang Guowei (Qing)

The Moro Western Region actually wears makeup, and the East China Sea is fragrant with cherry blossoms. After reading The World of Spring, peony is the king of flowers.

Weizhuang (Tang)

Don't be jealous of the new makeup girl in the boudoir, and be ashamed of being strangers to Fu Fenlang. Last night, the moonlight was as deep as water, and it was fragrant when you got started.

Xi Juyi (Tang)

There are only two red peonies left in front of the melancholy stage. I think all the flowers should be blown away when the wind blows tomorrow morning. At night, I pity these weak but red flowers and take a torch to see the peony.

Planting Peony on the Ground (Song Dynasty)

Mow the moss under the court and plant it yourself. Laozi's dragon bell was over eighty, and I watched it play several times before I died.

Mudantang Pi Rixiu

When the red leaves are left, the fragrance begins to vomit, which is called the king of flowers. Striving for the beauty of a Chinese odyssey to the West is the first fragrance among independent people.

Peony Poems Zheng Fan in Tang Dynasty

National color is full of wine, and clothes are dyed at night. Dan Jing was drunk in spring, and the bright moon asked about the return date.

Appreciation of Peony in Yuxi, Liu Tang

The peony in front of the courtyard is enchanting and gorgeous but lacking in bones, and the lotus in the pool is elegant, clean and boring. Only peony is the real national color, and it moved its capital in the flower season.

Red Mudan Decoction Wang Wei

The green leaves of red peony are quietly unfolding, and the color of red peony is bright and deep. In the face of withering, peony is sad from it. Can you understand peony's thoughts?

Appreciation of Peony and Don Xu Ning

Whoever doesn't love peony flowers is the best thing in the city. English is the goddess of Luochuan, who tries her best to break the morning glow.

Legend of Pocket Peony: In ancient times, on the road 200 miles southeast of Luoyang City, there was a state called Ruzhou, and there was a small town called Miaoxia in the west of the state. Surrounded by mountains, the scenery is pleasant, and there is a wonderful custom: once young men and women are engaged, the woman must personally send a purse embroidered with Yuanyang to the man, which goes without saying. If it is decided to get married early, it must be embroidered by the wife's sister-in-law or the elder sister who has passed the door in the neighborhood as a lifelong token. There lived a beautiful girl named Jade Girl in the town. Jade girl Fang is eighteen years old, ingenious, and naturally intelligent. She is skilled in embroidery and weaving, especially the various flower patterns embroidered on her purse, which often make bees and butterflies fall on it, showing the depth of kung fu. Such a good girl, the suitors naturally broke the threshold, but they were all politely declined by the girl's family. It turned out that the girl had her own man and the family acquiesced. It's a pity that the young man has been exiled to the Great Wall for two years, with no news and no wallet. Jade girl looks forward to it every day, thinks about it every night, and misses it hard, so she embroiders a purse every month to talk about her worries and hangs it on the peony branches in front of the window. Over time, the purse formed a string and became what people called "purse peony".

Legend in Brother Liu: At the end of Sui Dynasty, in the east of Miaoxia Town, Ruzhou, Henan Province, there was a place where the Liu family lived-Liujiaguan. Here is a beautiful and naive girl, the younger brother of a scholarly family, who likes playing chess, painting and calligraphy since childhood and is very popular with relatives and neighbors. Then her parents died one after another, and the girl followed her brother and sister-in-law who was an official in Chang 'an to settle in Chang 'an. After the demise of the Sui Dynasty, my brother and sister-in-law died one after another, leaving her alone, with nowhere to go, who saw through the world of mortals and became a nun. When she became a monk, the girl brought Bai Mudan, a native of her family, to buddhist nun to show her dedication to Buddhism and lead a totally clean life. Under her careful management, Bai Mudan is very lush and beautiful. A plant is full of thousands of flowers, and the flowers are full of satisfaction. It rises from the building, with a slight blush in the white, crystal clear and moist, like a beauty's skin and a child's jade face. Viewers all admire its beauty, so every April, many believers come to this temple to worship the Buddha and watch the flowers, taking pleasure in offering flowers to the Buddha, and the incense is getting stronger and stronger. Therefore, the flowers came from the hands of "Liu's mansion", hence the name "Liu's pavilion" and "Liu Shige". Later, this peony variety spread to Tian Peng, Sichuan, Heze, Shandong and other places, and its fragrance spread far and wide.

The legend of Wu Zetian and Peony: Wu Zetian became an emperor and went to Shangyuan for drinking and enjoying the snow one winter. After drinking, I wrote a five-character poem on the white silk: I swam to the Yuan Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty and quickly reported my spring knowledge. Flowers must be placed overnight, don't wait for the breeze to blow. After writing, she asked the maid-in-waiting to take it to the garden and burn it to inform the flower god. After the imperial edict was burned, it frightened the Baihua Fairy. The next day, all the flowers opened except the peony. Wu Zetian saw that the peony had not opened, and in a great anger, a fire burned the peony to ashes. The peony uprooted elsewhere, exiled to Chang' an, still went to Mangshan and Luoyang. Mangshan Mountain in Luoyang is criss-crossed, remote and desolate. Wu Zetian threw peony into Mangshan Mountain in Luoyang in order to make it extinct. Who knows that Mangshan peony in Luoyang is growing well, and people have come here to watch peony.

Legend in thousands of books: In the Ming Dynasty, there was a scholar in Bozhou, Anhui Province, also known as Ouyang Boyun, who had a well-meaning saying. Originally, he was born into an official family. Due to the gradual decline of his family, he gradually declined and was very poor. However, the scholar is unwilling to be arranged by fate, and even more unwilling to rely on others. He was determined to get a "fame" and shine for his ancestors, but he failed year after year. A kind-hearted gentleman told him: "The younger generation has a poor foundation and needs to study thousands of books to feel the God of heaven and earth. So he copied books and studied papers all day. But the family is poor and the paper is too expensive, so we have to copy articles on the walls and door panels. One day he got bored in his room and went to play in the backyard. I was surprised to see that the peony flower cluster in the backyard, which had not blossomed for many years, was full of flowers, so I suddenly came into the room on a whim, picked up the autumn pen and inkstone, copied articles on peony petals and changed the paper into flowers. The kind-hearted gentleman passed by and saw this scene, calling this peony "thousands of books". This may have touched the "Flower God". The following year, Ouyang Boyun really won the "Juren".

Legend of "Evil Huang Liu": In ancient times, there was an epigenetic named Liu Mingdan Pavilion near Luoyang. He has been fascinated by flowers since he was a child, and he is addicted to growing flowers. Among all the flowers, peony is particularly good. Many flowers and peonies were planted before and after the army. But because he grows flowers well, he is often attacked by sea urchins. He was very angry. Every time he was caught, he was fined a day's work, and everyone else played several times. So the local urchin nicknamed him "Bad Liu". With the passage of time, this gradually spread and replaced his name as a "big name". Speaking of "bad Liu", his flower arranging skill is really extraordinary. He planted more than 100 peony plants with rich varieties. One year, he planted a Jin Mudan, the color of which surpassed that of "Yao Huang". Neighbors were amazed, and the rich wanted gold and silver. At that time, yellow peony was very rare, and it became fashionable to breed in large numbers and compete for harsh varieties from far and near. Later, people named this flower "Evil Huang Liu", and this name was included in the book and handed down.