Old Chiu Hsien did nothing every day but attend to his garden, in which he cultivated every kind of flower he could find. He felt flowers to be even more precious than life. The villagers referred to him as that "flower maniac."
The old man suffered greatly trying to protect his beautiful gardens from vandalism by a good-for-nothing youth and servants from a wealthy local family. After many turns and twists, the old man's endurance finally touched the heart of the Goddess of Flowers, and she bade him join her in heaven. He later became heaven's "patron of flowers."
The Chinese people have historically cherished a deep affection for flowers. A traditional day marking the anniversary of the birth of all flowers is known as Hua Chao (the 12th day of the second lunar month). And select Chinese gods and goddesses represent the twelve most important seasonal flowers of the year.
Ancient Chinese literature refers to the term Hua Chao as having first appeared in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). By the Sung Dynasty (960-1279), Hua Chao was already a bustling occasion, filled with noise and excitement. Crowds, especially in the old capital of Loyang, flocked to the famous public and private gardens to enjoy flowers now flaunting their seasonal beauty. On this day during the Southern Sung Dynasty, people were exhorted to work hard growing things on the farm.
Since Sung times, on the flowers' birthday, various special activities became custom in both the northern and southern reaches of the kingdom.
In old Peking, the literati would gather to compose and recite poetry. According to a Ching Dynasty author, in Yi-cheng, Kiangsu Province, women would spend the day cutting red paper and silk into strips, then fasten these ribbons to all the flowers in their gardens. With the strips fluttering in the breeze, the whole garden was ablaze with color.
The Ching Dynasty Hua Chao celebration was always a big event, especially for commercial flower growers, who would contribute funds to finance theatrical troupe performances in front of temples dedicated to the Goddess of Flowers.
For ancient China, Nu Yi was the Goddess of Flowers. Huai Nan Tzu, a book on philosophy authored by Liu An of the Han Dynasty, notes that, "Nu Yi helps with the growth of all crops and grasses." Shu Wu Yi Ming Shu (Annotations on Various Names for All Creatures) by Chen Mao-jen of the Ming Dynasty, advises that Nu Vi, also called Hua Ku (Flower Girl) was a female disciple of Lady Wei, who dined on breezes, slept on dew, and was the leader of the flowers.
In the palace courts of ancient times, a special post was established for an attendant of flowers in the imperial gardens.
One legend relates that in tile Twelfth Moon of 691 A.D., during tile reign of Tang Empress Wu (625-705, who usurped the throne and gained fame both for lasciviousness and statecraft), high civil officials joined generals in planning a coup. To expose the Empress to attack, they told a lie—that in the imperial gardens, the flowers were in full bloom; they invited the Empress to enjoy the sight.
However, the Empress, a flower lover, discerned a plot, knowing it to be impossible for the gardens to be filled with blossoms in mid-winter. Craftily, she issued an order to the Goddess of Flowers: "I will visit the gardens tomorrow morning. Inform the Goddess of Spring to have all the flowers bloom before the night is out." The goddesses complied, and the winter garden was filled with the radiance of spring in a single night. When the plotters saw the flowers supernaturally blooming, they were scared out of their wits and abandoned their sinister plot.
In China, each month has a flower god or goddess responsible for supervising a special flower, the patron deities including both mythological and historical figures.
The flower goddess of the First Moon (January) is Princess Shouyang, daughter of Emperor Wuti of the Sung Dynasty; and there is, of course, a story concerning her relationship with flowers.
Once, on the seventh day of the First Moon, Princess Shouyang wandered, enjoying the plum blossoms in the imperial gardens. She later dozed off under the eaves of the Hanchang Palace near the plum trees. And a flower from a nearby tree fell, leaving a pink pattern of five petals on her forehead.
When the court ladies saw the petals on the princess' forehead they all agreed that the style made the Princess appear even more charming, and they decorated their own foreheads with petals. The style became known as mei hua chuang (winter plum makeup). People of later generations considered the Princess to be the incarnation of the spirit of the plum blossom and, from then on, celebrated the seventh day of the First Moon as the birthday of the flower. After the death of the Princess, she was worshipped as the Goddess of the Plum Blossom.
Another story concerning the plum flower involves the love affair between Emperor Hsuantzung (713-755) of the Tang Dynasty and Mei Fei, a girl who loved plum blossoms and became his concubine. When pretty Chiang Tsai-ping was brought to the court palace by the Emperor's most trusted eunuch, Kao Li-shih, the Emperor had already filled five palaces in the capital at Changan with no less than 40,000 court maidens. However, after seeing Chiang Tsai-ping, the ruler ignored his other court ladies.
Because pretty Tsai-ping was fond of plum blossoms, Emperor Hsuantzung ordered an expanse of such trees planted in the courtyard of her palace residence, and he conferred on her the name "Mei Fei."
The love affair between them was doomed by the intervention of forceful Yang Yu-huan (719-756), the highest-ranking imperial concubine of Emperor Hsuantzung. And out of favor and devastated, Mei Fei wrote Tung Lou Fu (A Poem Written in the Eastern Mansion) under a plum tree near her Hui Palace; one lament reads: "Truly, I am like a fallen plum flower. The Changmen Palace now separates me forever from the Emperor."
When An Lu-shan later rose in arms against him, Emperor Hsuantzung fled to the state of Shu; concubine Yang died, meantime, at Maweipo. And when the upheaval was ended, the Emperor returned to his lands and tried to find Mei Fei. But she was gone. In the courtyard of her palace residence he found only the full blooming plum trees, contrasting with a surrounding world of ice and snow....
In the rural society of old China, the Second Moon of the lunar calendar was also called hsing yue (month of apricot blossoms), because the apricot flowers, blooming, signaled the end of the Lunar New Year holidays, and this also specially marked the Second Moon.
It was also the time to start working in the fields. A voice from remote antiquity, the Book of Rites, sonorously advises: "When apricot trees blossom, it is time for planting all varieties of grains."
The Chinese people call academic circles hsing tan (a rostrum in an apricot grove), and medical groups, hsing lin (apricot groves). These designations are attributable to historical events concerning the apricot:
Originally, hsing tan referred to the specific site where Confucius taught his disciples-in front of Tacheng Hall, a part of the Confucian Temple at Chufu, Shantung Province (which is the birthplace of China's great sage and teacher).
During the reign of Emperor Jen-tzung of the Sung Dynasty, the temple complex was enlarged, and Tacheng Hall was moved to the back. The site where Confucius taught escaped the rearrangements and was paved with bricks, and apricot trees were planted around it. A pavilion with a stone tablet was later erected there. On this tablet are inscribed the Chinese characters for hsing tan in the original hand of a Kin era scholar, Tang Huai-ying.
During the period of the Three Kingdoms (220-265), a physician named Tung Feng refused to accept any recompense from his patients and became a historical figure. However, he requested that each cured patient plant apricot trees in the locality. Those who recovered from a serious illness were asked to plant five apricot trees; one tree was enough for a patient with a mild complaint. And in just a few years, a hundred thousand apricot trees were growing luxuriously in the vicinity.
Whenever the apricots ripened, the local people would exchange the surplus fruit for grain, and the good doctor would use this grain to help the needy. The apricot fruit became known as tung hsing, after Dr. Tung Feng, and the doctor later became an immortal be cause of his great charity. Consequently, "apricot grove" became the Chinese name for medical circles.
Apricot blossoms and apricot trees are symbols of farming, education, and medicine. But in ancient China, when the apricot trees were in full bloom, romantic affairs were also associated with them, and many associated love stories spread throughout the land. The apricot flower, also, reminds the Chinese people of the hsing hua tsun, in olden times, a name for a small tavern.
Tu Mu (803-852), a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote the oft-quoted and widely loved lines: "On Tomb-Sweeping Day, rains fall incessantly; coming down the road, one of the heart-broken tom b sweepers asks, 'Won't you please tell me where I can find a tavern?' And a buffalo boy points out the distant Apricot Flower Village."
In southern China, in February, when the apricot trees came into bloom mid misty rains, perhaps even before an ancient poet had sipped his wine, he had already become intoxicated with such beautiful scenes as described by Tu Mu: "Silk-pod shaped willow leaves touch lightly upon the watery surface. Apricot blossoms glow red."
The red apricot blossoms recall to the Chinese people the color of wine, but also stir errant, fanciful thoughts of spring. Following, a lyric of Sung poet Yeh Shih:
"The garden cannot confine the beauty of its spring. An apricot branch, heavy with rouged blossoms, struggles, finally stretching over a restraining wall." Hung hsing chu chiang (red apricot flowers stretch over the garden wall), an idiom known to all Chinese people, refers to a married woman who has a lover.
Yang Yu-huan, the favorite, first-rank, but officially Secondary Imperial Consort of Emperor Hsuantzung of the Tang Dynasty, is the Goddess of Apricot Flowers. Her love story is known to every Chinese household.
During the rebellion of An Lu-shan and Shih Ssu-ming (755-763), which shook the foundations of the Tang Dynasty, the Emperor fled Shu State with Yang Yu-huan. At Maweipo, the garrison mutinied, surrounding the Emperor's temporary palace there. They demanded that the Emperor yield his concubine. The mutiny was initiated because the garrison had earlier killed Prime Minister Yang Kuo-chung, her brother, and the leaders were afraid that the concubine would later take her revenge. The Emperor could not save her.
Yang Yu-huan was buried one li (about a third of a mile) from the west city wall of Maweipo; she was 38 years old. After the rebellion was put down, Emperor Hsuantzung sent men to move her grave to a better place. But they found her body reduced to a few white bones, and the red apricot flowers dancing there in the snow ....
When the Emperor returned to his palace, he ordered a Taoist priest to seek her soul in both heaven and the nether-world. When at last, on a fairy mountain in the sea, the priest found her soul, Yang had become the Goddess of the Apricot.
In a publication entitled A Discussion of the Flower Gods of the Twelve Months, Yu Yueh, a man of letters of the late Ching Dynasty, identifies Chu Yuan (343-290 B.C.), the martyred patriot celebrated today via the Dragon Boat Festival (on the fifth day of the Fifth Moon), as the flower god of the Second Moon. And the flower he represents, according to Yu, is the orchid. It is all because Chu Yuan compared himself to an orchid in his representative work, Li Sao, in which, he vents his grievances after being disparaged by the king.
The earliest known Chinese mythology referring to peach trees tells the story of the giant Kua Fu's pursuit of the sun. The giant had lived all his life in the netherworld and longed for light. "Why can't I join the sun? Why must I be doomed to spend my whole life in this kingdom of darkness?" Kua Fu asked himself. One day he left the underworld to chase the sun, but when he finally caught up with it, the flaming heat made him violently thirsty. First he drank up all the water in the Yellow and Wei Rivers, then, still thirsty, he started off for a great marsh. But he was not able to reach it in time. He fell, and as he lay dying, the gentle giant thought that he might not be the last person to chase the sun. To succor those who might follow the sun in the future with juicy peaches, he flung a magic staff skyward; it turned into a grove of peach trees.
In China, the Third Moon is called tao yueh (the month of the peach). In March, when peach trees are in full bloom and the river ice starts to melt, people call the gurgling, flowing, icy rivulets tao hua hsun (peach blossom water).
In ancient times, the opening of the peach blossoms signaled the advent of spring. According to Chou Li (The Institutes of the Chou Dynasty), springs of the distant past were also special seasons for young men and women. A line in the Book of Songs, which was compiled and edited by Confucius, indicates that the ancient Chinese made the peach blossom a symbol of love and marriage.
Ancient poems rhapsodizing over peach blossoms, and companion beauties, are as numerous as fallen petals. Perhaps one composed by Tsui Hu of the Tang Dynasty is the most popular:
On the same day last year, at this gate,
A girl's face and peach blossoms
radiated beauty.
But, where has the young maid gone?
Blossoms still smile here at a caressing
spring breeze.
The fruits of the peach, the ancient Chinese believed, assured longevity for those who consumed them. Ancient paintings established the vision of an immortal old man, a huge, divine peach cradled in both hands. Peach wood was considered to possess the power to ward off evil spirits.
The Goddess of the Peach Flower is Lady Hsi, who lived in the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Epoch (circa 722-481 B.C.). Because her own family name was Kuei, she was also called Kuei Hsi. After a coup at court, the new ruler, Wen, conqueror of the Hsi Prefecture, forced Lady Hsi to become his wife. However, Lady Hsi was still passionately in love with her first husband. She was not at all dazzled by Wen's power and status, even though the former Marquis Hsi was now reduced to guard duty at the city gate of the capital.
Lady Hsi bore two sons for Wen, but she was despondent and never spoke. One autumnal day, when the ruler went off hunting, she escaped from the palace and returned to her loved Marquis, and he and his Lady committed suicide. It was during the Third Moon, and peach flowers bloomed everywhere. Thereupon, the people of Chu built a shrine and honored Lady Hsi as Goddess of the Peach Flower.
The brush of painter Wu Yueh of the Late Ching Dynasty was responsible for making Yang Yen-chao, sixth son of General Yang Yeh of the northern Sung Dynasty, the God of the Peach Flower. Yang Yen-chao was a hero, distinguished for his services in defeating foreign aggression. Since driving off attackers was similar to the role of peach-wood in warding off evil spirits, the God of the Peach Flower is, appropriately, a lighter.
For the Chinese people, the peony—symbol of the Fourth Moon—is king of flowers. Historically a symbol of wealth and rank, the peony is also known as Loyang hua (the flower of Loyang City), and as kuo se fien hsiang (the most beautiful representative of a country, a fragrance from heaven).
The Chinese people's fondness for two contrasting colors has a connection with their love for the peony. Red and green symbolize, in China, wealth and nobility, and are favorite colors of the Chinese people. Perhaps there is a link here, also, to ancient Chinese culture's origins amid the dull tints of north China's loess plateau. Traditional Chinese buildings normally flaunt so much red and green, they have come to signify a character of "Chineseness" to foreign visitors. The brightest peony is also red and green.
On the other hand, there is an old Chinese saying, "Those who die under the peony remain dissolute, even in the netherworld." During Tang times, the best peonies were grown in the capital of Changan. But with the advent of the Sung Dynasty, Loyang became the city most famous for superior specimens of the king of flowers. It is said that this shift had something to do with Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty, and that Empress Wu had much to do with the old saying.
After she usurped the throne (as we have previously indicated), Empress Wu ordered that all the flowers in the imperial garden be made to open within one winter's night. And the next day, the garden was a riot of colors, excepting for the peonies, which bloomed some time later than the Empress had demanded. Flying into a rage, she ordered that the peonies be exiled to Loyang.
There are several legends about gods and goddesses of the peony. Yu Yueh, a Late Ching painter and literati, wrote that the God of the Peony was surely Li Po (701-762), one of Tang China's greatest poets, and that the goddess of the flower was the lovely Li Chuan.
Born a beauty, and a talented singer and dancer, Li Chuan became a favorite concubine of Han Emperor Wuti (140-88 B.C.). A popular legend relates that whenever she danced or sang, all the nearby flowers grouped around her. In fact, it was not until after the Sui Dynasty (581-618) that the bulk of the Chinese people established what became a permanent fondness for the peony. And since Li Chuan lived in the Han period, designating her as the Goddess of the Peony is one more result of the literatis' facile twisting to arrive at desired conclusions.
But the rose is also taken as the representative flower of the Fourth Moon. According to the brush dictates of Late Ching painter Wu Ching-yu, the Goddess of the Rose is Chang Li-hua (?-589 A.D.), a favorite concubine of Chen Shu-pao, ruler of the Chen State (553-604, during the Southern Dynasties). Records describe her as a dazzling beauty who wore her hair long—more than seven chi (more than two meters). She is also described as having been astonishingly bright and having a good memory.
The ruler loved her so much that he would not leave her for a single moment, and even when he was holding court, he would hold her on his lap. When a Sui army captured Chen's capital, the ruler fled with his beloved concubine and they hid together in a well in the palace. She was later found by Sui soldiers and beheaded.
Tu Yi Chih (miscellaneous notes of events from primitive prehistory to the Tang Dynasty, authored by Li Rong of the Tang Dynasty) records that Chang Chien, a soldier of fortune of the Han Dynasty whose exploits helped China pacify the western tribes, spent altogether 18 years in the regions west of Tunhuang. When he returned to China, he brought with him two varieties of fruiting plants-grape vines and pomegranate trees.
In the past, the Fifth Moon of the lunar calendar was also directly called "the month of the pomegranate," and the pomegranate flower was known as the "flower of the Dragon-Boat Festival." In ancient China, at Dragon Boat Festival time, village women would decorate their hair with pomegranate flowers. They did it, on one hand, as a talisman against the summer heat, and on the other, as an auspicious symbol for the birth of many sons (referring to the numerous seeds of the pomegranate).
In China, if a man falls "head over heels" for a woman, he is said to "fall on his knees at the hem of the red pomegranate skirt." In ancient times, when the pomegranates came into blossom, young girls would pluck the flowers, pound them, and used the red juice to dye cloth. They then made attractive skirts from the cloth and wore them when courting. And all red skirts came to be called "pomegranate flower skirts."
According to folk legend, the Flower God of the Pomegranate, symbol of the Fifth Moon, is Chung Kuei, a Taoist immortal famous for catching evil spirits. Chung was said originally to have been an intellectual of the Tang Dynasty.
When he failed to become an official, Chung, boiling with rage, pounded himself against the stone steps outside the imperial palace. He was later buried in a green, silk-brocade robe bestowed by Emperor Hsuantzung. In order to show his gratitude to the Emperor, Chung, in the netherworld, swore to exterminate evil spirits.
Recorded in Pu Pi Tan (An Addendum to Meng Hsi Pi Tan) by Shen Kua (1031-1095, a learned scholar of the Sung Dynasty) is the following anecdote:
On one occasion, when Emperor Hsuantzung was ill in bed, he dreamed of two ghosts, one short, the other very tall. The former, dressed in red and with a nose shaped like a cow's, was running around the palace holding an embroidered purple sachet and a jade flute stolen from the Emperor's favorite concubine, Yang Yu-huan. Chasing the little ghost was a giant spirit wearing a hat and dressed in green. The latter caught the former and ate it. The giant ghost was Chung Kuei.
No sooner did the Emperor wake up, then he ordered master artist Wu Tao-tzu to paint a portrait of Chung Kuei on his door. From then on, the Emperor no longer dreamed of ghosts. As a result, to this day, many people put a portrait of Chung Kuei on the door to keep out evil spirits. Chung also became God of the Pomegranate Flower-of wellbeing.
It is said that King Mingti of Wei (220-265) once intended to order the rejection of Buddhism and the destruction of Buddhist temples.
On one occasion, a monk from India set a gold tray filled with water in front of the King's palace, then lightly dropped a holy relic in the water. A lotus flower in live colors suddenly emerged from the water. The King was so surprised that he abandoned all thought of banning the Buddhist religion.
Traditionally, Chinese scholar officials took the peony as the symbol of wealth and nobility, the chrysanthemum as a symbol of seclusion, and the lotus as the sign of a gentleman. Chou Tun-yi, founder of li hsueh, a Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Sung Dynasty, once praised the lotus flower in this way: "Although it grows in mire, the lotus emerges unstained from the muck." Nothing is more appropriate than the lotus flower as a symbol of the character of a gentleman.
June is the season of lotus flowers and also a time for harvesting lotus seeds and roots, which are edible delicacies. A poem by Li Po of the Tang Dynasty claims that before Hsi Shih (a famed beauty of the Yueh State in the Spring and Autumn Period) was given to the ruler of the Wu State, she was but a young girl who gathered lotus seeds on Mirror Lake.
Beautiful Hsi Shih was born into a poor family that sold firewood for a living. Originally, she lived quite happily with her family. But, she was to be a victim of ambitious politicians.
Fan Li, prime minister of the Yueh State, gave Hsi Shih to Yueh ruler Kou Chien. And after three years of strict training at court, she was no longer the girl who had collected lotus seeds at the lake or washed clothes at the riverside. She was sent to Wu State on a secret mission, using her beauty to enthrall its king and cause its fall. After succeeding, Hsi Shih jumped into the river.
According to scholar Yu Yueh of the Late Ching Dynasty, the God of the Lotus should be Wang Chien of the Southern Dynasties (420-589), prime minister during the reign of Emperor Mingti. There was a large lotus pond on his estate, and his retainers were known as ju lien chih (denizens of the lotus pond).
The Chinese phrase tso jih huang hua (yellow flowers of yesterday) refers to affairs that are over. The flower is the yellow hollyhock, in China, a representative flower of July. In this month, the lotus flowers have already faded, and the chrysanthemums are not yet open. The hollyhock, also called the jade hairpin flower, flaunts its vertical bouquets in the Seventh Moon.
According to legend, the Goddess of the Hollyhock is Lady Li of the Han Dynasty, who loved to decorate her hair with this flower. A favorite concubine of Emperor Wuti, Li was the sister of a famous musician, Li Yen-nien. The latter arranged her meeting with the Emperor by intriguing him with a song: "In the northern land, there lives in seclusion a beauty of beauties. A glimpse of her will cause the fall of a city. A second glance at her charms will cause the fall of a state. Kings would rather lose their lands (than lose her), because her beauty is more to be treasured."
Lady Li's life was as short as that of a hollyhock blossom, opening in the morning and withering at dusk. When she died, to remember her, Emperor Wuti ordered a court artist to paint her portrait for the Kanchuan Palace.
Westerners call a very eminent poet, a laureate. In old China, the term laurel apparently first appeared in print in a poetic line by Fan Chin of the Later Han Dynasty: "To adjust the laurel, to dress oneself up; to embellish a literary piece with flowery language." In ancient times, those who passed the imperial civil service examination, particularly the autumn tests, were known as che kuei (men who snapped a laurel twig). An anecdote explains the reference:
During the Tsin Dynasty (265-420), a man called Hsi Shen was promoted to be governor of Yungchou because of his excellence as a writer. On one occasion at court, Emperor Wuti asked Hsi to evaluate himself. Hsi Shen responded, "Since I passed the examination at the apex off all candidates, I am like a twig from the laurel forest, like a jade from Mt. Kun." The Emperor laughed. From then on, snapping the laurel twig meant passing an examination.
In China, the Eighth Moon is the month of the laurel. The ancient Chinese considered it a sacred tree; since remote antiquity they had known it as the "leader of the medicinal herbs."
Chuang Tzu (a work of more than 100,000 words, mostly fable, by Chuang Chou, a Taoist contemporary of Mencius) notes: "The laurel leaf is edible, so people cut them down." Since the tree was believed to possess actual medicinal powers, many fairy tales came into being concerning the plant:
Li Lou became an immortal after eating laurel leaves and drinking bamboo juice. Peng Tsu, a legendary official during the reign of the equally legendary Emperor Yao, is said to have lived 800 years because he ate laurel leaves very often. Chao Chu-tzu ate laurel leaves for 20 years, then long hairs grew on the soles of his feet. He developed real fei mao tui (hairy legs that run fast), and was able to run 500 li (about 170 miles) in one day.
About the time of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the legend of Wu Kang began appearing in popular novels. It concerned a giant laurel tree on the moon 500 chang (1,500 meters) tall. Wu Kang was ordered to fell it because he had made mistakes while practicing to become an immortal. However, each time Wu felled the tree, it grew back to its normal size immediately. And he had to fell it again....
Hsu Hui, a favorite concubine of Tang Emperor Taitzung, is the traditional Goddess of the Sweet Osmanthus (in Chinese, the names for the sweet osmanthus shrub and the laurel tree are pronounced the same). According to the Old Tang History by Liu Hsiang of the Han Dynasty, Hsu Hui could speak when she was only five months old. At the age of four, she read the Confucian Analecls. When she was eight, she started to write poetry.
When Hsu Hui grew up, Emperor Taitzung heard of her literary talent and took her for his concubine. After the Emperor died, she reportedly became ill, heartbroken, and finally committed suicide to join the Emperor. She was only 24 years old.
Ching painter Wu Yu-ju portrayed Lu Chu (Green Peart), a favorite concubine of Shih Chung (of the Tsin Dynasty, once governor of Ching-chou), as Goddess of the Sweet Osmanthus. Her name derives from her birthplace, which was famous for pearls—Green Pearl, because that signifies she is more radiant and beautiful than known pearls.
When Shih Chung, a diplomatic envoy, was on his way to Cochin China, he met Lu Chu and was captivated by her beauty. He bought her for his concubine for three decaliters of pearls. However, word of Lu Chu's beauty reached Ssuma Lun, ruler of Chao State, who sent troops to demand Lu Chu be given to him. The young woman jumped to her death from her room in a building complex called the Golden Valley Garden.
Tu Mu (803-852), the famous poet, in his poem Chin Ku Yuan (Golden Valley Garden) refers to this story: "The east wind complains; a bird chirps to the selling sun; a flower falls like a lady from a building."
The chrysanthemum is also called "yellow flower," flower of the Ninth Moon, spirit of the sun, nu hua (lady flower) and ti nu hua (queen of flowers). Along with the plum, orchid, and bamboo, it is one of the "four gentlemen." The Chinese people are particularly fond of the chrysanthemum because it symbolizes the spirit of nobility—purity, grace, and longevity.
In the olden days, the Double Nine Festival (on the ninth day of the Ninth Moon), people climbed to high elevations as a showing of respect for those of elevated years. The holiday was also called the Day of Chrysanthemums, and chrysanthemum feasts were staged to celebrate the occasion. People drank their fill of chrysanthemum wine, made from the flower, believing it assured longevity and could ward off evil spirits. The 4th Century poet and statesman Chu Yuan recalled in Li Sao: "Drinking the fallen dew from magnolias in the mornings; eating chrysanthemum petals in the evenings. "
Mention the chrysanthemum and the Chinese people are reminded of the Tsin Dynasty pastoral poet Tao Yuan-ming (372-427). Just eight days after he was appointed magistrate of a county, he received word that the assist ant to the chief of a prefecture was being dispatched to visit the county. Tao was ordered to wear his official belt of office to receive the assistant. Tao responded, "How can I bow to him for such a small salary, no more than 50 decaliters of grain?" He resigned next day and from then on, lived seclusively and happily.
"As I picked chrysanthemums along the east bamboo fence, I gazed, carefree, on Nan Mountain" is from a widely known poem by Tao, expressing his now non-official serenity.
A fairy tale tells of a ruler of remote antiquity, Shen Neng, who taught the ancient Chinese to plant grains. The people being afflicted by various diseases, Shen Neng also traveled into the depths of the high mountains and to the edges of deep waters to seek medicinal herbs. Whenever he found a new one, he would taste it first, and thus determine whether the herb had toxic qualities. But, one day, he forgot to taste, and eating a red flower, died. His people, in deep sorrow, named the bloom "heartbreak flower."
The flower was the hibiscus. During the Five Dynasties (907-959), Meng Chang, ruler of the Later Shu State, ordered hibiscus shrubs planted in his capital, Cheng Tu. The flowering shrubs stretched for 40 li. The capital was a veritable city of flowers and, at the time, was known as the "city of charm and beauty."
Meng Chang's favorite concubine, Lady Hua Jui, known throughout Shu for her beauty and talent, loved the flower, and the shrubs were his gift to her. On one occasion, she pounded hibiscus flowers to extract dye for bed curtains, using it to paint red flowers on the fabric. They are known to history as the "hibiscus bed-curtains."
Unfortunately, Meng Chang was unable to protect his land, and when the attacking army of Chao Kuang-yin (927-976), founder of the Sung Dynasty, reached the gates of the capital, he surrendered. Lady Hua Jui was immediately taken to the Sung court.
Chao asked her why her country surrendered, and the latter replied: "While our king was hanging a white nag on the wall of the capital, I was in the forbidden palace, so how could I know? All of our four hundred thousand soldiers threw away their arms and surrendered. Not one of them was a true man."
Chao Kuang-yin conquered Lady Hua Jui's country, but he could not conquer her heart, which yearned still for the ruler who had decorated the whole capital of Cheng Tu with hibiscus just to please her. She kept Meng Chang's portrait with her at all times. When Chao discovered this, he was furious and killed the beauty with an arrow.
Controversy surrounds the god and goddess of the camellia, the flower of the Eleventh Moon.
According to Chu Yuan Tsa Chi (The Miscellaneous Notes of Chu Chuan, authored by Yu Yueh of the Ching Dynasty), the God of the Camellia is Tang Hsien-tzu, a famous Ming dramatist. But Yu Yueh does not explain why this should be so.
Yu assigns Yang Yu-huan, concubine of Tang Emperor Hsuantzung, to be goddess of the flower because she was particularly fond of a camellia variety later called Yang Fei (Concubine Yang), in her honor.
Shih Chung, a wealthy man of the Tsin Dynasty and once governor of Chingchou, was so fond of the red camellia that he ordered it planted densely around his residence in a solid screen. The flowering shrub thus also became known as the "privacy screen of the Shih Family."
The title of camellia goddess has also been conferred on Wang Chao-chun, a court lady of the Han Dynasty who was given to the chief of a barbarian tribe in a gesture of matrimonial diplomacy. When she set off to marry the chief, Lady Wang brought with her a pi pa (a four stringed guitar) and a camellia. Through the musical instrument, Wang Chao-chun poured out her pent-up feelings. And through the flower, which withstands the vigors of cold, the young beauty conveyed her feelings for her country. For the sake of the relationship between the two peoples, Lady Wang lived on until the death of the chief of the tribe, then took poison.
It is said that after legendary ruler Shun (around 2,000 B.C.) died in the wilder ness on a visit to Mt. Tsangwu, his wife, O Huang, and concubine, Nu Ying, jumped into the Hsiang River and died for their love for the ruler. Their souls immediately returned as narcissus along the river bank, and they are thus, heart and soul, the goddesses of that flower.
In China, the narcissus is also called "little golden cup," "silver candlestand," li lan (twin orchids), nu shih (name of a star), nu hsing (lady star), "graceful guest," "heavenly onion," "elegant garlic," and Yao nu hua (Grandma Yao's flower daughter). Because its refined and elegant form and great poise recall to the Chinese people the fabled Goddess of the Lo River, she is also taken as a goddess of the flower.