Flowers and plants are the most common ornament in our life. Sad place, you can see "where petals have been shed like tears"; When you are happy, you can watch the "Flower Heavy Jinguan City"; As inseparable as paint, I remember that at that time, "the lights were like a day"; When the two places were separated, I still remember that year, "flowers are like brocade" ... Since ancient times, flowers are not only the gorgeous scenery of the four seasons, but also bear people's friendship and witness the joys and sorrows of the world. In addition to viewing, ancient flowers have many wonderful uses.
Male poet: An extroverted society, flowers and plants are symbols of ups and downs in official career and caring for reality.
Poetry is a wonderful thing of the ancient traditional culture in China, and it is an important way for the ancient people with fluttering clothes to express their feelings and paint mountains and rivers. Flowers also show its unique style in poetry. Specifically, flowers have different characteristics and different emphases in the works of male and female poets. Under the established fact of the ancient patriarchal society, men demanded more realization of social values, so the flowers they wrote were more based on the ups and downs of personal career, the brightness of national prospects, the rise and fall of social history and so on.
1. ups and downs of official career: scholars use things to describe people and express their joys and sorrows in official career
Poets who are interested in serving the country often use flowers to describe themselves, borrow things to describe people, or admire sages. Poems about flowers are generally called "poems about things". Plum blossoms written by poets often have awe-inspiring character that is not afraid of the cold. "It is already a cliff with a hundred feet of ice, and there are still beautiful flowers." Empty valleys and orchids often have a noble and proud moral integrity, "unless there is no cloud under your feet, it will be irrelevant to stay."
Sunflower has the constancy of "falling in love with the sun alone", while Peach Blossom has the enthusiasm of "burning its splendor", both of which are handsome for a moment. Just like when a scholar is frustrated, there are Chunlan, Xiahe, Qiuju and Dongmei as companions. When he is proud, he also writes down an epigram to tell himself to stick to his true heart.
the tradition of vanilla beauty of ancient literati is self-deprecating, and scholars of all generations who are knowledgeable follow this tradition, condensing the helplessness, resentment and dissatisfaction of their official career into poetic expression. However, just as Qu Yuan became a frustrated politician and a successful poet, later generations of literati also had the pain of frustrated official career and the joy of complacency.
naturally, not all people are born to like being an official. Although there are only a few such people, we can't ignore such a kind of sage in the grass. As for the philosophy of turning personal shun and reverse into more meaningful, although there is time, it is popular after the Song Dynasty.
Qu Yuan
2. Caring for reality: Looking down, poets who connect the court with the grass field often express and record their concern for social reality through flowers and plants. "Yao Wei never boasted, and his daughter did not hesitate to buy prosperity. At the end of this year, flowers can be cheap, and the reason is that flowers are not appreciated in the palace. " This kind of spending a lot of money can be compared with selling charcoal Weng. Also said that money is spent, Pi Rixiu wrote, "Don't show off your color to the world, I don't know how to help the poor.
Wu Renbi wrote, "It is doubtful that Liu Chong is still alive, and it is not allowed to be poor in Shanyin." Although the world is so dark, after all, there is still hope for a wise monarch and a good minister, which is really the unique helplessness and so-called "romanticism" of poets. In ancient times, many poets often cared about peasants. However, the connection between intellectuals and peasants increased with the increase of class mobility. It was the emergence of more peasants in the upper rulers and the efforts of the bottom people to break through the shackles of fate that stimulated the literati's consciousness of caring for the people.
3. Philosophic thinking and interest: abstract individual experiences into meaningful philosophical thinking
Of course, there are also philosophical thinking, feelings of time and impermanence of things in flowers. This kind of poems flourished in the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty. The song dynasty completed the confluence of the three religions, and the formation of Neo-Confucianism made the Confucian philosophy system perfect. In this way, compared with the bright and beautiful Tang poetry, the Song Dynasty opened up a category of philosophical poetry with the characteristics of the times.
China's poets are always more optimistic, and they don't mention their firm confidence in wise men and ministers. Even their sadness is superficial, sad and emotional, so they grow up, no longer care about sadness itself, no longer indulge in sadness and despair, but devote themselves to real life. This is really their unique charm, which is permeated with concern for reality.
female poets: look at themselves internally, and flowers of different shapes become the reflection of life experience
It is also a common phenomenon in ancient female literature creation to use flowers as images to enter poetry. Male poets are still fond of comparing people with flowers, and female poets are even more adept at it. There were few female poets in ancient times, and their images were not as grand as men's. They were more concentrated in flowers, fallen flowers, flying flowers, looking forward to the monarch and enjoying flowers alone.
1. Five classic flower images have become symbols of women's experiences
In girlhood, "Mei is jealous of morning makeup, snow is jealous", and jade people are jealous, "Just teach Lang to compare and watch." Youth is absent, "flowers drift and water flows", and color declines and loves relaxation. "Now that you are old and have achieved nothing, who will pity and haggard more?" The flowering period is short, and the greatest value of women is reflected in their looks. Therefore, the aging of looks is definitely a major event for women, not only in mood, but also in life.
Feihua has the loneliness of falling flowers and the boldness of personality to break free. "Sweet cold colourful good, who is naive. Yumei thanked the sun and arrived, and scattered with the group in the spring. " In ancient times, "a woman without talent is a virtue", even if she is brilliant, she can only be trapped in the backyard. Compared with the village women who know nothing about the outside world, she is infinitely sad.
dongjun is very important to Baihua, just as a man is very important to his daughter. In short-"when the flowers fall and bloom, it always depends on the east wind." At this point, I was fortunate to find a strong contrast. Similarly, when writing flowers, Lu You said, "Being out of date and falling away, shame is more pity for Dongjun." This is a different mind.
It is an important theme in ancient poetry to miss women and look forward to returning to people, from which the category of always in my heart's poems is derived. However, always in my heart's poems written by men are always not so authentic. When it comes to always in my heart, you should also look at the poems written by your daughter's family. "When you don't return, the spring breeze laughs at me!" Appreciating flowers alone, the missing person may be a traveler or a ungrateful man. Ancient women were vassals of men. Therefore, apart from their emotional betrayal, there was also a crisis of survival for women. Under such anxiety, it is no wonder that the homesick woman "tears like rain in spring".
2. The mutual reflection of personality and flower lattice is always the most prominent theme.
I can't help but say a few words here. Although they all equate personality with flower lattice to express their feelings, it is obvious that the specific content of the two sexes in the topic of flowers is completely opposite. Men are extroverted and devoted to exploring the self-realization of the outside world and social care; Women, on the other hand, have to put more emphasis on the single self, look after the shadow and feel sorry for themselves, confirm their identity under the patriarchal background and express their simple female consciousness. Even some people who are dissatisfied with the status quo are just caged birds. Of course, this is the limitation of the times. It would be too narrow to ignore the limitations of the development of productive forces and the strict class barriers and just oppose the two sexes.
The similarity is that, in any case, China's ancient poems always insisted on taking people as the center and gave birth to everything. It's not worth mentioning by referring to the cultural and political traditions of China in the past dynasties. Based on the forest of the world, they can show their preciousness. To put it bluntly, this may be an important part of China's ethnic composition.
Peony
Flowers in social life: Flowers can be sold as food and medicine on the material level
If appreciation makes use of the natural attributes of flowers, then the aesthetic value of flowers in China cultural context is further extended by flowers. However, this does not mean that flowers are just the companions of literati or the pets of the privileged class, but they have nothing to do with the peddlers and pawns. In the rich social life of ancient times, flowers also had their own place.
1. Economy: The flower economy meets the needs of different classes
As mentioned above, in the Song Dynasty, "flowers can be cheap at the end of this year, because flowers are not appreciated in the palace." Poetry, throw away the sympathy for the bottom people, objectively speaking, this is an example of flower cultivation and flower trading in the Song Dynasty.
in the Tang dynasty, there was a description of "* * * peony, and I went with it to buy flowers", indicating that there was already a flower trade at that time, and then there were people who made a living from flowers. According to Qu Dajun's Guangdong Xinyu, "People in Zhupu live on pearls; People in flower fields take flowers as clothes. " This is similar to the saying "relying on mountains to eat mountains", but the scenery is obviously different.
of course, for flower farmers, I'm afraid it doesn't have much poetry and beauty, just for food. Besides flowers, how can a woman's powder and fragrance be without the help of flowers? If we carefully study the history of flower trading in one place, we may find more interesting discoveries, so I won't go into details here.
2. Medicinal materials: flowers have been used as medicine to try to popularize famous flowers.
Apart from making a living with flowers economically, people can also make a living with flowers in their lives. The rhizome of iris tectorum can be used as medicine to promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, dispel wind and promote diuresis, detoxify and eliminate food stagnation; The root of Paeonia lactiflora is used as medicine to treat blood stasis, cool blood and relieve pain. Lily has the functions of clearing fire, moistening lung and calming nerves, and lotus is more useful ...
Flowers are the general name of ornamental herbs. Therefore, herbs and flowers are an organic whole. Since Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, China has actively explored the medicinal value of flowers. A flower can only be viewed, but it can't be used as medicine or food. At least in China, it is not far away. The flowers listed above are familiar to us, and most people have hardly thought about their medicinal value. There are many beautiful flowers that can be used as medicine, and they are listed here only to provide you with some different perspectives and discoveries.
3. Drinking tea and drinking wine: flower products participated in the elegant activities of scholar girls
Nevertheless, flowers are an elegant thing after all, and scholars and poets, who is not "a cup of poetry and wine is dense"? Scented tea, also known as scented tea, is a kind of reprocessed tea unique to China. Cai Xiang's "Tea Record" says: "Those who pay tribute to tea with real fragrance will use borneol to help them smell ..." This is the first sound of flowers entering tea. In the Ming Dynasty, the production of scented tea was more elaborate. According to Tea Spectrum, sweet osmanthus, jasmine, rose, rose, orchid, orange flower, gardenia, banksia rose and plum blossom can all be used as tea. Since then, scented tea has become a trend, and it has developed more and more from Ming and Qing dynasties to modern times.
As for wine, osmanthus wine and pear flower white may be more familiar varieties of flower wine. In fact, it has a long history to use flowers into wine in ancient times. Qu Yuan's writing "Hui Yao Steamed Xi Lan Ji, Dian Gui Jiu Xi Jiao Jiang" gave us a bold idea to advance the history of flower wine to the pre-Qin period. In the later generations, literati poetry and wine took advantage of their time, and Bai Juyi "advanced pine wine with an empty stomach, and reloaded cinnamon cloth and fur with cold knees." Can be used as historical evidence.
actually, drinking chrysanthemum wine is the custom of Chongyang. As early as the Han Dynasty, there was a custom of "Pei cornus, eating lotus bait and drinking chrysanthemum wine" in the palace on the Double Ninth Festival. "Shen Nong Jing of Materia Medica" says that "chrysanthemum clothing is light and hard-working" and has rich medicinal value, which may be an important reason why chrysanthemum wine is enduring and favored.
4. Sweets: Flower products are accepted by more people
Besides powder and fragrance, the derivatives of flowers are more closely related to the public and belong to all kinds of desserts. Now we are familiar with "Flower Cake", and Osmanthus Jelly and other desserts existed in ancient times. There is a famous point in The Remains of Haicha, which is called "Dan Osmanthus Jelly": "Dan osmanthus picks flowers, sprinkles licorice water and rice flour to make cakes, and the fragrance is full of cheeks." It is a boutique.
Now that Qu Yuan has been mentioned to drink sanhua, I can't help but think of his interest in "drinking Mulan in the morning, and having an evening meal with autumn chrysanthemum". Now that flowers have been used as medicine, can ancestors not study their edible value? After the Song Dynasty, with the development of commodity economy and the enrichment of people's lives, more edible flower products appeared in the recipes, which were often related to health preservation. This involves medicinal diet again, which is far from being talked about, and it is not mentioned according to its origin.
Flower cake
Summary
As the agricultural book says, flowers are mostly flashy, so they always occupy a secondary position in planting. However, the survival of human beings is inevitably accompanied by the exploration and utilization of various natural resources. The primary reason why flowers and plants can continue, multiply and even appear in various varieties is that they must have practical functions. Among our common flowers, there are only ornamental and poetic values, but they can't be eaten, used medicinally or commercially. I'm afraid they are unique.
in ancient times, viewing was the privilege of wealthy families and leisure classes, while using it was the business of the whole society, just as emperors and generals watched flowers and trees, which led to the emergence of the profession of flower farmers, which allowed the people to make a living in a richer way. Flowers are affectionate, leaving us rich varieties to watch and use, and the ancients gave flowers different spiritual connotations. No matter from the material or spiritual point of view, China flowers are a rich wealth, which needs to be passed down and carried forward by us from ancient times to the present, so as to benefit future generations.
References:
1. On the Orientation of Ancient Women's Identity in Six Kinds of Flower Images
2. Interesting Talk about Four Ancient Chinese Beauties and Flowers
3. Flower Shadows Enchanting each other in Spring-Appreciation of Ancient Flowers Singing Early Spring
4. Talking about Ancient Flowers in China
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