I think the poem Bai Mudan written by Wei Zhuang, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, is "Phoenix and White".
My family's plant, Fengdanbai, was originally planted in the peony bushes in the backyard. Later, the soil in that position was relatively dry and did not grow well. Four years ago in the autumn, I moved to the railing beside the driveway, in the flower bed of the purple kite. It grew well after transplantation. Although the branches in early spring were once broken by wild deer and crushed by heavy snow, they also grew up quickly and blossomed, becoming stronger every year.
Among the existing peonies, this one has the earliest flowering period and will bloom as soon as it enters May. I remember that seven or eight flowers were opened last year, and 20 flowers were opened this year. The petals gradually become lavender in the middle, and the stamens are golden and fragrant. According to the book, Feng Dan has two kinds: compound valve and single valve. Multiple petals are mostly red, and single petals are mostly white. They are all medicinal peonies with thousands of years of history.
The roots of peony are processed into "peony bark", which is a precious Chinese herbal medicine. Slightly cold, pungent and non-toxic. Entering the heart, liver and kidney meridians, it has the functions of removing blood stasis, clearing blood, promoting blood circulation, relieving pain, relieving depression and removing blood stasis. Long-term use can tonify the body, prolong life, nourish blood, regulate liver, nourish skin and dredge meridians.
Fenghuang Mountain in Tongling, Anhui Province is rich in peony with the best quality and relatively high output. Peony in Feng Dan is planted in a large area. I think, every spring in March, when the phoenix-shaped Dan blooms everywhere, it must be another imposing manner. The flowers in front of the mountain and behind it are amazing.
Single-petalled Baifengdan is the ancestor of peony, from which all kinds of peonies are later propagated. "Peony" originally belonged to Paeoniaceae, and it was not until the prosperous Tang Dynasty that woody peony was called "Peony". "Dan", "red" and "wood" mean that peony can reproduce asexually. From this noun, we can know that after peony claimed to be scarlet, it was used as a positive color, so later poets chanted that black peony had the sentence "Take a positive color in Zhu Fei, and different species are also kings".
However, the traditional aesthetic standard of China literati regards "element" as a simple positive color. Confucius once said that "draw things first, then draw elements", that is, you must have white silk elements to draw colorful colors. Laozi likes "simplicity" and thinks that "all five colors are blind". The Taoist book Huai Nan Zi said: "Colored people stand in white and become five colors; Tao, a stand and everything is born ",with" white "as the source of five colors. Buddhism also regards "white" as the richest connotation, which can be all-encompassing, all-encompassing, omnipresent and omnipresent. Master Wuji said: "Egrets set up snow, fools look at egrets, wise men see snow, and wise men see white." It can be seen that the "white" entering the Zen realm is a clear mind and clear thinking, and a stable self-centripetal force.
Therefore, when Bai Mudan first entered the capital of the Tang Dynasty, its value was amazing. Wang Jian once said in a poem, "It's more disgusting than a beautiful woman, and it costs thousands of dollars." . Since then, it has evolved into "a cluster of dark flowers, and ten households are blessed." Red and purple peony attracts people to chase at a more amazing price, perhaps because of the strong red makeup people headed by Wuhou?
However, natural peony has only three colors: white, yellow and purple. Today, the five colors of peony, red, pink, green, blue, black and purple, do not exist in nature, and there is no written record of how the predecessors cultivated them.
Peony also has high edible and medicinal value. According to the book, peony has been used in dishes since the Song Dynasty, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has a more perfect raw material formula and production method. According to the Qing Yang Xiaolu, "Peony petals can be boiled in soup, soaked in honey or marinated." Peony petals and pollen can be made into health food and beverage; It is also an important raw material for preparing advanced cosmetics. The menu includes peony flower tremella soup, peony tenderloin, peony tenderloin and peony petal wine. It is not only delicious, refreshing and tender, but also has a dietotherapy effect.
Therefore, when the flower is dying, it is better to bury it after eating this section of Fanghua.