1. Lotus and religious culture

When people walk into the temple, they look up and see the sitting statue of Buddha Sakyamuni, wearing a shoulder-length coat, making a statement by hand and sitting on the lotus platform. According to the Buddhist scriptures, this is the posture of Buddha Sakyamuni preaching to the believers after he became a Buddha. Amitabha, known as the head of the "Three Sages of the West", is also sitting on the lotus platform, with his hands on his feet and a lotus platform in his palm, which seems to guide all beings to the pure land of the Western Buddhist country. Guanyin, who is famous for her kindness and compassion, is dressed in white, sitting on the Bai Lianhua, holding a pure bottle in one hand and clinging to a white lotus in the other, as if to show Guanyin's pure bodhisattva heart, and fully guide the believers to leave the world and reach the pure land of Buddhism where the lotus is in full bloom.

When reading Buddhist scriptures, people often see that Buddhist scriptures refer to Buddhist countries as "lotus boundary", temples as "lotus houses", monks' robes as "lotus clothes", monks' handprints as "lotus flowers crossing hands", and the "rosary" used by monks is also made of lotus seeds. Buddhist scriptures say that it is better to use lotus seeds as rosary beads than locust beads. If you pinch them again, you will get a thousand times more blessings.

to sum up, lotus flower has formed a close relationship with Buddhism and has become the symbol and sacred flower of the Buddhist country.

second, lotus and poetry culture

in the hot summer, lotus flowers are open, graceful, charming, elegant and refreshing, which makes people linger. Lotus has been a favorite of literati since ancient times. As early as more than 3,111 years ago, there were some poems in The Book of Songs, such as "There are lotus flowers in Ji", "There are evil flowers in Bi Ze, and the workers are flourishing". Since then, the works of poets chanting lotus in past dynasties are even more numerous. In the Song Dynasty alone, Yang Wanli left dozens of lotus poems. There are more than 411 poems chanting lotus in the vegetation code of "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" in Qing Dynasty.

Because the poets have different moods, different interests and different aesthetic angles, the poems of chanting lotus flowers are varied and have their own charm. Qu Yuan once fantasized in Lisao: "Make lotus hair for clothes and gather hibiscus for dresses." Used to express its faithfulness. Li Bai expressed his love with lotus flowers in "Folding Lotus and Giving". Wang Bo, one of the "four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty", used lotus as a metaphor to describe people: "Holding flowers * * * to connect their stems, folding lotus roots to love lotus threads." It means that the lotus root is broken. In the Song Dynasty, Zhou Dunyi's "Love Lotus" is a metaphor for lotus and praises the quality of a gentleman, which has been praised through the ages. In the Qing Dynasty, Wan Wanyi was proud of the white lotus householder, and even changed her birthday to the legendary lotus birthday-June 24th of the lunar calendar, and wrote a poem: "The mud is not stained with clear water, and I have the same birthday as the lotus." Poets are moved by the beautiful lotus flowers, and also fall in love with the crisp lotus leaves. Zheng Bochen's "Ode to the Lotus Leaf" praised: "The lotus is red at the top and white at the bottom." What a precious dedication this is. Yang Wanli's poem "Lotus Root" wrote: "It looks really rough outside, and Xu Linglong is carved in the chest." Meng Jiao's poem in the Tang Dynasty said, "My heart is full of silk, although it is broken, it is still connected." Later, it became an idiom to "break the ties". There is a long custom of picking lotus in the south of China, so many poems singing about picking lotus have been circulated.

third, the scientific explanation of the broken silk

when it comes to lotus, it is natural to mention lotus root. Dutch belongs to Nymphaeaceae, a perennial herb, which is planted in shallow ponds. Its stem is born in mud and metamorphoses into a rhizome, that is, lotus root, also called lotus root. Lotus root grows horizontally in the mud and absorbs nutrients by the fibrous roots on the basal stems. Lotus root is a favorite food since ancient times because it is fleshy, crisp and slightly sweet, contains a lot of starch and is rich in nutrition.

When we break the lotus root, we can observe that countless long white lotus roots are connected between the broken lotus roots. Why is there such a phenomenon?

It is necessary to observe the structure of lotus root. It turns out that the tissues that plants need to grow and transport water and nutrients are called ducts and tracheids. These tissues extend in all directions in plants, and are as unimpeded in leaves, stems, flowers, fruits and other organs as blood vessels in animals.

The inner wall of the vessel of a plant will be particularly thickened in certain parts, forming various textures, some of which are annular, some are trapezoidal and some are net-shaped. However, the thickened part of the catheter wall of lotus root is continuously spiral, which is called spiral catheter. When the lotus root is broken, the thickened spiral part of the inner wall of the catheter is separated and becomes a spiral filament with a diameter of only 3 ~ 5 microns. These filaments are much like stretched springs, and will not be broken within the elastic limit, and can generally be stretched to about 11 cm.

Lotus root silk exists not only in lotus root, but also in lotus stalks and lotus leaves, but it is more slender. If you pick a lotus stalk, try to break it into sections as much as possible, and lift it like a long series of small green "lanterns". It is this kind of filament that connects these small green "lanterns". This kind of filament looks like one. If you look at it under a microscope, you will find that it is actually composed of 3 ~ 8 thinner filaments, just like a cotton yarn is composed of countless cotton fibers.

The delicate and lingering lotus root silk has long attracted the attention of the ancients. In Meng Jiao's poem Qufu in the Tang Dynasty, there is a sentence that "my heart is in the lotus root, although it is broken, it is still linked". Later, people used the idiom "breaking the silk" to describe that although the relationship is broken, the love affair is still connected.

lotus names

Because of their love for lotus, people have given many poetic names to lotus according to its appearance characteristics, growth habits and holy and elegant temperament. At the same time, there are many beautiful and moving legends circulating among the people.

First, correct names: lotus, lotus (lotus is used in the literature at present)

Second, aliases: Iowa (The Book of Songs Zheng Feng), Fu Fu (Er Ya Shi Cao), Furong (Li Sao), Fu Rong (Hanshu Zi Xufu), Zhu Hua. Water lotus ("Three Tales"), water bloom, lotus ("Compendium of Materia Medica"), water cloud, water Dan ("Qunfangpu"), June spring ("A Survey of the Axillary Class"), quiet guest, net friend ("Sanyu Redundant Pen"), Yuhuan ("North Dream"

3. proper names of various organs of the lotus: lotus, its stem eggplant, its leaves are luxuriant, its flowers are luxuriant, in fact, lotus, its root lotus root, among which the lotus seed is luxuriant and the lotus seed is luxuriant. It means: the petiole and flower stalk of lotus are called "eggplant", the lotus leaf is called "clam", the underground stem lotus root whip is called "clam", the bud and flower are called "lotus", the receptacle is called "lotus root", the underground stem lotus root is still called "lotus root", and the seed kernel, namely the cotyledon, is called "long".

fourth, the origin of the name: in The Three Kingdoms period, Lu Ji explained "Fu Fu" in Mao Shi's book "Plants, Birds, Animals, Insects and Fish Sparse": "What can be a husband or a canal, so the lotus is called Fu Fu." It means that the lotus in a lake or canal with an area of 111 mu is called "lotus". Song Lu Dian's "Yaya" called the origin of lotus: "The general name of lotus, flowers and leaves, etc. all have meanings. If you don't know, you call it lotus." That is to say, all organs have their own names, but they don't know what they are called, so they add the word "He" to the grass prefix to become "He", which means load. After the Song Dynasty, books used more "lotus" than "lotus". Erya clearly defines "lotus", which refers to the lotus. However, Guo Pu's "Er Ya Zhu" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty put forward: "Northerners should use lotus root as well as lotus." Since then, lotus and hibiscus have gradually been renamed lotus or lotus, and lotus is synonymous, which has been mixed up to now. As for adding flowers to lotus after lotus and adding flowers to lotus after lotus, it is in line with the language habits of China people and was added later.

Huangshan Lotus Peak: In Huangshan City, Anhui Province, it is named for its lotus-like shape.

Lotus Peak in Lushan Mountain: it is in the south of Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province.

Huashan Lotus Peak: Located in huayin city, Shaanxi Province, it is the middle peak of Huashan Mountain.

Hengshan Lotus Peak: It is the peak of Hengshan Mountain in Hunan Province, which is like a lotus, so it is named.

Lotus Peak in Wuyishan: Located in Chong 'an, Fujian, there is a Lotus Cave on it.

Lotus Peak: It is in the south of Qujiang, Guangxi.

The method of filling the lotus paste in the lotus paste shortcake:

Peel the lotus paste and boil it with water, filter the water, twist the lotus paste into a paste, then pour some vegetable oil into the pot and heat it for a long time, then pour the lotus paste into the pot and stir-fry, adding sugar during the stir-frying process until it is cooked. It seems that this is probably the process.

To make a lifelike "lotus-paste chicken":

□ Leather

311 grams of ground flour, raw flour, lard, etc.

□ stuffing

111g of lotus seed paste.

□ production method

steaming. First, blanch the flour with boiling water, add a little raw flour and lard, and knead it evenly into flour dough. Then, knead two small pieces of flour dough into red and yellow dough for later use. Then, add 11 pieces of white flour dough, wrap it in lotus paste stuffing, knead it into chicken blanks, clamp out chicken wings and tails with pliers, decorate them with 21 black sesame seeds, and knead the yellow dough into chicken.

□ Flavor features

Crystal clear, sweet filling.

□ Technical essentials

Pigment should not be heavy.

Rivers and lakes

Lotus Sea: the old name of a lake in Wusu, Xinjiang. In summer, white lotus blooms like the sea in the lake, hence the name.

Lotus Lake: According to Li Daoyuan's Notes on Water Classics in the Northern Wei Dynasty, there is a lake in the northwest corner of Tang Cheng, which is commonly called Tangchi, and the lotus is covered with water, which is the scenic spot at that time.

Ziliantang: According to the Records of Dexing County, there is a Ziliantang under Ma 'anshan, which is named after the opening of Ziliantang.

Ruilian Pond: According to the Annals of Huazhou, there is Ruilian Pond behind Huazhou government, and there are three branches in Jiajing Jiyou (1525) pond. Wuzi (1528) was named Ruilian Pool, because it had seven branches that opened and joined the lotus.

Jinlianchi: According to the Records of Yanshi County, there is a pond 41 miles southwest, which is five feet deep. In the Tang Dynasty, the Zen master of Zhongnanshan Mountain sought his friend Zhang prodigy here, and seven golden lotus flowers were born in the pond, so it was named Jinlianchi.

Lotus Lake: According to Baoding County Records, there are lotus flowers in the west of the county, which are in full bloom in summer and smell ten miles. During the tour, it is cool and pleasant.

hibiscus pond: According to the Records of Huzhou Prefecture, there is a pond in Baiping Prefecture in the east of the city, and there are many lotus flowers in the pond, so it is named hibiscus pond.

Lotus Pond: According to the Records of Chongqing, "There is a lotus pond in Dongerli, Jiangjin County, which is about 31 miles wide. The lotus in the pond is mixed with red and white, vivid and lovely." "Yuanjiang Fuzhi" also contains: "There is a big pond under Qinglong Mountain, which is more than 311 feet around. Every summer and summer, the pond is full of green, white, red and lotus, hence the name."

③ Pavilion Bridge Building

Lotus House: located in the north of Jingci Temple, Hangzhou. According to "records of the west lake Garden Pavilion", Ming Hongwu Monks were widely built and became one of the eight scenic spots in Nanping.

Yu Lian Hall: According to "records of the west lake Monument", outside Qiantang Gate, it was decided to appease Wei Keyu for three years (1262).

Ruilian Pavilion: According to the Records of Shunqing Prefecture, there is a pavilion on the left of Nanshifo Temple, which is located in the lotus state government. There is a pool of flowers and a lotus flower beside the pavilion, which is gorgeous and colorful, and the exotic fragrance lasts for miles, so it is named Ruilian Pavilion. There are also Gentleman Pavilion, Lotus Nest Pavilion, Lotus Bridge, Lotus Village and Lotus Town Hall. In addition, the ancients often called the official residence of the minister a lotus pond.

5. A city with lotus as the "city flower"

Jinan City, Shandong Province: In the 1981s, after the lotus was hailed as the "city flower" of Jinan City, Daming Lake was even more full of vitality: weeping willows, lotus flowers and a vibrant scene.

Jining City, Shandong Province: Lotus cultivation in Jining City has a history of about 2,111 years. Nowadays, there are more than 61 new varieties of lotus in Jining City.

Xuchang City, Henan Province: In 1981s, lotus was known as the "city flower" of Xuchang City, which further promoted the prosperity and development of lotus culture.

Xiaogan City, Hubei Province: Since ancient times, wild lotus has been everywhere in Xiaogan City, especially the Lotus Lake in the west of the city. Today, Xiaogan City is a corner of the lotus pond. There is a "Lotus Pier" by the lake and a lotus pond in the city, and "Pan Marsh and Lotus Fragrance" has become one of the eight scenic spots in Xiaogan.

honghu city, Hubei Province: honghu city, Hubei Province, which is famous for its Honghu Lake, has a water area of 758 square kilometers. Lotus flowers are blooming everywhere, making it a sea of lotus flowers. In 1987, Honghu was withdrawn from the county, and in 1991, the Municipal People's Congress decided to use lotus as the "city flower".

Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province: Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, which planted lotus flowers for nearly a thousand years, is most famous for the lotus flowers in Lihu Qixing Lake. Lotus has become one of the favorite flowers of Zhaoqing people.

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