When did the cultivation of camellia in China begin? Camellia academic circles at home and abroad are very concerned about this. There are several monographs on camellia in our country, all of which say that camellia was planted in the Wutong Garden of King Wu Fu Chai at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. When the author went to Sichuan to investigate ancient camellia in 2001, he asked the author who first published this theory for advice, but the result was not confirmed. Later, I went to Suzhou City (which was the capital of Wu State in the Spring and Autumn Period in ancient times) to find relevant cultural relics and the archives department reviewed many ancient local chronicles and other ancient books and documents, but no records of camellia growing in Wutong Garden were found.
In early 2002, when we were compiling the monograph "Chinese Camellia Culture", we found "Qing Yi Lu" written by Tao Gu in the early Song Dynasty in "Sikuquanshu", which included Zhang Yi's "Flower Classic". Zhang Yi arranged many flowers according to the "nine grades and nine lives" in the "Flower Classic". Camellia is ranked as "seven grades and three lives", that is, the seventh grade. This at least shows that: first, camellia had entered artificial cultivation from wildness at that time; second, camellia had become a recognized famous flower at that time; third, camellia had become a favorite ornamental flower by people at that time.
When was Zhang Yi's "Flower Classic" written? The author discovered an article "Flowers in Flowers" by Chen Shijiao of the Ming Dynasty in a newly purchased set of "Si Ku Quanshu Catalog Series" purchased by the Shaoxing Library. "Flower Classic" by Zhang Yi is also quoted in "Huali Hua". The content is exactly the same as the "Flower Classic" cited in "Qing Yi Lu". What is particularly worth mentioning is that the first sentence of the quoted preface reads: Author: "Zhang Yi of the Shu Han Dynasty was eager to learn and thoughtful, and he tried to play and compose the Hua Jing...". At this point we can conclude that Zhang Yi was from the Shu-Han period of the Three Kingdoms (221-263). At that time, the territory of the Shu-Han occupied most of today's Sichuan and Yunnan, all of Guizhou, Hanzhong of Shaanxi and part of the Bailongjiang River Basin in southern Gansu. It can be seen that as early as 1800 years ago in areas such as Shu and Han in the Three Kingdoms, camellia had become a favorite flower. The history of Chinese camellia from wild to artificial cultivation has been at least 1800 years. We wrote this conclusion in the book "Chinese Camellia Culture", and many experts affirmed it. Researcher Xia Lifang of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, wrote in her written review comments: “Dating the history of camellia cultivation back to the Three Kingdoms period (before 1800) provides valuable history to camellia researchers and enthusiasts in China and around the world. Information." President Jiang Zehui of the China Flower Association wrote in the preface: "With detailed information and conclusive evidence, this book advances the history of camellia cultivation in China from the Southern and Northern Dynasties more than 1,400 years ago to 1,800 years ago. Three Kingdoms period.
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