Wei Yingwu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, once wrote in the poem "Seeing the Bauhinia Flower":
The miscellaneous talents have accumulated, and the fragrance is alone in late spring;
Still like the trees in my hometown, I suddenly remember the people in my hometown.
Although there is not much pen and ink, the wanderer's longing for home and the nostalgia for his hometown are beyond words and deeply touching.
Speaking of Bauhinia, I am afraid that most Chinese people will think of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is located on the southeast coast of China, east of the Pearl River Estuary, adjacent to Shenzhen City in Guangdong Province, including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, with a total area of ??1,095 square kilometers. Hong Kong has been a territory of China since ancient times and was occupied by Britain after the Opium War in 1840. According to the Joint Statement on the Hong Kong Issue signed by China and the UK on December 19, 1984, the two governments held a handover ceremony of Hong Kong power as scheduled on July 1, 1997, declaring that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, thereby realizing the long-standing The people’s common desire to take back Hong Kong. At the same time, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China was formally established, and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region adopted by the third session of the Seventh National People's Congress in April 1990 also began to be implemented.
In the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, in addition to flying the national flag and national emblem of the People's Republic of China, the regional flag and regional emblem can also be used. The regional flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the bauhinia red flag with five-star stamens. The red flag represents the motherland, and the white bauhinia flower represents Hong Kong. The red flag with bauhinia flower means that Hong Kong is an inseparable part of the motherland and will thrive in the embrace of the motherland. The five stars on the stamen symbolize the Hong Kong compatriots' love for the motherland. The flowers and flags are red and white respectively, symbolizing "one country, two systems". The regional emblem of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is circular, with a five-star bauhinia flower in the center, and the words "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China" in Chinese and "Hong Kong" in English are written around it. The middle pattern is also a bauhinia flower with white five-star stamens on a red background, which has the same meaning as the regional flag.
In the history of Hong Kong, there is also a tragic story about the Bauhinia flower: On June 19, 1898, the "Special Treaty to Expand the Hong Kong Concession" was signed in Bauhinia City, which was humiliating and humiliating the country, and the British government forcibly leased Kowloon. A large area of ??land on the peninsula and more than 200 nearby islands (later known as the New Territories) were leased for 99 years. Two months later, despite the strong opposition and resistance of the Chinese people, the British forcibly held an occupation ceremony in advance amidst the roar of cannons. Thousands of patriotic people rose up to defend their homes and counterattacked the British military camps. The British troops suffered heavy losses, but the people were also brutally suppressed, and 100,000 people in the New Territories lost their land. After the disaster, the villagers built a large tomb in Guijiao Mountain to bury the heroes who died heroically. Later, a tree with purple-red flowers that had never been seen before grew on Guijiao Mountain. A few years later, that kind of flower bloomed all over the hillsides of the New Territories. It was colorful, especially around the Qingming Festival, when it was in full bloom, as if to commemorate the martyrs, and the people named it Bauhinia. In 1965, the bauhinia was honored to be elected as the city flower of Hong Kong.
In ancient China, redbuds were often used to represent family affection, symbolizing brotherly harmony and prosperity of the family business. It comes from such an allusion: It is said that in the Southern Dynasties, Jingzhao Yin Tianzhen separated from his brothers Tian Qing and Tian Guang. When other properties had been divided, it was finally discovered that there was a redbud tree with sparse branches and colorful flowers in the yard. Trees are difficult to handle. That night, the three brothers discussed cutting the redbud tree into three sections, one for each person. Early the next morning, when the three brothers went to cut down the tree, they found that all the branches and leaves of the redbud tree had withered and all the flowers had fallen. Seeing this, Tian Zhen couldn't help but sigh to the two brothers: "People are not as good as trees." Later, the three brothers reunited their families and lived in harmony. The redbud tree seemed to understand human nature, and it regained its vitality and grew in luxuriant flowers and leaves.
Bauhinia, also known as Bauhinia safranii, Bauhinia viridis, and Bauhinia safranii, is an evergreen medium-sized tree of the family Hemataceae. Its leaves are round, broadly oval, or kidney-shaped, but the tops are split into two halves. It looks like sheep's hoof nails, hence its name. During the flowering period between winter and spring, the flowers are as big as the palm of a hand, slightly fragrant, with five petals evenly arranged in whorls, red or pink, and very beautiful. The redbud flower is evergreen and luxuriant all year round and is quite resistant to smoke and dust, so it is particularly suitable as a street tree. The bark contains tannins and can be used as tannins and dyes. The roots, bark and flowers can also be used as medicine.