The gentleman among flowers generally refers to orchids.
The reason why orchids are called gentlemen among flowers has historical origins. Lan was endowed with the character of a gentleman beginning in the Book of Songs. "The Book of Songs" praises orchids in many places for their noble quality of "being in a secluded environment and exhaling fragrance, not competing with the flowers." In "Family Sayings of Confucius", it is said that "Orchids grow in deep valleys, and they do not become fragrant because there is no one there. A gentleman cultivates virtue and does not change his moral character because of poverty."
Confucius directly connected the quality of orchid with the journey of a gentleman. In Qu Yuan's "Li Sao", ten people spoke of orchid. Qu Yuan fully expressed his moral integrity and persistent pursuit of spiritual innocence through orchid, so orchid also became the spiritual symbol of Qu Yuan.
Orchids have a simple and elegant fragrance. Although they are not as beautiful as other flowers, they are self-satisfied with their fragrance, just like a true gentleman, so they are called this. It symbolizes both purity and nobility. It has been the favored object of literati and poets in the past dynasties since ancient times. It can be said that "one orchid plant has thousands of paintings, and one orchid arrow has thousands of poems".
History of Orchid Botany:
Orchids have been cultivated in China for more than 2,000 years. According to records, as early as the late Spring and Autumn Period, King Gou Jian of Yue had planted orchids in the mountains of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, orchids have been used to decorate courtyards. In ancient times, people mainly collected wild orchids at first. As for artificial cultivation of orchids, they started in the palace.
After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the cultivation of orchids expanded from the palace to the private gardens of the scholar-bureaucrat class, and was used to decorate the gardens and beautify the environment, just as described in Cao Zhi's poem "Autumn Orchids Cover Long Slopes". It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the cultivation of orchids developed to be cultivated in general gardens and flower farmers. For example, Li Bai, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote poems such as "The fragrance of orchids is far away in the wind, and the fragrance of orchids flows through the roots."
The Song Dynasty was the heyday of the history of orchid art in China, and there were many books and descriptions about orchid art. For example, "Erya Wings" written by Luo Yuan of the Song Dynasty has "The leaves of the orchid are like sand, and they bloom in the first spring. The flowers are very fragrant, and they are mostly born in the forest. When the breeze passes by, the fragrance reaches outside, so it is called Zhilan, Jiangnan. There is a saying that orchids only bloom in spring, and those in Jingchu and central Fujian bloom again in autumn and summer."