"Don't be jealous of the newly made-up woman in your boudoir, and be ashamed of Fu Fenlang in the street. Last night the moon was as bright as water, and when you enter, you can only feel the fragrance of the garden."
Wei Zhuang, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty The poem "White Peony", I thought it was written about "Feng Danbai".
My Fengdanbai plant was originally planted in the peony bush in the backyard. Later, the soil at that location was relatively dry and the growth was not good. Four years ago in the fall it was moved to the flower bed of purple kites in front of the railing beside the driveway. After the transplant, it grew very well. Although the branches were broken by wild deer and heavy snow in early spring, they grew up quickly and bloomed, becoming more and more vigorous every year.
Among the existing peonies, this one has the earliest flowering period, blooming as soon as May. I remember there were seven or eight flowers blooming last year, and a full 20 blooms this year. The petals gradually turn lavender in the middle, and the stamens are golden and fragrant. The book says that there are two types of peonies: double petals and single petals. Most of the double petals are red, and most of the single petals are white. They are both medicinal peonies that have been planted for thousands of years.
The roots of peony are processed into "paeonia", which is a valuable Chinese herbal medicine. It is slightly cold in nature, pungent in taste, and non-toxic. It enters the heart, liver, and kidney meridians and has the functions of dispersing blood stasis, clearing blood, harmonizing blood, relieving pain, dispersing depression and removing blood stasis. Taking it for a long time can benefit the body and prolong life, nourish blood and harmonize blood. Liver, nourishing the skin and promoting menstruation.
Fenghuang Mountain in Tongling, Anhui Province is rich in peonies, with the best quality and relatively high yield. Fengdan peonies are planted on a large scale in the area. I thought that every spring in March, the phoenix flowers blooming all over the mountains and plains there must be more powerful, and the fragrance of the flowers in front of the mountains and behind them is also amazing.
The single-petal white phoenix is ??the ancestor of the peony, from which various peonies later multiplied. "Peony" was originally from the family Paeoniaceae. Since the Tang Dynasty, woody peony has been called "peony". "Dan" means red, and "peony" means peony can reproduce asexually. From this term, it can be seen that since the peony got its name, red has been regarded as the main color. Therefore, later generations of poets praised the black peony with the sentence "It is not the right color to win the red, and the heterogeneous species is also the king."
The traditional aesthetic standards of Chinese literati originally regarded "prime" as the correct color of simplicity. Confucius once said: "Painting things and then plainness", that is, white silk must first be "plain", and then five colors can be applied to "paint" the picture. Lao Tzu likes to "see simplicity and embrace simplicity" and believes that "the five colors are blinding". The Taoist "Huainanzi" states: "Color, standing in white, makes the five colors come into being; Tao, standing in one, all things come into existence." "White" is the source of the five colors. The same goes for Buddhists, who regard "white" as the richest connotation, which can encompass everything, have everything, and see nothing and possess nothing. Master Wuji said: "A white egret stands in the snow, a fool sees a heron, a wise man sees snow, and a wise man sees white." The "white" that enters the Zen state is to understand the mind and nature, to think clearly, and to have a stable self-centered force.
This is why white peonies first came to the capital in the Tang Dynasty, and their value was astonishing. Wang Jian once wrote in a poem: "It is more disgusting than gorgeous beauties, and is worth thousands of gold." After that, it evolved into "a clump of dark flowers, gifted by ten households". Red and purple peonies attracted people to pursue them at even more astonishing prices. Perhaps it was the result of the strong people with red makeup headed by Empress Wu competing to praise them?
Natural peonies only come in three colors: white, yellow, and purple. The red, pink, green, blue, black, purple, and complex colors of peonies we see today do not exist in nature. There is no written record of how they were cultivated by previous generations. .
Peony also has high edible and medicinal value. The book says that peony has been used in dishes since the Song Dynasty, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were more perfect raw material recipes and production methods. According to the Qing Dynasty's "Yang Xiaolu": "Peony petals can be blanched in soup, soaked in honey, or stewed in gravy." Peony petals and pollen can be used to make health foods and drinks; they are also important raw materials for the preparation of high-end cosmetics. Among the recipes are peony white fungus soup, peony fish slices, peony tenderloin shreds and peony petal wine. Not only is it delicious, refreshing and tender, but it also has therapeutic effects.
So when the flowers fade, instead of burying this period of youth, it is better to eat them.