Flowers bloom and fall for 20 days, and people in a city are crazy. Bai Juyi's Mudan Square
Three flowers season, ten thousand horses and thousands of cars to see peony. Appreciation of Xu Ning Peony
Peony is messy, and a country is crazy about gold. Appreciation of Wang Gu Peony
China has a tradition of chanting things since ancient times, and chanting flowers is an important category of chanting things. The image of "flower" is rooted in the soil of China culture and has unique aesthetic implication and spiritual value. The huge custom of "loving flowers" and the craze for singing cranes in the Tang Dynasty promoted China's spiritual experience in the form of national flowers.
The Aesthetic Spiritual Value of "Flower" Image
China's poems about flowers began to appear in The Book of Songs, and the image connotation of "flowers" as a symbol of personality was initially established in The Songs of the South. Tang poetry inherited the coquettish and romantic style of Wei and Jin dynasties, and pushed the creation of flower-chanting poems to the extreme. Flower style, that is, Tang and Song style, presents different weather because of the political, economic, social and cultural atmosphere of the times. Subjective and objective reasons, such as the personal fate, promotion and demotion, and the sadness of the world, led to their strong personality characteristics in the writing of "flowers", which gave birth to a swaying cultural landscape. From the perspectives of aesthetic culture history, literati mentality history and painting history, we can get a glimpse of what kind of cultural background and personality form have accumulated since the Tang Dynasty, and reveal the changes of humanistic spirit, cultural mentality and literati aesthetic taste in the Tang Dynasty. The spiritual temperament of peony, the national flower, embodies the potential cultural fission and re-integration, and shows a new realm of dialectical unity of China's cultural spirit as a whole.
Second, the historical and cultural opportunity for Peony to be promoted as the national flower of the Tang Dynasty
The fashion of "Shang Hua" reflects and influences the weather of the times. Different fashions of the times correspond to the characteristics and image connotations of different flowers, so that one or several flower shapes and gods bear the ideal personality pursuit of the literati at that time, showing the weather, cultural features and spiritual world of the literati.
Peony flowers are colorful, layered, elegant and full of beauty, conveying the majestic spring momentum, so they have the potential to become the best symbol and carrier of the spirit of the prosperous times. There were records of peony appreciation in Sui Dynasty, but it was not until the prosperous Tang Dynasty that peony really replaced the legacy of Yongmei in the Six Dynasties and became the "national flower" occupying the new favorite position of chanting flowers. After nearly 400 years of division and turmoil, the Tang Dynasty emerged a social situation of all-round economic and cultural prosperity and became the most powerful empire in the whole eastern world. Cultural exchanges and integration between North and South, developed trade and transportation between China and foreign countries, smooth introduction of foreign culture on the Silk Road, exotic costumes, music, dance, art and religion, etc. , is changan fashion. The coexistence of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism made the Tang Dynasty present a vivid situation of multicultural exchange and integration. This unprecedented great exchange and integration made the Tang Dynasty in a respected position in all directions, full of enterprising, high-spirited, graceful and heroic spirit.
This brilliant spirit is also reflected in architecture. There were three palaces in the Tang Dynasty, Tai Chi Palace in the west, Daming Palace in the east and Xingqing officials in the south. The largest Daming Palace, located in Longshou Garden, southeast of Forbidden Park in the north of Chang 'an, is famous for its grand scale. Daming Palace was built in October of the eighth year of Zhenguan of Emperor Taizong (634) and in April of the second year of Longshuo (662). It is a summer palace built by Emperor Tai Shang, formerly known as Yong 'an Palace. Zhenguan was renamed Daming Palace in the ninth year and has been the administrative center of the Tang Dynasty for more than 200 years. There are towering imperial halls including Hanyuan Temple, Zhengxuan Hall and Chenzi Hall, the highest government office in China, namely Zhongshu Province, Menxia Province, Yushitai, History Museum, Hong Wen Hall, Mingmu Academy, Jixian Academy, picturesque Taiye Pool, Linde Hall sandwiched in many other harem halls in the city, and the Hanlin Academy where scholars and scholars gather. Famous literati such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Cen Can, Wang Wei, Zi Yi, Han Yu and Liu Yuxi all worked in Daming Palace, leaving many literary works describing Daming Palace. In April of the second year of Longshuo (662), Emperor Gaozong moved into Daming Palace (called Penglai Palace at this time) and built the first hall-Hanyuan Hall in Daming Palace. There is a saying: "The name of Hanyuan was built, and Kunming said,' Han Yong Everbright'". He also said, "Yuan Henry's chastity lies in Vientiane. "This hall has long been a place for important ceremonies, such as the winter solstice and the Yuan Dynasty, the accession to the throne and the conferring ceremony. It is a symbol of the national strength of the Tang Dynasty, bearing the turbulent weather of the Tang Dynasty for more than 200 years.
Accordingly, the scale of religious and secular celebrations in the Tang Dynasty was unprecedented. Master Xuanzang in the Tang Dynasty translated a large number of classics and classics with the support of the imperial court after returning from the west during the Zhenguan period. The emperor of the Tang Dynasty held seven grand events in Famen Temple, a royal temple, to welcome the Buddha's bones. In the fifth year of Zhenguan (AD 63 1), Li Shimin of Emperor Taizong first revealed the Buddha nature of resultant force. Since then, Emperor Tang has welcomed Buddha bones every 130 years, which has become a grand ceremony for the whole country. The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty recorded the spectacular scene of welcoming the Buddha's bones: "From the distant gate to Anfumen, colorful sheds lined up all the way, and chanting Buddha shook the ground. He greeted him at Anfumen, entered the inner Dojo for three days and left Beijing. The sergeant and woman in the temple are one, and the dignity is full of ornaments, which is unparalleled in ancient times. "
In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court held many grand activities of "having fun with the people" and celebrating the Lantern Festival. In July13, the imperial court organized thousands of women's teams to sing songs for three days and three nights in the brightly lit capital. According to (Old Tang Book), "Day and night in Shang Dynasty, I went to the imperial palace to watch lanterns, and my wife sang with me, so I could watch them all night. ..... At the beginning, a monk and a woman asked me to open the door at night, but the light was on for three days and nights. The emperor watched the lights on Yan Xi and enjoyed them for three days and three nights. " Zhang Hu's "Night Lights on the fifteenth day of the first month" says: "Thousands of doors are unlocked, and all lights are bright. In the middle of the first month, the imperial city will move its capital. Three hundred wives danced in sleeves and wrote the sky for a while. " The splendid grand scene of "stepping on a song" is prosperous and brilliant. The folk sports in the prosperous Tang Dynasty are also full of charm. Tug of war in Tomb-Sweeping Day prevailed in the Tang Dynasty, and Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, actively promoted it in the army. Later, it moved from the Liyuan in the palace to the square outside the palace, which became a grand celebration for the whole people. "Tang Yulin" records that "Ming Chengzu set up this play in the Imperial Building, which was praised by more than a thousand people and shocked the audience. Xue Sheng, a scholar in Hedong, is a tug-of-war, and his words are beautiful and people are vying for it. " The rope used for tug-of-war in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was "hundreds of small ropes tied at both ends", and more than a thousand people marched. The scene is magnificent.
Such a prosperous atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty, which pervaded the monks and nuns in the ruling and opposition parties, injected great courage into his pursuit of the "national flower". Peony, as the highly respected "national flower" in the Tang Dynasty, showed its momentum and mind superior to that of the hundred generations at the right time, and embodied the wind of kings in the Tang Dynasty. To say peony means the atmosphere and grace of the Tang people.
As soon as peony appeared in the Tang Dynasty, it was loved and admired by the monarch, regarded as a wonderful reward, and immediately became famous in the government and the public, making "Peony Appreciation" a national event. According to Li Zhao's "Tang Shi Supplement", "The capital is expensive, and peony has been more than 30 years." It's a pity that you don't spend time playing in the Spring Festival Gala every year. There are tens of thousands of people who hold the Jinwupu official temple and plant it for profit. "This' peony fever' lasted until the Northern Song Dynasty, spanning two generations. During this period, the literati in the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties were even more eager to try.
Here we must talk about the great poet Li Bai. During the Kaiyuan period, the peony in front of Dong Chi Chenxiang Temple in the palace was in full bloom, and Li Longji and Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty took a night outing, which attracted Li Bai, who was in his prime and heroic, to use flowers as a metaphor for people, and to use peony as a metaphor for Yang Yuhuan, and wrote three chapters of the famous work "Qingpingdiao":
( 1)
Beautiful people who see the bright clouds, think of their clothes and see flowers come to see them.
If Yushan didn't see her, it would be Yaochi meeting under the moon.
(2)
A red dew is fragrant, and the rain is heartbroken.
Excuse me, who looks like Han Palace? The poor swallow relies on new cosmetics.
(3)
The beauty of beauty and red peony complement each other, and beauty and long flowers are king.
Explain that the spring breeze is infinitely hateful, and the agarwood pavilion is northward.
About the process of writing these three poems about peony, the records in ancient books are roughly the same, except that "at the beginning of Kaiyuan, it was forbidden to emphasize the peony, that is, the peony today". Those who received several copies of red, purple, light red and white were transplanted to the Aquilaria Pavilion in the east of Xingqing Dong Chi. Flowers bloom, the night is white, and the princess stands on tiptoe. Li Guinian, a disciple of Zhao Liyuan, is holding a sandalwood board in front of the music. I will want to sing, and the last day:' how to use old music words as a concubine when enjoying famous flowers?' So he ordered the Year of the Tortoise to publish three chapters of Qing Ping Diao by Li Baijin, a bachelor of Hanlin, with a golden flower note. Compared with this statement, the records in Chronicle of Tang Poems seem to be more in line with Li Bai's genius talent of "Poet Immortal": "Ming Chengzu sat in the Aquilaria Pavilion, feeling thoughtful and wanting to be moved in vain. Call and get drunk. There is water on the left and right sides of the face, and there is some solution. Give a pen, write it down with a pen, and don't leave it behind. " Li Bai did it without thinking when he was deeply intoxicated. He was a genius in the past. These three poems use flowers to describe people, skillfully absorbing the common characteristics of Yang Yuhuan and Peony-graceful atmosphere, plump posture, gorgeous oppression of people, and the supreme position of spoiling officials, blending form and spirit, and reaching the perfect state of unity of people and flowers.
Peony has become a "national flower", which is intrinsically related to Yang Guifei's favor. From the early Tang Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, the literati's cultural aesthetic consciousness and spirit were still immersed in the old dream of the previous dynasty, and plum blossom inherited the legacy of the Six Dynasties and was still sought after by literati. At this time, Mei Fei Jiang Caiping, another beauty related to Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was favored. "Biography of Mei Fei" said: "The surname is Jiang, and he is from Putian. Father Zhong Xun is a doctor in the world. At the age of nine, the princess could recite Two Difficulties. Her father said,' Although I am a woman, I hope this can become my ambition.' Father's strangeness is called' picking apples'. During the Kaiyuan period, Gao Lishi made Fujian and Guangdong his concubine. Seeing that she was not beautiful, she was chosen as Ming Chengzu, which was a great luck. There are tens of thousands of people in Chang 'an Palace, Daming Palace, Xingqing Palace, Oriental Palace and Shangyang Palace, who are complacent and regard themselves as dust, and the palace also thinks itself inferior. The princess is good at writing. She is more grateful to her daughter. She wears light makeup and elegant clothes, but her posture is Ming Xiu, and her pen can't draw. I like plums. I grow several kinds of plants in my residence. I am listed as' Mei Ting' on the list. Plum blossoms are rewarded, so you can't leave until midnight. In the world, it is called' Mei Fei'. "As can be seen from the records, on the Mei Fei, plum blossom and beauty are one, flowers are people, and people are flowers. "Light makeup and elegant posture, Ming Xiu", Mei Fei, who has a high internal cultivation, was favored by Tang Gaozong at that time, and the pure and elegant beauty of plum blossoms is still quite recognized. Yang Yuhuan replaced Mei Fei's pet crown harem, which also made Peony climb the aesthetic peak of historical human feelings and things with her, and became the favorite of several generations. Meihua and Mei Fei came together. There is a metaphor behind the substitution of Mei and Yang, which announced the all-round arrival of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and a kind of elegant leading cultural spirit began to occupy the dominant position. The change of plum blossom into peony is precisely the most prominent symbol of this historical and cultural Zen.
Li Bai's creation just enabled this cultural choice to be completed. Peony was attached to the highest political center in the prosperous Tang Dynasty by virtue of Li Bai's three chapters of Qingpingdiao. These three poems and theirs
Allusions are legendary stories, which concentrate too many of the most beautiful factors in the world and aggregate several "firsts"-Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, was the first in the Ninth Five-Year Plan, and the authority was the first; Yang Yuhuan is the first beauty; Li Bai is the first poet; Li Guinian was the first singer at that time; Gao Lishi is the first official. Several firsts are gathered because of "peony", and * * * holds up the status of peony as "national flower" and the spiritual temperament of kingliness.
Sanya Secular National Flower Carnival
When it comes to the wonderful poems about peony in the Tang Dynasty, of course, we should talk about Liu Yuxi's charming "Appreciating Peony", which creates a kind of affectionate and vivid realm with simple description, with endless implications in the image:
The peony demon in front of the court is unqualified, and the lotus flowers on the pool are less affectionate.
Only peony is the real national color, and it will move the capital as soon as it opens. In the first two sentences, peony and hibiscus are two stunning flowers with a fly in the ointment, and the sentence "Only peony is the real national color, and the capital moves when it blooms" gushes out. With a word "dynamic", the beauty of the king of peony and the sensational spectacle of Chang 'an peony in bloom, "beyond the image, it is in the ring" and "thrown into the endless aesthetic association of readers". The enthusiasm of the literati in the Tang Dynasty gave birth to many brilliant masterpieces, which vividly set off the beauty of peony as the king of the "national flower", such as Xu Ning's "Peony": "Who doesn't love peony, takes all the good things in the city. Suspected to be the goddess of Luochuan, beautiful enough to break the morning glow. " Pi Rixiu wrote the same poem: "When the residual red is exhausted, the fragrance will be rich, and it is called the king of flowers. It is the best fragrance in the world to fight for a big talk to the west. " And Xu Yin's "Peony Flower": "Flowers are the first of all flowers, and the light clouds are lightly dyed with tender silver flowers. But crazy yee devoted to the daughter, but also puzzled Wan Huhou. Looking at the wine in the sunshine, Mufeng blew it off and collected it around the fence. Poetry and books are full of dust, and no one looks up all day. " Another example is "Every family travels thousands of cars to see the peony in the third flower season" (Xu Ning's "Send White Sima"), "Peony is delicate and charming, and a country is crazy about gold" (Wang Rui (a king hub) (peony), "A peony is worth thousands of dollars, and it will be said that it is the deepest color" (Zhang's "Peony"), "Flowers bloom for 20 days, and flowers fall for 20 days.
People sing flowers, flowers reflect people. They show elegance, brilliance and grandeur to each other, and * * * constitutes a confident, open, high-spirited and generous spirit of the times. A sentence in Yu's Peony Fu represents the image of peony in people's minds at that time: "I am a flower, and this flower is the first one. Leave the group to monopolize the spring day. It is very big, and its fragrance fills the room. Leaves are like jade feathers, embracing each other. The core is like a gold piece, and the decoration is beautiful. Roses die of shame, peonies lose their virginity, peach blossoms wither, shame comes out, the night collapses, Mulan retreats, Zhu Jin loses her heart, Ziwei bends her knees-all put them down first, and dare to be angry and jealous! " In the Song Dynasty, Gao Cheng's Things in the Original further explored the strong and tenacious character of peony: "When Wuhou visited the backyard, all flowers bloomed, and the peony was only late, so it was demoted to Luoyang, so Luoyang peony was the best in the world. It is not particularly elegant and gorgeous, but it is better than Wan Hui and An Qiang and can be summarized in one word! " It can be seen that in the Tang and Song Dynasties, peony flowers were highly affirmed as superior to thousands of flowers.
Peony advocates both refined and popular tastes, but its spiritual core contains the romantic spirit and personality of poetry and wine represented by Li Bai, and the political culture of that era has double tolerance for this personality behavior. Peony dares to disobey the orders of the marquis of Wu, and is immune to the world, just like the legendary Li Taibai dared to let the imperial concubine hold the inkstone, and Lux took off his boots and laughed at the princes. There are only 20 days before and after the peony flowering period, but in this short time, it has performed the most brilliant life, just like Li Taibai's high-spirited character of "one day climbing the wind and breaking the waves, and set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea is deep". When the peony blooms in late spring, when the spring flowers wither, the spring scenery is harvested independently, which quite attracts Li Bai to "laugh and watch the sky go out. Is our generation Peng Haoren?" Peony was demoted and ready to go, which eventually led Luoyang to name it "Flower". Is it reminiscent of Li Bai's "I was born useful, spinning a thousand pieces of silver, and I'm back!" ?
Peony symbolizes the spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, is the perfect combination of the beauty of melody, and is also the main style of Tang literature. Juck Zhang said in Nightmare Shadow: "Peony is very proud." Tang people "introduced and absorbed fearlessly, created and innovated without restraint and nostalgia" with their free thoughts and open and healthy enterprising spirit. This nourishes the peony image, which nourishes people's will character, and its internal spiritual combination is the word "Hao". Even after the Anshi Rebellion, the national movement declined. However, the status of peony as a "national flower" has not wavered. Scholars and poets continue to write peony, but there is a change in tone, from blindly praising peony to reflecting on the prosperous Tang Dynasty through allegory. A series of poems, represented by Bai Juyi's New Yuefu, inherited the fable tradition of The Book of Songs, reflecting on the prosperous Tang Dynasty with the consciousness of satirizing the world and discussing state affairs, and taking Yang Guifei's mistake of country as a warning. His poem "Buy Flowers" says: "Ten families give a bunch of dark flowers." The poem "Peony Square" says: "Flowers bloom and fall for 20 days, and a city is crazy. I would like to seek the power of nature for the time being to reduce the enchanting color of peony. I love flowers if I don't go back to the Qing Dynasty, just like my husband is worried about crops. " The creative thinking of the two poems is just like the poet's self-report, "According to the meaning rather than the text, the first sentence marks its purpose, and the pawn chapter shows its ambition, and the meaning of" Poem 300 "is also. ..... for the monarch, for the minister, for the people, for things, for things, not for writing. " This realistic satirical creation intention painted a layer of melancholy color for the bright peony. By the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, there was no allegory in the poems about peony, which became a vague distant memory. Enter a personalized evaluation. Chen's "Peony" expresses his thoughts on the rise and fall and homesickness by chanting peony.
It has been ten years since the rulers trampled on the land of the motherland. Looking back at Luoyang, my hometown, the road is so long.
Years have made me old. Today, I am alone, wandering on the green pier by the spring breeze stream and enjoying the blooming peony.
In the process of privatization in the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, the image of peony was associated with the worries in troubled times, and it also touched the personal feeling of hometown experience. The nationalization of this national flower in the Tang Dynasty and the privatization in the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty made it far-reaching and lasting.
The imperial court in the Tang Dynasty broke the clan's monopoly on political elections since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and the common people gained a broad space for development, and their hearts were filled with the joy of dreams. At the same time, the development of urban economy, the expansion of cities and the prosperity of people's livelihood have also created cultural and aesthetic needs for ordinary people. In this way, the popularity of princes and nobles conforms to the exuberant joy of scholars and the needs of the public, and constitutes the cultural and psychological scene of the times when "peony" is in full bloom. However, this scene is impetuous because of excitement and superficial because of popularity, which makes the image of "peony" have to be contaminated with the "vulgarity" of social culture in Tang Dynasty.