The legend of the peony of Luoyang

The legend of the "purse peony".

In ancient times, 200 miles southeast of Luoyang City, there was a state named Ruzhou, and there was a small town in the west of the state, called Miaoxia. Surrounded by mountains, the scenery is pleasant, and there is a wonderful custom: once a young man and a woman are married, the woman must personally send the man a purse embroidered with mandarin ducks, the meaning of which is self-evident. If it is a fixed doll parent, it must also be embroidered by the sister-in-law of the woman's family or the eldest sister in the neighborhood as a lifelong token. There lived in the town a beautiful girl named Jade Maiden. The Jade Girl is eighteen. Ingenuity, born intelligent, embroidery and weaving skills are exquisite, especially the various floral patterns on the embroidered purse, which often provoke bees and butterflies to fall on it, which shows the depth of kung fu. Such a good girl, the proposer broke through the threshold, but they were politely rejected by the girl's family one by one. It turned out that the girl had her own favorite man, and the family also acquiesced. It's a pity that the guy has been in the army outside the country for two years, and he has not heard from him, let alone received a purse. The jade girl looked forward to it day and night, thought about it night and night, and thought hard, so she embroidered a purse every month to talk about her feelings of longing, and hung them one by one on the peony branches in front of the window. Over time, the purse formed a string and became the kind of "purse peony" that people say.

The legend of the "Golden Peony".
　　On the shore of Erhai Lake in Dali, Yunnan Province, there is a beautiful mountain called Diancang Mountain. In the deep mountains, there is a world-famous golden peony, which is not only as good as gold, but also resembles an ingot, which is very endearing. According to the local Bai brothers, it was made of gold. Here's a moving story. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, bandits were often in the mountains. A local Bai old man who sells firewood for a living, one day into the mountains to cut firewood was kidnapped by bandits, and let out the wind, limited his family to three days, bring 100 taels of gold, into the mountain to ransom, the time limit is over, life is difficult to protect. There is only one only daughter in the old man's family, Ah Qing, who is dependent on each other, and she is very sad when she hears the news. The family is poor, how can there be gold and silver? Unusually smart, she thought about it and had an idea. On the third day, she went up the mountain with a bag of gold-stained stones and a sharp sword. When the bandits saw that it was a young and beautiful weak woman, their eyes were straight, how could they be guarded? She threw the golden stone on the ground, and the bandits swarmed to grab it, and she took the opportunity to kill the bandit leader with a sword, and the rest of the people scattered in a hurry. Ah Qing rescued his father, and the two went down the mountain without questioning. Later, in the place where she threw "gold", golden peonies grew.

The legend of the "purple-spotted peony".
　　At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a poor man, knowledgeable, and good at piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, just because he saw through the "red dust", refused to be an official and avoided the world, cut his hair and became a monk, and lived in seclusion in Baiyun Temple of Taibai Mountain, with the law name "Shi Yishou". This temple is close to the mountains and rivers, the scenery is beautiful, and the peony flowers and plants are widely planted in the courtyard. In addition to being diligent in Buddhist affairs in the temple, Yi Shou spent almost all his spare time studying ink and painting. He is especially good at painting peonies, and the paintings he makes are delicate and realistic, as if they were made in nature. All the spectators applauded. Yi Shou's reputation for painting soon spread all over the country, and there was an endless stream of seekers. In the spring of a year, before and after the valley rain, the peonies compete with each other, attracting good men and women from all over the world to come to the mountain to worship the Buddha and watch the flowers, in order to be rich, auspicious and healthy. In the afternoon of this day, Yi Shou was painting peonies in the courtyard, and suddenly heard the noisy voices in front of the courtyard, and looked up, there were several people dressed as Zhuang Ding in the distance, surrounded by a "fat man" with a rich appearance. Swaggering towards this side. When he got closer, he saw that it was the famous local bully "Wang Dale", who had always run rampant in the township, oppressed the people, and did all kinds of evil. "Wang Dale" walked to Yi Shou, saw that he had a good painting, salivated, and was eager to get it, so he instigated Zhuang Ding to come forward and ask for it. What kind of personality is Yi Shou, how can he be with "Wang Dale" and refuse at the moment. "Wang Dale" was annoyed and angry, and forced him to hand over a painting, Yi Shou did not show weakness, tore the painting, threw the brush into the inkstone, and went away angrily. "Wang Dale" saw that the onlookers were angry, and he had no choice but to leave in a huff. Who knows, the pen and ink splashed from the inkstone happened to fall on the petals of several peonies nearby, and then flowed down the petals to the base of the petals, condensing into patches of purple spots. In the future, when the flowers bloom every year, people can clearly see the purple spots on the flowers, so they are called "purple peony".

The legend of the "withered branch peony".

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin soldiers invaded the Central Plains, and a general surnamed Bian led his troops through Luoyang. The general was anxious to urge the horse to march, but the horse's whip broke, so he skimmed a dead branch on the side of the road, beat the horse and went east. After several battles, one day he led his troops to Bencang Town, Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, where he was already sleepy and in urgent need of rest. The general dismounted, looked around, and inserted the dead branch that was used as a whip into the ground, so that his headquarters could set up camp there。。。。。。 In the spring of the following year, the dead branches that had been inserted into the ground actually pulled out young shoots, exhibited new leaves, and magically bloomed bright and beautiful flowers after the valley rain. When the local people heard about this, they came from a radius of hundreds of miles to watch the flowers and burn incense. After being identified by the medicine farmers, it was known to be a peony. People rushed to tell each other: "The Great Song Dynasty is hopeful, the Great Song Dynasty is hopeful." And this peony is called "withered branch peony". Later, the local people donated money to build a platform and built a "withered branch peony garden", and enshrined this peony in it.

The legend of "Liu Shige".

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, in the east of Miaoxia Town in Ruzhou, Henan, there was a place where the Liu family lived - the Liu Family Pavilion. There is a beautiful and innocent girl here, born in a scholarly family, since childhood, she knows everything, and is loved by her neighbors. Subsequently, her parents passed away one after another, and the girl came to settle in Chang'an with her brother and sister-in-law, who were officials in Chang'an. After the fall of the Sui Dynasty, her brother and sister-in-law passed away one after another, leaving her alone and with nowhere to go. When she became a monk, the girl brought the white peony planted in the original yard to the nunnery to show her dedication to the Buddhist family and her self-purification. Under her careful management, the white peony grows very lush and beautiful. A plant with thousands of flowers, the flowers are large, the double petals are up, the white is slightly red, crystal moist, such as the skin of a beauty, the jade face of a child. The viewers all praise its beauty, praise its good, so every April, many believers have come to this nunnery to worship the Buddha and watch the flowers, and to offer the Buddha with flowers for the pleasure, the incense is more and more prosperous. Therefore, the flower comes from "Your Excellency Liu's Residence", so it is called "Liu's Pavilion", also called "Liu Shige". Later, this peony variety was spread to Tianpeng in Sichuan Province, Heze in Shandong, etc., and the aroma was spread far and wide.

The legend of the "Book of Ten Thousand Books".
　　In the Ming Dynasty, there was a scholar in Bozhou, Anhui Province, named Ouyang Boyun, who wrote bitter books. was originally born in the family of the eunuch, but because of the decline of the family, it gradually fell and was very poor. However, the scholar was unwilling to be arranged by fate, and he was even more unwilling to send people under the fence, and was determined to obtain "fame" and glorify his ancestors, but he failed to make the list year after year. A kind-hearted gentleman told him: "The foundation of the next life is too poor, and you still need to read thousands of books before you can move the gods of heaven and earth." So he copied books and studied all day long. However, his family was poor and paper was too expensive, so he had to copy articles on the walls and door panels. One day he felt bored in the room, so he went to the backyard to relax. I saw the peony bush in the backyard that had not bloomed for many years, the flowers were luxuriant, and I was pleasantly surprised, so I suddenly returned to the room on a whim, took a pen and inkstone, copied the article on the peony petals, and replaced the paper with flowers. The kind gentleman passed by here and saw this scene, and called this peony "ten thousand books". This may have moved the "God of Flowers", and the following year, Ouyang Boyun really won the "lift".

The legend of "Liu Huang".
　　In ancient times, there was a descendant near Luoyang, whose surname was Liu Danting. He has been obsessed with flowers since he was a child, and he has a habit of planting flowers, especially peonies, and has planted many flowers and peonies in front of and behind the house. However, because he planted his flowers very well, he was often attacked by urchins. He was very angry, and every time anyone caught by him was punished with a night's labor, or a few strokes of the board. Therefore, the local urchin nicknamed him "Bad Liu". This gradually spread, and over time it replaced his name and became a "daimyō". Speaking of "Liu", the flower planting skills are indeed extraordinary, he planted more than 100 peonies, and there are many varieties of flowers and colors. One year, he cultivated a golden-colored peony, whose flower color exceeded "Yao Huang", and the neighbors were amazed, and the rich and noble people sought gold and silver. At that time, yellow peonies were very scarce, so he multiplied in large quantities, and for a while they vied with each other to plant them, becoming a fashion. Later, people named this flower "Liu Huang", and this name was recorded in the book and handed down.