The flower language and legend of peony

Peony Flower Language

Unpredictable death and desperate love.

The legend of peony

Legend has it that during the Ming Dynasty, Zhuangdan Township in Caozhou was full of flowers, but there were no peonies at that time. There is a flower farmer named Zhao An in Caozhou Mudan Township. His daughter is called Chunrui. She is eighteen years old, pretty, smart and clever. She is a first-class talent. When she strolled among the flowers, all the flowers hung their heads and covered their faces, feeling inferior to them, so people called her "the shy flowers". Chunrui is also very hardworking. She gets up early and goes to bed late every day. She waters the plants, weeds, and prunes the flowers. Everyone praises her when they talk about her.

Chunrui and Qiu Sheng, a young man from the neighboring village, are in love with each other. During the day, they worked together, talking and laughing; at night, under the moonlight among the flowers, they expressed their love to each other.

However, there are always unexpected changes in the world. One day, the two of them were working in the fields when government officials came to conscript people. Qiu Sheng struggled to break free, and Chun Rui also tried to stop him, but it was of no avail. Qiu Sheng and several young men from the village were captured by the police. Chunrui was extremely sad and cried out loudly. In an instant, the sky became dark and the birds flew away in fright.

The pair of mandarin ducks were ruthlessly separated. Chunrui lost her lover and felt extremely lonely. She missed him all day long and shed countless tears. However, as spring passed and autumn came, she still could not wait for her lover to return.

Later, in order to express her longing for her lover, Chunrui decided to embroider a purse and give it to him when he returned. So she carefully selected woolen thread and sewed it carefully. At night, she faced the lonely lamp, embroidering and singing:

Holding the silk in the left hand and the needle in the right, the hearts are connected with the woolen thread.

The embroidered mandarin ducks float on the green water, they cannot fly away even if hit with a stick, showing their deep love.

Embroider the phoenix playing with the peony again, and enjoy wealth and prosperity forever.

Although the lotus bud is small, it holds deep affection; a lotus bud represents a heart.

Chunrui poured all her effort and emotion into the purse. After embroidering it, she kept it in her arms, letting it stay close to her warm heart. She would wait for Qiu Sheng to come back and give it to him so that they could live a wonderful life together.

However, when the peonies were in bloom in spring, the prefect of Caozhou came to admire the flowers. When he saw Chunrui's beauty, she was so beautiful that the moon and flowers would be ashamed of themselves, he immediately wanted to possess her. The next day, he sent someone to propose with a large gift. But Chunrui was loyal to love, so she refused on the spot and scolded the visitor.

The prefect was so angry and humiliated that he refused to give up, so he came up with a bad idea and came to kidnap the bride in the middle of the night.

That night, soldiers surrounded Chunrui's garden. Knowing she could not escape, she resolutely jumped into a well and committed suicide.

After dawn, the villagers pulled Chunrui's body out of the well with tears in their eyes and buried her among the flowers.

Three years later, Qiu Sheng escaped from the jaws of death and finally returned to his hometown he had longed for. But he never expected that Chunrui had passed away. He ran to Chunrui's grave and burst into tears. His cries were so loud that the earth was shaken and the birds in the trees stopped singing.

Suddenly, Qiu Sheng heard a slight sound. He opened his eyes and saw a strange flower growing on the grave. The clusters of pink flowers are shaped like lotus flowers and are very beautiful. When the villagers learned about it, they also came to watch. Everyone said that it was Chunrui who appeared in spirit and brought a purse to Qiu Sheng. So people named this flower "lotus purse flower", and later, it was also called "lotus purse peony". As a result, word of this undying love spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and this story of undying love is still circulating in Mudan Township today.