The language and legend of Michelia

The language of flowers

When the Michelia flower blooms, it is like the eyes of a beauty, smiling silently, proud but not ostentatious. Therefore, its flower language is: implicit, reserved, solemn, beautiful, noble, pure, implying implicitness and suggestion.

The legend of smile

Legend has it that there was a young couple in the Song Dynasty. The husband was named Yang Naicai and the wife was named Li Xiuying. They were very much in love. Both of them were very talented, good at poetry and painting, and they lived a very comfortable life. But the good times did not last long. Soon after, the Yuan army invaded Lin'an City, causing many people to be displaced. Facing the separation of life and death, Yang Naicai, the husband, picked up his wife's dressing mirror and smashed it into pieces. He and his wife each took half of the fragment. He said sadly to his beautiful wife, "I know that with your talent and beauty you will be sent to a rich and powerful family. Xiuying, promise me that you will live well. If I survive by chance, I will go to the market on the 15th of the month to sell the broken mirror, hoping to reunite with you."

As expected, Li Xiuying was favored by the minister Wang Bochao and became his favorite concubine, but she still missed her husband Yang Naicai deeply. She did not forget the agreement with her husband, and on the fifteenth of every month she would send people to the market to buy mirror fragments. Before they knew it, five years had passed. After going through all kinds of hardships and setbacks, Yang Naicai and Li Xiuying were finally reunited.

After returning to their hometown, the couple lived a happy and peaceful life in their later years. Thirty years later, the couple, who were already 88 years old, passed away on the same day of the same month of the same year, and they were buried together. Later, a tree miraculously grew on the grave where the two of them were buried. The flowers on this tree only bloomed but did not fade, which was very subtle. This is Michelia.

I didn’t expect that there was such a beautiful legend behind Michelia!