The legend of peony

The legend of "Peony"

In ancient times, there was a state called Ruzhou, and to the west of the state there was a small town called Miaoxia.

There is a wonderful custom here: once a young man and woman get engaged, the girl must personally give the boy a purse embroidered with mandarin ducks. If a child marriage is arranged, the sister-in-law of the girl or the older sisters from the neighborhood will have to embroider one and present it to the couple as a lifelong token of love.

There lived a beautiful girl in the town, her name was Yunu. She was very skilled in embroidery and weaving, especially the various flower patterns she embroidered on her purses, which often attracted bees and butterflies to land on them, showing how skilled she was.

Such a good girl naturally had many suitors coming to her door, but they were all politely declined by the girl's family. It turned out that the girl already had a man she loved, and her family also agreed. Unfortunately, the young man had been exiled in the frontier for two years without any news, let alone the purse.

The Jade Girl longed for him day by day, thought about him night by night, and missed him bitterly. So she embroidered a purse every month to express her longing and hung it on the peony branch in front of the window. Over time, the purses formed into strings and became what people call "purse peonies".

The Legend of the "Golden Peony"

There is a mountain called Dian Cang Mountain by the Erhai Lake in Dali, Yunnan Province. In this deep mountain, there grows a world-famous golden peony, which is as golden in color and shaped like a gold ingot, and is very attractive. According to the local Bai brothers, it was made of gold.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, bandits often appeared in the mountains. An old Bai man made a living by selling firewood. One day, he went into the mountains to chop firewood and was kidnapped by bandits. The bandits gave his family members three days to bring 100 taels of gold and go into the mountains to redeem him.

The old man had only one daughter, Aqing, who depended on him for everything. She was very sad when she heard the news. Her family was so poor, how could they have any gold or silver? She was extremely smart and after thinking about it, she came up with an idea.

On the third day, she went up the mountain alone with a bag of gold-dyed stones and a sharp sword. She threw the golden stone on the ground, and the bandits swarmed to grab it. She took the opportunity to kill the bandit leader with a sword, and the rest of the people fled in all directions. Ah Qing rescued his father. Later, golden peonies grew in the place where she threw the "gold".

The legend of "Purple Peony"

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a poor man who was knowledgeable and good at playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. However, because he had seen through the "worldly world", he lived in seclusion in the Baiyun Temple on Mount Taibai. Yi Shou spent almost all his free time in the temple grinding ink and painting.

He was particularly good at painting peonies. His paintings were delicate and lifelike, as if they were created naturally. All who saw it applauded and there was an endless stream of people asking for his paintings.

One spring day, around the time of Grain Rain, peonies bloomed in full bloom, attracting devout men and women from all over the world to come to the mountain to worship Buddha and view the flowers. That afternoon, Yi Shou was painting peonies in the yard. In the distance, there were a few people dressed as farmhands, surrounding a "fat man" who looked wealthy. Walking towards this side with swagger.

When he got closer, he could see that it was a famous local bully. He walked up to Yi Shou, saw his beautiful paintings, and was salivating at their sight. He then instigated the farmhands to go forward and ask for their paintings. Yi Shou refused immediately.

The bully became furious and forced Yi Shou to hand over a painting. Yi Shou tore up the painting, threw the brush into the inkstone, and left angrily. The bully had to leave in anger.

Unexpectedly, the ink splashed from the inkstone fell on the petals of several nearby peonies, then flowed along the petals to the base of the petals, condensing into purple spots. From then on, every year when the flowers bloomed, people could clearly see the purple spots on the flowers, so it was called "Purple Spotted Peony".

The legend of "Dead Branch Peony"

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin army invaded the Central Plains. A general named Bian led his troops through Luoyang. It was the middle of winter and the scene was desolate.

The general was in a hurry to urge his horse to march forward, and his whip broke. He then picked up a dead branch from the side of the road and rode eastward. After several battles, one day he led his troops to Biancang Town. The general dismounted, looked around, stuck a dead branch into the ground to serve as a horse whip, and ordered his troops to set up camp there.

In the spring of the following year, the dead branch that was inserted into the ground sprouted new buds and grew new leaves. After the Grain Rain, bright and beautiful flowers bloomed.

When the local people heard about this, they all rushed to see the flowers and burn incense. After being identified by a herbalist, it was discovered that it was a peony. This peony is called "dead branch peony".