During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, one of the favorites of the King of the Southern Han Dynasty, "Frangipani", was said to have a strange fragrance on her body, which made the King of the Southern Han Very Like. The reason is that she is said to be a flower girl in Zhuangtou Village, Henan (present-day Haizhu District), Guangzhou. Because she has been planting flowers since she was a child, she has a faint fragrance of flowers on her body, and after she entered the palace, she still likes to plant flowers. Under the impetus of Wang Ji, the good flowers planted by the nobles and people of the Southern Han Imperial Palace formed the folk customs of lingnan, and in order to commemorate this Wang Ji, posterity called a jasmine unique to Lingnan as frangipani jasmine.
Speaking of flowers in Guangzhou, it is natural to think of Guangzhou's "Spring Flower Market", during the Western Han Dynasty, Lu Jia went to South Vietnam, and found that Lingnan people love to plant flowers, arrange flowers, and wear flowers, so they praised Lingnan as "colorful people who wear flowers".
Emperor Yuanding of the Han Dynasty in the sixth year (111 BC) Pingnanyue, from Guangzhou to introduce osmanthus flowers, phoenix flowers (i.e., henna), calamus and so on in Chang'an Fuli Palace planted, which is also the earliest record of Guangzhou flowers and trees into Chang'an, it can be seen that since ancient times, flower culture has occupied a very important position in the history of Guangzhou.
The guangzhou flower trade was first in the Song Dynasty, and in the Song Dynasty poem "Jasmine Field", it is mentioned: "Recalling the past to play paddles along the Pearl River, Zhuangtou Ten Mile Fragrant, Southern Song Dynasty Chunxi Zhou's "Lingwai Dai Answer": "Frangipani flowers, Panyu is very much... Sold in the market, one branch and two texts, people bid to wear. "
At that time, there were flower vendors selling frangipani and jasmine in Henan (present-day Haizhu District) and Huakang (now Fangcun District) in Guangzhou. With the development of the times, flower markets gradually formed. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Fangcun had formed a fixed "Tianguang Ruins".
Every morning, the surrounding flower farmers transport flowers here for trading, withdraw before dawn, and florists and florists transport flowers to all over Guangzhou to sell along the streets.
In the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it was recorded in the "Records of Panyu County": "There are four cities in Guangdong, the flower market is in the south of Guangzhou, there are dozens of flower sellers in the flower land, and the city flowers are in the city." Together with the pearl of Hepu, the medicine of Luofu, and the fragrance of Dongguan, it is called the four cities. ”
It can be seen that at that time, the planting and sales of flowers had reached a large scale, and it became a famous flower market at the gate of the city. The flower market was first concentrated in the "Seven Gates", namely the Great South Gate, Guide Gate, Little South Gate, Great East Gate, ZhengXi Gate, Great North Gate, and Small North Gate.
The flowers are carried by flower boats, and a large number of flowers are brought ashore at the Wuxian Gate every day and transported to the gates of various cities, because at that time, the Wuxian Gate was close to Haopan Street, where merchants gathered, so the Wuxian Gate Flower Market was the most famous.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the shuangmendi in the center of Guangzhou (around present-day Beijing Road) became a flower market point, and there was also a lively night flower market, which was recorded in the "Guangzhou Chengfang Chronicle": "Before the Guangdong Province, there was a flower market at night,......, to Chedanyun". It shows that visiting the night flower market has become a way of life for people's daily pastime at that time, which shows that the operation of the flower market at that time was not limited to the daytime, and it was also lively at night.
Cantonese people have always loved to appreciate flowers, the flower market at that time was essentially a perennial trading market, until modern times, Guangzhou began to have Chinese New Year's Eve Yingchun flower market, then known as the Chinese New Year's Eve Flower Market or Nianxiao Flower Market.
In the 1950s, Guangzhou's Paddle Road Flower Market was relocated to Taiping Road (now Renmin South Road), when there were archways, the archway of the flower market was made of bamboo poles, which can be said to be the most important symbol of the flower market, from this year onwards, Xuxi Night Flower Market, officially named "Yingchun Flower Market".
At that time, the Yonghan Road Flower Market was also relocated to the current Education Road. After several years of development, guangzhou flower market has entered its heyday.
According to statistics, in the 1960s, there were 1753 stalls in Guangzhou Yingchun Flower Market, and there were 100,000 pots of potted flowers, about 760,000 peach blossoms, and about 3 million flowers for sale.
In the 1980s, with the economic development of Guangzhou, the once interrupted Yingchun Flower Market was re-held, and in the old town of Guangzhou, Yuexiu, Dongshan, Haizhu and Liwan each set up a flower market, and called the four major flower markets of Yingchun.
Later, on this basis, huangpu, Fangcun, Tianhe, Baiyun, Panyu, Huadu and other flower markets were added, and with the merger of Zengcheng and Conghua into Guangzhou, basically all districts in Guangzhou had their own Yingchun flower markets.
The Guangzhou Flower Market keeps pace with the times, and there are three major changes compared with the original flower market
First, the scale and scope of operation continue to expand, in addition to the continuous increase in stalls, the scope of sales has also increased a variety of handicrafts, root carvings, toys, teapots, calligraphy and paintings and New Year souvenirs and so on.
Second, the variety of flowers and trees continues to increase, in addition to the common peach blossoms, daffodils, kumquats and other traditional varieties, many foreign varieties continue to increase.
Third, people's consumption capacity of flowers has been enhanced, Guangzhou has a saying that there is an auspicious saying about spring, flowers bloom richly, especially during the Spring Festival, every household will arrange some flowers, so the consumption of flowers is very strong.
In particular Chinese New Year's Eve and lantern festival coincide with "Valentine's Day", and the roses representing love will be in short supply. In the flower market, in addition to looking at flowers, you can also look at people, because in the flower market, in addition to flowers and plants, there are also calligraphers and painters who improvise to splash ink for the masses.
There are also flower arrangers performing flower arrangements, there will also be beautiful girls wearing and wearing a variety of Spring Festival costumes, or Beautiful Girls and Girls of New Year crafts shouting on the street, and there are many cosplay lovers, and there are children with glowing decorations at night, holding windmills, holding balloons, and holding various blowing crafts.
In the flower markets of each district, there will be special streets to set up colorful buildings and flower stands based on flowers and zodiac signs and endowed with elements of the times, and flower farmers and horticultural students from the four townships have flocked to set up a posture and sell flowers and oranges. Looking at the flower market, the flowers are like brocade, thousands of purples and thousands of reds, the sea of people is like a tide, laughter and laughter, until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning of the first day of the first year, before it disperses, which is Guangzhou's unique "Spring Flower Market".
"Yingchun Flower Market" has rich connotations and unique aesthetic tastes. Guangzhou people have a cheerful, tolerant and optimistic personality, and have unique cultural habits. They use flowers to "talk about the head of the mind", "Nian Ji" means great luck; "peach blossom" means peach blossom luck; "five generations together" means longevity and family harmony.
Visiting the flower market has become a long-term custom of people, and it is also the most distinctive, long-standing and far-reaching folk culture in Guangzhou.
