Chrysan the mums, 1882, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Lin Yutang
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The enjoyment of flowers and the arrangement of flowers seem to have something to do with chance. The enjoyment of flowers is the same as the enjoyment of trees, and the first step must be to choose certain noble flowers, taking their status as the standard, and at the same time associating certain flowers with certain moods and environments. The first is the scent, from the intense and pronounced scent of jasmine to the gentle scent of lilacs, and finally to the clean and subtle scent of Chinese orchids. The more subtle the fragrance, the more difficult it is to discern what kind of flower it is, and the more noble it is. In addition, there are issues of color, appearance, and attractiveness, which also vary greatly. Some are like fat maidens, and some are like slender, poetic, idyllic noblewomen. Some seem to seduce people with their charm, while others feel happy in their own fragrance, as if content to live in idleness. Some of the colors are bright and dazzling, and some show softer colors. Not only that, but flowers are more closely related to their surrounding environment and the season of flowering. In our minds, the rose naturally relates to the sunny spring day; the lotus flower naturally relates to the cool summer morning by the pond; the wooden tree naturally relates to the mid-autumn festival with the moon at the time of harvest; the chrysanthemum is related to the season of crab eating in the autumn; the plum blossom naturally relates to the snow, and it and the daffodil become part of our New Year's enjoyment. Each peanut seems perfect in its surroundings; flower lovers are most likely to make these flowers make a variety of different seasons in our minds, like holly trees represent Christmas.
Orchids, chrysanthemums, and lotuses, like pine and bamboo, are chosen because they have certain qualities; they are symbols of a gentleman in Chinese literature, especially orchids, because they have a strange beauty. Among all flowers. The plum blossom is perhaps the favorite of Chinese poets; I have already talked a few words about this flower in the previous section, and it is said that the plum blossom occupies the "first" place among the flowers, because it blooms in the New Year, so it occupies the first place among the flowers. Of course, people also have different opinions, peony is known as "Flower King" in the traditional concept, especially in the Tang Dynasty. On the other hand, peonies, because of their bright colors, are often regarded as symbols of abundance and happiness; while plum blossoms are the poet's flower, symbolizing the quiet and bitter scholar; the former is therefore material, while the latter is spiritual. Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty had a wild idea one day, and ordered that all the flowers in the palace garden should obey her wishes and bloom on a certain day in the middle of winter, and only the peony dared to disobey the order of the female emperor and bloomed several hours late, so Wu Zetian ordered that thousands of pots of peony flowers should be reduced from Xi'an (then Kyoto) to Luoyang. There was a literati who sympathized with peony flowers for this reason alone. Although the peony flower fell out of favor, it still maintained its status among the general public, and Luoyang also became the base camp of the peony flower. I think Chinese doesn't pay more attention to roses because their color and shape belong to the peony category, but they don't have the magnificence of the latter. According to ancient Chinese records, peony flowers can be divided into ninety species, each with a very poetic name.
Unlike peonies, orchids symbolize hidden beauty, as they often grow in shady valleys. It is said to have the virtue of "self-congratulation", whether people look at it or not, and are extremely reluctant to be transplanted into the city. If it is transplanted in the city, it must grow up according to its natural nature, otherwise it will wither and die. Therefore, we often call the beautiful, reclusive maiden, or the university scholar who lives in the mountains and despises fame and power as "Empty Valley Youlan". Its fragrance is very subtle, and it does not seem to be deliberately trying to please anyone, but when people appreciate it, its fragrance is so ethereal! For this reason, it became a symbol of gentleman and true friendship who did not associate with the ordinary, because there is an ancient book that says: "Enter the room of Zhilan and do not smell its fragrance for a long time." "Because this man's nose is already full of flowers." Li Kasa-wong said: The best way to appreciate orchids is not to put them in each room, but to put them in only one room, so that people can enjoy their fragrance when they come in and out. Orchids grown in the United States do not seem to have this subtle fragrance, but their flowers are larger and their shape and color are more gorgeous. The orchid in my hometown is said to be the best in all of China, called "Fujian orchid". This pale green color with purple spots, the flower shape is much smaller than the ordinary orchid, and its petals are only more than an inch long. The best and most valuable orchid species are called Chen Mengliang, which is the same color as water and is almost invisible when immersed in water. The species of peonies are named after the place where they are produced, while the types of orchids, like American flowers, are named after their owners, such as "General Pu", "Shen Military Quartermaster", "Li Sima ", "Huang Bugle", "Chen Mengliang", "Xu Jinchu".
Felix Vallotton - Chrysanthemums and Autumn Foliage
It is extremely difficult to plant orchids, its flowers are extremely delicate and easy to wilt, and human beings recognize it as having a noble character, and the reason for this is undoubtedly this. Among the flowers, orchids are most likely to decay and wilt if they are planted slightly improperly. So the people who love the orchid tend to grow it themselves and do not leave it to the care of the mediocre servants; I have seen some people take care of the orchid as carefully as if they were adoptive parents. A very valuable plant can arouse great jealousy like a fine bronze or vase; a friend who is unwilling to give some new branches to the family will also cause deep resentment. There is a record in an ancient Chinese book that a scholar was arrested and imprisoned because a friend did not want to give him a new branch of a plant, so he stole it. For this emotion, Shen Fu once had such a wonderful description in the "Six Records of Floating Life":
"The flowers are most orchids, taking their fragrance and charm, and the petals are rare for those who can enter the spectrum." When Lan Po was dying, he gave a pot of Yu Lotus Petal Su Xin Chun Lan, all of which had flat shoulders and wide hearts, and the stems were thin and pure, which could be included in the spectrum. Yu Zhen is like an arch. The rest of the curtain swims outside, can be personally irrigated, and the flowers and leaves are quite lush. Not two years, once suddenly withered to death. From the root to the point, they are as white as jade, and the orchid buds are vigorous. At first, it was incomprehensible, thinking that there was no blessing to be dissipated, and it was just a sigh. Afterwards, I learned that some people wanted to divide and not allow it, so they used boiling soup to kill them. After that, he vowed not to plant orchids. ”
The chrysanthemum is the flower loved by the poet Tao Yuanming, just as the plum is the flower loved by the poet Lin Hejing, and the lotus is the flower loved by the Confucian scholar Zhou Lianxi. Chrysanthemums bloom in late autumn, so in people's minds, they have "cold fragrance" and "cold color". Compared with the "coolness" of chrysanthemums and the gorgeousness of peonies, their characteristics are obvious. As far as I know, there are hundreds of chrysanthemums, and Fan Chengda, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, called all kinds of chrysanthemums by a very beautiful name, which actually caused a kind of atmosphere. The wide variety seems to be the characteristic of chrysanthemums, which have different shapes and colors. People regard white and yellow as the "positive" colors of chrysanthemums, and purple and red as variants. So it's relatively lowly. The color of white chrysanthemum and yellow chrysanthemum has produced many different names, such as "silver bowl", "silver ling", "golden bell", "jade basin", "jade bell", "jade hydrangea ball" and so on. Some use the names of famous beauties, such as "Yang Guifei" and "Xi Shi". Sometimes they are shaped like women cutting their hair short, and sometimes their claws are the same as long hair. There are several chrysanthemums that are more fragrant than others, and the best chrysanthemums are said to have a musk or "diplodocus" fragrance.
The lotus flower is of its own kind, and as far as I can see, it is the most beautiful flower in the flower. Because its flowers and stems and leaves are floating on the water, it is not pleasant to have no lotus flowers to enjoy in summer. If one does not have a house on the bank of the pond, one can plant lotus flowers in large vats. However, in this situation, it is difficult to enjoy the beauty of the lotus flowers spreading for half a mile, their fragrance in the air, and the fun of the white and red on the flowers, and the large green leaves dotted with water droplets (the Water Lotus and lotus lotus are different from the American planted lotus). The Song Dynasty scholar Zhou Shi wrote a short essay explaining why he loved lotuses. He said that the lotus flower is like a gentleman, born in filthy water and maintaining a clean body. What he said proved that he was a Confucian theoretician. From a utilitarian point of view, all parts of the lotus are useful. Lotus roots can be made into a cold drink, lotus leaves can be wrapped in fruits or other food to steam, the shape and fragrance of lotus flowers can be enjoyed, lotus seeds are regarded as the food of the gods, or peeled to eat, or dried and mixed with sugar to eat.
Begonias are similar to apple blossoms, and are loved by poets in the same way as other flowers, although Du Fu did not mention this flower produced in his hometown of Sichuan. Various explanations have been proposed, the most credible of which is that begonia is the name of Du Fu's mother, and he did not mention it for the sake of secrecy. I think there are only two flowers that have a better fragrance than orchids, and these two flowers are wood and daffodils. Daffodils are also a specialty of my hometown of Zhangzhou, this flower head has been imported into the United States in large quantities, for a period of hundreds of thousands of yuan, and then the U.S. Department of Agriculture banned this fragrant flower from entering, so that Americans would not be infected by the microbes in the flowers. The head of the white daffodil is as pure as a fairy, not planted in the dirt, but in a glass basin or magnetic basin, filled with water and small cobblestones, and requires extremely careful care. Saying that there are microbes in this flower is really a bit of a fantasy. Rhododendron, though beautiful with a smile, is regarded as a sad flower, because it is said to have been made by the blood of the azalea, a boy who had fled for the abuse of his brother by his stepmother and came out to find him.
How the flowers are inserted in the bottle is just as important as the election and quality of the flowers. This art dates back at least to the eleventh century. In the early nineteenth century, the author of the Six Notes of Floating Life described the art of flower arrangement in the volume "Leisure memories". He advocated that the flowers should be arranged like a well-proportioned picture:
However, every year, the hedge is blooming, the autumn is a fetish, I like to pick bottles, and I don't like to play in pots.
Non-pot play is not enough to see, to the home without a garden, can not be self-planted, goods in the city, the cluster is not mixed, so do not take the ear. Its flower arrangements should be single, not double. Take one per bottle, not two colors. The mouth of the bottle is wide, not narrow, and the wide is stretched. not stick to. From five or seven flowers to thirty or forty flowers, it will rise up in a bush at the mouth of the bottle, so as not to scatter, not to squeeze, not to rely on the mouth of the bottle; the so-called "up and down" is also. Or standing tall, or flying sideways. The flowers are jagged and interspersed with flower buds to avoid the disease of flying cymbals. The leaves are not messy, and the stems are not strong. With the needle should be hidden, the needle is long and rather broken, do not let the needle needle show the stem, the so-called "bottle mouth should be clear" also.
Depending on the size of the table, a table of three bottles to seven bottles stops; many eyebrows are not distinguished, that is, the same as the city of the chrysanthemum screen. A few highs and lows, from three or four inches to two feet five or six inches; they must be jagged, take care of each other, and take the momentum as the top. If the middle is high and two low, the back is high and the front is low, in rows, and the so-called "ash pile" is committed.
Dense or sparse, or in or out. All those who are in the heart will be able to draw the meaning.
If the pots and pans are washed, with bleaching, rosin, elm bark, noodles and oil, first boiled with rice ash, harvested into glue. Press the nails upwards with copper sheets, cremate the paste, and wash the sticky copper sheets in dishes and pans. When cold, tie the flowers with wire, insert them on the nails, should be obliquely biased, not centered, more suitable for thin leaves, not crowded; then add water, with a little bowl sand to cover the copper sheet, so that the viewer suspects that the bush peanuts are at the bottom of the bowl.
If the bottle is inserted with woody flowers and fruits, the method of cutting (can not be colored and self-seeking, and the Qianren climber is not satisfied), it must first be held in the hand, obliquely to see its situation, and the reverse side to take its state. After the phase is fixed, cut off the miscellaneous branches, and it is better to be thin and strange. Then think about how the stem is put into the bottle, or fold or bend, insert it into the bottle mouth, so as to avoid the problem of flowers on the side of the dorsal leaf. If a branch arrives in hand, the straight one who first restricts its stem is inserted into the bottle, it is bound to be chaotic and strong, and the flower side leaf back is difficult to take, and it is even more unsound. The method of folding the stem: sawing half of its stem and embedded with masonry, then the straight one is curved. If the stem falls, knock one or two nails to manage it. That is, maple leaf bamboo branches, chaotic grass thorns, can be selected. Or a pole of green bamboo, with a few goji berries, a few stems of fine grass, accompanied by two branches of thorns, the location is appropriate, and there is another worldly interest.
Flowers and Mushrooms by David Burliuk (Ukrainian-American, 1882–1967)
The stock image comes from the web
Copyright belongs to the original author
Birdman & Fish Finishing Editor