Water lilies in ancient poems (part 1): Tingzhou picks white apples, and the intestines break white apples
In late spring, in the swampy wetlands of Gangnam, water lilies bloom earlier than lotus flowers. The Cuteness of Water Lilies:
First, in the early and late spring, when the willows fly flowers, there are lotus leaves floating on the surface of the water, small and clear, and in a few days, there are water lilies blooming.
Second, the posture of the water lily is often floating among the notched leaves, the lotus flower thousand petals, or white or purple or yellow, small and dignified, towards the opening of the night. The flowers of the water lilies are phototropic, and the better the sun, the more stretched the flowers are. In rainy seasons, it is a kind of half-open. At night, the flower head closes and sinks into the water. Like sleeping beauty.
Third: The water lily is called the water lily, the text comes from the Qing Dynasty's "Gangmu Collection", which is the Qianlong Dynasty Qing Dynasty medical scientist Zhao Xuemin revised the Ming Dynasty Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, revised some items, and also added 716 kinds of folk herbs, including water lilies and meridian lotuses.
Then it can be known that the water lily or meridian lily, in the Qing Dynasty or earlier, was the folk name for this flower materia medica. At this time, Guangzhou and Zhejiang are the most abundant.
So why is this beautiful mizusawa flower, which has not been recorded in words and poems before, an introduction of herbs from outside? Why are such elegant flowers not found in ancient poetry and records?
Water lilies are not exotic flowers, they existed in ancient times.
In the ancient "Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of Western Mountains", it is said: "Fifty miles to the west, the mountain of the valley, the ershui out of the water, and the west flow to Luo, of which there are many Rubi." ”
The Classic of Mountains and Seas is an important ancient geography book of the pre-Qin Dynasty, and many important places have been confirmed. For example, Ershui is the Erhai Sea in Yunnan, which is the place where the sun sets from the Central Plains. The swamps there grow an aquatic plant of "Ruby". The Qing Dynasty "Yunnan Tongzhi" records: "In ninghu Lake, Langqiong County, the flowers are like lotuses and small, the leaves are like lotus money, the stems are six or seven zhang long, the qi is clear, the harvest is cooked, and the taste is beautiful in the cabbage." In August, flowers bloom all over the lake, and the lake is named After this. "
This plant has been confirmed by modern botanists as the oldest wild water lily.
Then from the records of the Qing Dynasty, this flower, like a lotus, but smaller than the lotus, the leaves are like the small lotus leaves that have just come out of the water, and the locals take it to cook, similar to the ancient lettuce in jiangnan, Zhejiang, but the taste is even more beautiful.
This most primitive land of water lilies has existed for thousands of years, with fragrant flowers, delicious stems and leaves, feeding the local people, and maintaining the most natural characteristics of the species.
Have the water lilies here been brought to other places? From Chinese the characteristics of transplanting plants since ancient times, it is really unreasonable not to take out the water lilies here, but who brought them out has been unverifiable.
But water lilies are not a place to be found, and modern botanists have shown that water lilies are widely distributed in the tropical regions of North Africa and Southeast Asia, and in the temperate and boreal regions of Europe and Asia. The mainland ranges from Yunnan to the northeast and to Xinjiang.
But why from ancient times to the present, there are no water lilies and few poems?
In ancient times, water lilies were not called water lilies. In the pre-Qin era, it was called Pingping.
This early spring swamp plant, floating on the surface of the water, is extremely tender, and is another gift of nature's wild food that people grow in addition to hunting.
First, the big apple of the pre-Qin era
"Yo yo deer singing, eating wild apples."
I have guests, drummers and trumpeters. "Poetry "Xiao Ya"
Some people say that deer in spring may not eat water lilies, but this late spring, plankton aquatic plants that predate the lotus flower mostly contain the latest tender leaves and flowers of water lilies.
"Yu YiPing? The Shore of the South Stream;
To pick algae? Sloppy on the other side. "Poetry Sutra "Cai Ping"
Before the women of the Zhou Dynasty got married in the late spring and early summer, they had to collect the freshest grass in the river and sacrifice their ancestors, which was to remember the hardships of their ancestors living in the water and grass, and the delicious food that could be eaten included fresh apples. You see edible leaves and flowers in the ancient swamps, and you definitely have to choose the most beautiful one. Therefore, some people later examined that the apple collected by this woman was a water lily, the so-called large apple, which was larger than the lettuce and had white flowers.
In front of the ancestral spiritual seat, a plate made of bronze, loaded with the most beautiful water lilies and leaves, please bless a woman's future.
Some people say, why is this woman collecting water lilies and not lotuses?
Because water lilies are earlier than lotuses, there are the most delicious flowers and young leaves in late spring, and lotus leaves are until summer, and lotus leaves are thicker than water lilies, and by the time the young stems and flowers and fruits of lotus leaves can be collected, girls have already delayed marriage.
The ancients and today's people are the same, eating, to be sharp, the best thing is seasonal delicacies.
The water lily, that is, the apple, although it does not have the use value of the lotus flower, but it grows early, the leaves are fresh and tender, can not be missed, that is absolutely can not be missed.
Second, the White Pingzhou and water lilies of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and tang dynasties
Because the utilization value of lotus flowers is higher than that of water lilies. Lotus flowers have rhizomes to eat, lotus seeds to eat, and lotus flowers are relatively fixed, it is not a floating rootless flower, but the roots are in the swamp. Therefore, in ancient times, it was important to pay attention to lotus flowers. And the lotus leaf lotus is magnificent and cannot be ignored.
So where is the water lily, in the wild swamp, its flowers bloom particularly similar to the lotus, but there are not many places where it can be eaten and utilized, such as the young leaves are only a short late spring and early summer, the fruit of the water lily is inedible, and the water lily does not have the huge rhizome of the lotus.
Water lilies spread out on the surface of the pond river, often competing with lotus flowers for nutrients, so they are often removed by people in places suitable for cultivating lotus flowers.
However, in the swamps of the wild, water lilies and various aquatic plants coexist. In late spring, a variety of apples bloom, among which the green leaves and white flowers of water lilies and duckweed are the most spectacular, which form a natural three-dimensional swamp atmosphere and nourish fish and shrimp.
There are a large number of poems from Bai Ping and Bai Pingzhou in Tang poems.
Water lilies are classified in the apple class. And the undeveloped wild water, late spring is the home of water lilies and apple blossoms, forming a magnificent lake smoke beauty. The layers of distant green, the white flowers dotted with stars, give people the beauty of spring depth, vastness, loneliness, and sadness.
"Tingzhou picking white apples, sunset Jiangnan spring."
There are returnees in the cave court, and Xiao Xiang meets the deceased.
Why don't the old people return, Chunhua should be late.
Don't be new and happy, just talk and deeds are far away. "Nanliang · Liu Yun's "Jiangnan Song"
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Jiangnan Mizusawa was a wild edible apple, which included water lilies, lettuce, and xiaoping.
In late spring, when wild apples are collected, white apples are apples with white flowers. Apple is a water lily, and apple is a lettuce duckweed. The people of Jiangnan, before the lotus stems can be eaten, are the young leaves and stems of various apples. Among them, the stem of the water lily resembles a lotus belt, but it is soft and fragrant, and it is also a rare delicacy under the fire. It also has the effect of aiding sleep and sleeping.
In the vast swamp, the bow cabin also has the flowers and stems of water lilies.
The husband had already returned by boat.
But my husband, why haven't you come back? The bow of the ship is a white water lily in late spring, and the water soon becomes not tender.
Have you met a beauty like water lilies in another country, but I don't want to think so, I just think, you just didn't come back because you were far away.
The water lilies are really squeamish, and the water is left with soft flowers and stems, soft and clicking. This is also the reason why water lilies have not formed a mainstream aesthetic in China. Because the lotus flower can also be plucked, as a bottle of flowers, support for a few days, the water lily out of the water will wilt and close. You can't always take the water lilies with your head down and close to give them away.
How sad.
"Freshen up and look at the river tower alone."
Over a thousand sails is not,
Oblique veins of water leisurely,
Intestinal severance of the white apple island. "Don · Wen Tingjun "Remembering Jiangnan" Part II
The beauty of water lilies lies in the water, the value of cutting flowers and hairpin flowers is not great.
Let the water lilies be in the water. That is a piece of water lily and apple blossoms, blooming into the magnificence of late spring.
Late spring is hot and dry, take a shower in the afternoon, wash your head, refresh, go upstairs to blow the wind, and look at the distant mountains and water by the way.
She was upstairs, saying that she was looking at the Wangjiang Tower, and where could the low-rise building of the Tang Dynasty be seen?
It's just a little distant river water mark between the green trees, and the huge pond downstairs in late spring.
But this gesture is already beautiful.
She couldn't see the thousand sails, but she knew that even if there was a sailboat's mast paddling in the distance, it would not be news of her husband's return. The postal service of the Tang Dynasty was still quite developed, and during the chaotic period, du Fu was able to receive a letter from his brother Luoyang in Sichuan, although it was not too late, the sadness of this woman was that she knew that her husband would not return at this time.
All she could see was the pond near her, the water lilies and apples blooming in the pond.
She looked up, the wind blowing her long hair after bathing, the twilight of the sun, suddenly piercing her eyes, obscuring her vision, huge teardrops in her eyes.
In the haze, she seemed to be standing at the edge of the endless cave garden, and the duckweed lotus in front of her expanded into a boundless loneliness and desolation.
If the tears are dripping, they must have fallen into the petals of the white water lilies.
Night is coming. The boundless night, floating the boundless water lily white flowers she imagined, in the moonlight, stretched out into the faint distance.
"The Yangtze River is far away, and the sunset is five lakes and spring.
Whoever sees Tingzhou, Acacia sorrows white apple. "Zhongtang · Excerpt from Liu Changqing's "The Eleventh Southern Journey of the King of Rao"
The aesthetic of the Tang Dynasty was known for its grandeur and texture.
If the white apple island is just the kind of shallow floating waves of duckweed and algae, it will not become an aesthetic scenery that everyone likes. Therefore, there must be water lilies with texture and continuous feeling on the White Apple Island, with leaves and flowers.
Bai Apple Zhou, in the Tang Dynasty, became a kind of late spring acacia mournful and poignant image.
The five lakes are said to be different, but tend to be the five huge swamp lakes in Jiangnan, such as Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Taihu Lake and so on.
In late spring, these wild lakes take on the grandeur of spring overflowing water and overgrown shores.
And these lakes are associated with sandbars at shallow water's edges, in relatively still places, white water lilies, and countless duckweed flowers. In the sunset, on the surface of the mighty water, these apples, which flow at any time, but gather together, are like the acacia that is spongy, blocking the road, and like adrift.
Every time Bai Juyi goes to operate the garden construction of the city, it is necessary to open up the lake surface and let the white water lilies and apple grass grow romantically.
Water lilies appeared in the Tang Dynasty with a huge amount of white ping imagery, representing purity, continuous, flowing, acacia.
For stories and ancient poems about water lilies, please continue reading the next chapter, "Water Lilies in Ancient Poems (Part 2): The Magnificent Lotus Floats on the Water".
Hatsuyoshi Katsuyuki interprets the love and beauty in the poems for you. Image from the web