"Green poplar weeping willow lantana", planted as a street tree, as early as the Qing Dynasty
author：Beijing News Network
Acacia is an ancient tree on the mainland. It blooms in summer, the flowering period is very long, the flowers are slender like feathers, crimson like clouds, very gentle and lingering feeling, far away, like a thin cloud, just waiting for the breeze to blow, fluttering and flying. The color of the flowers is crimson, not big red, not scarlet, and not pink. Big red is too colorful, scarlet is too charming, pink is too small and childish. Crimson is just right, on the Yunsheng Ridge, the moon to the heart of the waves, so that the summer heat into light and cool.
"Green poplar weeping willow lantana", planted as a street tree, as early as the Qing Dynasty
Image source: Visual China
Acacia not only has a special flower, but also has a peculiar leaf, slender like a slender finger, open day and night, sensitive like a mimosa. At night, in the moonlight or the glow of street lamps, green leaves are like spikes, the jaws are hanging low, hazy, and the wind blows the leaves and shakes the flowers, thick as the ripples gently swaying in the water of a deep lake. Occasionally, the swaying leaf gaps reveal a few stars in the corner of the night sky, like fireflies flashing and dreaming.
I saw that the oldest acacia tree in Beijing should be in Chongxiao Temple. Fifty years later, there was already a thick hug, and a poem in the Qing Dynasty dedicated to it: "Fifty years of heavy pitching, when the eaves of a tree lantana." "Lantana is an acacia flower." The acacia tree at Chongxiao Temple had grown for more than fifty years at that time. Unfortunately, such an old acacia was later replaced by the famous green peony, and many people's psychology is still somewhat like the new and tired of the old, and pursue the new trend.
Later, someone told me that the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City and the acacia in Song Qingling's former residence were quite old, at least old trees of the Qing Dynasty, which grew well and looked very good when the flowers bloomed. Of course, the trees there will be specially taken care of, and naturally they are more moist than those elsewhere.
In the courtyard of Beijing, most of them plant pomegranates, jujube trees, elm plums, and Xifu begonias, and very few plant acacia. This is because acacia needs to be carefully taken care of, unlike trees such as Xifu begonias that give a little sunshine. In the Beijing Courtyard, the most famous of the kinds of hehuan is the No. 47 Courtyard of the School Yard, which is not far from Xuanwu Gate. It was the shuangtang bookstore of Mr. Wu Xiaoling, the old senior and scholar of our Huiwen Middle School. In his family's small courtyard, there are two old acacia trees. Double oak refers to these two acacia trees. The name of the tree shows that Mr. Wu has a lot of feelings for these two acacias. He once learned the practice of Jia Baoyu in "Dream of the Red Chamber", using acacia flowers to brew wine, washing and drying the acacia flowers, and soaking them in the second pot. It is said that acacia wine has a crimson color and a dark aroma. There are many flowers into the steamed wine; Hehuan flower bubble wine, since Jia Baoyu, Mr. Wu is probably the first person.
One summer, I went there deliberately, not to visit Mr. Wu, because Mr. Wu had passed away, but to see the two acacia trees. The acacia tree grows very tall, protruding out of the wall, and the furry crimson flower shadow is speckled and reflects a golden style of door on the gate: "Hongwen is matchless, and the great instrument is a good teacher." The Door Union was an inscription by Mr. Wu at that time, the old curator of the Commercial Press and a former Qing jinshi Sun Shi. The flower and this word are like a sword sheath matching, complementing each other perfectly, picturesque, and matchless in the world.
However, in my subconscious, I always feel that in Beijing, the acacia tree should still go out of the small courtyard and the palace palace, as the street tree of the street, more beautiful, more traditional, and more matched with the old Beijing city.
Qing Shi has a saying: "The most exaggerated outside the Zhengyang Gate, Wang Dao ping ping a lot of oblique." Dotted with good scenery on both sides, green poplar weeping willow lantana. "It shows that the planting of acacia trees as early as the Qing Dynasty, on both sides of Qianmen Street, there were such acacia trees planted in that year.
Later, he read "Travels in China" written by Ryunosuke Wasagawa, in which he mentioned the acacia tree twice. Once, he came out of Gu Hongming's house and walked toward the inn near the Dongdan Arch where he lived, saying that "the breeze was blowing the acacia trees on the side of the street." Another time he said: "The great forest of acacia and locust trees is tightly surrounded by the Forbidden City with yellow glazed tiles." The former shows that there were acacia trees on both sides of Dongdan Avenue at that time, and the latter shows that the acacia trees on Chang'an Avenue were very luxuriant at that time.
Mr. Deng Yunxiang also has an article saying that the street tree in Jingshan Qianjie was an acacia tree.
A few days ago, seeing the newly published "Beijing Flavor" published by the Beijing Publishing House, Qu Xuanying wrote in the 1930s that "The Ancient Capital Smells and Sees" wrote: "During the three or four years of the Republic of China, the area around East and West Chang'an Avenue was widely planted with German locust and lantana. These two trees are easy to grow, and they are still long in the summer shade, and the yellow wattage is reflected in the most beautiful colors. ”
This can prove that Hehuan, as the street tree, has a tradition and a history in Beijing, and was once brilliant. At least, in Chang'an Avenue, Qianmen Avenue, Dongdan Avenue, and Jingshan Qianjie, acacia trees were planted.
What the Qing poems say is a matter of the Qing Dynasty; Ryunosuke Wasagawa was seen in Beijing from Japan in 1921; Qu Xuanying is talking about the 1910s and 1930s; Deng Yunxiang wrote about the 50s of the last century. This shows that the acacia tree, as a street tree, once stretched uninterrupted from the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China to the peaceful liberation of Beijing, and has a history of at least half a century or even nearly a century, with a unique and elegant style, it is placed in the summer of Beijing.
Acacia trees are street trees, and I have the privilege of seeing one, which is The Taiji Factory. From my childhood until 1968, I went to beidahuang and walked on this old street for nearly 20 years. At that time, my family lived in the West Grinding Factory, and after going to school, I often went to the Xinhua Bookstore in Wangfujing to read or buy books, and it was necessary to wear a moat and the Ming City Wall and pass through this Taijichang street. During the summer vacation, on both sides of the street, the acacia tree is full of crimson velvet flowers, walking under such a tree full of soft velvet flowers, the dappled flower shadows sprinkle on the body, jumping like elves, people are like stepping on crimson clouds and misty light and shadow, there is a dream fairy-tale feeling. It is no exaggeration to say that in my eyes, Taijichang Street, with two rows of acacia trees, is the most beautiful street in beijing.
In 1974, I returned to Beijing from the Northern Wilderness, re-lived in the old courtyard, went to Wangfujing again, and re-walked the old street of Taijichang, only to suddenly find that the acacia trees on the first street had disappeared. Suddenly, I felt so lost in my heart, and when I inquired, I learned that the acacia trees on this street had been cut down a few years ago, saying that they were such a lingering and compassionate flower that they were bourgeois trees. This surprised me. Remembering the ancient locust tree where the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself in Jingshan, the Shunzhi Emperor looked at it unpleasantly and said that it was the old story of the "tree of sin". The acacia of Taiji Factory and the ancient locust of Jingshan are really a pair of difficult brothers and sisters, looking at and sinking in the long river of 300 years of history.
Today's Beijing street trees, there are many beautiful, the famous ones are the acacia shade of the south pond in the summer, the ginkgo biloba paving of the Diaoyutai in the autumn, and the paulownia of the purple flowers of Wanyuan Street in the spring. However, I have never seen a street lined with acacia trees. I remember Qu Xuanying saying it: "The long summer is shaded, and the yellow wattage is reflected in the most beautiful color." "Such cognition, such emotion, I don't know if some people no longer believe it." I believe. I have always longed for a street in beijing to be lined with such beautiful acacia trees.
