赋情芍药

睡前翻了一下《陶庵梦忆》，恰巧看到了一篇写芍药的文字，十分喜爱，遂起了作这样一篇文章的心思。

张岱说他在兖州见过一种叫“一尺雪”的芍药品种，花瓣是纯白色的，无须萼，无檀心，洁白如羊脂。我从文字中想象那花的样子：其花蕊和芙蓉一般大小，好似面容姣好但弱不禁风的美人。后面写兖州人种芍药的文字令人咋舌：

“兖州种芍药者如种麦，以邻以亩。花时宴客，棚于路、彩于门……日费数千勿惜。”——这样好的品种，别处种不了，上苍却这样厚待兖州，多得无处安放。

恽寿平画过芍药扇面，花瓣粉色，像烟云一样柔软，黄蕊绿叶，用色很是清淡。郎世宁所绘芍药更娇媚些，用色光鲜写实，花瓣质感突出。

最初知道芍药时，她叫“红药”：“念桥边红药，年年知为谁生？”秦观的词里，芍药是有泪意的：“有情芍药含春泪，无力蔷薇卧晓枝。”《诗》曰，“维士与女，伊其将谑，赠之以勺药。”有男女分别赠芍药之说，因此芍药又叫“将离”，这名字也不太吉祥，有痴男怨女的情结。《红楼梦》里史湘云吃醉后卧在山石上，酣睡中芍药花瓣洒了一身，这里的芍药是明艳的，又有些娇憨。

所以中国古人和欧洲古人不同，万紫千红不是独爱菊花的傲然就是偏爱芍药的明艳，大概是觉得它们比玫瑰更适合类比爱情。

CHINESE PEONY

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Shi Yu

Kallen Guo

senior filmmaker, socialite and bestselling author,

authored Don't Fall in Love with Zurich, the winner of The Best Foreign Language Novel.

郭丹

资深影视人、名媛、畅销书作家。代表作包括最佳外语小说奖获得作《别爱苏黎世》等。

When I was perusing Reminiscences in Dreams of Tao An (A prose collection by Zhang Dai, a famous Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) writer) before sleep the other night, one piece about Shaoyao, aka Chinese peony, interested me so much that I decided to write something about it. Zhang Dai wrote in the book that he saw a variety of Shaoyao called “An Inch of Snow” in Yanzhou, a city in the east of China back in the Ming dynasty. The petals are pure white, just like snow, without a trace of pink on the stamen. His further description is simply fascinating∶

“Like the way others grow wheat, Shaoyao planters in Yanzhou plant every possible space with Shaoyao. People use Shaoyao to throw parties, decorate streets, etc. They don't see it as an extravagancy to consume thousands of Shaoyao a day.”

Given the fact that soils in other parts of China are not able to grow such a rare variety of Shaoyao, it is truly a blessing given to the Yanzhou people to let them enjoy an almost inexhaustible amount of them.

When Yun Shouping (an artist of Qing dynasty) drew Shaoyao flowers on a hand fan, he used pink to paint the petals, making them look as soft and light as the clouds, and for the stamen and leaf, he used a light touch of yellow and green. In comparison, the drawings by Giuseppe Castiglione (a painter at the imperial court (1644-1912)) look much more alluring. His brighter use of colour makes the flower look more realistic, and the texture of the petal is more distinct.

Shaoyao is also called Hongyao, meaning “the red peony”, and it appeared in a verse that all elementary students must recite∶ “By the bridge grow the red peonies. For whom do they bloom year after year?” In this verse, Shaoyao represents tears and sorrow. In the Classic of Poetry, Shaoyao is given as a farewell gift by lovers to convey their affections∶ “The place is crowded by young men and women, they are laughing, talking and giving Shaoyao as a present to each other.”

Ancient Chinese people have different tastes for flowers than the ancient Europeans. Among innumerable flowers of various colours, Europeans adores roses, whilst Chinese love the chrysanthemum for its pride and Shaoyao for its brightness.