司马一民

不只是洛阳牡丹天下闻，在宋代，杭州牡丹也是天下闻。有苏轼的《吉祥寺赏牡丹》为证：人老簪花不自羞，花应羞上老人头。醉归扶路人应笑，十里珠帘半上钩。

吉祥寺如今早已湮没，原址在今杭州仙林苑住宅小区。

此诗大意为：一个老人（指诗人自己）头戴一朵鲜艳的牡丹花，自己一点都不感到难为情，倒是被插在老人头上的牡丹花会不会感到难为情呢？赏花饮酒，醉步蹒跚地被人扶着回家，一路上肯定引来街上的人的嬉笑，十里长街，百姓们纷纷卷起珠帘，笑看这位醉里戴花的官儿。

吉祥寺中有一位叫守璘的和尚擅长种植牡丹花，他在寺中开了一个牡丹园，园中栽种了近百种牡丹，有几千株，各种名贵的品种都有。每年春季牡丹花开的时候，杭州百姓蜂拥而至来观赏牡丹，许多官员也与民同乐，来到吉祥寺赶赴牡丹之会。

熙宁五年（1072）三月二十三日，时任杭州通判的苏东坡和知州沈立去吉祥寺僧人守璘的花园中赏牡丹，苏东坡的这首诗就是当时赏花饮酒的快乐纪实。

《武林梵志》记载：“吉祥律寺，在安国坊。乾德三年，睦州刺史薛温舍地为寺。治平二年，改曰广福，其地多牡丹。”宋室南渡后，起初把这一带征用为文思院军头司，只保留了吉祥寺。明末清初，蔡启僔（1618—1683年，字石公，号昆旸，德清人，清康熙九年状元）题写过“最吉祥处”四个字。

回过头来再说吉祥寺的牡丹。苏东坡有一篇文章《牡丹记叙》，记录了当年杭州官民同赏牡丹的盛景：

熙宁五年三月二十三日，余从太守沈公观花于吉祥寺僧守璘之圃。圃中花千本，其品以百数。酒酣乐作，州人大集，金盘彩篮以献于坐者，五十有三人。饮酒乐甚，素不饮者皆醉。自舆台皂隶皆插花以从，观者数万人。

这篇短文记录了杭州近一千年前的牡丹花会盛况。州府官员到场，百姓踊跃参与，赏花、饮酒、作乐，从地位最低的小吏起，个个头插牡丹花，花会现场居然有数万人。如此壮观的场面，完全可以与当下在杭州举办的各种花展相媲美。

在这次牡丹花会上，杭州知州沈立举行了他的新书《牡丹记》的“首发式”，这本书有十卷，包括传记、栽植技法、古今有关牡丹的咏歌诗赋和小说、笔记等，内容十分丰富，苏东坡应邀为这本书写了序。

苏东坡与吉祥寺的牡丹颇有诗缘。熙宁五年（1072）冬至日，苏东坡独自去吉祥寺走了一圈，回来后作诗一首《冬至日独游吉祥寺》：井底微阳回未回，萧萧寒雨湿枯荄。何人更似苏夫子，不是花时独肯来。

此诗大意为：春天还未归来，没有一点暖意，寒雨打湿了牡丹的枯枝。有谁像我这样，明明知道还没有到牡丹花开的时节，却偏要独自来牡丹园。

可见，吉祥寺牡丹花给苏东坡留下的印象极为深刻。过了十来天，苏东坡又一次来到吉祥寺，而且又作一首诗《后十余日复至》：东君意浅着寒梅，千朵深红未暇裁。安得道人殷七七，不论时节遣花开。

此诗大意为：现在这个季节只有不怕寒冷的梅花还在盛开，其他各种各样的花，东君都还没有来得及剪裁。怎样才能找到殷七七（传说殷七七是一位能够让花随时开放的奇异道人），请他帮忙让牡丹在寒冷的冬天开放。

可见，苏东坡迫切地渴望看到牡丹花的盛开。

熙宁六年（1073）春，牡丹花开时节，前一日，苏东坡邀请新任知州陈襄一起到吉祥寺观赏牡丹。第二天，苏东坡早早来到吉祥寺等待陈襄的到来，可是左等右等就是不见陈襄的人影。正在焦急之时，衙役来报，陈襄因临时有公务要处理，脱不开身。闷闷不乐的苏东坡随手写了一首诗交给衙役，让衙役带回去交给陈襄——《吉祥寺花将落而述古不至》：今岁东风巧剪裁，含情只待使君来。对花无信花应恨，直恐明年便不开。

此诗大意为：今年牡丹花开得特别好，含情脉脉地等待您来观赏，您答应来赏花而未来，失信于牡丹，它会怨恨于你，恐怕明年花不会再开了。

第二天，陈襄来到吉祥寺观赏牡丹花，并即席赋诗《春晚赏牡丹奉呈席上诸君》，以此感谢苏东坡和众人：逍遥为吏厌衣冠，花谢还来赏牡丹。颜色只留春别后，精神宁似日前看。雨余花萼啼残粉，风静奇香喷宝檀。只恐明年花更好，不知谁与并栏干。

此诗大意为：我喜欢逍遥做官但不喜欢这身刻板的官服，等到牡丹快要谢了，我才赶来观赏，总算是赶上了。连续下雨使得花萼里只剩下一点残粉，可是一阵风吹来，还是会把花香传递到四面八方。很可能这里的牡丹明年开得比今年好，只是不知道到那时，能够再在一起观赏牡丹的人还有谁。

才思敏捷的苏东坡当即和诗一首《述古闻之，明日即至，坐上复用前韵同赋》：仙衣不用剪刀裁，国色初酣卯酒来。太守问花花有语，为君零落为君开。

熙宁六年（1073）冬，苏东坡与陈襄有诗唱和，主题都是歌咏牡丹，苏东坡一共写了四首。

苏东坡和陈襄友情很深，熙宁八年（1075）七月，共事兩年的陈襄从杭州离任，此后苏东坡屡屡回忆起与陈襄在吉祥寺参加牡丹盛会的场景。其中，苏东坡在《惜花》中盛赞钱塘吉祥寺花为第一，并说：“壬子清明，赏会最盛。金盘彩篮以献于座者五十三人，夜归沙河塘上，观者如山，尔后无复继也。今年，诸家园圃花亦极盛，而龙兴僧房一丛尤奇，但衰病牢落，自无以发兴耳。昨日雨雹如此，花之存者有几？可为太息也。”

而另一首诗《吉祥寺僧求阁名》说的是吉祥寺僧人求苏东坡题写寺阁名。估计苏东坡当时一定会爽快地答应，可惜的是苏东坡的墨宝并没有留传下来。

It is not only the peonies in Luoyang city， Central China’s Henan province that are world-famous. In the Song dynasty （960-1279）， Hangzhou’s peony flowers also enjoyed great fame， as evidenced by a verse composed by Su Shi （aka Su Dongpo， 1037-1101）. In “Appreciating Peonies at the Jixiang Temple”， he wrote：

Shy the old man’s not adorning his head with a flower，

Embarassed the flower’d be on his head.

As he returns home drunk， people’ll laugh at him，

Rolling up curtains along the ten-mile street.

A monk by the name of Shoulin， who was good at growing peony flowers， once opened a peony garden in the Jixiang Temple， with hundreds of types of and thousands of peony flowers planted. There was no lack of precious varieties. Each spring when peonies blossomed， the Hangzhou residents as well as its officials would flock to the temple to appreciate the flowers， and the “old man” who wasn’t embarrassed by putting on one flower on his head in Su’s poem was just one of them.

On the 23rd day of the third month in the lunar calendar in the year 1072， Su Dongpo， who was the assistant prefect of Hangzhou and Shen Li， the prefect， went to the garden to enjoy the peony flowers. The poem was a “record” of their merry-making at the time.

“Preface to On Peonies”， an essay by Su， also documented the magnificence of the “peony appreciation” at the time：

On the 23rd of the third lunar month， in the year of Xining [1072]， I came to Shoulin’s peony garden with Prefect Shen at the Jixiang Temple. The flowers in the garden are in the thousands， and the varieties are hundreds. With fine wine flowing and music playing， most of the officials — fifty-three in total — in Hangzhou have gathered on the occasion to appreciate the beautiful flowers. All those present are so happy that even colleagues who don’t usually drink are intoxicated， each adorned with a peony blossom. Tens of thousands of Hangzhou people have thronged to the temple to watch the flowers.

Such a spectacular spectacle can be easily compared with the scale of various flower exhibitions held in today’s Hangzhou.

As indicated by the title of the essay， it was written by Su at the invitation of Prefect Shen for his 10-volume new book On Peonies， which was “launched” at this peony flower appreciation meeting and covered such topics as biography， planting techniques， ancient and contemporary poetry， novels and writings about peony.

Su seemed to have a particular fondness for the peony flowers at the Jixiang Temple. In that winter， he went to the temple alone and composed a second poem “To the Jixiang Temple Alone on Winter Solstice Day”， in which he declared “who would be like Mr. Su， coming to the peonies not on their flowering time”， pining for peony blossoms and lamenting for its impossibility.

In fact， he returned to the temple just a little over 10 days later， leaving a third poem in which he wrote “if only I could find Yin Qiqi， and flowers would bloom at any time”. Yin Qiqi is a legendary Taoist monk， who is said to possess magic powers and make flowers open whenever he wishes.

In the following year， 1073， Su went to the temple several times to appreciate the peony flowers planted there， during which he composed a number of poems.

Unfortunately， the Jixiang Temple no long exists. What stands today on where it used to sit are residential complexes.