Posted ByChina7dayThe natural and cultural conditions of Luoyang in the Northern Song Dynasty provided good conditions for the consumption of peony flowers. First of all, from the perspective of natural conditions, Luoyang “is the world, with the sun shadow of tugui, gaining the sum of yin and Yang; songshaoluzun, Zhongshan and Shuixiu. The name of the Lord is the hope of the crown, and the craftsman is pregnant with flowers. From the perspective of cultural conditions, “the ancient capital of Luoyang, who was accustomed to the customs of clothes in the Han and Tang Dynasties, managed the garden and pool at home, built the platform and pavilion, and planted grass and trees, thought it was good to visit when he was old.”. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the whole city of Luoyang “gradually completed the evolution from political urban culture to leisure and entertainment culture.”. Beijing officials regard Luoyang as a good place to recuperate after retirement, so they have built gardens in Luoyang. For a while, the landscape of Luoyang has been flourishing, effectively promoting the prosperity of flower market. Among the flowers, peony is called “flower” directly. It has the position of the king of flowers and naturally becomes the leading role in the flower market.
There are three flourishing seasons in the peony flower market. First, at the beginning of spring, “luoren sells small plants in Shouan mountain to sell in the city” [1] Volume 22. These “combs” that are ready to receive flowers in autumn will be transported to the city at this time, and generally sold to professional flower farmers or private gardens in the city. Second, in the spring and evening, “when the flowers are in bloom, they are often in the old temple, where there is a pool and a platform, which is the market place. Zhang Linghe, the voice of Sheng song, hears each other” Volume 22. At this time, in Luoyang City, the “ladies of the capital” fought for wine, chose the best place of the garden pavilion, and filled up and down the pool platform with songs, without asking the owner. When you arrive at dusk, you will visit the flower market and sell flowers in Yun cage. Although the poor people also wear flowers and drink wine to enjoy themselves. “. It can be seen that in order to attract more people to buy flowers, the flower market has become a cultural event, with a variety of recreational activities such as string music performance, singing and dancing performance, drinking and wearing flowers. This makes the flower market realize its economic value, but also highlights its cultural value. At that time, Luoyang city peony flower market is mainly located in “yuepo dike, zhangjiayuan, Tangdi square, Changshou Temple East Street and Guoling house”. In addition to these locations, tianwangyuan garden is also an eye-catching peony trading place. Li Gefei wrote in the famous garden of Luoyang: “there are many kinds of flowers in Luoyang, and the only name of the peony is” flower king “. All the gardens are planted with peonies, and the only name is” garden son “. There are hundreds of thousands of unique peonies. The Bi family, who lives on flowers in the city, is here. At the time of the flowers, Zhang cuilie was in charge of the city, and the city sergeant and women never visited.” The transaction volume of peony market is amazing when flowers bloom. Not only will Luoyang people have a lot of consumption, but also foreign businessmen come to buy. As Zheng Yu said in his poem, “the first flower is in bloom, and the horse carries the golden cake to buy it back.”. Xishi is a girl from Yuexi, but she earned money for the king of Wu. ” “Bet cloud:” Chen people taste gold on Luozhong city flower, a garden or to more than a thousand The peony trade in spring and dusk has a strong seasonality, and generally the flower falls. Third, in autumn, peony grafting season. Because people in Luoyang think that if peony is not picked up, there will be no new varieties and old trees will lose their vitality. Therefore, it is a strong time for this trade before Chongyang Festival every autumn. In order to ensure the quality of the joint, both parties shall sign an agreement to cash in the payment when it blooms in spring. This kind of technology, which is not available to everyone, is valuable. At that time, “the lower class households in Song Dynasty generally received tens to 100 Wen a day.” if you record 100 Wen, Yao Huangyi joint is equivalent to the total income of the lower class households in Song Dynasty for 50 days.
The economic benefits brought by Luoyang peony are not only in the transaction and introduction of peony flowers, but also in the appreciation of peony. When the peony is in bloom, people pay for the famous peony in some private gardens. For example, “Wei Hua was born on the island in the garden pool of cardinal Wei Renpu of the Five Dynasties”, “when this flower was first born, people who wanted to read it would pay ten yuan for tax, but they would have to go on a boat to cross the pond to the flower house. Wei collected ten yuan every day” [1] Volume 22. Another example is that Yao Huang was praised as the king of flowers by Luoyang people, and only opened one or two flowers in three or four years. When the flowers were blooming, the whole city poured out just to see their flowers, so “the master of yaohuangyuan garden is one of the rich people of the year”. This further promotes the prosperity of peony market, and makes peony trade enter a virtuous cycle stage in Luoyang.