Roses are gems from the west.
The most famous source of the word "rose" comes from the story of "Han Feizi" buying bamboo slips and returning pearls. What is the core of this word? It is a gorgeous wooden rafter, a cabinet of Mulan, a rafter smoked with cinnamon, a rafter decorated with pearls and emeralds, a rafter decorated with roses and a rafter decorated with feathers. The roses here are obviously not plants, but gems. Sima Xiangru's masterpiece Zi Xufu in the Western Han Dynasty has a more direct expression. Mr. Zi Xu described all kinds of scenery of Yunmengze in the State of Chu to the King of Qi, and mentioned that its stones were Ruby Rose and Lin Z Kunwu. Sima Xiangru's "Upper Fu Lin" strongly exaggerates the fairyland-like scenery of Shanglin Garden, especially mentioning that the garden is full of roses and corals. In the Western Jin Dynasty, Jin Zhuo recorded roses as fire beads, and Shan Li followed this theory in Notes on Selected Works. In the early Tang Dynasty, Yan Shigu developed this explanation by commenting on Hanshu, saying that the fire beads are the same, and now the fire beads in the south are also beautiful, and the rose sounds echo and ring. Yan Shigu's southern dynasties said. Volume 423 of Tai Ping Guang Ji comes from Shuo Wen Jie Zi Lu written by Ren P(460-508) in the Southern Dynasties. There are thousands of snake beads in the South China Sea, not as good as a rose. Obviously, roses were a treasure in the eyes of Nanhai people at that time. According to the May 4th Biography of Aliens by Liang Shujuan, the fire beads are Fu Nan and Dandan.
The Rosestone originated in the West and has its literary foundation. The Three Kingdoms and the Book of Wei mentioned that the local area is rich in precious stones, including bright pearl, night pearl, true white pearl, tiger pearl, coral, displacement, Kline, Lang, Shuijing, rose, realgar, orpiment, blue and five-color jade. This record is included in 96 articles in Yuan Gui Bookstore, but there is also a Persian article in Biography of Liang Shu Zhu Yi, which records that the local coral tree was born in Yu Xian Pond, one or two feet long, and there were amber, horse brain, pearls, roses [left king and right back] and so on. , is not considered precious in China. This record was collected in the Persian chapter of Book of Changes, Volume 79 of Southern History. Amber is amber and rose [left king and right back]. Although the words are different, the rose (rose [left king and right back], rose) obviously refers to a kind of ore produced in Daqin and Persia. Song Yun, who was sent to dozens of western countries in the Northern Wei Dynasty, once passed through Dada. He saw Princess Dada wearing a brocade skirt, which was eight feet long and three feet down, so that people could hold it. The head has a corner, three feet long and decorated with five-color rose beads (Volume 5 of Luoyang Galand), which shows that roses are also a precious gem in the local area. In the second year of Peace in the Northern Wei Dynasty (46 1), in order to celebrate the great cause of the country's territorial expansion, the company was specially ordered to make twelve giant gold plates engraved with silver and roses. The inscription reads, Kyushu Island is a tribute, a special guest, but a gift, with the wrong tools, a purple gold and a silver ("Wei
Therefore, let's review a record in Volume I of Xijing Miscellanies compiled by Ge Hong (284-364) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It is said that there are many alfalfa trees in Leyou Garden, and the rose trees here are often used to prove that roses were planted in the Han Dynasty. But as orphans, the roses here are not necessarily plants, but are more likely to be gems, gold trees, silver trees, glass tree and coral trees. According to the Miscellanies of Xijing quoted in Volume 236 of Taiping Guangji, it is also clear that Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty had a horse with a rose stone as a saddle, carved with gold, silver and gold, and covered with five colors of green brocade. In the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, rose was the name of a gem.
The seven treasures of Buddhism are important gems for decorating Buddhist sacrificial utensils, and also important materials for architectural decoration in Buddhism. The walls of the palace in Nirvana Sutra are made of four treasures of gold, silver, glass and pears, and the ground is full of roses. In the Tang Dynasty Buddhist Scripture "The Sound and Meaning of the Classics", it is noted that the rose says that the beauty of the stone is called the rose, and the roundness is called the rose. The sound of the rose is the opposite sound, which is homophonic with Hui. In the early Tang Dynasty, Ou Yangxun (557-64 1) introduced Liu Xiaoyi in Selected Works, Volume 77. In Byodoji Ming, the sill of the beautiful Buddhist temple is decorated with roses, and the steps are filled with millet and jade, showing the effect of bright fire and silver candle. The rose here corresponds to the fire, which reflects that this expression was used by Chang Yun, a scholar in the early Tang Dynasty, in the article Rebuilding Lingao Temple Monument (Volume 396 of the Complete Works of Tang Wen). In the Middle Ages, it was common to build Buddhist temples with seven treasures. The so-called glazed tile of the Crystal Palace (Ouyang Jiong's Painting the Song of the Heavenly King on the Wall of Yingtian Temple) is a typical example of this concept. This interest in building decorative buildings with gold, silver and precious stones originated from the west and has its practical basis. The pillars of the Palace of the Great Qin State are mostly water and glass, and the halls are mostly rustle, gold and ivory (Book of the Old Tang Dynasty 198). This fashion of decorating palaces with gold, silver and rare treasures deeply influenced the Tang Dynasty and Cui Hao (704? -754), the palace furnishings such as crystal curtain foil mica fan, glass window tortoise-shell bed, etc. There are quite realistic elements behind literary rhetoric.
From the Han Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, the name of rose obviously refers to a kind of gem produced in the western world, which is expensive and rare whether it is used in court or Buddhist temple. Yan Shigu's note reflects that in the early Tang Dynasty, people thought roses were fire beads, so the local gems listed in Volume 83 of Sui Shu and Biography of Persia were fire beads, animal spirits, coral, glass, yard Z, water essence and rustling. Princess Anle (? -7 10) once spent 30,000 yuan to build a treasure incense burner with pearls, agates, coloured glaze, amber, glass, coral, car paint, Wan Yan and other precious stones (Volume III of the Official History). In the middle Tang dynasty, there were fewer and fewer examples of using roses as stone names. Su E, a scholar in the late Tang Dynasty, mentioned in Du Yang Miscellanies that there were tortoise shells and fire beds in the court in the late Tang Dynasty, and precious stones such as water essence, internal heat, glass and tortoise shells were all used for the interior furnishings of the court.
In the Middle Ages, were roses and roses the same plant?
Although the name of rose is gradually separated from gems, it is increasingly used to refer to a certain plant. Since the beginning of the eighth century, roses have appeared in Tang poetry, almost without exception. For example, during the Kaiyuan period, Li Shuqing, a scribe, wrote in the poem "Fang Shu" that the rose tree is in spring and the Song family is in the west; The door is deep and dark, and the wall is flying. In a poem by Lu Lun (739-799) in the mid-Tang Dynasty, roses are colorful and fragrant, so-called rain hits brocade, and the wind and night drama burn incense; The sun is broken and colorful, and the lonely sky is full of light. Si Kongshu (720? -790? ) The chorus poem of the same name is written with stars lined with green stalks, eyes glowing red, pearls full of trees, and brocade screen destroyed, also to highlight the bright and dazzling visual effect of rose branches. Shao Shuo, a scholar who was active in the middle and late eighth century, wrote The Book of Zhang Sheren in Middle School (Quantang Wen, Volume 452). At Mr. Zhang's request, he sent some roses he planted. The article emphasizes that roses often bloom brightly and can be placed very close to the house, and the fragrance is overflowing. Although the day lily forgets her worries, she is full of resentment and incomparable. You can see it until the middle of the eighth century. Shao Wen also mentioned that he had consulted a tree art expert about the breeding technology of roses, reminding Zhang Sheren that if she can migrate and live in it in spring and let it flow in yin and yang, it will be natural, with no solid roots, no numerous branches and no luxuriant leaves. If she is cold, she can help Yu Ying, and Hong Fang can get the effect of playing. Interestingly, this article not only emphasizes the character and cultivation of roses, but also lies in the author's self-comparison of roses. This self-recommendation strategy also reflects that roses are already delicate and precious flowers in people's hearts.
At the beginning of the 9th century, scholar Li Zhao's Annals of Hanlin recorded the furnishings in the imperial academy of Daming Palace, saying that the curved walls of the virtual gallery painted strange stones, pines and cypresses, and cranes. There are ancient pagoda tree, pine tree, myrtle medicinal tree, persimmon, papaya, Luo 'an, apricot tree, cherry, purple rose, magnolia flower, Pu Tao, holly, rose, lingxiao, peony, Shandan, peony, Dianthus, purple flower, turnip, green chrysanthemum, Danglu, Maokui, Hemerocallis, etc. Ross. According to Zi written by Li Kuang V (active around 806), there are some rose bushes, which are different from each other and have slightly larger leaves. Their names come from plum blossoms and are said to be the tree of Li Huai. This name first appeared in Wu Duanxiu's book Jiangling Collection, and was later included in Lei Ju of Literature and Art, Tang Yulin, Taiping Yuhuan Collection and Taiping Magnolia. But only Li Kuang V (active around 806) mentioned that Mei Huai was later wrongly written as a rose. However, is it because these flowers are unique among flowers or because they look like roses?
The reason why a rose refers to a flower is probably because of the rarity of this flower, which is similar to the color of the legendary rose stone except the sound and shape of plum blossom. There is a Bai Mudan in Tang Changguan, Anyefang, Chang 'an, with lush foliage and blooming every year. This is a very common metaphor, when people mention the peony in Tangchang, if it is Yao Linqiong Tree (the second volume of "Drama"). In the 6th century AD, Emperor Xiao Gang (503-55 1) of Liang Jianwen wrote that agate leaves are in full bloom in the clouds, and the water is clear and glazed, so agate and glaze refer to the color of painters. However, it was not until Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi lived in the middle Tang Dynasty that the example of depicting plant colors with precious stones became particularly popular. For example, Liu Yuxi (772-842) described a bamboo stick presented by a friend, one of which was brightly colored and several sections were covered with tortoise shells. The path of Yuan Zhen (779-8638+) -883) will be full of pomegranate flowers. Although roses have various colors, red is still the most common color in history books. For example, the poem "Qu Zhe Ci" written by Wen (8 12-866), the willow green and rose red on the bridge, and "snuff" written by Jinshi (in 894) lit a little wax and burned a little silver, but it could not be planted, so Jiuhua became red and spit roses. In the concept of the Tang Dynasty, this kind of red is very charming. Li Shangyin (8 13-858) used the color of rose stone to describe beauty. There are beautiful women in the brothel, the color is like roses. After the same poem, there are figures of speech that make the pearl Y enter the coral gills, all of which use precious stones as metaphors for color. Another kind of gem is often used to describe indigo or emerald. Bai Juyi (772-846) once described clusters of blooming rose branches with the coagulation points of orangutans and gold rustling. Since then, orangutans and Se Se have developed into a common rhetorical combination, such as Fang Gan (809-888)' Sun Shilin Pavilion', Se Se Lin's whole lane is lined with bamboos, orangutans are half-flowered with blood, and Yin Wengui (898 Jinshi)' Tiwu Lugui Dream Shanzhai' has exposed the blood of orangutans, making the water rustling, vividly revealing the color configuration and visual landscape of literati gardens in the late Tang Dynasty.
The word orangutan blood deserves attention here. The Tang people believed that the western Hu people used orangutan blood as fabric dye to achieve lasting red color. See Chapter 13 Pigment Introduction for details. Orangutan or orangutan blood, as a proper noun to refer to red, is especially used to describe wild rose. For example, Pi Rixiu's "Reduplicated Roses" is as thick as an orangutan's first dye and as light as Yan Yan's desire to volley, while Miracle (863? -937? ) "Red Wild Rose" The warbler is getting old, and the wind blows off the blood of the orangutan. Both are red and have similar shapes. Roses and roses are sometimes confused. For example, in Bai Juyi's two poems, there are two kinds of flowers, lotus mud and calyx. Roses with thorns and thorns are lazy to climb, and lotus mud is difficult to play with, which shows that roses are very similar to roses. However, even so, in people's eyes, they are two different flowers. In the late Tang Dynasty, people thought that roses came from the South China Sea. During the Ganning period (894-898), Xu Yin, a scholar, wrote that wheatgrass moved from Yuewangtai, which is the most like a rose planted together. Glory is better than painting. Whoever gives a rose is famous. Miracle said that roses are just like roses. The similarities not only show the connection between them, but also point out the difference between them. Comparatively speaking, the status of roses seems to be higher. Xu Xuan (9 16-99 1)' s Poem on the Rose describes his unique position in Bai Yutang according to rhyme and majesty. Coincidentally, Xu Yin's "Shangshu Huixian Pavilion sings roses, sitting in the four rhymes of Zhonglian, and returning late to make up the couplet" also wrote that if you are wandering in Japan, it is also rare to set off roses. These juxtaposition and contrast reflect that in the eyes of modern people, roses and roses are similar but different flowers.