賦情芍藥

賦情芍藥

睡前翻了一下《陶庵夢憶》，恰巧看到了一篇寫芍藥的文字，十分喜愛，遂起了作這樣一篇文章的心思。

張岱說他在兗州見過一種叫“一尺雪”的芍藥品種，花瓣是純白色的，無須萼，無檀心，潔白如羊脂。我從文字中想象那花的樣子：其花蕊和芙蓉一般大小，好似面容姣好但弱不禁風的美人。后面寫兗州人種芍藥的文字令人咋舌：

“兗州種芍藥者如種麥，以鄰以畝。花時宴客，棚于路、彩于門……日費數千勿惜。”——這樣好的品種，別處種不了，上蒼卻這樣厚待兗州，多得無處安放。

惲壽平畫過芍藥扇面，花瓣粉色，像煙云一樣柔軟，黃蕊綠葉，用色很是清淡。郎世寧所繪芍藥更嬌媚些，用色光鮮寫實，花瓣質感突出。

最初知道芍藥時，她叫“紅藥”：“念橋邊紅藥，年年知為誰生？”秦觀的詞里，芍藥是有淚意的：“有情芍藥含春淚，無力薔薇臥曉枝。”《詩》曰，“維士與女，伊其將謔，贈之以勺藥。”有男女分別贈芍藥之說，因此芍藥又叫“將離”，這名字也不太吉祥，有癡男怨女的情結。《紅樓夢》里史湘云吃醉后臥在山石上，酣睡中芍藥花瓣灑了一身，這里的芍藥是明艷的，又有些嬌憨。

所以中國古人和歐洲古人不同，萬紫千紅不是獨愛菊花的傲然就是偏愛芍藥的明艷，大概是覺得它們比玫瑰更適合類比愛情。

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

資深影視人、名媛、暢銷書作家。代表作包括最佳外語小說獎獲得作《別愛蘇黎世》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.