Osmanthus Glorifies the City

By Pang Ru

Osmanthus Glorifies the City

By Pang Ru

Sweet osmanthus is the city flower of Hangzhou， the capital of Zhejiang， an eastern China's coastal province. In the eighth month on the lunar calendar， the fragrance of the sweet osmanthus permeates the West Lake and streets and lanes across the urban part of the city.

The osmanthus tree is closely associated with the mountains west of the West Lake where Buddhist temples have clustered for about 1，500 years. Ancient history says that a Buddhist monk from India visited the mountains in the Xianhe years （326-334） of the Eastern Jin （317-420） and loved what he saw. Lingyin Temple was built there. This temple not only started the cultural landscape of Hangzhou but also exerted a strong infuence on Chinese ideology.

滿覺隴農家桂樹（左上）、西山路行道桂樹（左下）、石屋洞園林桂樹Sweet osmanthus trees in Manjuelong Village （top left）， along West Hill Avenue （bottom left）， and in the garden in front of Stone House Cave （right）

城市鄉村共秋夜。 （選自陳維組畫《杭州的秋天》）Sweet Osmanthus trees in urban and rural Hangzhou

The mountains west of the West Lake became a key Buddhism sanctuary in the Tang （618-907） and pilgrims visited the temples there regularly. A memoir of ancient legends and myths about the Lingyin Temple and other temples in the mountains has a special tale about the osmanthus trees. In one moonlit mid-autumn night，monks heard rain pelting the roofs of the temple. They investigated and saw the courtyard covered with blackish seeds. The black seeds were presented to the abbot the next morning. The abbot glanced at the seeds and said they were osmanthus seeds from the moon. The seeds were planted around the temple. Over centuries， they became woods. The fact that one of the mountains is known as Moon Osmanthus Peak testifies to the prosperity of osmanthus trees in the area.

For more than ten centuries， Hangzhou has inspired poets and artists. There are so many poems about the lake and the city that you would have diffculty reading them all in a year. Some best known ones are about osmanthus fowers in Hangzhou. And they are certainly among the greatest poems ever written in China.

Critics say that poems written in the Tang and early Song refect the old charms of the Eastern Jin. However， after the city housed the royal house of the Southern Song （1127-1279）， the aesthetics of the West Lake was secularized. And osmanthus played a part in the process of secularization.

Manjuelong， a valley in the mountains west of the West Lake， is the best place to enjoy the osmanthus blooming in Hangzhou since the Ming （1368-1644）. Its fame has never waned. In the Southern Song， the osmanthus blooming in autumn began to attract visitors. There are numerous essays written in the past dynasties about the blooming there and about the village in the valley and about the people in the city who came out of the city and hanged out there breathing the aroma and forgetting themselves.

The valley is an attraction different from all the other scenic attractions of the West Lake. The mountains and streams there are not exactly up to the beauty of the rest of the West Lake， but they combine to suggest a lifestyle about a leisurely and contented life in every sense of the word peace.

For centuries， the osmanthus fower has been a business. The villagers dehydrate the flowers and pickle dried flowers in sugar. The ingredient is widely used for preparing cakes， snacks and restaurant dishes in the local cuisine.

Some say there are about 7，000 osmanthus trees in the valley. In the eighth month on the lunar calendar， tables are set outdoors under osmanthus trees and people come and sit down for a cup of tea. They chat and play pokes. Many stay for dinner. This cottage restaurant mode has evolved into a huge market around the rural West Lake and across the province.

In 1984， the osmanthus fower was voted as the city fower. In 1985， Manjuelong was chosen as one of the new top ten scenic highlights of the West Lake as opposed to the ancient ten top views of the lake. The osmanthus woods there are the very reason the valley was favored. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how many voters had enjoyed the osmanthus aroma for years before the valley came up in the voting.