The indissoluble bond between orchids and Marshal Zhu De

In the film "Women's Basketball Player No. 5," shot in Shanghai in the 1950s by the famous director Xie Jin, according to the plot, two pots of orchids were placed in the study of the male and female leads. These two pots of orchids, one called "Song Mei" and the other "Xi Shen," were famous varieties of Cymbidium goeringii, provided by Shanghai's Zhang Family Garden. The owner of Zhang Family Garden was Mr. Xu Pusun, proprietor of Shanghai's Tongfengyong Gold Shop and Hengfu Silver House. Mr. Xu was passionately fond of orchids, and Zhang Family Garden had his orchid nursery. He specially hired Zhu Zhangfu, an orchid farmer from Lizhu in Shaoxing, to manage it. At that time, Zhu Zhangfu of Shaoxing, Shen Yuanru of Wuxi, and Wang Shuping of Yuyao were hailed in orchid circles as the three great orchid generals of Jiangnan, with superb orchid-growing skills and unique judgment in appraising orchids.

Comrade Zhu De was an orchid enthusiast. He was born in Yilong, Sichuan, where orchids were plentiful across the land of central Sichuan. After the Nanchang Uprising, General Zhu led his troops through northern Guangdong and Hunan until they reached Jinggangshan, marching and fighting through deep mountains and old forests, in the company of orchids. In the 1960s, he could still say which mountains in northern Guangdong and Hunan had orchids. In the 1950s and 1960s, he grew orchids at his residence in Chengdu. He presented "Jinggang Orchid" to the Shanghai Longhua Flower Nursery, and "Wuyi Orchid" to the Wuhan East Lake Garden. He also presented his own cultivated famous orchids, such as "Lüyun Dianzhu" and "Yinbian Dagong," to the Chengdu Caotang Orchid Nursery, the Guangzhou Orchid Nursery, the Hangzhou Flower Garden, and the Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden flower nursery. He also wrote the four large characters "Tong Shang Qing Fang" on the horizontal plaque of the Hangzhou Flower Garden.

When General Zhu learned that the two pots of Cymbidium goeringii in the film "Women's Basketball Player No. 5" were the famous Jiangsu-Zhejiang orchid varieties "Song Mei" and "Xi Shen," he was deeply captivated by the unique charm of Jiangsu-Zhejiang orchids. Several times he visited the Zhang Family flower nursery to admire the orchids without revealing his identity. When he learned that Zhu Zhangfu came from Shaoxing, the hometown of Chinese Cymbidium goeringii, and was an expert orchid grower, he immediately revealed his identity and expressed the hope that Zhu Zhangfu could move southern flowers north and relocate Jiangsu-Zhejiang orchids to the capital to settle there. General Zhu asked Zhu Zhangfu to collect varieties on his behalf, and told Zhu Zhangfu's son-in-law Ye Zhiqing to serve as his assistant and come to Beijing as well. Zhu Zhangfu was nearly sixty at the time and unaccustomed to life in Beijing, but seeing how deeply General Zhu loved orchids, he gladly agreed.

After arriving in Beijing, Zhu Zhangfu selected Zhongshan Park as the orchid nursery. In addition to personally directing the Beijing landscaping department to build orchid houses and install orchid shelves and other preparatory work, General Zhu also personally wrote the plaque "Orchid Room" for the orchid house. From then on, Jiangsu-Zhejiang orchids had a home in Beijing.

Beijing's climate is dry, with great temperature variations between winter and summer. For Jiangsu-Zhejiang orchids to adapt to the climate, the Zhu family father-in-law and son-in-law were kept busy. They sprayed the orchids during the day and burned coal to warm them at night. Winter gave way to spring, and under General Zhu's care, not a single one of these orchids died; they even grew flower buds. In the spring of 1959, Beijing's first-ever orchid exhibition was held at Zhongshan Park. Several hundred pots of Jiangnan Cymbidium goeringii, jade-like and overflowing with emerald green, smiled in welcome to visitors from all directions. General Zhu even brought his own Sichuan orchids into the exhibition to share the joy with the people. At the opening ceremony, Comrades Zhu De, Song Qingling, Chen Yi, Kang Keqing and others all came, foreign friends came, and Beijing citizens came. From then on, Jiangsu-Zhejiang orchids settled in Beijing, breaking the forbidden zone that southern flowers could not bloom in the north. Thus, the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and a founding hero of the People's Republic of China also formed a profound friendship with an ordinary flower farmer from Shaoxing, Zhejiang. On every holiday, General Zhu and Sister Kang would always come to the orchid garden to sit and chat, asking after his well-being. Zhu Zhangfu also went many times to Zhongnanhai to pay his respects to General Zhu.

In 1962, Zhu Zhangfu developed cancer in his left lung. General Zhu was very concerned and personally instructed the Beijing landscaping bureau to arrange surgery for Zhu Zhangfu, and came to the hospital to visit him after the operation. In 1965, Zhu's right lung also began to show pathological changes. Zhu asked to return home to recuperate, and General Zhu again personally arranged for him to go home.

Thirty years passed, and both Comrade Zhu De and Zhu Zhangfu had passed away. In May 1990, Ye Meijuan, secretary to General Zhu's wife Kang Keqing, came to Shaoxing, Zhejiang, to participate in Children's Film Week activities. Elder Kang asked Ye Meijuan to inquire about the recent circumstances of Zhu Zhangfu's descendants after arriving in Shaoxing. At the Shaoxing Hotel, Zhu Zhangfu's second son, Zhu Shuiting, met with Sister Ye as arranged. When she heard that the Zhu family's children and grandchildren were still growing orchids and had already prospered, she said happily: When I return, I will certainly report your good news to Elder Kang.

From then on, the Zhu brothers and sisters all shared a wish to go to Beijing to visit Elder Kang and bring her a pot of orchids. But before the trip could be made, news came of Elder Kang's passing.

Not being able to see dear Elder Kang once more and let her smell the delicate fragrance of Zhejiang's orchids again became the greatest regret of the Zhu family's descendants.