Latest interpretation of jasmine flower language and legends
What is the flower language of jasmine? Jasmine is pure and white, rich, fresh and fragrant, and long-lasting. Its flower language represents loyalty, respect, purity, chastity, simplicity, delicacy, and charm. Many countries regard it as the flower of love. Between young men and women, jasmine flowers are exchanged to express steadfast love. It is also regarded as the flower of friendship and is passed among people. Placing a jasmine garland around a guest's neck so that it hangs down to the chest expresses respect and friendliness and has become a courteous gesture of warm hospitality.
The flower language of jasmine
Jasmine is pure and white, rich, fresh and fragrant, and long-lasting, with meanings of loyalty, purity, chastity, simplicity, delicacy, and charm.
1. It represents loyalty and chastity. In love, jasmine represents pure and sincere love, with no false element, and expresses steadfast love. Many countries regard it as the flower of love, and young people use it as a gift for a girlfriend to express loyal love to the other person.
2. It represents respect and esteem. When an honored guest visits, a hospitable host will make jasmine into a garland and hang it around the guest's neck to express respect and friendliness; it is a gesture of warm hospitality. On solemn occasions such as weddings, it is also a very suitable decorative flower and is often used in bridal bouquets.
The legend of jasmine
According to legend, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a farmer surnamed Zhao lived in Huqiu, Suzhou. The household consisted of the couple and 3 sons, and life was poor. Old Zhao went out to make a living and settled in a village in Guangdong, returning every two or three years to take a look. His wife and sons farmed at home. As the children gradually grew up, the land was divided into three sections, one for each person, and each mainly planted tea trees. One year, Old Zhao returned home and brought back a bundle of flowering tree seedlings, saying only that this was a fragrant flower liked by southerners; he could not figure out what it was called. Whether his sons liked it or not, Old Zhao planted it along the edge of the eldest son's tea field. A year later, small white flowers bloomed one after another on the trees. Although fragrant, they did not arouse much interest among the villagers. One day, the Zhao family's son was surprised to find that the tea branches carried the fragrance of the small white flowers. He immediately checked the whole tea field, and all of it carried the fragrance. He quietly picked a basket of tea leaves and went to Suzhou city to try selling them. Unexpectedly, this fragrant tea was truly popular and sold out in a short while. That year, the eldest son made a great fortune selling fragrant tea, and the news finally spread. When the two younger brothers learned of it, they went to settle accounts with their elder brother, believing that his fragrant tea was caused by the fragrant flowers planted by their father, and that the money from selling tea should be divided equally among the three. The brothers argued endlessly, and the two younger brothers wanted to forcibly destroy the fragrant flowers.
In the village there was an old recluse named Dai Kui, deeply respected by the people. The three Zhao brothers all went to Dai's home and asked him to judge the matter. Dai Kui said: "You three are own brothers and should be inseparable. In the future you will still marry and have children and become parents yourselves. You cannot quarrel and split apart over just a little immediate profit. The fragrant tea discovered by the elder brother sold for more money; this is a great good thing, and the whole family should be happy. When the God of Wealth enters your door, you instead start fighting. How can there be such foolishness? Do you know where the God of Wealth is? It is these fragrant flowers. You must propagate and develop these fragrant flowers, plant fragrant flowers in each person's tea field, and when all the brothers sell fragrant tea, everyone will become wealthy. Once your fragrant flowers become famous, bad people will want to steal them. What then? The brothers should take turns guarding them, and this requires unity. If you are all selfish and do not put everyone's interests first, how can anything succeed? So that you can remember my words, I will give your family's fragrant flower a flower name: Molihua, meaning that in dealing with people and affairs, personal selfish interests should be placed last." After hearing Old Master Dai's words, the three brothers were deeply moved. After returning home, they lived in harmony and worked together in production, and everyone's life became more prosperous year by year.
Later, Suzhou jasmine became a famous local product. After many more years, Suzhou jasmine tea became known far and wide. The writing of Molihua as jasmine was a change made by literati for the beauty of the character forms, but the meaning of "Mo Li" still remains in people's hearts.
In the Tang dynasty, among the famous courtesans of Suzhou there was one named Zhenniang. Zhenniang came from a scholarly family in the capital Chang'an. From childhood she was intelligent and lovely, skilled at singing and dancing, accomplished in qin and chess, and proficient in calligraphy and painting. To escape the An Lushan Rebellion, she fled south with her parents, became separated from her family on the way, wandered to Suzhou, and was tricked into the brothel "Leyun Tower" on Shantang Street. Because Zhenniang was both talented and beautiful, she quickly became famous for a time, but she only performed arts and did not sell her body, keeping herself chaste as jade. At that time, in Suzhou there was a rich young man named Wang Yinxiang, upright in character and with some talent as well. He happened to fall in love with Zhenniang in the brothel and wanted to marry her. Because Zhenniang had already been betrothed in childhood by her parents' arrangement, she could only decline tactfully. Wang Yinxiang still would not give up and used heavy money to bribe the madam, hoping to stay overnight with Zhenniang. Feeling that she could hardly resist, Zhenniang hanged herself to preserve her chastity. When Wang Yinxiang learned of it, he was deeply remorseful and grief-stricken. He spent money to give Zhenniang a lavish burial at the scenic Huqiu and carved a stele in her memory, planting flowers and trees on the grave, which people called the "Flower Tomb," and he vowed never to marry again. Whenever men of letters and refined scholars passed Zhenniang's tomb, they could not help but feel tender pity for this peerless beauty and wrote poems on the tomb one after another.
Legend says that before Zhenniang died, jasmine had no fragrance. After her death, her soul attached itself to the flower, and from then on jasmine carried fragrance, so jasmine is also called fragrant soul, and jasmine tea is also called fragrant soul tea.