Latest Interpretation of the Flower Language and Symbolic Meaning of the Redbud Flower
The redbud flower is also known as the red-flowered camel's foot tree. The redbud is native to China, and abroad it is called “red-flowered camel's foot tree.” It is the regional flower of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. Do you know what the flower language and symbolic meaning of the redbud flower are? Below, let's take a look together at the flower language and symbolic meaning of the redbud flower!
The Flower Language of the Redbud Flower
Family affection, brotherly harmony, and a thriving family fortune.
The Symbolic Meaning of the Redbud Flower
When the redbud blooms, branch after branch, cluster after cluster, it looks as if dyed, as if painted. Amid displacement and wandering, how much longing weighs upon a drifting heart. The wind blows through the redbud, and countless blossoms fall, making the melancholy poet think of kin at the sight of it. The deep bond of siblings who once shared every day together is gone like fallen petals with no place to return.
In the shadows of the blossoms, do you feel those eyes far away longing for the wanderer's return, letting you feel the warmth overflowing with faint family affection? Having been invited into courtyards by people and becoming a traditional courtyard tree, the redbud sinks its roots deep into the courtyards of ordinary households. It has always been a symbol of family harmony and deep blood ties, becoming a representative plant of family affection.
The Legend of the Redbud Flower
1. The Legend of the Flower Language
In early spring, the redbud blooms in response to spring. Gorgeous flowers densely cover every branch of the whole tree. The flowers have the same color as roses, shaped like a flock of fluttering butterflies, layer upon layer, the whole tree a brilliant crimson. The reason the redbud flower is used by people to compare family affection and symbolize brotherly harmony and a thriving family fortune comes from a legend:
It is said that during the Southern Dynasties, the capital governor Tian Zhen and his brothers Tian Qing and Tian Guang divided up the family property. When all the other property had been divided properly, they finally discovered that in the courtyard there was still a redbud tree with spreading branches and clustered blossoms that was hard to handle. That night, the three brothers discussed cutting this redbud tree into three sections, one for each of them. Early the next morning, when the three brothers went to cut the tree, they found that all the branches and leaves of this redbud tree had withered, and all the flowers had fallen. Seeing this, Tian Zhen could not help sighing to his two brothers, “People are not as good as trees.”
Later, the three brothers merged the family back together and lived in harmony. That redbud tree seemed quite to understand human nature, and it too recovered its vitality, growing with abundant flowers and lush leaves.
2. The Mythological Legend
It is said that the redbud was not called redbud but wusang. The wusang tree was a divine tree of the Heavenly Palace. Its flowers could preserve youth and beautify hair, its leaves could be used for bathing to refresh the body, and its roots could prolong life, so it became the favorite flower of the Queen Mother of the West. In order to keep it from falling into the mortal world, she placed the flower seeds in a secret place. Apart from her favorite Fairy Zixia, who wove the seven-colored clouds, no one knew where she had put the flower seeds.
Later, that Fairy Zixia, who was cherished and protected in every way by the Queen Mother of the West, unexpectedly descended to the mortal world without permission, took the name Zhinu, and became husband and wife with Niulang, becoming a timeless tale widely circulated among mortals. This is a story known to every woman and child on the land of China.
Later, when the Queen Mother of the West learned of it, in a great rage she brought Fairy Zixia back to the Heavenly Court and first locked her in a small room as punishment. Later, after the Queen Mother's anger gradually subsided, besides allowing her to meet Niulang on the magpie bridge on the seventh day of the seventh month each year, she also let her continue to look after the wusang tree of the Heavenly Palace to relieve her loneliness.
Fairy Zixia, straining her eyes in longing, awaited the annual magpie bridge meeting with Niulang. When she asked about the villagers, Niulang shook his head gloomily and told her that the villagers had contracted a strange disease, with itching all over the body and dry hair, and the village had fallen into utter chaos. Hearing this, Fairy Zixia remembered the wusang tree in the Heavenly Palace that could cure all diseases and bore purple flowers. Why not scatter wusang tree seeds across the mortal world to benefit the people? No sooner thought than done. Fairy Zixia asked Niulang to wait a moment. She went to the place where the Queen Mother of the West treasured the wusang tree seeds, secretly took out the mutton-fat jade bottle filled with wusang tree seeds, returned to Niulang's side, and told Niulang about the functions and uses of the wusang tree seeds, letting him bring the seeds back to the mortal world to plant and grow widely, and to use the wusang tree to cure the villagers' strange disease.
When Fairy Zixia handed the bottle to Niulang, Erlang Shen had already discovered Fairy Zixia's actions. Erlang Shen shouted in a stern voice, “How bold! To dare to carry a divine object of the Heavenly Court secretly to the mortal dust, hand it over at once!” Hearing this, Niulang fell into a panic. Seeing that things were going badly, Fairy Zixia immediately took out the mutton-fat jade bottle, pulled out the stopper, and poured all the wusang tree seeds down into the mortal world. The wusang seeds drifted and floated down into the mortal world. Those seeds took root upon meeting soil and sprouted upon meeting water, becoming in the mortal world the most flourishing and most beautiful redbud flower forest.
Later, the villagers used the leaves and roots of the wusang tree soaked in water to bathe their whole bodies, and the strange disease was unexpectedly cured. In order to commemorate that kind and beautiful Fairy Zixia, people called this tree the redbud tree and this flower the redbud flower, because the flower language of this flower in folk legend is: “Unswerving in devotion, never leaving nor forsaking.” So the redbud flower is regarded by many young people as a token of love, given to the one they love.