Light and Shadow in the Agricultural Development of East and West

About the author: Chanshan Hualuo, a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Currently a graduate student at Zhejiang University. A lover of flowers, grasses, and trees.

Monet's "Water Lilies" is one of my favorite oil paintings.

Claude Monet,The Water Lilies - The Clouds, 1920–1926, Musée de l"Orangerie[1]

On the first floor of the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, two oval rooms each house three large rectangular water lily paintings.

Musée de l"Orangerie – plan | Musée de l'Orangerie – exhibition layout[2]

Musée de L"Orangerie - Water Lilies Room | Musée de l'Orangerie – Water Lilies Room[2]

Through the expansive glass, daylight shifts with the hours, and amid the changing light and shadow, what remains constant is the mesmerizing beauty of the water lilies.

Visitors stand beside the paintings to take photos; phones and cameras capture the lovely image of the "Water Lilies," but more often, people who come to the Musée de l'Orangerie sit on the benches in the exhibition hall, quietly gazing at the water lilies not far away, watching the different radiance they reveal as time and shadows shift.

Claude Monet,Le Bassin aux nymphéas, harmooie verte, Musée d"Orsay

Monet, Pond·Water Lilies – Harmony in Green, Musée d'Orsay, double-click the image to view it larger

Water Lily Nymphaea tetragona, Nymphaeaceae family, Nymphaea genus, English name Water Lily – lily of the water.

A botanical description of the water lily hardly seems necessary -- we can always recognize a water lily at a glance, and can easily distinguish it from the lotus.

Last year, in "Twelve Flower Gods | Jade Terrace and Bright Mirror," there was a comment: "... Also, the mood of water lilies and lotuses is very different. Think of Monet's water lilies -- it is a completely different feeling."

Indeed, Monet's water lilies and the lotuses in ancient paintings give a completely different feeling.

People who observe life carefully and who hold a love for flowers and plants can always easily perceive this different feeling.

Water lilies are widely distributed across temperate and tropical zones, with large, beautiful flowers in rich colors and great ornamental value. As early as the mid-19th century, the West began hybrid breeding of water lilies: in 1851 the Englishman Joseph Paxton bred the first water lily hybrid, 'Devoniensis'. China's water lily breeding started relatively late, and it was not until the late 20th century that the Wuhan Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences filled the gap in domestic water lily breeding.

To this day, China has bred more than 120 hardy and more than 60 tropical water lily varieties. From this, one can infer that the West must have even more water lily varieties.

-- Plants of the Nymphaeaceae family and Nymphaea genus are hailed as the "Queen of Aquatic Plants"[3].

At the Royal Botanic Gardens in the UK, there is a Waterlily House.

Nymphaea'Kew's Stowaway Blues'|Kew's Stowaway Blues

Nymphaea'Kew's Kabuki'|Kew's Kabuki

Nymphaea georginae|Georgina River water lily (Australian water lily subgenus; widely distributed in the Georgina River of Queensland, Australia)

Nymphaea atrans|Black water lily (Australian water lily subgenus); white petals with blue tips on the outer ring, turning deep pink after a few days[4]

Nymphaea'Albert Greenberg'|Albert Greenberg (bred by Berdsey in 1967; characteristics: tall inflorescence, no vivipary, cultivated for ornamental purposes)

Nymphaea'Thongsook'|Tropical water lily group (bred by Slearmlarp Wasuwat, introduced in 1999[5])

The Waterlily House at the Royal Botanic Gardens is not large, and the water lily varieties on display mainly highlight the rich variation in color among water lilies.

In fact, under the Nymphaea genus, depending on climatic adaptability, there are also the tropical waterlily group and the hardy waterlily group; the tropical waterlily group is further divided into the day-blooming waterlily subgroup and the night-blooming waterlily subgroup[3].

I would really love to see the splendor of the night-blooming waterlily subgroup.

Nymphaea'Antares'|Tropical night-blooming waterlily subgroup (bred by Patrick Nutt, introduced in 1974[6])

If Monet's "Water Lilies" vividly depicts the charm of water lilies amid shifting light and shadow, then the Chinese and English names of the water lily convey the different imagery of water lilies in Eastern and Western cultures.

In "100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names," Diana Wells writes: "The water lily is said to be edible; according to Herodotus (Greek historian, c. 485 BCE - c. 425 BCE), the root of the water lily tasted 'quite sweet.' The ancient Greeks believed water lilies had anti-aphrodisiac properties, and in the Middle Ages, nuns and monks mixed the above-ground parts of the water lily with honey to make a paste to preserve chastity (the recipe is now unknown)."

"Today, water lilies are neither eaten nor, probably, used to make medicine. But the miracle of a pure flower growing out of the murky waters of a muddy pond is as powerful as ever."

Through Diana Wells's description, we may perhaps understand why, in the West, the water lily is called the "lily of the water."

Purity is the key word.

Nymphaea'Crystal'|Crystal (bred by Don Bryne, introduced in 1994[7])

But in ancient China, water lilies did not attract much attention.

Professor Huang Guozhen, the "Father of Chinese Water Lilies," who was inducted into the "World Water Lily Hall of Fame," once answered two questions from a Xinmin Evening News reporter in an interview: Why is there no written record of water lilies in Chinese literature and art through the ages? Which countries and regions have a relatively long history of water lily use?[8]

From Mr. Huang's answers, we can more clearly perceive the differences and distinctions of water lilies in East and West.

Answer: Because there are not many water lilies distributed in China. At present, there are three native distributions of water lilies in our country, and the two with large, brightly colored flowers are distributed only in northern Xinjiang and the southern tip of Hainan Island, which historically were remote areas with sparse populations, so few people saw them. The water lilies distributed in the interior have small, plain flowers, and compared with the large, brightly colored lotus, they naturally find it hard to attract attention.

Answer: As for the history of water lilies becoming part of human civilization, Egypt's is relatively ancient. As everyone knows, the water lily is the national flower of Egypt. In a village by the Nile, a mural painted between 3000 BCE and 2500 BCE includes water lilies. In ancient Egypt, people not only used water lilies extensively in religious ceremonies or when offering flowers to the deceased and to altars, but also often used water lily flowers in the social gatherings of nobles. In addition, water lilies were often used as food, and various artistic patterns and craft ornaments were also produced.

Nymphaea'Suwanna'|Suwanna (bred by Kanchana Kokhakanin, introduced in 2007[9])

From this we can infer that in the Chinese name for water lily, the character "" (sleep) reflects the plant's characteristics: water lilies love strong light and are especially sensitive to sunlight. When the rising sun calls the sleeping "beauty," the outer side of the petals exposed to sunlight grows more slowly than the inner side, and the petals begin to open; under strong midday light, the outer petals grow faster, and the water lily begins to close. Night-blooming water lilies are just the opposite, but the internal mechanism and environmental influences have not yet been clarified by research.[10]

The character "" (lotus) reflects the water lily's outward feature: its flower shape resembles a lotus.

Nymphaea'Forget-Me-Not'|Forget-Me-Not (bred by Garet Uemura, introduced in 2004[11])

Nymphaea atrans|Black water lily in the Waterlily House at the Royal Botanic Gardens is exactly like a lotus.

Although its appearance is "exactly like a lotus," in terms of Eastern cultural heritage, the water lily is not at all like the lotus. Ancient poems and prose describing the lotus are as vast as smoke and sea, with countless famous works; beautiful essays and fine works describing water lilies are unexpectedly hard to find. This is truly regrettable, and quite a pity.

The different cultural backgrounds of East and West have given the water lily different names in their respective contexts. But what is the same is the water lily's astonishing beauty.

-- Even as light and shadow shift, its charm remains breathtaking.

[1] Water Lilies (Monet series) - WIKIPEDIA

[2] Musée de l"Orangerie - WIKIPEDIA

[3] Liu Yiman, Slearmlarp Wasuwat, Ke Weidong, et al. Report on the Investigation of Thai Water Lilies, China Horticulture Abstracts, 2009, 25(3): 120-124.

[4]Nymphaea atrans– International Waterlily Collection (IWC)

[5]Nymphaea‘Thongsook’ – International Waterlily Collection (IWC)

[6]Nymphaea‘Antares’ – International Waterlily Collection (IWC)

[7]Nymphaea‘Crystal’ – International Waterlily Collection (IWC)

[8] Mao Xiaohua. The Father of Chinese Water Lilies Tells the Past and Present of Water Lilies. Xinmin Evening News, July 11, 2014, page B16.

[9]Nymphaea‘Suwanna’ – International Waterlily Collection (IWC)

[10] "Father of Chinese Water Lilies" Huang Guozhen Explains the "Mysteries" of Water Lilies. Xinmin Evening News, July 4, 2014, page B16.

[11]Nymphaea‘Forget-Me-Not’ – International Waterlily Collection (IWC)

Text: Chanshan Hualuo

Images: Chanshan Hualuo / International Waterlily Collection (IWC)

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