An Examination of What "Qilixiang" Refers To: You Say This Line Feels So Much Like Summer
Qilixiang
Qilixiang
Jay Chou
00:00/04:59
The sparrow outside the window, chattering away on the utility pole
You say this line feels so much like summer
......
Whenever the melody begins, I am instantly transported back to that summer after graduating from middle school, when I first heard Jay Chou's new song on the radio at home and was moved. Afterward, I went to the county town and braved the heat to attend freshman military training. During a break, the instructor asked students to perform, and one tall, handsome boy sang this song "Qilixiang," full of tenderness, charming a crowd of female classmates. He later became our class monitor.
Summer in Jiangcheng, and heat is the only word for it. But now, listening to this song again, looking back, I feel there was shade beneath the blazing sun, and a cool breeze brushing my face beneath the shade. A new life, a new environment, new classmates, and Jay Chou's new album, new music - everything was as passionate and abundant as summer, filling one with anticipation and joy.
You suddenly, said to me
Qilixiang's, name is beautiful
After listening for so many years, I suddenly became very curious: what kind of plant is this "Qilixiang" exactly?
Qilixiang is also Qianlixiang
1.Xi Murong's "Qilixiang"
It is said that the inspiration for Jay Chou's song "Qilixiang" came from the poem of the same name "Qilixiang" by the Taiwan, China poet Xi Murong. The poem is about love lost in youth and was included in Xi Murong's first poetry collection of the same name, published in 1981:
The stream hurries to flow toward the ocean
Yet the waves long to return to the land
Before the hedge of green trees and white flowers
We once waved goodbye so easily
And after twenty years of vicissitudes
Our souls return night after night
When the breeze brushes past
They turn into a garden full of rich fragrance
When young, we did not understand love; twenty years later, having weathered life's vicissitudes, we realize how precious the feelings we easily gave up in our youth truly were. But having seen the vast ocean, only the green trees and white flowers of that summer night remain, still filling the garden with rich fragrance today. This poem is probably about first love. Look at the lyrics Vincent Fang wrote for Jay Chou: "The scent of first love is thus retrieved by us."
The "hedge of green trees and white flowers" in this poem should be qilixiang.Qilixiang is a plant in the Rutaceae family, with green trees and white flowers, like a small kumquat tree. In landscaping, qilixiang is indeed used to make hedges.
The official Chinese name of qilixiang is qianlixiang (Murraya paniculata), a small tree in the genus Murraya of the Rutaceae family. It is a close relative of citrus and kumquat, so it is also called yueju (month tangerine). Its fruit does not grow very large; when ripe, its diameter is less than 2 cm.
According to the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, qilixiang is also qianlixiang, also known as shilixiang (Flora of Taiwan), wanlixiang, jiuqiuxiang, jiushuxiang, guoshanxiang, etc.[1] Most of the names contain the character for "fragrance," and they are named after seven li, ten li, a thousand li, or even ten thousand li, which is quite exaggerated, but it also shows that its scent must be extremely fragrant. If I have the chance to go south in the future, I want to experience it firsthand and see how it compares to our osmanthus. Between qilixiang and shilixiang, there is also jiulixiang. Jiulixiang (Murraya exotica) and qianlixiang are plants of the same genus. Judging only by appearance, there is almost no difference between them, and both are used to make hedges or potted bonsai displays.
Most importantly, the flowering period of qianlixiang and jiulixiang is in summer.
2.The Qilixiang Used by the Ancients to Repel Bookworms in Their Collections
In Wu Qijun's "Plant Names and Reality Illustrated" there are two mentions of qilixiang, both different from the one in Xi Murong's poem.
The first is the entry for "qilixiang": "Qilixiang grows in Yunnan. It bears small white flowers, with long spikes like smartweed; only when close does one begin to smell its fragrance."[2] The entry for qilixiang is only this one sentence, and the accompanying illustration resembles smartweed. Based on the illustration and the alias information in the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, this qilixiang refers to Buddleja asiatica of the genus Buddleja in the Loganiaceae family. It is a Chinese herbal medicine; its flowers are fragrant and can be used to extract aromatic oil.
Buddleja asiatica, By Franz Xaver[3]
The second is the entry for "yun": "What people today call qilixiang." The book also says that the ancients used it to protect books from bookworms. Shen Kuo (1031-1095), in "Dream Pool Essays, Dialectics One," records, "Yun" is the fragrant herb the ancients used to repel bookworms (du) in their book collections, and people of the time called it "qilixiang"：
The ancients used yun to repel bookworms in their book collections. Yun is a fragrant herb; what people today call qilixiang is this. Its leaves resemble those of the pea and grow in small clumps, and its leaves are extremely fragrant. After autumn, the leaves become slightly white like a dusting of powder, and it is remarkably effective at repelling bookworms; southerners gather it and place it under mats, and it can drive away fleas and lice. When I was in charge of the Zhaowen Institute, I once obtained several plants from Lord Lu's household and transplanted them behind the Imperial Library, but now none survive.[4]
Shao Bo of the Northern Song dynasty (fl. around 1122), in "Shao's Records of Things Seen and Heard, Volume 29," also has a similar record:
The yun herb was used by the ancients to store books; "yunxiang" is what it is called. Placed among books, it prevents bookworms; placed under mats, it drives away fleas and lice. Its leaves resemble those of the pea and grow in small clumps; in autumn, the leaves become slightly white like a dusting of powder, and southerners call it "qilixiang." Fragrant herbs in general lose their fragrance after flowering; even if the leaves have fragrance, one must pick and smell them to notice it. This herb can be smelled from more than several tens of paces away, and from spring to autumn it does not cease, making it a delight to enjoy.
From the above two documents, it can be seen thatThe leaves of "yun" resemble those of the pea and grow in small clumps. At a glance, it is not the "green trees and white flowers" in Xi Murong's writing, but a herbaceous plant。
Its cultivation history can be described as very ancient. The "Book of Rites, Monthly Ordinances" says: "In the month of midwinter... yun begins to grow."[5] Xu Shen of the Eastern Han, in "Shuowen": "Yun is a herb, resembling alfalfa." This is consistent with Shen Kuo's statement that "its leaves resemble those of the pea." During the Wei and Jin dynasties, yunxiang became popular. The Western Jin writers Fu Xuan and his son Fu Xian, as well as Cheng Gongsu, all composed "Rhapsody on Yunxiang." At the time, it was planted in people's courtyards and in imperial palaces.[6]
by Gisling，https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5172082
At least by the Wei and Jin period, yunxiang was already used to protect book collections from insects. Yu Huan of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period"Dianlüe" records: "Yunxiang repels paper bookworms, hence the book repository is called 'Yuntai.'"[7] However, the "Rhapsody on Yunxiang" composed by Western Jin writers did not mention yunxiang's insect-repelling function. One may surmise that at that time this method was not yet widespread, or perhaps there were not many paper books. By the Tang dynasty, yunxiang was already used for official book collections, and the central institution managing the state's book collection, the Palace Library, was called Yunxiang Pavilion (Du Fu's poem: "At evening I go to Yunxiang Pavilion, where the dust of the Hu obscures the vast wilds"). The Tang poet Yang Juyuan, in "Replying to Vice Director Linghu's Letter Written on Night Duty": "Yunxiang can protect the characters, and the lead pen and wooden tablet are good at presenting books."Using fragrant herbs to protect books carries a certain romance and poetry.
By the Song dynasty, the use of yunxiang must have become widespread; it was present in both official academies and private studies. Mei Yaochen (1002-1060), in "Ten Poems on Vice Tutor Diao's New Villa: The West Studio": "Returning with quiet integrity, he built his own hut; Zhichuan in leisure also had many books.Please, sir, add yun grass to your shelves, and do not let silverfish appear among them." This West Studio was probably the study in Vice Tutor Diao's newly built villa. Zhang Bangji (fl. around 1131), in "Mozhuang Manlu," records an interesting story:
When Lord Wen Lu was prime minister, he attended the book-airing banquet at the Palace Library and ordered the hall clerks to inspect the yun grass beneath the pavilion. It was the very grass he had sent and planted in the library when he had governed Shu. He then asked from which book the bookworms came forth, and everyone present fell silent. Su Zirong answered with Yu Huan's "Dianlüe," and the lord was greatly pleased, and immediately borrowed it to take home.
Lord Wen Lu is the Northern Song minister Wen Yanbo (1006-1097), who served as both general and prime minister for fifty years and made many achievements. When Cai Jing monopolized power, he was classified as a Yuanyou partisan, with Sima Guang ranked first and Wen Yanbo second. Later, Emperor Huizong of Song posthumously restored him to the office of Grand Preceptor and gave him the posthumous title "Zhonglie." It is said that when Wen Yanbo was prime minister, he attended the book-airing banquet at the Palace Library. The "book-airing banquet" was an annual Northern Song gathering to air books to remove moisture and prevent mold, as well as for scholar-officials to discuss learning and strengthen bonds.[8] At the gathering, Wen Yanbo introduced to the officials present the yun grass he had transplanted from his home outside the book repository years earlier, and then suddenly asked everyone: "From which book do the bookworms come forth?" What he was actually asking was the source of the saying "yunxiang repels bookworms." Everyone was baffled, and only Su Zirong answered with the "Dianlun," which was also the correct answer.
Ah, Song dynasty literati truly had such refined sentiment! Every plant and tree holds learning.
by Zhangzhugang，https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27751629
The Ming dynasty Tianyi Pavilion book collection also used yunxiang. The Qing dynasty playwright Xie Kun (1784-1844), in "Chuncaotang Collection," records:
The Fan family's Tianyi Pavilion has a very rich book collection, including works rarely seen in the world. It also stores one copy of yun grass, pale green in color and not withered; for three hundred years it has produced no bookworms, and this is due to the herb's efficacy.
Tianyi Pavilion is China's earliest private library, built under the supervision of Fan Qin (1505-1585, equivalent to a deputy minister of national defense), Right Vice Minister of War in the mid-Ming dynasty, after his retirement. It is located in Ningbo, Zhejiang, and is now a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level. At its peak, Tianyi Pavilion's collection reached more than 5,000 titles and over 70,000 volumes, including many rare and fine editions.Thanks to the yun grass, Tianyi Pavilion's massive collection survived years without being damaged by insects.
So the small yun grass played an indispensable role in protecting ancient books and transmitting culture.And the "scholarly fragrance" in the ancients' phrase "scholarly family" probably included the fragrance of yun grass. Because of yun grass's important role in protecting books, it almost became a synonym for books: a study is called "yun window" or "yun hall," books are called "yun volumes" or "yun compilations," a book collator is called a "yunxiang clerk," and a bookmark is called a "yun slip."
3.What Plant Is Yunxiang Exactly
Having said so much, what plant exactly is the insect-repelling "yunxiang"? Wu Qijun's "Plant Names and Reality Illustrated" does not specify it precisely, but merely lists records related to "yun" from dynastic texts, and the accompanying illustration is also exceptionally crude.
Illustration of "yun" in Plant Names and Reality Illustrated
But in the third plant before "yun," "bihancao," Wu Qijun proposed a conjecture:
Bihancao grows everywhere. It grows in clumps, over a chi in height, with three leaves to a branch, like small bean leaves. In summer it bears small yellow flowers like water osmanthus, and people often pick it and place it in their hair to repel sweat odor. According to "Dream Pool Essays": "Yunxiang leaves resemble those of the pea; in autumn the leaves become slightly white like a dusting of powder. 'Shuowen' says 'yun resembles alfalfa,' and some say it is this herb. The shape is extremely similar, and it may be offered as one theory."[9]
Therefore Wu Qijun believed that yunxiang might be bihancao.
And what is bihancao? According to Wang Dajun's "A Study of Yunxiang," the modern botanist Professor Zheng Mian gave the answer in "Taxonomy of Chinese Seed Plants": "Bihancao in Volume 25 of the Fragrant Herbs section of 'Plant Names and Reality Illustrated' is suspected to be Melilotus."[10]The Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae agrees with this view and holds that Melilotus (bihancao) is the yunxiang the ancients used to protect books and repel insects.
Melilotus
According to the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, Melilotus officinalis, of the Fabaceae family, is a biennial herb, with racemes 6-15 (-20) cm long. Its leaves closely resemble alfalfa, its flowers are yellow, and its inflorescence is spicate. This matches extremely well the description in the Song dynasty poem by Mei Yaochen, "Finding a Yunxiang Plant Among the Thickets of the Tang Book Bureau": "There is yun like alfalfa, growing among the weeds. ... Three or four spikes of yellow flowers, bearing seed and propagating endlessly."
Therefore the author believes that the yunxiang also called qilixiang is actually Melilotus.People today writing articles mostly think that yunxiang is the grass Cymbopogon distans of the Poaceae family or rue (Ruta graveolens) of the Rutaceae family, both misled by plant naming.
Today's "family head" of the Rutaceae, rue, has strong distinctive odors in all its parts, not necessarily fragrance; its flowers are indeed yellow, but not spicate; its place of origin is the Mediterranean coast, and it should have been introduced to our country through the Silk Road. After this exotic species was introduced, those who named it borrowed the ancient name yunxiang, rich in history and depth, and also made it the head of a family of trees such as citrus. It is unclear why.
[1] Chinese Academy of Sciences, Editorial Committee of the Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae: Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, Science Press, 2004 edition, Volume 43(2), page 141.
[2] (Qing) Wu Qijun, edited and annotated by Zhang Xianrui et al.: Annotated Edition of Plant Names and Reality Illustrated, Traditional Chinese Medicine Classics Press, 2008 edition, page 507.
[3]By Franz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15635600
[4] (Song) Shen Kuo: Dream Pool Essays, Zhonghua Book Company, January 2016 first edition, page 57.
[5] Eastern Han Zheng Xuan's commentary says: "Yun is a fragrant herb." (Qing) Sun Xidan: Collected Explanations of the Book of Rites, Zhonghua Book Company, 1989 edition, page 498.
[6] Fu Xuan's preface to "Rhapsody on Yunxiang" says: "People of the world plant it in their central courtyards. At first it is introduced for its subtle fragrance, but in the end it is cast aside upon the yellow soil. Alas, how pitiable. So I chant and compose a rhapsody on it." Western Jin Cheng Gongsu's "Rhapsody on Yunxiang": "It removes the weeds of the wild plain, and is planted in the front courtyard of the great hall. Its stems resemble autumn bamboo, its leaves resemble spring tamarisk." From this it can be seen that yunxiang had already entered people's courtyards and become a common ornamental plant. "Classified Compendium of Arts and Literature" quotes "Record of Luoyang Palaces": "Before Xianyang Hall there is one plant of yunxiang; before Huiyin Hall there are two plants of yunxiang; before Hanzhang Hall there are two plants of yunxiang." "Names of Jin Palaces and Pavilions" says: "Before Taiji Hall, four plots of yunxiang; before Shigan Hall, eight plots of yunxiang." From this it can be seen that the palaces of the Wei and Jin period also planted this fragrant herb. "Record of Luoyang Palaces" and "Names of Jin Palaces and Pavilions" are works from before the Tang, now lost.
[7] "Dianlüe" is lost; see Pei Songzhi's annotated edition of "Records of the Three Kingdoms."
[8] Lin Ming: "Ancient Book-Airing and Its Gains and Losses," Library Science Journal, 2012, Issue 4. Qiu Jun's "Supplement to the Great Learning" Volume 94 records the book-airing system under Emperor Shenzong of Song: "In the third year of Yuanfeng (1080) of Shenzong, the official system was reformed, and the Chongwen Institute was made the Palace Library. Printed and copied works were separately stored in the Jixian Institute, History Institute, Zhaowen Institute, and Imperial Library as classical and other books, with a Secretary in charge. When compiling and collating and correcting omissions, a Collator and Proofreader were in charge. Each year in midsummer the books were aired, and funds for wine and food were provided; remonstrance officials, censors, and officials of the rank of Edict Attendant and above attended." See "Supplement to the Great Learning, Middle, Volume 94," Jinghua Publishing House, 1999, pages 807-808.
[9] (Qing) Wu Qijun, edited and annotated by Zhang Xianrui et al.: Annotated Edition of Plant Names and Reality Illustrated, Traditional Chinese Medicine Classics Press, 2008 edition, page 508.
[10] Wang Dajun: "A Study of Yunxiang," Landscape Architecture, 2000, Issue 01.
About the author: Jianghan Tangtang, corporate employee / art museum public education volunteer / freelance writer, currently living in Beijing.
Text and image editing: Jiang Mouren
This work is licensed under the (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license agreement
Please retain the above statement when reproducing
iPhone users can tip the author via the QR code below