What is the flower language of jasmine? A detailed explanation of the legend behind it
What is the flower language of jasmine? Jasmine is pure and white, rich, fresh and fragrant, and enduring. Its flower language represents loyalty, respect, purity, chastity, simplicity, delicacy, and charm. Many countries regard it as the flower of love. Young men and women give jasmine to each other to express steadfast love. It is also regarded as the flower of friendship and 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 ritual of warm hospitality.
The flower language of jasmine
Jasmine is pure and white, rich, fresh and fragrant, and enduring, 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 their girlfriends to express loyal love to the other person.
2. It represents respect and esteem. When an honored guest visits, the hospitable host makes jasmine into a garland and hangs it around the guest's neck to express respect and friendliness. It is a ritual 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
It is said that in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a farmer surnamed Zhao lived in Huqiu, Suzhou. The family consisted of a husband and wife and 3 sons, and they lived in poverty. 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 all mainly grew tea plants. 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, and that he was not clear about its name either. Regardless of 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 son of the Zhao family was surprised to find that the tea branches carried the fragrance of the small white flowers. He immediately checked the entire tea field, and all of it carried the fragrance. He then quietly picked a basket of tea leaves and went to Suzhou city to try selling them. Unexpectedly, this fragrant tea was really 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 due to the fragrant flowers planted by their father, and that the money from their elder brother's tea sales should be divided equally among the three. The brothers quarreled endlessly, and the two younger brothers wanted to forcibly destroy the fragrant flowers.
In the village there was an old hermit named Dai Kui, deeply respected by the people. The three Zhao brothers all went to Dai's house and asked him to judge the matter. Dai Kui said: "You three are full brothers and should be inseparable. In the future you will still marry and have children and become parents yourselves. You cannot let a little immediate profit make you fall apart. The fragrant tea discovered by your elder brother sold for more money. This is a great good thing, and the whole family should be happy. When the God of Wealth has entered your household, you instead start fighting. How can there be such a foolish thing? Do you know where the God of Wealth is? It is these fragrant flowers. You should propagate and develop these fragrant flowers, plant fragrant flowers in each person's tea field, and let all the brothers sell fragrant tea, and then everyone will become rich. Once your fragrant flowers become famous, bad people may come to steal them. What then? The brothers take turns watching over them, and this requires unity. If all of you are selfish and do not put everyone's interests first, how can anything succeed? In order that you can remember my words, I will give your family's fragrant flower a name, and call it 'Moli flower,' meaning that in handling 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 renowned far and near. The writing of "Moli flower" as "moli flower" was changed by literati for the beauty of the character forms, but the meaning of "placing selfish interests last" is still retained 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 in song and dance, 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 lured into the brothel "Leyun Lou" on Shantang Street. Because Zhenniang was both talented and beautiful, she soon became famous for a time, but she only sold her artistic skills and did not sell her body, keeping herself pure as jade. At that time, there was a young man from a wealthy family in Suzhou named Wang Yinxiang. He was upright in character and had 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 politely. Wang Yinxiang still would not give up. He used heavy money to bribe the madam, wanting to stay overnight at Zhenniang's place. Zhenniang felt it was already difficult to resist, and to preserve her chastity, she hanged herself. When Wang Yinxiang learned of it, he was deeply remorseful and grief-stricken. He spent generously to give Zhenniang a lavish burial at the scenic Huqiu, and carved a stele in her memory, planting flowers and trees on the grave. People called it the "Flower Tomb," and he vowed never to marry again. Whenever literati and refined scholars passed Zhenniang's tomb, they could not help but feel tenderness for this peerless beauty, and one after another inscribed poems on the tomb.
Legend says that before Zhenniang died, jasmine had no fragrance. After her death, her soul attached itself to the flowers, and from then on jasmine carried fragrance. Therefore jasmine is also called "fragrant soul," and jasmine tea is also called "fragrant soul tea."