What is the legend of jasmine? Let us introduce you to the folk story of jasmine

Originally called Moli flower, jasmine was introduced to China from southwestern Asia as early as the Han Dynasty, and has a history of more than 1,600 years so far. Its economic value is very high, mainly used for scenting (xun, same as "smoking") scented tea. But the formal production of scented tea has a history of only more than 100 years.

Legend has it that in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a farmer surnamed Zhao lived in Huqiu, Suzhou, with his wife and 3 sons, living 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 of them, all mainly growing tea plants. One year Old Zhao returned home and brought back a bundle of flowering saplings, saying only that this was a fragrant flower liked by southerners, and he could not figure out what it was called. Regardless of whether his sons liked it or not, Old Zhao planted it along the edge of his 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 then checked the whole tea field, and all of it carried the fragrance. He quietly picked a basket of tea leaves and took them to Suzhou city to try to sell. Unexpectedly, this fragrant tea was really popular and sold out in a moment. 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 their elder brother's fragrant tea was caused by the fragrant flowers their father had planted, 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.

There was an old hermit in the village named Dai Kui, deeply respected by the people. The three Zhao brothers all went to Dai's house to ask him to judge the matter. Dai Kui said: "You three are full brothers and should be intimate and inseparable. In the future you will still marry and have children and become parents yourselves. You cannot, just for a tiny bit of immediate profit, quarrel until you fall apart. The fragrant tea your elder brother discovered and sold for more money is a great good thing, and the whole family should be happy. When the God of Wealth has entered your door, you instead start fighting. How could there be such foolishness? 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 when all the brothers sell fragrant tea, everyone will get rich. Now that your fragrant flowers have a name, bad people may want to steal them. What then? The brothers 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? In order that you can remember my words, I will give a flower name for your family's fragrant flowers, and call it Moli flower, meaning that in dealing with people and matters, personal selfish interests should be placed last." 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. Moli flower was written as jasmine by literati in order to make the characters look beautiful, but the meaning of Moli has still been retained in people's hearts.