Is the flower meaning of the bellflower eternal love or hopeless love?
A friend received bellflowers from her boyfriend and was happily showing off their love in front of us, when another friend quietly chimed in, "Do you know what the flower meaning of the bellflower is?" She put on a mysterious air, which stumped us, and we could only wait eagerly for her to reveal the answer. She proudly told us that the bellflower's flower meaning has two layers: one is eternal love, and the other is hopeless love. The editor found this quite curious upon hearing it, so I gathered some information to share with you. Whether the bellflower's flower meaning is eternal love or hopeless love, let me explain it to you in detail.
In Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica," the name of the bellflower is explained as: "The root of this plant is firm and the stem is straight, hence it is named bellflower (Jiegeng)." The root of the bellflower is used medicinally, containing platycodin, and has effects such as relieving cough, expelling phlegm, and reducing inflammation (treating pleurisy). Such a flower, however, has two layers of flower meaning: eternal love and hopeless love. The blooming of the bellflower also represents a state of mind of looking back on having walked through all of youth's path, called having no regrets. How did this come about?
It turns out that legend says the blooming of the bellflower represents the arrival of happiness once again. But some people can grasp happiness, while others are destined to have no fate with it, unable to grasp it, and unable to keep the flower either.
Among the very typical legendary interpretations, there is a story like this: there was a girl named Jiegeng (Bellflower), who fell in love with a boy, but that boy went far away to study the arts of immortality. Jiegeng waited and waited in the same place, until she transformed into a flower, and therefore one flower meaning is hopeless love.
When that boy returned, he learned of Jiegeng's story from others, felt guilty in his heart, and so stayed by Jiegeng's side. Jiegeng gave him one lifetime, but he gave Jiegeng life after life. Therefore, another flower meaning of the bellflower is eternal love.
This is the reason the bellflower has two layers of flower meaning. Behind it is a touching love legend. Whether it is hopeless love or eternal love, the pure love symbolized by the bellflower is what everyone yearns for in their hearts. Have you been moved by it too?