What are the poems and verse lines that describe the red magnolia
The lotus flower at the tip of the tree, in the mountains it puts forth red calyxes. By the stream's door, silent and peopleless, they bloom and fall in profusion.
Wang Wei titled the poem series "Xinyi Wu," so the lotus flower here must refer to xinyi.
Xinyi is the red magnolia, also called mubi, because the flower buds grow at the tips of the branches, pointing straight toward the sky, shaped like a writing brush. The ancients, when naming flowers, were extremely fond of the lotus, and because of this there are very many flowers named after the lotus. The lotus in the water is called water lotus, and is completely different from the lotus category; on land, the tree is the cotton rose, and the herbaceous one is the herbaceous lotus. These two kinds of lotus belong to the same family, and together with hibiscus, fringed hibiscus, hollyhock, and mallow, they all belong to the Malvaceae family.
But the red calyxes in Wang Wei's poem have nothing to do with these; they refer to the red magnolia. Magnolias are slender and graceful, bright and pure, grand, radiant yet elegant and reserved. Their splendor does not fall into vulgarity; it shines at the very foundation of people's souls. Under the moonlight, their quiet grace displays a beauty beyond the mortal world, a beauty that makes one feel ashamed, a beauty that makes lovers firmly believe in pure love. The world of mortals has not grown old, and the world becomes quiet because of them.