On the fragrance History of Orchid

Author: Wen Xin Diao Lan

One: the bewilderment of a man

In a few days, it will be the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of May. In China, the status of Dragon Boat Festival is very high. During the festival, people burn, burn or hang Acorus, Artemisia, Artemisia, Atractylodes, Angelica dahurica and other spice plants to ward off disease and avoid filth, and there are legends commemorating qu Yuan or Wu Zixu. In fact, this kind of large-scale event in May already had its embryonic form as early as the Xia Dynasty. In the pre-Qin period, the book Xia Xiaozheng, which can be seen at the age of the Xia Dynasty, is the single oldest calendar book included in Dadai Li Ji, in which the record of May is "hoarding-- for bathing". It means that people store and bathe in order to get rid of uncleanliness in order to be healthy. It can be said that this is the original form of Dragon Boat Festival customs. Here, I am not trying to find out the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, but I am more concerned about the phrase "storing rice-- for bathing." This is the Xia Dynasty, the earliest era in which the grass of "gu" appeared. After that, it was also recorded in the Book of songs: "there is no truth between the two sides, and between the scholars and the women." The woman said Guanhu, and the scholar said both. Let's look at it and look beyond it. Yuxu and happy, Weishi and female. Ichi joked and gave him a spoonful of medicine. " Lu Yun Shuyun: "the herb is also the vanilla." "Bingju" or "Bingkun" refers to holding bluegrass in hand. Zheng young men and women in the melting of snow and ice, the arrival of spring, the beginning of the river, go out for an outing, everyone a branch of bluegrass, can ward off evil spirits, but also fragrance, enviable. Then there is qu Yuan's Lisao and the legend of Confucius' famous incense of kings. Unfortunately, the Wei Dynasty at that time was in Huaxian County in the north of Henan Province, while the State of Lu was in Shandong. Huaxian County, Henan Province, to the north of Funiu Mountain, belongs to the temperate zone. It is impossible to see lush wild orchids such as orchids from northern Henan to Shandong.

Until the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Shennong Materia Medica Sutra" was recorded under the entry of orchid grass: "insecticidal poison, unknown", which seems to be the same as that referred to in the Spring and Autumn and warring States period. They are all plants that can be fumigated, killed, bathed and repelled evil spirits. In fact, we do not have to be so tortuous, we can conclude that the other person is not this orchid. Just imagine, if we find all the eight kinds of Chunhui with flowers and store water for three days, can we store the king's incense that repels mosquitoes and avoids evil spirits?

At present, the period of growing orchids was in the late Tang Dynasty, but then a huge question arisen. As a vanilla with "king's fragrance" spoiled by the royal aristocracy, why did it disappear overnight as a vanilla with the flavor of "Fangshi Jian", which was highly respected by scholar-officials? Why does the word "flower" refer to orchids with only the scent of flowers and a short flowering period?

If we have been confined to the orchid circle, there may never be an answer, if we decisively look at the human desire for "incense", in fact, the answer is in front of us.

Two: incense is the king.

The Englishman Joseph Rudyard Kipling once said: "people's sense of smell can touch people's delicate hearts more than sight and hearing." It is safe to say that this is not a poem, but a fact. Human desire and grab for "incense" has reached an inextricable degree.

The original spices were used to avoid mosquitoes, but because of human progress and desire for fragrance, spices began to be used in religious, social, sacrificial and other activities, and gradually formed an aromatherapy culture dominated by aristocrats. As long as anything is caused by religion, its essence is attached to holiness and nobility. Just imagine, on a deep and quiet night, our ancestors lit an Artemisia annua. In the looming, illusory smoke, the aroma made them intoxicated, dizzy, and looked up at the endless starry sky. They pursued the "Tao" in their minds, asked their "gods", and tried to explore the ultimate mystery of mankind: where do we come from? Where are we going?

Like an invisible spirit, you can't touch it or see it, but it can reach the foundation of body and mind from the root of nose and activate the most authentic feelings. Like open arms, it can transcend the barrier of language and bridge the gap of ethnic civilization. In it, everyone can feel free and free to run with the throbbing of the heart. This is incense, a page full of beauty in human history, and the most brilliant shadow in the long stream of culture. " "the fragrance can go deep into the bottom of people's consciousness and awaken the past life experience; when bursts of fragrance float slowly in the air, it leads people step by step to the spiritual land, bit by bit to develop the fertile land to be cultivated in their own nature.

Xiang culture, dominated by aristocrats and scholar-officials, had reached a very high level in the pre-Qin period. Qu Yuan's wonderful chant in Lisao: "Hu Jiang leaves and opens the swallow, sewing autumn chrysanthemum thinks you wear it"; "drink the dew of the wooden clover in the morning, and the fall of the autumn chrysanthemum in the evening", "the household serves Ai Yiying, saying that you can't wear it", "he used to be the fragrant grass of the past, but now it is Xiao Ai," and "the pepper specializes in slow rice, and the wood kills the desire to fill the husband to wear it." In addition, the legend of the incense of the king mentioned earlier is described in the Qin Cao of Cai Yong in the Eastern Han Dynasty. According to legend, on his way back to the State of Lu from the State of Wei, Confucius saw incense lush in the valley and could not help sighing, "he is the king of incense. Today it is Dumao. Keep company with all the grass!" So he stopped to caress the piano and became the song of Yi Yi.

It can be affirmed that almost all the spices of that period were grass, while the fragrant wood in the south could not be transferred to the north due to the distribution of population, the development of civilization and the blocking of traffic. The author thinks that the spice plants such as calamus, Artemisia, Atractylodes, Radix angelicae dahuricae and other spice plants burned during the Dragon Boat Festival should be similar, perhaps the patchouli of Labiatae, or the Zelan of Compositae. At that time, it was the general name of fragrant herbs, and orchids should also be in this list, but they were lonely because orchids could not be perfumed.

But then a huge event happened in Chinese history, which not only changed our country, but also changed the fate of orchids. The orchid gradually stepped onto the altar and became the real king of flowers, which was the introduction of Buddhism at the end of the Han Dynasty. From the late Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin and six dynasties, incense incense formed a ritual to support the Buddhas because of the eastward spread and prevalence of Buddhism; in the Sui and Tang dynasties, due to the prosperity of martial arts, convenient transportation by sea, economic prosperity and the peak of Buddhism, from the royal aristocracy to the common people, the use of incense was quite common, and the culture of fragrance was formed among the literati and elegant scholars in the Song Dynasty. The popularity of fragrance at that time can be seen from the fact that the revenue of fragrance accounted for the largest part of the market, and the fragrance was the most precious among the fragrances obtained from Nanyang. The most valuable spice is Chenxiang, which is produced not only in Lingnan, China, but also in Zhenla (present-day Cambodia) and Zhancheng (present-day central Vietnam). Later, there are sandalwood, chicken tongue, borneol and other varieties. Since the Wei and Jin dynasties, spices have become one of the necessities of life in the court and the families of the rich and noble. Incense burning and incense have become an important part of the material and spiritual life of the upper class of society. Before Cao Cao came to power, he used to "forbid incense in his home" to show simplicity. Incense burning has become one of the symbols of Chinese traditional culture. When woody spices in the Tang Dynasty began to become a plaything sought after by the middle class, it was inevitable that the grass declined rapidly. This also confirms that what our ancestors pursued was not the fragrance, but the incense, "incense", and only "incense" was the real king.

However, as the "King's incense" personally approved by Confucius, as a sacred relic that has been handed down for more than 3000 years, its supreme status is like a special piece of deoxyribonucleic acid, imprinted in the genes of our Chinese nation and unable to extricate itself. The hermit described himself as a hermit, and the scholar-officials named the girl with a comparison and a folk love for its pure and delicate fragrance: when a man with a different surname admired his bulbs and swore to each other and swore brothers, he said it was good to tie the knot forever; and to watch it multiply in clumps and call the newly married house "the house". A friend of one heart is called a close friend, and a collection of books and pavilions is called Taitai. Kun Zhongmei called it "Taiwan Yushu", and the literary treasures called "Zhang Zhuyu" and Wang Xizhi's preface to the pavilion through the ages. How can such beauty disappear with the downfall of a kind of vanilla? Is this not a subversion of the belief and tradition of the people of Yao Shun? Isn't it necessary to completely push the Chinese characters to start all over again? In fact, we do not have to doubt the intelligence of our ancestors, coupled with the precedent of Confucius, the position of king has not been shaken, but has strengthened the deeper meaning, but at this time the Noumenon of Yu has been smoothly and undisjointed to the orchid.

Three: the incense lasts forever.

We have no way to know exactly when and where this miraculous transfer began, but the scholars and poets have astonishingly shown a sense of identity, and not a single historian or writer has questioned this confusion, except for the "biologist" Wu Qichun. Wu Qijun made a textual research in his "textual Research on the name and reality of plants": "before the Tang Dynasty, it was the same as saying that since the people of the Song Dynasty seemed to take the orchid of Ophiopogon japonicus as the leaf, and the lawsuit began, so there was the theory of stealing it." In fact, even from the aesthetic point of view of modern people, the orchid itself has many precious qualities in terms of flower, shape, bone, fragrance and other innate qualities. It can be said that the name Zen was conceded to the orchid in a continuous line, and it is not surprising that it became the king of the flowers. "* Fang Spectrum" has such a record: "the bee picks a hundred flowers, all are placed between the shares, but the orchid arches his back into the room to offer to the king, and things also know that the orchid is so expensive." Even the bees know that this is the flower of kings! Then, orchids and plum, bamboo, and chrysanthemum are called "four gentlemen", but the status of these four gentlemen is not the same. Wang Xuegui of the Song Dynasty once said: "among the tall flowers, bamboo has section and sik flower, plum has flower but stingy leaf, pine has leaf and sik incense, only orchid has it alone." The final decision on the status of the king of orchids may be the fixed frame of Huang Tingjian in the Book you Fang Pavilion in the Song Dynasty: "the talent and virtue of scholars, the cover of a country is called national scholars, the color of women covers a country is called national color, and the fragrance of orchid covers a country is called national incense." Scholars of all dynasties used Lanming Zhi, Lan Shijie and Lan Huixin, so their poems, lyrics, songs, Fu, books, paintings and other works were numerous and numerous.

At this point, the fog of the past gradually faded, and a clear thread was in front of us: before the Tang Dynasty, the fragrance is fragrant, the fragrance is fragrant, the fragrance and the incense are unified, and the ancestors' all kinds of love for the cymbidium comes from its fragrance. At that time, "fragrance" was the real king; after the Tang Dynasty, the orchid has become an orchid, and fragrance is the link between the cymbidium and the orchid, and the orchid without fragrance can never be given the title of "Ju"! Incense is the soul of orchids and the cornerstone that can inherit the holy meaning of cymbidium. That's why Chinese people have such a strong demand for the fragrance of orchids. No matter how perfect the flower shape is, as long as there is no fragrance, it can never be a precious product.