Appreciation of Chinese Cymbidium

I. the history and culture of Cymbidium in China

Huilan's word "Hui" has appeared in the songs of Chu by qu Yuan, a great poet of the State of Chu during the warring States period. His words said, "not only nourish the orchid, but also nourish the orchid with nine acres (12 mu per acre-the inducer, and the trees a hundred mu)." The "Hui" we mentioned here can only be understood as a kind of vanilla with good fragrance. It is controversial whether it refers to the Huilan we are talking about today. What can be confirmed as the "Hui" of Huilan today is the "Huilan" in "Shu you Fang Pavilion" written by Huang Tingjian, a poet and calligrapher in the Song Dynasty. The cultivation of Cymbidium and Cymbidium as ornamental plants in the Song Dynasty has become very popular, so it is necessary to make some distinction between this kind of vanilla. Huang Tingjian's two sentences have become the basis for future generations to distinguish between Cymbidium and Cymbidium. Modern plant taxonomy also named this kind of flowering orchid at the end of spring as Cymbidium. If Huang Tingjian only made a difference between Lan and Hui in terms of their characters, Zhu Kerou's "first incense Notes" in the Qing Dynasty had noticed the different cultivation methods of Lan and Hui. He said, "if you like the sun, you need to be humble at 03:00 for half a day."... When it comes to orchid, one or two is enough. " During the reign of Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty, Cymbidium already had many famous products, such as Da Yi Pin, Cheng Mei, Guan Ding, Shanghai Mei, Pan Luhai, Dang Zi and so on. Some of these famous products of Huilan have been recorded in the Records of Lan Hui in the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. For example, the first big product of the famous old man species of Huilan is called the top grade in the record of Lan Hui with one mind, and a poem praises it: "the scholar's spirit is relegated to the immortal talent, and the seat strives to praise the leader; since entering the south of the Yangtze River, it is not easy to be this Sakuran." In the early Qing Dynasty, Bao Wei Province's distinction and interpretation of the petal shape of Orchid in Yi Lan Zaji opened the way for the formal beauty of Huilan flowers. Until the emergence of a large number of butterfly flowers and strange flowers of Cymbidium in the era of reform and opening up, the aesthetic appreciation of Cymbidium flowers paid special attention to petal shape and had a wide influence, which became a traditional concept of Cymbidium aesthetics. In 1923, Wu Enyuan, a native of Yuhang, compiled Lan Hui Xiao Shi, which further collected and summarized the traditional varieties and new species of Huilan at that time, and divided them into three categories: red shell, green shell and red green. The book Orchid written by Yao Shi, an artist in Hangzhou in 1959, added butterfly flowers and vegetarian flowers on these bases. After the 1980s, a large number of new species of Huilan were developed, and according to the new discoveries, the odd flowers and color flowers of Cymbidium were added. At this point, Cymbidium has become a huge and distinctive branch of Chinese orchids.

Huilan spread to Japan and South Korea in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, especially in the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese collected a large number of Chinese cymbidium and sold them to Japan for cultivation. In China, due to years of war and chaos, there were two or three times of man-made destruction in the decades after the founding of the people's Republic of China. by the end of the last century, when the country was prosperous and there was an Ailan craze in China, some traditional varieties of Huilan could no longer be found in China and had to be sold back from Japan. The development history of Huilan also reflects the rise and fall of the nation from the side.

Second, Cymbidium in China

Huang Tingjian, a great poet and calligrapher of the Northern Song Dynasty, said in his Shu you Fang Pavilion that "Orchid is like a gentleman" and "Hui has the feeling of scholar-officials". These two sentences open the way for Huilan to taste. Li Yu, a writer and florist in the early Qing Dynasty, wrote a special article on "Huilan," saying, "so those who are inferior to orchids are not in the flowers and fragrances, but in the leaves." The leaf of Loh is bitter and its length is bitter. If you get sick, you will get fat. Generally speaking, if cultivated well, the cymbidium plant is taller than the spring orchid, and the flower branches are also bigger and taller, and there are many flowers, which are very magnificent and beautiful, and the aroma is overflowing, so it is appreciated by Chang Lan and Hui, while the enthusiasts pay more attention to Hui Lan. In recent years, the price increase of Cymbidium is often higher than that of Chunlan for more reasons. This is the general appreciation of Huilan.

After the emergence of the self-petal theory of Cymbidium, special attention has been paid to the differentiation of flowers, with plum petals and daffodils as the most expensive, round, tight and thick as the best, and the outer three petals (sepals) with wide waxy quality as the best, and most of its famous products are this kind of petal type. The lotus petals of Cymbidium are very few, and similar lotus petals have been found in recent years, which are also very popular. The general bamboo leaf petals of Cymbidium are as common as Artemisia grass. Except for a few bright colored flowers, they are rarely appreciated. In recent years, cymbidium butterfly petals and strange flowers are colorful and dazzling, especially those with many petal tongues and colorful ones, and the bidding price is very high. Vegetarian hearts are also popular. Scarcity is precious, because Cymbidium is mostly yellow-green flowers, such as the emergence of red flowers, purple flowers, black flowers, milky flowers, Cymbidium is also highly valued, and those with bright colors are better. Petal calyx petal thick, waxy, jade is also often a good product. Cymbidium has large branches and many flowers, so we should also pay attention to whether the layout of the flowers in the pruning flowers is staggered and whether the aroma is mellow. The beauty of its leaf art is also a good product, and those who occasionally see leaf art, flower art and petal shape are favored.

There are eight traditional famous products of Huilan: freshman, Cheng Mei, Shanghai Mei, Guan Ding, Yuan Zi, dyed Zi, Pan Lv, Dang Zi. There are eight kinds of traditional new products: Lou Mei, Cui Calyx, Best, Qinghua Mei, Jiangnan New Best, Duanmei, Cui Mei, Rongmei, and the famous products of the new varieties are: Tianjiao Peony, Sixi Peony, Green Cloud Peony, far East Qi Butterfly, Lu Yiqi Butterfly, Lou Tai Butterfly, British Butterfly, Bubugao, gathering of Heroes, Xianhe, Jianhu Beauty, Quanzhou Plum, Cuitao Shoushou, Lion Butterfly, Lingnan White Crane, Golden Bing, Cymbidium Crystal Flower, Purple Cuckoo, Yuewangmei, Juhua element. Duoyun, Zhejiang Ding, Duan Huimei, Duan Xiumei, Diechui, Chunhui Qianshou Guanyin and so on.