Chapter 11 Chapter 10 Taoying is seduced by the blue water dive, but the wind is jealous of the red flower but blows backwards.

Linguistics can also be cute and funny sometimes.The interesting thing is that some words and phrases also contain secrets beyond the dictionary definition. For example, this word, this word as a plant name: "peach". I remember that there is a book that says whether a plant is a native plant can be seen from the number of words in the name.In a word, they are all native plants.Such as pears, such as plums, such as apricots... etc., etc.If the name of a plant is two characters, it means that it is a non-native plant that came from afar.Like apples, like grapes... that's more and so on.So, the reason is very simple.In ancient times, when people began to name everything, Chinese characters were still very concise.Just look at it.The verses are basically four-character sentences, and the plants mentioned in them are really named after single characters.But in the era of Qu Yuan's Songs of Chu, it was more complicated and eloquent. Correspondingly, the names of vanilla and flowers were almost double-sounded. "Hu Jiangli and Pi Zhixi are admired by Ren Qiulan." In the two lines of the poem, the three plants have double voices.It is very different from the Chinese "Yo Yo Luming, the apple of the wild food".

But when I was writing phenology notes, I soon encountered exceptions. One exception: peaches. Peach.Pictophonetic characters.Wooden Omen. "Zhao" is a word of large magnitude, and when it expresses the sense of space, it means "far".Adding "wood" means "tree species moved from afar".Then turn to an older dictionary, maybe there is an answer.It turns out that "mega" means distance.So, how far is this far place, and where is it?In other words, when the word was created, where was the native place?Answering this question will make everything clear.Of course we know that the earliest birthplace of Chinese characters is in Henan.The place where oracle bones and bronze wares were produced.Then, this "sign" is not the distant place of China today, but the distant place of Henan at that time.About 1,000 kilometers from the middle reaches of the Yellow River to the northwest, the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Qinghai and Gansu, today's Northwest China.This flowering and fruiting tree came from this "distant place," and today people do not think of it as a distant place.In other words, the peach trees that took root in the Central Plains in ancient times were introduced from the Northwest region a thousand kilometers away in ancient times. Those places where "the water of the Yellow River comes from the sky".

To this day, in the west of China, there are still wild peaches all over the mountains and plains.Last year, in the valley of the Yarlung Zangbo River, under the famous and beautiful snow-capped Namjagbarwa, I was fascinated by the wild peach blossoms blooming all over the mountains and valleys. The Sichuan Basin, on the northwestern edge of the west, is close to the east of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It can be imagined that when peach trees were transplanted in the Central Plains and the word peach was written, peach trees were also planted here earlier, and the harvest is sweet every year. the fruit.In front of the village and behind the village, "the peaches are blooming, and the flowers are burning", it should not just be a unique scene in the Wei State in the Central Plains.But it's just a conjecture.Presumption also requires considerable reason.Chengdu is closer to the high mountains and wilds in western China today. Before the history of human beings, the people in the basin and the people on the highland have been going back and forth from time to time.What's more, although Chengdu at that time was "not inhabited by Qin Sai", it had already developed a very developed culture.The brilliant discoveries of Sanxingdui and Jinsha archaeological excavations are proof.

For this reason, it is unreasonable to write about the phenology of Chengdu without writing about peach blossoms.Not to mention today's Chengdu, in the depth of spring, after the plum blossoms and pear blossoms, the Longquanyi District in the eastern suburbs is full of peach orchards, and thousands of peach blossoms are in full bloom at the same time, which is already a grand scene. It's just that people today live in one place and are not confined to one place.When I went out last year, I missed the flowering period of peaches.In mid-March this year, I also went around the city to inquire about peach blossom news.But during this period, waves of cold air from the north moved south across the Qinling Mountains.The low temperature in the Sichuan Basin continued, and Chengdu was cloudy and rainy.I heard that the Peach Blossom Festival in Longquan has also been postponed.This time, I was busy with a movie script in other places, and watched the spring flowers bloom all the way.I saw very beautiful winter jasmine in Beijing Yuyuantan Park, which is famous for its cherry blossoms, and I saw February blue in full bloom in Hangzhou.Back in Chengdu, I drove into the city from the airport. I heard on the radio that the peach blossoms on Longquan Mountain were in full bloom, and there were only four or five days to enjoy them.However, encountering low temperature and rain again, I planned to go out and go up the mountain every day, but finally I couldn't make it.

"Boaters report to each other closely, but they are afraid of losing their peach blossoms." Du Fu's two poems seem to express his current mood.At that time, the poet sage lived in Chengdu, and when the thatched cottage was first built, he begged his friends for some peach trees to plant in front of the hall.There is "Xiao Baming's Mansion Seeking Peach Plants in Real Places" as evidence: I planted a hundred peaches for begging, and sent them to Huanhua Village before spring. Although there are countless villages in Heyang County, the Zhuojin River is not full of gardens.

Ming Fu is the good name of the county magistrate. Du Fu built a thatched cottage in Chengdu in 760, and wrote poems to ask friends for flowers, trees and saplings.This county magistrate named Xiao Shi was one of the people who asked for flowers and trees.He also has another poem "Xu Qing's Seeking Fruit Plants", which is to ask for it directly at the door.Of course, life is not just about planting a patch of peanut trees, so when he wrote these two poems, he also had another poem, which is to ask a friend for a porcelain bowl from Dayi: Ai Yu Jincheng Biography. The porcelain bowl of the Jun family is better than the frost and snow, and it is pitiful to rush to Maozhai."

The peach trees grew vigorously, and within a few years, some peach trees became overgrown and prevented the owner from coming in and out.In 764 A.D., someone suggested to Du Fu to cut down the peach trees in front of the door that were blocking the road.He also wrote a poem "Inscription Peach Tree" and declined politely: The small path leading to the old hall does not slope, and the five peach trees also cover it. Gao Qiu always gives money to the poor, and he will be dazzled next year. The reason is that the peach trees not only give back to poor families, but also because they will be full of flowers next spring, which makes people feel happy.

The peach seedlings were planted, and the peach trees bloomed.After eating Dayi white porcelain, it is estimated that at that time, Chengdu people did not gather to drink tea and chat, and were not in a hurry to invite mahjong and poker, so it is time to appreciate flowers.How to appreciate it?Change scenery step by step.When reading ancient poems, when looking at flowers, you can look at them quietly under the tree before flowers, poetry, wine and articles.Watching while moving, or walking slowly, "standing with a stick and stepping slowly to set up Fangzhou".Poets like to take a boat and watch the beautiful scenery of the slowly moving river bank.There is still Du Fu's poem "Looking at the Peach Blossoms in the Wind and Rain": "There are peach branches on the river, and the drizzle in spring comes out of the sparse fence. The shadow is seduced by the blue water, but the wind is jealous of the red flowers and blows backwards."

Today, it is very difficult to enjoy flowers like this.Firstly, the water is unsightly and smelly; secondly, what you see on the water are mostly sand dredging boats.More importantly, the varieties planted in the city are no longer spring flowers and autumn fruits, but peaches that have been artificially cultivated and have very complicated flowers.The petals are too complicated to add.There are only crumpled petals that are tightly packed together, and it is difficult to see the stamens stretching to the fullest, and the ovary hides below, waiting for a gust of wind, a butterfly comes and shakes off the pollen on the sac at the top of the stamens.Botanically, a flower complete with sepals, petals, and stamens is called a complete flower.In the Rosaceae where the peach belongs, I think the most beautiful thing is the basic shape composed of five radiating petals, but those purely ornamental green peaches with excessively many double petals have canceled the most basic beauty of peach blossoms.I privately think that gardeners regard complexity as their beauty, but they are actually obeying an aesthetics of poverty.From the perspective of the history of human aesthetics, in the era when excessive complexity is the beauty, the society as a whole is poor—either material poverty or spiritual poverty.

An interesting book written by an American is called "The Desire of Plants".He writes in the book: "About 100 million years ago, plants relied on one way -- thousands of ways, in fact -- for animals to carry them and their genes here and there. This is An evolutionary watershed associated with the emergence of angiosperms, an unusual and new class of plants that produce showy flowers that form large seeds that other species are attracted to disperse .” In this sense, man is also one of the animals used by plants. Plants tempted people with their fruits (seeds), allowing humans to develop agricultural civilization.The ultimate purpose of agricultural civilization is to harvest fruits and sow seeds in order to harvest more fruits.Therefore, the "Bible" said that it was the apple with plump flesh that tempted Adam and Eve.In a purely scientific sense, the rich vitamins contained in fatty fruits such as apples and peaches are the direct cause of helping human beings become healthier and smarter.Perhaps the gardeners who cultivated those petals so complex that the reproductive organs in the flowers atrophied were a form of human resistance to the temptations of plants?

Personally, the beautiful peach blossoms still bloom on those peach trees that will bear fruit.Because the composition of these peach blossoms conforms to the basic description of peach blossoms in botany.Radiate flowers.Sepals 5, free.Petals 5, free.Stamens numerous but indefinitely numerous.pistil one.Complete, concise, refined. Finally, at noon on April 9th, the long cloudy sky cleared up, and I immediately drove to Longquan Mountain to see the peach blossoms.Follow a pre-planned route.Exit the city from the east of the city, go to the Chengyu Expressway, pass through Longquan Mountain through the tunnel, and exit the expressway at Longquan Lake and Shijing Temple exit, and you can take a rest at Longquan Lake.This day was March 9th. I saw most of the peach blossoms by the lake began to wither, so I hurried up the mountain.Go in the direction of Peach Blossom Hometown written on the road sign.The road is very good, smooth and with a faint elastic asphalt road.Driving on such a winding road along the mountain can really enjoy the driving pleasure.This section of Panshan Road is actually the old Chengdu-Chongqing Highway.On both sides of the road, there are lively peach gardens appearing one after another.The folks of the farmhouse attract passing vehicles on the road.As the mountain rises, there are fewer withered peach blossoms and more and more peach orchards in full bloom.There are clusters of bright yellow flowers on the side of the road.Those are wild winter jasmine and home-grown Ditang. I stopped the car in front of a farmer's house because their peach orchard was blooming beautifully.Buying a pot of tea and placing it on a concrete table under a peach tree gives you access to the peach orchard.Although the weather is cloudy and cloudy, the thick clouds in the sky come and go, and the sun rarely leaks through the clouds.But the peach blossoms on the tree are indeed warm and grand, with a school of vitality from the mountains and the earth, without any meaning of frivolity or jealousy in ancient poems.So while watching the flowers, I pressed the shutter of the camera.The owner of the peach orchard is naturally happy to see that someone loves his peach blossoms so much. He came to the orchard and praised his garden to me.And I always have a good impression of people who love their own livelihood, so I sat down and watched the winding mountain road winding across Longquan Mountain in the sunset, watching the glistening lakes in the valley, and chatting with him at the same time. Gossip about the harvest, gossip about peach tree varieties and grafting methods, until the sun goes down. On the way down the mountain, the flower-watchers returning to the city were congested and stuck in traffic.Just regret it, why not sit in the peach garden for a while and gossip with the master for a while.I forgot to ask him just now, whether the four words "Hometown of Peach Blossoms" on the road sign have been verified, and this is really the birthplace or one of the birthplaces of home-grown peach trees. April, October 2011