Chapter 25 look at the flowers

look at the flowers I grew up in a city on the north bank of the great river. The gardens there are famous, but there are few of them recently. It seems that I have never heard the words "let's go to see flowers today" since I was a child, which shows that flowers are not in full bloom.Some people who love flowers mostly just plant flowers in pots, and put the pots on the shelves; the shelves are placed horizontally in the yard.As usual, the yard is small, only big enough for a shelf; there can be no more than twenty potted flowers on the shelf.Sometimes a "flower platform" is built against the wall in the yard, and a flowering tree is planted on the platform; or it is planted on the ground in the yard.But this is just an ordinary embellishment, not a love flower.

The family didn't seem to like flowers very much; my father only occasionally went to the "greenhouse" with us once or twice when he took us to the street.But we once lived in a house with a small garden that belonged to the landlord.There were trees and flower stands there (probably wisteria flower stands or the like), but I was young at the time and didn't know the names of those flowers and trees; I only remembered that the roses were climbing on the wall.There is also a cave gate made of Taihu Lake stones in the garden; thinking about it now, it seems to be okay.At that time, a naughty young servant led me there, but I only knew how to run around to catch butterflies; sometimes I plucked a few flowers, but I just moved them casually and discarded them casually.As for the taste of flowers, that will be a matter of later time: on summer mornings in our place, there are country girls in various streets and alleys, calling along the door, "Sell gardenias." Gardenias are not high-quality goods. But I like the white and yellowish color and the plump figure, which is similar to those flower girls.The fragrance of gardenia is strong but not strong, clear but not light, which is also my favorite.That's how I fell in love with flowers.Some people may ask, "You don't love flowers, do you?" Actually, I don't quite understand this, so I have to keep it and ignore it.

One spring in high school, someone proposed to eat peaches in the F temple outside the city, and he was going to eat them for free;Although it was long before the May 4th Movement at that time, middle school students in our area often went to the theater to watch white plays.Middle school students can go to theaters for free, why can't primary school students eat peaches for free?We all thought so, so the proposer gathered a dozen classmates together, and headed out of the city in a mighty manner.When we arrived at Temple F, we scolded the Taoists (we call the workers in the temple Taoists) in an imposing manner, and immediately led us to the Taoyuan.The Taoists hesitated and said: "Now the peach tree is just blooming." But who believes what they say?We finally arrived in Taoyuan.Everyone was discouraged. It turned out that the flowers were really blooming!At this time, Mr. P, the proposer, went to fold flowers.The Taoists followed every step of the way, and immediately stepped forward to dissuade them, and they raised their hands.But Mr. P is the most difficult to provoke among us; "It's too late to say it, but it's too soon", in the blink of an eye, the flower is in his hands, and the Taoist has already staggered aside.The peach blossoms in that garden should be something to see, but none of us thought about seeing them.They just yelled, "There are no peaches, we have to make tea!" The Taoists, full of grievances, led us to the "abbot", where we each drank a large cup of tea.Only then did I calm down, and went into the city talking and laughing.Probably at that time I only knew how to love the gardenias, but I didn't know much about the peach blossoms on the trees; so I missed the opportunity in front of me.

Later, I gradually read some poems about looking at flowers, and felt that looking at flowers was quite interesting.But after studying in Peking for several years, I only visited Chongxiao Temple once; and I went too early, because the famous green peony hadn't bloomed yet.There are many places to see flowers in Beiping, but it seems that only a group of poets and celebrities were busy at that time, and the rest were irrelevant.That was the beginning of the new literary movement. We young people are really disrespectful to the old poems and those famous poets; and the place to see flowers is far away. I am a lazy person, so I simply cut off that article. upset.Later, when I went to work in Hangzhou, I met Mr. Y. He was a new poet and an old poet, and he was very interested in looking at flowers.He and I often go to Gushan to see plum blossoms.Gushan's plum blossoms are famous in ancient and modern times, but there are too few; there are no waterfronts, and there are too many people.Once when I was drinking tea on the Crane Pavilion, a man with a beard and a brocade mandarin jacket came and greeted him with a Hunan accent, "The plum blossoms are in full bloom!" I was surprised; but I was only surprised by the sound of "fullness" in his mouth. Whether the flowers are in full bloom or not doesn't matter to me.

Once, Y said that there were three hundred plum blossoms in Lingfeng Temple; the temple was in the mountains, and few people went there.I, Y, and Mr. N hired a boat from the West Lake to Yuefen, and then entered the mountain from Yuefen.After zigzagging for a while, and climbing up many stone steps, I arrived at the temple on the mountain.The temple is very small, and the plum blossoms are in the garden to the west of the main hall.The garden is not big, and there are three clean rooms under the east wall, which are the most suitable for drinking tea and looking at flowers; there is a small hill on the north side, and there is a pavilion on the hill, which is probably called "Wanghai Pavilion". It may not be possible to look at the sea, but Qiantang River and West Lake can be seen. of.There are indeed quite a few plum trees, lined up densely and low-grade.It was dusk at that time, and there were only three of us tourists in the temple; the plum blossoms hadn't bloomed yet, but the Guduer, which looked like pearls and stars, was lovely enough; we all thought it was more interesting than when it was in full bloom on the lonely mountain.Evening classes were being given in the main hall, and the sound of Fanbai and the faint fragrance from the plum grove made us reluctant to go back.We lingered in the garden for a while, and then sat in the house for a while. It was dark and there was no moon, so we asked for an old lantern from the temple and went down the mountain by light.I almost lost my way on the road, and was bitten by dogs twice and three times; our poet Y was indeed a little embarrassed, but finally arrived at Yuefen.The boatman came up from a distance and said, "You are here, I don't think you will wrong me!" On the boat, we kept talking about the plum blossoms at Lingfeng Peak, until the electric lights by the lake shone into our eyes.

Y went back to Peiping, and I also went to Baima Lake.Over there is the countryside, only a row of small peach trees are planted along the lake and willows, smiling coquettishly in the wind when the flowers bloom in spring.There are also many rhododendrons in the mountains.In front of our eyes these days, no one has ever suggested, "Let's go see the flowers." But there is a Mr. S who loves to grow flowers; his family never leaves flowers almost all year round.When we went to his house, we always saw that he was either holding scissors to trim branches and leaves, or carrying a pot to water.We are always happy to watch.A crape myrtle flower in his yard is very good. We drink beside the flower, I don't know how many times.I have only lived in Baima Lake for a year, but I have infected him with his love of flowers.But when I returned to Peking, I lived in the Tsinghua Garden where flowers were flourishing. After three springs in a row, I never thought of going to see it.Only in the autumn of the second year, I saw chrysanthemums in the garden several times with Mr. Sun San. "Chrysanthemum in Tsinghua Garden" is famous, and Mr. Sun San wrote a special article and drew many pictures.But the method of growing one flower in one pot and one flower in a pot is not natural and interesting.Until last spring, when I had some free time, I asked people the names of some flowers before they bloomed.A good friend begins with knowing the name, and I think the same is true for watching flowers.It just so happened that Mr. Y often came to the garden, and we wandered among the flowers three or four times a day.Mr. Y is busy this year, so I will go alone.I love apricots with blooming flowers and old stems, small red peaches that are graceful in the wind, and redbuds with many stalks like pearls; but the one I love most is the Xifu crabapple.The flowers of Begonia are well-prosperous and light; they are extremely gorgeous, but there is no slack in them.The sparse high-ranking cadres are faintly heroic.It's a pity that I didn't take advantage of the moonlight to see it; Wang Pengyun said in two sentences: "I only worry about the hazy shadow of the pale moon, and it is difficult to test the ups and downs of the microwave." I think the crabapple flowers under the moon are probably like this.For the sake of Haitang, I went to Zhongshan Park in the city against strong winds two days ago, and there were quite a few people looking at the flowers; but for some reason, I forgot about the Jifu Pantheon. Y told me that the one plant there covered most of the yard; all the other plants grew upwards, but this one stretched horizontally.The variety of flowers is indescribable; crabapple has no fragrance at all, which was often hated by people in the past, but there are too many flowers here, but it brews a weak fragrance, which makes people smell it for a long time. Y told me that it was the night when the strong wind blew all day long; he had gone there the day before.He said that the flowers had already fallen on the ground when he went, and the wind of the day and night was sure to be over.He said that when looking at flowers in Peiping, one has to rush to see them: spring is too short, and there are many sunny days; this year is considered to be cloudy, but the wind still cannot escape.I said that looking at flowers in Peiping is more interesting than other places, and it is here.At this time, I don't seem to underestimate that group of famous poets.

April 1930. (Originally published on May 4, 1930, "Tsinghua Weekly", Volume 33, Issue 9, Literature and Art Special Issue)