Flowers bloom more than hibiscus.

Lotus is the flower god of South Lake in July. On the sparkling lake, facing the summer sunshine, she showed her peerless appearance. Tangshan people rushed here to enjoy the lotus and punch in, and the crowded momentum was like a festival. The ancients said, "The spring outing platform is really beautiful, and the hibiscus blooms", which is absolutely true.

Lotus, alias lotus, also known as lotus, water, water hibiscus and so on. , is a perennial aquatic plant, condensed water droplets like mercury, clear and smooth leaves, red as fat. Cao Zijian once described the beauty of Luoshen as "a lotus with rippling blue waves", which made it graceful and fragrant, and was also called a gentleman in flowers. There are many varieties of lotus, including red, white, green, purple and variegated colors. There are two lotus flowers and four Guanyin flowers, which can be described as varied.

Lotus is one of the top ten famous flowers in China because China has a cultural tradition of loving lotus since ancient times. According to historical records, as early as 2,500 years ago, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, admired lotus flowers because he loved his concubines. He once built a "flower pond" in Lingyan Mountain on the coast of Taihu Lake and planted wild red lotus, which can be said to be the earliest record of artificial pond-building load. Since then, lotus has become a classic theme of literati's painting. It blooms in Tang poetry and Song poetry, it blooms in elegance and beauty, looking forward to its own fragrance. In the folk, lotus is endowed with a strong love color. Regardless of songs, New Year pictures, food, clothing, housing and transportation, architecture, decoration, customs or erotic palaces, lotus flowers and lotus roots are everywhere.

Lotus has its unique position in China culture. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have deep feelings for lotus flowers and spare no effort to publicize them with symbols and words.

Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, lotus has infiltrated the meaning of Buddhism, promoting Buddhism with lotus, comparing life and death troubles in the real world with filth, and comparing purity of Buddhism with lotus. Lotus became a musical instrument in the hands of He Xiangu, the Eight Immortals of Taoism. Zhu Da, who is also a monk and Taoist, also chose the living environment of "Mao Zhai under the rubber pavilion outside the bamboo, half pond with lotus leaves and half pond with water chestnut" (Zhu Da's Lotus).

Most of the Confucian praise for lotus stems from its beauty not only in appearance but also in quality and spirit. Since Zhou Dunyi, a philosopher in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote the famous sentence "Lotus has become a gentleman of flowers" in On Love Lotus. She has the characteristics of fragrance, cleanliness, standing and resting, elegant and free expression, which symbolizes the kindness, purity and non-staining of human nature. It combines the characteristics of lotus and the character of gentleman, and entrusts the spiritual pursuit of Confucianism. Confucianism calls lotus pure, innocent and innocent, and "emerging from the mud without being stained" is her symbol for Xiu De.

In A Dream of Red Mansions, which can be called "encyclopedia" and "lingering", the Netherlands naturally cannot be absent. Daguan Garden not only has the unique "Lingou Lane Deep Bamboo Bridge", but also has a boat named "Lotus Picking Boat". In early summer, women will drive a boat with mud to plant lotus roots. Although it is winter, I don't forget to make lotus heron in the pool with snail feathers and the like.

Most readers' impressions of lotus flowers come from Sister Lin's comments on Li Shangyin's "staying in the lotus and listening to the rain".

In the forty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions, Baoyu saw that the residual lotus on the lake had withered, saying, "These broken lotus leaves are hateful. Why not have them pulled up? " Daiyu said, "I don't like Li Yishan's poems the most, but I like his sentence" Stay in the lotus and listen to the rain ". Don't keep the residual load. " Baoyu said, "That's a good sentence. Don't ask people to pull it out in the future. "

Because when the lotus leaves wither, the "companions" around them often fall apart. Spotted raindrops will come down, and you can imagine that the atmosphere at that time was dignified and thought-provoking. Daiyu enjoys a lonely but leisurely life through the remnant lotus.

In addition, lotus flowers frequently appear in Cao Gong's works. Sister Bao's cold fragrant pills should be processed with "Bai Lianhua Twelve Liang in Summer", and there will be lotus root powder Osmanthus Jelly as dessert after drinking; The beaten Baoyu wanted to eat the soup cooked with "fresh lotus leaves" and staged a lively drama with Yuchuan. In the first eighty chapters, the lotus was mentioned for the last time before Yingchun got married and after leaving the Grand View Garden. Baoyu "visited Zi Ling Island day by day" and saw that "the autumn wind was cold all night, and the lotus jade shadow blew away", feeling that "the ancients were sorry for their friends, but now I am a brotherhood!" This is another failure.

Apart from the appearance of lotus as a plant, there is probably no doubt that it is called Xiangling (winning in a row). She not only painted the lotus in the name of the lotus, but also realized the spiritual temperament of the lotus: "Not only the water chestnut flower, but also the lotus leaf has a fragrance." However, the red chamber is as gorgeous as a lotus flower, and she is not the only one. Daiyu, Miaoyu, Qingwen and even Li Wan and Baochai are all somewhat like lotus flowers.

When it comes to modern lotus writing, I'm afraid I should quote Zhu Ziqing's Moonlight on the Lotus Pond. He wrote in a beautiful style:

"On the winding lotus pond, I am looking forward to the leaves of Tian Tian. The leaves are high out of the water, like an elegant dancer's skirt. Layers of leaves are dotted with some white flowers, some of which bloom gracefully and some are in bud shyly; Like a pearl, like a star in the blue sky, like a beauty who just took a bath. The breeze blew, sending wisps of fragrance, like a faint song on a tall building in the distance. At this time, the leaves and flowers also trembled slightly, like lightning, and passed through the lotus pond in an instant. "

He also wrote about the lotus under the moonlight: "The moonlight is like running water, quietly pouring on this leaf and flower. A thin layer of blue mist floats in the lotus pond. Leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; It's like a dream, with a layer of gauze inside. "

A friend told me that it was a midsummer night, and their family was enjoying the lake by the south lake, and the lotus flowers were swaying in the moonlight. This is what they saw.

South Lake is an ideal place for lotus to grow. Here, the shore of the lake is scattered, the lake is vast and calm, surrounded by ten thousand mu of green trees, and the natural ecological environment has bred more than 300 kinds of plants, attracting more than 120 kinds of birds. Since the opening of the World Expo in Nanhu Lake, a large number of lotus flowers have bloomed here. But in terms of its scale and variety, it doesn't seem to make tourists very happy.

It is comforting to know that there are still many people who love lotus in Nanhu today, guarding it and looking forward to it. When 10,000-mu square pond is full of hibiscus, boating on the South Lake in hot summer, lotus leaves are in full bloom and dancing, it will outline an excellent "Lotus Lake Beautiful Picture".

On that day, it will be a festive festival for the South Lake Flower God.

Special thanks to Zhang Shanbin and Yan Lu for providing wonderful photos for this article. 2065438+September 5, 2009)