Ouyang Xiu has a poem called "The Peony Map of Luoyang", in which there is a sentence: "The flower of Luoyang is the most suitable, and the peony in the world is especially strange. I remembered dozens of things in the past, but I forgot them in these fifteen years. If you open a photo and see the face of an old friend, you won't see the past. Hakka flowers are special in recent years and often become new branches. Luo people boasted their names in surprise and stopped talking about family assets when they bought seeds. It is difficult to compare the old with the new, and the price is difficult to compare ... "This poem basically reflects Ouyang Xiu's sincere love for Luoyang peony, which can be described as having a special liking.
Not only this poem, but also Ouyang Xiu has a very famous essay "Luoyang Peony". In the article, Ouyang Xiu made a detailed and systematic exposition on the development, cultivation, name and customs of peony with gorgeous writing style. He said in the article: "Peony leaves Danzhou and Yanzhou, east to Qingzhou and south to Yuezhou. People from Luoyang are the best in the world today. " It shows that in the Northern Song Dynasty, the peonies in Shaanxi, Shandong and Zhejiang were all famous. However, the most famous peonies were in Xijing and Luoyang, which were the best peonies in the world at that time. "Luoyang peony is the best in the world" means this.
In view of Ouyang Xiu's position in the literary world, his poems are often expensive in Luoyang. Therefore, when people read the words "Luoyang is the most suitable place to spend flowers, especially peony" and "Luoyang is the best in the world today", people borrowed this theory and turned it into "Luoyang peony is the best in the world" in popular language.
At that time, the peony in Luoyang was really "the best in the world", which was not only loved by ordinary people, but also by Luoyang peony in the court of Song Dynasty. At that time, the court and the people were wearing flowers. Emperors, ministers, rich families and ordinary people all like to wear flowers. So Yan Qing, Shien and Chai Jin in the Water Margin all have a flower on their heads, and even Ximen Qing, who runs a pharmacy, wears flowers. It can be seen that wearing flowers is from top to bottom and down to ordinary people in the Song Dynasty.
At that time, flowers were very common in the palace and were used a lot. The emperor held a court meeting, officials were promoted to official ranks, and the emperor rewarded heroes and often used flowers. Of course, sometimes Juan's flowers are fake. However, when necessary, flowers should be chosen to show attention, especially the peony in Luoyang, and top peony such as Yao Huang and Wei Zi have become the favorite of the palace.
The so-called flowers, the key is freshness, no freshness, no beauty. However, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty is Bianjing, which is Kaifeng, but Kaifeng is more than 200 kilometers away from Luoyang. How to keep flowers fresh during transportation and how to ensure the integrity of flowers are all difficult problems to solve. Therefore, in order to ensure the fresh delivery of flowers to the capital and satisfy the emperor and officials, it has become the most headache for Luoyang officials. To this end, they racked their brains and thought of many ways.
For example, in order to keep moisture, they put peony in a bamboo cage, and then put vegetable leaves on the edge of the bamboo cage. In order to prevent the flowers from falling, they invented the "wax-sealed pedicel", which sealed the pedicel with wax to ensure that it would not fall. In order to buy time, they arranged for someone to send them to Beijing at an urgent speed of 800 miles. Therefore, in order to satisfy the emperors and officials to enjoy the top fresh peony, the local authorities can be described as wasting people and money and trying their best.