The historical legend of Biancang Town
It is said that Yang Yingguang, a Wuyou salt officer in the Ming Dynasty, learned about Yuan Heng’s legacy. He knew that peonies were strange and aroused the aura of love. When they were transplanted to the official office, they were still dead and had to be abandoned. The descendants of the Bian family revived. Take it and plant it in the same place. The branches and leaves will be luxuriant and full of vitality.
Biancang Town-Peony Biancang Town is located in the south of Yancheng City, about 20 kilometers away from the old center of Yancheng City, and close to Yancheng Chengnan New District. The town has an area of less than 10 square kilometers and a population of less than 10,000. However, the unique beauty of dead peonies here has made it famous in ancient and modern times. There is direct bus No. 12 to the city.
Every year before and after Grain Rain, people come in large numbers to enjoy the flowers. It is common for thousands of people to enjoy the flowers together. They wander among the pavilions and pavilions, move among the halls and pavilions, and look to the right. The white peonies on the dead branches make my mind pure and thoughtful, and the red peonies on the dead branches on the left bring warmth to my heart. Rare treasures are preserved and become a wonder.
The most amazing thing about the peonies in the Dead Branch Peony Garden is that the branches are dry but the flowers bloom brightly. Beautiful flowers can bloom on the dead branches that look very dry, which is a unique thing. If you pluck off its branches and put them into a burning fire, the dead branches will be like dry wood and can burn immediately.
This strange flower was also written into the novel "Flowers in the Mirror" by Li Ruzhen. According to the fifth chapter of "Flowers in the Mirror" by Li Ruzhen: Whenever you pick off its branches and stems, put them in the fire. In it, like dry firewood, it can be burned immediately. During the blooming season, the flowers in this garden are like rouge, beautiful, moist, and fragrant; the dense and thick leaves are also verdant. However, its branches and stems are like dead branches swaying in the cold wind, haggard and about to decay. If you break off a branch and strike a match, it will ignite.
Also as recorded in "The Genealogy of the Bian Family": There are different types of peonies. The only difference is that the dead branches are not the same as the flowers. The bones are cracked, the skin is rough, and the claws are dry and broken. It is brittle. There is another strange thing about peonies on dead branches. They are originally spring flowers, but sometimes in late autumn or early winter, they stand proud of the frost and snow, and suddenly bloom red flowers, which attracts tourists to admire them, and there is a lot of noise from cars and horses. They can't help but chant, talk about, and preface it. , remember it, praise it.
The Qing Dynasty novel "Flower in the Mirror" records: "Today, Huainan has the most dead branch peonies in the world." Peonies, known as the king of flowers, have always gathered in Luoyang. Why are they so popular? Cangzhen Town also produces peonies?
What is particularly miraculous is that the dead peonies happened to be in full bloom at the time of the founding ceremony of New China. One year later, we were celebrating the restoration of our country's seat in the United Nations. This is of course purely a coincidence, but people use it to express their feelings and praise it as a sacred flower. The sea water is three thousand feet long, and the peonies are seven hundred years old. This is a couplet written by the veteran general Zhang Aiping for the reconstruction of the Peony Garden with Dead Branches in Biancang. It vividly summarizes the changes of dead branch peony. When talking about the changes of dead peony in Biancang, we must mention its original owner, Bian Jizhi, the ancestor of the Bian family.
The location of the Peony Garden with Dead Branches was historically the site of the ancestral hall of the Bian family. Bian Jizhi is the owner of the dead tree peony root. Bian Jizhi once served as the governor of Shaanxi Province. After the fall of the Song Dynasty, he moved the red and white flowers from the Guofu Garden and planted them in Fengqiao Town, Gusu. Later, he retreated to Dongming (today's Biancang) to avoid chaos, and the flowers also moved here with their owners. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Bian Jizhi's grandson Yuanheng retired after Zhang Shicheng's defeat and divided the two original plants into twelve. From then on, the strange flower became famous in the countryside.
Bian Jizhi transplanted the peonies from Xi'an to Suzhou, and then moved them to Bicang, whereupon the dead peonies became today.
"Yancheng County Chronicles" and "Bian Family Genealogy" both record this matter: "The ancestor of the Bian family took red and white peonies to plant flowers to express their aspirations. Those who took red to show their sincerity in serving the country Loyal red; choose the white one to show that you are an upright and honest official." It turns out that Bian went all the way to bring back the red and white peonies to warn himself and his descendants to always serve the country with loyalty and be an honest official.
Bian's two dead peonies were later inherited by Bian Yuanheng, the direct grandson of Bian Ji. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Bian family passed on to Bian Shizhen, the salt transport envoy to the Huaihe River. Bian Shizhen, who was almost extinct, did not give birth to a boy until he was over half a century old.
He named Bian Yuanheng. Bian Yuanheng was extremely intelligent, good at poetry and writing, and was proficient in poetry and music. He was also an expert in playing, playing, and singing. Moreover, Bian Yuanheng had a strong back, a tall nose and a wide mouth, and was extremely strong. He once killed a tiger with his bare hands. Liu Zhaohong said that Bian Yuanheng was the prototype of Wu Song in "Water Margin". "Shi Naian was from Baiju, Xinghua (today's Baiju, Dafeng), and was cousin to Bian Yuanheng. When Zhang Shicheng rebelled, Shi Naian participated in the planning. Later, because Zhang Shicheng was greedy for pleasure and did not accept loyal advice, Shi left in a puff of sleeves. Soon after Zhang Shicheng died and the country was destroyed, Shi wandered around the world, and later returned to his old hometown and lived in seclusion.
Feeling the decline of current affairs, he wrote "Water Margin" and Bian Yuanheng was written into this immortal work as the prototype of Wu Song, a heroic traveler in Liangshan.
Former Defense Minister Zhang Aiping inscribed the banner of "Peony Garden with Dead Branches" and the couplet of "The sea water is three thousand feet long, the peonies are seven hundred years old" for the garden. In addition, the Biancang Peony Garden also retains 11 peonies from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (one of which was planted by the earliest owner). It has a history of more than 700 years, and the plants usually grow more than 400 years ago. The peonies in the Bencang Peony Garden are still precious.
Nowadays, the Peony Garden with Dead Branches has been fully completed. It has two halls, two rooms, five pavilions and twelve pavilions, with 32 viewing spots. All new attractions are named after the sisters in "Flowers Through the Looking Glass". For example: there are 12 pavilions such as Tanhua, Anxiang, Diecai, Lanxiu, Yixia, Xianpa, Yuxiu, Qifang, Linfang and Agarwood, and five pavilions such as Hanfang, Fulv, Yixiang, Jinjie and Qiba; There are two halls: Fangming and Qunfang; two rooms: Yanchun and Qingxiang. In addition, buildings such as Yuanfang Pavilion, Shaohua Building, Guanfang Pavilion, and Liuchun Corridor also came into being. The entire building area will reach more than 2,000 square meters, with pavilions and pavilions connected, halls and rooms connected, and pavilions and pavilions surrounded by octagonal cloisters. The haze is in the green shade of the rocky mountain stream. In the spring season, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant. There are mountains and rivers, pavilions and pavilions, green shade like a canopy, birds singing and flowers fragrant. The future development of the ancient town Biancang will be as brilliant as the peony.