I hope your April has been filled with poetry. Earlier this week, I noticed our tree peonies starting to bloom. It reminded me of a tale involving poetry, peonies, and Empress Wu (武則天).
“Who is Empress Wu?” you might ask.
“Oh, just the one and only woman ruler in 3,500 years of written Chinese history,” I say with sparkles in my eyes.
The Empress Wu
Oh yeah. Buckle up for story time!
On one fateful early spring morning in the 7th century, Empress Wu decided to visit her imperial garden. As she gazed out at the dreary landscape, she could not help but feel disappointed.
“Where are the flowers?” she demanded angrily.
“It is too cold. The flowers are not ready to bloom,” her maids responded fearfully.
So, like any self-respecting monarch with a flair for the dramatic, the empress wrote down a poem:
“In the garden at dawn tomorrow, 明朝游上苑，
Swiftly spreading the news of spring, 火急報春知，
All flowers must bloom through the night, 花須連夜發，
Do not wait for the morning wind to blow. 莫待曉風吹。”
Lo and behold, all the flowers in the imperial garden were too afraid to defy the empress and opened in full bloom the very next morning. All except one: the peonies. Those rebellious beauties, firmly rooted in their belief in the natural order, remained steadfastly closed. Well, you can imagine the empress’s fury upon discovering this floral defiance.
Empress Wu and the Peony
She banished all the peonies to the East Capital of Luoyang (洛陽). But to her surprise, Luoyang burst into a riot of peony blooms the following spring.
The 2024 Peony Festival in Luoyang, China
Enraged by this unexpected turn of events, Empress Wu ordered all the peonies in Luoyang to be burned to ashes. Yet, like a phoenix rising from the flames, they emerged even more splendid than before.
Even today, you can enjoy a particular kind of peony with blackened stems. It is called the “Burnt Bone Peony,” 焦骨牡丹. Many believe it to be Paeonia suffruticosa cv. “Luoyang Red,” a fitting homage to its second home, the East Capital of Luoyang.
The empress may be long gone, but Luoyang is now home to the largest peony festival in China, attracting millions of tourists from all over the world to admire the peony’s beauty and stories. Come check out our peonies at Lan Su in the next few weeks and enjoy the rebellious beauties that dared to say, “Nope,” to the only female emperor of China.
Venus Sun
Senior Director of Experience
Lan Su Chinese Garden
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