What Season Does Osmanthus Flower Bloom?
Compared with the knowledge of the season when osmanthus flowers bloom and the花草 aspect of osmanthus flowering for most people, the following content can surely help you. Let's learn about it together!
Here is a question about osmanthus:
“When people are idle, osmanthus flowers fall; when the night is quiet, the spring mountains are empty.” The flowering period of osmanthus is around the 15th day of the eighth lunar month in autumn. Where does “spring mountains” come from?
Preface
“When people are idle, osmanthus flowers fall; when the night is quiet, the spring mountains are empty. The moon rises and startles the mountain birds; they chirp in the spring ravine.” This is a famous poem known to every household, but have you ever thought about why there is osmanthus in spring?
“When people are idle, osmanthus flowers fall; when the night is quiet, the spring mountains are empty. The moon rises and startles the mountain birds; they chirp in the spring ravine.”
Many years ago, a song called "Dust Love" sung by Luo Wen was very popular. This song was from a TV series called "The Fragrance of Osmanthus in August."
Does osmanthus really only bloom in August? Of course not. There are roughly three situations regarding the blooming time of osmanthus.
One, Four Seasons Osmanthus - Osmanthus That Blooms in All Seasons
The most common type is called the four-season osmanthus, also known as the monthly osmanthus. This type of osmanthus blooms almost every 2-3 months.
The famous Qing Dynasty scholar Yu Yue has a poem called "Hangzhou Narcissus Song." This poem about narcissus is quite long, and there are two lines that say:
In August, there are no seeds on the osmanthus flowers, but the osmanthus that blooms in all seasons is full of seeds.
This kind of four-season osmanthus is said to bloom in all seasons, but it still blooms most luxuriantly in autumn.
Two, Moon Osmanthus - Osmanthus That Blooms in Spring
The great poet Chen Yuyi from the Song Dynasty once wrote a poem titled "Watching Zhong's Moon Osmanthus in the Rain:
"Rain on the moon osmanthus flowers, spring returns to lean on the railings. Guests from all directions, how many more times can they see? The red collar reflects the flesh color, and at dusk, it's not cold. In the garden, there are so many trees, alone feeling it's hard to write a poem."
The blooming period of moon osmanthus is from March to May, which is different from the blooming period of the four-season osmanthus.
I am not a botanist. I've seen some articles say that moon osmanthus is actually a type of four-season osmanthus. However, some experts say it's not right because osmanthus belongs to the Osmanthus genus of the Oleaceae family, while moon osmanthus belongs to the laurel genus of the Lauraceae family.
Chen Yuyi wrote in his poem: "Rain on the moon osmanthus flowers, spring returns to lean on the railings." It can be seen that this type of osmanthus blooms in spring.
Li Gang, one of the four famous ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty, also wrote a poem about the osmanthus in spring, titled "Ji Ming's Son Wins the Championship and Makes a Small Poem and Records the Uniqueness of the Rock Osmanthus:
Why does the spring mountain osmanthus bloom early, the immortal book floating fragrance far to inform.
The mountain osmanthus or rock osmanthus mentioned in the poem also blooms in spring.
I don't know whether the "osmanthus falls" in Wang Wei's poem or "osmanthus blooms early" in Li Gang's poem refers to the four-season osmanthus or moon osmanthus.
What Season Does Osmanthus Flower Bloom?
Three, Osmanthus in Autumn
Wang Jian's "Fifteenth Night Gazing at the Moon and Sending to Du Langzhong" is about the Mid-Autumn Festival. Of course, it refers to the osmanthus that blooms in autumn:
The courtyard ground is white with crows perching on trees; the cold dew silently wets the osmanthus flowers. Tonight, the moon is bright, and everyone looks up; I don't know whose home the autumn thought falls on.
Although Wang Wei wrote about the osmanthus in spring, he also wrote poems about the osmanthus in autumn. For example, this "Daphne:
The red fruit blooms under the mountain, and the fresh scent becomes more intense in the cold. Lucky to be with the丛 osmanthus, in front of the autumn moon by the window.
Wu Wenying, a famous Ci poet from the Southern Song Dynasty, has a poem specifically about autumn osmanthus, "Sound of Sounds Slow - Ode to Osmanthus:
"Blue clouds cover dawn, jade trees hang autumn, intertwined with golden bangles and rosy branches. People rise in Zhao Yang, forbidden cold powder and粟 make muscles. The strongest fragrance has no place to stay, gradually cold fragrance, wind and dew become mist. embroider a mat, afraid of the empty steps startling fall, turning into fireflies.
"Thirty-six palaces are heavy with worries, who holds a golden shovel, moving the moon all together. Pull the lock to the west room, clear wine and simple hands heavy. How many autumn hair, let the black gauze drunk press the flowers low. Just shaking, sighed that the guest is delayed and has not returned.
Four, Poetic Language
Poetic language doesn't need to be too precise.
There are two types of rhetorical figures in rhetoric: positive and negative. Negative rhetoric requires the thinking of a mathematician, one is one, two is two, suitable for writing papers.
Poetic language is generally positive rhetoric. For example, Li Bai's exaggerated "三千丈 white hair" is positive rhetoric. If written in negative rhetoric, it can only be "three inches of white hair."
I've seen netizens comment that in Wang Wei's poem, it doesn't matter when the osmanthus blooms; the poet just wrote the osmanthus that blooms in autumn in spring.
This kind of statement is definitely wrong. Even positive rhetoric should not be too illogical. The osmanthus in Wang Wei's poem is definitely a plant that blooms in spring.
Whether it refers to the four-season osmanthus or moon osmanthus doesn't matter. Just understand it as a type of osmanthus that blooms in spring.
Conclusion
Readers often have different understandings when appreciating poems. Sometimes, the rhetoric of poets does not completely conform to logic.
However, this kind of illogicality also has a certain limit.
The "Treatise on the Secrets of Literary Mirrors" by the Zen master Konghai records a type of poetic disease among the Tang people called "falling out of season disease." That is, one should not intend to say autumn and mix spring things, and vice versa.
For poets, spring and autumn scenery should not be confused.
If the content about the season when osmanthus flowers bloom and the specific details of the flowering season of osmanthus shared in this article can help you, remember to often visit the Green Plant Enthusiast website!