Twelve Months of Flower God and Flower Language
In China's traditional culture, the December Flower God carries a unique cultural code. The representative flowers of each month and the corresponding guardian flower gods jointly weave a thousand-year story of flowers and humanity intertwined. These plants not only show the rhythm of the seasons, but also contain the spiritual character and good wishes placed by the ancients. The legend of the flower god in the four seasons can be traced back to the glorious chapter of spring (January to April). As the flower god at the beginning of the year, plum blossoms have the characteristics of frost and pride in snow that are in tune with the legend of Princess Shouyang. "Taiping Imperial Lan" of the Southern Dynasty records that Princess Shouyang's plum blossom makeup allusions established the important position of plum blossoms in literati aesthetics. The connection between apricot flowers and Imperial Consort Yang has been passed down for thousands of years through the image of "a branch of red and beautiful dew" in "Song of Eternal Regret". Its "shy and lovely" flower language implicitly coincides with the allusions of the Imperial Consort Yang's drunkenness. The splendor of summer (May to August), the pairing of pomegranate flowers and Zhong Kui stems from the phenological characteristics of the Dragon Boat Festival. The pomegranate flowers blooming in May are deeply integrated with the custom of exorcising evil spirits. Li Shizhen specifically recorded the medicinal value of lotus flowers in his "Compendium of Materia Medica". This practicality contrasts with the image of Xi Shi's "sinking fish" beauty, which just explains the dual meaning of "innocence and arrogance." Autumn and winter charm (September to December) Tao Yuanming's famous sentence "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence" makes chrysanthemums a symbol of reclusive culture. What is worth noting is the legendary connection between daffodils and Ehuang Nvying. The image of Lady Xiang in Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs" and the nickname of daffodils "Lingbo Fairy" form a cross-era cultural echo. Cultural decoding of the flower language system The twelve months of flower language system actually constructed a complete metaphor for life: from plum blossoms "fighting the cold snow" to narcissus "longing for a long time", it implicitly conforms to the concept of the year in agricultural society. Among them, the meaning of peony's "prosperity and perfection" is directly related to the social style of "blooming flowers moved the capital" during the Tang Dynasty, while the image of osmanthus "always accompanying the beautiful lady" can be traced back to the love description of "the osmanthus falling in the moon" in "The Legend of the Western Chamber". Flower God Culture in Modern Life In contemporary landscape design, the December Flower God system still has guiding value. The four-season flower landscape layout of Hangzhou's West Lake's "Three Tanks and Moon Seal" and the arrangement of flowers and trees in Suzhou gardens all continue this cultural gene. The new media era has also spawned innovative forms of communication such as "cloud flowers and gods", giving new vitality to ancient traditions.
Through the cultural prism of the December Flower God, what we see is not only a simple superposition of plant characteristics and legendary stories, but also a concrete expression of the China's philosophical concept of "harmony between man and nature." These flowery codes that travel through time and space still affect our aesthetic orientation and spiritual pursuit.