peony of Luoyang

In China the peony was the flower par excellence. It had long been used as a medicinal plant before it was cultivated in gardens. Numerous poems, paintings, and pictures on vases glorify the beauty of the peony, which according to legend even rebelled against the will of the Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang dynasty: it was the only flower which refused to bloom in winter at her command. As a punishment it was banished from the imperial gardens. The wrath of the eccentric empress was so fierce that she orderd all the peonies of the capital city to be destroyed.

In China, the most important country of peony origins, many splendid pictures have been painted from the Tang Dynasty up to the present time. This is a painting by Chian Ting-hsi (1669 - 1732) of the Ch'ing Dynasty.