Why roses have little place in ancient Chinese culture

Two poems about roses in ancient China:

1.

The rose has been moved from the Yue Wang Terrace, and it is most like a rose that is planted together. The flora is more beautiful than the colorful paintings, and the name of the rose is a gift.

Spring hides the embroidery of the wind blowing apart, the sky dyed Qiong Yao sunshine open. In order to reward the Zhu Yi early to invite guests, don't teach the fall of the moss.

2. Yang Wanli wrote "The Red Rose"

Not about the name of the moon season, not with the rose genealogy. The leaves are connected with the branches and the trunk is ten thousand green, and the flower is of two colors, light and deep red.

First of all, it is not true that roses were not valued in our ancient culture. About the origin of the name of the rose, "Shuo Wen" has: "Rose, the beauty of the stone, the gem, the beads round good," indicating that the ancients were very surprised at the beauty of the rose, otherwise it would not be such a beautiful name to it. Secondly, at the very least, there are the above two poems are not? Again, the moon season and roses, roses in foreign countries are classified as Rosaceae, so the praise of foreigners not only belong to the rose, but also the moon season, there are also roses, in short, all the English rose; and our traditional classification, only produced the "rose rose", "moon season rose ", "rose rose" of the three species. The concept is different, no wonder there will be a lot of different positioning.

As for the rose is not as popular as several other flowers, there may be several reasons:

First of all, the rose is not delicate, it is very low requirements for growing conditions, barren, cold, drought, in the north can then be unattended in the case of extensive growth. This is doomed to it is not for the people, especially the dignitaries pay attention to - the more common the more no one pays attention to. Only the lower class people can notice things, often is not easy to become mainstream culture, this is the rose is not as popular as the peony is one of the reasons (is also the rose from an elegant and gorgeous literary vocabulary into "underlings in the mouth of the proverb" one of the reasons).

Secondly, there are different cultural representations. Different cultures give different meanings to the same thing and produce different results. As already mentioned, roses are categorized into three types in Chinese, and it is customary to refer to varieties with large diameter, solitary flowers as moonflowers, and small clusters as roses. Roses have thorns, many thorns (although both are of the genus Rosa, the thorns of the rose are more numerous than those of the moonflower, and are not easily removed), and are therefore less playable and less approachable. Moreover, because of the sharp thorns on the stem of the rose, the Chinese figuratively regarded it as a "ho" and called it an "assassin". This is obviously not in line with social ideals in the later reformed orthodox Song and Ming philosophies (the Hundred Schools of Thought of the Spring and Autumn Period and even the Han Dynasty, which I think was the most open and glorious period of Chinese culture, when there was room for chivalry and heroism ......). And from the experience of life, most of the literati do not have the luxury, and most of the luxury like to travel to the famous mountains and rivers, so the "flower of the ho" rose is so left behind.

In addition, I think that the unpopularity of the rose has little to do with the consciousness of men and women, because, at the beginning of Ancient China, the flower as the symbol of the Chinese race (Hua is the flower) was a neutral word. Orchids, plum blossoms, peonies, etc. can have such a high symbolic status, but also because they and the mainstream culture of the pursuit of the bones has been (noble and faraway, proud of the bones of the rich and noble, unyielding), and the rose was colored "assassin", naturally difficult to the pursuit of harmony and righteousness in the temple culture class occupies a very high position, and is not The literati (whether or not they are successful) appreciate and pursue the style, this is probably the main reason.