Textual Study On Renowed Peony Gardens Through The Past Dynasties In South China

Peony is one of the famous traditional flowers in china. Peony’s colour is bright and colourful, it’s also fragrant and elegant. It has a long history and profound cultural connotation. As a carrier of culture, each kind of flowers has a wide range of symbolic meaning. With the variety of flowers’ cultural studies growing in depth and broaden, flowers cultural studies boom has formed, especially about peonies. Although the research on peony has achieved fruitful results,there is few complete or in-depth study,and people often study peony culture as incidental research. Facing the vast literature research and excavation work in this area, there is still much space to explore. That means the research is still in a start state and we need to find a new perspective. And people tend to study peony in North China like Chang’an, Luoyang, Heze, Beijing and other place. Few people focus on the peony in South China. Through the study on Peony Gardens under different historical backgrounds, we can enrich and improve the study on peony culture and provide new supplement and proof on the history of peony.In this article, through theoretical knowledge combined with field investigation, history of peony was summarized. Besides, famous peony gardens with different background, origin as well as development during various historical periods were summarized. Contents are as follows:Firstly, brief the origin, cultivation history and distribution status of peony.Secondly, sum the distribution of peony and horticulture level at different times. Analyze the history and growing center of peony in each period since Sui and Tang dynasty.Thirdly, collect Peony Gardens in the southern region at different periods. Describe them from the source, development and situation. Classify them and summarizes their significance.The specific conclusions are as follows:Firstly, since the Sui Dynasty peony has experienced several ups and downs: Sui Dynasty(early development)——Tang Dynasty(peak) —— "An Lushan Rebellion"(recession) —— Later Tang Dynasty(recovery) —— Northern Song Dynasty(peak)—— "Jing Kang chaos"(recession) ——Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing(peak)——Republican period(recession) —— New China(peak).Secondly, peony cultivation center changes: Sui Dynasty(Luoyang) ——Tang Dynasty(Chang’an and Luoyang) — — Song Dynasty(Luoyang) — — Ming Dynasty(Bozhou, Caozhou)——Qing Dynasty(Caozhou) ——New China(Xi’an, Luoyang, Heze, Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other cities)Thirdly, we have collected Peony Gardens in the southern region at different periods. According to their formation,these Peony Gardens were divided into four categories and we explained the significance of each category.After this study,some questions were found and still need more research:Firstly, information on the south Peony Garden Tang and Jin and Yuan period is not yet complete.Secondly, relevant written records about peony planting and gardens in folk need more collection and further improve.Thirdly, since some Peony Garden were damaged because of war or natural causes, there are certain difficulties in field research. We can only explore according Ancient Texts and Literatures.Fourthly, some of these gardens management and protection efforts need to be strengthened, and we proposed to increase in species identification and prevent visitors to pick.