In the book “Foreign Civilizations in the Tang Dynasty” (formerly known as “The Golden Peach of Samarkand-A Study of Foreign Products in the Tang Dynasty”), the American Sinologist Edward Schafer wrote in Luoyang as follows:
“Compared with the Chang’an city to the west, the ancient city of Luoyang is comparable in scale and history, but Luoyang has a warmer and more elegant spiritual life atmosphere…”
With such an enviable tone and such unabashed praise, what kind of charm does this once majestic city have? He publishes the picture, Luo publishes the book. An ancient city, an epic. A Luoyang city, half of Chinese history. The charm of this is too much to be exhausted. But the warm and elegant atmosphere of spiritual life, the first thing that came to my mind was the picture of literati and ink guest chanting poetry and drinking in the peony garden. If you go to Luoyang in spring, if you don’t take a look at Peony, you will lose a taste of the ancient capital. “Luoyang is the most suitable flower, and the peony is especially wonderful in the world.” Its cultivation began in the Sui Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and was in the world in the Song Dynasty. The wealthy peony in the Wangcheng Park impressed me deeply. Although the flowering period of Luoyang peony has passed, the stunning and floral fragrance still lingers in the memory. How beautiful is peony? The sentence “Only the true national color of peony, the capital will move when the flowers bloom” has been passed down through the ages, and the sentence “The flowers bloom and fall on the 20th, the people in a city are crazy” are still unforgettable. Luoyang is an ancient city. It has a history of at least 3,000 years from the Western Zhou Dynasty and Chengzhou City. It is one of the most important historical ancient capitals in the Chinese civilization. Its peony cultivation originated in Heluo and has a history of more than 1600 years. Luoyang, as one of the peony cultivation centers, had systematic flower planting skills as early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, forming the custom of viewing flowers and poems, paintings and calligraphy, legends, costumes, etc. related to peony, which derived Luoyang peony culture and flower viewing. The wind prevailed for a while. Today, the annual Luoyang Peony Fair is still a crowd of flowers, competing to see the beauty of the peony. When I walked into the Luoyang Wangcheng Park today, the history goes back a thousand years, and I seem to be walking in the ancient city of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. But today, I don’t want to be immersed in the river of history, because I am in the peony garden. Wangcheng Park is named after being built on the site of the ancient city of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. It is the first relic park in China and one of the main venues of the previous peony fairs in Luoyang, covering an area of 1,080 acres. When I traveled to Luoyang in late April this year, although some Luoyang netizens said that “the flowers in the urban area are basically defeated”, it seems that “the flower time is difficult to stay for a long time. “Nothing to buy” with emotion. But with the thick soil of five thousand years and the fragrance of flowers in thirteen dynasties, I was fortunate enough to have seen the Luoyang peony, which is known as the “best in the world”. National color peony, ten thousand flowers in one crystal. There are more than 840 peony varieties and more than 100,000 trees in Wangcheng Park. It is divided into three flower viewing areas (Luoyang Peony Garden, Purple Spot Peony Garden, and Fine Peony Garden). Black, pink, red, purple, white, blue, green, and multi-color peonies compete with each other, attracting countless tourists. Although I have never seen black, blue, and multi-color peonies, the colors of pink, green, purple, and white are still awe-inspiring. The shutter of the camera cannot be stopped when I press it. It was the first time to appreciate peony in Luoyang, and the feeling of being in the ancient capital deepened my feelings for peony. When the tourists beside them couldn’t help but exclaimed, the peonies in the green leaves were still so graceful, luxurious, rich and dignified, and they were not bothered by the hustle and bustle at all. It is said that in the Tang Dynasty, peony flowers bloomed, and the whole city rushed out to admire it. The literati and inexperiencers also like to chant peony, and do not hesitate to praise it with beautiful words. Among them, Liu Yuxi’s “Appreciation of Peony” is the most well-known. Thousand-year imperial capital, Peony Flower City. Today Luoyang is not only a thousand-year-old ancient capital standing majestically between Mount Mang and Yique, but also an ordinary and tranquil city. The prosperous chapters of the Han, Wei, Tang and Song Dynasties still have traces to follow. In the past, the poems were the chants of poets. Among the crowds, low eyebrows looked for their feet, raised their foreheads to look at the sky, and looked back at the long river. As the saying goes: “Mountains and rivers encircle Kyushu. The deep valleys are a few mausoleums. For thousands of years, the city of Luoyang will flourish.” There is also a zoo in the Wangcheng Park. It is the zoo with the most South China tigers in China and the number one in the world. It is the largest comprehensive park in Henan Province.
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