\t \tThe Luoyang mudan ji \u6d1b\u9633\u7261\u4e39\u8bb0 "Peonies of Luoyang" is a treatise on peonies written by the early Song period \u5b8b (960-1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu \u6b27\u9633\u4fee (1007-1072). It is the earliest Chinese description of garden flowers at all. In older treatises on medical herbs, like the Shen Nong bencao jing \u795e\u519c\u672c\u8349\u7ecf, peonies are still treated as medical and not as decorative plants. It is known Emperor Yang \u968b\u7080\u5e1d (r. 604-617) of the Sui dynasty \u968b (581-618) had decorated his gardens with different kinds of peonies. The capitals Chang'an \u957f\u5b89 (modern Xi'an \u897f\u5b89, Shaanxi) and Luoyang \u6d1b\u9633 (modern Luoyang, Henan) became important centres of peony cultivation.<\/p>\n
\tOuyang Xiu occupied high positions in the central government and was a renowned historian, writer and poet. His great interest for birds and plants is reflected in many of his poems. The book Luoyang mudan ji is only quite short and divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, 24 kinds of peonies are classified qualitatively. In the second chapter, Ouyang Xiu describes the plants and explains their names. In the third chapter cultivation and use of the peonies are described.<\/p>\n
\tPeonies were a wild plant (shanmudan \u5c71\u7261\u4e39 "mountain peonies") originating in China's barren northwestern region of Shaanxi. The appearance of these wild plants is also described by Ouyang Xiu, which was totally different from the later known garden plants.<\/p>\n
\tThe language of the Luoyang mudan ji is very poetic and of high quality. It therefore attracted later scholars who expanded the description, like Zhou Shihou \u5468\u5e08\u539a who finished a book with the same title in 1082 (to discern it from Ouyang's book it was called Yinjiang Zhoushi Luoyang mudan ji \u911e\u6c5f\u5468\u6c0f\u6d1b\u9633\u7261\u4e39\u8bb0 "The peonies of Luoyang by Master Zhou from Yinjiang"). Similar books were written by Zhang Bangji \u5f20\u90a6\u57fa (Chenzhou mudan ji \u9648\u5dde\u7261\u4e39\u8bb0), Lu You \u9646\u6e38 (Tianpeng mudan ji \u5929\u5f6d\u7261\u4e39\u8bb0), Qiu Daoyuan \u4e18\u9053\u6e90 (Mudan rongru zhi \u7261\u4e39\u8363\u8fb1\u5fd7) from the Song period, as well as Xia Zhichen \u590f\u4e4b\u81e3 (Ping Haozhou mudan \u8bc4\u6beb\u5dde\u7261\u4e39), Xue Fengxiang \u859b\u51e4\u7fd4 (Haozhou mudan shi \u6beb\u5dde\u7261\u4e39\u53f2) from the Ming period \u660e (1368-1644), and Niu Xiu \u94ae\u7407 (Haozhou mudan shu \u6beb\u5dde\u7261\u4e39\u8ff0) and Yu Pengnian \u4f59\u5f6d\u5e74 (Caozhou mudan pu \u66f9\u5dde\u7261\u4e39\u8c31) from the Qing period \u6e05 (1644-1911).<\/p>\n
\tThe Luoyang mudan ji is included in the collected works of Ouyang Xiu,Ouyang Wenzhong gong quanji \u6b27\u9633\u6587\u5fe0\u516c\u5168\u96c6. The most important faksimile prints are to be found in the collectanea Baichuan xuehai \u767e\u5ddd\u5b66\u6d77,Shuofu \u8bf4\u90db, Shanju zazhi \u5c71\u5c45\u6742\u5fd7, Biyu conglu \u7b14\u4f59\u4e1b\u5f55, Qunfang qingwan\u7fa3\u82b3\u6e05\u73a9, Xiangyan congshu \u9999\u8273\u4e1b\u4e66, and many others. It is included in the large collectanea Siku quanshu \u56db\u5e93\u5168\u4e66 and Congshu jicheng \u4e1b\u4e66\u96c6\u6210.<\/p>\n
\tContents<\/strong>
\t1. \u82b1\u54c1 Huapin Kinds of flowers (i.e. peonies)
\t2. \u82b1\u91ca\u540d Huashiming Explanation of the names
\t3. \u98ce\u4fd7\u8bb0 Fengji su Customs (of cultivation)
\t <\/p>\n