At the age of the year, the flowers of the grass and trees | The flowers belonging to the Qixi Festival, not the rose actually it

Cover reporter Liu Kexin

The night of the sky is cool as water, watching the glory and weaver actress. In a blink of an eye, it's Qixi again. Although most people now think that Qixi is a festival of romantic love, as a traditional festival with a rich cultural connotation, the meaning of the Tanabata is far more than that. Tanabata represents women's longing for wisdom and hard work, and it has also derived the customs of wearing needle begging, happy spider, and cleverness. In the southwest, there is another special local custom, which is to dye nails with Fengxian flowers.

Fengxianhua (Figure source network)

The customs of the Qixi Festival with Fengxian flower dyeing nails are recorded in the "Yanting County Chronicle" in Yanting County, Mianyang City, Sichuan: "July 7th is the Qiqiao Festival. There are also records in the hearing of the recording: "Tanabata, women picking phoenix flowers in the nails, red like amber." Crush red and rose red phoenix flowers, add alum to the nails, use leaves, leaves, leaves, and use leaves with leaves. Wrap it, tie the cotton thread, and remove it for four or five hours. This is reused to get "natural nails". The nails dyed by Fengxian flowers are rosy and bright, and it can even be maintained for several months.

In the 51st of the "Dream of Red Mansions", "Xue Xiaomei's newly edited the ancient poems Hu Yong's medical use of tiger wolf medicine", there is a description of the girl Qingwen in the Jia Baoyu room. The wind Hanwen stretched out his hand from the curtain, and Dr. Hu saw "there are two nails on this hand, three inches long, and there is still a trace of redness of golden phoenix flowers." The "golden phoenix flower" here is based on the annotation. This "nail" method has been favored by women since ancient times. "Vulgar dyeing fiber red nails, golden pots to pound Fengxian flowers" can explain the prevalence of this custom. Unfortunately, there is no clear record about when the custom stems from. Some ancient books were written in the Song Dynasty, and some people verified that they started in the Tang Dynasty, and there were divergent opinions.

Fengxianhua (Figure source network)

Fengxian flowers are plants of Fengxian flowers Fengxian flowers, and they will bloom during July to October. Because of its flowers, "head and wings are full of feet, and it is like a phoenix", it is called Fengxian flower. In addition, Fengxianhua is also called "nail flower", and its seeds are called "acute". Known as the "nail flower", it is naturally named according to its purpose. The "acute" came is because it spreads the seeds of seeds.

As the seeds of Fengxian flowers gradually mature, the wide spinning -shaped fruits wrapped in the seeds will bulge and are ready to go. After maturity, the dark brown, spherical seeds will be ejected by "suddenly", a "urgent impatient" look. So I got this interesting title, urgent. Although it seems that "personality" is not reliable, the medicine of Fengxian flowers is particularly reliable. Fengxianhua has been used as a medicinal material since ancient times, and the seeds and roots can be used as medicine.

"Compendium of Materia Medica" records that acuteness is often used for breaking blood, eliminating accumulation, and softness. During the cooking process, several pieces can also be added to make the meat and bones soften faster. However, there are also records in the book that insects, bees, and butterflies are not close to Phoenix Flowers, "I am not toxic." Therefore, it is better to be cautious about the use of Fengxianhua.

In rural areas, many families choose to plant several phoenix flowers on the door and corners. One said that because of the slight poison of Fengxian flowers, this toxicity made the snake dare not approach; the first was because the Fengxian flower had a strange taste, which made the snake avoid it. In addition, Fengxian flowers are very good at feeding, and the flowers blooming are also gorgeous, so every family will raise some.

The Phoenix Flower "Flower Start of Flower" painted by Shou Ping is now hidden in Hunan Museum

Although Fengxianhua is now generally considered nail flower, in fact, there is another person in the positive owner of the "nail flower". "Shuzhong Wizard" Li Tiayuan wrote in the 13th Middle School of "South Vietnam Note" in the landscape: "Nail flowers are like wooden crickets, thin and positive yellow, many beards, one flowers, and very fragrant. Ye and alum stones have a little dyeing nails, red and eye -catching. Tang poetry 'playing zither fell into peach blossoms'. This is a kind of golden phoenix flower, which can also be dyed. It can be seen that Jinfeng flowers and nail flowers are not the same plant. This "like wooden" plants refers to the scattered flowers native to East Africa and Southeast Asia.

Sanmo has grown in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places. The flowering period is from June to October. But unlike Fengxian flowers, the parts of scattered flowers are not flowers, but leaves. Flowers are used to extract sesame oil and make balm for cosmetics. Presumably, because of similar uses, the flowering period is similar, and it is called "nail flower".

Whether it is Fengxianhua or Sanmo flower, it reflects the pursuit of beauty in ancient women. It is this expectation and longing for beautiful things that have created the Qixi Festival that reflects women's hard work and wisdom.

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