A Study on Herbaceous Peony Literature in Pre-Modern China

Shaoyao, the Chinese word for the peony today, is one of the plants with the longest recorded history in China, first appearing in the Shi Jing (诗经) or Classic of Poetry complied in the Spring and Autumn Period. However, Lu Ji (陆玑), a linguistic scholar presumably of the Three Kingdoms period, raised a question about the shaoyao (芍药, peony) mentioned in the Shi Jing, noting: “shaoyao here should be different from the medicinal herb shaoyao, but its nature is unknown.” The medical use of shaoyao can traced back to the medical formulas (fang 方) of the Han dynasty, such as those in Prescriptions for Fifty-two Diseases (Wushier Bingfang 五十二病方), Prescriptions for Sixty Diseases (Liushier Bingfang 六十二病方), and Wuwei Medical Wooden Slips (Wuwei Handai Yijian 武威汉代医简), as well as medical texts associated with Zhang Zhongjing (张仲景). Shaoyao was a common ingredient, and from the Wei/Jin dynasties was also praised for its beauty in odes, such as, Shaoyao Huasong (芍药花颂) or Ode to the Peony Flower by Xin Xiao (萧辛), a female poet of the Jin dynasty, and Shaoyao Fu (芍药赋) or Ode to the Peony by Wang Yun (王筠) of the Liang dynasty. In the Northern Song dynasty, peony cultivation became prevalent in Yangzhou (扬州), and writing treatises on it became fashionable among intellectuals. Liu Ban (刘攽), Wang Guan (王观), and Kong Wuzhong (孙武仲) all compiled such treatises after visiting Yangzhou between 1073 and 1078, an exceptional example of such treatises being written within such a short time span. Preceding research has focused mainly on these three treatises. Nevertheless, Ai Chou (艾丑) also wrote a treatise on the peony after Kong's, and in the Ming dynasty Cao Shouzhen (曹守贞) published the Weiyang Shaoyao Pu (维扬芍药谱) or Treatise on the Peony in Weiyang. This paper investigates the precise time of the composition and the content of these, as well as the personal histories of the authors, while assembling other early documents related to the peony, revealing unknown aspects of the history of peony culture.