The legend of purple peony

The legend of purple peony

The legend about purple-spotted peony dates back to the late Ming Dynasty.

It is said that there was a poor man who was knowledgeable and good at playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, but he became disillusioned with the world and became a monk. He lived in seclusion in Baiyun Temple on Taibai Mountain and took the name Shi Yishou.

The mountain temple where Shi Yishou lives has beautiful scenery. It is surrounded by mountains and water, and there are beautiful peony flowers in the temple. In the temple every day, apart from doing Buddhist work, Shi Yishou spent the rest of his time painting. He is very good at painting peonies. His paintings are delicate and seem to be created naturally. Everyone who sees them applauds. Many people came to ask Shi Yishou for paintings.

One year, around the time of Grain Rain, the peonies in the temple bloomed one after another, attracting many believers who came to the temple to pray for wealth, good fortune and good health. One day, Shi Yishou was painting peonies in the yard when he suddenly heard a noise in front of the yard. He saw a fat man surrounded by several farmhands not far away, walking towards him in a swagger. When the man came closer, he realized that this man was the famous local bully, Wang Dalai. This Wang Dalai has always been rampant in the countryside and bullied people. Wang Dalai walked up to Shi Yishou, saw his paintings, thought they were great and wanted to get them, so he asked his servants to go and get them. Shi Yishou refused, and Wang Dalai became angry. He forced Shi Yishou to hand over the painting. Shi Yishou showed no sign of weakness. He tore up the painting, threw the brush on the inkstone, and left. The crowd was filled with anger, so Wang Dalai had no choice but to leave in disappointment.

However, the ink splashed from the inkstone fell onto the peony drawing board, forming purple spots. From then on, every year when the peony flowers bloomed, people could see purple spots on the flowers, so they called it purple-spotted peony.