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Luoyang huamu ji 洛陽花木記

Mar 2, 2022 © Ulrich Theobald

Luoyang huamu ji 洛陽花木記 is a book on gardening written during the Northern Song period 北宋 (960-1126) by Zhou Shihou 周師厚 (1031-1087), courtesy name Dunfu 敦夫, from Yinxian 鄞縣, Zhejiang (at the time called Yinjiang 鄞江).

The brief book was written because Zhou was very impressed by the garden culture of Luoyang 洛陽 during the time he served there, and imitated older books on the topic, namely Li Deyu's 李德裕 (787-849) Pingquan huamu ji 平泉花木記 from the Tang period 唐 (618-907), and Ouyang Xiu's 歐陽修 (1007-1072) famous Luoyang mudan ji 洛陽牡丹記 on the peonies of Luoyang. His book must have been finished before 1082, and is included in the series Shuofu 說郛, and quoted in the early Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) encyclopaedia Gujin tushu jicheng 古今圖書集成.

The book describes 109 kinds of peonies (mudan 牡丹, qianyehua 千葉花), 41 types of chrysanthemums (shaoyao 芍藥), and 82 other flowers (zahua 雜花), as well as 147 types of fruit-bearing flowers (guozihua 果子花), 37 types of thorny flowers (cihua 刺花), 89 types of "grassy flowers" (caohua 草花), 17 types of water flowers (shuihua 水花), and six types of creeping flowers (manhua 蔓花). The book ends with recommendations for cultivation through the year (sishi bianjie fa 四時變接法), propagation (jiehuafa 接花法), planting and potting (zaihuafa 栽花法), the sowing of peonies (zhong zuzi fa 種祖子法), cutting (dabo hua fa 打剥花法), and the division of chrysanthemum roots (fen shaoyao fa 分芍藥法).

Sources:
Sun Zhaoliang 孫兆亮, and Xu Weitong 徐維統. 1996. "Luoyang huamu ji 洛陽花木記." In Zhongguo xueshu mingzhu tiyao 中國學術名著提要, vol. Keji 科技卷, edited by Zhou Gucheng 周谷城, 697. Beijing: Fudan daxue chubanshe.
Wang Yuhu 王毓瑚, ed. 1964. Zhongguo nongxue shulu 中國農學書錄, 74. Beijing: Nongye chubanshe.
Wu Feng 吳楓, ed. 1987. Jianming Zhongguo guji cidian 簡明中國古籍辭典, 664. Changchun: Jilin wenshi chubanshe.
Zhou Zhaoji 周肇基. 1995. "Luoyang huamu ji 洛陽花木記." In Zhongguo nongye baike quanshu 中國農業百科全書, vol. Nongye lishi 農業歷史卷, 198. Beijing: Nongye chubanshe.