Yangzhou shaoyao pu 揚州芍藥譜

Yangzhou shaoyao pu 揚州芍藥譜, short Shaoyaopu 芍藥譜, is a description of garden peonies (Paeonia lactiflora) in the gardens of the city of Yangzhou 揚州, Jiangsu, written during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Wang Guan 王觀 (fl. 1075), courtesy name Dasou 達叟, from Rugao 如臯 (close to modern Nantong 南通, Jiangsu). Wang's exact dates of life are not known. He once served as an academician of the Hanlin Academy 翰林院 but was in 1075 transferred to the post of district magistrate because Empress Dowager Xuanren 宣仁太后 (1032-1093) felt insulted by some of his poems. His collected writings are called Guanliu ji 冠柳集.

The oldest book on garden peonies was written by Liu Ban 劉攽, courtesy name Gongfu 貢父, from Qingjiang 清江. Part of the text is quoted in Zhu Mu's 祝穆 (d. 1255) encyclopaedia Shiwen leiju 事文類聚, as well as in Chen Jingyi's 陳景沂 (b. c. 1201) botanical encyclopaedia Quanfang beizu 全芳備祖. The texts describes 31 types of garden peonies of Yangzhou, ranking them into seven grades of quality. Liu’s book was finished in 1073 and was illustrated. It is also known with the name Weiyang shaoyao pu 維揚芍藥譜.

Another early book with the title Shaoyaopu was written by Kong Wuzhong 孔武仲, courtesy name Changfu 常甫, from Xingan 新淦, Jiangxi. Even if the compilers of the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 say, the text was preserved in the "brush-notes"-style (biji 筆記) essay collection Nenggaizhai manlu 能改齋漫錄 of Wu Zeng 吳曾 (fl. 1162), only quotations in the Quanfang beizu survive. Kong's book described 33 types of flowers. In the book catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題, the book is called Shaoyao putu 芍藥譜圖, which shows that Kong's text, too, had been accompanied by illustrations.

Wang Guang's Shaoyaopu begins with an introduction of the peonies in Yangzhou as the most beautiful flowers of this kind in China. In Yangzhou, the peonies in the garden of the family Zhu 朱 were the best. Wang Guan then lists his criteria for rating a peony as good or not. This depends not only on the natural growth but much more on the effort humans have put into the growing of flowers. He then describes the different kinds of peonies and rates them according to seven categories, beginning with the excellent kind guanqunfang 冠群芳 and ending with the inferior kind of xiaoyinzhuang 效殷妝. Wang’s book is based on Liu Ban but adds eight different kinds of flowers not mentioned by Liu.

Wang's Shaoyaopu is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Baichuan xuehai 百川學海, Shuofu 說郛, Shanju zazhi 山居雜志, Qunfang qingwan 羣芳清玩, Mohai jinhu 墨海金壺, Zhucong bielu 珠叢別錄, Yangzhou congke 揚州叢刻 Xiangyan congshu 香艷叢書, Guoxue zhenben wenku 國學珍本文庫 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.