Jīnzhāng lánpǔ 金漳蘭譜
Treatise on the Orchids of Jīn-Zhāng (Zhāng-zhōu) by 趙時庚 (Zhào Shígēng, 撰)
About the work
The first systematic Chinese monograph on the orchid (lán 蘭, the Chinese garden-orchid; primarily Cymbidium species — distinct from the tropical Orchidaceae of Western horticulture). A three-juàn late-Southern-Sòng work by Zhào Shígēng 趙時庚 hào Dànzhāi 澹齋, a ninth-generation descendant of Sòng Tàizǔ’s younger brother Wèi Wáng Tíngmei. Dated by self-preface to Shàodìng guǐsì (1233). The work documents the orchid-varieties cultivated at Zhāngzhōu (Fújiàn) — the principal Sòng centre of orchid-culture and the location of Zhào’s family seat.
The work covers three areas: (1) variety-listing (purple-orchid and white-orchid ranked separately, with named cultivars in each grade); (2) cultivation methods (soil, watering, propagation, pot-selection, seasonal care); (3) supplementary anecdotes and literary references. The Song Shuōfú recension preserves only juàn 1–2; the WYG recension is the unique complete three-juàn witness.
Tiyao
We submit that the Jīnzhāng lánpǔ is in three juàn by Zhào Shígēng of the Sòng. Shígēng was an imperial-clansman; his start-and-end is unknown. Using the generational character Shí 時 in his name, we calculate that he is a ninth-generation descendant of Wèi Wáng Tíngměi. This book is also recorded in the Shuōfú but the lower juàn is lost; the present recension has all three juàn and is uniquely complete. The narrative is also quite detailed-and-abundant. In general it is mutually-overlapping with Wáng Guìxué’s [Lánpǔ (KR3i not extant in this division)]. As to varieties like Dàzhāngqīng and Pú tǒnglǐng — this book only lists their names and their flower-leaf-root-stem — but Wáng’s Lánpǔ details the origin of the names: Dàzhāngqīng refers to one Mr Zhāng, surname Zhāng, who, reading in a mountain-valley, came upon it; Pú tǒnglǐng refers to Pú tǒnglǐng (Captain Pú) who in Chúnxī led troops in pursuit of bandits to a place and obtained it. The two works’ detail-and-brevity in recording is complementary — sufficient evidence that book-writing is not a mere copy-of-discourse. At the head is Shígēng’s Shàodìng guǐsì (1233) self-preface; at the end there is a Lǎnzhēnzǐ postface. Investigating Lǎnzhēnzǐ — this is Mǎ Yǒngqīng’s biéhào. Yǒngqīng was Liú Ānshì’s disciple, a late-Northern-Sòng person; he could not have survived to Shàodìng. This must be a different person whose hào happens to be the same. Submitted Qiánlóng 51 month 3 (1786).
Abstract
The work is the foundational document of Chinese orchid-culture and one of the most influential works of the entire pǔlù tradition. It established the systematic terminology and aesthetic-framework that would govern Chinese orchid-connoisseurship for the next seven centuries.
The principal varieties documented:
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Purple orchids (zǐlán 紫蘭, with reddish-purple flowers): the supreme Chén Mèngliáng 陳夢良 and Wúlán 吳蘭, plus Pánlóng 蟠龍, Línglóng 玲瓏, Tóngpáo 童袍 (Child-Robe), Pōzhì 潑墨 (Ink-Splashed), and twenty-some others.
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White orchids (báilán 白蘭, with greenish-white flowers): the supreme Jízhāi guān 濟之冠, Huángpō 黃婆, Pú tǒnglǐng 蒲統領 (Captain Pú), Dàzhāngqīng 大張青, Xúménzhuāng 許門莊, plus many others.
The cultivation-method section is the principal source for Sòng-period orchid-horticulture: it details the soil-mixture (the famous huángní 黃泥 / Shāpī 沙坯 alternation), the pén (pot) selection (preference for porous unglazed terracotta), the seasonal watering schedule, the jiēfēn (division) propagation method, and the protection from direct sun and from frost. Many of these techniques remain in use in modern Chinese orchid-cultivation.
The composition date is fixed by the self-preface to Shàodìng 6 (1233), with Zhào’s “nearly thirty years” of orchid-cultivation placing his initial collecting activity in the Jiātài / Kāixǐ period (c. 1203–1208). The author was therefore in his middle-to-late adulthood at the time of writing.
The work was preserved through the Sòng Shuōfú (which has only juàn 1–2) and is uniquely complete in the WYG recension. The lost juàn 3 contains the cultivation and literary materials.
Translations and research
- Wáng Lìpíng 王利平. 2010. Sòng-dài huā-pǔ wén-xiàn yán-jiū 宋代花譜文獻研究. Shàng-hǎi gǔjí chū-bǎn-shè.
- Wáng Yùyīng 王玉英. 2007. Zhōng-guó lán-huā wén-huà-shǐ 中國蘭花文化史. Běijīng: Zhōng-guó nóng-yè chū-bǎn-shè.
- Jian Min Wang. 2005. Wenren and Chinese Orchids (PhD thesis, U Pennsylvania).
Other points of interest
The work is the immediate predecessor to Wáng Guìxué’s 王貴學 Wángshì lánpǔ 王氏蘭譜 (c. 1247, lost as separate work but partially preserved in the Shuōfú and in citations) — the two together represent the apex of the Southern-Sòng orchid-monograph tradition. The pairing of the two works (Zhào’s detailed cultivar-descriptions, Wáng’s onomastic-anecdotal explanations) became the foundation of the Yuán-Míng-Qing orchid-culture.
The work’s classification of orchids into the zǐlán (purple, reddish-flowered) and báilán (white, greenish-flowered) categories corresponds to the modern taxonomic distinction between Cymbidium ensifolium group (multi-flowered) and Cymbidium goeringii group (single-flowered) — though the seven-century gap in observation makes precise alignment impossible.