Peony
The flower dictionaries disagreed about the peony. Charlotte de La Tour made it "shame", reading its red as a guilty blush; Sarah Josepha Hale and Henrietta Dumont made it "anger", from its fiery colour; Kate Greenaway gave "shame, bashfulness". In China the tree peony is called the king of flowers.
Meaning
La Tour pairs the peony with Honte, shame, and quotes the poet Father Rapin: the peony's colour is not the blush of modesty but the redness of shame, for the plant hides a guilty nymph. Sarah Josepha Hale's Flora's Interpreter (Boston, 1832) gives "anger", and Henrietta Dumont's Floral Offering (Philadelphia, 1851) explains the choice: the peony is "chosen as the emblem of Anger from its red and fiery hues". Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) goes back to La Tour with "shame, bashfulness", and Richard Folkard's Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (1884) calls the peony the emblem of bashful shame. The peony's Chinese meaning, below, is a living one.
Origin and history
Folkard gives the flower's Greek origin. The peony is named after Paeon, physician of the gods in Homer, who was turned into the flower. Rapin, Folkard notes, told a different tale, of a shepherdess seduced by the sun god, which is where La Tour's guilty blush comes from.
King of flowers in China
In China the peony carries honour rather than shame. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art tells the legend that Empress Wu (reigned 684–705) ordered every flower in her garden to bloom one winter day, and only the peony refused, for which she banished it from the capital, Chang'an, to Luoyang. The tree peony was nevertheless a favourite of the Tang court. The museum says the peony is still honoured as a sign of status and power, and called the "king of flowers" (huawang) and the "flower of wealth and rank" (fuguihua).
Read next
- Next in The language of flowersCarnationCharlotte de La Tour gave the carnation "ardent and pure love". The English and American books split carnations and pinks by colour, so that Kate Greenaway's deep red carnation says "Alas! for my poor heart" and the yellow one "disdain". Since 1908 the white carnation has also been the emblem of Mother's Day in the United States.
- The same shape in Adinkra symbolsBese SakaBese Saka, a bunch of kola nuts, is the adinkra symbol of affluence, abundance and unity.
See also
Red rose, White rose, Yellow rose, Pink rose, Lily, Tulip.
Sources
- Le Langage des fleurs (Charlotte de La Tour, 13th edition), Charlotte de La Tour, Le Langage des fleurs, treizième édition augmentée (Paris: Garnier frères, [1856]); first published 1819, Cornell University Library, via the Internet Archive, Dictionnaire, “Honte”
- The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition), Peony chapter
- Flora's Interpreter (Sarah Josepha Hale, 1832), Sarah Josepha Hale, Flora's Interpreter, or the American Book of Flowers and Sentiments (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1832), Boston Public Library, via the Internet Archive, Peony
- Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition), Peony
- Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (Richard Folkard, 1884), Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (London: Sampson Low, 1884), Project Gutenberg, Peony
- Peonies, F1901.172 (National Museum of Asian Art), Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 30, 2026. How we research
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