Peach blossoms in front of the gate - Quang Binh Electronic Newspaper

(QBĐT) - In Quang Binh province, there is a simple native peach blossom, each flower has only five single petals, the color of the flower is light pink, fresh, gentle, with a fragile beauty that people often call wild peach , or Vietnamese peach , to distinguish it from the brilliant and proud peach blossoms from Nhat Tan, Hanoi, or from other rural areas outside the North that are brought in for sale, every time Tet comes, spring comes. Called wild peach , but in fact, in the forest, in nature, this peach blossom variety is extremely rare, almost non-existent, but if it is, it is not easy to exploit, because the forest today has been very strictly protected and the awareness of forest biodiversity conservation of the people thanks to communication, education, sanctions... has gradually increased.

In fact, the fresh spring-colored wild peach branches that we often see for sale on the streets and flower markets during the Lunar New Year in the countryside of Quang Binh province may have been taken from wild peach trees, transplanted, and grown in their gardens and hills for a long, long time. That is why, before the destructive war that the Americans waged in North Vietnam (1964), when I was a child, I saw in many home gardens in Dong Hoi City people planting this peach tree, most of which have become ancient trees.

We, the kids, back then, based on the shape of the fruit, often called this peach variety hairy peach , because at the end of the flowering season, the tree bore many small, green fruits, covered with soft, velvety hairs, and when ripe, had a very appealing sour and astringent taste. The seeds of the hairy peach/ta peach had a slightly pitted surface, were diamond-shaped, as small as the tip of a thumb, with sharp points at both ends, and were as hard as rocks, but we treasured them and considered them a childhood “property” because they were used to play the very attractive game of shooting hairy peach seeds.

Until the following months of war, even when bombs and bullets were falling fiercely, on the evacuation routes to avoid American bombs, I still saw these peach trees in the mountainous region of Con, the new temporary residence of the people of Dong Hoi City, of Quang Binh province and in many other rural areas in the province. The memory of the peach trees standing alone in small gardens, on the porches, next to the mouths of shelters... innocently showing off their pale pink flowers, tenderly in the cold, drizzly weather of the days before Tet, making the countryside peaceful, beautiful like a painting in the midst of bombs and bullets still lingers in my mind to this day.

Peach blossoms in front of Quang Binh relic.

There were times when I sat huddled in a damp, cold A-shaped bomb shelter, amidst the screeching sounds of American planes, I fearfully looked up towards the entrance of the shelter, saw the peach tree still blooming peacefully in the distance, and remembered the Tang poem that the elderly who were good at Han Nom in the evacuation area often spontaneously recited in the rare peaceful moments: Peach blossoms still smile at the east wind and was explained: Peach blossoms still smile at the east wind as before. It's spring, why is there an east wind? That was just a sudden thought of Van Vi to ease her fear of planes, but at that time she was only in fifth or seventh grade, how could she understand.

Later, when I grew up and studied more, read more, traveled, learned more... I found out that it was the concluding sentence in the poem De do thanh Nam Trang (1) by the Tang Dynasty author Thoi Ho, whose original Chinese text is 桃 花 依 舊 笑 東 風(Peach blossoms still smile at the east wind) with the two words 東 風 (dong phong) meaning: Wind (blowing) from the east, not the winter wind. The wind blowing from the east is a breeze that carries the cool breeze from the ocean, accordingly, dong phong 東 風 in Chinese is used to refer to the spring wind (2). And we still often encounter this concept of dong phong-spring wind in ancient poetry (3): 東風吹雪舞山家Dong phong xuy tuyet vu son gia-Spring wind blows, snow dances on the houses on the mountain (Tham Thuyen Ky); or: Leaning on the east wind, a smile is calm and peaceful-Like the spring wind, a smile is calm and peaceful (Tan Khi Tat)…

Peach blossoms anywhere, including the peach blossoms in Quang Binh, are angels of spring, so when the time comes, they only bloom and show off their colors in the spring wind, even when the cold of winter still falls, because that is the biological characteristic of the species, faithful and periodic like performing a heavenly mission.

When Quang Binh province returned to its old place, every year, when Tet comes, people from the countryside near Dong Hoi city bring the most beautiful peach branches from their gardens to sell in front of the Quang Binh historical and cultural relic, to earn extra money to cover Tet holidays. In Quang Binh, peach trees are not sold as whole trees like Nhat Tan, Dao Xa, Dong La peach trees... in the North, but only the branches are cut and pruned, while the peach roots are fertilized to continue to sprout and bloom, waiting for the next spring, because it takes 3-4 years for the tree to be able to sprout and bloom again. The peach branches that people bring to sell come in all shapes and sizes: from a bunch of small branches like chopsticks combined together, to independent branches with diameters as large as an adult's wrist or ankle, with a canopy that covers the entire living room. All our peach branches are not carefully and elaborately shaped like the peach branches of the North, but are left rustic and rough, the flowers and leaves bloom naturally and freely, bringing the wild but deep beauty of the mountains and forests.

On the days before Tet, out of habit that has become a need, I often enjoy walking around the flower market, looking for a moderate, satisfactory peach blossom branch to display in the house to enjoy the natural beauty of the familiar flowers, leaves, and buds. I have loved and cherished the simple, pure peach blossoms of my homeland since my childhood, and that love has deepened, perhaps partly due to the influence and enlightenment from the way the famous Japanese Zen poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), "the practitioner of dust and light", saw the "power" of the peach blossom scent in his haiku poem: The temple bell gradually fades away/The peach blossom scent in the evening/Still rings (4), and from then on, I bow down and worship the peach blossom as Buddha: Before the peach blossom branch/The fragrance and color of life are full/Namo peach blossom.

Just a little bit of this spring peach blossom in my warm house, but when the peach blossom branch is illuminated by the spring sunlight by the window, suddenly the whole Tet space is bright, but also very quiet and pure. That is the beauty of selflessness. "Nam mo hoa dao". The ancients used to compare peach trees to talented people, that is a cultural metaphor associated with the very familiar peach blossom symbol. Therefore, when seeing the Tang Dynasty prime minister Di Renjie using his ability to persuade and recruit people to recruit many talented people, people praised: "Peach trees and lychees in the country are both at the door of the general" (5).

Since 1992, the Quang Binh Quan relic, with its historical, cultural and priceless aesthetic value, has been ranked as a national relic by the State and in 2015, the image of the Quang Binh Quan architectural work was officially chosen as a symbol of tourism in Quang Binh province. The spring peach blossom market, intentionally or unintentionally, chose the park in front of the Quang Binh Quan relic, a cultural and historical symbol of the homeland, as a gathering place, showing off the peach blossoms among thousands of other flowers, not only bringing colorful beauty, the beauty of life, but also giving us many interesting associations about the peach trees in front of the gate on the threshold of a new year full of hope...

Tran Hung

(1) Vietnamese Birds Online laiquangnam , February 18, 2025.

(2) Thivien.net Han Nom Dictionary Nguyen Quoc Hung 東 風 (dong phong): The wind blows from the east, the spring wind.

(3) Han Nom Dictionary Thivien.net, Nguyen Quoc Hung: Some poems use the word 東 風 (east wind).

(4) Buddha appears with compassion, Nhat Chieu, Thivien.net.

(5) Peach blossom - Oriental aesthetics, Nguyen Thanh Tu, People's Police Newspaper online , issue dated February 22, 2024.

Source: https://www.baoquangbinh.vn/van-hoa/202503/hoa-dao-truoc-ngo-2225134/