Significant Petals: An I-Search Project on the Significance of Chrysanthemums to Asian Culture

I Wonder
As a high school World Literatures teacher, I have noticed a recurring motif in much of the Asian literature my students study. Whether we are analyzing fiction or pondering over lines of poetry, students have repeatedly wondered about the significant role nature plays in the literature of East Asia.  The highly symbolic way that Chinese and Japanese writers use nature, specifically flowers, intrigues both students and myself. One bloom of import appears to be the chrysanthemum. The poetry of China, Korea, and Japan all seem to contain references to the chrysanthemum, more commonly known as mums in the United States. Why are chrysanthemums so important to Asian culture? What is the symbolic significance of this particular flower?
Learning more about the cultural and symbolic significance of this bloom would enrich how and what I teach in relation to Asian literature. Not only would it deepen our understanding of the particular text in which the image appears, but it would also help my students better understand how and why this flower crops up so often in the texts that we read.

What I Found
Roderick W. Cumming, in his book The Chrysanthemum Book writes of the origins of our fascination with this showy bloom. As a matter of history, chrysanthemums were being cultivated in China over 2000 years ago. In fact, Confucius, born in 550 B.C.E, wrote of the chrysanthemum’s “yellow glory” (2). The Chinese Chrysanthemum Association idealizes the bloom for having reputed powers, stating that when the flower grew wild by streams and ponds, “most people who drank of the clear waters enjoyed a long life” (Chinese Chrysanthemums).  Centuries later in China, the flower grew in its culture cache. “Lieu Chieh-yan, of Peking, a modern authority famous for knowledge of chrysanthemum history, states that the flower became fashionable between 355 and 417 A.D.” (Rodrick 2). “Tao Yuanming, great poet of the Eastern Jing dynasty (317-420) who was so addicted to it that he wrote many poem in its honor. One of them runs:
Chrysanthemums brighten the forests,
Green pines crown the clifftops,
Noble and chaste of character,
They stand undaunted by frosts. (3)
     Exploring the art of China reveals that the chrysanthemum was often used by the Chinese during meditation, with their image often reproduced on vases and in paintings (3).  However, much of the chrysanthemum’s symbolic import rose when the flower hit Japanese shores. According to Cumming’s research, chrysanthemums first reached Japan as seeds somewhere around 386 C.E. as gifts to Japanese Emperor Kintoku from Korea (4). Since that time, the Japanese have revered the flower’s showy blooms, claiming it reflects their natural temperment (216). In Japanese culture, the flower is thought to symbolize “peace, nobility, and long life, and it ranks with the cherry blossom as an emblem of national pride” (216). Used to represent cultural and historically important figures, the chrysanthemum is also most recognizable as one of the emporer’s imperial symbols.  The flower is often alluded to in all forms of Japanese literature, one of the oldest being an ancient proverb:
In the second month the Peach tree blooms
But not till the ninth Chrysanthemums
So each must wait till his own time comes. (216)

            In addition to their historical importance, chrysanthemums have also been used metaphorically as a representation of autumn in Japanese haiku poetry.  Yoel Hoffmann in her book Japanese Death Poems shares a number of works by poets writing during the latter half of the nineteenth century who all use the chrysanthemum symbolically. Writers like Kizan, Godo, and Kaen all use the flower symbolically to refer to autumn or the "autumn" of one's life.  The cultural significance of the flower for the Japanese proves to a powerfully metaphor for haiku poets.
            More recently, American anthropologist Ruth Benedict wrote about the chrysanthemum's symbolic importance to the Japanese in her the book titled The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.  Published in 1946, Benedict's aim was to help readers better understand the cultural patterns and the society of Japan. The "Chrysanthemum" in the book's title represents the emperor and Imperial House of Japan. And as she describes in the book, white chrysanthemums are symbolic of death and often used for funerals or on grave.

What I Wonder Now
            Given what I now understand about the cultural, historical, and symbolic significance of the chrysanthemum particularly to Chinese and Japanese cultures, I am most interested in figuring out how this will change what I teach the literature of these cultures. How will I help students best understand the symbolic import of these flowers in a meaningful way? It is not enough to simply tell students what I have learned, especially given the large symbolic role that these petals play. As a teacher, I feel I would be doing a disservice to the culture to simply state that chrysanthemums were symbolic of the Japanese Imperial family and a representation of autumn and death. Not only would my students forget this information quickly, but I also believe that it would be difficult for them to make an empathetic connection to this symbol when they encounter it in their readings. So I'm wondering about the best way to share this culturally significant symbol in a way that honors its importance.
            I'm also interested in learning more about how these Asian cultures teach and write about the chrysanthemum today. Are contemporary writers still referring to the chrysanthemum in similar ways that ancient writers did? Does the flower have the same culture cache that it did centuries before? This might be a way for me to get my students researching about the petal's past and present. By asking about the future, my students might also learn a bit about the chrysanthemum's past.

Works Cited
Chinese Chrysanthemums. Beijing: Zhaohua Publishing House, 1981. Print.
Cumming, Roderick W. The Chrysanthemum Book. Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Co.,
Inc., 1964. Print.
Hamano, Sachiko. "Kiku-no-hana (Chrysanthemum)." Nihongo Instructor Club. 2007.Web. 12
            February 2011. <http://www.nicjapanese.com/english/e-cul-kiku.html>.
Hoffmann, Yoel. Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of
            Death. North Clarendon, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co., Inc., 1986. Web.
            <http://books.google.com>.
Nakajima, Tameji. The Art of the Chrsanthemum. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. Print.