peonies

Long times ago, Wu ZeTian, in a cold winter morning, took a walk at her royal garden. As she walked, she found that the plants were so deserted, lack of vitality, there were no flowers blooming in the garden. The Empress then commanded all plants to blossom. All flowers took her order and one by one they started to bloom. Peony was the only one disobeyed the order and did not bloom at all. The empress was so furious, she punished peony by exiling peony out of the capital to LuoYang.