In Christianity the beautiful peony symbolizes wealth, feminine beauty and healing powers. In the Middle Ages the seed capsules of the peonies were painted in different colors, because it was believed that it was the seeds and not the flowers itself that had the power to heal. Different colors were said to cure different things.
During this time, physicians used both root and seed of the peonies to cure jaundice, abdominal pain, diarrhea, epilepsy, insanity and even nightmares.
Europe
The peony got its name after Paeon, apprentice of the Greek God of medicine and healing, Askelipos.
It is said that Paeon got an assignment by Leto, Apollos mother and the Goddess of fertility, to find and retrieve a magical root that grows on Olympus. This root would ease the pain for women in childbirth. Aklepios was both angry and jealous that his apprentice got the mission so he threatened to kill Paeon. Zeus rescued Paeon from Aklepios wrath by transformin his to a flower, the flower we now know as the peony.
It is alleged that a seed from a peony helped the women in ancient Greece through the agonizing pain of childbirth. Paeon who had become a good healer is also said to have cured Hades, the God of the underworld, with a root of a peony, after being wounded in a battle with Heracles.
Greece
In Japan, the peony were cultivated as garden plants but its root was also used to treat cramps. The popularity of the peony quickly spread and developed in the art of tattoo as well, thanks to the talented Japanese artist, Ukiyo-e, who illustrated the serialization of a novel from China. His paintings of heroes was covered with beautiful tattoos of lions, dragons, koi fish and peonies. This is why the peonies are considered a masculine motif in Japan and associated with a carefree attitude.
Japan
Peonies were used as a medical plant before it was grown as a garden ornament.
Poems and paintings about the peony in China rebelled against the legend which tells of Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang dynasty. It is said that she was furious when the peonies refused to flower on her command, during wintertime. As punishment, they were exiled and on her orders, completely destroyed in the capital.
In China, the peony is used and has been cultivated for over 4,000 years and there are hundreds of different varieties, of which only a few in the central European gardens. The peony symbolizes both glory and wealth.
Red peonies are the most desirable and considered to bring happiness and celebration while white peonies are less popular and relates with death.The antique city of Louyang has the reputation of being the center of the peony cultivations and the peonies in this beautiful city has, for a long time, always been the most fame full.
China