Ziwei: The Tree of the Imperial Secretariat

In China the crape myrtle acquired an unusual literary and official association. Ziwei is also the name of the Ziwei enclosure, the circumpolar region of the sky that Chinese astronomy treated as the celestial court of the emperor; the tree was planted at palaces and government offices, and during the Tang dynasty the central secretariat was for a period actually renamed the Ziwei Province, so that officials of that body could be spoken of by the name of the tree.

From that came its settled sense in Chinese poetry and garden practice: high office honourably held, sincerity, and a devotion that outlasts the season. The tree was also planted at temples and at halls of learning, and the length of its bloom, from midsummer well into autumn, made it a natural emblem of endurance. In the western flower language, where it arrived late, it carries the milder and more general meaning of eloquence. The Chinese associations are the older and the better attested, and are the ones to lead with.