A long time ago a married couple happily spent their days together, but fate had it in store that the wife gave birth to twins; two lovely girls. Since their daughters were precious to them as if silver and gold and beautiful to them as if flowers, they were named Golden Flower and Silver Flower. Both grew up fast and soon it became evident that both shared a strong soul-connection with each other, a common characteristic among twins. As they were joined at the hip; they played together, they did the housework together, they knitted together – they were Heart and Soul.
When they turned eighteen, their beauty emanated in flower-like grace and they were the pride of their parents and the joy of the neighborhood. Suitors often visited the house to propose to one girl or the other but had to leave in disappointment in the same numbers. The thought of separation was too depressing for the two girls. Thus, they rather opted against marriage.
They swore to each other:
“We were born together into this world.
In the end when we leave this world, we shall be buried together. “
One day the elder sister Golden Flower fell severely ill. She had high fever and developed a rash on her whole body. She was so fatigued that she had to stay in bed. The extremely worried parents called a doctor for a visit. The doctor inspected the girl and told the terrified parents, that the cause of her illness was a Warm-Disease and there was no herb that could cure it. The younger sister Silver Flower did not leave Golden Flower’ s side and cried until her eyes were sore. Shortly thereafter Silver Flower got infected and also became bed-ridden. When her parents wailed by their bedside, the two sisters proclaimed:
“When we are dead, we want to turn into a herb that cures Warm-Disease,
to prevent anyone dying from this type of illness in the future.”
The fever swiftly claimed their lives and after their death they were buried together. A year later truly a vine sprouted from their grave. It grew and grew and blossomed silver and golden-Yellow flowers. When the villager saw this herb grow from the girls’ grave, they remembered the two sisters promise on their deathbed. Consequently, they picked the flowers, decocted them and had people with a Warm-Disease drink it. And those patients made a quick recovery. Later this flower was simply known by the name of Silver-Golden Flower, in memory of Silver Flower and Golden Flower.
If you enjoyed reading this please consider supporting us!
When we started the Purple Cloud Institute, our aim was to make accessible educational material about traditional Chinese cultural practices. We strive to keep prices of our books as affordable as possible and the content we provide free of charge. However, there are many ongoing behind the scenes costs and the time taken to provide such content is considerable.
If you have enjoyed our offerings please consider donating and supporting us. The help will allow us to make time to bring you more in the way of book publications, podcasts and videos about tradition-based Daoist, Chinese medicine and martial arts and help keep these traditions alive.
Your assistance is greatly appreciated!
