Beautiful and fragrant, the mudan peony is a symbol of happiness and prosperity in China, as well as the China's national flower.

While the story of  Butterfly Lovers is based upon a historical legend known to every Chinese.

It was in the feudal China hundreds of years ago, when love as young people's own choice was considered to be devious from the norm of the society. However, two young people fell in love, and in a very dramatic way. Having been close friends at school, the young man, Liang Shanbo would never imagine that his pal Zhu Yingtai should turn out to be a fair lady when they were back home after finishing their school. As a matter of fact, in those days, the sphere of activity of women was none other than their homes. In order to receive education as man did, the aspiring and rebellious girl had disguised herself as a boy.

But their love plunged them into fatal tragedy. As family feud prevented Juliet and Romeo from coming together, so social prejudice of the day set Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai apart. The girl's family, seeing that the boy's not as affluent as theirs, decided to marry her to a wealthy man she did not love and in fact had never met before. What was worse, they lied to her poor lover that she had died of a serious illness, upon which he pined and killed himself. To protest the injustice she decided to join her lover in another world. She pretended to agree to the arranged marriage but on condition that the wedding procession must bypass her lover's graveyard. They were coming along when she all of a sudden jumped out of the sedan chair and threw herself into the tomb that had just timely opened up of itself as if to receive her. What people saw next was a pair of beautiful butterflies flew out of the opening, dancing happily here and there in the free air. Unto this day people still believe that the two butterflies were the undaunted spirits of the young lovers. Hence the legend of "The Story of Butterfly Lovers".