Editing Peach (section)

== In culture ==
Peaches are not only a popular fruit, but also are symbolic in many cultural traditions, such as in art, paintings, and folk tales such as the [[Peaches of Immortality]].

=== China ===
[[File:桃と月季花（長春花）に鶴図-Cranes, Peach Tree, and Chinese Roses MET DP277568.jpg|thumb|Cranes, Peach Tree, and Chinese Roses - hanging scroll, artist [[Shen Quan]]]]
Peach blossoms are highly prized in Chinese culture. The ancient Chinese believed the peach to possess more vitality than any other tree because their blossoms appear before leaves sprout. When early rulers of China visited their territories, they were preceded by sorcerers armed with peach rods to protect them from spectral evils. On New Year's Eve, local magistrates would cut peach wood branches and place them over their doors to protect against evil influences.{{sfn|Doré|Kennelly|1914|pp=504–505}} Peach wood was also used for the earliest known [[door god]]s during the [[Han dynasty|Han]]. Another author writes:

{{Blockquote|The Chinese also considered peach wood (''t'ao-fu'')({{lang-zh|c=桃符|p=Táofú
}})
 protective against evil spirits, who held the peach in awe. In ancient China, peach-wood bows were used to shoot arrows in every direction in an effort to dispel evil. Peach-wood slips or carved pits served as amulets to protect a person's life, safety, and health.{{sfn|Simoons|1991|p=218}}}}

Peachwood seals or figurines guarded gates and doors, and, as one Han account recites, "the buildings in the capital are made tranquil and pure; everywhere a good state of affairs prevails".{{sfn|Simoons|1991|p=218}} Writes the author, further:

{{Blockquote|Another aid in fighting evil spirits were peach-wood wands. The Li-chi (Han period) reported that the emperor went to the funeral of a minister escorted by a sorcerer carrying a peachwood wand to keep bad influences away. Since that time, peachwood wands have remained an important means of exorcism in China.{{sfn|Simoons|1991|p=218}}}}

Similarly, peach trees would often be planted near the front door of a house to bring good fortune.{{sfn|Thacker|1985|p=57}}

Peach kernels, tao ren ({{lang-zh|c=桃仁|p=Táorén}}), are a common ingredient used in [[traditional Chinese medicine]] to dispel blood stasis and unblock bowels.{{sfn|Bensky|Gamble|Kaptchuk|1992|pp=278–279}}

In an orchard of flowering peach trees, [[Liu Bei]], [[Guan Yu]], and [[Zhang Fei]] took [[Oath of the Peach Garden|an oath of brotherhood]] in the opening chapter of the classic Chinese novel ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]''. Another peach orchard, in "[[The Peach Blossom Spring]]" by poet [[Tao Yuanming]], is the setting of the favourite Chinese fable and a metaphor for utopias. A peach tree growing on a precipice was where the Taoist master [[Zhang Daoling]] tested his disciples.{{sfn|Eskildsen|1998|p=26}}

The deity [[Shòu Xīng]] ({{lang-zh|s=寿星}}), a god of longevity, is usually depicted with a very large forehead and holding a staff in his left hand and a large peach in his right hand due its associations with a long life.{{sfn|Valder|1999|pp=110–111}} A long-standing traditional birthday food for seniors is a symbolic [[longevity peach]] (shòutáo bao - 寿桃包), a type of lotus seed bun shaped like a peach, frequent in Taiwan and Cantonese culture.{{sfn|Liu|2009|p=148}}{{sfn|Gong|2005|p=174}}

The term fēntáo ({{lang-zh|c=分桃}}), which is variously translated as "[[Homosexuality in China#Terminology|half-eaten peach]]", "divided peach", or "sharing a peach", was first used by [[Han Fei]], a [[Legalism (Chinese philosophy)|Legalist philosopher]], in his work ''Han Feizi''. From this story it became a byword for homosexuality.{{sfn|Kang|2009|pp=22, 103}}{{sfn|Hinsch|1990|pp=20, 73, 89}} The book records the incident when courtier [[Mizi Xia]] bit into an especially delicious peach and gave the remainder to his lover, [[Duke Ling of Wei]], as a gift so that he could taste it, as well.{{sfn|Hinsch|1990|p=20}}

=== Korea ===
As recorded by the traveller [[Isabella Bird]] in 1898, wands made of peach wood are used in parts of [[Korean shamanism]]. During the third part of an exorcism ritual for malevolent spirits a wand made of an eastern branch of a peach tree is used.{{sfn|Bird|1898|pp=228–230}} Originating from [[Daoism]], the peach is one of ten symbols of longevity used in Korean art.{{sfn|Vos|1997|pp=21, 23}}

An important piece of Korean art features the peach. ''Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land'' is the only existing signed and dated work by [[An Kyŏn]]. It depicts the imagined utopian Peach Blossom Land from a fable by the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming.{{sfn|Yang-mo & Smith 1998|p=310}}

=== Japan ===
[[File:Japanese Fairy Book - Ozaki - 247.png|thumb|right|Momotarō emerges from a peach.]]
The world's sweetest peach is grown in [[Fukushima (city)|Fukushima]], Japan. The Guinness world record for the sweetest peach is currently held by a peach grown in Kanechika, Japan, with a sugar content of 22.2%. However, a fruit farm in rural Fukushima, Koji grew a much sweeter peach, with a Brix score of 32°. Degrees [[Brix]] measures the sugar content of the fruit, and is usually between 11 and 15 for a typical peach from a supermarket.{{sfn|Sturmer|Asada|2020}}

[[Momotarō]], whose name literally means "peach child", is a folktale character named after the giant peach from which he was birthed.{{sfn|Leeming|2001|p=120}}

Two traditional Japanese words for the color [[pink]] correspond to blossoming trees: one for peach blossoms ({{transliteration|ja|momo-iro}}), and one for cherry blossoms ([[Cherry blossom#Symbolism in Japan|{{transliteration|ja|sakura-iro}}]]).

=== Vietnam ===
A Vietnamese mythic history states that in the spring of 1789, after marching to Ngọc Hồi and then winning a great victory against invaders from the [[Qing dynasty]] of China, Emperor [[Quang Trung]] ordered a messenger to gallop to [[Phú Xuân]] citadel (now [[Huế]]) and deliver a flowering peach branch to the Empress [[Lê Ngọc Hân|Ngọc Hân]]. This took place on the fifth day of the first lunar month, two days before the predicted end of the battle. The branch of peach flowers that was sent from the north to the centre of Vietnam was not only a message of victory from the Emperor to his consort, but also the start of a new spring of peace and happiness for all the Vietnamese people. In addition, since the land of Nhật Tân had freely given that very branch of peach flowers to the Emperor, it became the loyal garden of his dynasty.

The protagonists of ''[[The Tale of Kieu]]'' fell in love by a peach tree, and in [[Vietnam]], the blossoming peach flower is the signal of spring. Finally, peach [[bonsai]] trees are used as decoration during Vietnamese New Year ([[Tết]]) in northern Vietnam.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

=== Europe ===
[[File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Pêches.jpg|thumb|[[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], ''A Still Life Painting of Peaches'', 1881–82]]

Many famous artists have painted with peach fruits placed in prominence. [[Caravaggio]], [[Vicenzo Campi]], [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], [[Claude Monet]], [[Édouard Manet]], [[Henri Fantin-Latour]], [[Severin Roesen]], [[Peter Paul Rubens]], and [[Van Gogh]] are among the many influential artists who painted peaches and peach trees in various settings.{{sfn|Torpy|2010|p=203}}{{sfn|Janick|n.d.|pp=6, 9}} Scholars suggest that many compositions are symbolic, some an effort to introduce realism.{{sfn|Spike|2010|pp=23–24}} For example, Tresidder claims the artists of Renaissance symbolically used peach to represent heart, and a leaf attached to the fruit as the symbol for tongue, thereby implying speaking truth from one's heart;{{sfn|Tresidder|2004|p=168}} a ripe peach was also a symbol to imply a ripe state of good health. Caravaggio's paintings introduce realism by painting peach leaves that are molted, discolored, or in some cases have wormholes – conditions common in modern peach cultivation.{{sfn|Janick|n.d.|p=6}}

In literature, [[Roald Dahl]] deciding on using a peach in his children's fantasy novel ''[[James and the Giant Peach]]'' after considering many other fruits including an apple, pear, or cherry. He thought the flavor and flesh of the peach to be more exciting.{{sfn|Sturrock|2010|p=351}}

=== United States ===
[[File:Peaches in baskets.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Peaches at a roadside stand in South Carolina]]

Despite it not being first or even second in peach production and the peach contributing far less than 1% of the state's agricultural production, the peach is strongly associated in American culture with the state of Georgia.{{sfn|Okie|2016|pp=2–4}} However, the peach did not officially become the [[List of U.S. state foods|official fruit]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] until 1995.{{sfn|Georgia Secretary of State 2018}} It has been proceeded by South Carolina, which named the peach its state fruit in 1984.{{sfn|Aylesworth|Aylesworth|1996|p=51}} They were joined in giving the peach an official state status by Delaware naming it the [[List of U.S. state and territory flowers|state flower]] in 1995 and designating peach pie as its official dessert in 2009.{{sfn|GIC|2018}} Alabama also named it the state tree fruit in 2006 in addition to the blackberry designated as the state fruit in 2004.{{sfn|ADAH 2014a}}{{sfn|ADAH 2014b}}

The peach was marketed by the Georgia Fruit Exchange and later the Georgia Peach Grower's Association as being particularly tasty and special from the 1910s to the 1960s.{{sfn|Okie|2016|pp=124–130}} This also coincided with parts of Georgia wanting to distance itself from being, "the home of slavery and lynching and Confederate memorials," in the words of [[Frank Smith Horne]].{{sfn|Okie|2016|p=168}} The local movement to create a new county centred on [[Fort Valley, Georgia|Fort Valley]] to be named [[Peach County, Georgia|Peach County]] sponsored Peach Blossom Festivals from 1922 to 1926. They promoted a vision of a new progressive south that also ignored the black labor upon which the peach harvest, like that of cotton, depended.{{sfn|Okie|2016|pp=147, 152, 159}} Though the acreage of has declined to just one twelfth of its 1925 peak,{{sfn|Okie|2016|p=220}} from 1935, Georgia has been nicknamed the "Peach State".{{sfn|OED 2025d}}
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