THE ORIGIN, TRANSFORMATION AND REPRESENTATION OF THE DOUBLE LOTUS WANG YIZHOU 汪一舟 (University of Glasgow) The double lotus (in Chinese: bingdi lian 并蒂莲, bingtou lian 并头莲, tongxin lian 同心莲, or shuangtou lian 双头莲) is a rare species of the lotus, with its unique feature of two lotus flowers growing from a single stalk. 1 This unusual flower has been used as a popular motif to represent love in Chinese poetry since the Jin dynasty (265-420). According to classical Chinese literature and modern botanical studies, there are two main types of the double lotus. 2 The first type (Fig. 1) is double-headed (shuangtou 双头) and it is this version which the ‘double-lotus’ usually refers to in Chinese literature, rather than the second type. The second (Fig. 2) is double-floored (chongtai 重台) that the stamen or pistil of the lotus flower curls towards the centre and looks like another small lotus flower. 3 It is one lotus flower head growing two floors or layers of petals. The double-headed lotus only rarely appears at random in nature, but the double-floored lotus can be cultivated by professional gardeners. Fig. 1. The double-headed lotus appearing at the Northern Sea Park in Beijing. Image taken from Beijing Evening Newspaper, 2004. 1 Changwu Zhi, 2: 90-91. 2 Zhou Zhaoji 1980, p.44. 3 Ibid, p.44.