The Four Noble Plants in China
When visiting Chinese art museums, it is hard not to notice "The Four Gentlemen" (四君子), also called the Four Noble Ones, in Chinese traditional paintings. They refer to four plants instead of people: the plum (梅), the orchid (蘭), the bamboo (竹), and the chrysanthemum (菊).
These four plants, however, do symbolize the characters of traditional Chinese intellectuals. They love to draw paintings and write poems about these plants.
To read more about the attributes embedded in these plants, click here.
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