Why do the Chinese call Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum the Four Gentlemen? Why the plum blossom and pine, bamboo together as the "three friends of the year"?

Pine, bamboo, plum for the "three friends"; plum, orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemum is known as the flower of the "four gentlemen".

The "Four Gentlemen" is a traditional theme in Chinese painting, and is a general term for the four flower themes of plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. Painters often paint bamboo, plum, and pine together, called the "Three Friends of the Year". Plus orchids, known as the "four friends". Ming Dynasty Huang Fengchi series of "plum, bamboo, orchid and chrysanthemum four spectrum", from now on, plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum is known as "four gentleman". Painters use "four gentlemen" to label the noble character of the gentleman.

The Four Gentlemen of Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum (Spring Orchid, Summer Bamboo, Autumn Chrysanthemum, Winter Plum), for thousands of years with its elegant and indifferent quality, has been loved by the world, and has become a kind of cultural symbol of character, although it is the nature of their own; but also with the successive generations of writers and ink writers, the reclusive gentleman's appreciation of the esteem is not unrelated. The source of the name of the four gentlemen, I thought it was probably out of the ancient sages, every time to plum orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemums, and plum orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemums are enough to be used as a metaphor for its high morale and integrity of the reason. Based on this intrinsic character of the metaphor, "four gentlemen" of the name, it is also appropriate.