"Four Gentlemen" is the theme of China traditional culture, with plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum as the four gentlemen. They refer to plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum respectively. Known as the "Four Gentlemen", their qualities are: pride, quietness, modesty and ease. The "Four Gentlemen in Flowers" borrowed things to become a symbol of China's ambition, and it is also a common theme in object-chanting poems and artists' paintings and calligraphy. Its cultural implication is: plum, exploring the waves and proud of snow, noble and noble; Orchids, fragrant valleys, sages in the world; Bamboo, elegant and quiet, modest and gentleman; Chrysanthemum, Shuang Ling is elegant and a hermit in the world.
Mei Lan and Zhu Ju appeared in Chinese paintings as protagonists, which should have started from the Song Dynasty, and bamboo was the first one. Previously, although there were also Mei Lan, Zhu Ju and Zhu Ju in the painting, they all played a role in setting off. In the Northern Song Dynasty, literati and poets kept mentioning the gentleman style of bamboo, especially Su Shi's famous saying, "It is better to live without bamboo than to eat without meat." No meat makes people thin, no bamboo makes people vulgar. People can be thin or fat, but laymen can't cure them ... "Su Shi and his good friend Wen Tong love to chant and paint bamboo, which has been passed down in Mo Bao so far, such as Wen Tong's ink bamboo map and Su Shi's Xiaoxiang bamboo stone map, which are still precious. Wentong's ink bamboo was praised by Su Shi as "getting his feelings and doing his best". By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "Four Gentlemen" in Mei Zhu Lan's plays had been widely accepted by people and widely circulated among the people. Looking back at the buildings at that time, whether it was wood carving or brick carving, the theme of Mei Zhulanju was used extensively. " "Four Gentlemen" has also become a "popular style" in the works of literati painters. For example, Hong Ren, one of the four painting monks in the early Qing Dynasty and the founder of Xin 'an Painting School, ordered his friends to plant a variety of plum blossoms next to his grave in the name of "Plum Blossom". The plums he painted are like a dragon, with a faint fragrance and a cool breath.