Chrysanthemum, plum, orchid, and bamboo have been the "Four Gentlemen" in the minds of Chinese literati since ancient times. The chrysanthemum is not only a reflection of the personality and integrity of Chinese literati, but has also been endowed with extensive and far-reaching symbolic meanings.

1 The symbol of the hermit

Since being favored by Mr. Tao Qian, the chrysanthemum has become the "hermit flower". Tao Yuanming's "He Guo Zhubu": "The chrysanthemums are blooming in the forest, and the green pines are crowning the rocks. With this pure and beautiful appearance, Zhuo is a hero under the frost." This reflects his yearning for a quiet and comfortable life. He leisurely picked chrysanthemums under the east fence, and in the posture of a pastoral poet and hermit, he endowed the chrysanthemums with a unique and otherworldly hermit style. From then on, the chrysanthemums had the spirituality of a hermit.

2. The symbol of the fighter

The person who changed the image of the chrysanthemum recluse was of course Huang Chao, the leader of the peasant uprising in the late Tang Dynasty. "The rustling west wind fills the courtyard with plants, and the fragrant pistils are cold and the butterflies are hard to come by. If I were the Qing Emperor in another year, I would repay the peach blossoms." "When autumn comes on the eighth day of the ninth lunar month, when the flowers have bloomed, hundreds of them will be killed. The fragrance of the sky will penetrate Chang'an, and the city will be filled with golden armor." In his poems with obvious meanings and tendencies, the chrysanthemum has become a brave and strong symbol that has experienced many vicissitudes of life. A fighter who pleads for the people and enforces justice for heaven.

At the same time, Tang Cen Shen wrote in "Nine Days of Marching to Think of My Hometown in Chang'an": I want to climb high, but no one brings me wine. I pity my hometown chrysanthemum from afar, so I should bloom near the battlefield. The chrysanthemum also became a symbol of warriors.