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Three Friends

The Three Friends of Winter (Chinese: 岁寒三友; pinyin: suìhán sānyǒu), also known simply as the Three Friends, is a traditional motif in Chinese art and culture representing pine (sōng 松), bamboo (zhú 竹), and plum blossom (méi 梅). These plants are celebrated for their ability to endure and flourish during the harsh winter season, symbolizing resilience, perseverance, integrity, and the Confucian ideal of the scholar-gentleman.^[1] The concept originated from ancient Chinese observations of nature, where the evergreen pine and bamboo, along with the plum's early winter blossoms, were admired for defying adversity. By the Song dynasty (960–1279), the trio became a common theme in poetry, painting, and garden design, embodying virtues like longevity (pine), uprightness (bamboo), and hope/rebirth (plum). The motif later influenced East Asian traditions, including in Japan as shōchikubai (松竹梅).^[2]

The Three Plants

Known in Chinese as "Suihan Sanyou" (Three Friends of Cold Weather), the motif features pine, bamboo, and plum blossom as symbols of endurance in winter.^[3]

Pine

The pine tree (Pinus spp.), an evergreen conifer native to various regions of China, is characterized by its needle-like leaves that persist through all seasons, including the harsh winters, enabling it to maintain its verdant appearance year-round.^[4] Common species in Chinese contexts include Pinus tabuliformis, known as the Chinese red pine, which features a conical form with spreading branches and resinous bark, contributing to its durability in diverse climates from northern mountains to subtropical areas.^[4] This botanical resilience underpins its cultural role as a symbol of unyielding strength and longevity within the motif of the three friends of winter.^[3] Pine trees have been cultivated in China since the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE), initially in sacred precincts known as Sa-precincts for both ornamental beauty and philosophical significance, reflecting early associations with moral and ritual landscapes.^[5] These plantings emphasized the tree's enduring presence in gardens and ceremonial sites, where it was valued for its aesthetic form and symbolic depth rather than solely utilitarian purposes.^[5] In Chinese culture, the pine embodies immortality, steadfastness, and resilience against adversity, often depicted with gnarled, twisted trunks that illustrate its ability to withstand fierce winds and cold, evoking the virtues of perseverance.^[3] This imagery highlights the tree's tenacity, as its form bends but does not break under harsh conditions, serving as a metaphor for human endurance.^[6]

Bamboo

Bamboo, scientifically classified in the subfamily Bambusoideae of the Poaceae family, is a hollow-stemmed, woody perennial grass renowned for its rapid growth and evergreen foliage even during winter months. Native to diverse habitats from tropical to temperate regions, it features segmented culms that can reach heights of up to 30 meters in some species, with growth rates as high as 91 centimeters per day under ideal conditions. This adaptability allows bamboo to thrive in varied soils and climates, symbolizing resilience and flexibility in the face of adversity.^[7]^[8]^[9] In the context of the Three Friends motif, bamboo's cultural attributes emphasize humility and righteousness, virtues deeply rooted in Confucian philosophy. Its hollow interior is interpreted as a metaphor for inner modesty and lack of pretense, while the plant's slender stems bend gracefully in strong winds without snapping, representing moral integrity and the ability to yield without compromising principles. These qualities align with traditional Chinese ideals of scholarly conduct, where bamboo serves as an emblem of upright character enduring hardship.^[3] Historically, bamboo played practical roles in ancient Chinese rituals, providing material for musical instruments like the dizi flute, which produced ethereal tones in ceremonial music, and for writing brushes, whose bamboo handles facilitated the inscription of sacred texts and scholarly works. A notable literary reference comes from the 11th-century poet Su Shi, who praised his friend Wen Tong's bamboo paintings by stating that "when Wen Tong painted bamboo, he himself became the bamboo," likening the artist's immersion to a gentleman's unwavering integrity and harmony with nature.^[10]^[11]^[12] Within winter landscapes, bamboo integrates with pine and plum blossoms to evoke a collective theme of perseverance, its persistent green foliage complementing the others' endurance against seasonal austerity.^[13]

Plum Blossom

The plum blossom derives from Prunus mume, a deciduous tree native to southern China that typically grows to 4–10 meters in height. It blooms in late winter, from January to March, producing clusters of fragrant, five-petaled flowers in white, pink, or red hues on bare branches before the leaves emerge in spring. These flowers, measuring about 2–3 cm in diameter, emit a sweet almond-like scent and often appear amid lingering snow, highlighting the tree's adaptation to cold climates.^[14]^[15] In Chinese culture, the plum blossom embodies hope and perseverance, as its early flowering defies harsh winter conditions to signal the approach of spring and renewal. This resilience has made it a potent symbol of enduring adversity with grace and purity, often depicted blooming solitarily against icy backdrops in art and literature. As one of the Three Friends of Winter, it shares this theme of seasonal fortitude with pine and bamboo.^[16]^[17] Prunus mume was first cultivated in China during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), initially for its edible fruit and ornamental value, with records indicating domestication from wild varieties along the Yangtze River region. By the Song dynasty, its cultural prominence grew, as seen in the 11th-century poetry of Wang Anshi, whose poem "Plum Blossoms" extols the flower's unyielding purity amid isolation and frost: "A few branches of plum blossom in the corner of the wall, blossoming alone in the cold, from a distance it seems the same as snow." This work underscores the blossom's association with moral integrity and quiet strength.^[18]^[19]^[20] The plum blossom also carries connotations of feminine virtue and renewal, rooted in the legend of Princess Shouyang from the Southern Dynasties period (420–589 CE), where a fallen petal on her forehead inspired the enduring "mei zhuang" (plum blossom) forehead makeup style, symbolizing delicate beauty and elegance. Its five petals symbolize the five blessings of longevity, wealth, health and composure, virtue, and natural death, representing harmonious ideals in traditional Chinese thought. These attributes position the plum blossom as a multifaceted emblem of personal and societal renewal.^[21]^[22]

Historical Development

Literary Origins

The motif of the Three Friends—pine, bamboo, and plum blossom—originated in Chinese literature as a metaphor for resilience and companionship during harsh winters, drawing on earlier philosophical traditions. Its earliest explicit reference appears in the 9th-century Tang dynasty poem "Early Plum Blossoms" by Zhu Qingyu (fl. 9th century), where the poet describes placing pine and bamboo alongside early-blooming plums as enduring winter companions, evoking their shared vitality amid adversity.^[23] This work, preserved in the Quan Tang Shi anthology, is regarded by scholars as the prototype for the trio's conceptual unity, though individual plants had appeared separately in prior poetry.^[23] The motif's development was deeply influenced by Confucian classics, particularly the Analects, which use plants to symbolize moral steadfastness and integrity. In Analects 9.28, Confucius states, "Only when the cold of winter comes do we know that the pine and cypress are the last to lose their leaves," praising evergreens like pine for their endurance as analogies for the virtuous gentleman who remains resolute in hardship (bi de, or "analogizing virtue").^[24] Bamboo aligns with this tradition, as seen in the Book of Songs (Shi Jing), where intertwined green bamboo evokes harmony and perseverance, laying a philosophical foundation for the Three Friends as embodiments of Confucian ideals like loyalty and resilience.^[23] The concept gained prominence in Song dynasty (960–1279 CE) poetry, coinciding with Neo-Confucian scholarly emphasis on personal cultivation and endurance amid political instability. Key formalization occurred in the Southern Song, notably in Lin Jingxi's (1242–1310) Record of the Five-cloud Plum Cottage (Wu Yun Mei She Ji) from his Clear Mountain Collection (Ji Shan Ji), which explicitly terms pine, bamboo, and plum the "three friends of winter" and elaborates their metaphorical friendship as a model for human bonds.^[23] Poets like Zhou Zhihan and Zhang Yuangan further popularized the motif during the Shaoxing era (1131–1162 CE), integrating it into verses that celebrated scholarly retreat and moral fortitude.^[23] This literary elevation during the Song era established the Three Friends as a enduring cultural archetype.

Artistic Evolution

The motif of the Three Friends of Winter—pine, bamboo, and plum blossom—emerged in Chinese visual arts during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), where ink wash paintings on scrolls frequently depicted these resilient plants enduring snowy landscapes, drawing inspiration from poetic descriptions that praised their endurance in winter.^[23] These early representations emphasized the plants' individual forms against stark, monochromatic backgrounds, using subtle ink gradations to convey seasonal austerity and symbolic vitality, though the trio was not yet unified in a single composition.^[23] A pivotal advancement occurred in the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279 CE), exemplified by Zhao Mengjian's 13th-century album leaf "Three Friends of Winter," which standardized the motif through a central, intertwined branch composition featuring overlapping pine needles, bamboo stalks, and plum blossoms in a folded, horizontal arrangement.^[25] Executed in ink on paper, the work employed a blend of meticulous brushwork and calligraphic strokes to achieve clarity and elegance, establishing a template that integrated the plants as harmonious companions symbolizing scholarly virtue amid adversity.^[25] During the Ming (1368–1644 CE) and Qing (1644–1912 CE) dynasties, the motif evolved within literati painting traditions, where artists refined techniques such as layered compositions and boneless washes to heighten expressive depth and philosophical resonance.^[23] Works like Wang Mian's extensions into Ming-era flower-and-bird styles incorporated rocks and grasses for contextual balance, while Qing painters such as Jiang Pu advanced multicolored ink applications for more nuanced textures, adapting the intertwined format to larger handscrolls that evoked Neo-Confucian ideals of moral steadfastness.^[23] By the 14th century, during the Yuan dynasty, the Three Friends motif extended to decorative arts, appearing on blue-and-white porcelain wares such as cup stands and bowls, where cobalt underglaze outlined the plants in snowy settings to symbolize endurance on everyday objects.^[26] This adaptation marked a maturation in the motif's versatility, bridging painting's subtlety with ceramics' accessibility while maintaining the core visual harmony of intertwined elements.^[26]

Symbolic Meanings

Individual Attributes

The pine (Pinus spp.) symbolizes longevity and constancy in Chinese symbolic traditions, as its evergreen needles remain vibrant through all seasons, particularly enduring the harshness of winter without alteration. This attribute reflects the plant's unyielding vitality, often likened to the steadfast nature of a moral exemplar who maintains integrity amid adversity. In classical philosophy, Confucius draws an analogy in the Analects (Book 9), stating, "When the year becomes cold, then we know how the pine and the cypress are the last to lose their leaves," to illustrate true resilience among the virtuous, tying pine's endurance to Confucian yi (righteousness) as unwavering moral uprightness.^[27]^[3] Bamboo (Bambusoideae) embodies uprightness and purity, with its straight growth and hollow stem denoting modesty and humility, allowing it to bend without breaking in storms. These qualities highlight inner emptiness as a virtue of self-restraint and unpretentious strength, qualities admired in scholarly ideals. The Guanzi (Xiaowen chapter) supports this through the "Bi-de" (comparing virtues to things) technique, equating bamboo's flexibility and nobility to a gentleman's uprightness (zheng) and humility, fostering harmony and adaptability in ethical conduct without compromising principles.^[3] The plum blossom (Prunus mume) represents nobility and optimism, as it is among the first to bloom in late winter, defying snow and frost to herald renewal. This early flowering signifies hope and perseverance against hardship, evoking an aristocratic spirit that thrives in isolation. In Neo-Confucian thought, as revived in the Song dynasty, the plum's elegance aligns with yi (righteousness) by demonstrating moral fortitude, exemplified in poems like Zhu Qingyu's "Early Plum Blossoms," which praise its unyielding beauty as a model for benevolent endurance.^[28]

Collective Virtues

The motif of the Three Friends of Winter, known as suihan sanyou (歲寒三友), collectively symbolizes unwavering loyalty and friendship that endures through times of adversity and cold, drawing from the observation that pine, bamboo, and plum blossom thrive amid winter's harshness.^[29] This group metaphor extends beyond individual resilience to represent a unified moral ideal, where the plants stand together as steadfast companions, embodying fidelity, courage, perseverance, and noble character in the face of hardship.^[29] In Chinese philosophical thought, particularly within Neo-Confucianism, these virtues align with the "Bi-de" (comparing virtues to things) principle, promoting ethical self-cultivation and social harmony as praised in Confucian classics like The Analects.^[3] The philosophical basis of suihan sanyou lies in its embodiment of the scholar-gentleman's (junzi) ideals, where endurance through trials fosters moral integrity and interpersonal harmony, core tenets of Neo-Confucian education during the Song dynasty and beyond.^[29] This motif served as a tool for moral instruction among literati, reinforcing virtues essential for personal and societal balance, as the plants' collective presence in art and literature illustrated the Confucian emphasis on resilience without compromise. From the Song dynasty onward, it was integrated into the cultural training of scholars preparing for imperial examinations, symbolizing the perseverance required to navigate rigorous academic and ethical demands.^[29] A key concept in the collective symbolism is the interdependence of the three plants, mirroring balanced human relationships: the pine offers unyielding structure and longevity, the bamboo provides flexibility and resilience, and the plum infuses vitality and renewal, together forming a harmonious whole that sustains through challenges.^[30] These traits, building on the individual attributes of steadfastness, adaptability, and hope, underscore how true friendship and moral alliances thrive on complementary strengths rather than isolation.^[30]

Cultural Impact

In Chinese Tradition

The motif of the Three Friends—pine, bamboo, and plum blossom—holds a prominent place in Chinese festivals, particularly during the Lunar New Year, where plum blossoms are displayed in decorations to symbolize resilience and the arrival of spring after winter's hardships.^[31] These elements often appear in couplets, lanterns, and floral arrangements, evoking the enduring virtues that inspired such traditions.^[32] Additionally, the annual Nanjing International Plum Blossom Festival, initiated in 1996 at Plum Blossom Hill, celebrates the plum as a key member of the trio through exhibitions, cultural performances, and garden tours amid over 35,000 plum trees of various varieties.^[33]^[34] In Chinese architecture and gardens, the Three Friends are intentionally planted to embody harmony and seasonal endurance, as seen in imperial sites like the Summer Palace in Beijing, constructed in 1750 during the Qing dynasty. There, pine for longevity, bamboo for flexibility, and plum for perseverance create balanced landscapes that reflect classical garden principles, where these plants thrive year-round to promote tranquility and moral alignment.^[35] Such designs influenced private scholarly gardens, reinforcing the motif's role in evoking natural and ethical harmony. Socially, the Three Friends motif appears in gifts like paintings or poetry exchanges to signify steadfast friendships, a practice rooted in literati customs where the plants' winter resilience mirrors loyal bonds. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), literati gatherings often centered around gardens featuring these plants, using them to symbolize intellectual camaraderie and shared virtues during poetic sessions and discussions.^[36] This tradition extends to tea culture, where ceramics adorned with the motif—such as Yixing teapots depicting pine, bamboo, and plum—enhance rituals of hospitality and reflection, underscoring themes of purity and endurance in daily social interactions.^[37]

In East Asian Adaptations

The motif of the Three Friends of Winter—pine, bamboo, and plum—was transmitted to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam through the dissemination of Buddhism and Confucianism from China between the 7th and 10th centuries, integrating into local artistic and cultural traditions as symbols of resilience and virtue.^[38]^[39] In Japan, the trio is known as shōchikubai (松竹梅), prominently featured in kadomatsu arrangements placed at gate entrances during New Year's celebrations to invite prosperity and ward off misfortune, with pine and bamboo forming the structural base and plum blossoms evoking renewal.^[40] The motif gained further prominence during the Edo period (1603–1868), appearing in ukiyo-e woodblock prints that depicted seasonal elegance and moral steadfastness, such as Ryūryūkyo Shinsai's early 19th-century surimono illustrating a miniature shōchikubai arrangement alongside festive objects.^[41] In Korea, termed songjukmae (송죽매), the motif permeated Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) poetry as an emblem of enduring integrity amid adversity, often contrasted with the transience of summer flora to underscore Confucian ideals of perseverance; for instance, 17th-century scholar-poet Kim Yuk evoked these qualities in verses drawing on classical Chinese influences to highlight moral fortitude.^[42] It also featured within the broader sipjangsaeng (ten symbols of longevity) iconography, adorning ceramics and screens in elite households to signify longevity and harmony.^[43] In Vietnam, called tuế hàn tam hữu (Tuế hàn tam hữu), the motif frequently incorporates chrysanthemum as a fourth companion—forming tuế hàn tứ hữu—to emphasize scholarly endurance, appearing in Tet (Lunar New Year) decorations and 19th-century imperial motifs in Huế's royal architecture and ceramics, where it symbolized imperial virtue and seasonal rebirth.^[44]

Representation in Art and Literature

Notable Historical Works

One of the most celebrated early representations of the Three Friends motif is Zhao Mengjian's Three Friends of Winter (ca. 1260), an album leaf executed in ink on paper measuring 32.2 × 53.4 cm, now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.^[45] This Southern Song dynasty work features a minimalist composition where the pine, bamboo, and plum are rendered with sparse, fluid brushstrokes that highlight their interdependent harmony against a barren winter landscape, underscoring themes of endurance and unity.^[46] The painting's restrained style, characteristic of literati aesthetics, avoids ornate details to emphasize the plants' innate vitality, making it a seminal example of how the motif evolved from earlier decorative forms into a symbol of scholarly integrity.^[47] In the Yuan dynasty, artist Wang Mian (1287–1359) elevated the plum blossom's role within the Three Friends through his specialized ink paintings, often portraying it as the focal point of winter resilience. His Plum Blossoms in Ink (1335), a hanging scroll in ink wash on paper (67.7 × 25.9 cm) held by the Shanghai Museum, employs bold, calligraphic strokes to depict blooming plums emerging defiantly from icy branches.^[48] This approach reflected Yuan literati preferences for expressive, anti-establishment art, with the plum symbolizing purity and perseverance amid political turmoil, thus reinforcing the motif's philosophical depth.^[49] Literary expressions of plant symbolism appear in Tang dynasty poetry, as seen in Bai Juyi's (772–846) verses on pine and bamboo that evoke moral fortitude in winter solitude. In works like his reflections on natural virtues, Bai portrays these plants as embodiments of endurance in the cold, a theme that influenced later artistic interpretations of the motif.^[50] The Palace Museum in Beijing preserves a rich array of Song to Qing dynasty artifacts featuring the Three Friends, including ink paintings and porcelain wares that demonstrate the motif's widespread adoption in imperial and scholarly contexts across centuries. These pieces, ranging from Song album leaves to Qing decorative screens, illustrate stylistic shifts from delicate Song minimalism to more elaborate Qing compositions, highlighting the theme's cultural longevity.^[51]

Contemporary Uses

In the 20th century, Chinese artists like Qi Baishi incorporated elements of the Three Friends motif into their ink paintings, often depicting plum blossoms and bamboo with vibrant colors to evoke resilience and natural harmony, diverging from traditional monochromatic styles.^[52] Similarly, contemporaries such as Zhao Qi created collective representations, as seen in his 1936 hanging scroll "Three Friends of Winter," which blends pine, bamboo, and plum in a modern literati aesthetic emphasizing endurance.^[53] These interpretations influenced global art, with the motif appearing in digital graphic design for branding and illustrations, such as sake bottle labels featuring the shochikubai (pine, bamboo, plum) arrangement to symbolize prosperity and flexibility.^[54] The motif has permeated contemporary media, particularly in East Asian productions that highlight cultural symbolism during seasonal celebrations. In Japanese contexts, shochikubai appears in New Year-themed animations and episodes, reinforcing themes of renewal, as in decorative elements for festive storytelling in series like those depicting traditional motifs in modern narratives.^[55] Commercially, the Three Friends have been adopted in product branding to convey auspicious qualities, notably in tea ware where sets like the "Three Friends of Winter Travel Set" feature glazed depictions of pine, plum, and bamboo on teapots and cups, marketed for portability and cultural elegance.^[56] In Japan, post-World War II tourism leveraged the motif through plum blossom festivals (ume matsuri), such as those at Kairakuen Garden in Ibaraki, which attract visitors with illuminated displays of the blooms alongside pine and bamboo, promoting seasonal heritage as a symbol of national recovery and natural beauty.^[57] In the 21st century, the motif has evolved into eco-symbolism, representing climate resilience in environmental discourse; for instance, bamboo's role within the Three Friends highlights its adaptability and use in sustainable practices like carbon sequestration, as noted in discussions of East Asian flora for mitigating global warming. Overseas Chinese gardens further localize this symbolism, using the plants to embody harmony with nature and endurance against environmental challenges, as in designs from the 1980s onward that integrate the motif for ecological education.^[58]

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Feb 9, 2021 · Chiang Hsun takes in a plum blossom's sweet perfume, getting lost in reverie as he pictures Yuan dynasty painter Wang Mian in the lonely mountains seven ...
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Bamboo, a symbol of traditional Chinese values[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn
Jan 19, 2011 · Ancient Chinese people designated the plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum as the "four gentlemen", and pine, bamboo and plum as the "three ...
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[PDF] The Heart of Ma Yuan - HKU Press
Handscroll, detail from Plate 8 ... Zhao Mengjian ᄁם઀ (1199–1267), xxv (Fig. 8.7),. 213, 213 (Fig. 7.10), 241. Three Friends of the Cold Season, 213 (Fig.
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Plum Blossom Painting | Chinese Art Gallery - China Online Museum
Because they blossom in winter, the plum blossom is a member of the “Three Friends of Winter ... Painted by Qi Baishi (齊白石). Painted by Chen Xianzhang ...
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Three Friends of Winter – Works
In this painting Zhao blends bright colors and sharp contrasts with bold and simple brushstrokes to create a direct and expressive form of pine tree, bamboo, ...
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Koike Saké by Jade Teodulo on Dribbble
Also known as the Three Friends of Winter, Sho Chiku Bai is a decorative motif adapted from Chinese ceramics that incorporates pine, plum, and bamboo elements.<|separator|>
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Adorned in Good Fortune: The Maiko's New Year Kanzashi
Jan 21, 2022 · Here, they represent the famed “three friends of winter”– pine, bamboo, and plum bossoms–commonly associated with the start of the New Year. In ...Missing: motif | Show results with:motif
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ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983), Three Friends of Winter | Christie's
Three Friends of Winter Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper 70.9 x 47.6 cm. (27 7/8 x 18 ¾ in.) Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the ...
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https://matcha-jp.com/en/23633
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Plum Blossom Festivals in Japan: 10 Famous Events in 2025
Jan 17, 2025 · We introduce 10 famous plum blossom spots and festivals in Japan where you can enjoy the beauty of these blooms along with cultural aspects related to them.Missing: WWII | Show results with:WWII
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Bamboo - Wikipedia
... climate change mitigation. Bamboo is versatile and has notable ... Three Friends of Winter" (suìhán sānyǒu 歲寒三友) in Chinese culture ...List of bamboo species · Bamboo shoot · Bamboo blossom · Giant bambooMissing: resilience 21st
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Overseas Chinese gardens: Localizing “harmony between humans ...
Feb 24, 2025 · ... resilience, and a better quality of life. that values equity ... suihan sanyou) in Chinese culture – symbolize. resilience and noble ...