Puneet Varma (Editor)

Four Gentlemen

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Chinese
  
四君子

Romanization
  
sy ciuin tsy

Jyutping
  
sei gwan zi

Hanyu Pinyin
  
Sìjūnzi

Romanization
  
xi giun zii

Hokkien POJ
  
sì-kun-tsú

Four Gentlemen

In Chinese art, the Four Gentlemen, also called the Four Noble Ones, are four plants: the plum blossom, the orchid, the bamboo, and the chrysanthemum. The term compares the four plants to Confucianist junzi, or "gentlemen". They are most typically depicted in traditional ink and wash painting and they belong to the category of bird-and-flower painting in Chinese art.

The Four Gentlemen have been used in Chinese painting since the time of the Chinese Song dynasty (960–1279) because of their refined beauty, and were later adopted elsewhere in East Asia by artists in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. As they represent the four different seasons (the plum blossom for winter, the orchid for spring, the bamboo for summer, and the chrysanthemum for autumn), the four are used to depict the unfolding of the seasons through the year.

References

Four Gentlemen Wikipedia