Page 146 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book
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A-Z 139
Friends, The Three
san you
Pictures showing pines, bamboos and plum trees, or bamboos, a stone
and plum-trees, are different versions of the ‘three friends in winter’ motif. They do not
die: they remain constant and blossom before the spring comes. The motif can be used as
a greeting to people who are poor or lonely.
Magpies, bamboos and plum-blossom: signs of
friendship and harbingers of happiness
In the Analects Confucius refers to ‘three friends’:
