Four Gentlemen

Four Gentlemen
Chinese name
Chinese	四君子
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Sìjūnzi Wu Romanization sy^去 ciuin^平 tsy^上 Hakka Romanization xi^55 giun^24 zii^31 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping sei^3 gwan^1 zi^2 Southern Min Hokkien POJ sì-kun-tsú
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Tứ Quân Tử
Chữ Hán	四君子
Korean name
Hangul	사군자
Hanja	四君子
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Sagunja
Japanese name
Kanji	四君子
Hiragana	しくんし
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Shikunshi

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.^[1][2] 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.

Gallery

• 

  Orchids and Bamboo by Zheng Xie, c. 1740

• 

  Bamboo at Qingbige Pavilion by Ke Jiusi, c. 1338

• 

  Chrysanthemums from the Xian'e Changchun Album by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766)

• 

  Plum Blossoms by Sun Long and Chen Lu, early Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)

See also

• Three Friends of Winter
• Flowers of the Four Seasons

References

1. Orchids: The Four Gentlemen
2. Symbolism in Brush Painting

External links

• Paintings of the Four Gentlemen at China Online Museum