There are lots of means of expressing symbolic meaning in Chinese flower and bird paintings. The most common means are homophony and pun, that convey endless meaning whilst reflect people's yearning for happiness. For example, the representative of symbolic birds-and-flowers painting is "Four Gentlemen" and "Three Friends of Winter". Plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum were known as the Four Gentlemen. Their common traits are nobleness, modesty, and integrity.
And as the Three Friends of Winter, pine, bamboo, and plum blossom are often associated with man of great virtue from another level. For their own natural qualities, these five plants were given the corresponding symbolic meanings. In addition, because of their strong beauty in form, almost all artists dabbled at this theme and left many masterpieces.
Bamboo
There is another situation that some subject was given the fixed auspicious Fengshui meanings in flowers-and-birds painting history of development. For example, just like the peony represents high position, great wealth, and prosperity; pine strands for longevity and integrity; bamboo symbolizes grittiness, modesty, and successive promotion; red-crowned crane is symbolic of longevity, and so on. Their auspicious Fengshui meanings is one of important reasons that why flowers-and-birds painting is evergreen.
In the long Chinese history, everything is not single. The flower and bird paintings are all connected together with Chinese people's old faith and belief. Anyway, old things are always charming.
