Modest bamboo has curved leaves, and proud plums are not spent on its back.

This couplet was written by Zheng Xie, a painter and writer in Qing Dynasty. Plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum are called the four gentlemen in flowers, symbolizing several moral standards respected by the Chinese nation. Couplets use the method of borrowing things to express their ambitions, and bamboo and plum are used to symbolize a person's personality and integrity. The first couplet means that bamboo is tough and "never changes", but it has an open-minded character. The bamboo tip hangs low, as if bowing, which is a compliment to the image of humility. Bamboo is humbly different from other grasses, and its strength exceeds that of any wood. Regard bamboo as a monarch, and ink is the most important in the pen of literati. Legend has it that Su Dongpo is not good at drawing artists' paintings, but good at drawing bamboo, and regards mozhu as a monarch of ink. He wrote a poem saying: Mo Jun on the wall doesn't know words, so he can get rid of all his troubles at first sight. Li Kuchan, a modern Chinese painting artist and calligrapher, also praised Mei Zhu with a couplet: "Lingyun is more modest if there is no knot unearthed."

The second part praises Mei's arrogant spirit of "carrying flowers on her back". Flowers often meet with snow all over the sky, but there is a delicate fragrance that attacks people. According to Introduction to Flora edited by Bao Manzhu, plum branches can be divided into three types and twelve types according to their growth posture. Generally, the stamens of plum blossoms are not upward, especially the branches are drooping, and the flowers are downward when flowering, which shows that plum blossoms have the female pride of "cold ling blooming alone" (Wang Anshi: "Plum Blossom") but there is no coquetry on their backs. Couplets show the noble character of the author who is arrogant but not arrogant, humble and not yielding to power.

The following couplet talks about the relationship between flowers and bamboo from another angle.

It is inseparable from the world of flowers

Carefree people always like bamboo, which is safe.

"Huai Shang" was written by Ai Cheng Yuan Zhen, and it was selected from Volume 8 of Suiyuan Poetry Supplement. The meaning of this couplet is that the lucky people always leave the world of flowers and flowers, and those who have no worries often like to use bamboo to report their peace.