Here is a quote from Su Shi's poem "The Land of the Imperial Monk" in the Song Dynasty: "Eating without meat is better than living without bamboo. No meat makes people thin, and no bamboo makes people vulgar. "
It means living without bamboo is better than eating without meat. Without meat, people will be thin, without bamboo, people will be vulgar.
Extended data
Creation background
In the spring of the sixth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty (1073), when Su Shi was the general of Hangzhou, he went from Fuyang and Deng Xin to Yunyunling and entered the latent county to "see politics". Hui Jue, a monk in Ganxian County, became a monk in Jizhao Temple, Guo Feng Township, South Erli. There is a green corridor in the temple, decorated with bamboo, which is very elegant. Su Shi and monk Hui Jue wrote this song "Yu Qian and monk Lu" when they visited Lu.
suggestion
According to the Biography of Wang Huizhi in the Book of Jin, Wang Huizhi, the son of Wang Xizhi, was elegant and loved bamboo. Once, he lived in an empty house and immediately planted bamboo. Someone asked him why, but he didn't give a positive explanation. Xiao Yong pointed to the bamboo and said, "There is not a day without this gentleman!" """this' would rather eat without meat than live without bamboo' is to bring this canon and praise to the hermit.
Because there is such an otherworldly image in allusions, and poetry uses the tone of "can" and "can't", the image of a monk who is detached from things immediately jumps to the page.