Bamboo – the most Chinese of Plants
Symbolic meaning
If you are looking for a shady spot to enjoy the view or drink tea while reading a book, bamboo is an optimal shade dispenser due to its sometimes-enormous height and rich foliage.
Bamboo has been popular with writers and painters since ancient times. Its flexibility and grace as well as its resilience are highly symbolic and inspired many metaphors.
The famous poet Bai Juyi (白居易)wrote around 800 A.D. in the Tang Dynasty: Bamboo symbolizes determination through its deep roots, honesty because of its straight growth, because of its hollow structure, it stands for modesty and its smooth appearance is a symbol of chastity.
Even today, bamboo is used as a metaphor when it comes to finding encouraging and motivating words for someone in a difficult situation.
An old legend tells of a particularly loyal son named Mengzong（孟宗）. He wanted to prepare some healthy bamboo shoots for his sick mother. But because of the harsh winter, he found none. So, he cried bitterly. Immediately, bamboo shoots grew from the tears that fell to the ground. Chinese see it as an example if filial piety. Mengzong’s story found its way into a collection of legends that were supposed to call for honoring one´s parents, an important part of Chinese ethics.
Geographical distribution
One-fifth of the world’s bamboo production comes from China.
Now, not all of China is covered in bamboo. On the contrary. In larger quantities you find it almost exclusively in the south of the country. Yet, bamboo is not an exclusively tropical plant. But the humid and warm climate south of the Yangtze river seems to be better suited for it.
In total, there are about 400 bamboo species in China, although two or three main species make up the bulk of bamboo in East Asia.
The most unusual varieties of this plant are perhaps a bamboo that grows as a kind of climbing plant and can form stems up to thirty meters long. It only grows on the tropical island of Hainan.
The dotted bamboo with its yellow-brown spots is connected to a romantic story. A mythical ruler is said to have died (allegedly over 4,000 years ago) and his two concubines cried so much that their tears were imprinted in the bamboo of the area and can still be seen today.