Literati care about refined taste, and often say one cannot dwell without bamboo.
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history
From Su Shi's (苏轼, Northern Song dynasty) 《於潜僧绿筠轩》: 宁可食无肉，不可居无竹。无肉令人瘦，无竹令人俗 — 'Better to eat without meat than dwell without bamboo; no meat makes you thin, no bamboo makes you vulgar.' Su's witty case for the bamboo grove as the essential furnishing of the scholar's household.
usage
Always quoted with its first half 宁可食无肉. 竹 (bamboo) is one of the Four Gentlemen (四君子) and the classic symbol of the upright, unbending literatus. The couplet is sampled constantly in tea-house calligraphy and garden-design writing.
