Bamboo Culture · Thousand Years of Heritage

People pity its upright nature, born slender,
It claims noble talent, growing tougher with age.
Once sharing rain and dew with humble weeds,
In the end, it reaches ice and frost with pines and cedars.

Better to eat without meat than live without bamboo.
Without meat, one grows thin; without bamboo, one becomes vulgar.
A thin person can grow plump again,
But a vulgar person cannot be cured.

Gripping the green mountain, it will not let go,
Its roots are set in the broken rocks.
After a thousand grindings and ten thousand blows,
It remains strong, no matter the wind from any direction.