Bowl with the Three Friends of Winter (Plum, Bamboo, Pine), Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Xuande Period (1426-1435). Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration (Jingdezhen ware), 8.4 x 22 x 22.2 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the Henry B. Keep Fund, the Joseph E. Temple Fund, the Bloomfield Moore Fund, the John T. Morris Fund, and with funds contributed by Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg, The Beneficia Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. J. Welles Henderson, Mrs. Howard H. Lewis, Mrs. William F. Machold, Mrs. Donald Petrie, Meyer P. Potamkin, Hugh Scott, and Mrs. William L. Van Alen, 1984-116-1.

With its freely brushed design, painted in modulated tones of deep, inky blue against a glossy white ground, the exterior of this bowl represents a popular Confucian theme: the Three Friends of Winter. The Three Friends—pine, bamboo, and plum—were so named for their shared quality of remaining green during the cold winter months. The hardy pine flourishes in harsh environments and is a symbol of longevity; the tall hollow-jointed bamboo shows strength and resilience in its uprightness yet bends and conforms in adverse conditions; and the plum is the first flower to bloom in late winter, representing perseverance. Together the Three Friends came to epitomize the moral characteristics of integrity and fortitude that a scholar-gentleman was to learn and live by.