Which three friends do you mean?

Three friends in cold years refer to pine, bamboo and plum. Because pine, bamboo and plum are evergreen in winter, they are still open and evergreen in cold environment, so they are called three friends when they are old.

"Three Friends of Old Cold" means that pine, bamboo and plum stand proudly in the wind and stand firm in the frost. They will never wither after beginning of winter, and they will be evergreen in the twelfth lunar month. Among them, pine symbolizes evergreen, bamboo symbolizes gentleman's way, and plum blossom symbolizes purity and beauty.

In the Song Dynasty, three friends of the old and the cold appeared in Lin Jingxi's Biography of the King. The poem reads: "If you live in a tired place, you will plant a hundred plums, and you will be friends with Qiao Song."

Historical allusions of three old cold friends.

Su Shi was demoted to Huanggang in the second year of Beiyuanfeng (1097), and his place name was "Dongpo", hence the name "Dongpo Jushi". When he first arrived in Huangzhou, Su Dongpo lived a hard life away from relatives and friends. So he reclaimed a wasteland and planted cash crops such as rice, wheat, mulberry and jujube. Soon, he built a small house near the field and named it "Tang Xue". Because the environment is too dull, I planted pine, cypress, plum, bamboo and other flowers and trees in the yard as decoration.

One day, Xu Junyou, the magistrate of Huangzhou, visited him in Tang Xue. Seeing that his residence was deserted, I asked him if it was too deserted. Su Dongpo pointed to the flowers and trees outside the window and smiled: "Wind and spring are two kinds of music, and pine and bamboo are three kinds of friends." It means: as long as you are open-minded, the wind whimpers and the spring gurgles, it is also two beautiful music; Evergreen pine and cypress, tall and straight bamboo and proud notice are all old friends who accompany the severe winter.