The ancients used "cardamom" to describe girls. What exactly is cardamom?

Cardamom is a herbaceous plant that blooms in early summer and bears fruit in autumn. When the cardamom flower is in bud, it is extremely watery and pink, so many people call the cardamom flower the fetal flower, which means "in bud." Cardamom can be used in Chinese medicine, which can remove moisture after being eaten. It can also be used as a woman's decoration. Putting cardamom on a hairpin will look very beautiful. Wearing cardamom on the head also means that you are not married yet. If you meet someone you like, you can give this person a jade hairpin inlaid with cardamom. Then if the man also likes it, he will go to the girl's home to propose marriage.

Cardamom refers to girls, generally under 16 years old. Peonies, roses, peonies and other flowers that are generally used to describe beautiful women are relatively mature, so only the pink and tender cardamom flowers can best describe girls. Moreover, cardamom itself also has the effect of maintaining health and body, and has the effect of emollient, which can also be reminiscent of a girl's skin. The allusion of the cardamom girl originally came from the poem "Farewell" by Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty: "Pingping has been curling up for more than thirteen years, and the cardamom leaves are spring in February. The spring breeze is ten miles away from Yangzhou Road, and it is not as good as rolling up the bead curtain."

The farewell poem was written when Du Mu was in his 30s. At that time, Du Mu was very lonely and downtrodden. At this time, he met a 13-year-old brothel girl. Later, when Du Mu was about to move on to his future, he was still very reluctant to let go of this brothel girl. I wrote this poem to express my feelings. The word "cardamom" in it is used to represent a girl who has not yet grown up, so the allusion of "cardamom girl" comes from this poem. And according to research, the "cardamom" in the poem "Farewell" should be a kind of red cardamom at that time, because the look of the cardamom in bud is really suitable for the shy look of a girl.

I want to give you some popular science here. In ancient times, anyone younger than 16 years old could be called a cardamom girl. Anyone older than 16 years old is called a 28-year-old, because the sum of two 8s equals 16. In ancient times, women got married very early, so starting from the age of 16, the ancients believed that a woman's body was completely ready for marriage. The sum of two 10s at the age of 20 was called a double decade of beauty. Therefore, the ancients had strict rules on how to call women. You must not call them wrong. Otherwise, it would be difficult for men to marry their beloved women in ancient times.