The meaning of "cardamom" is: a young girl's thirteen or fourteen years old.
The earliest allusion to the word comes from the Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu's "One of the Two Poems of Farewell": "Gracefully curling up more than thirteen years old, cardamom tops in early February. The spring breeze is ten miles from Yangzhou Road, and the pearl curtains are always better than the curtains."
This poem was written by Du Mu when he was thirty years old, when he met a beautiful woman of about thirteen years of age selling her art on the street. The interpretation of the poem is: the maiden's body is graceful, very lovely, beautiful, using cardamom as a metaphor for the maiden, and so many women on the city of Yangzhou are not as beautiful as this one. From then on cardamom has been known as a special term for a young girl.
Expanded Information:
Lu Xun, "And Jie Ting Miscellaneous Writings - On "People's Words Can Be Fearful"": "As soon as you meet a woman, you will have to give play to your talents, either as 'a woman of half an age, with a lingering charm' or as 'a girl of cardamom age, with a lingering charm', 'a girl of cardamom age, with a lingering charm'. 'Cardamom age, delicate and lovely'."
Shi Sanyou, "The Wild History of Jinling - Wang Xichun, a Songstress of Qinhuai": "The songstresses who come here to perform are half-aged Xu Niang, cardamom-aged teenagers, and under-aged young children."
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