Third, vegetables represent frugality and freedom from worldly desires. In The Analects Confucius says, "In eating coarse rice, drinking water, and using an elbow for a pillow, joy is to be found. Wealth and rank attained through immoral means have as little to do with me as floating clouds."
蔬菜也有淡泊、節約的象徵意義，像「論語」述而篇裡孔子說：「飯疏食，飲水，曲肱而枕之，樂亦在其中矣，不義而富且貴，於我如浮雲。」