Page 109 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 102
e.g. the ‘Drum of the Great Peace’ was beaten in Peking at the New Year festival.
Before the city gates were closed at night, and before a market shut down, a drum was
beaten. Outside the court-house hung the ‘complaints-drum’, which was there for anyone
to beat who wanted to bring a lawsuit. Every evening in Taoist temples the great drum
was beaten, to be answered by the bell.
In North-west China and also in parts of the South, drums had earthenware resonators
which were enamelled in brilliant colours. The big kettle gongs of the non-Han minority
peoples in the South are famous. Attempts have been made to interpret the imagery found
on these instruments: frogs sitting round the outer rim, figures of men who are sailing in
ships or taking part in processions. Few of these images have been satisfactorily decoded,
but these big drums have been in use for more than two thousand years, and are among
the most valuable possessions of these peoples.

Dryness/Drought

gan

Placed before words denoting certain relationships – e.g. father, mother, son,
daughter – the word gan indicates adoptive status. ‘Dryness’ here means that adopted
children, for example, have not drunk the milk of their mothers: they have gone forth
‘dry’. An adopted sibling is known as a love-child.

Duck

ya

The figure of a duck is a frequent motif in peasant embroidery. In some parts of East
China, the word for ‘duck’ (ya) is taboo, as it also means ‘homosexual’. In the North, ya
is one word for ‘penis’. In Buddhist ritual, the duck stands for another word in the ya-
series: ya meaning ‘to suppress’ (evil). In Taiwan on New Year’s Eve, a black duck is
sacrificed and its blood inserted in the mouth of a paper tiger. This paper tiger is then
burned at the city gates, and this is supposed to rid the town of all evil influences.
In Taiwan in 1661, a man called Zhu Yi-gui led a major rebellion against the Chinese
government. As he had been a duck-breeder, he was given the soubriquet of ‘Mother-
duck King’. It was because of his rebellion that duck-breeding was banned for a number
of years in Central Taiwan. (Hummel says that Zhu trained ducks ‘so that at his command
they marched in military formation – much to the amazement of his neighbours’.)