Page 131 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 124
die out and new fire was kindled by means of a fire-stick. On this day of transition from
the old to the new, no fire was permitted in any house. As a result, the feast was known as
the ‘Feast of Cold Food’.
The New Year festivities between the first and the fifteenth days of the new year were
marked by letting off fireworks, whose bangs and crackles were supposed to scare away
demons. For the same reason, fireworks could be let off at other festivities as well. The
fireworks (bao) ‘announce’ (bao) the festivity.
The ‘great fire’ is the red star Antares (α Scorpionis). In ancient China, the rise and
fall of Antares in the sky was used by peasants as a sort of calendar for agricultural
occupations. Taoist monks when they marry form ‘fire families’ (huo jia). ‘Fire-pit’ is a
frequently used metaphor for a brothel. Finally, the fact that the Chinese words for ‘fire’
(huo) and for ‘living’ (huo) are phonetically identical led people to light great fires on
New Year’s Day in honour of the god of riches, who might thus be moved to bestow
on them not only wealth but also long life.

Fish

yu

The Chinese word for ‘fish’ (yu) is phonetically identical with the word meaning
‘abundance, affluence’ (yu): so the fish symbolises wealth. A picture showing a child
with a fish means ‘May you have an abundance of high-ranking sons.’ Another popular
grouping shows a goldfish (jin-yu) in a pond (tang) in the courtyard of a house: by the
pond stands a well-to-do lady with two infants and her attendant lady’s-maid.
This picture may be symbolically interpreted as meaning ‘May gold (jin) in abundance
(yu) fill the whole hall (tang) of the house.’ Together with lotus-blossom (lian) a fish
expresses the wish ‘Year after year (lian nian) may you live in affluence (yu).’

Even in the very oldest Chinese literature we find the belief attested that an abundance
of fish in the waters foretold a good harvest. When the fish swam up-river in shoals, this
was interpreted as ‘rebellion’ against the social order and as a harbinger of civil unrest.
Fish were much used in sacrifice. In Central China, fish-heads (yu tou) were sacrificed
over a long period to the god of riches, in the belief that they symbolised the
beginning (tou) of wealth. Fish is a popular dish at New Year, symbolising the wish
for ‘affluence year by year’. When the constellation of the Fish becomes visible in the
skies, it is a sign that the time for ‘clouds and rain’ has passed. That is, it is no longer
auspicious for the Emperor to have sexual intercourse.
‘Fish and water come together’ is a metaphor for sexual intercourse, and a happily
married couple may be described as having ‘the pleasures of fish in water’. Thus, a pair
of fishes symbolising harmony, mutual sexual pleasure and the development of the
personality was a popular wedding gift.
In ancient China the word yu had the secondary meaning of ‘penis’, but today the eel
has ousted the fish in this respect.