Page 14 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

Introduction 7
can be manipulated, even bribed, like earthly officials. In the Chinese scheme of things,
the relationship between man and god is totally different from that obtaining in
Christianity, Judaism or Islam.
There were good practical grounds for desiring sons in traditional Chinese society.
It was up to them, after the death of the father, to care for the mother and their younger
brothers and sisters, and they had to make sure that due sacrifice was made to their dead
father, who otherwise would become one of the ‘hungry spirits’. The Chinese male in
traditional society could imagine nothing more terrible than dying without leaving a son
or sons behind. This is one reason why polygamy was allowed (until 1928); though it was
never widespread, as only rich men could afford to keep more than one wife. A simpler
way out for the average man was to adopt a boy from within the extended family, perhaps
a nephew. It was understood that childlessness could be due to physical causes; and such
considerations are not unconnected with the mass of rules prescribing when and how
marital intercourse should take place. The desire to have sons underlies the sexual
connotation of many of the symbols discussed in this book.
One of the first things to strike the reader who looks at any of the older books on
Chinese symbolism, e.g. those by Williams or Yetts, is the almost total absence of any
reference to this sexual connotation. It seems to me that these writers either drew
exclusively on classical literature or consulted Chinese scholars in the selection and
interpretation of their material.
The fact is that there is an astonishing amount of sexual symbolism in the popular
novels and in folk-literature, and in my book I have tried to indicate at least some of the
main themes and symbols in this field. Many of these symbols are used in a harmless
sense, and accordingly found their way into older works like those of Williams and Yetts.
Over and above this innocuous sense, however, there may be a second, more erotic
connotation which most Chinese will be aware of: they are, in fact, not so ‘tranquil in
their wisdom’ as one used to imagine. It is only classical literature and philosophy that
are serene and tranquil. Poetry on the other hand swarms with sexual innuendo, though
this may be very adroitly covered up.
Study of Chinese symbolism can be enlightening in yet another field – the study of
categories of Chinese thought, at present largely a virgin field but one of enormous

importance for a genuine understanding of the Chinese. Let us take for example the
contrastive pair chao-ye. Chao is the court of the Emperor, ye is the wilderness; chao is
the court and the capital city surrounding it, ye includes country villages and the land
whether cultivated or uncultivated. But ye is also used of wild animals or of a ‘wild’ cult
– that is to say, the cult of a god who is not recognised by the Emperor. Formally, we
might translate chao-ye as ‘town and country’, ‘Stadt und Land’ – but the underlying
concepts are totally different. Again, shan-hai means, literally, ‘mountains and sea’, but
the compound really refers to what is enclosed by mountains and sea – i.e. the whole
country. The compounds shan-jing and hai-gui – ‘mountain-spirits’ and ‘sea-spirits’ –
refer to all spirits, whether more or less dangerous. The expression shan-shui can refer to
‘flowing water and high mountains’ but is usually the ordinary word for ‘landscape’ in
painting; for such a picture will almost invariably depict a mountainous landscape with
rivers or brooks.