Page 140 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 133

Fly-whisk

fu-zi

The fly-whisk is a symbol of authority, and is thus used mainly by Buddhists. As a rule, it
is made of the white hairs from a cow’s tail, fastened to a handle.

Food

yinshi

China’s most distinguished thinkers and statesmen did not consider it beneath their
dignity to give at least some of their attention to food and ways of cooking it. The whole
of the eighth chapter of Book X of the Analects is devoted to Confucius’s eating habits: it
ends: ‘Although his food might be coarse rice and vegetable soup, he would offer a little
of it in sacrifice with a grave respectful air’ (tr. Legge).
Tradition has it that the statesman Yi Yin was able to win King Tang over to his
designs because he had served the king so well as cook. Yi Yin’s conversation with the
king is set down in the Chun-qiu of Lü Bu-wei (died 235 BC), and the symbolic content
is plain: ‘The basis for all foods is water. There are five tastes, three
substances, nine ways of boiling and nine ways of roasting, where it is a question of
using the different kinds of fire. In mixing, one must correctly balance sweet, sour,
bitter, spicy and salty; one must know which of these and how much is to be added first,
which and how much later. The changes that take place in the food after it has been
prepared and is still in the bowl, are so secret and so refined that there are no words to
describe them. It is like the most subtle and artistic touches in archery and chariot-
driving, or like the secret processes of natural growth’ (tr. Richard Wilhelm). Here there
is no mistaking the system of the five ‘permutations’ or states of being, whereby water is
associated with salty, fire with bitter, etc. ( elements).
When giving food to a guest, one should bear his particular requirements in mind.
Thus, old gentlemen should be given tortoise flesh which is still hanging from the broken
shell; also, swallows’ nests, as they enhance a man’s sexual prowess.
Three farinaceous products have particular symbolic significance: first, noodles
made from wheat and other things, symbolise longevity. Then there is man-tou,
a kind of dumpling made from flour and yeast and filled with meat or (less frequently)
with sweetmeats, and steamed. The word man-tou means ‘barbarian-head’ and was first