Page 144 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 137
The ‘four gates’ (si men) is a reference to the four journeys undertaken by the young
Siddharta Gautama, journeys which convinced him that he must give up his way of life as
a prince and become Buddha. The ‘four great kings’ (si da wang) are Ma, Zhao, Wen
and Li; it is they who protect the jade-ruler in the four regions of the world.
The ‘four arts’ of the scholar (who himself belongs to one of the four
callings) are symbolised by the lute, the chess-board, the book and the
painting. Each is also symbolised by a celebrated man who excelled in it: thus, Yu Bo-ya
(c. 500 BC) in music, Zhao Yen (3rd century AD) in chess, Wang Xi-zhi (later than 3rd
century AD) in calligraphy, and Wang Wei (Tang Dynasty) in painting.
The ‘four treasures of the scholar’s study’ are ink, paper, brush and ink-slab
(Indian ink is bought as a solid in cylindrical form, and has to be rubbed down on a
moistened stone before it can be used). The ‘four-coloured play-stones’ (si se pai) are
playing cards of the old type, narrow and rectangular ( games). Their use was
forbidden in Taiwan.
The ‘Four Books’ (si shu) are the Analects of Confucius (Lun-yu), the ‘Book of
Mencius’, ‘The Great Learning’ (Da Xue) and the ‘Doctrine of the Mean’ (Zhong Yong):
since the establishment of Neo-Confucianism as the state religion in the Song Dynasty,
these four books have enjoyed almost more popularity than the ancient ‘Five Classics’.
Confucian influence is also unmistakable in the doctrine of the ‘four bonds’ (si wei), i.e.
the four cardinal virtues: propriety, integrity, righteousness and modesty.
Chinese Communism saw the ideology of the feudal period in terms of the ‘four old
things’ – old culture, old customs, old habits and old ways of thinking – and proceeded to
attack on each of these fronts.
For many Chinese, the word si = four is taboo, as it is phonetically close to si = death.

Fox

hu-li

In China, as in Europe, the fox is known for its cunning; and being cunning it can live to
a great age. Furthermore, it can turn itself into a woman when it reaches fifty years of
age, into a girl when it is a hundred, and after a thousand years it can become a celestial
fox – but few foxes achieve this!
The thousand-year-old fox has nine tails and is noted for its extreme sensuality. It was
a thousand-year-old fox which assumed the form of the beguiling Dan-ji and led the last
Emperor of the Shang Dynasty into such evil ways that he finally lost both his empire and
his life. This tale is related in the famous Ming novel ‘The Metamorphoses of the Gods’
(Feng-shen yan-yi).
Texts dating from the dawn of our era identify the fox as a demonic creature upon
whose back spirits ride. Then again it is described as a harbinger of good luck. In the
main, however, it has always been an erotic symbol, and for about two thousand years it
has been associated with venereal diseases. Hundreds of stories tell how a ravishingly