Page 161 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 154
Girls are often compared with flowers: pomegranates, gourds,
orchids, peonies, peach-blossom, and plum-blossom are favourite symbols.
The animal world is also drawn on: the frog, the parrot and the horse are
favourite symbols, while red and green may further symbolise a girl’s
developing beauty.
Formerly, the heroic maiden Mu-lan was held up to girls as a paragon of filial
piety ( xiao). As an exemplar of the heroic warrior-maiden, she has lasted into the
era of the modern Peking Opera and appears in popular comics and in war films. (See
also Swing.)

Glow-worm

ying-huo-chong

The glow-worm is a symbol of beauty and of steadfastness: the latter quality, no
doubt, because when the great scholar Jiu Yin was a boy he was so poor that he had
to study at night by the light of glow-worms. Nevertheless, he passed all his examinations
with great distinction.

Glue

jiao

The love between a young couple is often described as ‘as firm as lacquer and as lasting
as glue’. A special form of glue made, so it is said, from the sinews of the phoenix,
and used for sticking broken bow-strings together, symbolises the reunion of a pair
of lovers after a long separation.