Page 175 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 168
Heart

xin

As in the West, the heart plays a dual role as seat of life and seat of the emotions and
affects. A medieval hero caught in a conflict of loyalties is said to have torn his heart out:
but he went on living, so he asked a woman who was selling ‘heartless vegetables’ if a
man could live without a heart. She said ‘No’ whereupon he fell dead. The author of the
novel in which this episode occurs, is at pains to stress that she should have said ‘Yes!’
‘Heart and liver’ (xin-gan) is a term of endearment used by women to their lovers.

Hearth

zao

Every Chinese house has a hearth. The kitchen, however, is not supposed to be in the
house but rather in a small adjoining building. The hearth and the kitchen are the
province of the wife, the lady of the house; the man has nothing to do with them.
Over the hearth or close beside it is a statue or a picture of the hearth-god. Ensconced in
his niche, he watches what goes on in the house and reports accordingly, once a year, to
the supreme god. This takes place at New Year; and before he goes aloft to report,
many women smear his mouth with honey, so that he will have nothing but ‘sweet’ things
to say. Colour-printed fabrics show the hearth-god sur-rounded by children, as he is also
the protector of the family.

It is absolutely taboo to have sexual intercourse in the kitchen, in front of the hearth-
god. His face is blackened by the smoke of many fires. All Chinese gods (except
Buddhist ones) were originally living beings on earth, and these kitchen gods are
supposed to have been soldiers unjustly put to death long ago by imperial command.

Heaven

tian

The sky is regarded as male, and it is paired with the earth. ‘Heaven is invisible and
generates, earth is visible and forms,’ we are told in the chapter entitled ‘Reflections on