Page 177 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 170
He-he

The He-he are Heavenly Twins: their name means ‘togetherness’ or ‘harmony, concord’.
They may have originated in the shape of the poets Han-shan (the poet of the Cold
Mountain) and his friend Shi-de (the foundling): the former was a hermit in the Tian-dai
range of mountains, the latter was a foster child of the prior of the Guo-qing monastery
where he was in charge of the kitchens. They are often represented in art.
On a non-historical plane, the Heavenly Twins are portrayed as boys with shoulder-
length hair; one of them often holds a lotus (he) while the other has a bowl from
which rises a cloud of steam. In this cloud we can see five bats, or, on occasion,
a horse and other prized objects. The He-he are a symbol of concord and harmony
between married couples, and, as is obvious from their emblems, gods of riches.

The two He-he

Hell

di yu

Chinese hells are really purgatories, as a limit is set to the amount of time a sinner spends
in them. The literal translation of di yu is ‘earth-prison’: the sinner is sentenced by an
infernal judge. Chinese hells are ten in number: the first is the court-room where sentence
is passed, the last is the place where, after punishment, sinners are reborn as human