Page 180 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 173
The Lolo, a Tibeto-Burman minority people in South China, have a legend according
to which there existed, at the beginning of the world, two hens, one white, the other
black: each laid nine eggs, out of which came good people and bad.

Hen with five chickens, symbolising good
relations between parents and children

In South China and in Vietnam, eggs were used in consultation of the oracle; the
bones of a hen could also be used for this purpose. The blood of black hens was held to
be particularly efficacious against spirits. In popular parlance, ‘hen’ or ‘wild hen’ is a
metaphor for ‘prostitute’.

Herb of Immortality

zhi

The ‘wonder-working herb’, the so-called ‘drug of immortality’ (zhi or ling-zhi), is often
mentioned in classical Chinese literature, and popular prints still show it held in the
mouth of a deer, or in the beak of a crane: a reduplicated symbol of
longevity.