Page 181 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 174
Ling-zhi is represented in all sorts of forms. In Chinese it is sometimes described as a
kind of cao = grass, plant. One ancient text says that it grows throughout the year on an
island in the Eastern Sea: it looks like water-grass with long leaves, oval and pointed, and
whoever takes it will live for ever and ever. Other texts describe it as a sort of morel, and
in many illustrations it looks just like a mushroom with stalk and cap. Zhi may also
stand for rapid growth, i.e. a meteoric public career; it may also symbolise fertility
especially when shown collectively.
As a hallucinogen of greater symbolic and alchemistic significance, zhi is something
quite different from the powdered preparations known variously as han-shi (‘cold
minerals’) and wu-shi (‘five minerals’), which came into use towards the end of the Later
Han Dynasty. The former was taken deliberately as a stimulant; and of the man who
discovered its potency it is written (by Huang-fu Mi, 215–82) that he immediately gave
himself up to music and sex. In contrast to the ‘herb of immortality’, the ‘five
minerals’ powder had no religious or cosmological connotation: its spread was due
entirely to its potency.

Hero

ying-xiong

Ying-xiong is the modern Chinese term meaning roughly the same as the word ‘hero’
does in European languages. There is an older word – xia – which still occurs in the
compound wu-xia = ‘warlike hero’. The wu-xia is the knight-errant, the star of popular
novels (and films made from them) which enjoy such a vogue in present-day China.
In many ways, the ancient xia may be compared with the hero of medieval epics and
romances. He comes from a middle-class family and is often poor. His appearance is
rarely described; what matters is his character. He takes instant decisions, without

pausing to consider the repercussions. When called upon to do so, he will devote all his
strength to protecting the weak and downtrodden. He helps friends and strangers alike, in
the course of his fight against injustice. If his friends have suffered he avenges them, and
is then capable of excesses of cruelty. He often tries to improve his friends morally.
In contrast with many a hero in European literature, he must be able to control his
sexual appetites. Typically, he is cool, even lacking in interest, towards his wife.
One very popular story tells how a hero exposes himself to extreme danger over a long
period to rescue a girl who then falls in love with him. He takes her home to her parents,
who naturally assume that intimacy has taken place during the long time they have spent
alone together, and ask him to marry their daughter. He turns the request down with cold
dignity: his mission was to rescue the girl, nothing more. He departs and the girl kills
herself. Twenty years later, when he has become Emperor, the hero remembers her – only
to learn that she has long since been dead.