Page 20 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book
P. 20
A-Z 13
A stroke of luck for the angler
Animals
shou
The Chinese divided animals up into five classes, each of which had its representative:
the feathered creatures were represented by the phoenix, the furry creatures by
the unicorn, naked creatures by man, scaly creatures by the dragon, and
creatures with shells by the tortoise.
When a woman was granted an audience at court, she wore a skirt embellished with a
design showing the qi-lin (the unicorn) receiving the obeisance of the other classes of
animal – though man himself was absent from the group.
