Page 201 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 194

Lao-zi entrusting the Dao de Jing to the border guard

Left and Right

zuo-you

Like the distinction between yin and yang, the difference between left and right
is relative rather than absolute. Like Western Europeans, the Chinese are mainly right-
handed, but the left is not regarded as something ‘sinister’, as it often is in the West.
This is bound up with Chinese cosmology and its system of directions. Traditionally,
the Emperor, as ruler of mankind, had his face turned towards the South when he
received ambassadors and homage. The East where the sun rises, was then on his left, and
the West where the sun sets, on his right. The left is the place of princes hence it is the
more honoured side, as the East is the more auspicious direction. Among the minority
peoples it is believed that the ruler’s eye is turned towards the East to greet the rising sun.

This makes the South (on the right) the region of greater power, and the North (on the
left) the region of weaker forces. Geomancy plays a part here, and in the end it is
often very difficult to arrive at any precise definition of ‘left’ and ‘right’. Various
pronouncements were made on the subject in the course of Chinese history. Thus, in
ancient times, the Emperor’s right-hand minister was superior in rank to the left-hand
one; but from the 3rd century BC onwards, all officials on the left-hand side were
higher in rank than those on the right.
At home ( hall) the householder sits on the eastern side, i.e. on the left, his wife on
the western side (the right hand). At night, however, she takes the left-hand side of the
bed and the husband the right: relative to sunrise she is still in the West, as her mat is
immediately adjacent to the wall facing the rising sun. In the street, which is a yin object,
i.e. it is subsumed by the female principle, the man walks on the right, the woman on the
left. Group paintings of gods and goddesses have the former on the right-hand side of the
picture, the latter on the left. In Tibetan art, it is exactly the other way round. Chinese
Muslims regard the left hand as the unclean one.