Page 207 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book
P. 207
A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 200
Liu Hai with his string of coins
Liu-lang
‘He’s a young Liu’ they say of a young man who is keen to have his first encounter with
the opposite sex. The reference is to an old story in which a man loses his way in the
mountains and arrives at a magic peach-blossom spring.
Liver
gan
The liver, so it was taught in ancient times, is one of the five viscera (zang) which
are correlated with the seven bodily orifices: ‘The eyes permit of weeping and they
afford a clear view: as orifices they correspond to the liver, which is itself connected
with green as its symbolic colour’ (Marcel Granet).
