Page 23 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 16
Apple pple

ping-guo

The best apples used to come from Korea and Japan; the Chinese apple was not so tasty.
Even today, apples are relatively dear, and therefore an acceptable gift, especially since
the apple (ping) can stand as a symbol for ‘peace’ (ping). On the other hand, one should
not give apples to an invalid, since the Chinese word for ‘illness’ – bing – is very similar
in sound to the word for apple. Apple blossom, however, symbolises female beauty.
In North China, the wild apple blossoms in spring, and is therefore a symbol for
this season of the year. The wild apple (hai-tang) may also symbolise the hall of a
house (tang): a picture showing wild apple blossom and magnolias (yu-lan) in such a
room can be interpreted as meaning ‘May (yu) your house be rich and honoured!’
The celebrated beauty Yang Gui-fei, the concubine of one of the Tang emperors, was
known as ‘Paradise-apple Girl’ (hai-tang nü).

Apricot pricot

xing

The apricot stands symbolically for the second month of the old Chinese calendar
(corresponding roughly to our March). It is also a symbol for a beautiful woman; a

red apricot stands for a married woman who is having an affair with a lover.
The apricot may also be called bai-guo-z (= white fruit) or bai-guo zhi (= hundred fruit
branch). It then symbolises the wish to have a hundred sons (bai-ge zi). Apricot stones
are sometimes compared to the eyes of a beautiful woman.