Page 241 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 234
reading of this title gives the meaning ‘May you be straight away (ma-shang) elevated to
the rank of count (feng-hou).’ Such a picture was a very suitable gift for an official,
for example.

Monkey upon monkey: ‘May each generation
be elevated to the rank of count’

More frequently, we find a monkey shown holding a peach (as in the classical
novel Feng-shen Yan-yi, ‘The Metamorphoses of the Gods’): the peach symbolises
longevity, and was stolen, according to one legend, from the peach-garden of Xi-
wang-mu.
Yet another motif in painting shows two monkeys on a pine-tree. This can be
interpreted as ‘May you rank as count from generation to generation.’ This is also the
meaning inherent in a picture showing one monkey crouching on the back (bei) of
another (bei = generation).

Moon

yue

The moon is associated with the female principle ( yin), so the moon deity (
Chang-e) is also female, and ‘arises’ in the West: that is to say, it is in the West that the
new moon first becomes visible. Both the West and the autumn are female and
the Chinese think that the moon is most beautiful in the autumn. Accordingly the Feast of
the Moon was held on the 15th day of the 8th month (in the old Chinese calendar,
every month began on the day of the new moon, so full moon always falls on the 15th).