Page 283 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 276
Partridge

zhe-gu

The partridge is regarded as a bird of the South. It symbolises elective affinity, as is
already clear from the wise saws of a seasonal nature found in the ancient ‘Book of
Songs’ (Shi-jing). The cooing hen partridge calling seductively to the cock at the time of
the spring floods becomes a symbol for ‘disorderly relations’. Hardly concealed here is a
reference to Princess Yi-jiang, who outraged custom by marrying first the father, then the
son (Duke Xuan of Wei, 718–699 BC). ‘Construed as an allegorical aphorism, each and
every traditional metaphor or simile reveals something of the way in which nature is
ordered’ (Marcel Granet).

Partridges