Page 286 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book
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A-Z 279
Peach
tao
Hardly any other tree or fruit in China is so heavily overlaid with symbolism as the
peach. Its wood and its colour kept demons at bay, its petals could cast spells on men, and
the peaches of immortality ripened only once in a thousand years (a figure stepped
up in some accounts to three or even nine thousand years). Legend has it that this
miraculous tree stood in the gardens of Xi-wang-mu, deep in the fabled Kun-lun
Mountains. On that rare day, when the tree bore fruit, the goddess invited all the
Immortals to her palace and laid on a feast. But once, as we read in ‘Journey to the
West’, the great Ming novel of the 16th century (Xi-you ji), the monkey Sun broke into
the palace garden just before the wonderful fruit ripened, and, to the horror of the
assembled guests, plucked and ate the lot. Not surprisingly, Sun became an Immortal.
Peach-blossom and Osmanthus
