Page 289 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 282
Under the Manchus, peacock feathers were used as insignia denoting rank. In painting,
they indicate an official. A vase with peacock feathers and coral can be
interpreted as meaning ‘May the brilliance of the feathers and the button be yours’ – a
reference to the practice of making the distinctive buttons for first- and second-rank
officials from coral.

Pear

li

Pear-trees can live for a very long time, so it is not surprising to find them used as a
symbol for longevity. In one Chinese opera, a fruit merchant claims that his pears
will make a marriage happy. But lovers should never cut up or divide pears since the
word for ‘pear’ (li) is phonetically identical with the word for ‘separation’ (li). For the
same reasons, relatives or friends should avoid dividing pears among each other.
Above all, no one should be given pears on the 15th day of the 7th month, for this is
the day which the spirits of the dead spend on earth, and pears would bring their loss
home even more forcefully to bereaved families.
Zheng-zi, Confucius’s favourite disciple, who was celebrated for his piety, repudiated
his wife because she did not cook pears long enough for the family meal. ‘Pear blossom
with rain drops’ rates as a sight of very special beauty, and the phrase is used to describe
beautiful women.

Pearl

zhu

The pearl is one of the eight jewels: it stands for purity and preciousness.
The Chinese knew how to cultivate pearls before the beginning of our era, and long
before the Japanese entered the field. Tears may be called ‘little pearls’. In ancient times,
a pearl was laid in the mouth of a dead person, perhaps because the ‘mussel becomes
“pregnant” by reason of thunder, and the pearl grows by moonlight’.
The Chinese say that Tibetan monks have a ‘seduction pearl’ which gives them magic
properties for sixty years. Any woman caught in its rays becomes desperate for love.