Page 293 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 286
Persimmon

shi

By itself, the persimmon (also called the date-palm or the Chinese fig) symbolises
‘affairs’, ‘matters’ in general (shi = affairs, business). Together with a tangerine
(mandarin orange) it symbolises the wish ‘May you have good fortune in all your
undertakings.’ This is because the Chinese word for tangerine, ju, is phonetically close to
ji = luck, fortune. A cake made from persimmons may be depicted together with a branch
of a pine-tree (bo) and an orange (ju here taken as phonetically suggestive of ji):
this grouping expresses the wish ‘Good luck (ji) in a hundred (bai) undertakings (shi).’
Coupled with the lichee fruit, the persimmon means ‘profit (gain) (li) on the market
(shi)’ – in other words, a favourable business deal.
As a tree, the persimmon has four virtues: it has a long life, it gives shade, birds
nest in it, and it harbours no vermin. It is probably for these reasons that it used to be
frequently planted in temple gardens.

Persimmon ornamentation