Page 309 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 302
The rainbow is seen as a resplendent symbol of the union of yang and yin: it serves
therefore as an emblem of marriage. You should never point your finger at a rainbow.
But the rainbow can have another meaning, in that it may appear when either husband
or wife is more handsome and attractive than the other, and therefore enters upon an
adulterous relationship. The rainbow is then an emblem of fornication or sexual
abuse, and forebodes ill.
‘Rainbow bridges’ are ‘flying’ bridges made of tree-trunks unsupported by pillars.
‘Rainbow skirts’ have strips decorated in many colours round the bottom hem.
In early reliefs, the rainbow is shown as a snake or as a dragon with
two heads. In West China they give it the head of a donkey, and it rates as a
lucky symbol.

Rang

Rang is a specifically Chinese concept, which can hardly be translated by any one word
into a European language. It is perhaps best paraphrased as ‘giving in in order to get
something when there is no other way of achieving it’. At a very basic level, it may mean
no more than stepping aside to let someone else pass on the street. More significantly, I
may rang yu: i.e. cede rights or privileges which are indisputably mine, thus indirectly
forcing someone else to make an equivalent concession. An Emperor when forced to
abdicate performed rang wang: that is to say, he surrendered the throne to which he had a
traditional entitlement, in favour of a usurper. The latter could not have the deposed
Emperor put to death immediately, much as he would have liked to, in order to eliminate
a possible source of political opposition; he usually did so some time later.
In everyday life it happens quite often that someone turns down a small gift, aware
that if he accepted it he would be under moral pressure to repay it with a larger and more
expensive gift.

Rat

da shu

The rat is the first creature in the old Chinese zodiac. The story goes that the ox
was at the head of the string of animals which wanted to be included in the zodiac. But no
one had noticed that a rat had got on to the ox’s back, and when the creatures lined up to
be appointed, the rat jumped down and was taken first.