Page 354 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

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The Mountain of the South, the moon, the sun and pine-trees: ‘Good luck
and long life!’

sign that the Emperor himself was being occulted – i.e. he was too much under the
influence of the Empress. Lunar eclipses occurred when wives were not duly submissive
to their husbands.
Long after Chinese astronomers had identified the true reasons for both solar and lunar
eclipses and could predict first the latter and then the former with some accuracy,
ordinary Chinese went on believing that a dog was trying to swallow the sun, and
tried to scare off this celestial monster by beating drums, praying, and firing arrows
into the sky.
The sacrifice to the sun was an ox which was slaughtered early in the morning. A
cult involving sun and moon worship can be discerned in the rites of certain secret

societies – e.g. the ‘Sect of Devil-worshippers and Vegetarians’ (13th century, i.e. late
Song). According to Wolfgang Bauer, these traces of sun worship and worship of the
light show the influence of Zoroastrianism and Manicheism which were introduced into
China in Tang times. Among the lower classes, sun worship joined forces with the lucky
colour red, to find ideological expression in popular uprisings – right down to Mao
Ze-dong, whose teachings were compared to a ‘red sun’. The victorious power of the sun
and of the revolution imbues the national anthem of the Chinese people – ‘The East is
red, the sun ascends.’
A picture showing the god of good luck with his hand on the sun, can be interpreted as
meaning ‘May you rise in rank (as an official) in as short a time as possible.’
Swallow