Page 364 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 357

cosmology. Chinese has words for ‘hundred thousand’ and for ‘million’, but in everyday
language ‘ten thousand’ is used as a kind of upper limit, denoting whatever is or should
be plentiful. The Emperor was addressed as ‘Ten thousand years of life’ in token of
the wish ‘May Your Majesty live for ten thousand years!’ With protocol in mind, the
Crown-prince was addressed as ‘Thousand years of life’.
At all times, ‘ten thousand’ has been an effective symbol for
immortality, taking various forms such as a swastika, a scorpion or a
meandering watercourse. A picture showing a sceptre against a
background of the meander design (wan) can be interpreted as ‘May the
ten thousand (wan) things (= everything) go according to your wishes!’
Tendril Tendril

man

There is sufficient phonetic similarity between man = tendril, creeper, and wan = ten
thousand for the Chinese to use the former as a symbol for the latter. Thus a picture
showing tendrils and roots (dai) can be interpreted as wishing that the recipient may live
‘for ten thousand generations (wan dai)’.
Terrace Terrace

tai

In Chinese architecture, the roof covering a building and the terrace on which it stands
have cosmological significance. ‘The heaven covers and the earth bears’ we are
told in ancient texts. The terrace is usually in the form of a rectangle or of a square
(fang, even number, female), less frequently in circular form (uneven number, male). The
rice-fields rise uphill in terraces, and water flows from terrace to terrace downhill. The
use of a flat-topped terraced structure for sacrifices, for ceremonial feasts and for
entertaining guests goes back to very ancient times.
The ‘Moon Terrace’ (yue tai) is what we prosaically call the ‘platform’ at
a station!