Page 374 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 367
Tooth

ya; chi

The Immortals in the realm of Uttarakuru have teeth which are ‘faultlessly placed,
with no gaps or irregularities, brilliantly white with fine shading recalling bright jade’;
such teeth are characteristic of female beauty.
Among some of the non-Han minority peoples in South China, however, it was the
custom to knock out one of a young woman’s front teeth, while other tribes blackened the
front teeth – an embellishment which owed not a little to their enthusiasm for chewing
betel-nut. Dreaming about losing a front tooth was supposed to presage the imminent
death of one’s parents. Normally, teeth were cleaned only in the morning. Only in one
text is cleaning them in the evening recommended, and this may have something to do
with sexual hygiene. Grinding the teeth is one way of warding off ghosts. It was also
customary to grind one’s teeth on entering a temple.
Tortoise Tortoise

gui

To the Chinese the tortoise has always seemed an enigmatic and highly symbolic creature
( ao). The saying ‘It conceals the secrets of heaven and earth’ is still current
in China. In the very earliest references to it. we find its shell compared to the vaulted
heaven, and its underside to the flat disc of the earth. Both as a replica of the cosmos and

because of the markings on its shell, it was used in very early times in prognostication. It
seems clear that the 24 rim-plates of the shell were correlated with the 24 divisions of the
agricultural calendar.
The tortoise is also the hero of many legends. It helped the first Emperor to tame
the Yellow River; and whenever a cultural hero crops up to bring order into the universe,
a tortoise is by his side. Emperor Shang-di rewarded it by conferring a life-span of
10,000 years upon it. In fact, its genuine longevity makes it a natural choice for a long-
life symbol. At sacrifices in modern