Page 377 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 370
what is probably the most famous Chinese novel of all – the Hong lou meng, the ‘Dream
of the Red Chamber’ as it is usually translated – the better to indicate that it is a question
of a room in an upper storey.
‘Three-storey tower’ is a metaphor for the vagina.
Town Town

cheng

Wherever it is geologically possible, Chinese towns are laid out in the shape of a
square, like rice-fields and army camps. In the design of all three, the laws of
geomancy play a key role: that is to say, they are orientated according to the heavenly
directions. In the case of towns, the number three was taken as basis: this gave a
right-hand and a left-hand area, enclosing the palace of the ruler in the middle. For
more than two thousand years, this central palace has been the residence of the town
governor.
The ‘Empty City Stratagem’ (kong cheng ji) is a reference to an episode in the novel
San-guo-zhi yan-yi (‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’) which is a motif in many
pictures. Three men are seen sitting peacefully and unconcernedly on the city wall just
above the main gate where

Tutelary deity of town, clad as an official