Page 52 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 45
If a demon can be successfully smeared with blood, it is forced to assume its true
form. When pictures of gods or goddesses are being consecrated, the eyes are painted
over with blood, and in this way the picture or statue is animated or given a soul.
Several stories tell of a painter who paints a picture of a dragon which is then criticised
by a customer or recipient because the eyes have not been painted over: when the painter
makes the omission good, the picture turns into a real dragon and flies away.
In other stories we read of a child retrieving the bones of its parents from foreign parts,
a widow who seeks out the mortal remains of her late husband. They then prick their
flesh and let the blood drip out. The blood will enter the bones only of their dead
relatives, which can then be gathered together and buried at home.
Blood was also used in a test to establish chastity. A woman whose chastity was in
question only had to prick her cheek and let the blood run into some water: if the blood
did not mix with the water but remained suspended like a pearly globule her case was
proven. A virgin’s blood was always red, never black.
Male semen is transformed blood, and if too much semen is expended, the man’s
health suffers. A mother’s milk is also blood in a different form; it was said that if a bowl
of human milk was left out in the dew it would have turned into blood by morning. A
nightmare about ‘blood on the bed’ indicates the wife’s unchastity.

Blue

lan

One should never wear light or dark blue flowers or ribbons in the hair: it is unlucky.
Blue may also be a harbinger of high office and social preferment – with added worries
and difficulties. Blue eyes are regarded as ugly; as a rule, blue eyes were found only
among non-Han minorities in Central Asia, e.g. among the Hunza.

‘Blue Faces’: Kui-xing, the god of literature, was originally a scholar, who was
frustrated in his ambitions and committed suicide. He is often represented with a blue
face. Jian-zhai, one of the demon kings, is also often shown with a blue face and red hair;
49 days after a death, a paper figure of Jian-zhai is folded and set upright at the memorial
sacrifice. In many traditions, a man with a blue face is a ghost or a bad character.
The word lan is not found in the older literature. It is derived from the name of the
indigo plant, until recently the most important source of dyes for the clothes of ordinary
people. The older word for ‘blue’ is qing which covers all shades from dark grey through
blue to green. Qing can be used of the blue of the sky or of the sea.
Qing also symbolises the study carried out by the scholar who goes on working into
the night by the light of the ‘blue lamp’. ‘The way of the blue clouds’ is a metaphor for
progress from one examination to another. Formerly, a ‘blue tent’ used to be erected at
marriage ceremonies; and the nomadic tent in Mongolia is similarly described.