Page 99 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 92
North Chinese are said to be particularly fond of eating the jujube fruit, so much
so that their teeth are stained yellow. A dream in which a jujube tree figures presages an
early death: this is because the character for ‘jujube’ looks rather like the character for
‘to come’ written twice, one above the other, and this is taken to mean the coming of
dead spirits.
The unripe fruit of the jujube is supposed to be an abortifacient.

Deer

lu

Because of the exact phonetic equivalence of lu = deer to lu = good income, the
deer symbolises riches. More frequently, however, the deer is a symbol for
longevity. The deer figures prominently in the folk-legends of North and Central Asia,
and of India also, but plays little part in Chinese myth. There is one story about a deer
which gives birth to a girl who is found and brought up by a man. When she dies, her
body disappears.

Official and deer: ‘May fame and riches come your way!’