Page 142 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

no CHINESE PORCELAIN.

the sacrifice to heaven on the first of new the
day every year,
officers in would be for their tardiness, and the
charge punished
high mandarins here, whose business it is to attend to this
important matter, would be liable to be fined or otherwise
punished. The use of this kind of orange is considered
felicitous and lucky on New Year's Day here as well as at
The olives and Buddha's hands are sent much in the
Peking.
same way at the proper season of the year." P. 380 : " Custom
that who calls on his or his
requires every boy neighbours
relatives on New Year's Day — or any time before the fifteenth
of the month, as some assert — should receive a of loose-
couple
skinned oranges, or the lad would consider himself slighted,
and treated and The reason
shamefully niggardly. why
this kind of is so at New Year is, that the
orange popular
colloquial name for it, heh, is precisely the same as the term
for ' fortunate,' ' lucky,' ' auspicious.' The presentation of these
oranges is equivalent to the wish of an auspicious and lucky
it is an omen of When a man married
year ; good. recently
calls on the of his bride, or on of his own
parents any family,
relatives, or intimate friends, he must have two or four oranges
of this to him, and a handful of water-melon seeds,
species given
put up in a red paper, for him to carry home when he departs.
Adults, when calling at New Year, must invariably be treated
with hot tea to drink, good tobacco to smoke, and water-melon
seeds to eat, as the local i the first of
saying is, During part
"
the first month no one has an empty mouth.'
Sapindus. — " Middle Kingdom," vol. i. p. 286 : " The seeds,
besides their value in '
cleansing, are worn as beads, because,'
' all demons are afraid of the wood.' The
say the Buddhists,
"
'
native name means preventative of evil.'
—
Persimmon. A sort of plum which grows to a large size in
China. Representations of it are to be found generally on
cups and bowls of latish date, when it looks like an apple
coloured on a which bends over with
light red, supported twig,
the
weight.
Flowers and Plants.
The primus, poeony, lotus, and chrysanthemum are
symbolical of the four seasons (see Nos. 245, 266).
—
PiEONY. Davis, vol. ii. p. 349 : " The famous Mow-tan, or