Abstract Symbols

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The image of yin-yang fairy and gourd in the shape of half fish, half bird can be traced back to 6,000-year-old Yangshao Culture. According to the fairy tale about the beginning of human life, in ancient time when flood surging to the sky, Fuxi and his sister Nuwa stayed in a gourd to keep from getting drowned. By that, gourd has always been a symbol of mother’s body which created all things on earth. In Miao villages, this symbol is a gourd flute; in northern China, it is in the form of paper-cut and embroidery works like “Eight diagrams gourd; “Double nozzle gourd;” “Gourd laying kids;”and”Gourd over square;”and variety of gourd shaped hand bags When pasted on the bridal chamber, it is considered a happy symbol for propagation;

on the door front, it keeps away vicious spirits and epidemics; wearing on the chest, it is patron-saint, and in residential building, gourd is usually being placed on the sky beam of the central room for safeguard Chinese Folk custom to worship rising cones, “Three cones reach out to the sky(Jianchuan, Yunnan).

Paper-cut-eight diagrams gourd (Ansai, Shaanxi).

From primitive society to present, some commonly accepted symbols of life also have functional characteristics in social beliefs and taboos. A dot is usually a symbol of god. To wear on the chest, it is a symbol of patron-saint; to draw a dot on an animal figure, the animal becomes a supernature symbol. I saw such a dot on a pottery pig unearthed from 7,000-year-old Hemudu cultural relics. It should be a legendary pig which was in the category of the sun animals. On the rock carving in Lascaux, France, dated back 15,000 years ago, the legendary ox was also labeled with a dot. Obviously, it had been a recognized philosophical and cultural code for the entire mankind and had been around for some 15,000 years.

‘China net’ hanging along both sides of the street during “SARS’ epidemic in 2003 (Beijing).

“Good fortune,””Eight diagrams,”and”Snake twining round nine eggs”are symbols for safe travel often seen on vehicles, horse saddle and gear, boats and ships.

They are also used for residential houses and buildings. These symbols are on each side of the entrance to the tent in Tibet or yurt in Mongolia. The in-house symbol of Tibetan dwelling, constitution of mountains, the moon and the sun, is of the same nature and function. It was first seen on house-ware carvings from Dawenkou Culture in Shandong Province.