Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Deer


Being from wooded southern Illinois, I have seen deer for a majority of my life. They like to live in the forest behind my house and creep across the roads on campus at Southern Illinois University Illinois. I think the familiarity of deer drove me to pick them as my first mythological Chinese animal to study. I thought a little mythical information would give me a helpful insight into the differences between American and Chinese culture. Maybe if I could learn about this topic, I could begin to think with a Chinese perspective.
Unexpectedly, the task proved to be more difficult than I was prepared for. When I look back, I see that I should have expected this to be a challenge. In reality, there has to be a reason why no database of the symbolism and myth of Chinese culture exists on the internet. I found that I could not find anything. I searched book after book, typed endlessly into Google, and scoured through article databases. At this point, the only logical conclusion I could make was that deer did not have a relevant story behind them.
That conclusion would have been justified. I realize that I could have stopped and proceeded with a more documented animal with a legendary story. But if the deer was so utterly unimportant in the world of mythology and meant nothing symbolically, then why were there statues of deer around temples in Xiamen, China? The facts were not equaling the conclusion that deer had no symbolical meaning.
Frazzled and confused, I asked my professor about deer. He explained to me a central dogma of Chinese symbolism. If you are not sure what something symbolically means, a good guess is always that the creature symbolizes longevity. In that case, some of the deer shown are probably standing in or around temples for that reason. But in addition, the deer has phonetic meaning as well. The word for deer is lu. Because of this, deer can have a connotation with riches. Along with riches, the deer has a strong connotation with status and position. Another translation of the word lu is "official salary," which also leads to this conclusion. The deer could have been placed near the temples to bring wishes of wealth and status to the people. In support of this idea, I came across a deer image that linked the deer with status. The painting can be found in the City God Temple in Shanghai, China. The picture is of what looks to be a high ranking official holding a deer in his hand. The viewer can see that he is of a high standing based on the elaborate embroidery on his clothing and the hat that he wears. This picture is a solid linkage between the deer and wealth and high social status. 
Another interesting aspect to the deer is found within the Jataka Tales. These tales, a recollection of all of the Buddha’s past lives, are used in Chinese and Indian cultures to teach respectable morals to children. Within the book, a story about deer is present. The story, entitled the “Banyan Deer,” tells the story of a king and two herds of deer. The king enjoyed eating deer meat and kept the two herds together in a park for easy hunting. Each day he would travel to the park and kill one deer. The two herds, the Banyan deer and Monkey deer, both had a king. The wise kings of the two herds decided that they would alternate from which herd a deer died each day. The system worked efficiently until a mother deer from the Monkey herd asked to be spared until her baby was old enough to survive on his own. The Monkey king did not agree to her request. The female deer decided to ask the the Banyan king, who agreed to take her place. When the king of the land saw that the leader of the Banyan herd was sacrificing himself, he decided to stop the practice of hunting the deer. The Banyan deer is a symbol of selflessness and courage. This story could factor into the deer’s presence at Buddhist temples across Xiamen, China.
The sources used in this post are listed here:
Babbitt, Ellen. Jataka Tales Animal Stories. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1912.Print.
Eberhrd, Wolfram. A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought. New York: Routledge, 1986. 79. Print.

To begin

I want to begin this blog explaining that I am by no means an expert on things Chinese. I am just a student like yourself looking to gain insight into a culture that is very complex and different than our own. My major at my university is not Asian Studies, nor am I Asian myself. All I know as I start this blog is that I have an interest in learning about Chinese culture and I have a work ethic that makes me willing to research in order to find answers to my questions. Throughout this blog, you will find that I am telling you a story of my discoveries; a story that will describe how I reached understanding and closure on the vast topics I am covering. Hopefully, you can follow my findings with the research I cite and learn about Chinese mythology without reading a long and intricate textbook.