Horses

While scrolling through pictures of various temples in Xiamen, China, I noticed the trend that horses were pictured often. Upon this observation, I looked to find symbolism for the horse, but the search was not without problems. In contrast to my other animal symbolism searches, I found many sources on the horse. The complication was that the sources had no common factor in what the horse represents. Each source had general statements about the horse, but few of the statements could be found in any other source.

To begin, the horse is, in most pictures, just a means for transportation. Horses were valued highly amongst the nomadic peoples of China because horses were rare in early China. When Mongolians and Tibetans brought horses into China, the horse became more prominent. In temples, various deities, heroes, and even the Buddha are seen riding horses. If eight horses are seen together, the horses represent the eight horses of King Mu. He is said to have ruled in the tenth century. Outside of temple settings, horses symbolize economic growth and prosperity. Horses seen at the entrance of buildings are usually gold and are used as guardians.

In addition to horses with these meanings, a famous horse exists that appears frequently in temples. The horse is referred to as the Red Hare horse. Existing in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, the horse was famous for battles with different soldiers that aided in protecting China. At first, this horse could not be broken and was not useful because of this. Lü Bu, a young soldier adopted by a warlord, was given the horse. He was able to tame the horse and used him in battle. “Among men, Lü Bu. Among horses, Red Hare,” was a phrase commonly used to describe the great ability the two possessed in battle. When Lü Bu died, the horse was given to a man named Cao Cao who gave it to Guan Yu, another soldier. Guan Yu was an exceptionally successful soldier which elevated him to a deity in the eyes of the Chinese people. Because of his success, he was given his own temples where people could worship him for protecting China. The Red Hare horse is very easily seen in pictures because artists portray the horse in bright reds with Guan Yu riding on his back. In some portrayals, the battle scenes are pictured with Guan Yu and the Red Hare horse as well as their comrades who are pictured riding Qilin like creatures to battle. This eludes to the Red Hare horse’s status of being beyond the natural world and mythological. The pictures of the battle scenes are painted onto the tile walls on both sides of  temples in the examples that can be seen at the end of this blog. 

The horse is a relevant animal in Chinese culture. Though the symbolism is not fluid when discussed in scholarly texts, some similarities do exist. In addition, the Red Hare horse is a famous representation of the horse.

Eberhard, Wolfram. A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought. New York: Routledge, 1986. 79. Print.

Welch, Patricia. Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery. 1st Ed. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2008. Print.

Williams, C.A.S. Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives. 3rd Edition. 1983. Print.

Horses in Traditional Chinese Temples from jpavs

Mulberry Silk Legend

Reading a book entitled Chinese Mythology: An Introduction by author Anne Birrell, I came across a metamorphosis story involving a horse, mulberry trees, and the silkworm. Confusing as it may seem to connect all three topics into one story, I realized through my reading that a myth does exist about all of these collectively. By researching and reading several sources, I realized the story has a few variations but has the same basic message. 

The myth begins with a father and his daughter who own a horse. The father travels far away which causes the daughter to miss him dearly. She jokingly asked the horse one day if he could locate her father and bring him home. In return, she would marry the horse. At once, the horse took to the countryside to find the father. When he brought him back to the house, the daughter was overjoyed but appeared to have forgotten about her promise with the horse. The father eventually noticed that the horse was not eating well and would fidget whenever the daughter was near. Realizing that this was no coincidence, he asked the daughter if she had spoken to the horse. She confessed that she had promised the horse her hand in marriage. The father decided to kill the horse to protect his daughter. The next time the girl left her house, the dead horse rose and wrapped her, transforming her into a silk worm cocoon. The father searched for the daughter but could not find her. Days later, the neighbor noticed the odd cocoon and watched the cocoon transform into what is now known as the mulberry tree. Legend says that every mulberry tree descends from this original tree. 

A few variations exist for this story. First, in some versions of the story, the daughter’s mother replaces the character of the neighbor. The mother may be added in order to establish the family in the story better. In addition, the mother’s role in these versions is to help guide the daughter. Without the mother, the story truly focuses on how lonely and desperate the daughter is alone at home. Her desperation towards the horse is more understandable in a context where she is deeply depressed from feeling abandoned by her father. Another variation is the reason why the father kills the horse. In a few versions, he kills the horse solely to protect his daughter from having to keep her betrothal promise, but in other versions the reason is much more vividly explained. In these versions, the father kills the daughter in fear that she will disgrace the family by marrying an animal. This was added to stories in order to add a moral aspect by saying that marrying an animal was wrong and frowned upon in culture. This is similar to how American children’s stories may focus on lying or stealing as being an immoral act that results in punishment. The father is still trying to protect her but the main focus in these versions is to protect his family’s name. This hints at the importance of an unscathed family name in society at the time. 
The story could have different connotations when told to an adult audience. An interesting interpretation of the story is given through Freudian analysis. In this interpretation, the story is built from adolescent fear and sexual desire. The daughter, therefore, desires the father but is too young to understand the desire. The girl places the father into two counterparts, her father and her horse. Her actual father is perceived as the good and innocent while the family's horse represents the bad and unknown aspect of her desires. When the father chooses to kill the horse, he is essentially killing the bad father. The silkworm and mulberry results of the story would be the fruit of the marriage between the girl and the horse.
Another interesting perspective on the story is the difference between the natural world and the magical world. The fact that audiences listening to the story may have interpreted the story as a true event that had occurred centuries before is telling of the Chinese culture. When analyzing stories in different time periods from the original era of the story, the reader needs to interpret the consciousness level intended for the story and whether the story was meant for the natural or magical world. This story can be interpreted as originating from the magical side of the mind to people in the twenty first century, but people in earlier time periods may not have seen the story in this light. 

The story is essentially an origins legend involving the metamorphosis of a girl into a silkworm and then into a mulberry tree by means of a horse’s skin. Though this may seem odd, the mulberry tree is actually the only food source for silk worms. The silk made from silk worms is a trade asset to China as well as other nations. The horse ties into the story well because horses were the means to transport this product across Asia on the Silk Road. Stories of the origin of some object are generally created in order to incorporate that item into culture as deeply as possible, creating the façade that the item is purely of that culture. The mulberry tree and the silk worms that feed from the tree were an important source of income making the two important objects to incorporate into  Chinese origins. With this knowledge in mind, the story does not seem as random. 

Birrell, Anne.  Chinese Mythology: An Introduction. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1993. Print.

Miller, Alan. "The Woman Who Married a Horse: Five Ways of Looking at a Chinese Folktale." Asian Folklore Studies. 54.2 (1995): 275-305. Print.

Walters, Derek. Chinese Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend. San Francisco: The Aquarian Press, 1992. Print.

Qilin

Virtually unheard of in America, the Qilin is an auspicious creature found in folktales across China. Although a very documented and evident mythical creature within China, the language barrier makes researching the Qilin a difficult task. In addition to the language barrier, spelling differentiation also presented a problem in this research.

To start, I had borrowed a book, Chinese Mythology by Anthony Christie, from the library. While browsing through the index, I found a section entitled “The Miraculous Chhi-lin.” The Chhi-lin is a creature with the body of a deer, an oxen tail, hooves, and a single horn. According to the story, this animal is a symbol of justice. Because of this, the Chhi-lin would only hurt the wrong and never harm those that had goodness in their hearts. The Chhi-lin is said to have the ability to fight but have the restraint to never hurt a living creature.When I attempted to find another source regarding this creature, I found endless dead ends. 

Shortly after, it was brought to my attention that most of the sources I was reading for information were interpretations of Chinese culture brought by visiting cultures. The Chinese pronunciation of the word for Chhi-lin could be phonetically different based on the writing systems of another culture. For example, in Japan the word is spelled and pronounced Kirin. Through this, I found the Qilin is another, more frequently used and more current of a spelling to refer to this creature. Qilin comes from a Pinyin romanization of the word.

Next, I was able to find a few supporting sources to help with my studies. The other sources named the Qilin as a symbol of wisdom and harmony. The creature appeared during the lives of just emperors. In fact, Qilin sitings were helpful to emperors because they acted as evidence that the emperor possessed the Mandate of Heaven. Simply put, the Mandate of Heaven is a philosophy indicating that the ruler was given the right to rule from a divine being. During traditional times, people in China looked towards the Mandate of Heaven as a sign that the ruler is legitimate. The Mandate of Heaven is not as relevant in contemporary society as it was before. Nevertheless, the concept is still used in political criticisms now, even if the Qilin is no longer linked.

This sacred animal also has a strong connotation with fertility. With a direct linkage to various fertility goddesses in Chinese culture, the Qilin’s presence in temples across Xiamen, China indicates that people would look towards depictions of the Qilin to bring children. In China though, fertility has a different meaning than in American culture. A wish for fertility in China is not only for the birth of a child, but for a male child with good morals and the intelligence to bring wealth and success to the family. Therefore, the Qilin inspires good morals and studiousness. Also, another prominent symbolism of the Qilin in more recent culture involves the military. The Late Qing Dynasty, which is the years 1662 to 1911, used the Qilin as the symbol for first grade military officials of the Imperial Court.
The symbolism described above is prominent and well documented. In addition to these meanings, a few stories exist that act as an elaboration on the full story of the Qilin. A myth exists in which the Qilin's horn is burned in order to see the future. In addition, the Qilin was also a confusing figure in China when a traveller brought a giraffe to a Chinese emperor as a gift. Years after this occurred, the image of a Qilin and giraffe were still mixed in historical and cultural records. This is historically and culturally relevant because the giraffe and Qilin became linked by the common word used to name them. The confusion speaks to the idea that the Chinese people had at the time about the Qilin.  

With the new sources and new symbolism came a complicating factor to the myth. A constantly changing society makes a static imagery and symbolic meaning related to the Qilin very hard to find. In Chinese history, each dynasty possesses a different view of the creature. As seen in the pictures attached to the blog, some depictions of the Qilin are consistent with regularly seen depictions that feature the body of a deer, tail of an oxen, horse hooves, and a single horn description. Since late imperial and modern times, images convey the Qilin with a scaly, more dragon-like body. Depictions of the Qilin in the Forbidden City are consistent with this different imagery. In addition, the statues and paintings incorporate imagery that hint to the Qilin’s ability to fly. Pictured with clouds and bursts of air trailing behind the hooves of the Qilin, the imagery suggests that the Qilin is unworldly.

Ultimately, the Qilin is a mythical creature with deep resonance in Chinese culture. In fact, the Qilin can be directly compared to a creature such as the unicorn in American culture. Both are legendary and intertwined in present day culture. In addition, both are creatures that are associated with purity and harmony. With this link in mind, an understanding of the Qilin is easier to grasp. 

The pictures attached to this blog are both examples of the Qilin imagery in temples in Xiamen, China. The first picture is a Qilin with a scaly, dragon type body. The head of the creature is very much like a dragon as well. This Qilin is spitting a book. This story is linked to a myth that before the birth of Confucius, a Qilin appeared spitting up a book.  The book prophesied a man with the ability to be a king would be born but he would not become a king. This symbolically links to fertility because this became attached to the birth of a wise sons. The prayers for fertility, as stated before, are for sons that will grow to be intelligent and prosperous men. The Qilin in the second picture is shown amongst clouds, solidifying the creature's auspicious and mythological labeling.

Christie, Anthony. Chinese Mythology. Verona: Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1968. 130-132. Print.

Duda, Margaret. "Qing Dynasty Silver Qilins." Ornament. 23.1 36-41. Web. 10 Sep. 2012.

Eberhard, Wolfram. A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought. New York: Routledge, 1986. 79. Print.

Jones, Lindsay. "Politics And Religion: Politics And Chinese Religion ." Encyclopedia of Religion. 2nd Edition. 11. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 7266-7270. Print.

Walters, Derek. Chinese Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend. San Francisco: The Aquarian Press, 1992. Print.

Watt, James. "The Giraffe as the Mythical Qilin in Chinese Art: A Painting and a Rank Badge in the Metropolitan Museum." Metropolitan Museum Journal. 43. (2008): 111-115. Print. 

Williams, C.A.S. Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives. 3rd Edition. 1983. Print.

Welch, Patricia. Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery. 1st Ed. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2008. Print.

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.