Alternatively, browse terms in alphabetical order according to their Chinese Pinyin 汉语拼音
Image of the Five Principal Human Relations (Wu Lun Tu 五伦图), also known as Lun Xu Tu 伦叙图 (Epitome of Hierarchical Social Order), symbolises the five basic relationships in traditional Chinese society. This design typically consists of five kinds of …
‘Xuan 萱’ comes from ‘xuan cao 萱草’, the Chinese name for ‘lily’. In traditional Chinese decorative arts, lily flowers symbolise motherhood and maternal bonds with children, and they figure prominently on articles created for mothers, expecting or being a birthday …
How the daylily, whose Chinese name is ‘xuan 萱’, came to become a symbol for motherhood in Chinese culture is explained in the blog ‘Cultural Differences in the Symbolic Meaning of Lily’. The daylily can be combined with butterflies to …
The motif of Yi Ba Lian 一把莲 is also called ‘yi shu lian’ (一束莲). It is presented as ‘a ribbon-tied bouquet of lotus in bud, full bloom, and seed pods accompanied by leaves, with or without some other water plants …
A fish is an ancient symbol of material prosperity and fertility in China, both because it puns with another word yu 余 meaning ‘abundance’, and because of the huge quantities of fish in Chinese lakes and rivers. In some parts …
Ordinary fish in the pond was hoped by ancient Chinese people to turn into a vigorous and powerful dragon flying in the sky. It can be traced back to as early as Song dynasty in Chinese literature for children or …
The flower of the annual herbaceous species Papaver rhoeas has many different names in the West, such as common poppy, corn poppy, corn rose, field poppy, Flanders poppy, and red poppy. One of its names in China is yumeiren (虞美人), …
The zhi pheasant 雉, also called Huachong 华虫 in ancient China, is one of the most popular birds depicted in traditional Chinese art. Due to its characteristic multicoloured long-tail, the pheasant is associated with the wide-ranging literary talents of the …
In the current form of the character 竹 zhu, the image of two bamboo stems side by side is still clear. Other ancient forms of the character show the pair gently bending toward one another, illustrating the flexibility of this …