European lady Enjoying China, European woman touches young pomegranate, she enjoys shadow while visiting Forbidden City, Beijing
The pomegranate (shiliu 石榴) signifies the sixth month of the lunar calendar and, because of its many seeds, represents fertility, offspring and descendants. For this reason, the pomegranate is an important symbol in Chinese marriages. The first character (shi 石) has the same pronunciation as the word for "generations" (shi 世) and thus strengthens the meaning as generations of descendants. One of the peculiarities of the Chinese language is that it has a very large number of written characters but a much smaller number of spoken sounds. As a result, many Chinese characters share the same pronunciation, are homonyms. The charms of the Ming (1368 - 1644 AD) and Qing (Ch'ing) (1644 - 1911 AD) dynasties, in particular, frequently took advantage of this characteristic. The charms may use depictions of animals, plants and other objects to substitute for other words because of their similarity in pronunciation, even though they may not have any other relationship to what is being expressed. This is what wemean by a hidden or implied meaning or visual pun, and what the Chinese refer to as auspicious or lucky pictures (jixiangtuan 吉祥图 案).
Size: 5669px × 3780px
Location: Forbidden City, Beijing, China,
Photo credit: © Dimar Photo / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: Yes
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