Peach: fruit of the immortality

In my "Manual of Writing of the Chinese Characters" (1) I support an opinion opposite to that of most of the students of the Chinese characters, and the fact is that, the formation of the characters called pictofonéticos, he answers not only to the composition of the corresponding radical with a phonetic element, but the election of this phonetic element they have a relation with his meaning.

This way we see that the character to write peach, in Chinese, there is formed by the wooden radical and the phonetic component zhao (prediction, prognosis, augury).Ya that this character in the beginning was designating the "cracks of the crust of a turtle exposed to the fire or to the action of a warm instrument (the forms of the cracks were serving for the divination)" (2)

Others exist all the characters that are pronounced the same way "zhao" and that might have served to provide the phonetic tao-peach component, more I am sure that if precisely zhao-prediction was chosen, it is for the religious sense for which the peach has for the Chinese (unless, on having assigned this phonetic component to him, the proper sense was assigned by him religious of zhao, what for the modern student would be the same).

The peaches, present continuously in the poetry and art of China, they evoke in this country the idea of the immortality, there are, therefore, a motive preferred in the paintings and crafts that are given by the birthdays. That is because a legend affirms that the Queen Mother of the West, one of the most powerful deities from the dynasty They Have, it had a garden where the peaches of the immortality were coming to fruition once every 3.000 years, and the one that he ate of the same ones would reach the immortality.

We see this sacred character of the peaches in some of the characters that it forms:

- Taojian, (melocotón+flecha) for example, was as there were called the arrows constructed with wood of peach that were going off in any direction or simply they were placed on the cradle of a child, when it was suspected that some danger was watching him, since it was considered that the peach wood was one powerful antidote against the bad spirits. (3)
- Taofu (peach + I seal) was designating the wooden amulets of peach that were hung of the neck of the children, to prevent the demons from approaching them. (3)
- The same term was used so much for the "lucky charms of wood of peach tree suspended in two sides of the door to expel the villains spirits", as the "parallel phrases given on both sides of the door for New Year." (2). In some regions they are called taoban (peach + stage). Does this do that sometimes they refer on the day of New Year, as of "changing the parallel phrases".-táofúg? ngx? n or táofúhuànjiù.
- Táoliè was a peach wooden broom, used to expel the demons.
- Táorén (melocotón+persona), was a size of a human figure done in wood of peach, which was placed in the door to banish the demons.

- Taohesuo - Was a type of padlock that was joining two feet of the child. The vulgar people believed that this way they were awarding longevity and could protect them from the bad influences.

Also the peach wood was the darling to do the beds of the children, since it was considered that it would provide a happy life to him.

In general it was considered that the peach wood was banishing to the villains spirits. During the dynasty Zhou, already there existed the custom of which when the king, the noblemen, or the tall officials were visiting his domains, they were preceded of a group of wizards and fortune tellers, that armed with wood of peach and canes, to protect them from the bad spirits. (3)

Used both by the Buddhists and by the taoístas, the wood of peach, she was often the only defender who had the people against the bad spirits.

The ubiquitous guards of the doors that cannot be missing in any house, represent, in some regions to two brothers, Shen Shu y Yu Lu, who according to the legends, lived long ago in the Mount Your So, under a peach tree, and it was said that it had to be able on the emaciated spirits, to which they were hunting and beginning to the tigers. (4)

The action of the peach is given him for being a symbol of the spring, low sun which influence is full of flowers before only one sheet opens of his sticks, has therefore more vitality than other trees. For this vitality it banishes to the spirits, and it is related to the immortality.

The vitality of the peach that relates him in spite of banishing the devils, and the power to award the immortality, in his widest sense, was implying not only the individual, but to his lineage, what it converted to the peach into symbol also of the reproduction. The peach is the spring vitality, and in fact, in China, March is the month of the peach, and the spring is evoked by the peach.

Thus there are numerous words that refer to the epoch adapted for the love, the sex or the marriage that they use the character for "peach"
- táohuayùn (peach + flower + luck). That means Good luck or luck in the love.
- táosè (peach + sex), that means illicit love.
- táosè'àn, used for passional crimes.
- yútáo, for masculine homosexuality.

The term that it connects better with two present concepts of the peach in the Chinese mentality is the holiday called Pántáohu ì or Festival of the Flat Peaches (called Paraguayans in Spanish), a holiday that Mother of the West was celebrating the third day of the third lunar month in honor of the Queen. During the same one, the young people was meeting in the forest or to the shore of the rivers, and was starting by singing songs to him to go knowing, going on then to major intimacy, finishing generally in big ritual bacchanals that were relating the fecundity of the ground to that of the women.

As regards the sexual simbología of the peach, Eberhard (5) tells us that the peaches blooming are compared to the healthiness of a young woman, and also to a woman easy to seduce.

The source of the peach trees serves also in Chinese to designate a paradise or a utopia. This caused in a story of writer Tao Qian, of the IVth century of our age, called precisely "The history of the Source of the Peach trees", which Spanish version it is possible to read in my book Shangrilá (6). It tells that a few travelers come to a place where the absolute happiness reigns. In his said work, Eberhard thinks that it is already a Chinese tradition that places the paradise in grounds of the ancestors of the minority Zhuang or of Yao.

The religious role of the peach is demonstrated of numerous forms along the history of China. It cannot be a coincidence that uses in his name another character (zhao), that it designates the most important religious practice in the time in which the characters developed.

(1) - Ceinos, Pedro. - Manual of Writing of the Chinese Characters. Kapok tree, Madrid, 1998-2007.
(2) - Kill you, Fernando, Otegui, Miguel and Arrizabalaga, Ignacio. - Spanish Dictionary of the Language China. Espasa - Calpe-1977
(3) - I gilded, Henry. - Researches on chinese superstitions. Shanghai, 1914
(4) - Williams, C.A.S.-Outlines of chinese Symbolism and art motivate. New York, 1976
(5) - Eberhard, Wolfram. - Chinese Symbols. New York. 1989
(6) - Ceinos Arcones, Pedro. - Shangrilá, trip for the borders Chinese Tibetan. Madrid, 2006

Text and photos: Pedro Ceinos

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