The second characteristic, which has marked Chinese symbolism since this era, consists in the adherence of the society to the earth, the arable soil; and in the feminine connotation of the soil. The soil is the fertile earth, and the earth where the mother gives birth. Vital, living, life-giving, mother and earth are identical for this society that lives on grain, is bound to the soil, and dependent on the seasonal cycles of plants, animals, human beings, climate. But the soil, by metonymy, also connotes coupling: games, engagements, the marriage of the young. The place becomes 'holy' because it is identified with the mother; and, at the same time, with the genitality of rival groups. In China, there are no initiation mysteries: they are replaced by the hierogamic celebration which gives the place its meaning. By celebrating a holy place, one thus celebrates a mothering earth; perhaps not even an all powerful mother, but the very principle of genitality: this alternation of war and union between the sexes. No Father, no unifying Word. A Mother: the Ancestress and a place of sexual jousting represent the logic and the cohesion of the society. reading about the dances and the legends of ancient China, one can't help but be struck by an imagination totally oriented toward the genital act. ...
