Aspirations are pinned on the great fish - Kun

China's Auspicious Totem - Zilin Fish Swims Toward the Sea

Fish is one of the earliest creatures that human beings have known and have been with for the longest time. In the primitive society, people lived by the water and grass, and already fished for food. The image of fish has been gradually embedded in the human spiritual realm and has been endowed with many symbols. For example, in the story of "The Wings of the Kunpeng", people put their great ambition on the big fish - Kun; in the story of "The Dragon Gate of the Fish", people put their good luck and good wishes on the carp.

Compared with other animals, fish tend to swim in groups, easier to catch, and "many descendants", endless. People regarded the fish as a good-luck object and hoped that the fish would bless them with endless food and an endless supply of grandchildren. In ancient times, people would paint the polished fish bones with beautiful colors and then wear them as ornaments with thin strings. Perforated and colored supraorbital bones of grass carp have been found at the Zhoukoudian caveman site in Beijing.

Not only that, but people also painted fish motifs on the surface of pottery, which appeared in the Yangshao culture, about 7,000 to 5,000 years ago. One of the more famous ones is the sphinx-fish pattern basin.

From the Book of Songs to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, written accounts of fish can be found everywhere, and Zhuangzi also mentioned fish many times. In Zhuangzi's "Journey to the Promised Land," he writes, "There is a fish in the North Sea whose name is Kun, and I do not know how many thousands of kilometers the size of the Kun is." This big fish in the North Sea in "The Journey to Prosperity". Its body is unknown to be several thousand li long, its spine is like Tarzan, and when its fish slaps the surface of the water, it can stir up waves of three thousand li.

Besides big fish, Zhuang Zi also wrote about small fish. According to Zhuang Zi - Autumn Water, Zhuang Zi looked at the minnow (tiáo) fish in the water and lamented the joy of fish, while his friend Huishi said, "You are not a fish, how do you know the joy of fish?"

Chuang Zi retorted: "You are not me, how do you know I do not know the joy of fish?" Huishi added: "I am not you, so I certainly don't know whether you know the joy of fish; and you are not a fish, so it is obvious that you don't know the joy of fish."

Zhuang Zi added: "Let's start from the beginning, you just asked me how I know the happiness of the fish, which means that you already know that I know the happiness of the fish, and that's why you asked me how I know it, and that I know it on the bridge over the Pu River." In Zhuangzi's writings, both the big fish and the small fish hold subtle philosophical ideas.