Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Since the Western Han Dynasty (202 BCE-8 CE), ancient Chinese people have created a mode of describing the moon in paintings: a circle with a symbolic creature inside. In ancient Chinese murals, the circle was used to represent all kinds of celestial bodies like stars, the sun and the moon. Usually, the sun is presented as a red circle with a three footed crow inside. Different from the changeless image of sun, the symbol in the image of moon changed a lot. At the beginning, there was a toad painted in the moon. Later cherry bay tree, rabbit and the Chinese character of the moon were used to represent the moon. This study examines the changing symbols of the moon, and discovers that the choice of the symbols resonates with the most popular imagination about the moon at that time. It also relates to the function of the image in a certain society. The symbol in the moon image indicated the desire of the society. Ethnicity, religion and culture of society may have influenced the choices. To understand the relationship between the selected symbol and the meaning of the whole image, this study examines how those symbols of the moon were made, chosen and accepted in different societies. This helps to explain why there were many different symbols used to symbolize the moon, though almost the same basic mode were never adopted by different societies.