Pearls And The Romantic Moon In Chinese Culture

Since the first pearl was found, people take pearls as lucky, completion, happiness, wealth and rank. There are also many romantic legends about pearls talked by people from generation to generation.

In Chinese most popularized legends, pearls have something with the moon. It is said that pearls are formed because of the moon. The knowledge of pearls' history always included numerous remote and ethereal stories, which are the combinations of the true and false, beauty and ugliness, as well as some wealth, right and love.

The beauty of the moon are believed as the most important element in the formation of a pearl in Chinese culture. As some classical literature says, the mussel, the mother of the pearl, will open to absorb the light and the spirit of the moon in the night of the full day. After a proper accumulation over a long period, a beautiful pearl was born. In this way, the size, roundness and the luster have something with the moonlight that a mussel absorbed.

Pearls In Art And Literature

The formation of pearls is a unique phenomenon of mother nature--not only for their origins, created by certain mollusks in the ocean and accessible only in deep-sea, but for their unusual, beautiful luster, their pale color, and their roundness. All of these have contributed to the enduring public fascination with pearls.

Pearls have been celebrated in Western art and literature since they were first brought from the East, many believe by Alexander the Great between 334 and 330 B.C. The Pearl examines the various myths associated with pearls, including the belief that they had medicinal or talismanic powers; the response of the Church to the wearing of pearls and the symbolism of pearls in Christianity; and the various literary references to them.

Myths and legends of pearls in China are always have something with the moon. The first pearl was born because of the moon; one of the four beauties in Chinese history, Xi Shi was born from a big beautiful pearl of the goddess of the moon, Chang Er.