Chinese cultures have passed on for thousands of years, and goldfish have been recorded for nearly two thousand years. A report from the Jin Dynasty described "red fish" swimming in the Red River. Goldfish were widely mentioned in the Tang Dynasty poems.
During the Song Dynasty, a ruler built a pool in Hangzhou to raise goldfish. However, owning yellow goldfish was not allowed because that color was thought to be a sign of the king. Common people were forced to raise orange ones, which is probably why that color is more common today.
The goldfish bowls allowed more people to keep goldfish and interested people in raising more beautiful kinds such as the "lion head" that could not live outdoors. Goldfish traveled to Japan in 1502, Europe in 1611, and the United States in the early 1,800s.
Chinese has many homophones(同音异形异义词), and these homophones connect images of objects with special good wishes that sound the same. The Chinese word for "fish" is a homophone of the word for "more", so fish express wishes for "owning more". The goldfish, however, also has the word for "gold", so goldfish images express wishes for "owning more wealth".
Even in Hong Kong, there is a busy goldfish market to meet the modern requirement of the fish of wealth and good wishes.
A. It marked the time when people began to raise them. B. They were collected in the pool by rich people at that time. C. So you see how popular raising goldfish was around the world. D. Goldfish competitions, which began in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty, continue in China. E. Chinese people have expressed good wishes through images(形象) of animals, plants and other objects. F. Until the invention of the goldfish bowl in the Ming Dynasty, goldfish were always seen to live outdoors in pools. |
