Dear David,
I was once told that there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers. When I was told this, I asked, "What if a person were in a burning house and able to escape easily, and he asked another person if they should escape or wait for the firemen to help them?" The teacher agreed that this would be a stupid question, but more likely, a stupid person, and it might be better if he didn't pass on his 'stupidity' gene!
Anyway, the Christian Bible, with which you may be familiar, is comprised of two collections of books: The Old Testament and The New Testament.
The proper name of the first collection is The Hebrew Bible. It is the Bible given by G-D to the People of Israel, also called the Jewish People (Yutai-ren, in Pinyin).
In the third book of the Hebrew Bible, called 'Leviticus' in Latin and in English (called 'VaYikra' in Hebrew), there are dietary laws Given By G-D to His People Israel. Amongst the many prohibitions are eating pork products or shellfish.
We are permitted to eat mammals with two conditions: they must chew their cud (ie, have two stomachs), and have cloven hooves. A pig has cloven hooves, but doesn't chew it's cud. So it is forbidden. Why, is a bit complicated. The simple answer is that it is because G-D Commanded us.
From the water, we may eat any animal which has scales and fins while alive. Thus, fish such as trout or salmon or seabass is fine, but not shellfish or eels, etc.
Hope this helps. We've been discussing it for almost 3,500 years, so I can expand on it if you'd like...
Best,
Joey
Hi Joey,
That's funny
.
The Jewish people don't eat pork? I hope this don't sound too stupid... why?
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the suggestion, I started to look for impotent bottle catalogue and found a few under 30 so I purchased them. It will be kind of scattered, but I think enough for my current purpose.
There is a photo of a blue/white bowl on page 223 of Hidden Meaning in Chinese Art, by Batholomew. The character for 10,000 (on your left when looking at the picture), looks kind of like the character you posted. It is not exactly the same, but since there are many many ways to write a chinese character, could that be another possibility?
David