He-He er xian

[Steven]

Sharing a bottle, and a new theme we didn't talked about before:)

Collecting themes are really interesting, you can learn lots of the stories from it.

From wikipedia:
He-He er xian (Chinese: 和合二仙; pinyin: Hé-Hé èr xiān, i.e. "Two immortals [named] Hé and Hé"), also known as the "Immortals of Harmony (和) and Union (合)" or "the two spirits of Harmony and Union" are two Taoist immortals. They are popularly associated with a happy marriage.
He and He are typically depicted as boys holding a lotus flower (荷, hé) and a box (盒, hé).

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

I actually learned, through snuff bottle lore, to call them 'the Hehe twins' (in pinyin; 'the Ho Ho twins' in Wade-Giles).
I just thought they symbolised the desire for sons; had no idea they were Daoist Immortals.
Joey

[Steven]

Hi Joey,

You are right about it, They are twin brothers, one called 寒山(han shan) one called 拾得(shi de).

They both love a girl at same time, and when Han shan found out his brother love the girl, he run away and became a Daoist,  when She de found out the Han shan became a Daoist, he left the girl and followed his brother and became a Daoist too.

Steven

[George]

Good stuff, and thanks for sharing Steven !

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Steven,
   I recognise the two characters which make up 'Xian', ren and shan. Man & mountain? Er is 2. I thought twins would be liang (pair?). I don't know if I remember my Chinese studies correctly; I may be wrong. Joey

[Steven]

Hi Joey,

Your chinese is very good:)

Xian(仙) is immortal in English and made up by ren and mountain, er is 2 also same as 两(liang) or 双(shuang) , they all can be used as pair, chinese is a complicated language..)

Steven

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Steven, Thank you.
   Chinese is not a complicated language; it is a sophisticated language. ;-)
Xie Xie Ni, Joey