Species of clam named after Venus, the Roman goddess of desire, sex, love, beauty, and fertility. Species of clam that when closed, the clamshell strongly resembles a pair of no-longer-integrated feet juxtaposed symmetrically. Known to survive over 500 years, LONG-LIVED. The foot of the clam is a delicacy in Japan and China, eaten raw. Naturally, these clams are also used as fish bait. The clam, similar to Chinese service providers, has limited locomotion in that it is able to burrow via use of its muscular foot. However, they are generally sedentary if left undisturbed. Symbolizes long life, dedicated service, and a matched pair since each side of the shell are often nearly symmetrical, not unlike the most desired and the most expensive no-longer-integrated feet in China. Venus clams are traditionally eaten in Japan on March 3, the Hina-matsuri (literally,「chick fodder festival」) that in China, where it originated, celebrated initiates of foot-dis-integrating, often girls aged younger than 7 years. However in Japan, symmetrically pulverizing the bones in both feet of little girls never caught on like it did in dynastic China, so the matched pair concept in Japan was adapted to be the hope for a long marriage with a fitting partner, it is now claimed.
Always keep in mind that these glyphs most likely were originally designed by groups of clever old men as vulgar riddles for their own entertainment
(see 籒 for that),
representing Chinese society many thousands of years ago, but intended NOT as a written or spoken language when created.
If these glyphs had been intended for language use, the sages could not have possibly designed a worse system!
Is it truly possible that all these glyphs started out as off-color jokes and puzzles?
Yes! It is, and often with multiple correct answers to each riddle, the same as is true today.
Sex had no shame in ancient China.
Why would it?
But, have there been necessary rewrites and altered explanations of the original elemental meanings over the centuries?
No one is suggesting these glyphs depict contemporary life in China, Japan, or anywhere else.
This site describes glyph meanings, not people.
These glyphs however, describe many and various things, including people, long before there were any notions of becoming politically incorrect.
The question to be answered is, should these glyphs continue being used, by anyone, anywhere, for expressing language?
(More...)
Despite how seemingly bad our human existence is today, do you actually believe that the so-called good old days were any better?
Or could they have been worse?
By the way, with a limited number of the same elements used by the sages again and again to form these glyphs,
you should expect to find the same explanations again and again, as tedious as that may become, and as an inherent trait of any lexicon.
This site explains multiple meanings of glyphs ignored or censored by other sources, generally as being too embarrassing to admit today.
