The Tale of the Rainbow

[“Everything Has a Shape; Oracle Bones Can Speak” writing contest] [Classical Chinese] [Rainbow] [Traditional Chinese Culture] [Weather]

The rainbow is male and the lunar rainbow female; they meet when yin and yang come together. So the ancients said.

The cycle begins and ends, the rainbow appears and the rain falls. So people today say.

I have studied the character for “rainbow” and its form in oracle bone script, and found much to ponder. I have also examined its changes over the sexagenary cycle, along with theories of astrology, Daoist texts, and tales of the strange, supplementing them with modern geographical theories. And so I wrote this piece.