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In China, the calabash, or "bottle-gourd" plant, has long been used as a food and medicine, and its hard shell as a bottle, a dipper and even an ancient musical instrument. Gourds have traditionally been used to
carry medicine, wine and "magic" Old Chinese gourd charmelixirs.Gourds were also tied to the backs of children and boat people to serve as life preservers.
The gourd was considered to have a magical power to protect Chinese children from smallpox. The custom was for parents, on the last night of the year, to hang a gourd shell near where a child who had not yet had smallpox slept. It was believed that the god of smallpox and measles would "empty" the smallpox into the gourd shell instead of the child if there was one nearby. Should the child happen to come down with smallpox in the future, it was believed that the illness would be less severe if the parents followed this custom.
Also, in ancient times, old men would frequently be seen carrying gourds on their backs. Gourds, therefore, gradually became associated with old age and charms, such as the one pictured below, took on the gourd-shape to signify longevity.
In Daoism (Taoism), the gourd shape is taken to represent heaven and earth with an extended meaning representing the entire universe.
Within the gourd there is a mystical zone in the form of an alternate universe or the entrance to another world, and Daoist immortals and practitioners can travel between these two worlds.
Because of this association, the bottle gourd has long been a Chinese symbol of self-containment and self-sufficiency. Old Chinese fables sometimes describe a person accidentally coming upon a small, narrow opening in the mountains and entering into a mystical or fairy world where people enjoy peace and long and happy lives.
The gourd is also the Taoist (Daoist) symbol of alchemy. It was believed that the "elixir of immortality" could be produced through the distilling of red cinnabar placed in the upper chamber of the gourd and mercury placed in the lower chamber. The "marriage" of these two substances was a sexual metaphor for the union of semen and menstrual blood to create life.
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