Gourd fields forever

Growing double gourds is simple. You grow them by directly sowing seeds. That seems to be the case in this plaque. Seeds in the form of dots are sprinkled all over the green and yellow fields.

Those fields also took on the shape of a gourd: one yellow, one green. From the Chinese to the Manchu side, we are witnessing the summer taking over from the spring, yellow over green. This places the abstinence plaque around the summer solstice sacrifices.

Summer was a feared season. Mosquitos and foul vapours would spread sickness and death throughout the empire. Summer solstice, therefore, was a time when one prayed and sacrificed for the support of the state's magical medicine man: Iron Crutch Li.

A bottle-gourd made of paper is hung up at the gateway into the house. This is a symbol of Li Tie-guai, one of the eight Immortals.