Fish 鱼

Fishes were a major source of food for the river-dwelling Chinese in Neolithic times: fishing implements and discarded carp bones were found at excavation sites dated to 5000 to 4000 BCE. Their cultural significance is attested by fish motives painted on pottery from the same time, Lindqvist* remarks that fish was then probably a totem animal or fertility symbol.

The early form of the character for fish appears prolifically on the ‘oracle bones’ and bronze inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BCE), for example:

While I do not know in which connection fish appeared on these old scripts, Carr’s* discussion on fish during the Warring States period suggests that fish was then regarded as suitable for ancestral sacrifices, which I presume means that it was highly regarded, as ‘food for the ancestors’.  

This high regard for fish, and for carp in particular, has been preserved into contemporary times. Today, images of carps are displayed on Chinese New Year because they are believed to convey wealth,  due to the similarity between the words/characters for fish  ‘鱼’, and for abundance or surplus  ‘余’, which are both pronounced ‘yú’ (this kind of correlation between similar-sounding words is quite common in Chinese).

Regarding fish as a symbol of wealth, Eberhard* says that “even in the very oldest Chinese literature we find the belief attested that an abundance of fish in the waters foretold a good harvest.”

* References:

Lindqvist, C. 2008. China: Empire Of The Written Symbol. Cambridge: DeCapo Press, pp. 71-2.

Eberhard, W. 1983. A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols. London and New York: Routledge, p. 35.

Carr, Michael. 1993. ‘Tiao-Fish through Chinese Dictionaries’. In Sino-Platonic Papers. Online. Accessed on 13 ‎April ‎2012, available at sino-platonic.org/complete/spp040_chinese_lexicography.pdf