What message does Dong Ho painting 'herds of yin-yang pigs' contain?
Referring to folk paintings, Vietnamese people always remember the rustic Dong Ho painting on clear, shining paper, shining with clouds and clouds. But few people know that the message hides the message of peace and prosperity in the family. A typical example in the Dong Ho New Year painting is the 'Herd of Pigs' with yin and yang swirls on her body.
HUYEN SCHOOL • March 5, 2019
The connotation of 'Dong Ho's yin and yang pigs'

In folklore there are many symbolic things and phenomena, and the pig is an image of fertility, growth, prosperity and development. That's why grandparents in the past have a saying: "Rich with dogs, difficult to raise pigs", or: "Women have to raise pigs. The image of a woman with negative properties like Earth, representing the fertility and nurturing of all things, must know how to raise pigs to increase the family's strength, helping the veteran to take care of her prosperous and warm family.

Therefore, folk paintings depicting pigs are often bought and hung in the house on Tet to pray for good luck, prosperity and prosperity to come to homeowners in the new year. through crowded swine herds, but also explain the reason leading to this proliferation, growth. Through it, it reminds people to follow that rule to achieve a peaceful and favorable life.


The picture of Dong Ho's yin and yang pigs. (Photo: Wikipedia)
Everyone knows that the yin-yang vortices on the mother and piglets are the expression of the incessant movement and conversion between Yin and Yang. According to the Yin and Yang theory which was the foundation of the Eastern culture or the tadpoles translation of the ancient Vietnamese people, the universe originally started from nothing, then gave birth to two opposing factors that were still at that time. like in the eggshell called Taiji. Then Taiji split into two yin-yang or separate tadpoles called Mesopotamia. From there, under the interaction, these two concepts, matter or factor give birth to new factors that help create the diversity of life.

Therefore, in ancient knowledge, these two opposite factors that are in balance are the source of the multiplication and development of all beings in the vast universe. Therefore, on the back of the mother and piglets, there are yin and yang vortices representing Lieutenant Nghi.

Each pig has two vortices on the body, but why do two vortexes in the same direction, while a piglet has two vortexes in the same direction, and another one that is in opposite directions?

In the mother pig, it can be seen that each vortex is composed of a warm color and a cool color, so the cold color vortex represents negative, swirl clockwise, or rotate the convex to the right. Hot swirls represent positive, swirl counterclockwise, or rotate the convex to the left. According to the sentence "male left female right" from the theory of yin and yang, it also means that the right represents negative, and the left is positive. Thus, the color and direction of rotation of the two halves both gives the result that the blue half is negative and the red or yellow half is positive.

The clockwise rotation on the mother pig's body is equivalent to the symbol ")" (the right crescent crescent in the tadpole fluid), so it can be said that it is in a negative state. Moreover, the vortex in the bottom of the mother pig's buttocks is also obscured by the half-yang, so the yin is superior to the yang. So, of course the mother pig is negative, like female.

In the year of the piglets, the vortices are not the same, some have two vortices that rotate in the same direction, there are two vortices that rotate in opposite directions, there is a celestial, there is a celestial ... Thus, vortices also have "Inherited" like the X, Y chromosome on DNA, so it will take part from the mother, partly from the father. That is why pigs have two vortices and opposites.

In Dong Ho painting, this picture of yin and yang pigs has two versions. And these two versions are opposite, symmetrical with each other. So in another version, the mother pig will carry two vortices that tend to be positive, or can it be understood that it is the father pig?


Reflected version of the mother of the pig image. (Photo: baomoi)
Whatever the real meaning behind the complexity manifested in the rotation, color, and combination of these yin and yang vortices, on the superficial side, it can be understood that the father wanted to assert a Basic cultural background of many civilizations. That in every being, things have yin and yang existence, but there will be a certain inclination to form the difference in its form, nature as well as its nature in this universe. The movement of the yin and yang must advance to balance and flexibility to give birth to a life following the religion of the Heaven and Earth. Yin and yang intersect, biochemistry of all things, infinite multiplication of things.

The source of joy, happiness, and peace

There can be no combination in which pure yin (only yin) or pure yang (yang only) can bring balance and good development. So a family, which is also a yin-yang union between the wife and the husband, must reach a balance of mutual support while maintaining the celestial, celestial or divine character . The womanAlthough the female has both yin and yang elements, she is heavenly sound, the symbol is Earth, the nest, the crescent moon shape sagging in the tadpole language on Dong Son bronze drums. The man, by contrast, is symbolized by Heaven, the dome, the sagging crescent moon.

Therefore a woman needs to be like Earth, gentle, nurturing, and nurturing into all things. A man needs to be like Heaven, righteous, tall, protecting all things. Each person who properly performs his or her function will make the family situation always harmonious, the energy is always positive, which will all be a good environment for happiness to grow and develop.

The seemingly opposite characteristics and qualities of the Earth and Heaven, in fact, are based on carefree and selflessness that do not require recognition or reciprocity. The land does not require anything but still nurtures plants, flowers, birds, animals. God doesn't have any conditions but it still allows cool air, rain, and sun. It is the divine favor, the giving without pursuit.

Being a wife or husband cannot swap positions deviated from heaven with a just and equal argument. But in fact, it requires fairness when not based on the divine nature, the physiological structure, the nature of each being is an injustice.

Families in which the wife is aggressive, louder than her husband, does not care for her family, or the husband is impoverished, indolent, and depressed, all are an unbalanced, peaceful, harmonious environment. for the arising of good things.