A:TLA Annotations

Zuko’s Ancestors: Remaining Portraits

-I will call them Fire Lord Left and Fire Lord Right, since they have no canon names-

Timeline:

Fire Lord Left > Fire Lord Right > Sozin > Azulon > Ozai > Zuko> Honoria

Image source: One, two

Fire Lord Left

He is blessing the world with fire, but not, if Sozin is to be believed, in Ozai’s way. Remember how Sozin claimed the Fire Nation was prosperous in/before his time, economically and culturally.

What is more interesting about that portrait are the flowers. I cannot decide if they are supposed to lotus or peonies.

As discussed many times before, lotus stands for enlightenment and that would fit well with what Sozin said. The bud of the flower could well be a lotus, but if you take a closer look at the leaves, they do not match. Lotuses have big, round, single leaves, the flower depicted does not, it’s leaves are small and branch off.

Which lead me to think it might well be a different auspicious flower: The peony.

When stylized the lotus bud and the peony bud can look rather similar, but when you compare the leaves, you will note that the ones of the peony look more similar to the ones shown on the portrait than the lotus leaves.

Now, what would it mean if said flowers were peonies:

The tree peony or mudan (牡丹) signifies the third month of the lunar calendar and symbolizes longevity, loyalty, happiness and eternal beauty.
Because of the way it sometimes grows as doubles, the peony appears to the Chinese like strings of cash coins and thus has come to symbolize prosperity and wealth.
For this reason, another name for the peony is fuguihua (富贵花) which means “flower of wealth and honor”.

Longevity, loyalty, happiness, honor and wealth. All of these do fit well with what we know from Sozin about the past.

Here comes the funny part, though. The peony also has a distinct meaning in fengshui.

(The peony is) One of the most sensual flowers with a delicious scent, the peony has long been used in feng shui as a cure for love & romance. This especially applies to a couple of pink peonies.The symbol of peony is often considered a metaphor for female beauty.

The flowers we see are in fact in couples, and pink. Which makes me wonder if the artist tried to imply that Fire Lord Left was very much in touch with his feminine side. After all, it seems to run in the family, isn’t that so, Phoenix* King Ozai…

*Phoenixes are female, dragons are male

Fire Lord Right

The interesting thing about Fire Lord Right is how he is holding both, the flames of the Fire Nation and the Sun, Moon and Stars of the Watertribes.

The hand holding the Sun, Moon and Stars, is shown in the mudra of blessing, which implies a benevolent, close relationship with at least one of the Watertribes, this, in combination with the clouds is making me wonder if this implies a marriage.

Further, Fire Lord Right is standing on clouds:

Clouds, sometimes referred to as “auspicious clouds” (xiangyun 祥云), represent the heavens and also “good luck” because the Chinese word for cloud (yun 云) is pronounced the same as yun (运) meaning “luck” or “fortune”.
Its form often resembles the auspicious shape of the lingzhi “fungus of immortality”.
The cloud is a commonly seen design and when repeated in a pattern symbolizes never-ending fortune.

Greetings and showing of respect in the Avatar Universe

The atla universe uses several traditional Chinese greetings.

The Fire Nation style greeting shown in the atla pictures above closely resembles the greeting known as Bao Quan 抱拳 i.e. the Chinese martial arts style greeting.

The way Azuala’s soldiers greet her on the ship is known as a kowtow i.e. a show of respect reserved for high officials, nobility, royalty and religious practice.

Neither Bao Quan nor Gong Shou are done in Japan. They are uniquely Chinese greetings.

Gong Shou 拱手

Gong Shou is a common traditional practice of greeting among the chinese, notably during the traditional chinese festival such as Chinese New Year, marriage ceremony, between neighbours, friends, colleagues etc. It is polite way of representing respect, blessing and wishes. It is also practised when saying goodbye.To practise such greeting, the common way is to stand up with your upper body fully upright, extend your two elbows, then wrap your two hands/fists together as one in front of your chest (usually the left fist will be clenched, while the right palm will wrap the left fist). After wrapping the fist together, just shake the together up/down many times. (You will probably see this common practice in chinese kungfu movie or historical drama series).

Gong Shou is usually accompanied by traditional chinese greeting words such as “Gong Xi Gong Xi 恭喜,恭喜” (Congratulations! Congratulations! )，"Jiu Yang Jiu Yang 久仰、久仰" (Long Time No See)，"Qing Duo Duo Guan Zhao 请多多关照" (Please take good care) ，"Jie Ri Guai Le 节日快乐" (Happy Festival) ，"Hou Hui You Qi 后会有期" (see you later and in the future).

Martial Arts Greeting Bao Quan 抱拳

This is a common etiquette in Chinese Martial Arts. The etiquette is known “Bao Quan Li 抱拳礼” (literally translated as “Fist Wrapping Rite”. You will see this in Chinese Kungfu movie or in chinese martial arts sparring.

The common practice is as follow:

Stand Upright with the body straight. Clench your right fist. Straighten your left palm to have 4 fingers in plane, and your left thumb slightly bend. Wrap your two hands together (the left palm over the right clenched fist). Placed the two hands in front of your chest, but making sure that your two eldows do not come up.

There are philosophical martial arts meaning about this practice: The left palm (with 4 fingers) symbolizes Virtue, Wisdom, Health, Art, which are also called the “4 nurturing elements”, symbolizing the spirit of Martial arts. The left thumb is slightly bent to mean that one should not be arrogant or always attempt to be no.1 . The right fist symbolizes rigorous practice. Since the right fist is clenched, it means a form of ‘attack’ but with the left palm wrapping it, it means “discipline” and 'restraint/control in order not to abuse the martial practice".

Another explanation is that the left hand symbolizes the “5 lakes 五湖” while the right fist clenched symbolzies “4 sea 四海”). When the left hand is placed onto the right hand, it means that “people in the 5 lakes and 4 seas are all brothers” (五湖四海皆兄弟). It’s a practice to respect and prevent fightings among the different martial groups in the past.

Bowing (also known as “Ketou 磕头” or Kowtow)

Bowing was a form of ancient chinese practice when a commoner or an official greet an emperor. It was also practised when a commoner greet an official (such as magistrate or someone in the chinese bureaucracy). The common practice was to kneel down on the floor, and then bow with heads touching the ground and two hands landing on the floor.

Such practice was largely abandoned after Chinese imperialism ended in 1911. Today, chinese rarely bow, although it can be quite common 'knock the head’ as a form of slight bowing in greeting.

Kowtoy (bowing) is only practised today in Chinese religious ceremony/rituals such as ancestor worship, daoist ceremony, buddhist paying homage to the Buddha etc. The 90 degree bowing is however practised in Japanese culture.

Sources: One, two, three, four, five

Moon symbolism in Northern Water Tribe Architecture

Unsurprisingly the architecture features a lot of moon elements. Aside from the obvious moon paintings and carvings on the boats, walls and totems, the architecture also includes moon gates 月亮门 yue liang men.

A Moon Gate 月亮门 is a circular opening in a garden wall that acts as a pedestrian passageway, and a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens. Moon Gates have many different spiritual meanings for every piece of tile on the gate and on the shape of it. The sloping roofs of the gate represent the half moon of the Chinese Summers and the tips of the tiles of the roof have talisman on the ends of them.

That the moon was chosen as a symbol for the Water Tribes was not accidental, and goes beyond the obvious tides parallel. Michael Dante DiMartino
Bryan Konietzko have created a Sino-centric world, the underlying Chinese cultural base mixed and supplemented by Inuit, Native American, Thai, Korean and Japanese influences in different places. It is always there, sometimes stronger sometimes weaker.

What am I getting at with the moon:

Uncle Iroh says: Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribes are capable of adapting to many things. They have a sense of community and love that holds them together through anything.

In Chinese symbolism the moon’s roundness symbolizes family and unity.

The full moon is traditionally a symbol for reunion, tuanyuan, as yuan means round. The Chinese people celebrate by coming together as families to eat, drink and be merry.

Tui 推 and La 拉 i.e. Push and Pull are shown resembling the Yin and Yang symbol.

The concept of yin yang 阴阳  is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn. e.g. dark and light, female and male, low and high, etc. are thought of as manifestations of yin and yang (respectively).

Yin yang are not opposing forces (dualities), but complementary opposites that interact within a greater whole, as part of a dynamic system. Everything has both yin and yang aspects as light cannot exist without darkness and vice-versa, but either of these aspects may manifest more strongly in particular objects, and may ebb or flow over time.

Tui, the white fish with the black moon on his head also symbolizes Yang, the male force of yin-yang.

But Yue is a girl, how can she be part of the moon if the moon spirit is male?

Because Yin-Yang is about opposites. If they were both male or both female they could not form a greater whole.

Yue 月 means moon btw.

Image sources: One, two,