Animal Metaphor for the Kidney: The Chicken 雞
The Chinese Chicken, just as in English, implies both the Rooster and the Hen. This symbology is perfect for the Yin and Yang aspects of the Kidney.
The Hen is symbolic of the Kidney Yin. She sits on her nest through the day, condensing and congealing her Jing to form her egg. This egg looks like the moon. Once the egg is produced, she sits atop it, like the gentle Shaoyin fire, warming it as it transforms itself inside. The Earthly branch for the Kidney, you, 酉, is a picture of a vase used for fermenting and keeping alcohols (medicines) in. The Hen is almost synonymous with this vase, as she ferments this precious egg inside, and keeps it at the perfect temperature once it emerges into the material world.
The Rooster is symbolic of the Kidney Yang. In the morning, he crows at the Sun in a boastful manner. This is representative of the Shaoyin connection between the Kidney and the Heart. This also shows the timely aspect of the Kidney. In response to the Heart, the Kidney wakes the rest of the world up. Through the power and pride that can come from the Zhi, it sounds a loud call in the rest of the body. It is literally in charge of holding the life force, which starts the life up and knows when it is time to retreat for the winter or death.
Like all birds, Chickens have an excellent sense of hearing. While birds hear absolute pitch (not relative), and so cannot recognize a song played in another octave, they do hear timbre. This gives them a great ability to hear and reproduce a wide variety of sounds. They can also recognize a greater number of sounds than human beings. We can hear bytes up to 1/20 of a second long while a bird can hear them as short as 1/200–giving the bird the ability to heard 10 different sounds to each one we can hear. Unlike most other animals, bird ears are very similar to our own, even though they lack the visible part of the ear. Chicken hearing is so phenomenal that Hens communicate with their chicks up to 24 hours before the egg hatches. The Kidney’s orifice is the Ear, and the Chicken is the perfect animal to represent this relationship.
Another key point to note here is that Rooster’s highest level of sexual activity begins around 5pm, which is the beginning of Kidney time. Sexual appetite, as well as fertility, go with the Kidney, and once again the Chicken illustrates this.
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