Love Is Love

 In GSN's article: Dragon, emperors, and myths: China's Hidden LGBT+ Myths we discover a Rabbit God Tu'er Shen for queer people... Gives plot bunnies a whole new meaning!

I quoted parts of the article.

Rabbit God

"Chinese legend tells us there was a soldier called Hu Tianbao living in Fujian, the province on the southeast coast of China.
He fell in love with a handsome young imperial inspector. But one day the inspector caught Hu Tianbao peeping on him while he was naked.
As a result, the soldier confessed his affections for the inspector. But the young man was angry and ordered Hu Tianbao beaten to death.
However, that wasn’t the end of the story. Underworld officials felt the soldier had been unjustly treated as his crime was one of love. So they sent him back as a young hare or rabbit called Tu Er Shen (literally Rabbit God).
They also gave the Rabbit God a special duty – to oversee love and sex between gay people.
At one time, many people embraced the worship of Tu Er Shen. Male lovers would ask for his favor and if they got the man they wanted, they would thank him by smearing pigs intestine and sugar on the lips of his idol.
Sadly, in later years, officials tried to crack down on this. But Taiwan did open a new temple to the Rabbit God in 2006. And perhaps it worked. Taiwan is the first place in Asia to allow same-sex marriage."

Early emperors and a nice peach

"In today’s age of emojis, many a gay or bi man has wanted to bite into a nice peach. But in ancient China, that had a deeper meaning.
Around 500BC, Duke Ling was the ruler of the state of Wey, before China was unified as one country.
And Duke Ling of Wey was in love with a beautiful man called Mizi Xia. One day, Mizi Xia bit into a peach and found it so delicious he gave the rest of it to Duke Ling to enjoy.
As a result, Mizi Xia’s name became used for any desirable young man and a ‘bitten peach’ became another word for homosexuality.
However, there is a lesson to young courtiers in the story. Duke Ling of Wey was fickle and when Mizi Xia lost his looks, he rejected him. He even used this romantic story against him, saying the courtier had insulted him by giving him a half-eaten peach."


The rest of the article can be found here: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5500726199490619483#editor/target=post;postID=2989031507300361955

Enjoy!

Hugs, Z.