Color in Chinese culture

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Chinese culture attaches certain values to colors, such as considering some to be auspicious (吉利) or inauspicious (不利). The Chinese word for 'color' is yánsè (顏色). In Literary Chinese, the character 色 more literally corresponds to 'color in the face' or 'emotion'. It was generally used alone and often implied sexual desire or desirability. During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the word yánsè came to mean 'all color'. A Chinese idiom meaning 'multi-colored', Wǔyánliùsè (五顏六色), can also refer to 'colors' in general.

In Chinese mythology, the goddess Nüwa is said to have mended the Heavens after a disaster destroyed the original pillars that held up the skies, using five colored stones in the five auspicious colors to patch up the crumbling heavens, accounting for the many colors that the skies can take on.