Peach Wood: the wood with demon-averting power

Peach wood is the wood of the peach tree. In the tradition of China, this wood is credited with a special, demon-averting power.

The peach tree holds a high rank in Chinese culture. The peach blossom, the peach fruit and the peach wood each carry their own favourable meaning.

The wood of the tree is associated above all with an averting meaning. Peach wood was regarded as suitable for driving away harmful spirits and misfortune.

From this notion arose a series of protective objects made of peach wood. Wooden plaques, carvings, small swords and amulets were fashioned from the wood.

In religious studies, peach wood is a good example of a means of protection that lies in a material itself. It is not an image or a sign, but the material that is held to be effective here.

This page presents peach wood as a means of protection. It describes its meaning, the objects made from it and its use, and places it within the protective tradition of China.

To understand peach wood, one must know the standing of the peach tree in Chinese culture. This tree is connected with many favourable meanings.

The peach blossom is a sign of spring and renewal. It blooms early in the year and is regarded as an image of new life.

The peach fruit is above all a sign of long life. In Chinese tradition there are tales of peaches that grant an extraordinarily long life.

These tales connect the peach with a heavenly world. According to a well-known tradition, peaches grow in a heavenly garden that ripen only rarely and to which a special power is attributed.

In the Chinese conception, the peach tree thus carries within it a connection to the world of higher powers and of long life. It is no ordinary tree.

The high standing of the tree also explains the meaning of its wood. A tree that is connected with long life and with the heavenly world yields a wood to which a power of its own is attributed.

Peach wood is credited above all with a demon-averting power. This notion is old and widely attested in China.

According to this notion, harmful spirits shun peach wood. An object made of this wood can drive them away or keep them away from a place.

There are various accounts of the origin of this notion. A widespread tale connects peach wood with two spirit guardians and with a peach tree beneath which harmful spirits were guarded and rendered harmless.

Such tales explain why it was precisely peach wood to which the averting power was attributed. The wood became associated with the guarding and the subduing of harmful spirits.

An honest account notes that the precise origin of this notion cannot be determined unambiguously. Several traditions and conceptions have flowed together here over a long period.

What remained the same over time is the basic notion. Peach wood was regarded as a material before which misfortune and harmful spirits give way, and on this notion rest all protective objects made of peach wood.

One important use of peach wood was the wooden plaques. From the wood, plaques were made that were mounted on the front door.

These peach-wood plaques were hung on both sides of the door. They were intended to keep harmful spirits away from the threshold and to protect the house.

Often the plaques bore an inscription. On them were written the names or the images of spirit guardians meant to strengthen the protection of the door.

These inscribed peach-wood plaques belong to the prehistory of a custom that is still alive today. From them developed the scroll strips with auspicious verses that are mounted on the door at the New Year.

Peach wood thus reveals a piece of cultural history. From the old protective plaques of peach wood there came, over time, the familiar door decoration of the Chinese New Year.

The wooden plaques are therefore a particularly consequential use of peach wood. In them, the protection of the threshold combines with the demon-averting power of the wood.

Beyond the wooden plaques, a series of further protective objects was made from peach wood. Common to all of them is the averting power of the wood.

The sword of peach wood is well known. It is not a real weapon, but a sword made of wood that was used in Daoist practice as a tool for warding off spirits.

Two averting powers combine in this peach-wood sword. The form of the sword stands for warding off, and the wood of the peach tree adds its own demon-averting power.

Carvings, too, were made from peach wood. Small carved figures, pendants and ornamental pieces of the wood carried the averting power in a handy form.

Often amulets were carved from peach wood and worn on the body. Such peach-wood amulets were used especially for children, who were regarded as vulnerable.

The same notion is at work in all these objects. The wood itself carries the protective power, and depending on the form, as a sword, as a figure or as an amulet, this power is directed at a place or a person.

Peach wood follows a working principle of its own. Unlike a talisman or a protective image, it does not act through a sign, but through the material itself.

With a written talisman, the power lies in the signs. With a protective image, it lies in the image. With peach wood, by contrast, the power lies in the material, in the wood of the peach tree.

This means that the plain peach wood is already held to be protective, even without inscription and without image. A simple piece of the wood carries, according to this notion, the averting power within it.

Often, however, this power of the material is combined with further means. A peach-wood plaque can additionally be inscribed, a peach-wood figure artfully fashioned.

In such cases, two things work together. The power of the material and the power of the sign or the form reinforce one another.

Peach wood is thus a good example of a means of protection whose power lies in the material. It shows that, according to a widespread notion, not only signs and images but also certain materials can be held to be protective.

Peach wood has a firm place in the Daoist tradition. Religious Daoism took up the old notion of the power of the wood and incorporated it into its practice.

In the Daoist practice of warding off spirits, peach wood was used in manifold ways. The peach-wood sword is the best-known example of this.

Other tools of Daoist practice could also be made of peach wood. The wood was regarded as a suitable material for objects that served to ward off harmful spirits.

Peach wood thus takes its place in the series of Daoist means of protection. Alongside the Fu talisman, the coin sword and the bagua mirror, it belongs to the means of warding off spirits.

Within this series, peach wood holds a place of its own. It is not a sign and not a particular form, but a material from which various protective objects can be made.

Peach wood thus shows how the Daoist tradition took up and elaborated old notions. From the widespread notion of the power of the wood, a firm component of Daoist protective practice arose.

Peach wood can be viewed in a larger context. The notion that certain materials carry a protective power is widespread across many cultures.

Numerous cultures attribute a protective or averting power to certain woods, metals or stones. The material itself is then held to be effective, regardless of the form into which it is brought.

Often it is the woods of certain trees to which such a power is attributed. The tree in question is then usually connected with a high meaning of its own.

Peach wood belongs to this group. It is the wood of a tree that in China is connected with long life and with the heavenly world, and its power derives from this connection.

What is special about peach wood is its close binding to the rich meaning of the peach tree. The blossom, fruit and wood of this tree each carry their own favourable or protective meaning.

Peach wood is thus the Chinese form of a widespread idea. It shows how a highly esteemed tree yields a wood to which a protective power, intelligible across cultures, is attributed.

Peach wood is connected with the notion of warding off spirits down to the present day. In China and in the Chinese communities, this notion is still familiar.

Objects made of peach wood, pendants, carved figures and small swords continue to be made and used. They belong to the body of Chinese protective practice.

Peach wood has left a particularly consequential trace in festive culture. From the old peach-wood plaques came the scroll strips that are mounted on the doors at the New Year today.

For religious studies, peach wood is an instructive subject. It shows how a protective power is attributed to a particular material and how lasting customs can develop from this notion.

A factual account names peach wood as what it is, the wood of a highly esteemed tree to which the Chinese tradition attributes a demon-averting power.

Peach wood is thus a striking example of a Chinese means of protection. In it combine the high meaning of the peach tree, the belief in the power of the material, and the many objects that were made from this wood for protection.