Fish in Chinese mythology

Fish are an important motif in Chinese mythology. There are various myths involving fish. Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China. The geographic area of "China" is of course a concept which has evolved of changed through history. Fish in Chinese mythology include myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other officially recognized 56 minority ethnic groups in China. The Chinese word for "fish", yu, is a homophone for "abundance", "plenty", and "affluence" (yu 餘); therefore, fishes are a symbol of wealth. The Chinese dragon is the head of the fish clan. The act of fishing is also an important motif in Chinese mythology and culture.
Fishes are a symbol of wealth in Chinese culture. The Chinese character for fish is yu (traditional Chinese: 魚; simplified Chinese: 鱼; pinyin: yú). It is pronounced with a different tone in modern Chinese, 裕 (yù) means "abundance". Alternatively, 餘, meaning "over, more than", is a true homophone, so the common Chinese New Year greeting appears as 年年有魚 or 年年有餘. Due to the homophony, "fish" mythically becomes equated with "abundance".
Jinyu (金鱼) is a homophone for "gold in abundance"; therefore, they are perceived as suitable gifts for wedding. Jinyu is also an homophone of gold (jin 金) and jade (yu 玉), which are both indicators of wealth.
The word carp in Chinese is li (鲤) which is an homophone for advantage (li 利); therefore, carps are used to express wishes for benefits or advantage in business. Its association with wealth mostly likely comes from the pun liyu (利餘), liyu (鯉魚) also means carp. Li is also an homophone for the character li (力) which means strength, power, and ability.
There is a tale dating in the 1st century BC about a giant fish which swallowed a boat.
Some tales involved drunk men turning into fishes. There are also tales involving fish-demons (drunk men transformed into fishes) which could sometimes marry women.
Other tales involved fishes turning into birds.
Carp (traditional Chinese: 鯉; simplified Chinese: 鲤; pinyin: lǐ) can be transformations of dragons or carp can sometimes change into dragons. According to tradition, a carp that could swim upstream and then leap the falls of the Yellow River at the Dragon Gate (Longmen 龍門) would be transformed into a dragon: this motif symbolizes success in the civil service examinations. This is the Dragon Gate at the border of Shanxi and Shaanxi where the Yellow River flows through a cleft in the Longmen mountains, supposedly made by Yu the Great, who cut through the mountain. According to one account, all the carp competed at a yearly competition to leap the Longmen falls; those who succeeded were immediately transformed into dragons and flew off into the sky. Pictures of carp attempting to leap the Longmen falls have been enduringly popular in China. There are other Dragon Gates in the rivers of China, typically with steep narrows, and the mythological geography does not depend upon an actual location. The "flying carp" or "silver carp" (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) is native to China and other parts of Asia. It is a great jumper. Silver carp are strong swimmers and researchers have observed them to jump 1.81-2.24 meters (approximately 5.94 to 7.75 feet) above the surface of the water with an angle of leap of 44-70º. They are quite capable of swimming upstream and leaping over barriers in the water.
In one of the stories depicting his exemplar filial piety, Wang Xiang (a young boy) went to the frozen river when his ill mother said that she wanted to eat some carp in winter; there he sat on the ice long enough to melt through the ice and a big carp immediately sprang out of the hole. In another version, Wang Xiang removed his coat and shirt in the cold and melted the ice when the sat on the ice and cried more and more until the ice melted a hole in the ice through his hot tears and body heat; in this version, it is 2 carps which sprang out of the hole immediately.
Other Chinese myths are related to fishes; some Chinese mythological motifs also involve fishermen or fish baskets or a fish trap.
According to Chinese myth, the culture hero Fuxi invented fishing after the Great Flood catching fishes and making nets. He is also credited for teaching how to eat fish.
A story tells that first Fuxi fished with his hands, but after observing a spider catching insects in its web, he invented the rattan net and used it to catch fish, which skill he passed on to his descendants.
Jiang Ziya, the great general and strategist and military mastermind who was key to establishing the Zhou dynasty, was said to have spent years in his old age fishing, but with a straight hook, or no bait, or with his hook dangling above the water: but, he was fishing for a Lord, not a fish. After Jiang Ziya became the general, he was known as "Taigong" or "the Grand Duke". The degree to which this qualifies as a myth is open to question, but it is certainly a well-known motif.
According to Chinese myth, Fuxi also invented the fish basket, or trap (gu), by weaving bamboo into a cage which had a funnel opening, that was easy for the fish to enter because the big opening was on the outside, but inside it tapered to narrow and exit opening, so it was easy for the fish to get in, but hard to get out. In other cases the fish basket served more as a net, in which a fish could be scooped from the water and transported to the market.
In one manifestation, Guanyin is pictured as holding a fish basket. This imagery is sometimes considered to have a sexual connotation.
The character for fish (魚) evolved from an ancient pictograph. It is the traditional 195th (out of 216) traditional radical. Over time, the pictographic representations tended to become increasingly stylized, until evolving to the modern standard form: