Color in Chinese culture

Chinese culture attaches certain values to colours, like which colours are considered auspicious (吉利) or inauspicious (不利). The Chinese word for "colour" is yánsè (顏色). In Classical Chinese, the character sè (色) more accurately meant "colour in the face", or "emotion". It was generally used alone and often implied sexual desire or desirability. During the Tang dynasty, the word yánsè came to mean 'all colour'. A Chinese idiom with the meaning "many colours" or "multi-coloured", Wǔyánliùsè (五顏六色), can also mean 'colours' 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 coloured-stones in these five auspicious colours to patch-up the crumbling heavens, accounting for the many colours that the skies can take-on.