Bingren is another saying for matchmaker, which can be traced back to records in Jinshu 晉書 [the book of Jin dynasty (266-420)]. The anecdote goes that the scholar Linghu Ce’s 令狐策 dreamed of standing on the ice while speaking to someone under the ice. The fortuneteller interpreted that dream that what is above the ice is yang while what is under the ice is yin, and marriage between a man (yang) and a woman (yin) was like breaking the ice. Since Linghu Ce was standing on the yang side to speak to the yin side, he was going to help break the ice and thus be the matchmaker.
Language and Culture Center (LCC) at Duke Kunshan University
