‘Fu Gui Bai Tou 富贵白头’ is interchangeable with ‘Bai Tou Fu Gui 白头富贵’, with the same meaning of ‘May you enjoy wealth and high position to a ripe old age’. Pun Design: Peony + Chinese bulbul Punning Details： – ‘fu …
Continue reading “May you enjoy wealth and prestige to a ripe old age”
Pun Design: Five + Bat + auspicious character of ‘Longevity 寿 or 壽’ Punning Details： – ‘蝠 fu’, the Chinese name for bats, puns on ‘福 fu’, meaning ‘good fortune’. – ‘wu fu 五蝠 five bats’, is homophonous with ‘wu …
Continue reading “May five blessings come your way on your birthday”
The figures of Three Star Gods are personified representation of Good Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity. They originated from Chinese people’s worship of the stars in the southern sky. During the time of Lichun 立春 (the Beginning of Spring), there are …
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Pun Design ： Gourd + Bat Punning Details： – hu lu (葫芦 gourd) in Chinese is pronounced similar to ‘fu (福 good fortune)’ and ‘lu (禄 official emolument) – ‘fu 蝠’ in ‘bian fu 蝙蝠’ (meaning ‘bat’) is a pun on …
Continue reading “May good fortune and ample official income come to your doorstep”
The Chinese Valentine’s Day, Qixi Festival (七夕节), is just around the corner. It falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the traditional Chinese year. Dr Yibin Ni has conducted comprehensive research on this topic and has written an article in Chinese 《牛郎织女银河隔 七夕相会胜无数》 with reference to numerous ancient artifacts that depict such romantic story scene.
Pun Design ： Bat + Peach Punning Details： – ‘fu 蝠’ in ‘bian fu 蝙蝠’ is a pun on ‘fu 福’ which means ‘good fortune’, ‘luck’, or ‘happiness’; – Peach has a nickname ‘shou tao 寿桃’ meaning ‘longevity peaches’, is …
Continue reading “May you enjoy great happiness and longevity”
Pun Design: Chinese bulbul + Peony Punning Details： – ‘bai tou 白头 white-headed’, of ‘bai tou weng 白头翁 Chinese bulbul’ (the white-headed-old-chap bird) can imply a ripe old age; – ‘fu gui 富贵’ in ‘fu gui hua 富贵花 peony’ literally, …
Continue reading “May you enjoy wealth and prestige to a ripe old age”
Pun Design: Chinese bulbul + Two Punning Details: A pair of Chinese bulbuls in image imply the couple or the marriage; ‘bai tou 白头 white-headed’, of ‘bai tou weng 白头翁 Chinese bulbul’ (the white-headed-old-chap bird) can imply a ripe old …
Continue reading “May you both live together to a ripe old age in married bliss”
Fish (鱼 yu) puns with the word yu 余 meaning ‘abundance’, therefore it symbolises wealth and prosperity. Lotus (莲 lian) puns with the word lian 连 meaning ‘to continue’ or ‘to connect’, and it is associated with the Chinese phrase …
Continue reading “May you be wealthy year after year”
Pun Design: Carrying on the Back + Monkey Punning Details: – ‘bei 背’ for ‘carrying on the back’ makes a pun on ‘bei 辈’ for ‘generation’ – ‘hou 猴’ from ‘hou zi 猴子’ for ‘monkey’ puns on ‘hou 侯’ for …
Continue reading “May each generation of your family be made life peers”
Pun Design: Lychee or Chestnut Punning Details： – ‘Li 荔’ for ‘lychee’ and ‘li 栗’ for ‘chestnut’ have the same pronunciation in Chinese as ‘li 利’ for ‘profit’. – Many lychees or chestnuts seen in the picture convey ‘duo 多’ …
Continue reading “May you have plenty of profit”
Pun Design ： Official Hat + Wine Vessel Punning Details： The combination of ‘jia 加 putting on’ and ‘guan 冠 hat’ – ‘jia guan 加冠’ is a pun on ‘jia guan 加官’, meaning ‘receiving an official title’. The action of …
Continue reading “May promotion be yours; May you advance in official rank”
In this motif composition, the eight Daoist Immortals (ba xian 八仙) are not depicted in figural images, but rather are represented by their distinctive attributes respectively. The fan stands for Zhongli Quan 钟离权, the sword stands for Lv Dongbin 吕洞宾, …
Continue reading “Eight Daoist Immortals are congratulating your birthday”
‘福 fu’, a Chinese character bearing an auspicious meaning of ‘good fortune’, has been used often in Chinese decorative arts. Dr Yibin Ni will tell you some interesting stories related to this character and how the intended meaning is represented in various art forms.
In the oracle bone script, the earliest form of the Chinese characters, the pictograph ‘福 (fu)’ consists of a pair of hands holding a wine jar in front of a sacred ancestral symbol. It means that, if the ancestors were …
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Chinese people deeply respect the elderly and traditionally consider a long existence to be one of the most important blessings in a person’s life. Here are many examples of how artists have combined a variety of longevity symbols to reinforce the potency of this concept.
The flying mammal bat is called bian fu (蝙蝠) in Chinese. Image of the bat including its various stylised forms are often used in Chinese art to express an auspicious meaning, as ‘蝠 fu’ in ‘蝙蝠’ puns on ‘福 fu’ …
Continue reading “May good fortune descend from heaven”
The character 龟 gui for ‘tortoise’ is explained in volume 13 of the annotated version of the oldest dictionary in China, Shuowen jiezi 说文解字注 (Explanations of Simple Graphs and Analyses of Composite Graphs). There is a quote from Liu Xiang …
In Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is related to the legendary fairy Chang E, the Moon Goddess. We often see a hare, her loyal companion, and an osmanthus tree in the picture with her against a background of the Moon Palace. However, why does Chang E often hold an osmanthus sprig, and what does she have to do with scholars attending civil-service examinations? Let’s invite Dr Yibin Ni to explain to you with his interesting literary research findings.
Yang Shen (杨慎, 1488–1559), alias Sheng’an (升庵), is a literatus and poet in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). He recorded in Volume Ninety-Four of Sheng’an Additional Works a folklore anecdote: ‘In the northern dialect, there is no difference in sound between …
Continue reading “May the whole universe prosper in eternal spring”
On the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar Chinese year, young men and women will celebrate their traditional ‘Valentine’s Day’, Qixi Festival (七夕节). The custom can be traced back to an ancient story.
More often than not, traditional Chinese motifs or symbols are not receiving their deserved attention, being given simplistic or inadequate labels and inaccurate explanations in our museums, catalogues, or even scholarly writing. The treatment of many pictorial representations of the thousand-year-old literary anecdote ‘A bamboo counter is being added to the house in the sea (海屋添筹 hai wu tian chou)’ is a case in point.
In this scene, there are several Chinese longevity symbols such as the crane, the generic immortal, the pine tree, and the deer, etc. However, the proper meaning of this particular scene is not a simple assemblage of individual symbols. It …
Continue reading “May the length of your life be eternally prolonged!”
The seventh day of the seventh month of the traditional Chinese year is the Chinese ‘Valentine’s Day’, Qixi Festival (七夕节). The custom can be traced back to an ancient story about a weaver girl and a cowherd: Once upon a …
Continue reading “The Weaving Maiden and the Herd Boy”
The main figure in the scene is a dignitary, often gripping a hu (笏) tablet in his hands, which an official uses to take notes when he has audience with the emperor in court. He is usually sheltered by page …
Continue reading “May you have three successive promotions unexpectedly!”
A variation of 平升三级 ping sheng san ji (May you have three successive promotions unexpectedly) is 连升三级 lian sheng san ji. The design has kept the old element of three ji halberds but added a new motif, the lotus flower. …
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The Chinese character for ‘monkey’ is 猴 hou and it puns on the word for ‘marquis’ in Chinese 侯 hou. The expression ‘mashang 马上’ in Chinese is ambiguous in that it can mean, literally, ‘on a/the horse’, or it can …
Continue reading “May you be bestowed the title of a marquis presently”
The Ming-dynasty play The Story of the Blue Robe (青袍记 Qingpao ji, also called《梁氏父子传胪记》) tells the story of how Lv Dongbin (吕洞宾 Lü Dongbin or 吕纯阳), one of the Eight Daoist Immortals (八仙 baxian), survived a catastrophe with the help …
Continue reading “Lv Dongbin Sending Liang Hao a Bride to Repay him a Life Debt”
How the daylily, whose Chinese name is ‘xuan 萱’, came to become a symbol for motherhood in Chinese culture is explained in the blog ‘Cultural Differences in the Symbolic Meaning of Lily’. The daylily can be combined with butterflies to …
Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Mother!”
Dr Yibin Ni has discussed the differences of symbolic meanings of lily between Western and Chinese cultures in his unique research, bringing new insight into pictorial art.
Either the clockwise swastika 卐 or the counterclockwise sauwastika 卍 is used interchangeably in Chinese decorative arts as well as in some religious contexts. Sometimes, the two opposite versions can co-occur on the same occasion without making a difference in …
Continue reading “Swastika (the Wan character in Chinese)”
According to the oldest dictionary in China, Shuowen jiezi 说文解字 (Explanations of Simple Graphs and Analyses of Composite Graphs), the earliest version of the character for ‘crane’ is a composite graph consisting of a pictograph for a bird, the present-day …
When swastika is combined with the Chinese character shou 寿 (meaning long life) and the image of the bat, whose pronunciation puns on the Chinese word fu 福 for ‘luck’ or ‘good fortune’, the composition is used to express good wishes …
Continue reading “May you have inexhaustible good fortune and longevity”
Either the clockwise swastika 卐 (sounding ‘wan’ 万) or the counterclockwise sauwastika 卍 is used interchangeably in Chinese decorative arts as well as in some religious contexts, as can be seen co-occurring on the same vessel displayed here. Roughly speaking, …
Continue reading “May you enjoy long life and always be blessed by good fortune”
The Chinese deeply respect the elderly and consider a long existence – ideally accompanied by health and happiness – to be one of the five most important blessings (wufu 五福) in a person’s life, which were believed by the ancients …
The Chinese character ‘tian 天’ from the phrase ‘tianzhu 天竹’ for ‘nandina’ is both a homophone and homograph of the character ‘tian 天’ for ‘heaven’. The character ‘xian 仙’ in the phrase ‘shuixian 水仙’ for ‘narcissus’, is both a homophone …
Continue reading “Heavenly immortals and fairies are celebrating your birthday”
The character ‘yu 玉’ in ‘yulan hua 玉兰花’ for ‘magnolia’ is the same ‘yu 玉’ for ‘jade’. The word ‘tang 棠’ from ‘haitang hua 海棠花’ for ‘crabapple’ is homophonic with the word ‘tang 堂’ for ‘house’. The combination of the …
Continue reading “May your jade palatial home be honoured and full of riches”
In Chinese culture and pictorial art, the peach fruit is often used to wish for long life on birthday parties. How does this fruit become associated with the idea of longevity? Here is Dr Yibin Ni explaining to us the origin of legendary stories related to the peach through his research work over literatures and treasurable artworks.
The peach fruit usually symbolises longevity or immortality in Chinese pictorial art. The origin of this idea started from legends dating back to the third century. Read Dr Yibin Ni‘s research article for related literatures and legendary stories from ancient …
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This pun rebus picture consists of four essential pictorial elements: bird, deer, bee, and monkey. The word ‘que 雀’ for ‘small bird’ in Chinese puns on the word ‘jue 爵’ for ‘high official rank’ or ‘peerage’. The word ‘lu 鹿’ for …
Continue reading “May you be created a peer and earn a handsome official income”
When you mistake a motif in a traditional Chinese picture, you could have misinterpreted the meaning of the whole image intended by the ancient craftsman. Dr Yibin Ni has used the following example to illustrate the hidden meaning of a series of images in the context of Chinese pun rebus culture.
The ancient Chinese would employ a picture of a monkey reaching for a bee hive to wish their boss an imminent promotion. The word for bees in Chinese is ‘feng 蜂’ and the word for monkeys is ‘hou 猴’. When …
Continue reading “May you have an imminent promotion”
In Zhuangzi (庄子), an ancient Chinese text from the late Warring States period (476–221 BCE) and one of the two foundational texts of Daoism, the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu 西王母) was mentioned as a deity who ‘obtained the Dao (the Way)’. …
Continue reading “Birthday Celebration for the Queen Mother of the West”
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival falls on the night of full moon in the eighth lunar month. Chang’e, the Moon Goddess, is usually associated with this family-union occasion, together with the festival food – the moon cake (月饼). A legend recorded …
Continue reading “Chang’e the Moon Goddess”
The fifth creature of the Chinese zodiac, the long dragon is one of the most complex and multilayered of all Chinese symbols. Its ferocious energy binds together all the phenomena of nature: bringing benevolent rain, but also typhoons; shaping the …
Pun Design: Persimmons + Apples + Quails Punning Details： The Chinese character ‘shi 柿’ in ‘shi zi 柿子’ for ‘persimmon’ can pun on ‘shi 事’ for ‘things’. The repetition of ‘shi’ as ‘shi shi 事事’ means ‘everything’. The word ‘ping …
Continue reading “May you live in harmony”
Pun Design: Quails + seedheads of foxtail millet Punning Details: The word ‘sui 穗’ for ‘millet seedhead’ is a pun on ‘sui 岁’ for ‘year’; the repetition of ‘sui’ means ‘year in year out’. The word ‘an 鹌’ in ‘an …
Continue reading “May you enjoy a peaceful life year after year”
Pun Design: Apples + Quails + Lychee Punning Details： The Chinese character ‘ping 苹’ in ‘ping guo 苹果’ for ‘apple’ can make a pun on ‘ping 平’ for ‘peace’. The word ‘an 鹌’ in ‘an chun 鹌鹑’ for ‘quail’ puns …
Continue reading “May you be trouble-free and roll in wealth”
Grapes grow in clusters of up to 300 berries each and thus produce an enormous number of seeds. This property was regarded by the ancient Chinese as an apt allusion to their wish for a large number of offspring. That …
Pun Design: Long-tailed Pheasant + Quail Punning Details: The combination of the first and third words in ‘chang wei zhi 长尾雉’ for ‘long-tailed pheasant’ is ‘chang zhi’ and it puns on the phrase ‘chang zhi 长治’ for ‘long-term good order …
Continue reading “May the country enjoy peace and good order permanently”
Pun Design: Quail + Long-tailed Pheasant Punning Details: The word ‘an 鹌’ in ‘an chun 鹌鹑’ for ‘quail’ makes a pun on ‘an 安’ for ‘peace’. The combination of the first and third words in ‘chang wei zhi 长尾雉’ for ‘long-tailed …
Continue reading “May the country be in peace and order forever”
Pun Design: nine + quail Punning Details： The Chinese word ‘jiu 九’ for ‘nine’ puns on the word ‘jiu 久’ for ‘lasting’. The word ‘an 鹌’ in ‘an chun 鹌鹑’ for ‘quail’ makes a pun on ‘an 安’ for ‘peace’. …
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Are you afraid of small insects such as spiders? Why do we see this tidy dangling creature a popular motif used in traditional Chinese art? There is a secret here…
The feng phoenix, or feng huang 凤凰, which is often portrayed to resemble a peacock or golden pheasant, is the second of China’s Four Sacred Creatures (the others being the long dragon 龙, the qilin 麒麟 and the tortoise). Except …
Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium, 菊花 júhuā) joins the esteemed ranks of plum blossom, orchid, and bamboo as one of the ‘Four Gentlemen of Flowers’ – 四君子花 (sì jūnzǐ huā) in China. Just like peonies, chrysanthemums find their place in ancient classical …
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Pun Design: Quails + Chrysanthemum Punning Details: The word ‘an 鹌’ in ‘an chun 鹌鹑’ for ‘quail’ makes a pun on ‘an 安’ for ‘peace’. The word ‘ju 菊’ in ‘ju hua 菊花’ for ‘chrysanthemum’ puns on the word ‘ju …
Continue reading “May you live in peace and leisure”
Osmanthus blossoms in autumn and is conventionally regarded as the flower of the eighth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Its sweet scent is discreet, distinctive, and unforgettable, and has a legendary position in Chinese poetry and art. It is …
Bats in Chinese is called bian fu (蝙蝠) or fu (蝠). The image of bats is often used to represent ‘good luck’ or ‘good fortune’ in Chinese decorative arts. It is not because the Chinese appreciate the appearance of bats, …
The Eight Auspicious Emblems, also known as ‘ba bao’ (八宝, Eight Treasures), or ‘ba rui xiang’ (八瑞相, Eight Symbols of Good Fortune), are a set of symbols in traditional Tibetan Buddhism. These symbols are often depicted together, bringing positive energy, …
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Pun design: Spider + descending from the sky Punning mechanism: ‘Zhi zhu (蜘蛛, spider)’ has a nickname ‘xi zi (蟢子)’ or ‘xi zhu (喜蛛)’ meaning the ‘lucky one’ or ‘lucky spider’. Its first character ‘xi 喜(蟢)’ for ‘happiness (good luck)’ …
Continue reading “May unexpected good luck descend on you!”
Lily flowers and butterflies form a pun rebus picture known as ‘Xuān Dié Tú 萱耋图’, meaning ‘May mother live up to a ripe old age’. ‘Xuan 萱’ in the picture title comes from ‘xuan cao 萱草’, the Chinese name for …
Continue reading “May mother live up to a ripe old age”
‘Xuan 萱’ comes from ‘xuan cao 萱草’, the Chinese name for ‘lily’. In traditional Chinese decorative arts, lily flowers symbolise motherhood and maternal bonds with children, and they figure prominently on articles created for mothers, expecting or being a birthday …
Pun Design: Persimmon + Chicken/ rooster/ cockerel Punning Details: – ‘shi 柿’ in ‘shi zi 柿子 persimmon’ is a pun on ‘shi 市 business’ – ‘大鸡 da ji’ for ‘large cockerel’ makes a pun on ‘大吉 da ji’ for ‘tremendous …
Continue reading “May you have tremendous luck in your new venture”
The primary symbolic meaning of the hollyhock (shu kui 蜀葵) is the good wish for longevity. The secondary implication is based on the perennially sun-facing nature of the hollyhock. In the old days, people compared their emperor or statesman to …
Continue reading “Hollyhocks and butterflies”
‘Guan 冠’ in the Chinese name ‘ji guan hua 鸡冠花’ for ‘cockscomb’ is a pun on ‘guan 官’, which means ‘high-ranking official’. The crest on the head of a rooster is also called ‘guan 冠’ in Chinese. Thus, the appearance …
Continue reading “May you have repeated promotions”
‘Fu gui 富贵’ in ‘fu gui hua 富贵花’, literally, the ‘flower of wealth and prestige’, which is a nickname in Chinese for ‘peony’, contributes to ‘wealth and privilege’ in the saying. ‘Ji 鸡’ is a pun on ‘qi 期’, which …
Continue reading “May your wealth and privilege expectable”
‘Ji 鸡’ is a generic name for cockerel, hen, and chick, and sounds the same as ‘ji 吉’ for ‘good fortune’. Thus, a picture of many chickens is used to represent ‘abundant good fortune’. Related Pun Pictures: May you …
Continue reading “May you be blessed by good luck in all you do”
The accumulation of family wealth in traditional China was lauded as jin yu man tang 金玉满堂 – a household is piled high with gold and jade. This saying was visually expressed with a design of goldfish in a pond; jin …
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A large Longquan pottery rooster sculpted on a rock sends good fortune to the receiver’s or owner’s family because da ji 大 鸡 for ‘large rooster’ sounds the same as da ji 大 吉 for ‘great good fortune’ and shi …
Continue reading “May everything fare fabulously in your family”
The Chinese name for rooster or chicken is ji 鸡, which is a pun on ji 吉 ‘good fortune’. ‘Da’ is the Chinese adjective for ‘big’ and ‘da ji’ literally means ‘large rooster’ but puns on ‘great luck’. Thus, these paintings …
Continue reading “May you enjoy imminent good fortune”
Is choosing a gift for your mother a difficult task? Not so much if your mother is a big fan of Chinese art. In traditional Chinese decorative arts, there are various images symbolising or referring motherhood. Lily flower is a typical example…