Cao Guojiu (曹国舅) is one of the later comers among the legendary Eight Daoist Immortals and has the fewest colourful stories attached to him. During the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), a Daoist priest named Miao Shanshi (苗善時 fl. 1324) compiled a …
Have you ever wondered why the image of the prunus has been a popular motif in Chinese decorative art? Why do Chinese literati love to write poems about plum blossoms and paint them in their art works? Dr Yibin Ni will explain to you the symbolic meanings of the prunus and how scholar-artists started to relate themselves to the prunus from the Song dynasty onward.
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 ： 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”
Meng Haoran (孟浩然, c. 690–740) is one of the most renowned poets in Tang dynasty (618–906). He started off pursuing a civil service career and then abandoned it to concentrate on poetry. He was a major influence on other Tang …
Continue reading “Meng Haoran Looking for Plum Blossom on a Snowy Day”
A literati theme with the image of a scholar riding in a snowscape with branches of plum blossoms in the vicinity has been very popular in traditional Chinese visual culture and literature. But who is the scholar in the scene? Art historian Dr Yibin Ni hereby unveils the mystery for us.
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. …
Continue reading “May you have three promotions continuously!”
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 earliest pictograph of the character 鹿 lu for ‘deer’ is found on a tortoise plastron burnt to crack for divination. Though it is by no means anatomically accurate, the pictograph exhibits the most clearly recognisable characteristics of the animal. …
The story scene is originated from an anecdote dating back to the Tang dynasty (618-907). Cui Rong (崔戎, 780-835) is a statesman who is important enough to have a position in the ‘Biographies’ section in the official histories The Old …
Continue reading “The Boot-Swapping Ceremony for the Departing Governor”
A gathering of four distinctively different fishes can be read as a pun rebus design expressing an admonishing message ‘qing bai lian jie 清白廉洁’, which literally means ‘pure, unblemished, incorruptible, and clean’. The name of ‘qingyu 青鱼’, literally ‘blue fish’, …
Continue reading “May you remain pure, clean, and incorruptible”
Many museums and auction houses are often unaware of the pun rebuses hidden in traditional Chinese pictures and have treated them as mere naturalistic ones. Thus, the cultural and social significance contained in the motifs are unfortunately overlooked. Here is an example of a pun rebus design with four different fishes. What do they actually mean? Please read on…
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”
A fish is an ancient symbol of material prosperity and fertility in China, both because it puns with another word yu 余 meaning ‘abundance’, and because of the huge quantities of fish in Chinese lakes and rivers. In some parts …
According to Confucian ethics, a man’s ambition and pride need to be balanced by humility. General Lian Po (廉颇, active 298–236 BC) and Minister Lin Xiangru (蔺相如, active ca. 279 BC) were colleagues in the government of the state of …
Continue reading “General Lian Po and Minister Lin Xiangru burying the hatchet”
Qiuhu (秋胡), a native of the state of Lu during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BCE), was ordered to take up an official post in the state of Chen a scant five days after his marriage to Jiefu (洁妇), …
Continue reading “Qiuhu trying to seduce his own wife”
In the current form of the character 竹 zhu, the image of two bamboo stems side by side is still clear. Other ancient forms of the character show the pair gently bending toward one another, illustrating the flexibility of this …
The motif of Yi Ba Lian 一把莲 is also called ‘yi shu lian’ (一束莲). It is presented as ‘a ribbon-tied bouquet of lotus in bud, full bloom, and seed pods accompanied by leaves, with or without some other water plants …
Continue reading “Lotus bouquet”
This blog is modified from Dr Yibin Ni’s research work first published on Antiques and Fine Art Magazine. The purpose is to appreciate how Chinese porcelain painters from ancient times passed on classical stories and illustrated traditional morals through their craftworks.
‘Sima Xiangru Inscribing on the Bridge Gateway (相如题桥)’ was a popular theme in theatre from at least the Song (960–1279) through to the Qing (1644–1911) dynasty. Sima Xiangru (司马相如) was a Western Han (202 BCE – 8 CE) scholar unsuccessful …
Continue reading “Sima Xiangru inscribing on the bridge gateway”
Ordinary fish in the pond was hoped by ancient Chinese people to turn into a vigorous and powerful dragon flying in the sky. It can be traced back to as early as Song dynasty in Chinese literature for children or …
Continue reading “Fish turning into dragon”
Lian Hua (lotus) is also called ‘he hua (荷花)’. It is different from ‘shui lian (睡莲 water lily)’ which is another kind of water plant. The first character of ‘lian hua’ has been used to pun for ‘lian’ (廉) which …
Continue reading “Lotus (Lian Hua)”
Young Chen Ping (陈平, ?–178 BCE), later a minister of Western Han dynasty, as being an exemplar of fairness in his everyday work. According to Sima Qian’s (司马迁, 145BCE – ?) famous work Historical Records – Prime Minister Chen’s Family …
Continue reading “Chen Ping Dividing Meat”
The action of ‘pointing to the sun’ is termed in Chinese as ‘指日 zhi ri’, which sounds and looks exactly the same as (both homophone and homograph of) the phrase ‘指日 zhi ri’ meaning ‘in a few days’ time’. The …
Continue reading “May your chance of promotion be just round the corner”
In Chinese porcelain painting, it can be tricky to interpret a round disc in the sky as a sun or a moon. Knowledge of Chinese culture and pun rebuses are the keys to explain the meanings of the motifs and scenes correctly. Here are some examples…
The story of the statesman Bing Ji (丙吉) inquiring about a panting buffalo in ancient China has been illustrated in various forms in traditional Chinese art. It is meant to praise high-ranking officials who can prioritise their duties for their country. However, such famous story on Chinese porcelains has often been misinterpreted. Dr Yibin Ni has found out those mistakes on a number of occasions during his art research. Here is what he has to say.
The traditional theme of ‘Chen Ping Dividing Meat’(陈平分肉) is often mistakenly referred to as Chen ‘Selling Meat’ or even ‘Picture of Selling Meat’ in Chinese art reference books, which reduces a historically significant theme to a mere genre painting. See how Dr Yibin Ni analyses this with examples.
‘San gong 三公’ are the ‘Three Top Lords in the Imperial Court’. The ‘gong 公’ from the Chinese name ‘gong ji 公鸡’ for ‘rooster’ puns on the Chinese name for ‘lord’ and three roosters in the picture represent the three …
Continue reading “May my Lord live up to one hundred years”
‘Shuang 双’ is the Chinese word for ‘two’. ‘Xiong 雄’ in ‘Xiong ji 雄鸡’ in the Chinese name for ‘rooster’ makes a pun on ‘xiong 雄’ for ‘hero’. Thus, the image of two roosters in confrontation is meant to represent …
Continue reading “Two heroes fighting with their intelligence”
‘San gong 三公’ are the ‘Three Top Lords in the Imperial Court’. The ‘gong 公’ from the Chinese name ‘gong ji 公鸡’ for ‘rooster’ puns on the Chinese name for ‘lord’ and three roosters in the picture represent the three …
Continue reading “May you rank among the three top civil servants”
The saying ‘jia guan 加官’ is an abbreviated form of the saying ‘guan shang jia guan 官上加官’: ‘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 …
Continue reading “May you get promoted”
‘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”
The Chinese phrase ‘Gong ming 功名’ for ‘scholarly honour or official rank’ is a pun on two Chinese characters ‘gong 公’ and ‘ming 鸣’. ‘Gong 公’ from ‘gong ji 公鸡’, the Chinese name for ‘rooster’, makes pun on the Chinese …
Continue reading “May you do well in exams and enjoy wealth and prestige”
‘Bing di 并蒂’ from ‘bing di lian 并蒂莲’ (twin-headed lotus flower) contributes to the meaning of ‘a loving relationship’. ‘Gui 鳜’ from ‘gui yu 鳜鱼’(mandarin fish) is a pun on ‘gui 贵’ prestige. Hence this image is intended to wish …
Continue reading “May you couple live a harmonious life and enjoy prestige”
An egret and lotus flowers (莲花) are pictured in combination to infer ‘yi lu qing lian 一路清廉’, which means ‘You are an honest and uncorrupted official in your entire career’. ‘Yi lu 一鹭’ for ‘one egret’ puns on ‘yi lu 一路’ …
Continue reading “You are an honest and uncorrupted official in your entire career”