Quail is a middle-sized bird, and is nowadays farm-raised for table food and their eggs. However, they play an interesting role in traditional Chinese art with an auspicious meaning.

Quail’s Chinese name is ‘an chun’(鹌鹑). Its first character 鹌 (‘an’) is often used in Chinese language for its pun on ‘an’(安) which means peace and safety.

Related Pun Pictures:

May you live in peace and leisure 安居

May the country be in peace and order forever 久安长治

May you enjoy a peaceful life year after year 岁岁平安

• Fig 1-2: porcelain saucer-shaped dish, 1720-40, courtesy of the British Museum, London

  Fig 3: fan leaf, by Zhou Zhimian 周之冕, 1593, courtesy of the British Museum, London

  Fig 4: famille rose porcelain dish (detail), Qing dynasty (1644-1911), courtesy of the Guimet Museum, Paris

  Fig 5: porcelain vase (detail), Qianlong period (1736-95), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Guimet Museum, Paris

  Fig 6: snuff-bottle (detail), Jiaqing period (1796-1820), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei