Pun Design:

long-tailed pheasant + peony

Punning Details:

– The long-tailed pheasant has another name called ‘jin ji 锦鸡’ in Chinese, meaning a cockerel with a colourful tail. ‘Jin 锦’ in ‘jin ji 锦鸡’ makes a pun on the word ‘jin 锦’ in ‘jin tang 锦堂’ which means ‘magnificent house’.

– The peony flower, known in Chinese as ‘mudan hua 牡丹花’, has a nickname of ‘fugui hua 富贵花’, literally, the ‘flower of wealth and prestige’.

Thus, the composition forms a pictorial pun that conveys the auspicious wish of ‘May your splendid house be filled with wealth and prestige’.

Related Pun Pictures:

May your jade palatial home be honoured and full of riches 玉堂富贵

May your jade residence be prosperous 玉堂锦绣

Related Motifs & Symbols:

You may become rich by receiving good education 读书出富贵

• Fig 1: Gu-shaped vase with underglaze blue and overglaze enamelled decoration, Shunzhi period (1644–61), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Shanghai Museum, China

  Fig 2: porcelain vase with underglaze blue and overglaze enamelled decoration, Shunzhi period (1644–61), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing, China

  Fig 3: lidded porcelain jar with underglaze blue decoration, Shunzhi period (1644–61), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing, China

  Fig 4: famille verte porcelain jar, mid to late 17th century, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  Fig 5: porcelain jar with underglaze blue decoration, mid to late 17th century, Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  Fig 6: famille verte Gu-shaped vase, Kangxi (1662–1722) period, Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

  Fig 7: famille verte porcelain flowerpot, Kangxi period (1662–1722), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  Fig 8: Gu-shaped vase with underglaze blue decoration, 1708, Kangxi period (1662–1722), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Shanghai Museum, China

  Fig 9: porcelain bowl with underglaze blue, brown, and red and overglaze enamel green decoration, Kangxi period (1662–1722), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, US

  Fig 10: porcelain bowl with enamelled decoration, Yongzheng period (1723–35), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

  Fig 11: porcelain bowl with enamelled decoration, Yongzheng period (1723–35), Qing dynasty, courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art

  Fig 12: porcelain bowl with enamelled decoration, Qianlong period (1736–95), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Art Museum