May five blessings come your way on your birthday
五福捧寿
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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 fu 五福 five blessings’. More than two millennia ago, the Chinese had their ideals in life summarised as ‘五福 wu fu’, the Five Blessings, and recorded them in the Book of Documents (书经 Shujing) in the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046 – 256 BCE). They are ‘longevity 寿 shou’, ‘wealth 富 fu’, ‘wellbeing and peace 康宁 kang ning’, ‘love of virtue 攸好德 you hao de’, and ‘natural death 考终命 kao zhong ming’.
– The motif combination of five bats surrounding a Chinese character 壽, meaning ‘longevity’, in the centre expresses an auspicious wish on one’s birthday.
– Sometimes the image of peaches is used instead of the character ‘寿 or 壽 longevity’. Peach has a nickname ‘shou tao 寿桃 longevity peaches’, which, in Chinese culture, is symbolic for ‘long life’ or ‘shou 寿 longevity’.
Fig 1: doucai gourd-shaped vase, Yongzheng period (1723–35), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the National Museum of China, Beijing
Fig 2: famille rose porcelain stemdish, Yongzheng period (1723–35), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing
Fig 3: glass bottle with enamelled decoration, Qianlong period (1736–95), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Fig 4: cover of a carved jade container, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Fig 5: porcelain dish with overglaze enamelled decoration, Qianlong period (1736–95), Qing dynasty, courtesy of Nanjing Museum, Jiangsu Province, China
Fig 6: hand warmer in cloisonne enamel, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei; Photograph by Rachel Ma
Fig 7: porcelain dish with overglaze enamelled decoration, Jiaqing period (1796–1820), Qing dynasty, courtesy of Princessehof Ceramics Museum, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, Object number: NO 05399
Fig 8: cinnabar lacquer container, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), courtesy of Zhejiang Provincial Museum, China; Photograph by Rachel Ma
Fig 9: porcelain dish with overglaze enamelled decoration, Daoguang period (1821–50), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing
Fig 10: gilded lacquer bowl, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), courtesy of Sichuan Museum, China
Fig 11: famille rose porcelain bowl, Guangxu period (1875–1908), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia
Fig 12: famille rose porcelain dish, Guangxu period (1875–1908), Qing dynasty, courtesy of Shenyang Palace Museum, Liaoning Province, China; Photograph by Rachel Ma