May you have an ample official income
百禄
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Just like the English word ‘bat’ can mean ‘a kind of animal’ in one context and ‘a club for playing tennis’ in another, so can pictures of animals and flowers in a pictorial design called ‘pun rebus’ in Chinese art. For example, the Chinese name for deer is lu 鹿, which is a pun on lu 禄 ‘emolument’ or ‘official income’. The design consists of, ideally, one hundred deer, and conveys the message ‘May you have an ample official income’! Not a bad idea as a present for a friend or relative who works in civil service.
Related Pun Pictures:
May you have an imminent promotion 封侯
May you be created a peer and earn a handsome official income 爵禄封侯
Fig 1: porcelain jar, Wanli period (1573–1620), Ming dynasty, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Fig 2: porcelain jar, Wanli period (1573–1620), Ming dynasty, courtesy of The Guimet Museum, Paris, photo from Alexandre Hougron, La Céramique Chinoise Ancienne, 2015, p. 138
Fig 3: porcelain jar, Wanli period (1573–1620), Ming dynasty, courtesy of Sotheby’s Auction House, New York, 15 March 2017, lot 12
Fig 4: porcelain jardinière, Wanli period (1573–1620), Ming dynasty, courtesy of Sotheby’s Auction House, Paris, 25 May 2022, lot 457
Fig 5 & 6: two porcelain jars, Qianlong period (1736–95), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Fig 7: porcelain jar, Qianlong period (1736–95), Qing dynasty, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Fig 8: porcelain jar, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), courtesy of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum
Fig 9: painting scroll, A Hundred Deer by Ai Qi Meng 艾啟蒙 (1708–1780), courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei