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The ninth day of the ninth month is a special day in the Chinese lunisolar calendar. According to the Classic of Changes (易经 Yi Jing), ‘nine’ is a Yang number, and the ‘Double Ninth Day’ is considered auspicious and should be celebrated as a ‘Doub...
The ‘Nine Autumn Flowers’ (Jiu Qiu Tu 九秋图) is a distinguished pattern in traditional Chinese decorative art, frequently employed to symbolise the richness and splendour of the autumn season. This theme features nine varieties of flowers, although not in a fixed set, collectively representing abundance, vitality,...
Pun Design ：
Three + Goat
Punning Details：
– In an ancient Chinese literature, The Book of Change (I-Ching 易经) that can be traced back to Western Zhou (1046–771 BCE), there are sixty-four different hexagrams (gua
Pun Design ：
Five + Boy + Fighting over + Helmet
Punning Details：
– The action of five (more or fewer) boys fighting over something refers to ‘夺 duo’. ‘Five’ is a function word.
– ‘kui 盔 helmet’, ...
The figures of Three Star Gods are personified representation of Good Fortune, Prosperity, and Continue Reading
Phoenix has been deemed as a holy, noble and beautiful bird in the Chinese folk myths and was regarded as the king of all birds.
In Volume 915 of the comprehensi...
Image of the Five Principal Human Relations (Wu Lun Tu 五伦图), also known as Lun Xu Tu 伦叙图 (Epitome of Hierarchical Social Order), symbolises the five basic relationships in traditional Chinese society.
This design typically consists of five kinds of birds, the Continue Reading
In this motif composition, the eight Daoist Immortals (ba xian 八仙) are not depicted in figural images, but rather are represented by their dist...
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 boys erecting some fans or a parasol or guarded by a soldier holding a weapon with an iron melon on the to...
Summer solstice, the longest day in the year, occurs in the fifth month of the Chinese calendar and Chinese astronomy believes that it stands for the apogee of the yang force in the annual cycle. Ancient philosophers warned in Classic of Changes (易经 Yi Jing) that ‘When the sun has reached the meridian h...
Either the clockwise swastika 卐 or the counterclockwise sauwastika 卍 is used interchangeably in Chinese decorative arts as well as in some religious contexts. Sometimes, the two opposite versions can co-occur on the same occasion without making a difference in meaning. Swastika is a very old symbol in the cultures scatte...
One day during Su Shi (苏轼, 1037-1101)’s exile in Huangzhou, Hubei province, his friend, Fo Yin (佛印, 1032-98) invited him and Huang Tingjian (黄庭坚, 1045-1105) to taste the ‘Peach-Blossom-Flavoured Vinegar’, made with a famous recipe inherited from the Tang dynasty (618-907). Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, and Fo Yin gathered arou...
Zhao Bian (赵抃, 1008–84) was held in high esteem all his life and posthumously because of his incorruptibility and sound statesmanship during his entire career. His prize possessions were legendarily well-known: a qin zither and two pets, a Continue Reading
Pines, bamboos, and plum blossoms (prunus) form the ‘Three Friends in Winter’ (岁寒三友) motif. The early blossoming plum is the harbinger of spring; the
The Eight Auspicious Emblems, also known as ‘ba bao’ (八宝, Eight Treasures), or ‘ba rui xiang’ (八瑞相, Eight Symbols of Good Fortune), are a set of symbols in traditional Tibetan Buddhism. These symbols are often depicted together, bringing positive energy, Continue Reading
Common sources such as Baidu refer to the motif of a peony flower head with two distinctive ‘horns’ as a characteristic feature unique to Chinese porcelain of the Kangxi ...
‘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 top lords, which are the three top positions in the imperial court. The Chinese ...
‘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 two competent officials competing with their intelligence for eminent gover...
‘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 top lords, which are the three top positions in the imperial court.
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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 ...