What is "Fu"? Han Feizi, a philosopher during the Warring States period, believed that "a full life and wealth are called blessings". In traditional Chinese auspicious ornaments, it can even be said that bat "bat" is equal to "fu".
▲ "Shengping Happy Story Atlas" Qing Anon. Taipei National Palace Museum collection; This is a set of twelve pages. It depicts children playing in the courtyard, carrying lanterns, flying kites, kicking shuttles, riding horses and shooting arrows. In the album, bats, elephants, white cranes, sika deer, little white rabbits, Kuixing kicking buckets and other lanterns with auspicious meanings are unveiled.
Bats, also known as toads (pronounced "Gong Mo"), is a generic name for pteropods.
▲Little red fox rests in a tree in Atherton Highlands, Queensland, Australia
They are the only group of mammals capable of flying, usually going out to feed in the early morning or late afternoon, and staying in different places to rest at other times. Branches, tree holes, rock crevices, caves... are the habitats they choose.
Because they look slightly "surreal", these nocturnal critters are often closely associated with adjectives such as "mysterious and dark". But in fact, bats are a species that is very friendly to nature.
▲ Small proboscis bats are hardworking pollinators of flowers
At least 549 species of plants are pollinated by bats. Three out of every four bats feed on insects, which can wipe out a large number of crop pests and effectively help reduce pesticide use.
Even we humans can drink cocktails thanks to them in part. Because the pollination of blue agave grass, the raw material for making tequila, is very dependent on a bat distributed in Central America.
▲Blue agave
It can be said that bats are the "unsung heroes" of biodiversity. In traditional Chinese ornaments, these unsung heroes finally shed their mysterious cloak and turned into a symbol of "Fuxing Gaozhao".
They have one word of thanks: "Fu". I should also thank a small habit of people in ancient China, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties: "love to play homophonic terriers".
▲Gold inlaid pearl nine bats pick the head Qing Dynasty Palace Museum collection
▲Green jade phoenix bat pattern Ruyi Qing Dynasty Palace Museum collection
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the naming method of "homophonic meaning" was widely popular. The ancients used the characteristics of a certain two characters "sound the same or close to the sound" to create many homophonic memes with auspicious meanings. Bat "bat" is one of them.
"Bat" homonymous "Fu", bat is "all over the blessing" - everywhere is happiness, can be described as "blessing star high light". In addition, bats like to hang upside down to rest, which just echoes the meaning of "blessing has arrived".
Because of the popularity of homophony, bat ornaments are widely used in ancient building doors and windows, clothing, furniture, porcelain, jade... , has become a "sought-after partner" between traditional auspicious symbols:
They hold copper coins, representing "fortune to wealth"; Hung on the door, it represents "leading blessings into the church";
Combined with the bottle, it means "peace and blessing"; in combination with Ganoderma lucidum, representing "blessing to the soul"; Paired with peaches, it is "Fushou Shuangquan"...
▲From top to bottom: the fleece golden blue bat-pattern blanket, the coconut carved cloud bat inlaid gold bowl, the gold openwork bat shou flat square, and the blue and white double "xi" character peach bat bowl, all of which are Qing Dynasty collections and are now in the Palace Museum.
Guanfu Museum takes the auspicious meaning of "bat pattern" and uses jade clay as the bone to make embryos by hand; Take the color of pure gold and alum, depict it by hand, and design it - "Fu in front of the eyes, drawing gold to the cup"
This "Blessing in front of the eyes, gold pair cup" set of two cups.
Draw one bat per cup. One mouth is a gourd, and the other mouth contains copper money, which means "Fulu Shuangquan".
The cup body, with jade clay as the tire, is tender as fat, delicate and moist, and has a soft jade texture under the light.
The pattern, hand-painted in alum red, with pigment strokes made of pure gold, has smooth and natural lines and elegant colors.
It comes with an onyx knife that can be used for polishing and gold tracing. In addition to drinking, it is a little more interesting.
Cup shape, slightly pouted, mouth edge close to the lips, tea soup mouth smooth and soft when drinking tea.