The character ''Fú'' (,

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, whi ...

U+798F) meaning "fortune" or "good luck" is represented both as a Chinese ideograph and, at times,

pictorial An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

ly, in one of its

homophonous A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

forms. It is often found on a figurine of the male god of the same name, one of the trio of "star gods" ''Fú, Lù, Shòu''. Mounted ''Fú'' are a widespread

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

tradition associated with

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () as t ...

and can be seen on the entrances of many Chinese homes worldwide. The characters are generally printed on a square piece of paper or stitched in fabric. The practice is universal among Chinese people regardless of

socioeconomic status Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic access to resources and social position in relation to others. When analyzing a family's ...

, and dates to at least the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

(AD 960 – 1279). When displayed as a Chinese ideograph, ''Fú'' is often displayed upside-down on diagonal red squares. The reasoning is based on a

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

: in nearly all

varieties of Chinese Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of ma ...

, the words for "upside-down" (, Pinyin: dào) and "to arrive" (, Pinyin: dào) are

. Therefore, the phrase an "upside-down ''Fú''" sounds nearly identical to the phrase "Good luck arrives". Pasting the character upside-down on a door or doorpost thus translates into a wish for prosperity to descend upon a dwelling. Another story states that posting the character upside-down originates with the family of a 19th-century prince of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. The story states that on one Chinese New Year's Eve (or ''Chuxi'', ), the prince's servants played a practical joke by pasting ''fu'' characters throughout his royal dwelling. One illiterate servant inadvertently placed the characters upside-down. The prince was said to have been furious upon seeing the characters, but a quick-thinking servant humbly calmed the prince by saying that the occurrence must have been a sign of prosperity "arriving" upon his household by using the above wordplay. Bats () are the most ubiquitous of all Chinese symbols with the same symbolic meaning as the

ideograph An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familia ...

"fortune" (). A less common representation is bran (), not only because "depictions of grain have been used throughout Chinese history to represent fecundity" but also in combination with other grains with related homophonous word-plays (for example, ''lì'' which can mean either "grain" or "profit" ).Welch, ''Chinese Art'', p. 52. Usage of the character ''Fú'' () in various forms of calligraphy and seal characters as papercuts or posters represents the desire that one's good luck will be expansive and come in many forms. Chinese textiles and ceramics often found transcribe this felicitous message by portraying random numbers of bats in flight, sometimes can be more than a hundred. Since 2017, the version 10 of the

Standard features a rounded version of the character in the "

Enclosed Ideographic Supplement Enclosed Ideographic Supplement is a Unicode block containing forms of characters and words from Chinese, Japanese and Korean enclosed within or stylised as squares, brackets, or circles. It contains three such characters containing one or more ...

" block, at code point U+1F260 (ROUNDED SYMBOL FOR FU).

Gallery

File:Chinese - Pair of "Famille Verte" Wine Pots in the Form of the Characters - Walters 492347, 492393 - Group.jpg, Pair of "Famille Verte" wine pots in the form of Fu () on the left and Shou () on the right File:HK Mid-levels 匯豪閣 Winsome Park lobby hall 農曆新年 Chinese New Year 裝飾 decoration 吉祥 Lucky words Jan-2012.jpg, Chinese New Year decorations in Hong Kong, with Fu on the

Chinese knotting Chinese knotting, also known as () and decorative knots in non-Chinese cultures, is a decorative handcraft art that began as a form of Chinese folk art in the Tang and Song dynasty (960–1279 CE) in China. This form of craft originated and ...

on the right File:Mu Mansion small inner courtyard mosaic.JPG, A pebble mosaic in a small inner courtyard of the Mu Mansion, Old Town of Lijiang, Yunnan, with Fu character in the center File:Nouvel an chinois Paris 20090201 034.jpg, Chinese New Year celebration in the 13th arrondissement of Paris in 2009, with Fu in the front of the float File:Singapore River Hong Bao 2006 27, Feb 06.JPG, Fu lantern at the Singapore River Hongbao Carnival during the Chinese New Year in 2006 File:Xlhhduilian.jpg, Chinese New Year decorations at Western Union's headquarters in Englewood, Colorado, with the center character Fu displayed upside down

References

{{reflist Chinese culture Chinese characters Chinese traditions Korean traditions Vietnamese traditions

Gallery

See also

References