Fu character

Another story states that posting the character upside-down originates with the family of a 19th-century prince of the Qing dynasty. The story states that on one Chinese New Year's Eve, 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.