Page 84 - Chiense TExtiles, MET MUSEUM Pub 1934

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
the plum, the peony, the orchid, and the chrysanthe-
mum; and the ubiquitous bat, which symbolizes happi-
ness, because the character for bat and the character for
happiness are each pronounced fo. When there are five
bats, they symbolize the five blessings of longevity, rich-
es, peace, love of virtue, and "an end crowning the life,"
but this rebus is usually represented, for purposes of
design, by four bats surrounding the shou character.
Other rebus designs are suggested by such words as lu
(deer), lu (preferment); yu (fish), yu (abundance);
ch'ing (sounding stone), ch'ing (good luck); ch'ang
(the intestinal knot), ch'ang (long); tieh (butterfly),
tieh (to double). Since for every sound in the Chinese
spoken language there are a considerable number of
characters with different meanings, it is easily possible
-to read whole sentences out of any complicated decora-
tion composed of these symbols. For instance, a design
of nine lions sporting with balls of brocade ( chiu shih
t'ung chii), if spoken, may also mean "a family of nine
sons living together." A brush, an ink cake, and the so-
called ju-i scepter (pi ting ju-t"), if spoken, may mean
"May things be fixed according to your wish." The
peach symbolizes immortality and the pomegranate fer-
tility, the latter possibly an idea introduced from the
Near East.
What the flaming jewel which appears with the drag-
on symbolizes has never been satisfactorily explained. It
is sometimes given as the jewel of purity, and one hears
sometimes that a robe showing the dragon depicted as
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