China recently auctioned the largest gold coin the country has ever minted. In the year 2000 when it was produced, it held the distinction of being the largest gold coin in the world.
The coin sold for about $1.18 million (7.70 million yuan) at an auction conducted by China Guardian Auctions on May 14, 2011 in Beijing.
The “2000 Millennium Commemorative Gold Coin” has a face value of 30,000 yuan. The coin weighs 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and is 99.99 percent pure gold.
A total of 20 of these coins were minted with this coin being Number 17.
World’s Largest Gold Coin
While it may have been the largest gold coin in the world in 2000, it pales in comparison to the current record holder.
According to Guinness World Records, the largest gold coin in the world is now a coin minted by the Royal Canadian Mint in the year 2007. The legal-tender “Maple Leaf” coin has a purity of 99.999 percent and a face value of CAN$1 million. It weighs 100 kilograms (220 lbs). The diameter is 50 cm (19.6 inches) and the thickness is 3 cm (1.1 inches).
A total of 5 of these coins have been minted.
One of these Canadian gold coins sold for $4.02 million at auction in June 2010 in Vienna, Austria.
Cao Cao (曹操, 155-220 AD) was a warlord and a major historical figure of the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China.
Cao Cao had two sons. Both Cao Pi (曹丕) and Cao Zhi (曹植) were very intelligent but the younger Cao Zhi was exceptionally gifted.
At the left is a handmade charm dating from the Qing (Ch’ing) Dynasty (1644-1911). The inscription ba dou zhi cai (八斗之才) translates as “eight decalitres of talent”, or “eight bushels of talent”, and is based on a story involving the brothers Cao Pi and Cao Zhi.
Upon Cao Cao’s death, the elder son Cao Pi ascended the throne.
Unfortunately, Cao Pi was jealous of his younger brother’s talents and feared that he might cause problems.
In fact, Cao Pi was so mean-spirited that he devised a plan to kill his brother.
One day Cao Pi challenged his brother to compose a poem in less time than it would take for him to walk seven steps.
If he failed, he would be killed.
Cao Zhi asked his brother what the subject of the poem should be. Cao Pi replied that it must be “about brothers” but that the verse could not contain the word “brother”.
In deep contemplation, Cao Zhi began to walk but before he took the seventh step he stopped and recited the following verse which is now known as “The Seven Step Poem”: 煮豆燃豆萁,豆在釜中泣.本是同根生,相煎何太急.
People burn the beanstalk to boil beans,
The beans in the pot cry out,
We are born of the self same root,
Why should you torment me so much?
The implied meaning of the verse is “we are brothers of the same family so why should one oppress the other?”
Cao Zhi met his brother’s challenge and would continue to write many outstanding works during his lifetime.
Xie Lingyun (谢灵运, 385-433 AD), a famous poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, would later write: 天下才有一石(十斗),曹子建(曹植)独占八斗.
Heaven only gave the world ten dou in a dan* and Cao Zhi alone has eight of them.
Since that time, the expression “eight decalitres of talent” (cai gao ba dou 才高八斗), or “eight bushels of talent”, has referred to a person who is very gifted and has a great talent for writing.
* The dan (石) was the ancient Chinese measure for grain. One dan consisted of ten dou (斗). A more accurate translation would be “Cao Zhi had 8 dou of a total 10 dou (one dan) of the world’s talent”. The idiom, however, is usually translated into English using either the metric measure “eight decalitres (10 litres) of talent” or the British/American measure “eight bushels of talent”.
The “da guan tong bao” (大觀通寶) coin shown here was cast during the years 1107-1110 of the reign of Emperor Hui Zong of the Song Dynasty. The coin is considered one of the most beautiful of all Chinese coins due to its exquisite calligraphy. The Emperor himself did the calligraphy and his style has become known as “slender gold” script (shou jin shu 瘦金書).
The “da” (大) in the inscription means “great” and “guan” (觀) means “to behold” or “to gaze upon”.
Stars and star constellations were important to the ancient Chinese as sources of “light” and as symbols of deities and their residences.
“Guan” (觀) was also the word used for “gazing” at the stars and is found in such expressions as “guan tian wen” (觀天文) and “guan xing dou” (觀星斗) which mean to practice astronomy or astrology.
Even more interesting, the word “guan” (觀) can mean a Daoist monastery. Emperor Hui Zong was himself an ardent Daoist and openly promoted religious Daoism (Taoism) during his reign.
So, it is not surprising that the ancient Chinese would want to create charms with “star” themes based on the “da guan tong bao” coin.
At the left is a rubbing of the reverse side of such a “star” charm. The obverse side of the charm looks exactly like the “da guan tong bao” coin shown above.
The large dot or “star” at the very top represents the North Star (bei ji xing 北極星). The Chinese refer to this star as the “taiji” (太極) or “supreme ridgepole” and it was considered to be the central point from which the fabric of the heavens was suspended and around which all other heavenly bodies rotated.
To the right of the square hole is a series of seven dots or “stars” representing the “Northern Bushel” (beidou 北斗), “Ladle” or “Big Dipper”. The ancient Chinese saw this as the Emperor’s chariot which would rotate around the fixed North Star.
There are six dots or “stars” at the left of the square hole. If the dots were connected, the resulting line would resemble a “w” or “m” turned on its side. The Chinese refer to this “six star” constellation as xian hou zuo (仙后座) which is known in the West as the “five star” constellation “Cassiopeia”.
The “Big Dipper” and “Cassiopeia” are the two most prominent star patterns in the northern sky. They are always on opposite sides of the North Star, as shown on this charm, and rotate around the polar star once each day.
The Chinese call the five “star” cluster located below the square hole the tian qin xing zuo (天琴星座) which is known in the West as the constellation Lyra. The star at the top of the constellation is the “Girl Weaver Star” (zhi nu xing 織女星) which is the star Vega.
For more about the story of the “Weaver Girl”, and Chinese astronomy in general, please see Chinese Astronomy Coins.
Horse coins displaying a horse with a rider are much scarcer and those originating from the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) are particularly rare.
“Battle of Jimo” Horse Coin
The specimen at the left is a later version of one of these Song Dynasty horse coins with a rider.
Instead of honoring the horse, though, these horse coins commemorate the famous generals and battles of ancient Chinese history.
The inscription on the horse coin at the left is read in a clockwise order, beginning with the character at the top, as yan jiang yue yi (燕將樂毅).
The inscription translates as “General Yue Yi of the State of Yan”. (The name is sometimes translated as “General Le Yi of the State of Yan”.)
General Yue Yi with weapon on horseback
As can be seen here, the reverse side of the horse coin shows a man holding a spear-like weapon and riding a horse.
The rider is intended to be General Yue Yi who participated in the battle of Jimo which is one of the most famous battles of ancient China.
Sima Qian (司马迁) (145 BC – 86 BC), the great historian of the Han Dynasty, wrote about the battle of Jimo in his monumental work “Records of the Grand Historian” (史记).
Annotations by Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu (803-852 AD) to the famous Chinese military treatise “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu (Sunzi 孙子), written in the 6th Century BC during the Spring and Autumn Period (722 BC – 481 BC), included the Battle of Ji Mo to illustrate the successful application of the strategies by Sun Tzu.
A brief narrative of the Battle of Jimo is as follows.
In the year 284 BC, the state of Yan commenced a campaign to conquer the state of Qi. General Yue Yi led the Yan army and within the short span of only six months had conquered seventy of Qi’s cities.
In 283 BC, General Yue Yi attacked the city of Jimo. The commanding officer of Jimo died in the battle and was replaced by General Tian Dan who would become a major figure in the Battle of Jimo.
Having only 7,000 soldiers, General Tian Dan had to rely on superior tactics to inspire both his troops and the citizens to defend the city against the Yan army which was at least ten times as large.
Failing to take the city by force, General Yue Yi soon realized that the only way to victory was to somehow win the hearts of the people of Jimo and convince them that to surrender would be better than to continue to resist.
General Yue Yi therefore began a “benevolent” siege of the city which ended up lasting three years. His army, for example, provided food and water to the residents of the city and even allowed them to till their fields outside the city walls.
During this three year period, the king of Yan died and his son ascended to the throne. The son, unlike his father, was not pleased that General Yue Yi was unable to conquer Jimo.
Also, the new king harbored fears that General Yue Yi was interested in replacing him as king.
General Tian Dan of Jimo was keenly aware of this situation and, to foment discontent, secretly sent spies to the capital of Yan to spread rumors that General Yue Yi did indeed want to be king.
The rumors spread quickly and upon reaching the king’s ears only “confirmed” his suspicions. The king immediately replaced General Yue Yi as head of the army and installed a new general who would prove to be much less competent.
General Yue Yi, having lost his position, felt that the king would now try to eliminate any perceived threat to his power. Fearing the king would try to assassinate him, General Yue Yi sought refuge in the state of Zhao.
The new Yan army general abandoned the long siege and immediately commenced attacking the city. But again, due to the competent leadership of General Tian Di, the troops and citizens defended themselves successfully despite being greatly outnumbered.
To further strengthen his people’s resolve, General Tian Di sent spies into the camp of the Yan army to spread rumors that the people of the city would definitely surrender in fear if only the Yan soldiers were to “cut off the noses” of any captured Qi soldiers and also “dig up the graves of buried Qi ancestors”.
The new Yan army general fell for these lies and ordered his soldiers to do these exact things. As General Tian Di anticipated, these actions of savagery and desecration of the tombs so infuriated his troops and the residents of the city that they resolved to fight on at all costs.
With the unconditional backing of his people, General Tian Di knew that this was the opportune time to take the offensive. Knowing he did not have the number of troops to fight the enemy head on, he devised a very clever plan.
He had his soldiers gather a thousand oxen. He then had his men make the oxen look like “dragons” by tying daggers to their horns and lashing dried wood to their backs.
At midnight, General Tian Di opened the city gates and had his men set fire to the wood on the backs of the oxen which then stampeded directly towards the Yan army camp. In the darkness, the flaming oxen looked just like fiery dragons. The enraged “dragons” killed many of the sleeping enemy troops and simultaneously set fire to the camp. General Tian Di then ordered his five thousand soldiers to attack the much larger Yan army.
His tactics not only succeeded in defeating the Yan army at the city of Jimo, but the tide was now turned, and General Tian Di was eventually able to free from Yan rule all seventy cities.
Both General Tian Di, as well as the former Yan General Yue Yi, knew that the key to victory at Jimo depended on winning the hearts of the people. Whichever side succeeded in this endeavor would win the battle.
General Tian Di cleverly turned the enemy’s king against the competent leader of his own army. And by devising a plan which enticed the Yan army into adopting tactics so despicable that the residents of Jimo vowed to defend the city to the very end, General Tian Di was able to turn an almost certain defeat into one of the great victories in Chinese history.
The ban liang coin was the official money of the state of Qin during the Warring States period. When Qin Shi Huang conquered the various “warring states” and unified China for the first time in 221 BC, the ban liang became the official coinage of the empire. The ban liang continued as the official currency even into the beginning of the Han Dynasty.
An article in a Chinese numismatic publication introduces a newly discovered and never seen before variety of the Chinese ban liang coin. In addition to the normal square hole in the center of the coin, these coins have an additional one or two holes drilled into them.
The Volume One 2010 edition of “China Numismatics” has an article entitled “Zhangjiachuan Prefecture Excavates ‘Drilled Hole’ Ban Liang“.
The author explains that in the summer of 2006 he bought about 200 recently unearthed ban liang coins. The coins were excavated in Zhangjiachuan prefecture of Gansu Province in northwest China.
Among the coins purchased were a few of a variety that had neither been seen before or reported in the literature.
As can be seen in the illustration*, these coins have one or two additional holes.
The author states that these coins were cast in the state of Qin during the middle to late Warring States Period (475 BC – 221 BC). The coins range in diameter of 23-33 mm and in weight of 1-8 grams.
The coin shown here has the largest drilled hole but is actually the smallest and lightest of the coins with a diameter of 23 mm and a weight of only 1 gram.
The additional holes are in various areas above or below the square hole. Some have one large hole while others have two smaller holes.
The author carefully examined each coin and determined that the holes, while not perfectly round, were definitely intentionally made by hand after the casting of the coin. The holes are not the result of poor casting technique. The holes were apparently drilled in the larger and thicker areas of each coin and placed so as to avoid damaging the Chinese character inscription.
Unfortunately, the specifics as to where the coins were dug up is unknown so we do not know if the coins were buried in a pit or came from a tomb. Knowing whether the coins came from a buried cache or from a grave could help provide an explanation as to the reason for the holes.
The author speculates that the holes were not made so that the coins could be worn as an ornament or pendant because the off-center placement of the holes would not allow the coin to hang correctly.
Since coins were a symbol of wealth, it is possible that they may have been burial objects.
The author concludes that no matter what the ultimate purpose, the holes were intentionally handmade and not the result of inferior casting technique.
As I discuss in detail at “Emergence of Chinese Charms“, ban liang coins began to appear with various marks and symbols at the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD). These symbols include “stars” (dots), “moons” (crescents), “suns” (circles), etc., and symbols on coins gradually became more and more complex until they finally developed into true charms and amulets.
While the purpose of the additional holes on the newly discovered ban liang coins remain unknown, they may very well have been the precursor to the “stars” ,”moons” and “suns” that appeared on the later Han Dynasty coins.
* Color added to black & white image to enhance features
In ancient times just as today, people were concerned about their safety when they traveled. So it is not surprising that safe journey or safe travel charms compose a major category of old Chinese charms.
Safe Passage Charm
A rubbing of one of the more interesting examples of this type of charm is shown here.
The inscription, written in seal script, reads “shui lu ping an” which literally means “may you have peace by land and water” or, more simply, “I wish you a safe journey”.
The reverse side has an unusual mix of Chinese charm symbols.
Above the square hole are seven dots connected by a zigzag line which represents the star constellation known as the “Big Dipper” or “Ladle”.
Weapons, Big Dipper and Trigram
The “Big Dipper” was seen by the ancient Chinese as the Emperor’s chariot which, rotating around the fixed and unmoving North Star, demonstrated his control over the universe.
Below the hole is one of the “eight trigrams” (bagua). This is the trigram kan which represents “water” and the direction “north”.
To the left and right of the hole are ancient Chinese blade weapons.
The weapon depicted to the left of the square hole has particular significance. It is a guan dao or “Green Dragon Crescent Blade”. The notch in the blade was to catch and parry the enemy’s weapon.
This was the weapon of choice of Guan Yu, who was originally a beancurd seller, but who joined with Liu Bei and became immortalized as a military hero during the period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280 AD).
History, legend and myth gradually merged over the centuries to make Guan Yu the “God of War”.
The weapon to the right of the center hole is known as a “Trident”. It was primarily used as a hunting weapon but one which could also be thrown.
The linking of the “Big Dipper” with swords established the belief that the weapons could be used not only in wars against human enemies but in battles against evil spirits as well.
The images of the bladed weapons, the Big Dipper and the “water” trigram, along with the association of the “God of War”, combined to provide powerful protection to a person whether he traveled by land or sea.
Boxers with Weapons
But there are some who believe that this “charm” played a role even more important than simply being a travel talisman.
Around the year 1900, there was a secret society in China consisting primarily of poor peasants and workers known as the “Righteous Fists of Harmony” (yi he tuan) which opposed various “evils” affecting the country. These evils included the opium trade, foreign imperialism, unequal treaties and Christian missionary work.
The “Righteous Fists of Harmony” became the “Righteous Harmony Society” and adopted the slogan “support the Qing, destroy the Foreign”.
The group believed that a mixture of the martial arts, spirit possession, and swords, would make them invulnerable to guns.
This ragtag army became known as the “Boxers” and the uprising is referred to as the “Boxer Rebellion“. The rebellion, however, was ultimately put down by the combined forces of eight foreign countries.
The Chinese charm dates from this same time period and is believed by some to have been a secret “badge” carried by members of the Boxers. As can be seen in the illustration above, which dates from the year 1900, the weapons used by the Boxers were the same as those displayed on the charm.
As already mentioned, the trigram kan represents “water”. According to the Daoists, nothing is softer or weaker than water. But water can wear away even the hardest substance. The trigram is thus a symbol that a mass movement of Chinese peasants could defeat the smaller but better equipped army of Western “devils”.
The “Righteous Harmony Society” was organized into eight groups named after the eight trigrams with one of the groups being the “Kan Trigram (Group) of the Righteous Harmony Society”.
The trigram kan also represents the direction “north” and the Boxers were from northern China.
Many old Chinese charms were created with the purpose of ensuring protection during a person’s comings and goings. This particular charm has the additional distinction of being involved in one of the major historical events leading up to the collapse of the 2,000 year old Chinese empire.
“Open work” charms are among the most interesting and oldest of all Chinese charms. These are bronze charms which have irregular shaped “openings” or “holes” between very exquisite design elements.
The themes are purely pictorial so there is rarely any Chinese character or inscription. Also, owing to the design, both sides of the charm are identical.
The most common themes seen in open work charms include animals, particularly dragons, and flowers. Themes including people and buildings are much less common.
Chinese Pavilion Open Work Charm
One of the most interesting themes is a scene from a pavilion or temple complex as shown in the rubbing at the left.
There are a number of activities taking place.
Just above the square hole in the middle is a two-story pavilion. Inside can be seen a person playing the guqin. The guqin is an ancient Chinese stringed musical instrument closely associated with Confucius and the scholarly class. In the scene shown here, the guqin is the horizontal line upon which the musician has placed his hands.
There is one person each in the the small pavilions at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. While we cannot be certain, they may be composing poetry or practicing calligraphy or painting.
There are two additional figures, near the bottom center of the charm, seated between these two pavilions. They are playing the Chinese game weiqi (围棋) or go and the board with little round pieces can be seen between them.
In the very center of the charm is an arched bridge surrounded by a railing.
At the 5 o’clock and 7 o’clock positions are “longevity stones“. “Longevity stones” are strange-shaped rocks which by their very age symbolize “long life”.
Also, just above the small pavilions on the right and left are bamboo trees. Bamboo symbolizes the Confucian scholar because it is seen as being upright, strong and resilient yet gentle, graceful and refined.
The charm appears to portray the leisurely and carefree life of scholars and retired officials although others believe that the scene is actually an idealized “Temple of Confucius” and that the individuals represent Confucius himself.
One characteristic of pavilion charms is that, unlike other types of open work charms, the center hole tends to be square instead of round.
Pavilion open work charms of this type first appeared during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and most are believed to have been cast in Dali, Yunnan Province.
According to recent reports, the Chinese have been looking for new gift ideas for the major holidays which differ from the more traditional gifts of wine, cigarettes, moon cakes, etc.
Of course, the most traditional gift has always been the giving of paper money in a red envelope.
In line with the rapidly rising standard of living, many people are now interested in “updating” this traditional form of gift giving.
Instead of giving ordinary paper money, many Chinese are now giving “birthday banknotes”.
A “birthday banknote” is paper money which has a serial number in the same sequence as a particular date or, in this case, the birthday of the person receiving the gift.
While most “birthday banknotes” are paper money currently in circulation, there is new interest in giving the older historic banknotes.
The banknote shown here was actually issued in 1936.
The serial number is D880817.
Since the Chinese express dates in the order year, month and day, the serial number on this old note can be read as 1988 August 17.
The chance of finding a bill in circulation with the specific date you are seeking is, of course, extremely small. And, if you want an older banknote then the quest is even more difficult.
But as you might expect in a country with a rapidly growing economy, there are now companies which specialize in selling “birthday banknotes” both recent and old.
For example, the “birthday banknote” displayed here had a denomination of “20 cents” in 1936 but can be bought from one of these dealers today for 50 yuan or about US$8.00.
Finally, giving an old Chinese banknote can be considered as a “gift which keeps on giving” since it is seen as a good form of investment and prices are expected to continue to rise.
Vignettes (pictures) on old Chinese paper money, including the archway at the entrance of the Cemetery of Confucius shown on this banknote, are discussed in detail at Chinese Paper Money.
I received a fascinating email from a visitor to my website from Kazakhstan in which he described a rare ancient zodiac charm in his possession.
The Chinese zodiac is based on a twelve year cycle with an animal having unique qualities representing each year. The zodiac charm discussed here has the animals displayed on one side. The other side has a Chinese inscription and symbols including several swastikas.
The visitor’s story is so interesting that I am going to let him speak for himself:
Ancient Kazakhstan Zodiac Charm with Chinese Characters and Swastikas
“Actually my interest in zodiac charms has appeared because I have one. One great archaeologist gifted it to my grandfather many years ago. It was found around 1940-1950 in the Southern Kazakhstan. Photos of mine charm are attached to this mail. It’s size is 43 mm in diameter, 2mm – thickness. It is made of bronze.
“Our national institute of archeology have carefully viewed this charm and have stated that it’s age seems to be about 1st. century BCE. As I’ve discovered from your web site, it was the period of occurrence of such kind of charms (Han Dynasty), and the rise of popularity of them was few ages later till Ming Dynasty.
Ancient Kazakhstan Charm Displaying Zodiac Animals
“One interesting thing about my charm is that the statements in Chinese on the front side of it are translated as follows: “The first one”, “The honorable”, “The noble”, or “I’m the noble”, “I’m the first”, “I’m the honorable”. Our scientists say, that it is possible, that this charm was owned by some powerful person, or family chief, etc. As it was stated on your web site, there were a great numbers of charms, depicting different purposes: for good luck, for marriage, for some other purposes. Basing on such type of categories, I’m concluding, that my charm appears to be the charm of “power”, or the charm of “gentility”. Did you ever hear about charms of “power” or “gentility”?
“As you’ve quoted, the practical reason of the square holes in charms is that they were put on the square metal rod to remove the extra metal on the rim of the coins. By isn’t is a technological development for cutting the extra metal? I mean that maybe first coins and charms didn’t have any square holes, and only after technological development, the holes appeared as we can see them? This hypothesis corresponds to the age of my charm – 1 st. century BCE, when the process of making metal coins and charms was just developing, so that’s why my charm doesn’t have any square holes. What do you think of it? Or I might be mistaken?”
The pertinent parts of my reply follow:
“None of my Chinese reference books discuss any charm quite like yours. It may very well have originated in the ancient lands of Kazakhstan and therefore have distinctive characteristics particular to that region of the world.
“I am not familiar with charms of “power”. However, there were tallies, such as the famous “tiger tallies”, used in ancient China as symbols of authority. Perhaps your charm had a similar purpose.
“The very first Chinese money did not have holes in the middle. In fact, they were not even round and did not resemble coins as we know them. They were based on implements such as shovels and knives.
“I should have mentioned in my first message that another reason ancient Chinese coins had a hole in the center was that their value was fairly low (especially compared to gold, silver and jade) and to make purchases a person needed to use many coins. The hole in the middle facilitated carrying the coins because the coins could be placed on a string. A typical “string” of cash coins might have 100 or 1,000 coins.
“Early charms tended to be modeled after coins and therefore most had a square or round hole in the center. The charm could be worn around the neck as a necklace or hung from the waist. However, there was no need to carry a large number of charms on a string so, unlike coins, the hole in the center was not really needed. As is the case with your charm, a number of charms were made as pendants to be worn.
“This is the practical reason why most Chinese coins and charms have square holes.
The Chinese have a long history in regard to the quest for longevity.
Qin Shi Huang (259 BC – 210 BC), the first emperor of China, sent expeditions looking for the mystical Penglai Island, where the immortals lived, in his quest to obtain the elixir of life which would allow him to live forever.
His search for the elixir of immortality actually cost him his life. He died after eating pills meant to make him immortal but which were made from mercury.
While longevity was important to the Confucians because they believed that wisdom came with age, it was a primary pursuit of the Daoists because they, like Emperor Qin Shi Huang, wanted to become immortal and live forever.
For this reason, there is a large variety of Daoist charms relating to longevity.
Daoist Charm with Immortal, Incense Burner, Crane and Tortoise
As an example, here is a rubbing of an old Daoist longevity charm which is both unusual in its shape and not often found.
At the top center is a small hole from which the charm could be hung.
Shown at the right is an “immortal”. The “circle” surrounding the head designates the person as someone special in a manner similar to a “halo” found in Western paintings.
The Immortal is sitting under a pine tree. In the sky is a moon (larger circle beneath the hole) surrounded by clouds.
Immediately to the left of the “immortal” is a four-legged incense burner or cauldron on a stand.
To the left of the incense burner is a crane with an open mouth and at the extreme left corner is a tortoise.
The very bottom of the charm consists of leaves on a peach branch with a peach at the very center.
The symbols on this charm are all associated with “longevity”. The immortal, of course, is one who lives forever. The crane, tortoise, peach and pine tree are all symbols of longevity.
The cauldron or incense burner alludes to the Daoist quest to find the “elixir of immortality”. The Daoists believed in alchemy and the incense burner or cauldron symbolizes their attempt to make the “elixir of immortality” from cinnabar (mercury).
The “moon” is a reference to the story of the “Moon Hare” (“Jade Rabbit”) who pounds leaves of the cassia (cinnamon) tree with mortar and pestle in an attempt to make the “pill of immortality”.
The “peach” is the food of the immortals. It is associated with the Queen Mother of the West who had a peach orchard. Eating one of these peaches would allow a person to live 3,000 years.
The reverse side of the charm has a large character written in what is known as Daoist “magic writing” or “magic script”. Unfortunately, with the possible exception of Daoist priests, the meaning of these characters remain unknown.
However, this particular character is very similar to the character located to the left of the round hole on an old Daoist charm of mine. While the exact meaning of the character on my charm is unknown, it happens to be paired together with the Chinese character “chang” which means “long”. Again, it is unknown if this pairing has any relationship or not.
Daoist charms of this type first appeared during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) although later reproductions also exist.
The four Chinese characters at the “corners” of the charm are taken from a poem written by Bai Juyi (772-846 AD) who was a very famous poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).
The poem is entitled “Song of Unending Sorrow” or “Song of Everlasting Regret” and describes the great love of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762 AD) for his beautiful consort Yang Guifei, and his deep sorrow upon her death.
The Chinese characters on the charm are as follows.
The character at the upper left is “spring” (chun). The character at the lower right is “wind” (feng). The character at the upper right is “peach” (tao), and the character at the lower left is “plum” (li).
The inscription is read in the same order as “spring, wind, peach, plum”.
These are the first four characters of a line from the poem which translates as “Gone were the breezy spring days when the peach and plum trees were in bloom”.
Yang Guifei is considered to have been one of the most beautiful woman in Chinese history and is known as one of the Four Beauties.
A different charm with an inscription that refers to this love affair is discussed here.
I had not seen this particular charm before and have not been able to find it in any of my reference books. I am not even sure it is Chinese. It could be Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese or Vietnamese.
Also, based on the image, I do not think it is “old”. My guess is that it was privately cast sometime during the 20th century.
I received an email regarding a Chinese tradition of girls hanging little shoe charms over their beds in the hope of finding love:
“Recently I was in Cape Cod and went to a very interesting store where a woman was selling ancient Chinese charms.
“She told me the story of how Chinese girls used to hang these little shoe charms over their bed for good luck in finding love.
“I bought a pair of these tiny shoes because I loved the novelty behind it. (They are only about an inch long).
“Is this a true tale and, if so, would you be able to give me more info about it?”
My reply is as follows:
Customs and symbols vary widely in China because of its large territory and long history. I have not actually seen the little shoe charms you mention but I will try to offer one possible origin for the custom.
Small shoes mean small feet.
During ancient times, Chinese men found women with small feet to be particularly attractive. Since women with small feet were considered more attractive, their chances of finding a husband were enhanced.
Therefore, a “small shoe” charm should bring good luck in finding a husband.
You must understand that by “small” feet we mean really small. In this case, we are talking about a total foot length of about 3 inches from toes to heel. This did not occur naturally but was accomplished through the barbaric practice of foot-binding.
For a girl, foot-binding started at a very young age, usually at 3-5 years of age, and continued for the rest of her life. It was an extremely painful process where the foot was bound in such a way that the toes were forced down and back towards the heel.
Such small feet were referred to as “lotus feet” and the small shoes that were worn were called “lotus shoes”.
Girls with bound-feet were considered more desirable for a number of reasons. Because they could not walk normally, they were perceived to be of a “higher status” since they did not have to work in the fields like the vast majority of girls.
Men also found women with bound feet to have more sex appeal for several reasons.
One reason was that women with bound-feet walked in a swaying and seductive manner similar to women who wear high heels.
Also, men believed a woman’s foot was, in a sense, the center of sexuality which should be covered from public view. Even more importantly, it was believed that foot-binding made a women’s vagina narrower and thus provide more pleasure to the man during sexual intercourse.
As a consequence, a woman with bound feet would have more chances to become pregnant and give birth to more male babies which, in a traditional Confucian culture, would bring her more prestige.
Families realized that they would have a better opportunity to improve their own status if their daughters married well and produced male offspring so even poor families wanted for their daughters to be foot-bound if possible.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not familiar with the small shoe charm you purchased so the above discussion is just speculation on my part concerning the possible origin of such a custom.
In conclusion, I would like to mention that shoes were an important symbol in other areas of ancient Chinese culture as well. Shoes were a symbol of wealth (resemble silver ingots) and fertility as I explain at “Hidden Meaning of Chinese Charm Symbols” and shoes also played an important role in the traditional marriage ceremony as discussed at Ancient Chinese Marriage Charms.
