The Chinese have been producing coin-shaped charms and amulets in a variety of themes for more than 2,000 years. One of the most visually appealing types of charms involves scenes of people. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to interpret what historic or legendary scene is being presented. The charm at the left is frequently referred [...]
Chinese charms
An article in “The Oriental Collection” (dongfang shoucang 东方收藏) introduced a rarely seen Chinese charm from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). One side of the charm has the inscription gui zi lan sun (桂子蘭孫). Gui (桂) refers to a plant known as the “cassia” and zi (子) refers to “seeds”. Lan (蘭) is the “orchid” and [...]
A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same forward or backwards. For example, “rats live on no evil star” is the same whether you read it left to right or right to left. Creating palindromes is actually much easier in Chinese, which uses “characters”, than in English which uses an alphabet. If [...]
The first Chinese machine-made cash coins were minted during the reign (1875-1908) of Emperor De Zong of the Qing Dynasty. As seen at the left, these brass coins had the inscription guang xu tong bao (光緒通寶). Many of these coins were struck at the mint in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province during the years 1889-1908. Another coin [...]
Zithers and grasshoppers may seem like an unlikely combination but they are the theme of an old Chinese charm. The zithers in this case refer to the ancient Chinese musical instruments of the qin (琴) and the se (瑟). The qin or guqin (古琴) is a seven-stringed zither which was the instrument played by the [...]
A Chinese charm displaying non-Chinese characters was recently featured on the website of the Beijing Hanhai Auction Company (北京翰海拍卖有限公司). The only information provided, besides its size and weight, is that the charm “has writing from one of the ethnic minority groups of China”. No translation is offered nor is there any hint as to the [...]
The Liao Dynasty (辽朝 916-1125) was ruled by a nomadic people known as the Qidan (Khitan 契丹) and occupied an area of the northern prairies of China that included Manchuria, a portion of Mongolia, as well as parts of Hebei and Shanxi provinces. Charms from the Liao Dynasty are fairly rare and, because the Qidan [...]
One of the major characteristics of Chinese charms is the rebus or “visual pun” where a picture is used to represent a word. While it can sometimes be challenging, it is always interesting to figure out what, at first glance, the haphazard collection of animals and objects displayed on a Chinese charm are supposed to [...]
In ancient China, charms were created to promote good luck and fortune in the major events of a person’s life such as marriage, the birth of children and promotion to an important government position. The celebration of sports was not a major theme of either Chinese coins or charms until very modern times with the [...]
One of the most commonly seen Chinese “good luck” pictures is the “Four Happiness Boys” (si xi wa 四喜娃). This is the image of two boys which are connected in such a way as to give the illusion there are four boys. This motif dates from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). A picture of the [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]