Category: Chinese charms

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I received an email from a visitor to my website asking if I could provide him with any information on the charm shown here.

The area surrounding the square hole shows four couples making love in various positions.  (Or, one couple making love in four positions.)

Charms of this type are actually fairly common.

The charm is modeled after this charm discussed in detail at Chinese Marriage Charms.

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 the following inquiry:

“I have been trying to decipher, without total success, a chinese cast bronze charm – my very tentative guess would be Ming Dynasty – and wondered if I could send along a digital image of the two sides?

On the front side two of the characters are (I believe) for longevity, but the other two I do not know.

The reverse has a male figure (left) and female figure (right), with what looks like a folded big dipper above and a design in a cartouche below.

Please let me know if I can send scans.

Thanks!”

My reply was as follows:

The inscription reads chang sheng bao ming.  The chang sheng would translate as “long life” and bao ming translates as “protect life”.

The symbols on the reverse side are as follows:
1.  At the top are seven dots connected by a zigzag line which is meant to represent the “Big Dipper“.
2.  The figure at the left is “Dong Wang Gong”, the Royal Lord of the East, who was actually King Mu of the Zhou (Zhou Mu Wang).
3.  The figure at the right is the Queen Mother of the West (Xi Wang Mu).
4.  At the bottom is a circle (which represents the moon).  Inside the circle is a rabbit using a pestle and mortar.

The scene describes King Mu asking the Queen Mother of the West to give him the drug of immortality.  The drug of immortality was made by the rabbit that lived on the moon.

Because of the wear on the charm, it is difficult to see the rabbit.  If you look closely at the circle, the rabbits ears are at the 12 o’clock position, the tail is at 3 o’clock, and the legs are at 5 o’clock.  The rabbit is facing left and slightly bent over.  The rabbit is making the drug of immortality using the pestle and mortar.  The top of the pestle is pointing to the 11 o’clock position.

It is very difficult to date charms but charms like this first appeared in the Jin (1115-1234) or Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.

A size of 58 mm is about right for this charm.

Hope you find the above information helpful.

Thanks for writing,
Gary

I frequently receive correspondence from people who have a coin or charm they would like identified.

The following is my reply to such an inquiry and I have attached a rubbing of the charm for reference.

It is a charm.

However, it is based on an ancient form of spade money called a “Huo Bu”.  If you visit my Chinese Spade Charms web page you will see a real “Huo Bu” cast in the year 14 AD during the reign of Wang Mang.

As best I can tell from reference books, your charm is actually fairly modern.  Apparently, it first appeared during the early years of the Republic of China sometime after 1911.  From your photos, I would say that your particular charm is a very recent copy of this older charm.

One of my reference books says that this charm may actually be Japanese and not Chinese.

The charm has some interesting features.  It has the same Chinese inscription “Huo Bu” as the original Wang Mang spade coin upon which it is based.  It is much much bigger in size.  Just above the Chinese characters is the seven star “Big Dipper”constellation.  There is a snake on the lower right foot and a “three -legged toad” on the left foot.

The reverse side has the sun (the dot) and moon (crescent) at the upper left.  At the upper right are three stars connected by a line.  This refers to the three “Star Gods”.  The two “human figures” are unknown.  On the right foot may be a heron or egret.  I am not certain what symbol is on the left foot but I believe it is a tortoise exhaling an “auspicious cloud“.

To learn more about these symbols, please look under the appropriate entry at my Hidden Meaning web page.

I hope the above is helpful to you.

Thank you for writing,
Gary