an upside down bat
A particularly charming aspect of jade renderings is the hidden meaning in the carvings. Jade carvings are often,aion kinah, symbolic puns on spoken Chinese. Bats, for example, are a symbol of happiness or blessings because the spoken syllable for bat (fu) sounds the same as that of blessing. Bats are often shown upside down because the Chinese word dao (upside down) is a pun on the word "arrived," so an upside down bat implies that happiness has arrived. The swastika is a visual pun on the word wan meaning "ten thousand," making the whole object a symbolic,maplestory mesos, invocation of 10,000 blessings. The three legged toad symbolizes prosperity; the peach, longevity; and ducks, marital bliss. The variety of symbols is seemingly infinite, and trying to decipher the secret messages in old carvings is another aspect that makes jade collecting an addictive pastime.
The cryptic message in jade is called a rebus, a riddle composed of words with syllables depicted by symbols or pictures that suggest the sound of the words or syllables they represent. For example, a common,lotro gold, rebus for blessings is the foshou or Buddha's hand citron, a fruit which resembles Buddha's fingers. When the Buddha's hand citron is combined with the peach and pomegranate, it forms the motif of "the ,cabal gold,three plenties" - a wish for abundance of blessings, longevity and offspring.
In China, xi or happiness, was often represented by the magpie whose name (xi) is a pun for happiness. A magpie perched on the top of prunus branch (mei), which stands for eyebrows, represents a rebus for "happiness up to one's eyebrows." Two magpies become a symbol for double happiness.
The flower that symbolizes marriage is the lotus (hehua or lianhua). He is a pun for harmony while lian is a pun for continuous, therefore, a wish for continuous harmony. The lotus is one of the few flowers whose seedpod is already present when the flower begins to bloom. To the,RIFT sales, Chinese, this excellent omen prophesied the early arrival of sons. Other symbols of marriage include the double fish, a symbol of fertility and conjugal bliss; fish and water (a rebus for "may you agree like fish and water"), and a pair of mandarin ducks, symbols of fidelity and a happy marriage. The crab (a pun for xie) holding a stalk of grain is yet another rebus for harmony.
