Walls
This page includes views of walls and gates with pasted paper couplets (dui lian), carved stone plaques (bian'e) and stucco frescos in Quanzhou's old neighborhoods.
At left is a spirit wall inscription facing the gate of Cheng Tian Si, a temple of the Chan Buddhist sect and one of the largest temples in Quanzhou. The inscription reads, "The Buddhist Kingdom South of the Water Spring." The word for "spring," quan, may be a reference to the city of Quanzhou itself. |
This image shows a domestic spirit wall - a wall blocking the entry of "evil spirits" and holding the desirable qi within the home, which is on the right of the photo. As a practical device, the wall blocks views of the neighboring house on the left. Note the wall is inscribed with the character for good luck, fu. This tradition is part of the practice of feng shui, a Chinese belief system which describes the relation of qi and other forces of good and evil fortune to the arrangement of furnishings, buildings and landscape. |
Another way of treating walls so as to ward off bad luck or evil is to insert a special stone inscribed with "Shi Gan Dang" or "Tai Shan Shi Gan Dang," and sometimes also with a lion-like visage. Shi Gan Dang is the name of a mythical hero from Tai Shan in Shandong Province, who was adept at capturing demons. As more and more people from far and wide asked for his help, he could not handle all their requests in person, and so he arranged to have his name carved on stone tablets that would act as surrogates. The stones were placed at spots that were vulnerable according to the principles of feng shui: in walls facing the entrances to small lanes, or in the walls of houses at angles where neighbourhood lanes turn, or at T-junctions of lanes, in walls facing the leg of the "T". |
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Below are various doorways with pasted paper dui lian on either side of the door and heng fu on the lintel over the door. Couplets on paper are customarily pasted up on the Chinese New Year, or Chun Jie, and are thus called "chun lian." They are often written by a member of the community who is known for his or her good calligraphy, and is invited by the residents to write up enough copies of a couplet to paste on everyone's door. These couplets are then left in place until the following New Year. Because the paper is red, people also call the couplets hong lian. However, on the New Year following a death in the household, only white paper may be pasted up, and only blue-green paper on the New Year after that. On the third New Year, red paper may be used again. |
In this image, the right side of the chun lian reads, "Spring Light Shines on our Lucky Home;" the left side reads, "An Auspicious Air Fills the Splendid Hall;" the top heng fu reads, "Great Luck Arrives at the Door." Additional paper characters are pasted on the door itself. |
On this gate, the same chun lian as above is pasted on the right and left, but there is a different heng fu and different characters on the door. These read, "Gather Luck" and "Welcome the Spring." This gate is built at an oblique angle, probably for the same reason that spirit walls are built for other homes: to ward off evil and preserve good qi. |
This gate has not only the pasted paper chun lian (again,
the same as elsewhere in the neighborhood), but also a carved
stone bian'e over the lintel. This reads, "The Fragrant
Grass (fang cao) is Luxuriant," probably a reference to the poem by the Song
dynasty poet Su Shi which contains the line,
"Where under heaven is there no fragrant grass
(Tian ya he chu wu fang cao)?"
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At left is a fresco set inside a doorway of a wood-framed house. Next to the stucco panel with the fresco are faded words written directly on the wall, meaning "Home of the Chen Family." |
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Below are Mao-era adaptations of the same traditions illustrated above. |
At the far left is a bian'e inscribed over the
door that reads, "Long Live Chairman Mao." The left side of
the chun lian on this door reads, "Peace and Stability -
these two words are worth a thousand pieces of gold."
At near left is a fresco of the venerable Chairman's profile. |
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Source for notes on Shi Gan Dang and hong lian: Quanzhou Minju (Vernacular Houses of Quanzhou). Haifeng Chubanshe, 1996. |
