Auspicious Container

The container from which the kingfisher feather ocean emerges, is decorated with five bats that surround the stylized Chinese character for long life ‘shou’. This is a common decoration with an auspicious meaning, which appears on numerous other objects. Bats (fú 蝠) form a homonym with fortune (fú 福). Five bats stand for the five blessings of good health, a long life, prosperity, a virtuous life, and a tranquil, natural death. The container here forms a decorated pedestal to the Kui Xing sculpture on top. Put on display in Taipei’s National Palace Museum, it is staged among other ‘ocean objects’ that include a large coral branch from the South China Sea as well as a Song dynasty celadon bowl overgrown by an oyster shell that formed part of the collections by Emperor Qianlong (r. 1735-1796).

Like the Kui Xing sculpture in which the natural form defines the outline of the sculpted figure, other Qing dynasty collectibles made from coral are equally formed by nature and human artifice.