A curved circle, three short lines, a written character, a gourd, and a coin-shaped charm communicate in different ways. When these appear on Chinese jewelry, calling them all “good luck symbols” can hide the details that make each interesting. Some express a wish; others describe relationships or belong to a particular religious tradition.
Begin by identifying what kind of sign you are looking at. Is it writing to be read, a diagram whose parts relate to one another, or the shape of an object with a story? That first distinction gives you a better starting point than assigning a promised result to the whole design.
Yin yang: look at the relationship inside the circle
The yin yang symbol name is Taijitu, meaning “Taiji diagram.” The familiar yin yang diagram has two curved halves, each containing a dot of the other color. In the usual black-and-white version, yin is black and yang is white. The colors identify contrasting qualities within a shared whole.
The Tao Te Ching, an important Taoist text associated with Laozi, describes all things as carrying yin and embracing yang. It gives a textual starting point for understanding why both belong in the picture. Covering half the circle would remove part of the relationship it represents.
The dots also matter. They interrupt the impression that either side is entirely separate. A common reading treats them as a sign of mutual presence and the possibility of change. This is why “balance” is more useful here when it means attention to a changing relationship than when it means dividing every day into equal portions.
For a closer reading of the colors, curve, and dots, see our guide to yin yang and the Taiji symbol.
Bagua: count the lines before reading the meaning
The Bagua are the Eight Trigrams: eight arrangements of three lines, each line either solid or broken. The three-line structure distinguishes a trigram from a character or an ornamental stripe.
The Explanation of the Trigrams, part of the Book of Changes tradition, associates the eight signs with heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, and lake. These images give readers ways to think about different conditions and kinds of action. Mountain, for example, is associated with stopping; thunder with movement.
A yin yang circle surrounded by trigrams therefore brings together two related forms of imagery. The center presents a paired relationship; the surrounding signs differentiate patterns within the changing world. If you want to identify a particular trigram, compare its lines in a clearly oriented reference chart rather than guessing from a tilted photograph.
Our Bagua guide introduces the eight names and their line patterns.
Fu: begin by reading the character
福, pronounced fú, means good fortune or blessing. Its starting point is language. Recognizing the character lets you read a wish that might otherwise look like an abstract pattern.
The Book of Documents gives one classical account of the breadth of that wish through five blessings: longevity, wealth, health and peace, love of virtue, and a life reaching its natural end. This provides a richer cultural context than translating every 福 simply as financial luck.
A useful question is whose well-being the sign brings to mind. It may express a wish for oneself, a household, or someone absent. Those are possible personal connections with the written blessing; they need not all apply to the same object.
Hulu: read the gourd with its companions
The hulu, or gourd, often appears as two rounded chambers joined at a narrow waist. Its meaning becomes clearer when you look at what accompanies it. The Met’s Panel with gourds on vines places a written wish for great good fortune on the central gourd. Here, image and inscription work together.
A gourd beside the Taoist immortal Li Tieguai belongs to another recognizable setting. In the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s account of his image, it contains medicine for helping the sick. The figure supplies a religious story that the gourd’s outline alone does not identify.
This is a good reason to resist a single definition for every gourd motif. Shape can begin the identification; accompanying writing and figures narrow the interpretation.
Charm coins: the inscription is part of the identity
A coin-shaped ornament may carry writing, figures, trigrams, or a combination of them. Read those details before deciding what the coin means. The National Museum of History identifies one Shan Gui example as a Taoist charm, made for auspicious and protective purposes rather than ordinary payment.
Its thunder command and reference to Lord Lao, the divine Laozi, give the object a specific religious context. The outline of a coin by itself would not tell that story. It also would not justify treating every Chinese coin motif as the same type of Taoist charm.
Our Shan Gui coin guide follows the writing and the Eight Trigrams on its two faces.
Bring the details back together
Once you have identified the separate signs, look at how they meet. A gourd with 福 on it combines an object form with a written blessing. A coin with a thunder command and trigrams gathers a religious appeal and a diagrammatic account of the world onto one surface. These are examples of how to read combinations, not descriptions of every design in those shapes.
Chinese visual culture gives these motifs overlapping lives in religious practice, philosophy, and everyday wishes. Their meanings become more precise when we attend to those settings. A personal connection can then grow from something understood: a particular blessing, a remembered household, or an idea about how to respond to change.
References
- Dao De Jing — Laozi; translation and notes by Bruce R. Linnell, Project Gutenberg
- Yijing, Explanation of the Trigrams — classical Chinese text, Wikisource
- Book of Documents (Shangshu), Great Plan — classical Chinese text, Wikisource
- Panel with gourds on vines — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 59.18
- Hanging Cash: Two Immortals Cao Guojiu and Li Tieguai — University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1989/2.131
- Shan Gui Thunder Command Charm — National Museum of History, 05807; Ministry of Culture Collections
- Yinyang — Robin R. Wang, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Taiji diagram — Taoism and the Arts of China, The Art Institute of Chicago
Image license for National Museum of History accession 05807: CC BY 3.0 Taiwan, or later as specified by the source.