Quick Answer: What Do Five Bats Surrounding Shou Mean?
Five bats surrounding shou (五蝠捧寿, wǔ fú pěng shòu) is a Chinese motif that combines the Five Blessings (五福, wǔfú) with a wish for long life. Five bats form a ring around the shou character (寿／壽, shòu), often written in a rounded style.[1][2]
- Bats. Their name contains 蝠 (fú), which sounds like 福 (fú), or blessing.[1]
- Number. Count five bats in one group.[2][3]
- Center. Look for the written longevity character in the open space inside the ring.[2][3]
The whole pattern can recur several times on one bowl or robe.
On a yellow Qing porcelain bowl, the same small circle of bats repeats around the wall and lid. Each circle carries its own count. The design can be read from one group even when most of the bowl is out of view.
How to Recognize the Five-Bat Roundel
Find the shou character first. Its strokes may bend into a circle, so it can look like a geometric seal until you trace the lines. Around it, look for five compact bodies with wings extending to each side. On embroidery, the neighboring wings can touch or interlock.[2][3][4]
Count each head and body once. A pair of wings may look like two separate scrolls when the motif is small. If the design runs around a vessel, turn it or compare several views to find the boundary of each group. On a robe, check where one roundel ends before counting the next.[2][4]
What the Five Blessings Mean
The traditional list includes long life, wealth, health and peace, love of virtue, and reaching the end of one’s natural lifespan. The Palace Museum cites a Ming commentary on the Book of Documents that discusses these as distinct blessings. The roundel evokes the group as a whole. The catalogue reads the five animals together as a reference to the complete group.[1][4]
The pictured bats supply the sound for blessing. The written character at the center names longevity directly. Other examples of bat symbolism in Chinese culture use the same sound to make different wishes. In a double coin composition, a bat can help express the wish that blessing and long life come together.
How the Motif Appears on Porcelain, Jade and Silk
A yellow-ground covered bowl of the Tongzhi period in the Palace Museum was made for Empress Dowager Cixi’s birthday. The catalogue records four groups of the motif on the lid and four on the outside of the bowl, with peach branches in the intervening decoration. The imperial commission gives this example a documented birthday setting. The peach branches continue the longevity theme between the roundels.[2]
A round Qing jade box in the National Palace Museum in Taipei has a geometric shou surrounded by bats on the lid and a plain body. The box belonged to a set for burning incense, with a vessel and a burner. On an early eighteenth-century silk robe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, five interlocking bats and shou recur in embroidered roundels. The jade box concentrates the design on a single surface. The robe uses the repeated roundels to carry it across a much larger one.[3][4]
FAQs About Five Bats Surrounding Shou
What if there are only four bats?
Four bats can surround shou in a related composition. Count the visible bats in the group and check the museum’s description for how that object is read.[5][6]
Can peaches replace the shou character?
Peaches can express long life and can appear beside bats. The specific motif named here has a written shou at the center, even when peaches also appear elsewhere on the object.[2][6]
Sumber
[1] The Palace Museum. Five Bats, Catalogue Glossary
[2] The Palace Museum. Yellow-Ground Covered Bowl with Five Bats Surrounding Shou
[3] National Palace Museum. Jade Box with Five Bats Encircling a Shou Character
[4] The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Woman’s Ceremonial Robe, object 43.119
[5] Asian Art Museum. Dish with Bats and Peaches
[6] The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Chinese Textiles: An Introduction, p. 74