Arthur Robinson Wright

“ The warding-off-evil cash is a favourite charm for children, and on one side has felicitous or protective characters, and on the other the twelve animals of the Chinese duodenary time cycle, viz., the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, cock, dog, and pig. ”

“ Fig. 8 shows a brass tablet to be fixed against the wall of a house as a protection against the malignant ghost of one who has met a violent death there, and especially against the ghost of a suicide. The Chinese characters are a jumble, and may be either a kind of magic square or a meaningless formula to detain and harmlessly occupy the ghost in the same way as certain English charms against witches. ”

“ The older the mirror the greater its power. It may be flat, like the specimen exhibited, or convex, but must always be round. The eight felicitous words charms have various lucky inscriptions on one side, while the other is decorated with suitable birds, flowers, &c., one, however, being of special interest as it shows the god of the North Polar Star holding a pencil as the patron of learning and also the stars near the pole, in one of which is his home. ”

“ The koo tung king, or old brass mirror, is hung up outside a bed curtain or in a bedroom, and frightens away evil spirits by reflecting them, or heals those who have become mad through seeing an evil spirit. ”

“ The greater value placed upon a boy naturally leads to the use by women of charms to secure the birth of a son rather than of a daughter, and Fig. 7 shows nan tsien or male money worn for this purpose. ”

“ Fig. 1 shows T'ung chih or poetry cash, which protects wayfarers from accidents on land or sea. Twelve small cash are arranged in such an order that the names of the mints can be read as a jingle. The charm is most powerful if the cash are of the reign of the famous emperor K'ang-Hsi. Fig. 2 is bronze fêng tsien or dragon money; a protective against disease. The two dragons shown are two of the four divine beasts. Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate the Chinese estimate of woman, 3 being a pih kea so or hundred families, cash lock for a boy, and 4 a king keuen so or neck ring lock for a girl. ”

“ Importance is, however, attached by the Chinese not, as in the West, to the particular sentence chanced upon, but to the particular character touched. For instance, if this character includes the sign for "women," it is of evil significance. The pa kwa charm is to be seen everywhere in China, both as a personal amulet and on buildings, and especially on square boards erected on roofs. The specimen shown in Fig. 6 is intended for a roof beam. The different trigrams, reading from ☰ to the right in Fig. ”