TutuHaoyi

Understanding the meaning of traditional Chinese artworks; Decoding motifs, symbols and pun rebuses; Demystifying figures & story scenes.

Revealing the true value of your treasures!

01/06/2026

Children are a popular theme in traditional Chinese art. Subjects such as Children at Play, One Hundred Boys, Teaching the Child, and The Four Consorts and Sixteen Sons convey wishes for family prosperity, abundant offspring, and the success of future generations. For centuries, these auspicious scenes have been among the most beloved symbols of happiness and good fortune in Chinese culture.

For more images and illustrations, please visit our website at tutuhaoyi.com

🔸courtesies of the Palace Museum, Beijing, Palace Museum, Hongkong, Shanghai Museum, and National Palace Museum, Taipei

Fig 7,8,11,12,14,15: photo by Rachel Ma

10/05/2026

🎈💐♥️Happy Mother’s Day!

🔸The images posted here couldn’t be more suitable for this occasion.
- ‘Xuan 萱’ from ‘xuan cao 萱草’ refers to the daylily, which is a symbol for motherhood in Chinese culture.
- ‘Dié 蝶’ in Chinese meaning ‘the butterfly’ is a pun on ‘dié 耋’, a Chinese character for ‘octogenarian’.

Thus lily flowers and butterflies form a pun rebus picture known as ‘Xuān Dié Tú 萱耋图’, expressing the good wish of ‘May mother live up to a ripe old age’.

See more on tutuhaoyi.com for symbolic, pun rebus and figural story pictures.

🔸courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

🔸photography by Rachel Ma

08/04/2026

🔸Figural stories in Chinese decorative art:

This scene, sometimes misread as a festive dragon boat celebration, in fact represents Emperor Yang of Sui’s southern progress to Jiangdu—a subject rich in historical and iconographic significance. Travelling aboard a palace-like dragon boat, accompanied by vast fleets, court performers, and thousands of labourers hauling the vessels along the banks, the emperor staged a spectacle of immense scale and theatricality.
Such imagery is not merely decorative. It encodes a narrative of imperial excess, political neglect, and moral decline, offering a subtle yet powerful critique embedded within visual culture. Understanding these layered meanings is essential to accurate interpretation in the study of Chinese iconography.
Read more and explore related examples on porcelain:
https://tutuhaoyi.com/figures-stories/emperor-yang-of-sui-travels-south-of-the-yangzi

🔹story scene description by Rachel Ma
🔸courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

01/04/2026

🔸Figural stories in Chinese decorative art:

This beautiful Kangxi rouleau vase depicts an account of Emperor Yang of Sui’s extravagant pleasures at Jiangdu, culminating in the famous ‘lotus appreciation’ scene from 'Romance of the Two Dynasties of Sui and Tang'.

Read here for detailed story description and more examples of such scene on porcelain at: https://tutuhaoyi.com/figures-stories/emperor-yang-of-sui-appreciating-lotus-at-jiangdu

🔸courtesy of the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China
🔸photography by Rachel Ma

24/03/2026

🔸Pun rebus pictures in Chinese decorative art:

The pictures shown here are some examples illustrating a Chinese pun rebus - May you enjoy wealth, honour and a long life.
The punning ‘tricks’ are explained here:
- ‘fu gui 富贵’ in ‘fu gui hua 富贵花 peony’ literally, the ‘flower of wealth and prestige’, which is a nickname of ‘mu dan 牡丹 peony’;
- ‘shou 绶’ in ‘shou dai niao 绶带鸟 long-tailed bird’ is a pun on ‘shou 寿’ for ‘longevity’.
Thus, the combination of the motifs represents the auspicious message of wishing you wealth, honour and a long life.

On some other occasions, the garden rock can substitute the long-tailed bird for the same purpose, as it has a nickname - ‘shou shi 寿石 longevity rock’.

Read here for more examples: https://tutuhaoyi.com/pun-pictures/may-you-enjoy-wealth-honour-and-a-long-life

💐 Courtesies of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and The Palace Museum, Beijing.
📸 Photography by Rachel Ma

03/03/2026

Wishing you a Happy Lantern Festival !

29/08/2025

🎊 It is the annual Chinese ‘Valentine’s Day’, Qixi Festival (七夕节), which is the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar year. This custom can be traced back to an ancient story about a weaver girl and a cowherd:
Once upon a time, one of the daughters of the Lord of the Heaven lived on the east side of the Milky Way and she worked by the loom day in and day out, weaving fabrics as light as cloud for fairies, thus known as the ‘Weaving Maiden 织女’. Later, her father allowed her to be married to the ‘Herd Boy 牛郎’ living across the Milky Way. But her father got angry with her because he thought she neglected her weaving duty after the marriage and summoned her back to the east side of the Milky Way, allowing her to reunite with her husband only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the traditional Chinese year. In order to help the maiden to reach the other side of the Milky Way, flocks of magpies would have an annual gathering on that day to form a bridge.
In the heart of the Chinese people, the story of the Weaving Maiden and Herd Boy has epitomised as a symbol for lovers separated by various kinds of obstacles and their longing of reunion. ❤️❤️
Read here for the full story and appreciate more illustrations on different antique materials at https://tutuhaoyi.com/figures-stories/the-weaving-maiden-and-the-herd-boy/
🔸Here is a beautiful famille rose bowl with blue-and white figures on the interior from the Republican Period (1912–49), currently being displayed at the Palace Museum, Beijing, China
🔸Fig 1-5, & 8 are photographed by Rachel Ma. Fig 6-7, & 9 are from the website of the Palace Museum

23/08/2025

☝️ Here is a question: When you are outnumbered by your enemy, will you panic? Well, in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮 has the perfect answer. Facing 200,000 enemy troops from Sima Yi 司马懿 with an almost empty city, Zhuge Liang opens the gates, plays the qin, and has soldiers disguised as civilians to sweep the streets.😂 Suspecting an ambush, Sima Yi is unsettled by this display and withdraws his army. ✌️–This is one of the famous Thirty-Six Stratagems - The Empty Fort Strategy.
Read the full story and appreciate more porcelain illustrations at https://tutuhaoyi.com/figures-stories/the-empty-fort-strategy
🔸Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing
🔸Photograph by Rachel Ma

16/08/2025

❤️❤️❤️'True love conquers all’ is the theme of the Peony Pavilion, a musical play of fifty-five scenes written by Tang Xianzu in Ming dynasty. The play contains a supernatural love story between Du Liniang, the only daughter of the Nan’an prefect Mr. Du, and Liu Mengmei, a civil-service examination candidate. At the beginning of the play, there was a passionate rendezvous of the two in the form of Liniang’s dream in the back garden with vigorously budding bushes during a warm spring afternoon. The encounter was so indelible to the adolescent girl that she eventually died of longing for her ‘dream’ lover.💔
👉 Here is an article written by Prof. Yibin Ni regarding this fascinating story: https://tutuhaoyi.com/blogs/commonly-misunderstood-images/who-is-the-figure-on-the-cloud-in-the-dream-scene-of-the-peony-pavilion
🔸Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

02/08/2025

🤩Here’s a fascinating story scene depicted on porcelain! It’s from a Ming dynasty drama — Legend of the Epiphyllum. The playwright, Tu Long, once said the story was meant “to expound the laws of karmic retribution and express Buddhist truths”.
During a spring outing, General Mu Qingtai — accompanied by his wife, concubines, and musicians — is stopped by two eccentric figures: a drunken monk and a mad Daoist. They confront him with poetic riddles, urging him to awaken from his worldly delusions. Initially, Mu is proud of his rank and glory — but later he has the enlightenment! He gives up his official post and family ties, and sets off on a spiritual path.
This richly symbolic, visually stunning scene is from Act Five of the play.
👉 See more detailed description and image illustration on other porcelains at: https://tutuhaoyi.com/figures-stories/enlightenment-during-a-spring-outing-legend-of-the-epiphyllum
🎯 Note: The scene description on the object label in Shanghai Museum is inaccurate. See tutuhaoyi website > "Figures & Stories" > "B" (under "Bo Yi and Shu Qi") for differentiation.
🔸Courtesy of the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China; photograph by

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