''Shòu'' () is the Chinese word/character for "longevity".

Use

Feng shui deity of longevity - Old Man of the South Pole - Sau - Shou - Shouxing

Three of the most important goals in life in Chinese traditional thought are the propitious blessings of happiness (''fú'' ), professional success or prosperity (''lù'' ), and longevity (''shòu'' ). These are visually represented by the three "star gods" of the same names ( ''Fú, Lù, Shòu''), commonly depicted as three male figurines (each wearing a distinctive garment and holding an object that enables them to be differentiated), or the Chinese ideographs/characters themselves, or various homophones or objects with relevant attributes. '' Shòu'' is instantly recognizable. "He holds in his hand a large peach, and attached to his long staff are a gourd and a scroll. The stag and the bat both indicate ''fu'' happiness. The peach, gourd, and scroll are symbols of longevity." His most striking characteristic is, however, his large and high forehead, which earned him the title "Longevity Star Old-pate". The Chinese character ''shòu'' () is usually found on textiles, furniture, ceramics and jewelry. The ideograph may appear alone or be surrounded by flowers, bats, or other good luck symbols, but will always hold a central position. Longevity is commonly recognized as one of the Five Blessings (''wǔfú'' – longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue, a peaceful death) of Chinese belief that are often depicted in the homophonous rendition of five flying

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s because the word for "bat" in Chinese (''fú'' ) sounds like the word for "good fortune" or "happiness" (''fú'' ) or in this case, "blessings". In this arrangement, the ''shòu'' ideograph sometimes takes the dominant central position, replacing the fifth bat. Other symbols in Chinese iconography that represent longevity include pine trees, cranes, spotted deer, special collectors' stones (''shòushí'' ),

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and Agriculture, cultivated in China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and the glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties called necta ...

es, and

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

s.Duda, pp. 204–6 These are often depicted in small groupings to emphasize the central, symbolic meaning of the picture (for example, cranes standing amongst pine trees). Perhaps the most common Chinese auspicious saying concerning longevity is that found on scrolls in nearly every Chinese calligraphy shop in the world: ''shòu shān fú hǎi'' (), which can be translated as "May your life be as steadfast as the mountains and your good fortune as limitless as the seas". Since 2017, the version 10 of the

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

Standard features a rounded version of the symbol (🉢) in the "

Enclosed Ideographic Supplement Enclosed Ideographic Supplement is a Unicode block containing forms of characters and words from Chinese, Japanese and Korean enclosed within or stylised as squares, brackets, or circles. It contains three such characters containing one or more ...

" block, at code point U+1F262 (ROUNDED SYMBOL FOR SHOU).

In names

As a sign for a resonant cultural concept, the character became a part of many Chinese names (e.g. Palace of Tranquil Longevity in Beijing). The Japanese equivalent is Kotobuki ; (see Nakajima Kotobuki,

Tsukasa Kotobuki is a Japanese character designer for various games and anime series such as '' Saber Marionette J'', '' VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fire'', '' Cyber Team in Akihabara'' and ''Battle Arena Toshinden''. He also did the art for '' Sword of the Dark Ones ...

). See also Jurōjin (Shou Laoren) and

Fukurokuju In Japan, is one of the Seven Lucky Gods in Japanese mythology. It has been theorized that he is a Japanese Cultural assimilation, assimilation of the Chinese Three Star Gods () embodied in one deity. Most related in appearance to the Chines ...

Gallery

File:Chinese - Pilgrim Bottle with the Character "Shou" (Long Life) - Walters 491685 - Profile.jpg, Chinese pilgrim bottle of " famille rose" porcelain with the character Shou File:Lackkunst Überseemuseum Bremen 2009 PD 20091128 0010.JPG, Song dynasty lacquer art ''

hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

'' with Shou and a bat on it File:Owen Jones - Examples of Chinese Ornament - 1867 - plate 035.png, Plate 35 from the book ''Examples of Chinese Ornament'' by

Owen Jones Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a left-wing British newspaper columnist, commentator, journalist, author and political activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'', ''Tribune (magazine), Tribune ...

in 1867. The Shou pattern can be seen. File:Owen Jones - Examples of Chinese Ornament - 1867 - plate 039.png, Plate 39 from the same book. The Shou pattern can be seen. File:Owen Jones - Examples of Chinese Ornament - 1867 - plate 052.png, Plate 52 from the same book. The Shou pattern can be seen. File:Owen Jones - Examples of Chinese Ornament - 1867 - plate 058.png, Plate 58 from the same book. The Shou pattern can be seen. File:Owen Jones - Examples of Chinese Ornament - 1867 - plate 073.png, Plate 73 from the same book. The Shou pattern can be seen. File:Owen Jones - Examples of Chinese Ornament - 1867 - plate 086.png, Plate 86 from the same book. The Shou pattern can be seen. File:Plat au caractère Shou Musée Guimet 2418.jpg, Porcelain dish with a peach tree in the form of Shou, from the Kangxi period in the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

File:Shou by Hai Rui.jpg, Shou character written by

Hai Rui Hai Rui (January 23, 1514 – November 13, 1587), courtesy name Ru Xian (), art name Gang Feng (), was a Chinese scholar-official, philosopher and politician of the Ming dynasty, remembered as a model of honesty and integrity in office. Biograp ...

Qiandao Lake Qiandao Lake () is a man-made freshwater lake located in Chun'an County, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, that was formed after the completion of the Qiantang River, Xin'an River Hydroelectricity, hydroelectric station in 1959. Geography Qi ...

. The character can be viewed either right-side up or upside down to read "Shou". File:Shou carpet.JPG, Modern carpet File:Shou Yunnan rooftiles.JPG, Roof tiles File:Shou+redbats.JPG, Ceramic with symbol and red bats File:Shou+peach cup.jpg, Cup with symbol within peach

Use

In names

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading