Abstract
This volume is a collection of the papers read at an international symposium on Chinese numismatic charms , which was held 14–15 July 2008 in Hong Kong . The event was organised by the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics and sponsored by the Chinese Civilisation Centre at City University of Hong Kong .
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Notes
- 1.
Alex Fang was a Sir E.S.G Robinson Fellow and participated in this monumental work at the Depart of Coins and Medels of the British Museum in 2012.
- 2.
《莊子 · 天地》 : “堯觀乎華, 華封人曰: ‘嘻, 聖人! 請祝聖人, 使聖人壽。’堯曰‘辭’。‘使聖人富。’堯曰‘辭’。 ‘使聖人多男子。 ’堯曰‘辭’。”
- 3.
《易經 · 泰 》: “泰, 小往大來, 吉亨, 則是天地交而萬物通也。”
- 4.
There is now a consensus that, like coins, most of the charms in existence were issued by the government or at least they were officially sanctioned. A major reason for this belief is that bronze as a precious metal , which was used to make the coin-like charms , had always been strictly controlled by the central government. However, while this argument makes very good sense, so far there has been no written evidence in its support.
- 5.
Along with bao quan ju 寶泉局 , or the Board of Revenue , the Board of Works was one of the two central mints in Beijing for the casting of circulating coins in the Qing Dynasty . The administrative setup was inherited from the Ming Dynasty .
- 6.
The earliest rhyming dictionary that exists today is Yun fu qun yu 韻府帬玉 , which was compiled during the Song Dynasty by Yin You-yu 陰幼遇 (AD 1264-1331) and his father Yin Ying-meng 陰應夢 (AD 1224–1314 AD). This dictionary comprising twenty volumes is also an encyclopaedia with its entries arranged ontologically into, for example, locative names, plants, and animals.
- 7.
李佐賢 《古泉匯 》: “選仙錢 , 非錢也。考《天香樓偶得》, 今人集古仙作圖為博戲, 用骰子比色, 先為散仙, 次升上洞, 漸至蓬萊大羅等, 列則眾仙慶賀。 比色時則重緋, 四為德, 六與三為才, 五與二為功, 最下者為么(一)為過。 有過者謫作采樵思凡, 遇德復位。 此戲北宋已有之, 王珪 《宮詞 》‘盡日閑窗賭選仙’, 即謂此也。”
Acknowledgments
The first author would like to thank Mr. Philip Attwood , Keeper and Head of Deparment, and Dr. Helen Wang , Curator of East Asian money, at the Department of Coins and Medals, the British Museum , for their support and encouragement in the preparation of this study. The writing of this chapter was supported in part by a fellowship which Alex Fang received in 2012 from the E.S.G. Robinson Charitable Trust . It was additionally supported in part by grants received from the General Research Fund of the University Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. CityU 142711) and City University of Hong Kong (Project Nos. 6354005, 7004491, 9618007, 7004333, 7004091, 9610283, 7002793, 9610226, 9041694, and 9610188).
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Fang, A.C., Thierry, F. (2016). Chinese Charms and the Iconographic Language of Good Luck and Heavenly Protection. In: Fang, A., Thierry, F. (eds) The Language and Iconography of Chinese Charms. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1793-3_1
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