There are many theories about the origin of the word "福". One is to involve Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma and give them praise and criticism. One year, the capital held a lantern festival to celebrate the Lantern Festival. Zhu Yuanzhang went out for a private trip incognito, and saw a horse monkey crying holding a pair of embroidered shoes on a house's lantern. Zhu Yuanzhang thought this was a mockery of Queen Ma's big feet, and was very angry, so he wrote the word "福" on the door of the house as a mark. After returning to the palace, he immediately ordered the Jin Yiwei to arrest the person according to the marks he left the next morning. Among the queens in the past, Empress Ma was known for her virtue and love for the people. When she learned about this incident, she immediately secretly sent a message, telling everyone in the city to write the word "福" on their doors before dawn. Early the next morning, the people sent by Emperor Zhu to arrest people found that every house had a sticker with the character "福", except one family who was illiterate and had the character "福" upside down. The emperor ordered that the whole family be executed. When Empress Ma realized what was going on, she hurriedly said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "That family knew you were coming today, so they deliberately pasted the label with the character "福" upside down. Doesn't that mean 'luck arrives'?" Emperor Zhu thought it was justified, so he ordered his release, and a disaster was finally averted. From then on, it became a custom to paste the word "福" upside down and it has been passed down to this day. One praises, one criticizes, the attitude is clear, which shows the hearts of the people.
There is also a legend that the invention was given to Jiang Ziya of the Zhou Dynasty, also known as Jiang Taigong. When Jiang Taigong consecrated a large number of gods, he named his wife Ye as the poor god and told her: "You can't go to blessed places." From then on, every family posted the word "blessing" during the New Year to tell the poor god that I This is a blessed place, you must not come in. The word "福" is a symbol of getting rid of poverty and pursuing happiness.
In fact, "福" is one of the oldest texts, with a history of about three thousand years. The word "福" in oracle bone inscriptions is the shape of a wine vessel placed in front of a god, because the ancients used wine to symbolize a wealthy life. The current word "福" is composed of "shi", "yi", "kou" and "tian". "shi" refers to the arrival of gods; "tian" refers to farming and hunting; "yi" is explained according to "Shuowen": "Yi, only the beginning and Taishi, the Tao is established in Yi" , created the heaven and earth, and transformed into all things." The word "kou" says in "Shuowen": "Kou is the reason why people talk about food." This word "blessing" expresses the people's desire to pray for land to meet their food and clothing needs.
Post the word "Fu" in front of the door. The written record is "Meng Liang Lu" written by Wu Zimu in the Song Dynasty: "No matter whether the family is big or small, they all sweep the door to remove dust and filth, clean the courtyard, and change the door god. , hanging bells, nailing peach charms, pasting spring cards, and offering sacrifices to the ancestors." "Pasting spring cards" means writing the word "blessing" on red paper and sticking it in front of the door. It can be seen from this that the custom of pasting blessing characters has started at least in the Southern Song Dynasty and has a long history.
In the late autumn of the year before last, I saw the word "Fu" written by Kangxi in the garden of Prince Gong's Mansion. In 1673 AD, Kangxi wrote the famous "Blessings of Longevity" to his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, to "wish blessings for longevity". If you taste this word "福" carefully, you will find that it contains several Chinese characters including "many sons, many talents, many talents, many wealth, many snows, many fields, many lives, many blessings". The shape of the characters is narrow and long, which is called "long and thin" among the people. This is The rare combination of "five blessings" and happiness and longevity has been rare throughout the ages. Kangxi loved calligraphy throughout his life. Although his calligraphy was excellent, he did not inscribe everywhere like his grandson Qianlong. Therefore, Kangxi's imperial inscriptions are the least circulated. It is said that there were only three characters left in Kangxi's life, one is "inaction" and the other is "blessing".
The word "Wuwei" is stored in the Forbidden City; the word "福" is the monument with the word "福" in Prince Gong's Mansion. Kangxi's pen and ink can be described as a rare treasure. There is a saying that "one word of Kangxi is worth a thousand pieces of gold".
"You Mengying" said: "In the peaceful age, I was born in Hushan County, the officials were honest and quiet, the family was well-off, married to a virtuous woman, and had smart children. Such a life can be said to be a blessing." Here It is really difficult to have all six items in place. However, today our environment is getting better and better, and blessings will naturally enter thousands of households.