Don’t believe in luck? Then you’re not Chinese. The Sons of Han know that good fortune can be cultivated, or carelessly lost. It’s all in the hands of the God of Luck.

Lucky Star

Originally a giant flaming ball of gas, fu xing [lucky star] flew to earth from the heavens while the great dragon was still a hatchling. According to legend, he eventually took on human form, the aspect of a kindly old man. Frequently he held a child.

But the God of Luck also has a verifiable incarnation, that of Yang Cheng, a governor of Daozhou prefecture twenty two hundred years ago. Emperor Wu Di decided that all little people in the land be impressed into imperial service as court slaves and jesters. The parents of the little folk were dismayed but powerless. The good Yang Cheng, however, successfully petitioned Wu Di to countermand the decree, the catalyst for his deification as the living embodiment of luck.

Fu-lish pride

An all-time favorite for door decorations in the Middle Kingdom, the character fu means “good fortune” or “blessings”. The senselessly scientific may discredit posting a word to attract its meaning, but neuro-linguists would not.

Ming Emperor Zhu Yuan Zhang was strolling about a town incognito one day, when he noticed a crowd of peasants lost in hilarity. They were laughing at a picture of a woman with tremendous feet holding a watermelon, a woman he quickly recognized as his wife. Furious, the emperor had the miscreants secretly followed, and their doors marked with a fu character, which would mark all inside for death when the army arrived the next day. His empress, truly noble, learned of the incident and had every household in the town marked fu. The culprits escaped punishment, and word soon spread, turning the symbol for luck from a character to a talisman.

Door Divinities

Want to keep Jehovah’s Witnesses away? Get a door guard. When evil spirits come calling, you need a door god or two. Originally engraved on peach wood and hung on doors, sustainability issues now keep their rendering largely confined to red paper.

Besotted with bai jiu, Tang Emperor Tai Zong spent a long night tormented by demons skulking just outside his bed chamber. His ministers, greatly concerned for his health, mental as well as physical, proffered unheeded advice. Tai Zong instead took favor to two stout palace guards with no fear of the supernatural, who volunteered to guard his boudoir. After several nights off the sauce, untroubled by the devil’s kin, Tai Zong deemed a painting of the two guards on his doors would suffice. Needless to say, the idiosyncrasy soon became a widespread tradition.

Fortune’s Children

Everyone knows a fat child is a healthy child, thus the plumpness of the twin boy and girl so prevalent on the doors of newlyweds and new businesses. Folk art icons, the lucky duo, known as Da A Fu, were originally made from clay. Sometimes they carry a green lion.

Long ago in Wuxi, Jiangsu, lived two fierce green lions that preyed on children. The locals, bereft of heroes, prayed to the gods for deliverance. Eventually, their petitions reached the ears of the celestial Jade Emperor. He sent two spirits to earth, who manifested in the form of children, and subdued vanquished the lions with cunning and skill. They’ve been revered ever since, plastered up by all seeking protection and blessing.

Benevolent Dragons

Primitive people on the loess plane worshipped dragons as harbingers of rain and bountiful harvests. A manifestation of the power of water, the dragon inhabits seas, rivers, and flies among the clouds, invisible if he so desires.

Dragons were inscribed on the first Oracle Bones, millennia ago in the Shang Dynasty. The Han emperors were the first to adopt the dragon as the symbol of their imperial might, divorcing the creature from his role as protector of the peasant. By the Qing Dynasty, commoners were forbidden on pain of death from using the dragon motif in any form. Nonetheless, his appearance was noted by the hoi polloi at the birth of dynasties and great men. The dragon revealed himself to China at the birth of Confucius.

Treasure Gourd

The humble gourd holds symbolic resonance as the embodiment of heaven and earth. As such, it can ward off evil, and is therefore hung in windows, doors, vehicles, and over beds. Li Tie Guai, preeminent among the Eight Immortals, kept his magical mojo in one.

Demons possessed a magic gourd powerful enough to capture the mighty Monkey King. Naturally, the Monkey King knew of their plans and waylaid them in the guise of an immortal. Unimpressed by their gourd, which could hold a thousand souls, he told them of his gourd, which could contain all the heavens. A savvy bunch, the demons asked him to prove it. The Monkey King persuaded the spirits to extinguish all celestial light for one hour, long enough to deceive the demons into believing he had indeed bottled the stars. They agreed to a swap, leaving the Monkey King possessed of a magical gourd and the demons poorer but wiser.