| 内容简介（英文） | Li Shih-chuo (style name T’ien-chang and sobriquets Ku-chai, Lu-yuan, and Ch’ing-tsai chu-shih) was a native of Feng-t’ien (modern Shen-yang, Liao-ning) or San-han (modern Inner Mongolia). He was the nephew of Kao Ch’i-p’ei (1672-1734) and served in the position of Vice Censor-in-chief. This is the twelfth leaf from “Album of Various Subjects by Li Shih-chuo” and shows Chung K’uei standing alone with a sword and five bats to his lower right. Because one of the characters in the binome for “bat (fu 蝠)” is a homonym for “fortune (fu 福),” the bat is often depicted with Chung K’uei to indicate the arrival of good fortune in the New Year. As a result, bats flying in the air suggest “Fortune extending from the heavens.” Taking this play on words even further, the binome for “brandishing a sword (chih-chien 执剑)” is a homonym for “only visible (chih-chien 只见),” which can becombined with the above homonym to form the auspicious phrase, “May you be blessed only with good fortune [in the New Year].” As a result, Ming (1368-1644) and Ch’ing (1644-1911) painters often included bats with Chung K’uei. |
