   Shanghai Lady Posters used to be known as Calendar Poster as they were used commercially to promote the western goods such as cigarettes, medicine, wine and so on in 1930’s and 1940’s. The fashionably dressed ladies in the posters are so beautifully painted, the iconic graphic style marrying art deco with Chinese brush painting, that until today they are still the symbols of Shanghai romance. The lavish image of beaming young women dressed in the signature qipao, unmistakably Chinese yet clearly bearing the influence of cosmopolitan Western tastes, captured the mood of the city at that time.
Today Shanghai is soaring at magic height after such a long sleep over half a century, but these lady posters bring back the sweet memories of old Shanghai as the Paris in the Far East and the paradise for the adventurists.
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 Happy Buddha is always represented as very stout, with the breast and upper abdomen exposed to view. His face has a laughing expression, and he is also known as the Laughing Buddha. Happy Buddha usually stands in the first hall of the Buddhist monastery.
Happy Buddha is the incarnate image of Maitreya Buddha in Sanskrit term "the Merciful One" which is rendered into Chinese as mi-le. This name is said by some to be derived from the a King, Syriac Molekh. Maitreya is a Bodhisattva, the principal one, indeed, of Sakyamuni's retinue, but is not counted among the ordinary disciples. It was in the Tushita heaven that Sakyamuni met him and appointed him as the successor, to appear as Buddha after the lapse of 5,000 years. Maitreya is therefore the expected Messiah of Buddhists, residing at present in Tushita. Therefore, as opposed to the Past Buddha (Bhaisajyaguru Buddha, or Medicine Buddha) and Present Buddha (Sakyamuni Buddha), Maitreya is the Coming Buddha.  "Liushu" refers to six basic formation rules of Chinese characters that were firstly summarized in the book "Shuowenjiezi" (Analytical Dictionary of Characters) by Xu Shen, a famous literateur and linguist who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 BC). In Liushu theory, four rules that define the formation of Chinese characters are the most important: - pictographic - indicative - indicative compound - pictophonetic compound Among these, the first two apply to the characters of single structure while the other two to the characters of complex structure. The early Chinese characters that were carved on the animal bones were sketched pursuant to the forms of the objects which people saw or visualized logic. Thus, the first characters, mostly of single structure, were created in pictographic and indicative rules. To distinctly represent more concepts that were barely accomplished by mere pictures, many more characters were created later over time in other rules, such as indicative compound and pictophonetic compound, which give birth to characters of complex structure. The majority of Chinese characters in use nowadays belong to complex structure. The foundation of Chinese characters are traditional version of characters that were created and used until the Republic of China (1949 as the last year). In middle 1950's, in order to popularize the literary of population, the simplied version of characters was introduced to people across mainland of China. In that process, some other customary rules were employed together with traditional "Liushu" to form the characters in ubiquitous use nowadays in China mainland. Illustrated below are the characters that demonstrate the application of each of the major formation rules: Single Structure - Pictographic Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
Single Structure - Indicative Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
Complex Structure - Indicative compound Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
Complex Structure - Pictophonetic compound Script style evolution (diachronic): <Ancient> <Transitional> <Modern> Oracle Bronze Seal Clerical Regular Cursive Print
 Ascending the Guanque (Stork) Tower The setting sun behind the mountain glows, And towards the sea the Yellow River flows, You can enjoy an endless sight by ascending to a greater height |
AuthorHarris Gu Archives
January 2017
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