Touched by Indigo - Royal Ontario Museum

of the melons in the middle basket and the pomegranates in the one
at extreme right are obvious. More subtle motifs, such as the orchid,
the basket, and the melon and butterfly, also augment the ideas of fertility
and continuity of the family line. This is because, through word
play, both orchid (/an) and basket (Ian) may suggest the word nan
which means a boy. Likewise, melon (gua) and butterfly (die) make
up a pictorial pun. They illustrate a simile from Shi/ing (The Book of
Songs) which conveys a blessing: "[May your family line] continue to
prosper like the melons" (guadie m/anm/'an).56
More subtle puns are concealed in the basket that contains,
instead of fruit, a vase with a flowering plant, a stem of lingzhi, and
a branch bearing a persimmon. The flowering plant illustrates a saying,
hua kai fugui (blossoms signal prosperity). Together with the vase
(ping), another saying, fugui ping'an (wealth, peace, and safety) may
be derived. As for the persimmon and the stem of lingzhi, they evoke
the phrase shishi ruyi.S7 Not to be overlooked is the three-legged toad
(chan) seen in the left side border. This image always calls to mind a
Daoist immortal named Liu Haichan who has also been venerated as
the god of wealth.58
Diversity is evident not only in the layout and the abundant and
complex symbolic designs that fill almost the entire surface of the
valance, it is also manifested in the great variety of stitching methods
employed for its creation. In addition to the basic cross stitch, the
satin stitch, straight stitch, back stitch, chain stitch, knot stitch, double
running stitch, buttonhole stitch, and pine-needle stitch have all been
used; all are exceedingly well executed.
THE LARGE RECTANGULAR SHAPE OF THIS BED COVER
consists of three full widths, edged with two half widths of cotton.
It is decorated with dark blue motifs worked mainly in cross stitch.
Supplementary stitching techniques, such as straight stitch, back
stitch, knot stitch, and eyebrow and eyelash stitch, have also been
employed for detailing. Each full width has three large medallions
with smaller motifs as space fillers.
From the top, the three principal motifs in the first row includes
an eight-point star made up of eight trapeziums, each of which is
decorated with an object taken from the large repertoire collectively
called the babao (eight precious things).59 Repeat patterns of the
Buddha's-hand citron (foshou) and wan symbol fill up the circular
space. They suggest the term wanshou which connotes an extremely
long life span. The same idea is also intimated in the central medallion.
A less conspicuous wan motif has been worked into the centre.
Combined with the numerous lotuses (Han), the term wannian (ten
thousand years) may be elicited. Two pairs of small ducks signify conjugal
bliss. Four identical stylized representations of a lotus leaf with a
52. BED COVER, Cotton, 1900-1925, Chengdu, Sichuan province, 980.287.1, L
210cmxW. 142cm
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