Three-character axis of Cixi Book “Happiness, Wealth and Longevity”

[Three-character axis of Cixi’s book “Fu, Lu and Shou”]

Three-character axis of “Fu, Lu and Shou”, Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi’s imperial calligraphy, paper, 128.3 cm in length and 62 cm in width
The title on the top right of this picture is “Guangxu Wuzi Xinzheng Imperial Brush”. Seal “Love things and save body”, “Act according to heaven and establish the way”, and “Treasure of Empress Dowager Cixi”. On the left, there is a seven-jue poem written by Wu Shumei, stamped with “Wu Shumei Seal” and “Han Ran in the Dynasty”
This painting is composed of three characters of “Fu, Lu, Shou” in vermilion brush. The style of the painting is different, and it is composed of pictographic techniques, like a painting. The two characters “Fu” and “Lu” on the knot use the same side character “Zhen”, while “Lu” and “Lu” are sandwiched with a word “Shou”, and the blank part in the middle is cleverly arranged to draw a longevity star with a cane. This method of combining fonts into images is popular among the people. Although ingenious, it is vulgar. With regard to the calligraphy of Empress Dowager Cixi, a recent person, Ma Zonghuo’s Shulin Chronicle, said: “Empress Dowager Cixi hung down the curtain to rule the country. She also liked to enjoy calligraphy, learn to draw flowers, and learn to break patterns of large characters. She often wrote ‘Fu’, ‘Shou’ and other words to give to the ministers of internal and external affairs…” Most of the works of Cixi’s calligraphy that have survived so far are single characters, and the combination of calligraphy and painting like this one is quite rare.