There are several legends about the origin of the word "Fu" upside down.

When pasting the Chinese New Year character "Fu", there is always a saying that it should be pasted upside down? Why is the character "Fu" pasted upside down? Can the character "Fu" be pasted upside down at home? How many legends are there about pasting the character "Fu" upside down?

There are several legends about the upside-down "Fu" character.

There are currently three popular legends about pasting the word "Fu" upside down.

The first one: Prince Gong’s Mansion

It is said that the custom of pasting the character "Fu" upside down originated from the Prince Gong Palace in the Qing Dynasty. On the eve of the Spring Festival one year, the chief steward wrote many "Fu" characters to please his master and asked people to post them on the storehouse and the gate of the palace. However, one family member was illiterate and mistakenly pasted the "Fu" character on the gate upside down. For this, Prince Gong's wife was very annoyed. Fortunately, the butler was eloquent and knelt on the ground and said in a servile manner: "I often hear people say that Prince Gong is long-lived, blessed with great fortune. Now the great fortune has really arrived (upside down), which is a sign of good fortune." After hearing this, the wife thought to herself, no wonder passers-by said that Prince Gong's mansion had good fortune (upside down), and auspicious words are said a thousand times, and gold and silver will increase by thousands of pieces. She was so happy that she rewarded the butler and the family member who pasted the upside-down blessing. Later, the custom of pasting the word "Fu" upside down spread from the mansions of high-ranking officials to the homes of ordinary people, and people would wish passers-by or children to say a few words: "Fu has arrived, Fu has arrived!"

The second one: Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma said

There is also a legend about pasting the character "Fu" upside down among the people. Emperor 朱元璋 (Zhu Yuanzhang), a founder of Ming dynasty, once used the character "福" as a hidden signal to prepare killing someone. In order to avoid this disaster, the kind-hearted Queen Ma ordered every household in the city to paste the word "Fu" on their doors before dawn. Naturally, no one dared to disobey Empress Ma's order, so the word "Fu" was posted on the door of every household. One family was illiterate and pasted the label with the word "Fu" upside down. The next day, the emperor sent people to the streets to check and found that every household had pasted the word "Fu" on their doors, except for one household which had pasted the word "Fu" upside down. The emperor was furious after hearing the report and immediately ordered the imperial guards to execute the entire family. When Empress Ma saw that things were not going well, she hurriedly said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "That family knew you were coming today, so they deliberately pasted the word "Fu" upside down. Doesn't this mean "good fortune has arrived"? "The emperor thought it made sense and ordered the release of the people. A disaster was finally averted. From then on, people began to paste the word "Fu" upside down, one to pray for good luck, and the other to commemorate Queen Ma.

The third one: Empress Dowager Cixi said

There has always been a custom in ancient China that "on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, every family writes big characters." On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month of a certain year in the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the Hanlin Academy to write some couplets to celebrate the Spring Festival. These Hanlin scholars put in all their efforts and used beautiful words, and after finishing their writing, they respectfully sent it to the Empress Dowager for her review. The Queen Mother was very unhappy when she saw that there was not even the character "Fu" (meaning "Fu") in the letter. When the Hanlin scholars saw that the Empress Dowager was angry, they were so scared that they knelt on the ground and said, "Please teach me, Empress Dowager." The Empress Dowager said, "Go and write a few "Fu" characters." The Hanlin scholars hurried back and wrote a bunch of "Fu" characters and presented them to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager picked out a few and asked the Chief Eunuch Li Lianying to take the eunuchs to post them everywhere in the palace. Unexpectedly, it caused another disturbance. One eunuch was illiterate and pasted the label with the character "Fu" upside down. No one noticed that night. The next day, the Empress Dowager came out to admire the couplet and the character "Fu". She happened to see it and was about to get angry, but Li Lianying, who was quick-witted, hurried forward and said, "Your Majesty, please calm down. I pasted it upside down on purpose. This character 'Fu' is pasted upside down, which means 'Fu' is upside down. If Fu is here, isn't it good luck?" After hearing this, Cixi turned her anger into joy. Not only did she not punish the eunuch, she also rewarded him with a few taels of silver. Later this custom spread to the people and became a custom.

The meaning of the word "Fu" (blessing)

In order to more fully reflect people's wishes, yearning and wishes for future life, people paste the word "Fu" upside down to represent "happiness has arrived" and "good fortune has arrived". The word "Fu" is pasted upside down because "到" (dao) and "倒" (dao) are homophones, which means good fortune has arrived.

The situation of the word "Fu" being pasted upside down

1. The first situation where the word "Fu" is pasted upside down is on water tanks, trash cans and cabinets at home. Paste the word "Fu" upside down on water tanks and trash cans. Because the contents of the water tank and trash can need to be poured out. In order to avoid throwing away the good fortune in the house, the word "Fu" is pasted upside down. This approach cleverly makes use of the homonym of the word "dao", which is "dao". Use "good fortune coming" to offset "good fortune going away". Used to express yearning for a better life.

2. The second situation where the word "Fu" is pasted upside down is on the cabinet inside the house. A cabinet is a place to store things. Pasting the word "Fu" upside down represents blessing (also wealth). It will always come into the house and the closets.

3. There are also the following situations where you need to stick the word "Fu" upside down. If someone in the family dies or other disasters occur during the year. Such as: fire, car accident, etc. Those who wish to have their luck changed can stick the word "Fu" upside down.