Fu (character)
Chinese calligraphy culture
The Chinese character fu (福; fú ), meaning 'fortune' or 'good luck', is represented both as a Chinese ideograph and, at times, pictorially, in one of its homophonous forms. It is often found on a figurine of the male god of the same name, one of the trio of "star gods" Fú, Lù, and Shòu.
Mounted fu are a widespread Chinese tradition associated with Chinese New Year and can be seen on the entrances of many Chinese homes worldwide. The characters are generally printed on a square piece of paper or stitched in fabric. The practice is universal among Chinese people regardless of socioeconomic status, and dates to at least the Song dynasty (960 – 1279 CE).
When displayed as a Chinese ideograph, fu is often displayed upside-down on diagonal red squares. The reasoning is based on a wordplay: in nearly all varieties of Chinese, the words for 'upside-down' and 'to arrive' are homophonous (dào – 倒 and 到, respectively). Therefore, the phrase 'upside-down fu' sounds nearly identical to the phrase 'good luck arrives'. Pasting the character upside-down on a door or doorpost thus translates into a wish for prosperity to descend upon a dwelling.
Another story states that posting the character upside-down originates with the family of a 19th-century prince of the Qing dynasty.
“Fu (character)” enters the record as chinese calligraphy culture. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what character, Chinese and calligraphy can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5506869. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1279.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fu (character)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.