The origin of writing the character "福字" (福字)

According to "Dream Liang Records", "the common people's families, regardless of size, all clean the door, remove the dust and dirt, clean the house, change the door god, hang Zhong Kui, nail peach symbols, stick the spring card, and worship the ancestors." The text of the "sticker" is written on red paper "Fu" character.

The earliest Chinese oracle bone inscriptions contain the character fu: on the left is a man kneeling on the ground with his hands raised flat; on the right is a wine-containing vessel resting on a shelf. It is a synonymous character, as if a person set up a drink and then knelt down to pray and supplicate. Therefore, the character for blessing should be related to sacrifices at the earliest.

With the evolution of writing, the shape of the character Fu has been simplified, gradually forming a combination of a "礻" part on the left and "一口田" on the right. As a result, people had new expectations for the character Fu, hoping that God would give them good fortune, and that they would be blessed with a field and have enough to eat, thus leading to a happy life.

Then, the meaning of the character "福" became richer and richer, and during the Spring and Autumn Period, it was given the meaning of "五福".

Expanded Information

The Legend of the Chinese Character "福"

According to the legend, Jiang Taigong, before he met the King of Zhou, had been working as a farmer in his hometown, leading an ordinary and not very happy life.

His wife used to make a lot of noise and scold him, saying that he was incapable of doing anything, and that he was unlucky to follow him and live in poverty all the time, which made Jiang Taigong so annoyed that he ran away to the Weishui River to go fishing.

Afterwards, he assisted King Wu to conquer the Zhou Dynasty successfully, and was crowned as a god, his wife also wanted to follow the light, and was crowned as a small god of poverty by Jiang Taigong, and told her, you can go to all the families to get money to make them poor, but you can't go to those whose homes are labeled with the word "blessed".

So every family put the word "Fu" on their homes in the hope that good fortune would last forever.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Fu Culture

Baidu Encyclopedia - Fu Characters