Taiwan Today

Some Have Been Spiced to Add A Tang to the Cooling. Other ‘Shan’ Were Even Synchronized

I tore off a piece of Chi silk,
The color of glittering snow,
And then a fan I made of it
A full moon: now see it aglow!
Dedicated to your happiness
To follow where’er you may go;
And when you take it from your sleeve,
A gentle, cooling breeze will flow
I fear autumn may come soon; then
Heat will abate and wind arise,
No need then for this lovely fan
Ended too will be our lovely ties

Lady Pan of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. 221 A.D.) wrote perhaps the earliest Chinese ode to a fan (扇, pronounced shan). Some say Emperor Shun (2255-2197 B.C.) invented the fan. Others refute this. They admit that “Emperor Shun—in his zeal to learn and to welcome wise men and saints to his house”—had ordered Wu Ming Shan to be made. But they say the word shan referred to “door” rather than “fan”, this being the ancient meaning of the character. During Shang and Chou times (1766-255 B.C.) large fans made of pheasant feathers first appeared in state processions. They shielded the sedan chairs and carriages of queens and princesses from the dust stirred up by marchers. There is another character ( 翣, pronounced sha) for these large fans to distinguish them from hand fans used to cool the countenance.

Just when the hand fan came into use no one knows. A relationship with the large fans is not indisputably established. Historians doubt King Wu of the Chou dynasty (1122-255 B.C.) is the inventor. The records may have reference to the large fans. The only certainty is that hand fans were in use by Han dynasty times. In the reign of Emperor Cheng more than 2,000 years ago, shan were popular among court ladies.

Fans at first were the prerogative of kings, courtiers, officials, and scholars. They were symbols of prestige. Royal regulations were laid down for their use. Almost from the start fans were extravagantly and luxuriously ornamented. Many fans are recorded in Chinese history: the green feather and peacock creation that accompanied the dances of the slender Han beauty Chao Fei-yen; the mysterious “dragon skin” fan of the T’ang dynasty (618-907 AD.); and the seven wheel-shaped fans invented by Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty. It is said that when the Emperor Wu fans, each measuring more than a foot in diameter, were synchronized, the palace chamber became as cool as autumn. Let it be remembered that the fans of Chao Fei-yen were 2,000 years ahead of the peacock replicas of Victorian times. We are not sure that these fans were the same as the big feather fans favored by today’s exotic dancers. The name k’ung ch’ueh (peacock) may have been merely symbolic. However, there is no doubt that the peacock fans of the pre-Christian era were beautiful. So were the smaller, easier-to-handle ladies’ fans with attached pendants of jade, emerald or amber.

More recently, China also has had other lovely fans, especially those handcrafted of ivory. The Imperial Ivory Works was founded at Peking in the 17th century. There craftsmen cut out exquisite fans with poor tools and painstaking artistry. In the 18th century Chinese artisans went to Europe to fashion open-work fans of ivory and mother-of-pearl.

Fragrant Snow

Spiced fans were perhaps of royal origin. Meng Chiang, handsome poet-king of Shu state in the Age of the Five Dynasties (907-959 A.D.), is reputed to have rubbed spice into one of his white fans. S-pending a quiet summer evening with his queen, Madame Hua Jui, the king accidentally dropped this fan from a balcony. The person Picking it up bestowed upon it the name hsiang hsueh (fragrant snow).

The earliest Chinese hand fans were small fixed-frame fans, consisting of a handle and a frame covered with thin silk or gauze. Feather, paper, and other materials were also used. They were made in various shapes but the round ones seem to have been most popular. They also are called yuan shan (round fan) or palace fans.

Feather fans are historically associated with K’ung Ming or Cha Ke Wu Hou, adviser and chief of staff to Emperor Liu Pei. At the battle at Weiping against Emperor Hsuan of Tsin, K’ung Ming wore a plain headdress and directed the fighting with his white feather fan. Mention of this fan is made in a poem by the Sung scholar Su Tung-p’o. Feather fans existed long before the time of the Three Kingdoms. The Han emperors used them in summer. Fans of crane feathers were often seen in the hands of scholars; knights errant were more likely to be seen with ch’ang shan (long fans) made of pheasant tail feathers. The legendary wen niao shan made of the feathers of a rare bird was believed to rout mosquitoes. During the reigns of Hsien Feng and Tung Chih of the Ch’ing dynasty (1644-1911 AD.), eagle feather fans were used by officials.

Other materials for fans have included palm leaves, bamboo, pine fibers, and grass - less frequently, jade, ivory, and tortoise shell.

The palm leaf fan (pa chiao shan) is believed to have been a Kwangtung innovation. It is often confused with pu kuei shan, which is made of finer plant fibers and shaped like a heart. The following passage about a pu kuei shan was written 1,500 years ago:

Hsieh An asked a countryman staying in his village whether he had enough money for his return trip. The man answered that he had 50,000 pu kuei fans to sell. Hsieh bought one and carried it around publicly. The fan became an instant hit. The merchant sold all his fans at sharply inflated prices.

Hand fans-including those made of bamboo and popular for more than 1,500 years-still are widely used by the Chinese, men as well as women. In the long, hot Chinese summer, what better (and cheaper) way to keep cool?

Folding Fans

The folding fan was invented in Japan in 670 AD., and introduced into China through Korea in the 10th century as a gift to the emperor. Sung scholar and poet Su Tung-p’o described a Korean white pine fan as measuring more than a foot in width with the fan open. Folded, it was two fingers thick. Su also mentioned an ebony and gilt paper fan from Japan.

Folding fans have been called by various names: spread fan, pine fan, and dwarf fan. In Ming times (1368-1643 A.D.), the expression “assembled-stick-fan” was used. China started making its own folding fans at the order of a Ming ruler.

Early fans were used only by royalty, nobles, and the literati. The folding fan democratized the right to keep cool. This new variety could be folded and tucked up one’s sleeve. Thus the dignity of superiors was not offended.

For a long while in South China women of virtue stuck to their old-style palace fans and regarded the folding variety as proper only for courtesans.

A folding fan is made of sticks (also called slats or blades or ribs) fastened at one end with a rivet. Fan col1ectors prize the mounts as much or more than the frames. Mounts usually are made of paper. Small folding fans for women may be mounted with gauze or silk, especially chuan, a thin silk processed for painting.

The ribs may be of bamboo, ebony, animal bones, varnished wood, sandalwood, ivory, and other materials. Ivory fans seem to have been made shortly after the folding fan was introduced into China. They may be elaborately carved with figures and floral subjects. Some of the old-day fan sticks were made in the shape of lyres, bamboo or the legs of grasshoppers.

In olden times there were 14 or 16 ribs to a folding fan. Later the number was reduced to 7 or 9. Fans of 24, 30 or 40 ribs were called autumn fans and used by women. The oil-soaked paper fans made in Hangchow used to have as many as 50 ribs. The outside ribs are much larger and thicker than the others. They are often carved.

Asian Art Form

Chinese fans are often decorated with calligraphy or painted scenes. Wang Hsi-chih (321-369 A.D.), the great calligrapher of the Tsin dynasty, was probably the first to think of decorating fans with Chinese characters. This is the story:

One day Wang Hsi-chih met an old woman selling bamboo fans. Asked how many she could sell, she said not enough to earn a living. Out of sympathy Wang wrote five words on each of her fans. The woman wasn’t impressed. He told her to mention his name and increase the price to a hundred coins. She did so and sold out her fans in a few minutes - at fantastic prices.

However, it was not until the time of Ming Emperor Hsien Tsung, when folding fans had come into vogue, that the decoration of fans became popular with calligraphers and artists. Li Yu (937-978 A.D.), king-poet of South T’ang, wrote his poems on yel10w gauze fans and gave them to a palace maid, Ching Nu. A number of Ch’ing emperors were collectors of fans and marked them with the royal seal.

Chinese fans are not more beautiful than the fans of some other countries. Nor is the workmanship always perfect. However, the Chinese fan is given distinction by the great poets and artists who have given life and romance to them.

Fans figure in tales of love, historical as wel1 as fictional. Girls used them for flirting. Young men used them as invitations, much as girls used to drop their handkerchiefs. If a man dropped his fan, what girl could resist the temptation to pick it up? Nor was she unrewarded. When she opened the fan she would find a poem of love.

The Fan in Drama

The drama Tao Hua Shan (The Peach Blossom Fan) immortalizes the romance of a courtesan and a scholar in the last days of the Ming dynasty. Li Hsiang-chun, a beautiful courtesan of Nanking, and Hou Chao-chung fell in love. He gave her a fan on which he had inscribed a poem. The times became chaotic and they were separated. Li was given to a new master. In her distress, she hit herself in the face with the fan, which became stained with her blood. A friend of Hou Chao-chung applied his paint brush to the blood stain and turned it into peach blossoms. Li Hsiang-chun sent the fan back to Hou. However, the lovers did not meet again until many years later. The Ming world came tumbling down around their ears. He became a monk and she a nun.

In The Dream of the Red Chamber, China’s greatest novel, there are amusing anecdotes about fans. One concerns the young master Pao Yu and his maidservant, Chin Wen, who dropped and broke his fan. Pao Yu, a Chinese Don Juan, had spoiled all his pretty maids. When he scolded Chin Wen, the sharp-tongued girl talked back. Pao Yu was furious and threatened to dismiss her. But they were reconciled that evening. The whimsical great lover enjoyed looking at the sight of his pretty maid tearing up fans to her heart’s content. He thought her smile was worth far more than a few fans. This anecdote has been made into a Peiping opera, “Chin Wen Tears Her Fan”.

Some years ago a Chinese gentleman didn’t feel dressed without his fan. Today that is no longer true. But fans are more widely used than might be thought. Chinese men and women still use them at home of an evening, on a stroll in the park, and even on formal occasions. In the days before the air-conditioning of airplanes, Chinese gentlemen always took their fans aloft and put them to good use.

Dainty folding fans no longer can be tucked up milady’s sleeve but may be found in her handbag. In Peiping opera the fan is one of the most important props. Its use in gesture conveys a thousand shades of meaning.

Fans are not unique to China. The concept is too simple. French fans are fancier. And nowhere has the fan acquired such social significance as in medieval Japan. However, when poetry and fan are put together, the source must be China. Where else would a poet-lover inscribe these words to the girl he loved?

When a soft breeze causes
Your crepe dress to ripple,
From your jade-colored hand
I see a moon rising!