Stand Alone on the Tortoise Head (Duzhan aotou)

This print compiles layers of auspicious imagery into a potent visual wish for the success of one’s sons. Three boys ride the back of a carp that is transforming into a dragon, a symbol for success in the imperial examinations. One holds a branch of osmanthus (gui 桂) in one hand a flute (sheng 笙) in the other, forming the rebus duosheng guizi 多生貴子 (may you bear many noble sons). Riding on his back is a boy carrying a parcel of books and holding a fan that bears the message duzhan aotou 獨占鰲頭 (stand alone on the tortoise’s head), an allusion to the position occupied alone by the first place finisher in the imperial exams. The third child holds aloft a seal that reads yipin tangchao 一品堂朝 (first rank official). A print like this, replete with well wishes for success, would be hung in the home periodically throughout the year to invite good fortune.

This is a fine example of a “Suzhou print,” printed in multiple colors from multiple woodblocks during the height of the print industry in eighteenth-century Suzhou.