![]() Therefore, the boxes imply unity.”īefore showing me his collection of boxes, Fang took a porcelain statue out of a display cabinet. “The Chinese characters for ‘box’ and ‘combination’ are homophones. “I am fascinated by boxes because of their auspicious meaning,” Fang explained. Only those familiar with antique boxes, like Fang, know their true value. Not everyone would realize that the value of a box might be higher than that of a pearl. “The vendor sold a pair of fake chopsticks but I bought a genuine box,” said Fang. The vendor snickered at Fang’s gullibility, ignorant of the fact that Fang was not attracted by the chopsticks but rather by their lacquer box. Although Fang knew that they were imitations, he nonetheless bought them for 80 yuan (US$11.9). While Fang was wandering in an antique market in the early 1990s, he encountered a vendor peddling a pair of “ivory” chopsticks. ![]() Fang Binghai, 77, a collector of antique boxes and a member of the Shanghai Collection Association, has another twist on the old tale. The proverb has long carried the implication that the buyer’s judgment was poor and the seller was guilty of over-packaging. The tale is referred to in “Han Feizi,” an ancient Chinese text attributed to philosopher Han Fei. In the end, the buyer bought the jewel box and shunned the pearl. The box was made of lily magnolia, decorated with gems and the feathers of kingfishers, and infused with fragrance. There’s an ancient Chinese proverb about a businessman in the Chu state who asked a craftsman to make him a jewel box for an exquisite pearl he was going to sell. ![]() Fang Binghai, a collector of antique boxes.
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