Baoding - Ideogram of hapiness

The Chinese character "fu" which means happiness is also used in Feng Shui for the protection of the site. It is sometimes used to decorate walls and doors and is also used during as decoration for th Chinese New Year.
"There are several legends related to the use of happiness character, one of which date from the Ming dynasty :
An emperor, who visited incognito a small town, noticed a crowd in front of a poster that represented his wife in an unsympathetic manner.
Furious, he ordered his men to paint a character "fu" on the homes of the responsibles, so that his army would be able to find them and execute them the next day.
The Empress being a woman of great heart, she asked a few servants to print the same happiness character on every houses in the town.
So the soldiers could not identify the culprits, and the rumor spread around that the happiness character "fu" had actually saved the lives of many men.
Since that day the character happiness has become a talisman of luck and protection."