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3 Paper talisman
Found on Chinese vampires’ foreheads, coffins, and the doors of forbidden haunted abodes, the fú (符) is perhaps the most represented Chinese tool against ghosts and monsters. This paper talisman has its roots in early Chinese shamanism and sorcery, and through the ages, it has been adopted into Taoist practice. In its common form, it is a sheet of yellow paper on which sets of characters are inscribed in cinnabar.
Unsurprisingly, the composition of the fú is carefully considered. Yellow, in the Chinese cosmology of a world balanced between metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, corresponds to the central earth. The talisman’s paper is therefore of a prime colour that reigns over all, including the supernatural. Red is accordingly a lucky colour in Chinese culture, and more importantly, cinnabar is an earth-nurtured mineral that has long been applied when sealing ancient tombs. Paper, “ink,” and Taoist characters of the fú, then, are all selected or designed with warding in mind, and so they are used. Whether put up or burnt, even downed with water as ashes, it remains a favourite protective essential.