# Tell me about this Chinese or Japanese coin **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2021, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309 "2021-02-06T02:31:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/1 "2021-02-06T02:31:19Z")
Facebook is constantly telling me that I might want to be friends with some person with this as their avatar. I don’t know the person, but I’m really like the coin. [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/lBStWPQ.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/Z4DY0A7) ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/2 "2021-02-06T04:23:23Z")
It appears to be a [Daoist charm](https://primaltrek.com/daoist.html). > Regarding the very large character on the left, the upper half is “magic writing” for the Chinese character lei (雷) which means “thunder” and refers to the “God of Thunder”. The lower part is “magic writing” for the Chinese character ling (令) which means “to order”. > > The top portion of the very large character on the right, consisting of what looks like a three prong fork with three small circles underneath, is the magic writing equivalent to sha (杀) which means “to kill”. The part of the character below the three small circles is the Chinese character gui (鬼) which means “ghost” or “spirit”. > > The inscription of the two magic writing characters, read left to right, can thus be translated as the “God of Thunder orders the demons to be killed”. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/3 "2021-02-06T18:59:20Z")
I may not be 100% correct about this, but my understanding is that actual Chinese “cash” coins, the ones used as money, have square holes rather than circular ones. Some Japanese coins have round holes, but I agree that this appears to be a Daoist charm as described in the page that blue\_infinity linked to. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/4 "2021-02-06T22:30:45Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > It appears to be a [Daoist charm](https://primaltrek.com/daoist.html). That’s the exact one. Were you already familiar with it, or lucky Googling. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/5 "2021-02-07T02:58:35Z")
What is ‘magic writing’, and what are magic writing characters? ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/6 "2021-02-07T04:23:14Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Were you already familiar with it, or lucky Googling. A bit lucky. It came up in an image search. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/7 "2021-02-07T04:40:49Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > What is ‘magic writing’, and what are magic writing characters? > **[Fulu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulu)** > > Fulu (traditional Chinese: 符籙; simplified Chinese: 符箓; pinyin: fúlù) are Taoist magic symbols and incantations, translatable into English as 'talismanic script',\[a\] which are written or painted on talismans called 靈符; 灵符; língfú by Taoist practitioners. > These practitioners are called 符籙派; fúlù pài; 'the fulu sect', an informal group made up of priests from different schools of Taoism. Like most aspects of Taoist practice, use of these objects is not confined to Taoism: they have been incorporate... ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/8 "2021-02-07T05:45:05Z")
Which reminds me of the English primitive fear of the written word. Similar to Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Old Language” (she came from an anthropological background) or the concept of ‘true name’. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/9 "2021-02-07T06:22:27Z")
@blue_infinity Nailed it in one. Really interesting link by the way. As a non native Chinese speaker, I can only read some of the characters. And just a wag, some of the daoist writing seems to be either Mongol/Tibetan/Sanskrit related. Back in 1986, I spent a couple of days hiking in the daoist mountain called Qingchengshan (青城山), which is not far from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and very close to the Wolong Panda Reserves. Very picturesque foggy drizzly very rustic place that has probably been turned into a tourist mecca these days. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/10 "2021-02-07T13:53:02Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Very picturesque foggy drizzly very rustic place that has probably been turned into a tourist mecca these days. Sure, once all of the demons were killed. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-this-chinese-or-japanese-coin/932309/11 "2021-02-07T23:46:07Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Very picturesque foggy drizzly very rustic place that has probably been turned into a tourist mecca these days. As it happens, my wife is currently bingeing on Chinese soapy/historial romances with daoist aristocrats and demons in the fog and mountains. All 100% dubbed in Mandarin because they are all made 100% dubbed anyway. She’s mostly English and Hokkien, but her Mandarin understanding has improved along with the first couple of hundred hours…