Rooster

The origin of the Bamboo Rooster design is fairly vague, but many believe the design derived from the early 1500’s when one of the most famous folk characters of the pre-Dutch Takau region, now known as Taiwan, was the pirate Lin Dao-qian. Folklore holds that while anchored at Takau in 1563, Lin placed his treasure into eighteen and a half bamboo baskets, hiding them in the surrounding hills. During this time, Lin was told by a feng shui master named Wu Ban-hsien that if he were to bury his deceased father in a "dragon cave" near modern day Jiali, leave an offering of an arrow upon the altar , and sleep while holding one hundred grains of white rice in his mouth for one hundred days, before firing three arrows towards the imperial capital in the northwest on the dawn of the last day, he would be able to conquer all the lands under heaven. Shortly after hearing this, Lin discovered a "divine rooster" while hunting in the hills, whose call could be heard for over 300 li and would cause all other roosters to call at the same time. Upon capturing the divine rooster, Lin handed it to his sister Jin-lien to care for, while he prepared to fire the arrows towards the imperial capital at the crack of dawn on the one hundredth day. (Wikipedia)

The tale goes on to tell of Jin-lien, his sister, staying awake until midnight with the rooster by her side to ensure she would hear the break of dawn call and wake her sleeping brother. Instead, Jin-lien happened to reach out to pet the rooster but instead startled it and caused it to call out. This woke Lin who immediately shot the three arrows, with his name on them to identify him as the one who took the title and position, toward the Imperial Castle and the emperor’s chair, but since it was midnight, the three arrows only struck the empty chair. When the emperor discovered the arrows with Lin’s name on them, he put out a warrant for Lin’s capture. Lin and his men finally escaped the Emperor’s troops, but not before killing his sister and striking an area between two mountain ranges that caused the one area to split and finalized making Takau an island. The island later became to be known as Taiwan after the Dutch claimed ownership of the island in 1624. So the rooster was then put on kitchenware and other ceramic wares in a tribute to the making of Taiwan and eventually the freedom of the Han Chinese in the 1600’s. Since the separation of the island of Takau, the now Taiwanese still celebrate its separation from mainland China with the Bamboo Rooster. You too can experience some of this ancient lore with a piece from Generationgifts.com for a friend. And while you are at it, get one for yourself.

If anyone has any other research on where this popular ceramic ware first appeared, please send any information to us at Info@GenerationGifts.com and we will be more than happy to share it with our customers.