{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "ping-an-fu",
 "type": "amulet",
 "names": {
  "name": "Ping'an fu",
  "native": "平安符",
  "script": "Han",
  "lang": "zh",
  "said": "PING-ahn foo, 'peace talisman'",
  "aliases": [
   "ping an fu",
   "peace talisman",
   "safety charm"
  ]
 },
 "etymology": {
  "root": "Chinese 平安 píng'ān 'peace, safety' + 符 fú 'talisman, tally'",
  "note": "The second character is the same fu as in fulu, Taoist talismanic script: a fu was a tally, a thing split so the two halves match.",
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-fulu"
 },
 "region": [
  "china"
 ],
 "countries": [
  "TW"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "era": "modern",
  "status": "living",
  "portable": "carried",
  "restricted": "open",
  "hemisphere": [
   "N",
   "E"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A sheet of yellow paper inscribed with sacred symbols, folded into a bagua shape or a rectangle and slipped into a red cloth sleeve. In Taiwan it is the commonest amulet there is: the little red pouch tucked in a wallet, the folded yellow-paper bagua hanging from a scooter key.",
  "story": "The charm is obtained rather than bought outright, and the asking is specific. A worshipper offers incense, states their name, birthday and address and what they are asking for, and seeks the deity's permission with divination blocks. If it is granted, the talisman is raised above the main incense burner and circled clockwise three times — in the Taiwanese Gods account, to let it drink in the incense energy and switch on its power.\n\n*Inference —* that sequence is worth reading closely. A name, a birth date and an address are the same details a registry takes; the charm is issued to a person, not to a pocket, and the censer is where it is stamped.\n\nThe writing on it belongs to the Taoist talismanic tradition, where the script is deliberately hard to read. Scholars including James Robson and Gil Raz have argued that the incomprehensibility of the written forms is central to a talisman's perceived authority, and Ge Hong wrote in the Baopuzi, in the Eastern Jin period, that successful use did not depend on the user being able to decipher the script.",
  "how": "Requested at a temple, activated over the censer, carried on the person, then retired on a calendar. A peace talisman is usually replaced once a year: before Lunar New Year the old one goes to the temple's furnace to be burned, and a fresh one is requested for the coming year.",
  "today": "Handed out at temples across Taiwan and kept in nearly every household there, as of the account read in September 2026 — in wallets, on scooter keys, in car glove boxes and in bags. Whether the charm on a scooter key is a devotional object or a habit is not a question this atlas settles; the temple's own procedure treats it as the former, and the wallet treats it as the latter."
 },
 "dating": {
  "period": "Taoist talismanic practice; the paper peace charm itself is undated in the sources read",
  "from_year": null,
  "to_year": null,
  "living": true,
  "label": "undated here; carried now",
  "method": "undated",
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
  "note": "The wider fu tradition is dated on this atlas's fu-talisman record, back to the Eastern Han and to Ge Hong's Baopuzi. Neither source read dates this particular charm, so no years are given here."
 },
 "object": {
  "form": "folded-paper",
  "materials": [
   "paper",
   "ink",
   "cloth"
  ],
  "worn": [
   "pocket",
   "wallet",
   "vehicle",
   "neck"
  ],
  "made_by": "written at a temple, by or under a priest; issued to a named person after the deity's permission is asked",
  "inscription": "sacred symbols in Taoist talismanic script, which is not meant to be read by the carrier",
  "script": "Han",
  "colour": [
   "yellow",
   "red"
  ],
  "single_use": true,
  "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
  "note": "No measurement is published in the sources read."
 },
 "against": [
  {
   "harm": "travel",
   "who": "the Taiwanese Gods account, which describes the charm as carried on the person for safe passage",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "bad-luck",
   "who": "its own name — ping'an, peace and safety — and the yearly renewal that goes with it",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "spirits",
   "who": "Taoist talismanic practice generally, where most coin talismans ask Lei Gong to protect their carriers from evil spirits and misfortune",
   "source": "s:wp-fulu",
   "tier": "tradition",
   "note": "that sentence in the source is about coin talismans; it is given here as the tradition's framing, not as a claim read about this charm"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "fu-talisman",
   "as": "the class it belongs to — this is the ordinary, household end of Taoist talismanic writing",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "chinese-fu-craft",
   "as": "the tradition that writes it and the priesthood that keeps the script",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "blessing-at-a-shrine",
   "as": "the step that issues it: incense, a name, a birth date, divination blocks, three clockwise circles over the censer",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "renewing-yearly",
   "as": "its clock — one year, then the furnace",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "burning-retirement",
   "as": "how it ends, at the temple, before Lunar New Year",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "omamori",
   "as": "Japan's sealed brocade pouch, taken from a shrine and returned to be burned a year later: the same cycle, the same year",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "ofuda",
   "as": "the Japanese paper talisman descended from the same Taoist writing",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "bujeok",
   "as": "the Korean paper charm from the same root, and the third of the three",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "bagua-mirror",
   "as": "the fixed version at the same door: this one rides in a pocket, that one is screwed above the lintel",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "paper",
   "as": "the material that lets a temple issue thousands and burn them all a year later",
   "rel": "material"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Talismans and Protective Charms (Fulu) — Taiwanese Gods",
   "url": "https://www.taiwanese-gods.org/en/culture/customs/fulu/"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
  "s:wp-fulu",
  "s:wp-fu-character",
  "s:wp-chinese-numismatic-charm"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
    "note": "the paragraph on registry details is marked as this project's inference where it appears; the Ge Hong and Robson–Raz material is from the Fulu article"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
    "note": "the household claim is that page's, read on 16 September 2026, and has not been checked against a survey"
   }
  }
 },
 "images": [],
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Taoist talisman.jpg"
 ],
 "confidence": "medium",
 "needs_verification": true,
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "A sheet of yellow paper inscribed with sacred symbols, folded into a bagua shape or a rectangle and slipped into a red cloth sleeve.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "china",
   "name": "China",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "hemispheres": [
  "E",
  "N"
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "fu-talisman",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Fu talisman",
   "as": "the class it belongs to — this is the ordinary, household end of Taoist talismanic writing",
   "rel": "whole"
  },
  {
   "to": "chinese-fu-craft",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Fulu — Taoist talismanic craft",
   "as": "the tradition that writes it and the priesthood that keeps the script",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "blessing-at-a-shrine",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Blessing at a shrine",
   "as": "the step that issues it: incense, a name, a birth date, divination blocks, three clockwise circles over the censer",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "renewing-yearly",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Renewing yearly",
   "as": "its clock — one year, then the furnace",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "burning-retirement",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Burning at retirement",
   "as": "how it ends, at the temple, before Lunar New Year",
   "rel": "practice"
  },
  {
   "to": "omamori",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Omamori",
   "as": "Japan's sealed brocade pouch, taken from a shrine and returned to be burned a year later: the same cycle, the same year",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "ofuda",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ofuda",
   "as": "the Japanese paper talisman descended from the same Taoist writing",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "bujeok",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Bujeok",
   "as": "the Korean paper charm from the same root, and the third of the three",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "bagua-mirror",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Bagua mirror",
   "as": "the fixed version at the same door: this one rides in a pocket, that one is screwed above the lintel",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "to": "paper",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Paper",
   "as": "the material that lets a temple issue thousands and burn them all a year later",
   "rel": "material"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Talismans and Protective Charms (Fulu)",
   "publisher": "Taiwanese Gods",
   "url": "https://www.taiwanese-gods.org/en/culture/customs/fulu/",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-fulu",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Fulu",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulu",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-fu-character",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Fu (character)",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_(character)",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-chinese-numismatic-charm",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Chinese numismatic charm",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numismatic_charm",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
   "note": "the paragraph on registry details is marked as this project's inference where it appears; the Ge Hong and Robson–Raz material is from the Fulu article"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
   "note": "the household claim is that page's, read on 16 September 2026, and has not been checked against a survey"
  },
  "etymology": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu"
  },
  "dating": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu"
  },
  "object": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "against_facts": [
  {
   "key": "travel",
   "label": "Danger on a journey",
   "who": "the Taiwanese Gods account, which describes the charm as carried on the person for safe passage",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "bad-luck",
   "label": "Bad luck, unspecified",
   "who": "its own name — ping'an, peace and safety — and the yearly renewal that goes with it",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:web-taiwanese-gods-fulu",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "spirits",
   "label": "Ghosts and hungry spirits",
   "who": "Taoist talismanic practice generally, where most coin talismans ask Lei Gong to protect their carriers from evil spirits and misfortune",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-fulu",
   "tier": "tradition",
   "note": "that sentence in the source is about coin talismans; it is given here as the tradition's framing, not as a claim read about this charm"
  }
 ],
 "material_facts": [
  {
   "key": "paper",
   "label": "Paper",
   "kind": "written"
  },
  {
   "key": "ink",
   "label": "Ink",
   "kind": "written"
  },
  {
   "key": "cloth",
   "label": "Cloth",
   "kind": "textile"
  }
 ],
 "worn_facts": [
  {
   "key": "pocket",
   "label": "In a pocket or a bag",
   "group": "carried"
  },
  {
   "key": "wallet",
   "label": "In a wallet",
   "group": "carried"
  },
  {
   "key": "vehicle",
   "label": "In a vehicle",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "neck",
   "label": "At the neck",
   "group": "body",
   "note": "the world's default position"
  }
 ],
 "form_fact": {
  "key": "folded-paper",
  "label": "Folded paper"
 },
 "holding_facts": [],
 "span": "undated",
 "country_names": [
  {
   "iso": "TW",
   "name": "Taiwan"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "bagua-mirror",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Bagua mirror",
   "as": "the portable Taiwanese charm for the same household, renewed yearly while this stays up",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "charm-coin",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Chinese charm coin",
   "as": "the paper peace charm that carries the same two characters, ping'an, at a fraction of the weight",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "fu-talisman",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Fu talisman",
   "as": "the everyday form: this script folded into yellow paper, sleeved in red and issued at a Taiwanese temple",
   "rel": "part"
  },
  {
   "from": "chinese-fu-craft",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Fulu — Taoist talismanic craft",
   "as": "the peace-and-safety slip, issued over a censer with a name and a birth date rather than written for a private client",
   "rel": "carries"
  },
  {
   "from": "coin-square",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The square hole",
   "as": "the other Chinese thing tied round a child's neck for safety",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "jade",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Jade",
   "as": "the Chinese safety charm cut from this stone and hung on a cord",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "from": "blessing-at-a-shrine",
   "type": "practice",
   "name": "Blessing at a shrine",
   "as": "the case where the sequence is published: a name, a birth date, incense, divination blocks, and passes over the censer",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "from": "fu-word",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "fu",
   "as": "the peace-and-safety charm that carries the word in its name",
   "rel": "term"
  }
 ]
}