The "Lu" Star and it's meaning? Is it Fertility? Or Status?

During the KLAB + Art for Grabs event, the topic which really strikes my interest is one of the visitor bought up a question regarding the "Lu" star (禄星), the source which inspire the Fertility painting in the Triptych. Well, it was a good discussion. I have to admit that I don't really know about the history and polytheistic believes of Chinese people.

After the event, I had done some Baidu research on the topic (to find the most accurate info related to Chinese, Google is not the choice of search engine), and found out that the original should have total Five deities representing different values. 福禄寿喜财. The five values stands for Fertility, Status, Longevity, Happiness, and Prosperity. It is confused enough since the Chinese folklore were documented in various versions and the Chinese language character alone, reflects various meaning. For example, "Fu" 福 , translated as Blessing, It also have the same pinyin as the word 富，which means rich and abundant. The original meaning of "Fu" should be the blessing of fertility. Where in the old days, Chinese people believed that being fertile is a blessing. However, today, we normally see "Fu" as prosperity. 

Thus, as a conclusion, the visitor is totally right! "Lu" (禄) represent status and authority. Although today, it could be the one hugging the baby. I also found out that Japanese also believe in these values, and they were represented by one deity. 

I have to declare that I believe in no deities! I see the values as important elements of living. Creating a deity to represent the values are such a confusing idea. Which deity should hug the baby? It  does not mean anything to me. As I believe all blessings, prosperity, fertility happiness, authority or statuses are given by one God who created me. That's why my paintings are just for a CNY decoration. They should not be seen as the deities at all. They represent the values and how to achieve them by hard work. If the paintings make anybody think that they are representing the deities, I shall burn them to ashes! 

So far, I really love this triptych because they brought up lots of discussion and thoughts.