The ways in which the Chinese have used the homophonic nature of their language to express abstractions in concrete terms, especially to express daily wishes, are described. In Chinese, a value is assigned to an object because the pronunciation of the word for the object brings that implied value to the mind of the listener; for instance, vase in Chinese is ping, but ping also means peace--therefore a vase may be chosen by a painter to convey a wish for peace. The small number of available sounds in Chinese requires that similar sounds be used for different characters, affording many opportunities for puns and word play. A pattern has developed in which the most common best wishes are expressed by using rebuses and verbal substitutes. An extension of this pattern is to use visual or physical representations of the substitutes. (MSE)