The Hundred Pleasures decoration is build up of a large number of birds and known from at least Ming, Wanli time. In the case the birds are Magpies xi que (Bird of Joy) the decoration could be translated as hundred happy encounters. Butterflies and birds are both a symbol for a young man approaching the woman he loves and both considered in China as birds, symbols of conjugal bliss, of joy and of summer and from its homophony with the Chinese word die meaning "the age of seventy or eighty" also an emblem of longevity. In the Hundred Pleasures decoration birds are combined with pines which are also a symbol of old age. The decoration could thus be read as "May you enjoy love and sexual pleasures until old age".
See also: Hundred Butterflies
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