Seashell is the origin of fortune. Do you know what was the earliest money made of?——Seashell！Also known as shell coin. Among the ancient inscriptions of Chinese characters on oracle bones, the character “shell” looks just like the shape of an agate. In Chinese, all characters related to wealth, value, or trade contains the “shell” (“贝”) radical, such as wealth (财), expensive (贵), trade (贸), goods (货), loan (贷), poor (贫), greedy (贪), award (赏), reward (赐), bribe (贿) etc. Ever since ancient times, there were Chinese sayings of “shells are the origin of wealth, shells should be hidden as treasures”, and “if you have shells at home, you will become rich.” Maybe this is why people call people or things that they love “treasure shell” (baby).
　　Seashell is the origin of jewelry. Seashells are one of the most primitive artworks in China. 20,000 years ago, Beijing “cave people” already started to use shells as jewelry. At that time, shells were commonly used to compose bracelets, necklaces, and clothing. They even had decorations made of shells for horses and carts. During the warring states period, over 30% of Lu State’s soldiers wore shells made with red strings as decoration to encourage the army. During the Yangshao period of ancient times, there were decorative images about “sex”, which is “shell” shaped.
　　Seashell is the origin of food. In ancient times, human beings already knew how to use the small sea creatures living in shells as food. Those sea creatures supply nutrition to human being so that they can produce offspring.
　　Seashell is the origin of tools. Shells are the most primitive tools used in ancient times. Those tools include horns to send messages, tools to catch fish, containers to hold water, bath tubs for children. We can still see those tools being used by some aboriginal people living in pacific islands today.