Front:Liu Hai and the legendary toad (chanchu)
Liu Hai was a Minister of State during the 10th century in China and a Taoist.
There are two versions of the story with the three legged toad.
One version of the story says that he became good friends with a three-legged toad
who had the fabulous ability to whisk its owner to any destination. This particular
toad had a love not only for water but also for gold. The toad happened to escape
down a well, Liu Hai could make him come out by means of a line baited with gold coins.

The second version of the story is that the toad actually lived in a deep pool and exuded
a poisonous vapor which harmed the people. Liu Hai is said to have hooked this ugly and
venous creature with gold coins and then destroyed it.

The story of Liu Hai is frequently told as "Liu Hai playing with the Golden Toad".
There is a hidden meaning here. The Chinese word for "toad" is chanchu (蟾蜍).
Sometimes, Chinese will only say the first character chan (蟾). In some Chinese dialects,
the character chan has a pronunciation very similar to qian (钱) which means "coin".
Therefore, a storyteller reciting "Liu Hai playing with the Golden Toad" could be
heard by listeners as "Liu Hai playing with the gold coins".

translation on back "The green mountain looks more slanted"

From Washington DC / Silver Springs, MD area estate. (Same estate as Shouben bottle)
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