Sorry for my slight hiatus, that darn real life always interfering, I adopted a puppy (about 1yr. old Whippet/fox terrier) and she has been consuming most of my days outside of work.
I did manage to pick up a new Yixing teapot that I really liked, and was hoping that someone better than I could help to translate it. The style of character is different to me. Here's the photo:
Thanks to any and all who can help me out, I appreciate it.
- Dominic Drinking: Brewing some loose Pu-Erh right now.
Doh, the HTML link didn't work properly. The first link in the HTML is to the full pic (1600x1200 - 379kb) and the second link is to the small thumbnail image. Sorry 'bout that.
Amazing Danny, thank you so very much! Good Stuff. Does that symbol in the middle mean anything or merely decorative? Also what script would this be in, it seemed more "rounded" than regular Chinese writing?
I came across this teapot in an unusual place and it seems like it may not be a high quality teapot due to the actual writing on it stating "Yi Xing Zi Sha" but I only paid about $12 for it in a very nice lined box.
These are standard phrases wishing someone happy birthday, although generally reserved for older folks. You wouldn't normally tell someone who's 25 these things, but you would someone 65.
The script is an imitation of an ancient style, mostly used before
200AD, but I think it's not entirely accurate and adapted to modern writing.
I think the thing in the middle is a very stylized "shou", which means longevity.
MarshalN is correct, these are standard phrases for birthday well wishes...in the past it was reserved for people at their 70th birthday as that is the age chinese believe to be longevity itself, and some local customs add another 3 years to it, making it 73, hence making the birthday person even older than he or she already is...these days though, we use it freely for other age groups too...
The script is the Seal Script, used between 221 - 207 BC in the Qing dynasty. There are varying styles of this script, broadly divided into Big Seal Script and Small Seal Script. The script on the pot is based on the Big Seal Script, and as MarshalN pointed out, is adapted for modern writing, at least the first character on the left is.
The centre is a pictograph of the character Longevity, highly stylised and creative. Bats are a symbol of longevity in Chinese mythology, and you see
3 of them on the pictograph - one on the top, and the wings of 2 in the centre. The character 'Gu' to mean 'old, ancient' is also incorporated into the character: one under the wing, one inverted, and one at the bottom.
Thanks to both Danny and MarshaIN, I really enjoy hearing the background and "inside" info on these things. I rarely buy a teapot I don't understand because to me that is part of the magic... the script on this one had me wondering if it was even really Chinese.
I have a Yixing tea mug that was given to me on Christmas that I will have to photograph and see if you guys will be kind enough to help me with as well. Most of my friends are Korean and Vietnamese so they are only marginally helpful when it comes to my Yixing questions.
You made my day!
- Dominic Drinking: Nothing yet, need to get brewing.
If we're in nitpicking mode, then seal script wasn't excusively used in the Qin either, but also before and after.
It's mostly preserved as a calligraphy style nowadays. I don't, however, think that the words on this pot is strictly seal -- I don't know seal script that well, but it might be words that are styled in the seal script style, but would in fact be incorrect based on the original seal script way to write these words. That's just a guess.
You are exactly correct. You should have seen her with a pesky mole in my front yard. She almost had him on pure speed and then when it ducked into a burrow she dug about 1 foot down in under 20 seconds. When you throw her a ball she is already waiting for it to come down while it is just reaching its peak in the air. It's been a blast and we're enjoying her, she was less than a week away from being put to sleep at the pound when we found her online for adoption... a 3 and 1/2 hour road trip later and she was ours.
Lew is always the nitpicking one...haha! He is correct, it is 'Qin', not 'Qing'.
MarhalN, I didn't say that the Seal Script was 'exclusive' to Qing dynasty. I said it was used during the Qin dynasty. The Da Zhuan or Big Seal Script was believed to be developed and standardized during Zhou dynasty, in the
7th century BC. The Xiao Zhuan or Small Seal Script was developed and used during the Qin Dynasty, and accepted widely as a standard form of writing, the most well known was The Story of Cang Jie, which employed approximately
3000 characters in Small Script, which are rather squarish in form than the Big Script, which have slightly more elongated characters, and more pictograph in form.
Chinese writing, especially when employed on calligraphy, often includes the artist's interpretation and touch on the characters, 2 same characters written by 2 artists would appear very different, sometimes with little ornaments here and there. One may say that the words on the pot is not strictly seal script, but the base of its style is.
And as I have mentioned, besides the 1st character on the left, the others are very much correctly written in the seal script. And that's not a guess. :")
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