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Tea Crystal Poem Bottle

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Mandarin
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« on: September 23, 2013, 07:50:01 am »

Hello Everyone,

Here's a smoky quartz bottle that was bought from YF Yang in HK in the 60's. The invoice states that it is a 'Tea-Crystal Poem' bottle but does not mention when it might have been made. I was wondering if anyone could translate the characters engraved on one side (here's hoping its not rude)!  Roll Eyes and perhaps suggest when it dates from? Thanks!

Vaughan



* Poem 1.JPG (57.79 KB, 480x640 - viewed 27 times.)

* Poem 2.JPG (60.42 KB, 640x480 - viewed 40 times.)

* Poem 3.JPG (57.72 KB, 640x480 - viewed 33 times.)

* Poem 4.JPG (58.69 KB, 640x480 - viewed 30 times.)
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Wattana
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« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2013, 09:24:19 am »

Beautiful bottle Vaughan.

I'll have to leave the translation to one of our Chinese speaking members. The content may give some clues as to its dating.

Tom
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« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2013, 09:28:53 am »

Vaughan,

An absolutely lovely bottle.  All I can add to this topic is that smoky quartz, brown quartz, and tea crystal are often used to describe carved objects made from smoky quartz (SiO2). 

The color is caused by natural irradiation, which can be eliminated (presumably to a clear form) by heat treatment and restored to the smoky color once again with artificial irradiation.

Charll 
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Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司
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« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2013, 10:07:05 am »

Dear Vaughn,
    A lovely bottle, I remember seeing it when we had lunch in Newport at "The Three Moghuls".
I wonder whether it is late (mid-20th C.), and might have a poem by Mao Zedong.
  Joey
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« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2013, 01:53:55 pm »

(SiO2). 

The color is caused by natural irradiation, which can be eliminated (presumably to a clear form) by heat treatment and restored to the smoky color once again with artificial irradiation.

Charll 

Never have heard this before !  Very interesting....

Beautiful bottle Vaughan !
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« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2013, 08:51:46 pm »

Vaughn,

This is a lovely tea-crystal bottle. With the inscription of an old Chinese prose, it is a bottle I wish I could have ! From my search, the old prose was one composed during the post-Tang era. The author is not Mao as Joey has suggested because the content is about a lonely woman saddedned by the sight of a pair of butterfly outside her window, and it was drizzling in the evening of Spring. I doubt Mao has time for such melancholic theme.

Inn Bok

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« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2013, 04:47:40 am »

Dear Inn Bok, Vaughn, et al.

    My suggestion was a shot in the dark, because Bernie Wald has an identical shaped bottle in brown quartz, and it has poetry by Mao Zedong on it.  Grin

    I was going to correct my query, because I spoke to Bernie, and his bottle is ca. 1820 - 1860, with the inscription added during the Cultural Revolution (and ca.1966-1969).

   Thanks for the correction, Inn Bok. Very interesting. We who can't read Chinese are definitely at a disadvantage. Thankfully we have good friends to help us (though not always in time to save us from 'egg on face'!  Wink Grin ).

Best to all,
   Joey
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« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2013, 05:16:04 am »


I spoke to Bernie, and his bottle is ca. 1820 - 1860, with the inscription added during the Cultural Revolution (and ca.1966-1969).


Vaughan,

Out of interest, what was YF Yang's take on the dating of this bottle?

Tom
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« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2013, 06:34:10 am »

Thanks so much Inn Bok for the translation, which is really melancholy, and everyone for your comments. Unfortunately there is no date on the Yang invoice Tom. Hope you are well Joey!

Vaughan 
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« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2013, 08:40:08 am »

I forgot to mention that the inscription did not give any clue as to the year and maker of the beautiful bottle. My guest would be early 20th century and before. My reason is that such an ancient prose ( composed in the 10th century AD  ) is unlikely the source of inspiration for the person who might commission the bottle to be made.

Inn Bok
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« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2013, 04:27:09 pm »

Dear Vaughn,
    I'm great now, thank you for asking.

Dear Inn Bok,
    I thought the inscription might be contemporary with the bottle. Is there a reason you think it is 30-70 years later? I must admit I didn't look carefully enough at the bottle (I wish now that I had).
    Regardless, the quality of the engraving looks first-rate.
Joey
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« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2013, 12:59:10 am »

Dear Vaughan,

Sorry for the late response on this bottle, I really like the bottle. I think the script is perfectly done, altho I don't know the date of the bottle.

Here is the script of the bottle, you can keep it in your record

春光欲暮,寂寞闲庭户。粉蝶双双穿槛舞,帘卷晚天疏雨。
含愁独倚闺帏,玉炉烟断香微。正是销魂时节,东风满院花飞。

its a classical chinese poem, the poet is 毛熙震(mao xizheng) 10th which is 1000 years away today, but we still can feel the mode of the poem.

I really don't have ability to translate such as beautiful poem.

This poem is about a young lady when she see the spring is ending, and two butterflies flying around in the rain, she stay home alone without any company, missing her friends also feel melancholy when she see the time passing by, and she is getting older...


Beautiful bottle Beautiful Poem!

Steven
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« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2013, 05:59:10 am »

Thanks Steven, I really appreciate your help and sentiments. I'll definitely keep the script.

Vaughan
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« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2013, 06:22:57 am »

PI Steven, you have done it again!

I checked on the internet for this poet - plenty of links in Chinese, but not much in English. Here is what I have found out:

Mao Xizhen ( 毛熙震 ) was a Tang dynasty poet (birth date unknown, died 947 AD)

The poem on Vaughan's bottle is titled Qingping Yue ( 清平乐 )

Unfortunately, the translation is unintelligible - it looks like a Google effort! For what it's worth, here it is:

Spring, the dusk, lonely Xianting households. Both butterflies dance through sills,
curtain later days Shuyu

Inner tent with worry Du Yi, Yu Hong Smoke off slightly. It is ecstasy season,
Dongfeng full House took flight.



Perhaps one of our Chinese members can come up with a more eloquent translation.  Grin

Tom
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« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2013, 09:54:53 am »

Thanks Tom!

Yes, the title is Qing Ping le, its a tradtional title for the classical peom.

The translation is certainly not the best.Smiley I really wish somebody can come up something better.Smiley

Zhiyong
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« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2013, 03:37:47 am »

Dear Tom, Steven, and Vaughn,

Stricly, the title of the poetic work of 毛熙震 is not " 清平乐 ".

" 清平乐 " is the name of a form of folk music, in Chinese it is called " 词牌名 ". The music has certain rhythm such that the writer of the [ 词 ] ( which is a variation of ancient poem ) has to create his work to fit the music. The Chinese hums or sings their poetic works. In the case of  " 清平乐 ", it dictates that the writer's work must made up of only 46 chinese characters in order to fit into the musical framework. It is like in western works, you may choose to write a new song to fit certain known country music, for instance.

Ancient writer of [ 词 ] usually selects a musical framework and then develops the words to fit the rhythm, so that his work will rhyme well. That is how we Chinese remember by rote learning those ancient poetic works.

This is my attempt to translate 毛熙震's work :

In the dusk hour of Spring, loneliness envelops me.
The pair of butterflies dancing, and outside, the evening rain drizzling.
Leaning alone against the curtain, the incense extinguishing.
The sight of the flying flowers in the courtyard, makes me sadly lonely.

I leave to you to imagine the setting in which the woman is thinking of her parted lover.

Inn Bok

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« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2013, 03:59:03 am »

Dear Inn Bok,

Thank you for the clarification. So, this is a type of folk music to which the poem belongs, not the title. Maybe the work has no specific title. There was none other offered on my internet search.

Thanks also for your supreme effort at translating it for all us illiterate Westerners. It is much appreciated. I can at least grasp the general drift of the poem.

Tom
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« Reply #17 on: October 01, 2013, 04:26:30 am »

Yes indeed, many many thanks Inn Bok, Tom and Steven, I will keep a record of the translation. Fascinating!

Vaughan
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« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2013, 04:42:09 am »

Hi All

I am with Inn Bok. Qingping Yue (清平乐) can be classified as a tune title being used for the poem but not the title for the poem itself. Therefore, you will find many these type of poems using this tune title. Some of them have separate poem title but some may not.

Other popular tune titles include:

Pusa Man (菩萨蛮) Die Lian Hua (蝶恋花) Nian Nu Jiao (念奴娇) Huanxi Sha (浣溪沙) Langtao Sha (浪淘沙) Man Jiang Hong (满江红) Shui Tiao Getou (水调歌头) and Yi Qine (忆秦娥).

For your reference.

Regards.


Richard
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