Happy New Year!

 

蛇年大吉

Shé nián dàjí

"Good Luck in the Year of the Snake"

Nice calligraphy!....

Li Bai poem. Calligraphy by YT

“YT” = Yours Truly

It’s something like:

From my bed the moonlight is 

Like frost on the ground

Look up see the bright moon

Look down to my old home 

(Or something. My crude translation) 

Temple Stone Flying Bird

Calligraphy by Pan Zegao. Bird by decal shadow on window. This morning.

Top character "Sì" = Temple

Bottom "Shí" = Stone 

Bird shadow = flying swallow

“You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest...” Li Po (Li Bai)

Mountain Q & A

You ask for what reason I stay on the green mountain,

I smile, but do not answer, my heart is at leisure.

Peach blossom is carried far off by flowing water,

Apart, I have heaven and earth in the human world.

山中问答  Shānzhōng wèndá

问余何意栖碧山  Wèn yúhé, yì qī bì shān

笑而不答心自闲  Xiào ér bù dá, xīn zì xián

桃花流水窅然去  Táohuā liúshuǐ, yǎo rán qù

别有天地在人间  Biéyǒu tiāndì, zài rénjiān

Quick scrawl with Sharpie.
Plan to do more with a brush

KUWANA. 42nd Station of the "53 Stations on the Road to Tōkaidō" by Hiroshige

One of our mother’s prints of the famous “53 Stations on the Road to Tōkaidō" by Utagawa Hiroshige. Bought in Tokyo around 1946, as both she, from New Zealand Air Force and father, with Australian Diplomatic Corps, were stationed there immediately after the war (and where I was born).

The “publisher” of this particular print is the chop, or seal (top right), because they are woodcuts and different publishers would have printed off the wood cuts. I presume values differ for differing publishers.

I previously translated “Kuwana” (Above left; “Sāngmíng" in Chinese) as a Tea name, because the character above at the top of the “Kuwana” is a weird way of writing the character, a Japanese way, and it could have been “arrive” 来 lai, or could have been “tea” 茶 cha, but is in fact “mulberry”, 桑 sāng, as in the plant eaten by silkworms. Klar?

The most complete listing I’ve found of all the 53 stations is on Wikipedia.

Our Mum does have some more of these. Pity they didn’t get a whole set in 1946! I am a very big fan of this “ukiyo-e” Japanese art. Jing claims it originated in Ming China. Maybe; I don’t argue. It’s true that much of Japanese is from China, characters (Kanji 汉子) included. Though sometimes they write them weird…. (but always pretty). [Japanese Bonsai is also from China!]. 

“Chop” is the Hong Kong word for a Seal. On an art work, usually in red. Widely used by companies, to this day. I’ve carved my own chops to seal my calligraphy. 

Row, row, row your boat … towards the new normal

逆水行舟，不進則退
(mine, dashed off, and with errors, like not crossing a “T”)
Seals are ones I carved a 傅 and a 赛

The Chinese have a saying (don’t they always?): 

Loosely translated: “when rowing a boat upstream, if you stop moving forward you fall back”. 逆水行舟，不進則退. nì shuǐ xíng zhōu , bù jìn zé tuì.

I’ve always rather liked it. But consider: there's a third alternative. You can row just fast enough to stay in the same place. Like Michael Phelps’ swim spa. And that’s the status quo. 

The status quo is often very good place to be. It’s been the case for Taiwan my whole life: all three parties agreeing to disagree in a policy of “strategic ambiguity”. [It’s also the best for the Israel/Palestine, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue…]

And now Pelosi has stumbled in and rocked the boat, changed the status quo, thrown an oar out the boat, disturbed the rowers, and our little boat of status quo is falling back downstream.

China is now encircling Taiwan at will. It has exclusion zones surrounding it, and is freely sailing its warships right up to the coast. That’s a new normal. And it’s not good for Taiwan. 

Three articles today and one from yesterday in the Post are some decent coverage. There’s a view from China, by Xie Maosong. For it matters not one tittle and not one jot what I think about this. Or what Tim Plate thinks, or what other expats think, or what the Hong Kong people think, or even what the Taiwan people think (which happens to be over 80% against “reunification”). What matters is what China thinks. 

Tom Plate makes an interesting point which I should’ve known but didn’t. That Pelosi’s San Francisco electorate is heavily Taiwanese. I’ll take Tom’s word for that. But Pelosi is 82 for goodness sake! What’s she doing being driven by electoral politics?  [ADDED: my mate at the coffee shop, a San Fran resident, Chinese-American, says that used to be the case, but now the Chinese community there (~16% of the SF population) is more 50/50 mainland and Taiwanese]. The articles:

• Xie Maosong: “Pelosi Taiwan visit should prompt Beijing to …” [WebArchive]
• Tom Plate: “Pelosi Taiwan visit highlights need to reset …” [WebArchive]
• Peter Kammerer: “Thanks to Pelosi, US has taken dangerous step to …” [WebArchive]
• Yun Sun: “Crisis averted, what next?” [WebArchive]

Dali, Yunnan, China, 15 September 2014

From my iPad’s random feed. Jing in Dali, Yunnan on a car trip we made to Sw China. That’s beautiful calligraphy on the left.

Cool calligraphy: Zoomorphic!

 

An example of Arabic Zoomorphic calligraphy. The name says it all. I didn’t know that it was a thing in Arabic writing. I can see why, with the more free-form and less pictographic script than Chinese characters, it would become a thing, and if you google it you can find all sorts of animals scribed in Arabic. They’re fun.

I thought there would be even more zoomorphic artwork in Chinese, thinking of the character like 🐎 馬 ma, for example, but it’s not such a big thing after all. Given, I guess, that the character itself is a picture. Below is some early Chinese pictography, done on oracle bones, dating to pre-CE. I do find these attractive, the precursor to one of my favourite Chinese scripts, the Lesser Seal.

From Beyond calligraphy. Read Top>bottom, R>L

"Out of the 50,000 Chinese characters, why don't any have circles?"

Shu Fa “calligraphy". Top to bottom, L to R: Seal (Zhuang) Script;
Clerical (Li); Grass (Cao); Running (Xing); Standard (Kai)

"Out of the 50,000 Chinese characters, why don't any have circles?”

Asks someone on Quora, and Alex answers with some interesting observations. If I’d been asked, I’d tend to say that it has something to do with the writing instruments after the development the Greater and Lesser Seal scripts which used hard tipped writing tools. After around the Han dynasty (200BCE) calligraphers began using flexible brushes. This led to standardisation of the strokes and stroke order (summarised in the character yong, 永, “forever” which has all nine). A side effect is it’s hard to write 0 with a brush -- try it and see how unnatural it feels.

Alex makes some interesting points, so copy his answer to the question below, from here:

You have made a fascinating observation that I think does give a lot of insight into Chinese culture.

Please do keep in mind that these are no more than my own very casual reflections:

Chinese script originated in Jiaguwen or oracle bone script, with characters carved onto turtle shells. It would have been somewhat difficult to carve a circle onto a turtle shell, I would imagine: you would need to carve it segment by segment while turning it. (Yet, as some in the comments as well as one of my friends have pointed out to me, it was actually a common element present in these oracle bones. Nonetheless, I would conjecture that it was still slightly more difficult, though the importance of which might be minimal.) Over time, what once were limited by technical difficulties might have become what was normal and what was natural.

Spring View. Redux

 

Above: my second go at the poem I first posted here

My go at the translation:

A state destroyed, but nature thrives

Deep green in the spring city

Time passes, I cry on flowers

A sad parting, a startled bird

War beacons burn for months

Letters from home are priceless

I scratch my thinning white hair

It no longer holds my official pin

There are a number of translations. I've found none felicitous. Not that mine is. It's tough. But it's a wonderful poem in its original. Four related couplets, with the characters in each couplet mirrored in the next line. It's elegant. In Chinese, anyway. 

The "official pin" was a hair pin, in Tang times, which was a proof of one's office, like a warrant card, or a cop, these days, showing their ID. The Chinese is 簪 zān. (I took time with it, above). So, if your hair can't hold the pin anymore, it's like you've lost your position. And this was a time of revolution in China, when Du Fu, of this poem, was captured and held hostage, while the country around was in chaos. I think it's pretty pessimistic. Some say they find it optimistic. Hmmm...

Another translation I like:

state gone, just creeks and peaks

spring grows high in the streets

times bloom with sprinkled tears

birds part and start at heart

beacons burn for three months

letters worth piles of gold

I scratch my white hair short

so my pin doesn’t hold

"Spring View": Chun Wang by Du Fu. 杜甫春望

My messing about calligraphy of this poem

I kind of prefer the more free-form translations, like this one

Martin Winter:

state gone: creeks & peaks,
spring grows in the streets.
times bloom sprinkled tears;
birds part, startling hearts.
beacons burn three months,
words from home are gold.
scratching white hair short:
pin doesn’t hold.

Calligraphy (Mine)

七十而从心所欲，Qi Shi Er Cong Xin Suo Yu
"When you’re 70 you can go, like, wherever…" Li Shu = Clerical Script

As above, Xiao Zhuan = Small Seal Script
(Except top left, 心 ❤️, Xin, in script from Warring States
because I don’t like the Seal Script for xin)*

Si Zhong Hua Zhi Xing Nian Jiu Zhou Zhi You
When you think of travels in China think of your friends there
Xing Shu = Running Script

“Peaceful Night” by Tang poet, Li Bai
Xing Shu = Running Script 

First lines of “peaceful night” in
 Modified Li Shu = Clerical Script

Practice in various styles

“Friend”, You, in various scripts: Xing, Li, Xiao Zhuan, Da Zhuan, Kai
(With one trick "you" for China nerds)

The above are my calligraphy, on Meiyutang (美玉堂) Xuan Handmade Rice paper, with various brushes and brush pens. Done for friends around the world. 

The seals stamped on in red are also mine; first efforts at carving into soapstone.

Spring View, from here

*ADDED: (re 2nd from top) Here’s why I don’t like the Small Seal Script of 心 Xin ❤️. No matter how I draw it, it looks like bathroom graffiti. The Warring States version is far prettier, IMO…

Calligraphic Chattlery

 

I recently ordered a bunch of books on the calligraphy of various famous Chinese calligraphers, a series put out by the Jianxi Art Publishing House. These are wonderful books, the result of painstaking scholarship. For each calligrapher -- Wang Xizhi, or Zhao Ji, say -- they give a number of examples of how they have written any one of hundreds of characters at different times of their life. The mind boggles at the time and effort this would have taken. They're beautifully produced. 

Closer up, on my desk, my paraphanalia

This is a book of Tang poems that you
can practice your calligraphy on. With
characters set out for tracing. Uncut pages
Quite lovely

             

Above, on the left, my practice characters on the Tang Poems book: this one "Thoughts on a peaceful Night" by Li Bai, one of the famous "drunken poets". On the right, my quick and dirty cursive of the same poem, with my signature on the left and the seal at the bottom carved by me -- my name (傅) in Lesser Seal script.

Li Shu 隶书 “Clerical Script”(aka “Chancery Script”) Book arrives

 

The latest in my collection of calligraphy books

The Li script is one of the earliest standard writing styles in China, dating back to around 300BC. There's plenty more online, like here. It's the latest style I'm studying in my calligraphy efforts. I've done a fair bit of classical Chinese texts in Cao Shu, or grass-cursive script, and in Kai Shu, the traditional or standard script, kind of like copperplate writing, more here.

I'm working on a piece of calligraphy, a classical Chinese saying about turning 70, for a friend who just has. I've decided to do it in several styles. And send all off. It's a fair bit of work. The practice, the practice. Then I've added to the task: by carving my own stone seals. If you've ever seen a Chinese painting or piece of calligraphy, you'll usually see a red mark at the bottom, right or left. Sometimes several of these seals. So, courtesy Mx Amazon, I've got a soapstone carving kit and have done several. It's both easier and more difficult than I thought. Easier in that you can quickly get carving. Harder in that to get something really good is going to be tough. So I'm just calling my efforts "guai zhuang", or "weird seals", an honourable way of carving, kind of free form, kind of devil-may-care.

This is the third of my latest batch of books on different calligraphic styles, put out by the Jiangxi Art Publishing co, in China. They give you various versions of each character as done by famous calligraphers over the ages. These are works of great scholarship. Or at least of great effort. 

Here's a typical page, with the character Gao (高), meaning "high" or "tall", as done by 15 different calligraphers. 

You might call a few of these "guai zi", "weird characters", done
deliberately strangely off, like naive kids' work, like the bottom
left by Wu Weihan

And here's a pic of my study, with the latest batch of calligraphy brushes, ink, papers, carving tools, seals, etc...

Painting on the all is by Yu Chen. The one above the filing cabinet by
Ding Yan-yong, the one by the window by Zhong Biao. Chairs and
tables Chinese. Outside is our bamboo garden. So, all-up, pretty much Chinese

Huai Su 千字文

 

My latest calligraphy practice 

A portion of Tang Buddhist calligrapher, Huai Su, from his 千字文, Qian Zi Wen, Thousand Character Essay. I’ll get around to translating it, at some stage. Right now just to say I really do like writing with brush pen on rice paper. And copying the masters, which is always the way it’s been done. 

ADDED: Qian Zi Wen Chinese Text. Translation is mine:

[知過] 必改，得能莫忘  [Zhīguò] bì gǎi, dé néng mò wàng. Knowing it, change and don't forget it

罔談彼短，靡恃己長 Wǎng tán bǐ duǎn, mí shì jǐ zhǎng. Don't talk about the bads and benefits

信使可覆，器欲難量   Xìnshǐ kě fù, qì yù nán liàng.  The message is strong but hard to measure

墨悲絲染，詩讚羔羊  Mò bēi sī rǎn, shī zàn gāoyáng.  Sorrow in ink and silk, poetry praises the lamb

景行維賢，克念作聖   Jǐng xíng wéi xián, kè niàn zuò shèng.  Acting virtuous is a sacred act

德建名立，形端表正  Dé jiàn míng lì, xíng duān biǎo zhèng.  Morality built righteousness

空谷傳聲，虛堂習聽  Kōnggǔ chuán shēng, xū táng xí tīng Empty valleys magnify sound, Xi (Jinping!) listens in the empty hall (actually more like: “which the empty hall magnifies”. Xi’s character also means “to study, or amplify”)

禍因惡積，福緣善慶   Huò yīn è jī, fú yuán shàn qìng. [I give up, too much woo]

尺璧非寶，寸陰是競  Chǐ bì fēi bǎo, cùnyīn shì jìng

資父事... [君]  Zī fù shì... [Jūn]

I gave up the translating after a bit, as the text is a kind of poetry primer which kids in the 6th Century were required to read out loud. and basically rather boring. 

The Buddhist monk Huai Su, also used this "Thousand Character Essay" as a practice for his calligraphy. And it's just that not much of his calligraphy survived, this being one of them, and that's why we still have and treasure it. 

The text itself is a lot of 6th century wooo, which I can't be bothered to translate any more, as it doesn't really "speak" to us today. [If it does, then I'll let it...]

Zhuangzi the Butterfly

My calligraphy practice, from Zhuangzi

This is the famous -- some say "annoying" -- meditation by Zhuangzi. He dreamt he was a butterfly. And then woke up. Didn't know if he was a man who had just dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming he was a man. 

I guess we could see it as kinda deep in that stoner, sixties, weed-soaked kind of way, like "deeep man".....

Then again, we could all be part of a simulation. And that's somewhere in mainstream science, these days. So Zhuanzi was, again, in front of the curve, 2,400 years ago.

Zhuangzi— “Do Nothing”

Zhuangzi “The normal course for Rulers 
And kings”. Article 11

My favourite philosophy from the Taoist school — “Wu Wei”, or do nothing. How many times have I solved a problem by doing nothing? How many political situations would have been better if politicians had done nothing?

Top to bottom right to left, in mandarin pinyin:

Wu wei ming hu; Wu wei mou fu 

Wu wei shi ren; Wu wei zhi ren

English:

Non-action makes you famous; non-action gives you a Full House of plans 

Non-action fits you for office;  non-action gives you wisdom

Calligraphy practice: Huai Su

My calligraphy after the style of Huai Su, done with Brush Pen on rice paper

Huai Su was a buddhist monk and calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty.

The above is the beginning of his "Thousand character essay in Grass Script". (草书千子文, Cao Shu Qian Zi Wen).

I don't know of a translation (and haven't really looked), so I may get around to doing one myself... 

The writing is mine, using a Japanese brush pen. 

ADDED: I get very favourable comments on the calligraphy on someone usually a fierce critic: my wife. She herself an accomplished artist with a very fine hand at calligraphy. So that means something. 

Zhuangzi on Confirmation Bias

My brush pen arrived. Above is my first go, writing out this bit of Zhuangzi.

From Zhuangzi "Metaphorical Language", Article 1. 

Men assent to views which agree with their own, and oppose those which do not so agree. Those which agree with their own they hold to be right, and those which do not so agree they hold to be wrong.

Surely the very definition of Confirmation Bias. From 1800 years ago...

How to read the above in modern Mandarin, top to bottom, right to left:

Yǔ jǐ tóng zé yīng, 

Bù yǔ jǐ tóng zé fǎn, 

Tóng yú jǐ wéi shì zhī, 

Yì yú jǐ wéi fēi zhī

[ADMISSION: the bottom right character (Ying) is incorrectly written. But you only get one go]

ADDED; I'm trying to write in what Chinese call "Cao Shu", which is more free-form than simple cursive, or Xing Shu.  Up until this very minute I'd always thought Cao Shu meant "grass script" on the basis that the character Cao (草) means "grass", and I'd taken it to mean that the writing is way more cursive than normal and is kind of like grass. But I read in wiktionary that it's a calque, meaning "careless, sloppy or hasty". Still, it might be pretty much the same. I'll continue to call it "grass script". (In fact, it opens it up to me: I can just call it my careless, sloppy or hasty go at it....)

I've just got a new Dictionary of Cao Shu, from the Jiangxi Art Publishing House. It's great. Multiple examples of famous calligraphers' Grass Script over the millenia. When there's a choice, I prefer that of the Jin Dynasty calligrapher Wang Xizhi. That's what I try above. 

‘When you think of your travels in China, remember your Chinese mates’

 

My calligraphy practice with the thicker brush. It says wot says the headline.  J reckons it’s Mao Tse-tung. I can’t find reference.

Top to Bottom, Right to Left:

Sī zhōnghuá zhī xíng  Thinking of your travels in China

Niàn jiǔzhōu zhī yǒu  Remember your Chinese friends