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Antique Chinese pair of scroll paintings with calligraphy in black ink on silk, with signed box, Qing Dynasty. With Japanese mounting.
This is an antique version of an ancient Chinese preface to a compilation of poems, the Lantingji Xu ('Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion’). The entire text of the preface is here, ending at the break 7 characters above the 2 red seals. The signature seals are those of the calligrapher. The calligrapher is Chinese: 錢塘劉雲臺 Liu Yuntai of Qiantang (In Chinese simplified characters, the artist's name 劉雲臺 would become 刘云台) Qiantang corresponds to the area around what is now Hangzhou. The labeling on the box also specifies that they were from the Qing Dynasty. Liu Yuntai was a member of a prominent group of "Twelve Quota Merchants" involved with trading copper with Japan from a port near Hangzhou around the early 1700s.
Dimensions: Size of each scroll: 73 1/2" high x 16 1/2" wide.
Translation:
In the ninth year of Yonghe, at the beginning of the late spring,
we have gathered at the Orchid Pavilion in the North of Kuaiji Mountain for the purification ritual.
All the literati, the young and the old, have congregated.
There are high mountains and steep hills, dense wood and slender bamboos,
as well as a limpid flowing stream reflecting the surrounding.
We sit accordingly by a redirected stream with floating wine goblets.
Although short of the company of music,
the wine and poems are sufficient for us to exchange our feelings.
As for this day, the sky is clear and the air is fresh; the mild breeze greets us.
I look up at the immense universe.
I look down at myriad works [of poetry].
As our eyes wander, so do our minds too. Indeed, it is a pure delight for all our senses.
Acquaintance will quickly span a lifetime.
Some would share their ambitions in a chamber;
others may indulge into diverse interests and pursuits.
The choices are plenty and our temperaments vary.
We enjoy the momentary satisfactions when pleasures regale us,
but we hardly realize how fast we will grow old.
When we become tired of our desires and the circumstances change, grief will arise.
What previously gratified us will be in the past,
we cannot help but to mourn.
Whether life is long or short, there is always an end.
As the ancients said,
"Birth and death are two ultimate events."
How agonizing!
Reading the past compositions, I can recognize the same melancholy from the ancients.
I can only lament before their words without being able to verbalize my feelings.
It is absurd to equate life and death,
and it is equally foolish to think that longevity is the same as the short-lived.
The future generations will look upon us,
just like we look upon our past.
How sad!
Hence, we record the people presented here today and their works;
Even though time and circumstances will be different,
the feelings expressed will remain unchanged.
The future readers shall also empathize the same by reading this poems collection.
This is an antique version of an ancient Chinese preface to a compilation of poems, the Lantingji Xu ('Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion’). The entire text of the preface is here, ending at the break 7 characters above the 2 red seals. The signature seals are those of the calligrapher. The calligrapher is Chinese: 錢塘劉雲臺 Liu Yuntai of Qiantang (In Chinese simplified characters, the artist's name 劉雲臺 would become 刘云台) Qiantang corresponds to the area around what is now Hangzhou. The labeling on the box also specifies that they were from the Qing Dynasty. Liu Yuntai was a member of a prominent group of "Twelve Quota Merchants" involved with trading copper with Japan from a port near Hangzhou around the early 1700s.
Dimensions: Size of each scroll: 73 1/2" high x 16 1/2" wide.
Translation:
In the ninth year of Yonghe, at the beginning of the late spring,
we have gathered at the Orchid Pavilion in the North of Kuaiji Mountain for the purification ritual.
All the literati, the young and the old, have congregated.
There are high mountains and steep hills, dense wood and slender bamboos,
as well as a limpid flowing stream reflecting the surrounding.
We sit accordingly by a redirected stream with floating wine goblets.
Although short of the company of music,
the wine and poems are sufficient for us to exchange our feelings.
As for this day, the sky is clear and the air is fresh; the mild breeze greets us.
I look up at the immense universe.
I look down at myriad works [of poetry].
As our eyes wander, so do our minds too. Indeed, it is a pure delight for all our senses.
Acquaintance will quickly span a lifetime.
Some would share their ambitions in a chamber;
others may indulge into diverse interests and pursuits.
The choices are plenty and our temperaments vary.
We enjoy the momentary satisfactions when pleasures regale us,
but we hardly realize how fast we will grow old.
When we become tired of our desires and the circumstances change, grief will arise.
What previously gratified us will be in the past,
we cannot help but to mourn.
Whether life is long or short, there is always an end.
As the ancients said,
"Birth and death are two ultimate events."
How agonizing!
Reading the past compositions, I can recognize the same melancholy from the ancients.
I can only lament before their words without being able to verbalize my feelings.
It is absurd to equate life and death,
and it is equally foolish to think that longevity is the same as the short-lived.
The future generations will look upon us,
just like we look upon our past.
How sad!
Hence, we record the people presented here today and their works;
Even though time and circumstances will be different,
the feelings expressed will remain unchanged.
The future readers shall also empathize the same by reading this poems collection.
$4,000.00
item #859429
