Help translating caoshu for research

[elad yaron]

This picture is from a painting of Tingqua's studio, an artist from Canton. The pictures sould be from somewhen around 1850 plus minus.

Here is one version of the full image:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shop_of_Tingqua,_the_painter.jpg

I am writing an article about this pictures, in connection to the art produced in Canton - a hybrid of Chinese and Western art.

What else will you want to know?

 

Thank you so much for your interest,

Elad Yaron

 

[Lu]

Can you tell us (a lot) more about this? What is this a picture of? What do you already know about it, where did you find it, from what time is it supposed to be? What is your research about and why do you need the text in this image?

[elad yaron]

Yes:

This picture is from a painting of Tingqua's studio, an artist from Canton. The pictures sould be from somewhen around 1850 plus minus.

Here is one version of the full image:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shop_of_Tingqua,_the_painter.jpg

I am writing an article about this pictures, in connection to the art produced in Canton - a hybrid of Chinese and Western art.

What else will you want to know?

 

Thank you so much for your interest,

Elad Yaron

[Jim]

Looking at the highest resolution of the image you can make out the odd character (for example, the last character in the cropped view below seems to be 书 "painted/written by" in a place you'd expect it) but I think the artist has represented many of them more abstractly with the odd stroke. Perhaps that's just me though and someone else can recognise the passage.

[elad yaron]

Thank you so much! maybe this might help:

On the copy of this painting in the hong kong museum the same side says:

July 18th of the 9th year of Emperor Xianfeng’s reign, or 1859

 

here is a link to that painting, with a text much easier to read:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tingqua_-_The_studio_of_Tingqua_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

 

now, is the text making more sense??

[Jim]

Those clearly are characters and you can read the date you mention at the beginning (top right and onward until first character of line two); I can pick out a few other characters from the rest but not up to reading the whole thing. Quite different from the earlier posted version which even has more lines of text and I'm now convinced was more of a casual representation than a faithful copy, note that the central board now has the four character phrase 静观自得 (Buddhist-derived idea of appreciating nature of things through disinterested observation) instead of a romanisation of the artist's name.

[Publius]

Yeah the first picture with TINGQUA in it does not make much sense.

The text in the second one (靜觀自得) looks more like genuine Chinese writing.

 

July 18th of the 9th year of Emperor Xianfeng’s reign, or 1859

That's about right. I can recognize 咸豐九年秋?月十八日……

 

The small characters on the central plaque seem to be 俊卿 (courtesy name of Guan Lianchang/Tingqua/Tinqua) 四兄 (fourth elder brother) 走?山 (a personal name?) 錫?討? (honorable request?)

 

On the left, 好鳥枝頭亦朋友，落花水面皆文章 is a quote from a poem.

Followed by the same date 秋月十八日[？]

And 俊卿四兄大人[？]山人?寫?

[elad yaron]

Hi Jim and Publius, first, thanks for all! Here is some more information, but first, lets make it even a better game:

Look in this folder. I think you will see that number 2 and 3 are translatable. number 4-6 look to me like nothing.

But now you will understand better why number 1 and 7 interest me.

 

about the verses you already detected:

 

Publius - The quote on the the right:

“Lovely birds in the tree are one’s good friends, falling petals on the water are pieces of poetry.”

Composed by poet Weng Sen from the Song Dynasty. A part of the poem: Joy of Studying in Four Seasons

 

Jim - I knew the translation of the top board but did not know it is a known verse.

Doing a bit more studying I think it can be related to a poem by Cheng 

Hao. this is from a site I found. Am I right or is it different?
The original text of the entire poem is as follows (see also the calligraphy);

閑來無事不從容，睡覺東窗日已紅； 
萬物靜觀皆自得，四時佳興與人同。 
道通天地有形外，思入風雲變態中； 
富貴不淫貧賤樂，男兒到此是豪雄。

[Luxi]

Superb site, thanks for the link.

What a beautiful poem! I didn't know Cheng Hao was such a good poet, I have to look for more of his poems, thank you for the introduction.

[Jim]

@elad yaron Yes, that's the poem cited as locus classicus in the dictionaries I checked.

[elad yaron]

I found another site   quoting the sign on the Hong Kong copy - and it said the small text on the center sign says: "俊卿四兄雅屬"

I know the name of the artist is usually spelled 庭呱.

Can anyone help me understand what this line might mean?

As well, the Antithetical couplet - 一簾花影雲拖地 , 半夜書聲月在天 - anyone recognize if it is also a quote?

Is this sign usually appeaser on other places?

shadows of blossoms on the curtain, clouds dragging along the ground , the sound of reading at midnight, the moon in the sky

I hope this game is fun for you all as much as it is fun for me ?

[Jim]

Apparently the couplet is by Qing literatus Dai Binyuan: https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/558580672.html

Quote

“我高祖自幼学习非常刻苦并写了一副对联加以自勉，这副对联是‘一帘花影云拖地，半夜书声月在天’。它的意思是学习到很晚很晚才睡，而月亮还在天上时又开始读书了。

About studying late into the night, which he was known for as a child.

ETA: Thought I'd posted earlier saying that the other poem was given as originating in the Cheng Hao poem in the dictionaries I checked but doesn't seem to have worked on my phone.

[elad yaron]

Hey Jim, reading about him I am quite skeptic: if I read about the right Dai Binyuan 戴彬元 he was born in 1836 and died at 1889 (source here).

The oldest dated copy of the Tingqua's studio painting I have here have the year 1850 on it. It will at list be strange if he did it at the age of 14 and it was already hanged in Canton. What do you think?

[Jim]

Afraid I can't access the Google drive, is it clearly that couplet there? if so you must be right. Other searches suggest the couplet's origin is 'unclear' and the bit I quoted in the above post was said by a descendant of Dai Binyuan so they might be attributing the creation of a couplet that he in fact only copied.

[elad yaron]

Here is the copy I talked about.

The text here, by the way - on the left top sign - "the way of the junzi.“ (君子之道)

Junzi refers to those who are most highly cultivated in the Confucian virtues

and who serve as moral exemplars and is often translated as "gentleman"

On the right: the 30th year of Emperor Daoguang’s reign, or 1850

And of course the couplet on both sides.

[Jim]

Maybe this painting inspired Dai Binyuan, it clearly is that couplet.

[elad yaron]

Would you say that the writing: "俊卿四兄雅屬" might imply Tingqua did not paint the painting by himself?

There is a possibility, as one clearly see 3 painters in the painting.

If not who did, a relative (4th elder)?

[elad yaron]

Hi,

I am an art researcher, and I am studying a painting of a Chinese artist, named in English Tingqua, in Chinese 关联昌.

There is no much more information. We do know that the workshop in the picture was located in 16th New China St. at Canton.

As I said, I am an art researcher, not an historian, and I wondered if the friends in this forum will have some interesting details to share,

Or even better - to detect in this picture.

 

Hope you will enjoy, I am here to answer your questions.

Elad

 

 

[elad yaron]

Hello friends,

I am an art researcher, studying the painting of the studio of Tingqua.

I wondered if any of you art researcher have unknown or profound details about this painting.

Thank you so much!

 

Hope you will enjoy, I am here to answer your questions.

Elad

[imron]

Merged two threads with the already existing topic on the same subject.  Posting the same thing in different places will just split the replies and force people to follow multiple threads, which is not very useful.