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Subject:Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: TimG Thu, Oct 25, 2018 IP: 73.224.85.64

This is my first inkstone that I have ever come to own as most seem to be fairly obvious tourist quality. Sat in my car overnight to be first in line...hope it was worth it.

This one is fairly large, about 10" long and the box looks zitan wood and nicely carved.

Can anyone confirm if this inscription on the back which my friend tells me is signed 西堂老人 and translates to 'XiTang Old Man' is the same poet who served under Emperor Kangxi?

Google brings up a Wikipedia for You Wei when I put in the pinyan, but no other references.

Poem is quite lovely - Original, or did the carver copy a famous poem?

Kindly,
TimG








Subject:Re: Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: I.Nagy Fri, Oct 26, 2018

水清魚讀月 - Clear water fish reads the moon
山静鳥談天 - Quiet mountain bird talks about the sky
西堂老人  - Xitang Old Man -Pseudonym of
You Tong (尤侗)
The above couplet is attributed to him.
You Tong 1618-1704
Famous poet and traditional opera playwright in late Ming and early Qing dynasties.Praised as
a "True talented scholar" by Shunzi (1st Emperor of Qing) and an "Old man with literary reputation" by Kangxi (2nd Emperor of Qing).

With regards,
I.Nagy

Subject:Re: Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: TimG Sat, Oct 27, 2018

Thank you for responding and the detailed translation.

I believe despite my mistake with using Google to translate, I think we are talking about the same poet.

Please excuse my ignorance about inkstones,but can you clarify...

Since the inscription is of a poem by You Tong, does that mean the inkstone belonged to You Tong, or perhaps You Tong inscribed the stone?

I suppose a more reasonable and likely explination is that an admirer of You Tong had their inkstone inscribed with his couplet.

The stone does seem to show a lot of use, so perhaps dates to the time of You Tong. However, if you can add any further information regarding the relationship between inscriptions and ownership, I would be grateful.

Kindly,
TimG

Subject:Re: Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: mikeoz Sat, Oct 27, 2018

If I might add to I.Nagy's excellent expression, the figure of the carp used to surround the ink well, eludes to the Daoist god or examinations, Kui Xing 奎星, who was depicted riding on a giant fish and brandishing a brush.

This inkstone may have been made to serve and comfort a candidate for the public examinations used to select and grade the Mandarins of the Chinese public service.

Subject:Re: Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: TimG Mon, Oct 29, 2018

I like your explanation better than my own. I was thinking it was the leaping carp... “Liyu Tiao Long Men"- a blessing for achievement, but since the carp is not leaping this certainly makes more sense.

Thanks!

Subject:Re: Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: John R Sun, Oct 28, 2018

Absolutely worth sleeping in your car for.
The surfaces of it tell its story. I love the
worn area created from the grinding of the ink.
I can almost see the brush moving from ink and
water to paper.

Subject:Re: Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: TimG Mon, Oct 29, 2018

Your kind words are much appreciated.
I looked at numerous examples sold by Christie's and Sotheby's ...none seem to show this degree of use/wear, so I was worried that as with so many other Asian antiques that the condition would be a negative with respect to its potential collector's value.

Glad to know there are a few folks out there like me that like to see the piece shows some use.

Just curious.... since I have never done any caligraphy, just how long does it take to wear a stone down to this degree?

Best,
TimG

Subject:Re: Inkstone with inscription - artist You Wei (17-18th c.)?
Posted By: John Rohrer Sun, Nov 04, 2018

TimG
The grinding of ink before using a brush was a way
of preparing for the creativity of tapping into an
inner sense. The artist needed to lose his every day
concerns and worries in order to be open to the sense of inspiration needed to record these inner expressions. The challenge to Chinese artists was
to create art within a 'single breath'. Art that
was not only spontaneous but deep. I see the measure of wear on your ink stone as a measure of
the concern a human being had and attempted to relieve during his lifetime.



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