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Hello,
Can anyone of you give me the translation of those chinese characters. I can read the name Yongzheng (雍正) without knowing whether this inkstone belongs to Yongzheng reign or not.
Thank you for your help.
Best regards,
Vincent Thuc

照天萬古無二烏　
雍正年xx
How can there be two suns in the heaven for thousands of years*
During the Yongzheng reign
I cannot decipher the last two characters.
Seal,
玉堂　Yutang - Jade Hall - Name of a shop

* From the Yuan Dynasty poet Yang Weizhen's poem titled "Hongmen Banquet"

With regards,
I.Nagy

With a help from a person, I could read the chinese characters as follows:
照天萬古無二烏
雍正二年
玉堂
The bigger characters are cited from a poem entitled 鴻門會 written by 楊維楨 (1296-1370).
Best regards,
Vincent Thuc

I am not exaclty a photoshop lizard, less yet a mandarin language magician. If no one help you here,please, try to create a contrast to the photograph in order to get it clear. It would help. The "crazy" way is also to split some water on it before to get the pic and quickly dry it out.

Since definetely is not written 雍正 Yongzheng in the seal, there is a little bit of speculation:

I realized the seal has two ancient characters with the following possible meaning: 堂漢 (Táng Hàn) – Hypothetically, this could refer to a hall associated with the Han Dynasty. Where 堂 means (hall) (The main house, the tall house) and 𪜑 (or 金 which means metal or gold.

But if its written a seal like 堂金 [之寶] (Táng Jīn [zhī Bǎo], "Treasure of Táng Jīn") could be a workshop stamp.

Not much, but we can go on and try other ways.
hugs
Renato

The character 堂 (táng) originally meant a hall or principal room, symbolizing the family elders who resided there. It evolved to represent familial unity, as seen in terms like 高堂 (gāotáng) for parents and the phrase "several generations living together." 堂 thus signifies relatives sharing the same surname or clan. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties (220–420 CE), the term 同堂 (tóngtáng) emerged, referring to brothers with the same ancestor but different fathers, emphasizing lineage and kinship.


Here there are some reference materials:



https://www.zdic.net/hant/%E5%A0%82 (almost in the end of the page)

the character "堂" means a tall (building) - tang in Shuowen script 說文‧土部.

https://www.zdic.net/zd/zx/xz/%E5%9D%A3

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%E5%A0%82-silk.svg?uselang=fr

https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E5%A0%82

https://news.sina.cn/2018-02-25/detail-ifyrvnsw8610875.d.html

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/The_540_Shuowen_Seal_Radicals.svg

Renato

Thank you very much, I. Nagy and RENATO.
I think that those two characters under 雍正 are 二年; those above the seal and inside the seal are 玉堂.
Vicnent Thuc

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