Carve seals, write calligraphy, read books, translating classical works of China often left aside. Hungarian.
Joined April 2021
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In a clear valley a path in shadows retweeted
瘦马嘶残灯
"The emaciated horse neighs at the dying lantern flame"
Two classical Chinese poetic images for exhaustion and burnout combined into one seal. This has been me ever since around 2023. Probably my best seal ever, even in the future probably very few will come close.
In a clear valley a path in shadows retweeted
Saw that lame ai and decided to make my own, without ai ofc. Took me about 2 hours for the concept + execution: drawing, lettering and the seal itself. Text: 市隐凹云画此而已 "The town recluse, Hollow Cloud, drew this and that's all there is to it". You either do it or you don't.
In a clear valley a path in shadows retweeted
Zheng Xie 郑燮 (1693-1766), courtesy name Banqiao 板桥, painter and calligrapher, creator of the calligraphy style known as "pebbles randomly thrown to the street" 乱石扑街, poet, writer and official would understand perfectly why gen ai will never be art.
In a clear valley a path in shadows retweeted
Today seal is 吾生之美，殊不可言；而其中苦辛，竟無人知矣 "I lived a life so beautiful I have no words to describe, yet the pain in it is such that no person will ever know". Handle arch cracked, incorporated it into the side inscription: 倦客碑 "stele of the exhausted traveler".
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Raking light is the closest thing to a proof before you ink. The other trick from that same logic: 印泥 fills the low ground unevenly, so a stroke that looks clean under raking light can still print thin if the shoulder of the cut is sloped rather than vertical.
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So basically now we have America accusing China of using slaves to pick cotton, Japanese saying China is populist and militarist, Canadians saying China oppresses indigenous people, and Indians saying China has a caste system.
So basically China is a mirror.
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A monumental treasure of early Chinese art: Lacquered wooden screen panels from the tomb of Sima Jinlong, dated exactly to 484 CE (Northern Wei Dynasty). The illustrations depict Confucian moral stories and virtuous figures of ancient times.
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Stupid philistine
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In a clear valley a path in shadows retweeted
Tho I don't like 士 being rendered as "intellectual" because it's a very modern word, I love this passage. It signifies what I've been trying to tell people: being a 士 isn't merely being able to read and write, it is AT ONCE already a moral/ethical category. #吕氏春秋
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Here's another banger old meme I found in my archives haha. If you read this chapter, you know what I was memeing about here.
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If you've ever traveled to any of the autonomous regions you'll know that they have all signs in both mandarin and the local language.
This is not hard to find out and its and insult to our intellect that the Economist believes we cannot tell they are blatantly lying.
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Ok, chat: question. Which do you consider to be the best English translation of the Daode Jing《道德经》. Think of two metrics by which to judge: 1.) closest to whatever one might consider the intended original meaning and 2.) best annotations for further understanding.
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Xu Wei 徐渭 (1521-1593) describing the symptoms of his own mental and physical illness. Some of this I experienced myself. Figures, I get the illness, none of the talent that heavenly genius possessed. 😒😂 Rendered 闷 as "anxiety" rather than "depression" or "melancholy".
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The text《送东阳马生序》by Song Lian 宋濂 has this line 故余虽愚，卒获有所闻 "although stupid as I am, in the end I managed to acquire some erudition". Text is heartbreakingly beautiful, read it. But first, vote which condensing for a seal you like more of this phrase.
0%虽愚获闻
100%虽愚卒获闻
2 votes • Final results In a clear valley a path in shadows retweeted
People who translate, how do you go about it? Do you 1.) first translate the text and add the footnotes after the fact or 2.) do you add the footnotes as you translate one by one?
0%1, it's faster
100%2, I don't forget nothing
3 votes • Final results In a clear valley a path in shadows retweeted
I missed the word "misses" here like ai misses the point.
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17. Liuzhou pavilion《柳州亭》where I came up with "tarkára pingált kéjtutaj" for 画舫 i.e. "gaily painted pleasure boat". Because of the language barrier I can't convey why this is so hilarious in Hungarian, but I am keeping it in translation. Zhang Dai was noted for his humor.
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Tao'guang monastery《韬光庵》where we learn how small words can mean the world in the proper context. A friend and I visited here last April and we shared from the monastery's extremely delicious meals along with others. Ah, Hangzhou, my soul yearns for you every single day.
