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Lot Essay
The first three inscribed lines are taken from a short prose composition, the Jiu hua tie (Chive Blossoms Couplet) by Yang Ningshi (AD 873-954), an important calligrapher of the Five Dynasties period (AD 907-960). The composition reads:
When a single leaf first announces autumn’s here
That’s when chive blossoms begin to flaunt their flavor.
Ningshi
This is followed by five lines excerpted from a five-syllable poem also by Yang Ningshi, Shenxian qiju fatie (Method of Daily Life that Leads to Immortality):
Never grow tired by frequency of practice
through days and nights without number.
For only after long years of accumulated success
does one gradually enter the path of immortality.
This is followed by the name Shi’an, which is a hao of Liu Yong (1719-1804).
Liu Yong was a high official and a calligrapher renowned for his interpretations of Jin, Tang, and Song calligraphic styles and known for his upright reputation. Although both inscriptions on the present example are excerpts from poems by Yang Ningshi, only the first is based on Yang’s hand; the second is Liu Yong’s own style.
An example of Liu Yong’s calligraphy based on Yang Ningshi’s Jiu hua tie (Chive Blossoms Couplet), quoting the same couplets followed by the name Ningshi as shown on the present brush pot, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by Wang, ‘Liu Yong shuxue tanlue (Brief Discussion on the Studies of Liu Yong’s Calligraphy),’ NPM Monthly of Chinese Art, Taipei, 2002, No. 5 (Issue 230), p. 71.
When a single leaf first announces autumn’s here
That’s when chive blossoms begin to flaunt their flavor.
Ningshi
This is followed by five lines excerpted from a five-syllable poem also by Yang Ningshi, Shenxian qiju fatie (Method of Daily Life that Leads to Immortality):
Never grow tired by frequency of practice
through days and nights without number.
For only after long years of accumulated success
does one gradually enter the path of immortality.
This is followed by the name Shi’an, which is a hao of Liu Yong (1719-1804).
Liu Yong was a high official and a calligrapher renowned for his interpretations of Jin, Tang, and Song calligraphic styles and known for his upright reputation. Although both inscriptions on the present example are excerpts from poems by Yang Ningshi, only the first is based on Yang’s hand; the second is Liu Yong’s own style.
An example of Liu Yong’s calligraphy based on Yang Ningshi’s Jiu hua tie (Chive Blossoms Couplet), quoting the same couplets followed by the name Ningshi as shown on the present brush pot, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by Wang, ‘Liu Yong shuxue tanlue (Brief Discussion on the Studies of Liu Yong’s Calligraphy),’ NPM Monthly of Chinese Art, Taipei, 2002, No. 5 (Issue 230), p. 71.