Carve seals, write calligraphy, read books, translating classical works of China often left aside. Hungarian.
Joined April 2021
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In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
China just founded my dream institution. Maybe if I can make it to Nanjing next year, I can drop by and visit here sometime. This is my dream job too. Just let me mess around with oracle bones for three more decades and you won't hear a peep out of me.
sixthtone.com/news/1019239
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
In the mood for some 狂隶书. Hope I formulated this correctly: 昧於他範，惟己是則，終罹滯塞 "Blind to other models, taking only one’s own as the norm, one is ultimately condemned to stagnation.” Standard local attitude to China. Seal is: 喑隱札記 "Miscellanea of the mute hermit"
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
Often times I want to challenge myself in seal carving. Today the challenge became to create a 徒手 i.e. freehand portrait of Linji Yixuan 临济义玄. Freehand meaning not drawing the image on the stone before carving, simply carving from the get go. Came out looking good, I'd say.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles 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 mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles 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 mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles 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 mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
This is the gAtEkEePiNg ai bros cry about: skill and determination. Saying this after a concussion I had 3 years ago after which I forgot tons, literally. Half my vocabulary I had to re-learn across four languages I speak. iT's AbLeIsM my ass. You being lazy isn't ableism. Foh.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles 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".
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
Just when I thought China couldn't get any more based
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
Stupid philistine
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In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles 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
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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.
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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".
In a mesmerizing valley a mute hermit smiles retweeted
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