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[21 Jul 2010 | Comments Off on Lacquer Plate from Zhu Ran Tomb: A Painting of Noble Life | 3,692 views]
Lacquer Plate from Zhu Ran Tomb: A Painting of Noble Life

Weeks ago in the previous post of this “Forbidden Treasure” series, I introduced a pair of lacquer clogs from Zhu Ran Tomb of Three Kingdom Period. Today, I am going to show you another “Forbidden Treasure” from the same tomb: A lacquer plate with a painting of noble life.

Tomb of Zhu Ran was discovered in Jun, 1984. It has been hidden underground for more than 1,700 years. Although this tomb has been raided before, there are still 140+ pieces of burial objects left, most of which are lacquered wood objects.

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[28 Jun 2010 | Comments Off on Zhu Ran Lacquer Clogs: Friendly Exchanges between China and Japan | 1,565 views]
Zhu Ran Lacquer Clogs: Friendly Exchanges between China and Japan

Before Zhu Ran lacquer clogs were unearthed, the earliest lacquer clogs were generally believed to be invented by Japanese. The discovery of Zhu Ran lacquer clogs suggests that lacquer clogs might be invented in China, spread east to Japan through Tang culture, and gradually adapted by Japanese.

This also indicates that as early as Three Kingdoms Period, there were already close economical and cultural exchanges between China and Japan.

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[8 Feb 2009 | Comments Off on Quenching Thirst by Watching Plums | 4,141 views]

Storyteller: Last month, I told a story “Satisfying Hunger with Picture Cakes“. It tells people not to rely on unrealistic fantasy. Today, I will tell a similar story: “Quenching thirst by watching plums”.  The idea within this Chinese idiom is pretty close the “picture cake” one.  Sometimes, people use these two idioms together, and in most cases, one can replace the other in a dialogue or context. However, given the stories behind the two idioms, there is a little difference between the exact meaning of two idioms. “Drawing a picture …

Chengyu »

[28 Jan 2009 | Comments Off on Satisfying Hunger with Picture Cakes | 1,218 views]

Storyteller: Look at the pie picture on the right. Isn’t it delicious? At the moment of looking at it, probably you start to secret saliva and your stomach starts to rumble. But stop! You remind yourself: “It’s just a picture. Don’t feed on illusions”. In english, we use this phrase “to feed on illusions” to describe unrealistic fantasy. In Chinese, there is a idiom and a story for the same idea.
Satisfying Hunger with Picture Cakes
During the period of Three Kingdoms (208-280 A.D.), there was a man named Lu, Yu in …