BAMBOO BRUSHPOT PEACH BLOSSOM JOURNEY

PEACH BLOSSOM JOURNEY 桃花源記 - WANG WEI - BAMBOO BRUSHPOT
QING PERIOD 1644 to 1911

A Magnificent extremely rare antique Chinese Bamboo Brush pot.
The colour of mellowed dark chestnut brown, the calligraphy a lighter shade of camel tone, standing on three feet.
The collar bordered with a Chinese Keylock design.

Carved in high relief in Clerical Script 隶书 Lishu, the complete verse of Peach Blossom Journey 桃花源記 by Wang Wei.

Two sprigs of flowering peach blossoms.
Signed with Seal Mark.

The calligraphic characters are exquisitely carved as though painted by a Calligraphy Master's ink brush.

A Pièce de Résistance combining beautifully written calligraphy, superb carving.

This is the only example I have seen, or know of a bamboo brushpot carved with the complete verse of Peach Blossom Journey .

Translation below, a superb work.

Formerly the property of a Japanese collector.

A MAGNIFICENT WORK OF ART.

Condition: There is an age crack, the length of the bamboo, clearly shown and noted in the images.
There are age hairlines

Please refer to the images for details as they also form the description.

Depending on your computer monitor / phone / etc colour may vary to actual

Height about : 16.1 cm
Diameter about: 13.1 cm
Weight: 451 grams

A$750

Peach Blossom Journey 桃花源記

A fisher's boat chased the water into the coveted hills,
Both banks were covered in peach blossom at the ancient river crossing.
He knew not how far he sailed, gazing at the reddened trees,
He travelled to the end of the blue stream, seeing no man on the way.
Then finding a crack in the hillside, he squeezed through the deepest of caves,
And beyond the mountain a vista opened of flat land all about!
In the distance he saw clouds and trees gathered together,
Nearby amongst a thousand homes flowers and bamboo were scattered.
A wood-gatherer was the first to speak a Han-era name,
The inhabitants' dress was unchanged since the time of Qin.
The people lived together on uplands above Wu Ling river,
Apart from the outside world they laid their fields and plantations.
Below the pines and the bright moon, all was quiet in the houses,
When the sun started to shine through the clouds, the chickens and dogs gave voice.
Startled to find a stranger amongst them, the people jostled around,
They competed to invite him in and ask about his home.
As brightness came, the lanes had all been swept of blossom,
By dusk, along the water the fishers and woodsmen returned.
To escape the troubled world they had first left men's society,
They live as if become immortals, no reason now to return.
In that valley they knew nothing of the way we live outside,
From within our world we gaze afar at empty clouds and hills.
Who would not doubt that magic place so hard to find,
The fisher's worldly heart could not stop thinking of his home.
He left that land, but its hills and rivers never left his heart,
Eventually he again set out, and planned to journey back.
By memory, he passed along the way he'd taken before,
Who could know the hills and gullies had now completely changed?
Now he faced only the great mountain where he remembered the entrance,
Each time he followed the clear stream, he found only cloud and forest.
Spring comes, and all again is peach blossom and water,
No-one knows how to reach that immortal place.

Wang Wei was a poet, painter, musician, and statesman during the Tang dynasty; combining the humanist ideals of a Chinese scholar-official, he served various bureaucratic posts in the Tang court, both in the capital and in the province in Shantung.
After surviving the Anshi Rebellion (755 to 759) and grieving over the deaths of his wife and sister, he retired to his country villa on the Wang River, where he deepened his study of Buddhism and wrote many of his best poems.

This poem is included in the 唐詩三百首 Tang Shi San Bai Shou (300 Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty).