A translation

[Rebax]

Hi!

Can you help me?. I´m trying to decipher a familiar mystery.

I suppose that it's written in traditional calligraphy, but anyone knows what means?

Thanks, greets from Spain ;)

[leeyah]

Here's my try:

立春日迎春 is a Chinese folk custom and the meaning of your calligraphy probably refers to 十二生肖 Chinese Zodiac and the 农历 Lunar Calendar. For example立春日生 refers to those (people) born in the days during the Spring Festival, 春节出生的(人). As for 癸 &卯 I am not an expert on the topic but here's a brief explanation of the characters:

癸[guǐ] is the last of the 10 heavenly stems(天干) and 卯[mǎo] 4th of the 12 earthly stems (地支)meaning the time between 5 & 7 a.m., so 癸卯生 designates the period of rule or whatever it's called of the respective branches and stems (Heavenly branches: 甲,乙,丙,丁,戊,己,庚,辛,壬,癸 / Earthly stems: 子，丑，寅，卯，天, etc)

The 12 signs are each accompanied by a 地支: 子鼠 丑牛 寅虎 卯兔 辰龙 巳蛇 牛马 未羊 申猴 酉鸡 戌狗 亥猪 and a person's Chinese sign is usually described as sign+combination of branch&stem as in: 牛 丙寅 乙已. According to Chinese astrology 天干 地支 plus 阴阳 五行 are all used to determine a person's character and 算命 of course (按照立春日的天干定...)

The first character looks like it has a 牛旁 to me, or could it be: 炯 jiong3 (光明，明亮) ?

Also, from the above context of 生肖 I think it should be 抗面 as this denotes a feature in a person's character, something like sturdy, robust: 身体健康,能抗面 (also used as a medical term, meaning positive/negative resistance: 乙肝表面抗面阳性/阴性--试验阳性/阴性) But I'm not really sure if this makes any sense without deciphering correctly the first character, right?... [/b] --------Corrections or other suggestions, anyone?

And of course 小山， well, this doesn't need an explanation, or perhaps it has a deeper meaning too?! 嗨！中文含义太深了！555

Edited March 1, 2009 at 11:15 AM by leeyah
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