old brass plate. needs translation

[frodo]

Bought this plate in Taiwan in the early '70's

will you translate it for me please?   

thank you !!!!!!!!!!  Frodo

 

[skylee]

The first line (on the right of the first picture) looks like 大漢昭烈帝御賜 from the Emperor Zhaolie of the Great Han (Dynasty). Emperor Zhaolie means Liu Bei. We are talking about 2nd - 3rd Century AD.

[frodo]

you are confusing me.. and that is not hard to do

the plate is from the Emperior Zhaolie of the Great Han Dynasty. 

if Zhaolie means  Liu Bei  what does Liu Bei mean?   please excuse my ignorence in Chinese history.

 

what does the writting mean?   is it his name?   Emperior Zhaolie?

 2nd -3rd century ??? thats old.  I wonder if the plate is a fake?

 

 

[OneEye]

It's almost certainly a fake. I shouldn't really say "almost certainly" because it's definitely fake. But I admit there is a .00000000001% chance I could be wrong.

 

The 昭 character (the Zhao in "Zhaolie," which is the emperor's posthumous name, while Liu Bei is his given name) is written incorrectly (instead of 日 is has 耳). You can bet that if a bronze plate is given to someone by the emperor, it's going to have the emperor's name written correctly. The name of the receiver is also incorrect. It should be 馬超 Ma Chao, but it's written 馬昭 Ma Zhao. The two characters share a phonetic component, but the script was already standardized at that time and the name would have been written correctly.

 

The fact that it's purportedly from a very famous emperor and to a very famous general should be cause for extreme suspicion, even if it otherwise appeared to be genuine (which it doesn't). They simply wouldn't just sell it to a foreigner at an antique shop or wherever you got it. It would be in the National Palace Museum.

 

The full inscription says (with the errors corrected): 大漢昭烈帝御賜，五虎將馬超永用. Bestowed by Emperor Zhaolie of the Great Han to Ma Chao of the Five Tiger Generals to use forever.

 

I have to say though, it's a very nice-looking fake, and not many people would have caught the errors in the writing because it's written in an ancient version of the Chinese script which even most native speakers today aren't especially familiar with.

[frodo]

Thank You  OneEye.I thought it was va fake.  But since it was my mothers.that makes no difference to me

It has a honorable place in a china cabinet

thank you for the translation.    Frodo-