Old Scroll

[john mcdonald]

hi can anyone tell me about this scroll.....it is about 7' long and 12" wide ...very old thanks john

[somethingfunny]

I can you tell you about how upside down it is...

[Hofmann]

So, who told you it was very old? And my name's not John.

[john mcdonald]

im john....and the scroll is very old...the family had it for 6 generation...thanks Hoffman if you can assist...john

[ilande]

I'll give it a try.

 

行萃陀之術無非濟世

 

"Among those who practice the art of Cuituo, there are none who aren't saviors of the world"

[Publius]

It's 華佗 Hua Tuo, a miraculous healer in ancient (2nd century) China. So 行華佗之術 means 'to practice medicine'.

It looks like this plaque is a thank-you gift from a patient to a doctor (whose name is unreadable due to poor quality of the picture).

[john mcdonald]

Someone said scroll pics were upside down.  Now on wall right side up.  About 7'  high. Very old silk scroll framed.

Silk very thin and has deterioration. Any translation or identification is appreciated. Some have noted this may have

something to with medicine.   Thanks John

[imron]

Merged.  Keeping everything in the same thread will make it easier for people to help you and provide people with context.

[hbuchtel]

On 2/14/2018 at 7:18 PM, Publius said:

 

It looks like this plaque is a thank-you gift from a patient to a doctor

I agree. I don’t know how common this was in the past, but in the hospital I worked in the walls of some practitioners’ offfices were covered with banners given by appreciative patients. 

 

I’ve never seen this particular phrase, but the style is similar. 

 

For example:

 

[FrankSe]

It's upside down yes. Those big characters are “行华佗之术无非济世” in Traditional Chinese.

 

“华佗” was a famous doctor who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty.  So “行华佗之术” is a metaphor to say "to practice(行) the doctors' techniques(术)" literally, which actually means "being a doctor".

“无非” means "be nothing but" or "simply", which is a common modest phrase for one man himself to describe what he does.

“济世” comes from chengyu “悬壶济世”, and literally means "to help/save(济) (the people in) the world(世)". That phrase gradually becomes a particular idiom used to praise the doctors.

Now u see the whole sentence means "Being a doctor is simply helping/saving people". It's obviously a praise for doctors.

 

Those smaller characters alongside are hard to recognize (especially the red ones). Maybe u need to upload a picture with better quality. All I can recognize is the first character “贺” (still in Traditional Chinese) which means "to congratulate", so I guess the scroll was originally made for someone (as praise or congratulation).

 

It's upside down yes. Those big characters are “行华佗之术无非济世” in Traditional Chinese.

 

“华佗” was a famous doctor who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty.  So “行华佗之术” is a metaphor to say "to practice(行) the doctors' techniques(术)" literally, which actually means "being a doctor".

“无非” means "be nothing but" or "simply", which is a common modest phrase for one man himself to describe what he does.

“济世” comes from chengyu “悬壶济世”, and literally means "to help/save(济) (the people in) the world(世)". That phrase gradually becomes a particular idiom used to praise the doctors.

Now u see the whole sentence means "Being a doctor is simply helping/saving people". It's obviously a praise for doctors.

 

Those smaller characters alongside are hard to recognize (especially the red ones). Maybe u need to upload a picture with better quality. All I can recognize is the first character “贺” (still in Traditional Chinese) which means "to congratulate", so I guess the scroll was originally made for someone (as praise or congratulation).

 

[Shelley]

Interesting, here in the UK you are not really allowed to give doctors or nurse gifts.