Dowry Chest

[JC]

Good night everyone,

 

I am very curious about having two sentences translated. They were handpainted on two sides of a wedding dowry chest that should originally come from Macau / Hong Kong area, I believe.

 

One seems to be more cursive than the other which renders it very difficult to scan through OCR tools. The direction goes right to left.

 

 

 

Thank you very much in advance

João Coelho

[Publius]

Unfortunately the two sentences in your picture are incomplete and in wrong order. The rules of couplets require that the first sentence end in oblique tone 仄聲 and the second in level tone 平聲 (and there are other restrictions).

一對玉人成好Ｘ = 仄仄仄平平仄Ｘ

九天仙子會佳Ｙ = 仄平平仄仄平Ｙ

The only combination that fits would be (仄)仄(平)平平仄仄、(平)平(仄)仄仄平平, so probably (but not guaranteed)

一對玉人成好事

九天仙子會佳期

Hope it helps.

[889]

"Antique" Korean wedding chests were once the rage in HK.

 

There are good, very very good, reasons why full photos of an item should be posted, not just a snippet with the characters.

 

[JC]

On 12/3/2018 at 11:05 AM, Publius said:

The only combination that fits would be (仄)仄(平)平平仄仄、(平)平(仄)仄仄平平, so probably (but not guaranteed)

一對玉人成好事

九天仙子會佳期

 

Thank you very much Publius. Let me try to understand the translation:

 

"A pair of Jade people become good things.

Nine day Fairy-Club"

Do this has some special symbolism related to Jade stones ?

I know that the number 9 relates to luck in wedding dowries (all items would be gifted in packs of 9) but which context could be given to this 9 days? Are we talking about a nine day wedding celebration ??? Haha

Sorry for all this näif questions but I'm really interested about the story/culture behind this Wedding Chest.

 

Thank you very much for your effort

 

[JC]

On 12/3/2018 at 11:39 AM, 889 said:

"Antique" Korean wedding chests were once the rage in HK.

 

There are good, very very good, reasons why full photos of an item should be posted, not just a snippet with the characters.

 

It's a very beautiful wedding chest with a very sturdy construction and fine detailing. Are you presuming it could be Korean ?

Maybe this full photos can give some more context to the sentences on both sides.

Thank you !

[Publius]

Machine translation is ... weird.

玉人 originally means a person of great beauty or great virtue (as if they were made of jade). 一对玉人 (or 璧人) in a wedding context refers to the bride and the groom.

成 = 成就 to accomplish / to bring about

九天 is the Ninth (i.e. the highest) Heaven, not a nine-day celebration

会 is a verb 'to meet (at)', not a club

佳期 wedding day (literally 'good time') correlates with 好事 happy occasion (literally 'good thing'), both commonly used to refer to a wedding

[Publius]

45 minutes ago, JC said:

I know that the number 9 relates to luck in wedding dowries (all items would be gifted in packs of 9)

That's because the number nine (九, Mandarin jiǔ, Cantonese gau2) is pronounced the same as the word 'long/lasting' (久, Mandarin jiǔ, Cantonese gau2).

[889]

"Are you presuming it could be Korean?"

 

I certainly don't know. I just raised the question because sometimes when you see Chinese character text that doesn't quite follow Chinese rules it turns out to be classical Korean. But I know no more about classical Korean than I do about wedding chests, Korean or Chinese.

 

[JC]

30 minutes ago, Publius said:

That's because the number nine (九, Mandarin jiǔ, Cantonese gau2) is pronounced the same as the word 'long/lasting' (久, Mandarin jiǔ, Cantonese gau2).

The way both meanings/pronounciations cross each other is thrilling. I got myself searching and thinking about the concept/belief of Nine Heavens.

 

I hope they acchieved at least the 8th Heaven !

 

Thank you for the great translation and contextualization.