Author Archives: Kuan Yin

About Kuan Yin

Mah Jong enthusiast

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This thick bone  set has one of the Chinese porcelain ball-like One Dots. Here the center is a flower, with partial flowers at the compass points. The other dots continue the floral center, meaning they all have to be hand-carved (the circle centers can be made with a handheld drill).  The Bams are  barbed, and the Wans on the Craks very simple and small, almost looking too small for the space. The color green is certainly predominant in this set.

The Winds are uniform in color and the Red and Green Dragons are the Chinese characters, with the White being blank.

The Flowers on the right are plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. (The Chinese word for bamboo is usually easy to read with its two similar sticks with two left jutting upper strokes.) The flowers on the left may be peony, lotus,  unknown and narcissus.

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This continues the discussion of Bill's lovely tile set seen yesterday. The Green, Red, and White Dragons are the types that we normally see on Bone and Bamboo tiles. The use of red paint on the Winds letters is somewhat unusual.

The Flowers are really special. You will note that the flowers being held by the people on the top row are the same we saw in the center of the One Dots. (Click here) Thanks to Ray Heaton, we have an understanding of the tiles.

Starting with the bottom row of Flowers:

"The four noble professions, (green Chinese characters, simplified characters), 渔樵耕读, Yu, Qiao, Geng, Dou.  (The way the characters have been written simplifies them further.)

Tile #1,  渔 (traditional character is 漁), Yu, Fisherman
#2, 樵, Qiao, to Gather Wood, an abbreviated way of saying Woodcutter
#3, 耕, Geng, to Plow (Farmer)
#4, 读,  (traditional character is 讀), Dou, to Read or to Study (Scholar)

So these represent Fisherman, Woodcutter, Farmer and Scholar

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The four seasons, (red Chinese characters), 春夏秋冬, Chun, Xia, Qiu, Dong

Tile #1, 春, Chun, spring
#2, 夏, Xia, summer
#3, 秋, Qiu, autumn
#4, 冬, Dong, winter. 

I guess (again) the flowers are Peony, Lotus, Chrysanthemum and Plum Blossom.  The 1 dots show the same flowers (in a different order in the photo), though the Lotus has the seed pod and leaf too (an auspicious symbol of fertility)."

You can see how the objects normally associated with the four noble professions have been very much simplified in the lower set of Flowers.

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The photograph of this lovely set was sent by reader Bill Price.

The very thick bone and bamboo tiles have some very interesting designs.  Each One Dot is unique, rarely seen in sets. The centers feature three flowers we associate with the seasons: chrysanthemum, plum blossom, and orchid. The farthest left tile image remains a mystery, but if anyone has any ideas please let us know.

The One Bam sprout is somewhat unusual. You can see the sprout, with the bamboo shoot below it. Sometime people call this the "pineapple" Bam, and you can easily see why.

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The set was made for export as can be seen by the presence of Western letters and Arabic numbers.

Other tiles have some unusual qualities as well. The Dots are the flower within a circle. We have seen the 9 Dot arrangement before, but it does not appear that often and remains a favorite among collectors.  It is possible this only appears on sets made for export. The Craks are the elaborate Wans. The Bams are of the barbed variety.

The remaining tiles will be posted tomorrow.

Our thanks to Bill for sharing these photographs with us.

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The other day we featured the backside of the "Tibetan" Mahjong rack. (click here to see that post) Today we see the side that faces the player. These are also bone discs, with images representing the 12 year Chinese cycle. The Chinese New Year actually starts sometime in January or February, the second new moon after the winter solstice, so if your birthday is in either of those two months you may fall into the previous animal sign. There are personality traits that fall into each year. The following has been taken from the online version of the Old Farmer's Almanac.

The front side of the Tibet racks have lovely small bone inlays, each for a year on the Chinese calendar.

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Here are closeups of all the years:

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The Goat sometimes known as the Sheep

Year of the Goat: 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003

Aesthetic and stylish, you enjoy being a private person. Compatible with the pig and the rabbit. Your opposite is the ox.

 

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The Monkey

The year of the Monkey: 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004

Persuasive, skillful, and intelligent, you strive to excel. Compatible with the dragon and the rat. Your opposite is the tiger.

 

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The Rooster or Cock

Year of the Rooster: 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005

Seeking wisdom and truth, you have a pioneering spirit. Compatible with the snake and the ox. Your opposite is the rabbit.

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The Dog

Year of the Dog: 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006

Generous and loyal, you have the ability to work well with others. Compatible with the horse and the tiger. Your opposite is the dragon.

 

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The Pig or Boar

Year of the Pig:  1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007

Gallant and noble, your friends will remain at your side. Compatible with the rabbit and the sheep/goat. Your opposite is the snake.

 

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The Rat

Year of the Rat:1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008

Ambitious and sincere, you can be generous with your money. Compatible with the dragon and the monkey. Your opposite is the horse.

 

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The Ox or Buffalo

Year of the Ox: 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009

A leader, you are bright, patient, and cheerful. Compatible with the snake and the rooster. Your opposite is the sheep.

 

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The Tiger

Year of the Tiger: 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010

Forthright and sensitive, you possess great courage. You have the ability to be a strong leader capable of great sympathy. Compatible with the horse and the dog. Your opposite is the monkey.

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The Rabbit or Hare

Year of the Rabbit: 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011

Talented and affectionate, you are a seeker of tranquility. Compatible with the sheep and the pig. Your opposite is the rooster.

 

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The Dragon

Year of the Dragon: 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012

Robust and passionate, your life is filled with complexity. Compatible with the monkey and the rat. Your opposite is the dog.

 

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The Snake

Year of the Snake: 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013

Strong-willed and intense, you display great wisdom. Compatible with the rooster and the ox. Your opposite is the pig.

 

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The Horse

Year of the Horse: 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014

Physically attractive and popular, you like the company of others. Compatible with the tiger and the dog. Your opposite is the rat.

 

To learn more about the Chinese years and qualities associated with each one

Click here

 

 

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Oftentimes black bamboo sets have more unusual designs than found on other tiles. This one is no exception. Given the very great challenge of carving such a hard surface as bamboo, the carver did a wonderful job. To make black bamboo mahjong tiles, the bamboo is first dyed, then carved and painted. The black background makes the colors pop.

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The One Dot makes it a stand-out, with its very delicately carved flower center, with other Dots the circles within circles. The bird is referred to as a darting sparrow by Michael Stanwick. The other Bams are simple rods, and the Craks the simple Wan. Artists working on these black sets handle the colors of the numbers and the suits differently, as can be seen on Stanwick's site as well. The colors here, orange, blue, red and white and the Bam shapes are different from the Black Bamboo set discussed in January. To see that set click here

Stanwick has a few sets with similar One Bams on his website:

http://themahjongtileset.co.uk/tile-set-diversity/tile-set-diversity-2-0/ 

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The Winds, Dragons and Flowers are delightful too. The White Dragon is a blank black tile, the  Green is White, and the Red is red. The Flowers on the right are plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, the four gentlemen.

To read more about the Four Gentlemen in wikipedia, click here.

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These Flowers are from the set discussed yesterday. The color palette is somewhat muted, with softer greens. Interestingly there is a 4th color which we often see on these thick bone sets, a burgundy perhaps made by mixing the blue and the red.  

Ray Heaton has once again translated and interpreted the tiles

"They are two stories from the book The Romance of The Three Kingdoms.

Bottom set are 琴退司馬, Qin, Tui, Si, Ma.  The first character looks more like 琹, which is the same as (a variant of) the first one I have shown.

 Qin, the Guqin, a musical instrument often called the zither or lute.

Tui, to retreat

Si, to take charge of, or the surname Si

Ma, horse, or the surname Ma.

The last two make the name Sima, this is Sima Yi from the Three Kingdoms

This is better known as the Empty City Ruse and is where Zhuge Liang (great military strategist persuaded to join the cause of the three sworn brothers to return the Empire to its rightful dynastic rule) fools Sima Yi into believing the apparently empty city is a trap.

 Sima Yi is the military strategist of one of the opposing armies.

Following the Shu defeat at the Battle of Jieting, Zhuge Liang retreated with a small garrison force to Xicheng but was exposed to being attacked by the much larger overwhelming forces of the Wei army led by Sima Yi.  In the face of disaster, Zhuge Liang came up with a ploy to hold off the approaching enemy.

 Zhuge Liang ordered all the gates to be opened and instructed soldiers disguised as civilians to sweep the roads while he sat calmly above the city gate playing his guqin. When the Wei army led by Sima Yi arrived, Sima was surprised by the scene before him and he ordered a retreat after suspecting that there was an ambush inside the city. "

If you see Flowers with people holding brooms, and a man on the wall, it is almost certain they refer to this beloved story from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

"The top set say 智取四川, Zhi Qu Si Chuan

The first two mean "to take by strategy" and the second two are Sichuan (a southern province in China).  I'm taking this to mean in part that the capital city of the Shu empire, Chengdu (which is now the capital city of Sichuan province) was captured through the strategic advice of Zhuge Liang rather than by force.  You can equate Sichuan with the Shu Kingdom.  The "strategy" here probably refers to the Longzhong Plan, and so the tiles may well be referring to the establishment of the Shu kingdom, rather than specifically to its capital.

Sichuan province was called the Yi Province and is referred to in the Three Kingdoms as here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms#Liu_Bei.27s_takeover_of_Yi_Province

 ...the Longzhong Plan was developed by Zhuge Liang to establish the Shu Kingdom under Liu Bei (the Shu, Wei and Wu are the three Kingdoms within the story) as a precursor to the reunification of China under the Han dynasty. (A plan that eventually failed in the longer term, as the Han was not restored).

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longzhong_Plan "

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was written in the 14th Century, and is a historical novel with more than 1,000 different characters and 800,000 words. For more information about the book, please click

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms

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The Winds seem to have a certain flair, and the green and blue colors are lively. The Dragons are the traditional Chinese Characters.

Our thanks to the people at Mahjongmahjong for providing these photographs. To see more treasures from their collection, click here

To see another version of Ruse of the Empty City previously discussed on this site, click here

 

 

 

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Another especially beautiful bone and bamboo mahjong set can be seen here. The colors are lovely and subdued. The One Bam has a sweet bird perched in what might be plum blossoms, given the attention paid to the five leaves on the lower flower. As is typical, the bird has one foot raised. The other Bams are of the barbed variety, but these seem to resemble architectural elements. Interestingly, the One Bam has green numbers but the other Bams have blue.

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On this close up you can see the attention paid to the bird, to the tree branches and the leaf and flower buds. You will often see birds perched on or near rocks in Chinese art. The Metropolitan Museum has some in its collection; here is one such example.

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You can see the bird on the rock, and the lovely flowering plant, similar to what we have on the One Bam.

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Here the Craks have the elaborate Wan, blue Chinese numbers and green Arabic numbers.

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The Dots are the elaborately carved floral variety. The One Dot is the flower within a flower, and the 2 Dot is an eight petaled flower. It may just be coincidence (but in Chinese design, very little is) but the number 8 is very lucky in China, and is associated with prosperity. The rest of the Dots have six petals. Once again we have a different color on the #1 than on the other numbers.

The other tiles will be discussed tomorrow.

We are indebted to Mahjongmahjong for the photographs of this lovely set. To see more from their collection, please click here

To read more about the significance of numbers in China, click here.

To see more of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of art, click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Our thanks to Ray Heaton for providing translations and context for these bone and bamboo Mahjong Flowers.

Read right to left

The top row are 李逵抬親, Li, Kui, Tai, Qin.  The first two are the name Li Kui, one of the characters from the story, the second two are "carry" and "parent".  Li Kui's story is shown here  in wikipedia

In this story is an episode where he carries his mother on his back, but leaves her to fetch water; while he is away she is attacked and killed by tigers.

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Bottom row, right to left; 張順請医, Zhang, Shun, Qing, Yi. The first two are the name of another character in the story, Zhang Shun. The second two mean "request" and "doctor". Take a look here for information about him in wikipedia. 

The tiles refer to an episode in the story where Zhang Shun goes off to seek the physician An Daoquan to help treat his friend Song Jiang.

And finally the Winds and Dragons:

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You can see how thick the bone is on these tiles. The White Dragon is the simple white bone and bamboo tile often seen on these sets.

 

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This set lives in the box shown February 9th.

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The tiles are very thick bone, and were created by Master Carvers.

The Craks are the elaborate Wan, the Bams have the swooping crane One Bam with the rounded other Bams, and the Dots are floral.  The green numbers on the Craks are somewhat unusual.

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All the Dots are plum blossoms, seen by the five petals. The 2 Dot is especially lovely.

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Often when sets are purchased there is a bit of history included in them. Here we have a small piece of paper that was hidden among the bone counters, indicating some meaning about the set, and who found it for the last lucky owner. These bits of set provenance and history are valued by collectors. Note the lovely well shaped bone counters, also indicating the high quality of the set.

The Flowers will be discussed tomorrow.

 

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This wood box holds a deep bone set that will be discussed tomorrow. The front panel has the signs for Fa (prosperity) and Chung (center, often symbolizing China). Pushing in the top button releases the panel which drops down to reveal the drawers. The two scenes on the box are different from the ones normally carved, and appear to be interactions with family members or servants, scenes of everyday life.

Ray Heaton noted the box is similar to a box Michael Stanwick describes on his site:

http://themahjongtileset.co.uk/pre-1920-names-game/

"Another more prominent term, 中 發  zhong fa, is found on a box of precursor ma que tiles collected by Sir Henry Wilkinson in 1889 (see Mah Jong(g) Before Mah Jong(g) Part 2). This box and its contents were finally donated to the British Museum as part of the Schreiber Collection. It seems that in the context of the other characters on the box, which describe the physical characteristics of the tiles (materials, construction, thickness and quality of engraving), the zhong and fa characters are different in that they are selectively mentioned as features of the composition of the tile designs or patterns. This selectivity may suggest these two characters are special features of the tile set pattern."

Ray adds: "Michael uses the Pinyin for 中, "Zhong", whereas you have used the Wade Giles system of pronunciation with "Chung".  Fa is the same in both."

 

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One side of the box features an older man touching a young woman with what looks like a wand or a flute. The woman holds a fan in one hand, and points to her face with the other. The tree is most probably a pine. A vase holding a plant can be seen in the background, through an open window. Note the beautiful brass corners with the butterfly pattern.  The carving patterns around are window are diaper patterns, often seen on box trim.

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This appears to depict two young ladies, one of whom (the one of the right) is pouring out water, perhaps to help the other wash her hair. Once again we see a pine tree and a window, but this time the window is the curvilinear kind we often see on Flower tiles. Each lady is wearing a kimono, and the long sleeves are clearly seen on the one on the left.