March 1, 2005

  • Bored

    I'm pretty bored tonight, so I'm posting pictures of the teapot I use.
    It's what we call a "purple sand teapot" (紫砂茶壺 - zǐ shā chá hú) in Chinese. I don't know if
    this one I have comes from Yíxīng (宜興), the region of China where the best
    "purple sand teapots" are handcrafted. I like the inscription on the
    teapot a lot because it's a very clever pun. Literally, it says "To
    exit (into) the world is good, to enter the world is also good". In
    Chinese, "to exit (into) the world" really means to be born, and "to
    enter the world" really means to blend in with the world. So in the
    end, the sentence translates to "To be born is good, to blend in with
    the world is also good". The inscription is signed by a certain "Owner
    of the House of Double-Goodness".

    Figure 1. Front View

    Figure 2. Centered on the pun sentence: "出世也宜，入世也宜。" (chū shì yě yí, rù shì yě yí.)


    Figure 3. Centered on the signature: "兩宜軒主人" (liǎng yí xuān zhǔ rén)

    - SwordAngel