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I've recently inherited this scroll, and would greatly appreciate if anyone could tell me about it---what it says, how old is it, who is the author?
Thanks,
Ivan

I'll have a try to decipher the text

春城無雪不飛花

There is a date, 壬子 1972, 8th month.

The signature looks like Zhang Jia but the seal is too small and indistinct to confirm or deny that.

Thanks mikeoz, that's really helpful. Does the text mean anything to you?

Hi Mike & Ivan, I believe this inscription may be a riddle. In mandarin pinyin it can be read literally as "Spring in the city without snow (means) no snow" (春城無雪不飛花 - Chun cheng wu xue bu fei hua), "fei hua" being idiom for "snow". However, the last three characters have another meaning, whereby the translation might be "Spring in the city without snow (means) no beauties flitting about". At least this is what my trusty Mathews dictionary would suggest.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Bill, Pretty much what I had understood, but without the bit about the beauties. I must get hold of a Mathew's dictionary.

Regards

mikeoz

Thanks Bill--that's an interesting reading!

I've had another person suggest that the fourth character is 處, not 雪 (and he agreed on the others). The gloss might then be
spring city nowhere no flying blossoms
So the double negative might resolve to something like
Spring in the city, and flitting blossoms everywhere.

I did a bit more digging, and
春城無處不飛花
is the first line of a famous poem by Middle Tang poet Han Hong.
It is translated (https://28utscprojects.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/274/) as
Not a place was without blossom and fluttering petals in a city in spring

Thank you both for setting me on the right path!

Substituting that character I found the same information on the Wikipedia.org page (Link) dedicated to the poem's author, Han Hong. The poem concerned the capital (presumably Changan) during the Cold Food Festival. The Tang Dezong Emperor (780-804) was said to have been greatly pleased with it.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :Han Hong Poet

Well done. I guessed at the fourth character, but can now see my error. Thank your friend.

Mikeoz

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