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Can any one tell me anything about this cabinet?

I think it is Korean writing on the doors.

Thanks!

There's no doubt in my mind that the writing and cabinet are both Korean. I believe it is traditional for Korean cabinetmakers to line the inside of products like yours with newspapers, or at least that's what I gathered when discussing with friends in Seoul where to go in the city to buy three Korean chests of my own on a visit there about 30 years ago. They sent me to the Itaewon district, and I can vouch that my choices look pretty much like yours on the inside, though the newspaper in mine is in a bit better shape. The maker made no effort to convince me that the varnished pieces I bought were antique. Your cabinet, on the other hand, looks like it once had a traditional oiled finish, so may be older, but that's a call for someone with more experience than I possess in the field.

I've attached pictures here of a couple of my Korean pieces, an étagère and the interior of a chest with drawers and other spaces with locking doors.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thanks for the response.

Looks like pages ripped from a book of Chinese philosophy, with textual exegisis printed after the original text. This was read in traditional Korea. Not sure what the column of hangul represents though.

It always amazed me that people always appear to be able to tell the language shown on their art pieces even though they could not read them.

Please understand that it was not my intention to insult anybody because it was indeed interesting for me to learn that this can indeed be a Korean piece. It just irks me to see so many people posted pieces here in this forum assuming the characters on their piece were Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese without their knowing any of these languages. It may be better for them just to describe it as an "Asian or oriental language" in that case.

I cannot rule out that these may be Hanja or Hanmun that were written by Koreans but the fact is that every single character being posted on the papers on the doors are nothing but Chinese. Since Chinese has much longer history than all of these other countries combined, therefore IMHO calling them anything but Chinese would be almost an insult. Again, no pun intended.

As a matter of fact, on the third picture (top to bottom), at the third column it says:
"無父無君是禽獸"
are words from Mencius and it can be loosely translated as:
"One would be no different than animals if one lacks respect or loyalty to one's emperor or father (parents)."

The four similar characters 無君無父 (change in order with emperor comes before father) can also be found in the second picture.

Other sentences also mentioned Confucius 孔子, Lao Zi 老子 and Mo Zi 墨子 basically are all teachings in trying to teach a person in how to become a better person by being respectful/loyal to his emperor, parents, etc. It also says an emperor should be kind to his people.

Therefore, it does not appear all of these characters were written in "modern" Korean or from Korean newspaper. I have no idea where they got these papers from.

Actually I don't think that's hangul in the last vertical line after all, it's just that the paper is wrinkled and folded over on itself. That doesn't mean the cabinet isn't Korean, as the metal fittings on the cabinet suggest it's not Chinese, but I don't know enough to rule out Japanese as well.

As to the lining of the cabinet, I took a clue from the circular elements throughout the text that it was from Korea. In any event it is my understanding that standard Chinese Characters continued to be used by scholars and in official documents in Korea until the end of the 19th century. When I was in Seoul years ago, Chinese was still being used in signs on some of the downtown office buildings, including one of the daily newspapers. I assume Chinese-language materials are used inside such Korean furniture to suggest antiquity.

Best regards,

Bill H.

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