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Subject:得一日閒為我福 ，做千年調笑人痴
Posted By: Super Sat, Dec 06, 2014
The two sentences with 7 characters in each are:
得一日閒為我福
作千年調笑人痴
it is not easy to translate them because qiān nián diào 千年調 in the second sentence can mean different things:
First 千年 means a thousand years old, in this case it was used as an adjective to describe 調 diao that is a thousand-year old.
diao can mean a melody (music) or a certain type of Chinese poem. There was also a famous poem named 千年調 that was written by 辛弃疾
However, after reading the first sentence, IMHO, neither one would be the appropriate translation.
In this case, I believe diao means wealth or accumulations (material).
Therefore, my translations for them would be:
To take a day off and do nothing will be a blessing to me,
only a fool would work so hard to accumulate wealth that will last a thousand years.
These two sentences originated from:
得一日閑方是福，做千年調笑人痴 (first sentence a bit different than these two)
遵生八牋 No. 7 scroll written by 髙濂 in Ming dynasty in which the no. 7 and 8 scrolls (of 8 scrolls) taught people in how to live their daily life.
http://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/遵生八牋/卷07
Of course, I could be wrong.
Super
P.S. The material of the jade seal appears to be serpentine to me than nephrite jade. Of course, what the Chinese call xiu yu (or xiu yan jade) is serpentine. Again, without being able to handle it in person, I cannot tell for sure.
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( China & Japan ) - Marcel - Dec 04, 2014 (05:42 PM) 
