Hello lovely ladies, I have some unusual postcards to show you today, both from the People's Republic of China.
The first one is this:
Bronze sword of Gou Jian, King of Yue.
Later spring and autumn period.
Length: 55.7 cm, width: 4.6 cm. The sword is covered with elegant lozenge shapes and partly inlaid with turquoise, a glazed glass beads. The blade edge, cast after the ridge portion, contains a higher proportion of tin, increasing its sharpness, while the ridge, cast with a higher content of copper, has greater resilience. The sophisticated technique that went into producing this sword, still in perfect condition, continues to be studied. The eight characters on the sword read: The sword made by Gou Jian, King of Yue, for his personal use.
Unearthed from Wangshan tomb 1, Jiangling, Hubei Province, 1965.
What an amazing sword! Here is what Wikipedia writes:
In 1965, while an archaeological survey was being performed along the second main aqueduct of the Zhang River Reservoir in Jingzhou, Hubei, a series of ancient tombs were discovered in Jiangling County. A dig started in the middle of October 1965, ending in January 1966, eventually revealing more than fifty ancient tombs of the Chu State.
More than 2,000 artifacts were recovered from the sites, including an ornate bronze sword, found inside a casket together with a human skeleton. The casket was discovered in December 1965, at Wangshan site #1, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from the ruins of Ying, currently called Jinancheng 纪南), an ancient capital of Chu.
The sword was found sheathed in a wooden scabbard finished in black lacquer. The scabbard had an almost air-tight fit with the sword body. Unsheathing the sword revealed an untarnished blade, despite the tomb being soaked in underground water for over 2,000 years.
The stamps are really colorful. The stamp with the sailing ship is from 2013. But I can't find the other one with the flowers.
Cai Yuanbei was a Chinese educator, Esperantist, president of Peking University, and founder of the Academia Sinica. He was known for his critical evaluation of Chinese culture and synthesis of Chinese and Western thinking, including anarchism. At Peking University he assembled influential figures in the New Culture and May Fourth Movements.
Cai Yuanbei was frustrated in his efforts to remodel the national system of education to resemble the French system, but in 1927, he co-founded the National College of Music, which later became the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and in April 1928, he helped to found and became the first president of the Academia Sinica. He and a wide circle of colleagues founded the China League for Civil Rights which criticized the national government and Chiang Kai-shek for abuse of power. The situation worsened, however; the League could not attain the release from jail of Chen Duxiu, Cai's former dean at Peking University, for instance. In June 1933, the Academia Sinica's academic administrator and co-founder of the League, Yang Quan, was shot and killed in the street in front of the League's Shanghai offices. After a period of shock and reflection, Cai retired from public view in a statement denouncing the political repression of the Nanjing government.
After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, partly because of declining health, instead of accompanying the national government to Sichuan, Cai moved to Hong Kong. He lived there in seclusion until his death in March 1940 at the age of 72.
Cai advocated the equal importance of five ways of life - "Virtue, Wisdom, Health, Collective, and Beauty" (德、智、體、群、美) - core values that are still taught in schools today in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. He was also a proponent of women's right to divorce and remarry, and strongly opposed foot binding and concubinage that were widely practiced in China at the time. The stamps are gorgeous.
The one in the middle is from a series called Springe, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
I assume the stamp on my postcard is Spring (But I'm not sure).
The stamp on the right is very beautiful. It comes from a series Journey To The West.
China Post issued on March 30 a set of four stamps, which visualize stories from the popular 16th-century novel Journey to the West. The whole set is priced at 5.40 yuan (79 US cents).
The classic literature was written by Ming Dynasty author Wu Cheng'en. He reproduced the accounts of Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang who traveled from the imperial capital Chang'an (now Xi'an) to the western regions (in today's Central Asia and India) for obtaining Buddhist sacred texts.
The new stamps are designed by young artist Li Yunzhong who employs the traditional ink-brush technique of gongbi (meticulous depictions) with vivid colors.
Today is Tuesday, when I like to visit Elizabeth and Bleubeard for the T-Party. All I need is a beverage. Well, I have always got a few of those! Like this one.
It is of course a bottle of Port. It is practically finished and I want another one, but I can't remember where I bought it. We don't have liquor stores here and I buy all my alcoholic drinks in the supermarket. I have this photo on my phone, so I can look for it when we go shopping in one of the three supermarkets that we frequent.
On Friday my Danish friend and I drove to Granada (an hour and 20 minutes on the motorway) as she wanted a particular type of patio chair.
This store (Jysk) is a Danish store.
We eventually found them and we sat down for a well deserved cup of coffee:
The remnants of little pastries are visible. They are Piononos, a speciality of Granada:
Piononos are small pastries traditional in Santa Fe, a small town adjacent to the city of Granada, Spain. A pionono has two parts: a thin layer of pastry rolled into a cylinder, drenched with different kinds of syrup which give the pionono a sweet and pleasant texture, and a toasted crown that pretends to represent the silhouette of the cylindrical head of Pope Pius Ninth (Pio Nono in Spanish) hence the name of pionono. It is typically eaten in one or two bites.
It is very hot at the moment. This is not unusual in southern Spain of course:
Indoors it is 27 degrees C (80.6 F) and outside 42 (107.6 F)! Fortunately it is very dry here.
I'm going to leave you with a photo of a facade of a winery in Italy:
That is all from me today. I hope you will all join me in visiting the T-Party. Take care, stay safe,
Hugs,
Lisca
16 comments:
What unusual and interesting postcards you received this week. I know very little about China, although I did learn a good deal about both Sino-Japanese wars. Foot binding was brutal, and I met a lady when I was just a child who suffered from this. Her feet were no bigger than a baby's and she could barely walk. Such cruelty to women/girls at the time.
Your wine had me laughing that you couldn't remember where you got it. I've taken photos before of items I'm looking for because I don't have a cell phone. At least I now know you didn't travel to Portugal to buy it.
LOVE that huge glass of wine. Leave it to the Italians to think bigger.
It's hot here, too. I am very lucky to have AC, though. I would die if I didn't have it. Thanks for sharing your lovely postcards, your Port wine, your shopping trip, your coffee, and that big Italian wine glass with us for T this Tuesday, Lisca.
I love the last picture best. What a lovely design! And the food...I must get out more. I had the best chocolate brownie ever on Sunday while out with friend...shoud've taken a picture! It was Yummy! Stay safe.
(Lyn))
I have to come back and read about your Chinese stamps and postcards. You have such a great quantity of new ideas and history.
best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Lisca the stamps are so beautiful, gorgeous flowers and very interesting story about the sword.
It’s certainly turned hot this last few days, we have been walking at 8 am and it’s still hot by the time we end our walk, too many people are around later so we try to avoid them all.
The cakes look delicious but I am very often disappointed by Spanish cakes, the cream isn’t usually the fresh type we are used to, very sweet some of them. The lady at the bakery gives us samples to try!
Our son loves Port, I’m sure I’ve seen that make somewhere, we shop in Consum but we also have a Bodega too so maybe it was there. I’m a Sherry lover so ideal living in Spain although I very often buy from the bodega from the barrels and mix dulce with creme, makes a lovely medium Sherry, only in winter before Sunday lunch.
Happy T Day
Jan
Thank you for another very interesting history lesson!
LOL. I know what you mean, as it´s the same here, too, but it sounds like you drink but alcohol - you have me laughing for sure! Cheers.
You eat Popes, too?!
Oh. Lucky you with the temps. 19C here.
Very cool facade, have a happy T-Day!
Another fascinating post, Lisca. Love the unusual postcards and the beautiful stamps. Cai was evidently a wise man, ahead of his time. Those little pastries look good, glad you had a trip with your friend. Port wine is not my fave, but as I'm not allowed to drink any alcohol these days I don't need to worry about what I would like! Happy T Day, Valerie
Oh my gosh - I love this post. Such interesting history and new things I have not heard of. Cai Yuanbei sounds like a very interesting and wonderful man - one I would put on my list of people I would like to meet if I had magical powers. So frustrating his life was but he kept on until they silenced him. So sad. The world has so much evil mixed in with the beautiful. Your short trip sounds fun and those pastries sound wonderful. Great picture of you. Lots of cool drinks in your post - happy T-day. Hugz
Those postcards are fascinating Lisca. I bet that archaeological find really unearthed some amazing artifacts. And your pastry this week looks interesting. I would love to travel the world and try pastries in different places (and maybe even write a book about them). That would be quite the adventure. But I will instead see what people show on T day. Your specialty of Santa Fe sound delicious. And you asked about my MIL. No, they haven't found anything wrong with her other than her scoliosis of her back, but she stopped doing anything (and I mean everything) when it was acting up. Unfortunately it was a case of if you don't use it you lose it. That is the saddest part. Have a wonderful T day Lisca. Hugs-Erika
Oh definitely interesting postcards, and I love the postage stamps of course! I actually have a bottle of Porto- and when we were in France that was my hubby's fave drink at aperitif time:)We rarely have it now though. Your pastries are just right for a sweet little bite and I love the story about them too. Love that last photo of the winery- a fab entrance!! Stay cool, and happy T day!
Wow, what beautiful postcards and postage stamps - love them! It looks like you had fun shopping and enjoying the treats at the café too 😀. Happy T Day! Hugs, Jo x
I've never had port, but it'd be fun to try. The pastry looks delicious! Happy T Tuesday
Wow! Awesome interesting post cards. I really find archaeology interesting. It is amazing what they find that is hundreds of years old.
Your winery façade is really neat. Happy T Day!
Wow this is a beautiful and interesting post. Nice that you went shopping with your friend and the meal looks so good. I love the winery.
The postcards and history were fascinating and the stamps beautiful especially the ship with sails. I loved the story behind the little pastries, too. And you had a 42! The wine goblet on the building is very cool and clever. Happy T Day
Those pastries sound delicious! And glad you were able to sit down and have a cup of coffee and some pastries. For the Turkish flatbread I shared on my blog: I'll try my best and translate the recipe for next week's T stands for post. :)
Oh I love all your stamps, I used to collect quite a lot of stamps but I haven't for ages, the temptation is still there though lol. The pasties look delicious but not very much like the pope haha. Love that winery facade with the big glass, that is really beautiful. Oh and to answer your question about Brambles, yes they are a kind of wild blackberry that grows everywhere, including places you don't want it, and it's very thorny. Happy T Day Elle xx
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