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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2011.17
People
Fung Ming Chip (Feng Mingqiu) 馮明秋, Chinese (born 1951)
Title
Post-Marijuana (Dama zhi hou), Written in Time Script
Classification
Calligraphy
Work Type
album leaf
Date
2009
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, China, Hong Kong
Culture
Chinese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/336549

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Album leaf; ink on paper; with artist signature reading Ming Chip shu (i.e. Mingqiu shu); with four seals of the artist; written in Time Script
Dimensions
Calligraphy proper: H. 17.3 x W. 64.1 cm (6 13/16 x 25 1/4 in.)
Mounting: H. 50 x W. 70.1 cm (19 11/16 x 27 5/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: The dated artist signature reads:

    明秋書于深圳四不館 Mingqiu shu yu Shenzhen Si Bu Guan
    贰零零玖年六月十八日 Er ling ling jiu nian liu yue shi ba ri
    順時字 Shun shi zi

    The signature can be translated as:

    Ming Chip wrote [this] in [his] Si Bu Guan [i.e., Studio of the Four No’s] in Shenzhen
    [On] 18 June 2009
    Time Script


    The four seals, which the artist himself carved, and their locations can be described as follows:

    Far right: Square, red, intaglio seal reading Ming 明 (first character of the artist’s given name)
    Second from right: Square, red, intaglio seal reading Jian Zhi Ji Li 見之吉利 (“Seeing this brings good fortune”)
    Second from left: Rectangular, red, relief seal reading Ming Chip (Ming Qiu) 明秋 (artist’s given name) (Note that this rectangular seal is carved to simulate two, separate, square, red, relief seals)
    Far left: Square, red, pictorial seal reading Yun 雲 (“Cloud”)
  • inscription: The inscribed text reads as follows:

    大麻之後

    麻後的幸福
    掙扎扭動
    張向空虛空間
    交錯狂亂
    上下舞成一片
    走著走著
    越出價值意義之外
    踏破禁錮時光的囚籠
    邁向夜的盡頭
    命的盡頭
    一踏足
    一轉身
    又自覺地沉淪到底
    靈魂超脫
    得成正果

    明秋書于深圳四不館
    贰零零玖年六月十八日
    順時字



    The text can be translated as follows:

    Post-Marijuana

    The happiness that follows marijuana
    The twisting and turning
    Stretching into empty space
    Craziness and chaos intermingling
    Mixing good and evil

    Moving on and on
    Beyond the sense of value
    Breaking the shackles of the prisoner’s age of time
    Striding towards the edge of the night
    The furthest edge of life

    Treading, spinning
    Consciously sinking to the bottom
    Detached from the soul
    To become a saint

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Fung Ming Chip, Hong Kong (2009-2010), sold; to Susan L. Beningson, New York, 2010, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2011.

Footnotes:
This work was created by Fung Ming Chip in Hong Kong in 2009.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Susan L. Beningson and Steve Arons in memory of Renée Beningson
Accession Year
2011
Object Number
2011.17
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
This large, horizontally oriented, rectangular album leaf is inscribed with twenty columns of text, the columns with varying numbers of characters and thus of varying lengths. The text was inscribed on this album leaf by Fung Ming Chip (b. 1951; standard Mandarin transcription: Feng Mingqiu). The calligraphy on this album leaf is divided textually into two parts: the sixteen columns of characters beginning at the right edge and extending through most of the composition, which constitute the text, “Post-Marijuana”, and the four columns at the far left, which are written seamlessly with the text itself but which constitute the dated signature. The leaf is inscribed with a total of 100 characters, the text comprising seventy eight characters arranged in sixteen columns, and the dated signature comprising twenty two characters arranged in four columns—the last column (i.e., the column at the far left) includes just three characters ("shun shi zi") and is set apart from the others. Written with watery, medium gray ink on a white ground, the characters of the text are written in xingshu, or cursive script, in a manner that the artist characterizes as Time Script. The text is a challenge to read because the characters in each column typically overlap, just as the columns overlap. The boldly written signature comprises twenty two characters in four columns. The leaf is dated to 2009 by inscription; for the numbers in the date, the artist used the elaborate characters that typically are reserved for official documents and business records. This album leaf includes four seals of the artist, which run in something of a horizontal line across the center of the composition and which identify it as a work of Fung Ming Chip. The four seals, which the artist himself carved, and their locations can be described as follows:

Far right: Square, red, intaglio seal reading "Ming" (first character of the artist’s given name)
Second from right: Square, red, intaglio seal reading "Jian Zhi Ji Li"(“Seeing this brings good fortune”)
Second from left: Rectangular, red, relief seal reading "Ming Chip" (Ming Qiu) (artist’s given name) (Note that this rectangular seal is carved to simulate two, separate, square, red, relief seals)
Far left: Square, red, pictorial seal reading "Yun" (“Cloud”)


The inscribed text can be translated as follows:

Post-Marijuana

The happiness that follows marijuana
The twisting and turning
Stretching into empty space
Craziness and chaos intermingling
Mixing good and evil

Moving on and on
Beyond the sense of value
Breaking the shackles of the prisoner’s age of time
Striding towards the edge of the night
The furthest edge of life

Treading, spinning
Consciously sinking to the bottom
Detached from the soul
To become a saint


The dated artist signature reads:

Mingqiu shu yu Shenzhen Si Bu Guan
Er ling ling jiu nian liu yue shi ba ri
Shun shi zi


The signature can be translated as:

Ming Chip wrote [this] in [his] Si Bu Guan [i.e., Studio of the Four No’s] in Shenzhen
[On] 18 June 2009
Time Script






Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu