Chinese Seals: peaches on a tree

A sweet little seal with much cultural resonance: peaches on a tree. The peach is native to China and is involved in many stories, including that of Yu Huang (the Jade Emperor) and his mother Xi Wangmu (Queen Mother of the West) who conferred longevity on the gods by feeding them the peaches of immortality, whose tree fruited only once every 1000 years.

Inscription 1: 千年桃實大如斗仙人摘之㕥, qian nian tao shi da ru dou xian ren zhai zhi [ ],
A thousand year peach, big as a dipper. The immortal picks and eats.
Inscription 2: [ ] 酒一食能得千年壽 [ ] 頰(?)常在十八九, [ ] jiu yi shi neng de qian nian shou [ ] jia chang zai shi ba jiu, Drink this wine (elixir) once to gain a thousand years of longevity, rosy cheeked always, like an 18 or 19 (year old).
Impression: 月+?, 龍, [ ] long, [ ] dragon. The right half of the first character is very elusive to me.
Signature: 又耕占, You Geng Zhan

Some background

While acquiring some Asian art of dubious provenance I found myself admiring the red seals (chops) more than the pictures. I now have about 150. Pecuniary considerations prevent me from acquiring seals of emperors or famous artists. Just as well, as my tastes run to the idiosyncratic and peculiar, a result, I suppose, of my involvment with contemporary art. I find the pugnacious lion below as interesting as the elegant dragon above.

Historically seal impressions are admired as tiny works of art, "the world in a square inch" as the author Jason Kuo says. The writing used in seals (zhuanshu) uses the first uniformly adopted Chinese script (c. 220 BCE) to convey names, ideas and sentiments. The side of the seal frequently carries a poetic verse, a scenic description, the date of the seal's engraving and/or the name of the carver in kaishu which after about 350 CE became (and is called) 'standard script.' So, in very short compass, there is a tight living history of the central Chinese artistic practice, calligraphy.

Originally (and still) seals were made in bronze or jade. For the past 500 years or so the material of choice has been varieties of soapstone known variously as Shou Shan, Mei Ling, Ba Lin and several others. These stones are prized above gems for their beauty. Some seals are plain in form; others are elaborately carved and decorated, frequently making clever use of color transitions in the stone. Ideally a seal will have a balance between the stone itself, carving, side inscriptions and impression.

Because Asian artists used a 'studio name,' usually poetic, to sign their works, their given names can be elusive. A traditional Chinese dating system uses a sixty-year revolving lunar calendar making exact dating a problem also. Where I'm unsure of a character I put in vacant brackets []. I don't speak or read Chinese, but have gotten pretty good at using both zhuanshu and kaishu dictionaries. My thanks to Alan Ho for making up for some of my many deficiencies.

The first (bottom) post here is a list of recommended books.

Chinese Seals

peaches on a tree

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Links to my other sites

Bookstores/Websites for seals

Some background