Ancient Vase Mystery

Originally posted by Byrd
The "swastika" sign is at the "top" of the set of symbols. These aren't "pre-Mao" symbols since the Chinese language didn't change during the time of Mao (nor did the typography. A small bit of googling shows that the swastika sign is part of the word, "Wan zi" and is a sign for good luck.
babelstone.blogspot.com...

Actually Mao DID change the writing of the language to simplify it in order to raise literacy. Hence the difference between traditional and simplified Chinese. The PRC uses simplified, the rest of the Chinese world uses traditional. People trained in simplified can't usually read traditional but the opposite doesn't apply.

As for the this symbol it looks suspiciously like the artist's chop to me.

reply to post by estar


The Swastika was used by the Nazi Party, but it goes back in time long before them:

History of the Swastika

The begining of the Davinci code they talk about it while asking the students questions about symbols. In China the symbol is refered to as "wan".

Did you by any chance manage to solve this "ancient" vase mystery?
Actually we got now 3 vases ( different shapes) and two with the same "stamp" at the bottom
I did find an UK site with a jar similar to ours , you'll find a very good picture of jar's bottom stamp
www.chineseporcelain.biz...
Art gallery advert is of a 19th century Korean...as advised by someone here that source could be Korean. However, someone else is talking about chinese characters...
Thank you all in advance

reply to post by curupira


The British Museum got back to me this is what they said -

Thank you very much for your email which was forwarded to me as a curator in the Department of Asia. The bronze vessel that you possess is based in shape and decoration on bronzes made during the 1st millennium BC, the Zhou period. However, a closer look reveals that this emulation is inconsistent and is much closer to bronze vessels made a few hundred years ago, themselves based on Zhou prototypes. Your vessel is likely to be of a more recent date, i.e. neither Zhou nor Ming or Qing. It is not uncommon to find shapes and decorations of much earlier times reproduced in China, where there is a great veneration for things from the past. The swastika on the base is probably related to Buddhism. Most of the characters are difficult to decipher because of the blurred picture. Usually marks on the base denote the dynasty and reign, in which it may have been produced, but this does not seem to be the case. There is some vague reference to ‘treasure’. I hope this helps.