CHINESE SHOPS: A SIGNATURE IN STONE (original) (raw)
Travel|CHINESE SHOPS: A SIGNATURE IN STONE
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/10/travel/chinese-shops-a-signature-in-stone.html
Advertisement
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
- Feb. 10, 1985
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
February 10, 1985
,
Section 10, Page
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
CHRISTOPHER S. WREN, who is chief of the Ottawa bureau of The New York Times, was head of the bureau in Peking from 1981 to 1984.
Many Westerners have never heard of a chop. Many Chinese couldn't think of doing without one. The tuzhang, as the chop is known in the West, is one of the most distinctive innovations to come out of China, a country that was the first to invent paper and movable type.
Put prosaically, a chop is a square seal with which the Chinese emperors, and later commoners too, signed their documents and letters. Pressed first into ink, which was often bright red, the chop leaves an identifying imprint, originally in wax or clay but now on paper. This definition does not convey the traditions that have grown around the chop since it first appeared in the Shang Dynasty over 3,000 years ago. Down through the centuries, chops were embellished with characters and elegantly mounted on handles carved from jade or some other stone.
Shi Huangdi, the emperor who unified China in the Qin Dynasty 2,200 years ago, introduced jade chops to symbolize his authority. Stone chops, which arA easier to carve, were made popular early in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by the 14th-century artist Wang Mian. It is not unusual on classical Chinese paintings to see the stamped seal of not only the artist but also its owners.
Today, chops remain popular in Asia with the Chinese and Japanese. For the American tourist, they become a personal and suprisingly inexpensive gift to take home. Unlike other souvenirs sold in China, chops have not been duplicated successfully by machines, because of the clarity of outline required in a very confined space.
The secret of a good chop lies with the master who carves it. In Peking, the best artisans are generally acknowledged to work at Cuiwenge, an old calligraphy shop on Liulichang, a street in the southern part of the city that is being restored to its Ming and Qing Dynasty heyday. It was to Cuiwenge that I went one chilly day to have a chop carved for an artist friend in New York named Mahoney, who wanted to identify her calligraphy with something more unique than a signature.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement