Scepter (Gui) with Miscellaneous Poems by Tao Qian (AD 365-427)

Overall: 2.8 x 0.3 公分 (1 1/8 x 1/8 英吋)

"Respectfully made by the jade works of the palace work bureau, on an auspicious day in the twelfth month of the winter, in the third year of Hsuan-Ho of the Imperial Sung (Dynasty)" (1121 A.D.). On the front and back of the knife are engraved, in minute characters with double contour lines, eight complete poems entitled "雜項 Thoughts" by T'ao Yuan-Ming (365-427 A.D.), one of the greatest early poets of China. Here are two examples:_x000D_
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The bright sun sinks beyond the western ridge,_x000D_
The white moon rises behind the eastern range._x000D_
Afar, afar a myriad miles it flashes,_x000D_
Immeasurably vast its light amidst the sky._x000D_
A wind comes and enters the bedroom door,_x000D_
So in the night pillow-and mat are cold._x000D_
The air seems different- - I awake to the season's change._x000D_
I cannot go to sleep and know the night's eternity,_x000D_
I wish to speak but there is no friend to talk to._x000D_
Raising my cup I challenge my lonely shadow._x000D_
The days and months fling us aside and pass;_x000D_
We have high purposes but cannot realize them._x000D_
Thinking of this I have grief and pain at heart,_x000D_
And all night long can find no quietness._x000D_
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It is hard to dwell long in prosperity;_x000D_
Rise and decline cannot be reckoned on._x000D_
What were formerly lotus buds in May,_x000D_
Now in the autumn are but withered seed-pods._x000D_
A heavy frost stiffens the prairie grasses- - _x000D_
They wilt despondently and do not quickly die.-_x000D_
The sun and moon come ever circling back._x000D_
Once we depart we do not shine again._x000D_
I ponder deeply on times long past and gone_x000D_
Though to remember them tears my very entrails._x000D_