Chinese languages

Hi, i have a watercolor on rice paper with this signature: http://home.comcast.net/~bigjiminct/ALL3.jpg
I know nothing about it, so any information will help me. like what language, dialet, or a full translation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, JIM [/url]

I've since been told it could be written in Old Chinese and that it is a date and location of the painting. Any info on this will help me, like where can i have this properly translated, any info, websites, or businesses would be appreciated.
Thanks, JIM

The information you got about a date is right, but it is one of those vague dates, one of sixty years, but you don't know which 60 year cycle it's from.

Yi Chou Nian is the Year of the Ox, 1985, was the latest one. Then it's 1925, 1865, 1805.... and multiples of 60 years before that.

Those are the first three characters

The next two characters say GuYu or Valley rain, the next character seems to be Xie, to write, and the next one is rather unclear, but I'm guessing it's Yu, a particle, the last two characters seems to be Dali or great swell.

It looks like it's a commentary on the picture of rain in a valley, causing a great deluge? Well, only you'll know what's in the picture.

[big]乙丑年谷雨寫於大沥[/big]

(I may also be completely wrong, so you might need a second opinion)

Hi, and thank you, you seem far more knowledgable then I, and i really appreciate any and all the help i get. I updated the First picture here:
http://home.comcast.net/~bigjiminct/new_3.jpg
which adds good pics of the artists signature and here is the link to the whole picture:
http://home.comcast.net/~bigjiminct/Tiger.jpg
It is probably my favorite possesion and for some reason have recently become extremely intigued into finding out exactly what it is.

Thanks again.

P.S. is that a text translation of the picture or just your sig?

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:51 am Post subject: update

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Hi, and thank you, you seem far more knowledgable then I, and i really appreciate any and all the help i get. I updated the First picture here:
http://home.comcast.net/~bigjiminct/new_3.jpg
which adds good pics of the artists signature and here is the link to the whole picture:
http://home.comcast.net/~bigjiminct/Tiger.jpg
It is probably my favorite possesion and for some reason have recently become extremely intigued into finding out exactly what it is.

Thanks again.

P.S. is that a text translation of the picture or just your sig?

Right the picture of the tiger makes some sense with regard to the seal. The commentary in black Chinese characters also makes sense, since there's a waterfall/mountain brook(?) there too.

The seal characters are stylised, and I've a small interest in them. There are two characters, the left one is 癡 and the other is 虎 which in Mandarin Chinese is pronounced chi-hu (chee-who) and literally means 'idiotic tiger', but that doesn't do it justice IMHO, I would prefer 'crazy tiger' instead.

The string of characters I wrote earlier are those of the commentary in the picture, at least, so far as I can make out...

Cheers,
Dyl.[/quote]

Once again, thanks for the help, here is an updated picture.
http://home.comcast.net/~bigjiminct/Translation.jpg
This includes the text characters Dylan Sung has posted for me which i ran through an online translator.
This is what i came up with, so let me know if its at all accurate.
Thanks again, JIM

P.S. i know different groups of characters mean different things, the above update is a single, word for word translation for each individual character.

No, it is not crazy tiger (chi1 hu3), it is hu3 chi1, a person mad on tiger (he likes tiger a lot). The seal is a seal for the painter, and the painter is very interested in tigers (that's why he draws tiger).

And the commentary is, in my opinion, :"xx year, <name of the painter> wrote amid rain pour", or :"xx year, <name of the painter> wrote in <a place called da li>".

Cheers

Eng Wai