Moy Yat chop translation

[Phil Redmond]

I know that last two characters read, Gou Yahn (tall man), but I'm not sure of the first two. Can anyone here translate them for me?
Thanks in advance.

[yylee]

Originally posted by Phil Redmond
I know that last two characters read, Gou Yahn (tall man), but I'm not sure of the first two. Can anyone here translate them for me?
Thanks in advance.


the first two is "Yum Shurt (¤Ð¦¦)", I believe it is an I-Ching term for a Chinese calendar year. The second two "Kao Yan(°ª¤H)" typically means a "High Master". So together it could mean a "High Master born in the year of Yum Shurt", of course we need to look at the context of this term within the paragraph.

My Chinese isn't that good, I think educated folks like Hendrik, Dan and ntc can tell you more.

[Phil Redmond]

I really appreciate your taking the time to help me with this.
Some one on the wcml posted that the first two characters represent the way of writing 1984 according to the Chinese calendar. It might have been 1984 when I had that chop made.
I took the gou yahn characters literally because Moy Yat was tall.
It seems like it's Moy Yat's pen name and the year he made the chop for me.

[yylee]

Phil

here is a web site on ancient calendar systems, enjoy :D

http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/calendar/chinese.shtml

[Ultimatewingchun]

I can recall spending an entire day with Moy Yat at the semi-annual Brooklyn Heights Art Show...held on the Brooklyn Heights promenade overlooking the East River...

the view of Manhattan was (is) incredible from there...probably circa 1976...

He was displaying and selling some of his artwork - he used the name Moy Go Yan (tall man Moy) when referring to himself as an artist...which is how he signed his painitings...

[Phil Redmond]

Victor,,
That's what I thought. Moy Yat told me the translation of the last two characters was tall man also. I just wasn't sure of the first 2 characters.

[Tom Kagan]

With only a relative few exceptions, he signed all the thousands of chops he carved on the side pretty much like yours - the current year, then name.

Baat Sup Sei Go Yan - '84 Tall Man (actually, in english it would be Tall Man '84).

He would sometimes make you another chop with a lot more writing on the side if you were around enough and behaved in a manner he thought was appropriate to whatever he felt like carving that day - which wasn't always a good thing, by the way. :)

Though I doubt the recipient knew it at the time, a handful of the chops were jokes and a few were real 'zingers' to the recipient.

[ntc]

Phil:

For the 4 chinese characters that have been written, the Cantonese tone translation should show "Yam Mo Ko Yan". It is a birth year of Chinese Calendar for the first 2 characters. If it were to show in Western Calendar, it could show the following years of 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1960 and so forth since the every birth year has a 12-year-cycle (+/- 12 calendar years). The last 2 characters would usually be used as praising someone who is very good at something like fortune telling or knowledgeable of things that they deal with......

Hope that helps.