Archives for posts with tag: medicine

Medicine Bottles

03/01/2013 //
0

Medicine Bottles

H90xD50xW30, China

Two two lion with pup figurines are in fact bottles for medicine.  The traditional Chinese medicine apart from the bitten tea, also comes in small pills and powder form.  Judging by the size of the opening they would have been used to hold medicinal powder.  Personally I find the powder form to be quite nasty, they tend to stick to your throat and the unpleasant taste lingered on for ages.  I suppose these sweet looking bottles will help the patients take the medicine.

get well soonHere is the modern way of what thoughtful doctors do …

Advertisement
Tags , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories container, figurine, pottery

Mortar

08/10/2012 //
0

DIA80xH60mm, China

No, this is not rudolph.  Yes, the red nose is missing.  For the Chinese, not only does the deer symbolizes longevity, it also represented success as an official.  This cute container is a the base of a mortar, its small size suggest its for grinding medicinal seeds or nuts, e.g. garlic, pepper etc.

Tags , , , , , , ,
Categories container, pottery, tools

Medicine Grinder

07/05/2012 //
0

DIA150xH220mm, China

This pesto was used as be a medicine grinder; in the old days every household would have a grinder like this for grinning the certain Chinese medicine, herbal, shells, mineral, hones, bones, etc.

The most famous figure for medicine grinding is however not a doctor as we might have thought, it is in fact a rabbit, the Jade Rabbit (see earlier post) that lived on the moon.  Can you spot the rabbit?  This image on the moon can be seen on lunar 15th of every month.

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories container, pottery, tools

Lord Rabbit

04/08/2012 //
1

W100xD50xH130mm, China

This is no Easter bunny but the famous Lord Rabbit.  It is a toy for the Mid Autumn (full moon) festival in the Beijing area.  The Lord Rabbit figurine first appeared in the late Ming dynasty, it was mainly used for worshipping by the younger generations.  It is believed that Chang E, the moon goddess, has a pet rabbit who is whiter than white jade as he was named as the Jade Rabbit.  The Jade Rabbit was specialised in preparing the medicine (you might have seen images of him stirring the medicinal pot on the moon).  Jade Rabbit worshipping has then been taken into moon worship and since rabbit has been kept as a household pet, out of respect for the Jade Rabbit god he was worshipped as the Lord Rabbit.  By Qing dynasty Lord Rabbit has turned into a toy for the Mid Autumn festival.  The folk story goes; once Beijing was infected by plague, almost all the household got sick, the moon goddess was sadden by the news and sent the Jade Rabbit to help cure the capital.  At each household he healed he would turned down any gifts but instead borrow a new set of clothing.  With the new clothing he would assume a different image for the next household, sometimes a female, sometimes a general etc.  He would also take on different animals for transportation; a deer, a tiger, a horse etc., hence there are many different versions of his figurines.

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories clay, figurine, toy

Medicine God – Wood Block Print

02/20/2012 //
2

W220xL300mm, China

A wood block print of the lord of medicine Sun Si Miao, he was a doctor and Taoist priest of the Tang Dynasty.  He is said to live to 140 years old.  However, when he was sickly child, the family used up all their saving to treat his sickness.  Being a very gifted child, he studied all forms of medicine, he dedicated his life to save as many people as he can and refused to become a doctor for the court.  He has made a huge contribution to the Chinese medicine; not only did he wrote the “Thousand Golden Prescriptions”, a complete medical ethics, started gynaecology and pediatrics in Chinese medicine and more.  This is a new year print that would be seen in Chinese medicine clinic.

Tags , , , ,
Categories painting / prints, paper
%d bloggers like this: