Consultancy for Conservation Study of Chik Kwai Study Hall at Pat ...

longevity] (Fig. 144). On the rear eave wall is a mural flanked with two pieces of Chinese
calligraphy (Fig. 145). The mural is depicting a scene of figures in a small hut and crossing a
bridge in a landscape, enclosed by a white and red brocade-like border. The calligraphy on the left
is a poem entitled furonglou song xinjian 芙蓉樓送辛漸 [At Hibiscus Inn Parting With Xin Jian]
written by Wang Changling 王昌齡 (698-765). It reads,
154
Hanyu lianjiang yeruwu
Pingming songke chushangu
Luoyang qinyou ruxiangwen
Yilpian bianxin zai yuhu
寒雨連江夜入吳,
平明送客楚山孤。
洛陽親友如相問,
一片冰心在玉壺。
[Hiding the river, come into Wu in cold night-rain,
In the dawn, I saw you to the mountains of Chu.
If relatives and friends ask of me at Loyang,
One-hearted as ice in a crystal vase.] 104
Wang Changling 王昌齡 bade a farewell to his friend in the dawn after they came into Wu
in a cold night. At that moment, he was degraded to Guizhou 貴州 and expressed his feeling of
clean morality to his relatives and friends in Loyang. 105
Below the purlins are murals along the friezes of the gable wall at the right side bay of the
main hall. Below the ridge purlin is a mural entitled sanduo tu 三多圖 [Diagram of three
abundances] expressing the wish for long life, every happiness and many sons (Fig. 146). To its left
is another painting depicting a scene of idyllic landscape with a figure in a pavilion, which also has
a border of white and red foliate scrolls (Fig. 147). At the right side of the central mural are a piece
of Chinese calligraphy and a painting (Fig. 148). The painting is depicting large peony blossoms
among leaves atop a shoushi 壽石 [aged rock], together with two paradise flycatchers,
symbolizing changming fugui 長命富貴 [may you have wealth and longevity]. The calligraphy to
104 At Hibiscus Inn Parting With Xin Jian, Wang Changling, Retrieved 27 February 2007, from Wengu, Website:
http://www.afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=bienvenue.
105 Zhu Jiongyuan 朱炯遠, Tangshi sanbaishou yizhuping 唐詩三百首譯注評 [The Translation and criticism of 300
Tang Dynasty Poetry], Shenyang 瀋陽, Liaooning guji chubanshe 遼寧古籍出版社, 1995, pp. 96-97.