Jekyll2022-08-06T20:14:09-07:00http://localhost:4000/feed/tag/jie-yi.xmlKnotty Notions ][ Jie yiA decorative knotting blog.Carol WangBook Review: Chinese Knotting by Lydia Chen2010-02-05T00:00:00-08:002010-02-05T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/books/book-review-chinese-knotting-by-lydia-chen<p><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/lydia1.jpg" align="left" alt="cover of the Echo edition of Lydia Chen Chinese Knotting" height="254" /><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/Lydia-Chen-Red.jpg" align="right" alt="cover of the current Tuttle edition of Lydia Chen Chinese Knotting" />In print in one form or another pretty much continuously since 1981, this book is responsible for reviving the art of Chinese knotting and likely many cascade effects.
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<p>First was the original (Traditional) Chinese edition published in Taiwan (the cover of the original Chinese edition is identical in illustration to the English edition pictured at left but for the title rendered in Chinese text):<br />
<strong>中國結</strong><br />
Author: 陳夏生 (Chen Hsia-Sheng, chén xià shēng)<br />
ISBN: ??<br />
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 edition (January, 1981)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches</p>
<p>Soon followed by an English edition also published in Taiwan and distributed by Tuttle (<em>see left</em>):<br />
<strong>Chinese Knotting</strong><br />
Author: Lydia Chen<br />
ISBN: 0-8048-1389-2<br />
Hardcover: 116 pages<br />
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 English edition (January, 1982)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches</p>
<p>Somewhere in the middle here was a softcover Tuttle edition with a hot pink cover. Perhaps someone who owns this edition will email me a scan of the cover?</p>
<p>Most recently, Tuttle published a second English edition with reworked cover (<em>see right</em>) and a shiny new subtitle:
<strong>Chinese Knotting: Creative Designs that are Easy and Fun!</strong><br />
Author: Lydia Chen<br />
ISBN-10: 0804833990<br />
ISBN-13: 978-0804833998<br />
Hardcover: 116 pages<br />
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; 2 edition (August 15, 2003)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches</p>
<p>So that’s the publishing information. The publisher’s forward is different from my original English edition to the latest Tuttle edition, but that’s pretty much it as the 70’s style fashions pictured within with attest.</p>
<p>The book begins with some history of the craft (knot tying in an Asian context) and of the book (gathering information on a craft that at the time was rapidly disappearing). A modest gallery of the finished knotworks continues the introduction, but as the book is more an instruction book than a project book, it is not front-loaded with colour photos of the projects you’ll find in the back. An overview of the knot tying process and materials finishes out the fore-matter before we dig into the knots themselves.</p>
<p>The <a href="/translation/CK1-knot-list">list of knots in Chinese Knotting</a> along with translation notes are found in the <a href="/translation/CK1-knot-list">previous post</a>. From <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/coin/">double coin</a> to <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/square/">flat</a> are basic knots, the rest are compound knots.</p>
<p>Ms. Chen sees the knots in a very architectural way or maybe I mean <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draughtsman">draughtsman</a>-like. The knots are often presented in an exploded layout fashion and where possible the instructions are just a step by step revealing of this. Thus her instructions for the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/">plafond knot</a> has no flipping or inversion as others have. But where it is important, as in the case of the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/">good luck knot</a>, process steps are included.</p>
<p>This style may not be to your liking. Certain knots are easier to learn from a process versus layout point of view, but no one can deny the wonderful and spectacular things her very precise minds-eye has created. In any case, that’s why we have more than one book on the same topic, right? To add different perspectives when necessary for our own learning processes.</p>
<p>It would be difficult to over-estimate the impact the original Chinese edition or the translated English edition of this book had on Chinese knotting in Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore, etc or decorative knotting in the English-speaking world and, indeed, traditional Asian knotting elsewhere. It would be an interesting sociological (?) project to try to trace that…</p>
<p>The book ends with an interesting collection of small, generally personal fashion related, projects. Examples of these can be seen on the various editions of the cover.</p>
<p>Forgot I was writing a “review” here. 8) This is an essential book for any collection of knot books (even if you’re only into practical knots because, y’know, you need to expand your horizons. 8) It is also an essential work for anyone studying Chinese culture, Chinese art, or decorative arts in general.</p>
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<iframe src="http://rcm-fr.amazon.fr/e/cm?t=skateorg01&o=8&p=8&l=as1&asins=0804833990&md=0V7HTNAW9BB7KPZWWWG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Carol WangIn print in one form or another pretty much continuously since 1981, this book is responsible for reviving the art of Chinese knotting and likely many cascade effects.Translating Lydia Chen’s Chinese Knotting Book One Knot List2010-01-12T00:00:00-08:002010-01-12T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/books/translating-lydia-chens-chinese-knotting-book-one-knot-list<p>The easiest way for me to enter Chinese text is by typing English text
and getting something to translate it for me. Generally speaking this
does 60% of the job. Then there are the characters that are more
difficult to translate, so I need to enter them directly. For this
task I like to write the characters into a system that does Chinese
handwriting recognition. For this job I used the free <a href="http://www.sonicomobile.com/itranslate.html">iTranslate iPhone
app</a> and the <a href="http://www.nciku.com/">nciku dictionary</a>.
I used the iTranslate app, mostly because I was out, but it had the
added advantage of quickly swapping the Chinese and English back and
forth from the translate/translated windows for refinement of the
desired characters. Also, unlike the other translation apps on my
phone, iTranslate allowed me to get the data <strong>out</strong> (via
email in this case). Apparently iTranslate is “powered by Google” and
indeed once I got home I also used <a href="http://translate.google.com/#en|zh-TW|">Google Translate</a>
with largely the same results although there is no handwriting
recognition involved there.
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<p><strong>nciku</strong> is far and away the better word and phrase
translator, plus it has more data entry methods (handwriting, pinyin).
In Google’s favour is it’s ability to deal with greater volume
(sentences, paragraphs, whole web pages).</p>
<p>So, sometimes after I’ve input the characters, I’ll retranslate the
Chinese back to English to see what comes out. Sometimes it’s
something that makes sense (auspicious vs good luck), sometimes it’s
the word you expect except that you don’t get that when translating in
the other direction (button vs Buttons), and sometimes it’s just wacky
(pan chang vs plate length).</p>
<p>The extra added difficulty to this project is that I was translating
the Chinese from the handwritten (fast script with a paintbrush)
Chinese in the English version of the book. The Chinese editions of
<a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen2">Chinese Knotting
2</a> and <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">Chinese
Knotting 3</a> have the text nicely typeset on the top of the page in
addition to the pretty, but difficult to read, script and that’s most
likely the case with <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen1">the first volume</a>
as well.</p>
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr><th>English Name</th>
<th>Written Chinese</th>
<th>Pinyin</th>
<th>Translation Notes</th>
</tr>
<tr><td>double coin knot</td>
<td>雙錢</td>
<td>shuāng qián</td>
<td>double money vs double coin (雙幣)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>double connection knot</td>
<td>雙聯</td>
<td>shuāng lián</td>
<td>retranslates as Double</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauvastika">sauvastika</a> knot</td>
<td>卍字</td>
<td>wàn zì</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika">swastika</a> word</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>cross knot</td>
<td>十字</td>
<td>shí zì</td>
<td>ten word</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>cloverleaf knot</td>
<td>酢漿草</td>
<td>zuòjiāngcǎo</td>
<td> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalis_corniculata">oxalis corniculata</a>
retranslates as shamrock vs clover (三葉草)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>good luck knot</td>
<td>吉祥</td>
<td>jí xiáng</td>
<td>auspicious</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>button knot</td>
<td>鈕扣</td>
<td>niǔ kòu</td>
<td>retranslates as Buttons vs button(按鈕)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>pan chang knot</td>
<td>盤長</td>
<td>pán cháng</td>
<td>retranslates as plate length </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>round brocade knot</td>
<td>團錦</td>
<td>tuán jǐn</td>
<td>retranslates (iTranslate) as mission jin</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>plafond knot</td>
<td>藻井</td>
<td>zǎo jǐng</td>
<td>surprising straightforward bilateral translation</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>flat knot</td>
<td>平結</td>
<td>píng jié</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>ju i knot</td>
<td>如意</td>
<td>rúyì</td>
<td>retranslates as "be satisfied"</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>brocade ball knot</td>
<td>繡球</td>
<td>xiù qiú</td>
<td>embroidery ball (remove the flower (花) in the middle)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>longevity knot</td>
<td>壽</td>
<td>shòu</td>
<td>longevity (長壽)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>double happiness knot</td>
<td>雙喜</td>
<td>shuāng xǐ</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>dragon knot</td>
<td>龍</td>
<td>dragon</td>
<td>lóng</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>dragonfly knot</td>
<td>蜻蜓</td>
<td>qīng tíng</td>
<td>dragonfly (蝴蝶昆蟲)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>butterfly knot</td>
<td>蝴蝶</td>
<td>hú dié</td>
<td>google gives the oddest translation to “butterfly”: 輕便鐵路蝴蝶站</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>long pan chang</td>
<td>長盤長</td>
<td>cháng pán cháng</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>stone chime knot</td>
<td>磬</td>
<td>qìng</td>
<td>stone chime (石磬), even by itself (磬) is stone chime</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>double diamond knot</td>
<td>方勝</td>
<td>fāng shèng</td>
<td>方=square
retranslates (iTranslate) as Fang sheng
勝=win, defeat, be better than, superb
形 = shape
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>crane knot</td>
<td>仙鶴</td>
<td>xiān hè</td>
<td>crane (鶴)
retranslated by nciku as a mythological immortal bird</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>phoenix knot</td>
<td>鳳</td>
<td>fèng</td>
<td>phoenix (鳳凰)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>fish knot</td>
<td>鯉魚</td>
<td>lǐyú</td>
<td>fish = 魚 the written Chinese is “carp”</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>ten accord knot</td>
<td>十全</td>
<td>shí quán</td>
<td>nciku retranslates as perfect</td>
</tr>
</table>Carol WangThe easiest way for me to enter Chinese text is by typing English text and getting something to translate it for me. Generally speaking this does 60% of the job. Then there are the characters that are more difficult to translate, so I need to enter them directly. For this task I like to write the characters into a system that does Chinese handwriting recognition. For this job I used the free iTranslate iPhone app and the nciku dictionary. I used the iTranslate app, mostly because I was out, but it had the added advantage of quickly swapping the Chinese and English back and forth from the translate/translated windows for refinement of the desired characters. Also, unlike the other translation apps on my phone, iTranslate allowed me to get the data out (via email in this case). Apparently iTranslate is “powered by Google” and indeed once I got home I also used Google Translate with largely the same results although there is no handwriting recognition involved there.Knots vs Fancy Knots2009-08-12T00:00:00-07:002009-08-12T00:00:00-07:00http://localhost:4000/translation/knots-vs-fancy-knots<title>Knots vs Fancy Knots</title>
<p>I had just finished going through a big stack of videos that I had found on <a href="http://www.youku.com/">youku</a>, a youTube-like site in China (search for Chinese knotting:中国结 and knotting art:结艺) when my knot (매듭 in Korean) search brought me a practical knot result. That’s ok. I’ve got nothing against practical things and it’s not like that automated search turns up many results in general, but it got me to thinking, how to refine this search to produce a more focused decorative result? Taking another look at <a href="http://www.knots.or.kr/maedup/">Kim Hee-Jin’s maedup site</a> and <a href="http://www.koreaknot.co.kr/">Korean Traditional Knots</a> and started parsing down this string “한국의 전통매듭” which as a string translates to “Korea’s traditional knot”. Previously, I had determined that “매듭” means “knot” so that left the “전통” part. Traditional, eh?
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<p>“한국의” translates as “South Korea” and “국의” translates as “country”. I should not have been surprised that none of the individual parts translated as “south” which is apparently “남쪽”. 8)</p>
<p>In any case, “전통매듭” as a search term turned up much in the way of decorative knot results. So much so, that even down to the 10th page of results, I was still finding good stuff. Normally this would make me happy, but last night it started feeling like a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus#.22Sisyphean_task.22_or_.22Sisyphean_challenge.22">Sisyphean ordeal</a>. So, I stopped and had some chocolate and felt much better. 8) 8)</p>
<p>I still have a massive backlog of Chinese and Korean links to blog about (and new ones turn up every day!). Surprisingly, not so much Japanese, but maybe I’ll find some insight or inspiration will strike and that will change. In any case, I wanted finish up my notes as regards refining translation and search terms for Asian decorative knots.</p>
<p>Traditional Chinese, as found in Taiwan, Singapore and elsewhere.<br />
China: <big>中國</big><br />
knot: <big>結</big><br />
Chinese knots: <big>中國結</big><br />
knot art: <big>結藝</big></p>
<p>Simplified Chinese, as found in Mainland China.<br />
China: <big>中国</big><br />
knot: <big>结</big><br />
Chinese knots: <big>中国结</big><br />
knot art: <big>结艺</big></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin">Pinyin</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization">romanized</a> Chinese (vs. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Giles">Wade-Giles</a>).<br />
China: Zhōngguó<br />
knot: jié<br />
art: yì</p>
<p>My favourite Chinese dictionary site converts back and forth and includes recordings of pronunciations <a href="http://www.nciku.com/search/all/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E7%BB%93%E8%89%BA">if you would like to hear it spoken</a>. Best of all, it has character recognition capability allowing you to write/draw the character you see and get look it up that way instead of counting strokes and parsing radicals or knowing the pinyin a priori.</p>
<p>In Japanese, there are several independent-ish arts that relate to decorative knotting. Interestingly, many decorative knotting sites in Japan simply call it “Chinese knotting”. Here we have the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji">kanji</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirigana">hirigana</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanji">romanji</a>.<br />
knot: <big>結び, むすび, musubi</big> <br />
flower knot: <big>花結び, はな むすび, hanamusubi</big><br />
tea bag knots: <big>仕覆結, しふく むす, shifuku</big><br />
Chinese knotting: <big>中国結び, ちゅうごく むすび, chuugoku musubi</big><br />
mizuhiki: <big>水引, みずひき, mizuhiki</big></p>
<p>Back in the <a href="/kt/Japanese-aesthetic">shifuku post</a> I got all pedantic about Japanese. Since I keep all my memories online, I thought here would be a good place to do the same with Korean. 8)</p>
<p>The Korean writing system is called (한글) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul">Hangeul/Han’gŭl </a> in South Korea, (조선글) Chosŏn’gŭl/Joseongeul in North Korea, or (전금) jeongeum if you are ethnically Korean in China. Whatever you may call it, it is the same writing system. Clearly there is a lot of messy politics involved here. As in Japan, Korea also had a Chinese phase, and Chinese characters are called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja">hanja</a> (漢字, 한자).</p>
<p>As you can tell with all the slashes in the previous paragraph, there are a number of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_romanization">Korean romanization</a> schemes. The current officially selected scheme is the MCT (Ministry of Culture and Tourism) scheme. Wikipedia, calls it RR (Revised Romanization of Korean). The other big one is MR (McCune-Reischauer). It doesn’t end there, but that’s the broad strokes.</p>
<p>I had long ago bookmarked Chinese/English/pinyin and Japanese/English/kanji/hirigana dictionaries. Now, seemed a good time to look for a Korean/English/Hangul/MCT dictionary. While I haven’t found a favourite dictionary, I did find a <a href="http://sori.org/hangul/conv2kr.cgi">Hangul/MCT conversion tool</a>. Now all I need to find is some romanization => Japanese/Korean conversion tools so that I can go from shibori or pogaji to the characters and script, completing the cycle. I didn’t mention pinyin => Chinese because <a href="http://www.nciku.com/">nciku</a> will actually do that.</p>
<p>Back to knots…<br />
knot: <big>매듭 mae-deup</big><br />
traditional knot: <big>전통매듭 jeon-tong-mae-deup</big></p>
<p>For those joining us from elsewhere, let’s not neglect good ole English. Beyond the romanized terms mentioned above there’s:
Asian/Chinese/Japanese/Korean knotting/macrame<br />
fancywork<br />
decorative knotting</p>
<p>I’m probably missing more, but it’s 2am now and time for sleeping…</p>Carol WangKnots vs Fancy Knots I had just finished going through a big stack of videos that I had found on youku, a youTube-like site in China (search for Chinese knotting:中国结 and knotting art:结艺) when my knot (매듭 in Korean) search brought me a practical knot result. That’s ok. I’ve got nothing against practical things and it’s not like that automated search turns up many results in general, but it got me to thinking, how to refine this search to produce a more focused decorative result? Taking another look at Kim Hee-Jin’s maedup site and Korean Traditional Knots and started parsing down this string “한국의 전통매듭” which as a string translates to “Korea’s traditional knot”. Previously, I had determined that “매듭” means “knot” so that left the “전통” part. Traditional, eh?The Complete Art of Chinese Knotting TV show2009-08-07T00:00:00-07:002009-08-07T00:00:00-07:00http://localhost:4000/linkography/the-complete-art-of-chinese-knotting-tv-show<p>It should not surprise you that there is a Chinese knotting television show in China (I could be wrong, these could be an instructional DVD set or a web series. Does it matter?) and someone has digitized clips for a youTube-ish website, Videopedia World.
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<p>Here’s the link to the “channel”: <a href="http://b5.videopediaworld.com/search/?search_id=%E7%BB%93%E8%89%BA&search_type=search_videos&submit.x=35&submit.y=18&submit=+">中国结艺大全</a></p>
<p>The show is called 中国结艺大全.<br />
Chinese knot (simplified): 中国结<br />
art: 艺<br />
big: 大<br />
full/complete/entire: 全<br />
these characters together: 大全 <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_t#zh-CN|en|%E5%A4%A7%E5%85%A8">Google translates</a> as “Guinness” which I find very unhelpful.</p>
<p>In any case, I’m calling it as “The Complete Art of Chinese Knotting”.</p>
<p>The production values are very good here, and the host speaks wonderfully clear Mandarin.</p>
<p>The uploaded segments are half an hour (more or less) and cover a range of related knots and projects.</p>
<p>The videos are titled with what I now believe to be episode and segment numbers, but when I was taking my personal notes, I didn’t pay attention to that. So, here’s my notes for the Videopedia World videos:<br />
vp29807 cloverleaf flowers<br />
vp30199 compound cloverleaf<br />
vp30038 crown sinnet<br />
pan chang<br />
vp14313 zhongguojie-org<br />
vp27104 button knot rose, double coin ring<br />
vp27316 double coin rings<br />
vp27397 history tool intro, pan chang<br />
vp27549 double coin intro<br />
vp27688 round mat ring<br />
vp27808 ocean plat, other mat<br />
vp27993 snake sinnet, square mat<br />
vp28067 square mat continued, creeper knot<br />
vp28422 good luck knot<br />
vp28814 woven hat, button and pipa knots<br />
vp29132 plafond, portugese sinnet, sauvastika<br />
vp29807 3x3 pan chang<br />
vp29971 mystic variations: long, cross, hollow triangle<br />
vp30038 mystic: hollow square, stone chime<br /></p>
<p>During the introduction/theme song portion of video clips, a logo for “youku” appears. A little searching around turns up <a href="http://www.youku.com/">youku.com</a>, a youTube-a-like. Or maybe a broadcaster/TV channel that’s posted many clips of their shows online?</p>
<p>In any case, <em>their</em> page indexing their clips of tCAoCK is here:<br />
<a href="http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_996533.html">http://www.youku.com/playlist_show/id_996533.html</a></p>
<p>The clips are shorter here, 20 minutes or so vs 30 minutes or so on Videopedia World and they seem to have put more effort into finding a relevant image to put on the clip’s teaser image.</p>
<p>Obviously the material is the same except for the segmentation. I have not viewed many of these videos yet, and so have no notes.</p>Carol WangIt should not surprise you that there is a Chinese knotting television show in China (I could be wrong, these could be an instructional DVD set or a web series. Does it matter?) and someone has digitized clips for a youTube-ish website, Videopedia World.Chinese knotting videos: int3012009-08-07T00:00:00-07:002009-08-07T00:00:00-07:00http://localhost:4000/linkography/chinese-knotting-videos-int301<p>I’ve discovered the youTube channel of a 60 year old person (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/int301">int301</a>) in Taiwan which consists entirely of Chinese knotting instructions. The videos are silent, so the only language issue is the titles of the videos themselves. That’s where I can help a bit. 8) The following translations are not formal with canonical knot names, they’re just off the cuff notes I took for myself when I was looking at the videos
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<p>Looking at the full title of a video, the first one looks like this:<br />
五福結 影片 中國結一線生機 提供</p>
<p>This part is duplicated, more or less in the title of almost all of the videos: 中國結一線生機 提供</p>
<p>Chinese Knot: 中國結 <br />
This part, I believe, means “video” more or less. Perhaps “instructional video”, but I have put no effort into an actual translation: 一線生機 提供</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96C1UsD4xKU">五福結 interlocked double coin medallion</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjLqizV20Q4">雙錢結 double coin</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jANgFRu-Zk">五股六花 circular mat</a> (five:五, unit/ply/portion/section:股, six:六, flower:花)<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uXW0f6EMV0">六股五花 circular mat</a> (6 unit 5 flower)<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx1M-h1DBS8">十字結 cross knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfWB3M2BP0Q">綬帶結 double loop cross</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi9WbUKd7gQ">吉祥結 good luck knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM7UZRT0sRA">鈕扣結 button knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en0-u-IezRI">琵琶結 pipa knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EquZo3HkXuE">雙線長扣 double (long) button knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgS-c66aMDY">單線長鈕扣 inline double (long) button knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiVTNX4o05Y">萬字結 sauvastika</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idSTCylksnM">藻井結 plafond</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q27cpGWh9I">蛇結 snake knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXC20v010A">金鋼結 interlaced snake knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLTOs3wyrL8">雙連結 double connection knot</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwsoOyizJ0">項鍊伸縮 fisherman’s bend sliding clasp</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR-lipm6wDs">酢醬草結 cloverleaf knots</a></p>Carol WangI’ve discovered the youTube channel of a 60 year old person (int301) in Taiwan which consists entirely of Chinese knotting instructions. The videos are silent, so the only language issue is the titles of the videos themselves. That’s where I can help a bit. 8) The following translations are not formal with canonical knot names, they’re just off the cuff notes I took for myself when I was looking at the videosKyoto Talk 003: Jie Yi - Chinese Knotting2009-03-25T00:00:00-07:002009-03-25T00:00:00-07:00http://localhost:4000/kyoto%20talk/kyoto-talk-003-jie-yi-chinese-knotting<p><strong>Notes:</strong> As with so many things to do with the history, development and culture of China, Korea and Japan, the situation is not well defined and each has influenced the other. That being said, it is generally agreed by experts in each nation that decorative knotting traditions probably began in China.
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<p>Archaeological records derived from bronzes, statues, carvings, paintings, and (in one important case) <a href="http://china.org.cn/english/culture/107915.htm">clay moulds</a> (205BCE) show that decorative knotting was definitely a thriving and noteworthy craft by 475 BCE. The art developed during the Tang (618 - 709) and Song (960 - 1279) dynasties and flowered during the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties.</p>
<p><strong>Text:</strong> China, Korea and Japan each has a rich tradition in decorative knotting.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/projects/kyoto-talk/kyoto-talk.003.png" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/projects/kyoto-talk/003-girls-with-knots.jpg" alt="girls in red chinese clothes holding knots" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Annotation:</strong> I can’t find the original file for this image. I may have been cut and pasting directly from the browser at this point. If I had to guess where I got it, I’d say <a href="http://www.chinaview.cn/photos/">China View/Xinhua Daily News</a> but that’s just a guess.</p>Carol WangNotes: As with so many things to do with the history, development and culture of China, Korea and Japan, the situation is not well defined and each has influenced the other. That being said, it is generally agreed by experts in each nation that decorative knotting traditions probably began in China.Link Dump 2009.01.042009-01-05T00:00:00-08:002009-01-05T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/linkography/link-dump-2009-01-04<p><strong>Pictures</strong>
Some wacky artisan (interior design firm??) from the Netherlands is taking spongy looking “cords” and knitting them, they also tie really big knots… just follow the link and look! 8) [<a href="http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/12/giant_knitwear_furnishings.html?CMP=OTC-5JF307375954">via</a>]
http://baukeknottnerus.nl/
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<p>Some knotted wallhangings from a cultural website.
http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/16T1961T4661.html</p>
<p>From the same site comes another set of pictures (note, they translated the <em>button</em> knot as the <em>buckle</em> knot. That confused me for a while…)
http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/15Traditions335.html</p>
<p>Interesting jewelry. Some knotted, some just evoking knots.
http://cruststation.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/knotted/</p>
<p>Picture of a sizable mystic knot accompanies a blog with numerous links to knotting how-to videos.
http://salamanderart.wordpress.com/2008/12/28/chinese-knot-tying/</p>
<p><strong>Things to see and do</strong>
Learn Chinese knotting at the <a href="http://www.chinaculturecenter.org/">China Culture Center</a> in Beijing [<a href="http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/events/37281/">via</a>]
http://www.chinaculturecenter.org/events/list.php?gid=10300</p>
<p><strong>Or</strong> learn Chinese knotting in Taipei at the <a href="http://www.community.com.tw/about_us.php">Community Services Center</a>
http://www.community.com.tw/detail.php?id=1369&heading=%20-%20Programs:%20Chinese%20Knotting</p>
<p>The <a href="www.mfah.org/">Museum of Fine Art, Houston</a> (Texas) has a gallery devoted to <a href="http://www.mfah.org/main.asp?target=collection&par1=5&par3=499">Korean art</a>, including maedup.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2008/12/148_15202.html</p>
<p>A how-to video for the plafond knot using a method I have not seen before
http://www.livevideo.com/video/Shibari/E39041FF1F664177B90D6EEB67183A2F/how-to-tie-a-plafond-knot.aspx</p>
<p><strong>Things to buy</strong>
Abstract <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/mystic/">mystic knot</a> <a href="http://www.beadinglife.com/how-to-make/chandelier-earrings.html">chandelier findings</a>.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19234969</p>
<p>Pretty pins for sale from an artisan in Hawaii
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/art/978311371.html</p>
<p>CLineCreations is an Esty shop that sells pretty knotted things
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6438481</p>
<p><strong>Books</strong>
The <a href="http://calgarypubliclibrary.com/">Calgary Public Library</a> system has 6 copies of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0715329227/skateorg">Kim Sang Lan’s maedup book</a> (translated into English from the <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/2215078162/skateorg-20">original French</a>) <em>Decorative Knot Craft</em>
<a href="https://catalogue.calgarypubliclibrary.com/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12H88247Q80V2.6451&profile=testa--1&uri=link=3100035~!1072471~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab100&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!cpl_production&term=Lan%2C+Kim+Sang&index=PAUTHOR">https://catalogue.calgarypubliclibrary.com/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12H88247Q80V2.6451&profile=testa–1&uri=link=3100035~!1072471~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab100&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!cpl_production&term=Lan%2C+Kim+Sang&index=PAUTHOR</a></p>Carol WangPictures Some wacky artisan (interior design firm??) from the Netherlands is taking spongy looking “cords” and knitting them, they also tie really big knots… just follow the link and look! 8) [via] http://baukeknottnerus.nl/