Chen Mingyuan
Look at the Three Friends pot in the Chinese University of Hong Kong: sections of pine, bamboo and plum become one vessel. Its inscription names Mingyuan, yet the museum dates the pot to the early twentieth century. Seeing the name and identifying the maker are different steps.
Names and aliases
Traditional 陳鳴遠Also written 鸣远 Mingyuan (zi)Also written 石霞山人 Shixia Shanren (hao)Also written 壶隐 Huyin (hao)
On this page
Start with one object
For the Three Friends pot, Bartholomew’s 1977 catalogue (no. 10, p. 33; PDF 35) places a square seal inside the lid and reads the base inscription as 壬午春日, signed 鳴遠. It interprets the cyclical year as 1702 and assigns the pot to Chen Mingyuan. CUHK’s current record for 1995.0216 instead gives “early 20th century” and 陳鳴遠款; its English label uses “Attributed to Chen Mingyuan”. These are different assessments of the same object. A recurring cyclical year and a maker’s name do not settle manufacture date. The older catalogue gives height 8.6 cm and length 15.2 cm; the current museum record gives height 8 cm, length 15.6 cm, width 9.6 cm. Preserve the two records separately rather than averaging their measurements.
Reading the evidence
The Shanghai Museum’s four-footed square pot makes the written evidence easy to locate. Record CI00005046 places the dedication on the body, ending with the single character 远, and also records a square 陈鸣远 seal there. The museum names Chen Mingyuan as maker. Its dimensions are 10.3 cm high including the lid, with a mouth diameter of 5.9 cm. Keep this identified object separate from other square pots bearing related inscriptions.
Examples in the catalogues
On the melon-shaped pot C81.519, the two characters 鳴遠 are cut into the clay. The catalogue supplies the surname Chen in brackets and dates the pot to the early eighteenth century. Xu Xiutang illustrates a different pot bearing an inscription alongside a square seal impression.
Active#
Early Qing; chronology varies between sources.
Evidence and interpretation#
The Palace Museum places Chen Mingyuan in the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods and describes Chen Ziqi’s fatherhood as a tradition. This does not establish exact life dates. The earlier claim of a 1656 pot from a 1658 tomb is omitted here pending verification of the excavation report. Source ↗
Compare the incised Mingyuan name with impressed seals on documented objects.
Sources#
- 汪庆正《陈鸣远制的几件紫砂茶具》(1994)
- 张浦生《明清紫砂茶具概述》(1994)
- 广东省博物馆、香港市政局 主编《中国古代茶具展》(1986)
- 陈宗懋 主编《中国茶叶大辞典》(2000)
- 周高起《陽羨茗壺系》 (Ming, 1640s), Wikisource edition ↗
- The Art of the Yixing Potter (1990)
- 中国紫砂 (1998)
- 上海博物馆 · CI00005046
Status and editorial notes sources cited
Sources are listed below. Their presence does not certify every claim; source-specific interpretations and unresolved questions are identified in the text. This page has not received independent expert approval.