<p>It looks like &quot;三年明命&quot;. I cannot understand it exactly but perhaps it means &quot;you can know your destiny in three years&quot;.</p>
<p>What's more, I noticed that the character &quot;命&quot; was written incorrectly.</p>
<p>Add: <strong>If &quot;明命&quot; means a reign title of Vietnam, &quot;三年明命&quot; shows that this pipe was made in 1822.</strong> And it seems so.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-14T05:14:48.157Z
"明命" was also a reign title of Vietnam.
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-14T05:37:03.573Z
Was it the time when ancient Vietnam was under the "rule" of the Ming Dynasty?
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-15T02:16:12.607Z
@WayneCheah Just see here: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%98%8E%E5%91%BD
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-15T18:57:42.527Z
明命三年 sounds more appropriate if 明命 refers to a reign title.
Alan Zzz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-16T04:31:31.390Z
@AlanZzz Maybe Vietnamese follow a different rule to order words in sentences. "南方银行" is "银行方南" in modern Vietnamese.
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-14T05:09:53.207Z
2021-07-15T02:18:44.313Z
2021-07-15T02:18:44.313Z
T-Pioneer
<p>It is 三年明命, written with modern pen and poor calligraphy skill. The words 三年明命 does not make sense to me. The writer may be a kid or a teenager, or a non-native Chinese learner, and possibly not Chinese but from other Asian countries like Japan and Vietnam.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-16T04:29:26.117Z
How did you make sure that it was written with a modern pen but not a knife or something else?
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-16T08:04:09.883Z
@T-Pioneer Firstly, there is no 笔锋 and there are 渗墨. What's more, you are from Yangzhou, China so you can also see that that's the writing of ordinary people, not written calligraphy pro, so there is more possibility that it is written by modern ink pen. For these two reasons I was 90% sure. I haven't considered by knife, and it is also possible, but I can't imagine 'something else' since using a pen to write is far more common than everything else. I am not familiar with writing with knife but consider the round 收笔 I think with a pen is higher in probability.
Limina102
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-17T01:54:56.663Z
Thank you so much, but there is still one question: how can one use an ink pen to write on an ivory pipe? It is so hard. Maybe it is a special kind of pen?
T-Pioneer
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-17T04:06:31.143Z
@T-Pioneer That makes a point. The ivory pipe is smooth on the surface, so the ink of normal pen could not stay on it.
Limina102
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-14T07:41:30.567Z
2021-07-14T07:41:30.567Z
Limina102
<p>My father-in-law showed us an ivory pipe that his family has had for many decades.</p>
<p>I can’t identify the characters by looking up the radical and then the remaining strokes.</p>
<p>Can anyone help out?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8EWlb.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8EWlb.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

<translation><mandarin><simplified-characters>
Can anyone identify the characters on this ivory pipe?
# Can anyone identify the characters on this ivory pipe?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-07-14)

My father-in-law showed us an ivory pipe that his family has had for many decades.

I can’t identify the characters by looking up the radical and then the remaining strokes.

Can anyone help out?

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/8EWlb.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/8EWlb.jpg)

**Tags:** translation, mandarin, simplified-characters


---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-07-14. Score: 1

It looks like "三年明命". I cannot understand it exactly but perhaps it means "you can know your destiny in three years".

What's more, I noticed that the character "命" was written incorrectly.

Add: **If "明命" means a reign title of Vietnam, "三年明命" shows that this pipe was made in 1822.** And it seems so.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "明命" was also a reign title of Vietnam.  
> **username_2**: Was it the time when ancient Vietnam was under the "rule" of the Ming Dynasty?  
> **username_1**: @username_2 Just see here: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%98%8E%E5%91%BD  
> **username_3**: 明命三年 sounds more appropriate if 明命 refers to a reign title.  
> **username_1**: @username_3 Maybe Vietnamese follow a different rule to order words in sentences. "南方银行" is "银行方南" in modern Vietnamese.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2021-07-14. Score: 0

It is 三年明命, written with modern pen and poor calligraphy skill. The words 三年明命 does not make sense to me. The writer may be a kid or a teenager, or a non-native Chinese learner, and possibly not Chinese but from other Asian countries like Japan and Vietnam.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: How did you make sure that it was written with a modern pen but not a knife or something else?  
> **username_4**: @username_1 Firstly, there is no 笔锋 and there are 渗墨. What's more, you are from Yangzhou, China so you can also see that that's the writing of ordinary people, not written calligraphy pro, so there is more possibility that it is written by modern ink pen. For these two reasons I was 90% sure. I haven't considered by knife, and it is also possible, but I can't imagine 'something else' since using a pen to write is far more common than everything else. I am not familiar with writing with knife but consider the round 收笔 I think with a pen is higher in probability.  
> **username_1**: Thank you so much, but there is still one question: how can one use an ink pen to write on an ivory pipe? It is so hard. Maybe it is a special kind of pen?  
> **username_4**: @username_1 That makes a point. The ivory pipe is smooth on the surface, so the ink of normal pen could not stay on it.  

---

