Maimaktês

Babelfishing my way out of this Français * 日本語 * English アラフォー * Cryptid I ATEN'T DEAD, just swamped with work. Expect sporadic updates of silly things that make me LOL in the dark. I sail the Fandom Seas & I don't know where I'm going.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Traditional Chinese yaoshan腰扇/waist fan, a type of fan that can be hung on the waist.

[riacte]

do you see this shit my liege

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

[bodyintheriver]

Wip. I think the resurrection beasts are cool.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Why couldn’t traditional Chinese Yinpiao银票/silver drafts be forged if they were merely slips of paper? (cr大明宝钞，渐越)

Traditional Chinese yinpiao/silver drafts were paper vouchers issued by private banks starting from the Song Dynasty(960–1279). People could exchange these slips for physical silver at bank branches across the country.

Silver drafts were made in multiple copies with matching serrated seal edges. One copy went to the customer and others stayed at the bank. All edges had to fit perfectly together to withdraw silver. The unique split edge marks were almost impossible to copy.

This mechanism is known as qifeng骑缝 (split-joint seal) in China. It first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC). The Rites of Zhou records that contracts were written on bamboo or wooden slips in duplicate. Notches and marks were carved in the middle before splitting the slips, with each party keeping one half. The two halves would be matched by their notches for verification.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 BC), this idea evolved into hufu虎符/tiger tally tokens. A military tally was split into two pieces with identical inscriptions carved along the split edge. Troops could only be deployed if the patterns and characters on both halves perfectly aligned, serving as a metal version of the split-joint anti-counterfeiting system.

The technology matured in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Government documents and private contracts commonly used split-joint seals stamped across the dividing line. The Chinese character "hetong合同" (contract) was written across the middle before the paper was torn apart, so the complete characters would only appear when the two halves were put together. This split-coupon system was later adopted for Song Dynasty (960–1279) jiaozi paper money and yinpiao/silver drafts of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912).

Official Song dynasty paper money (Jiaozi交子) was abolished in 1107. Private silver drafts issued by Qing-era piaohao票行 (ancient exchange banks) vanished completely in 1951, hit hard by modern banks and currency reforms. Nowadays silver drafts no longer circulate as currency. Their collectible value depends on their rarity and physical condition.

Split-joint seals (骑缝章qifengzhang)are still widely used on important paper documents in modern China, an anti-tampering technique passed down from ancient times. They are applied across the edge of multi-page contracts, bidding documents and official archives. If any page is removed or replaced, the broken seal pattern can prove the file has been altered.

[ariaste]

OMG I got so excited about this because they used a really similar (though far less refined) version of this for contracts in the European medieval period!

First they were called "chirographs", but later the word "indenture" (in its earliest meaning as just a legal document of any kind between two people) came to be used, originating from the practice of a contract being written twice on a single piece of parchment and then cut in half with serrated edges (as in dent, "teeth" -> indents -> indenture) in order for each party to take one half, so they could later piece them together and verify that there had been no forgery -- same as the Chinese silver drafts!

(Charter of the Clerecía de Ledesma, 1252, showing the serrated indents at the top -- presumably they are cutting rather than tearing because they're using parchment, which I expect is much harder to tear than wood-pulp paper like the Chinese were using)

Delights me when human beings find similar ways to solve the same problem at two different ends of the world. <3

[ratfuck]

youve heard of missionary position. now get ready for MERCENARY position

[tinyapplecharlie]

Welcome home kiss?

Ref. ELLE Park bo young & Park jin young

[brainstreams]

[transformativeworks]

[ID: A screenshot of Boromir of Gondor from Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring, standing in Rivendell and staring (at either Legolas or Aragorn) off camera. The subtitle has been edited to say

AO3 has no App.

AO3 needs no App.

/ID]

[jaketerrell]

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

do you ever feel yourself fail a charisma check in real time

[angelicdewdrop]

[ashtabharya-deactivated20240717]

[suonko]

by Aliriza CAKIR

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

A few months ago I drew a Harry Clarke inspired pen & ink dinosaur for Patreon. It's fairly different from my usual simpler dinosaurs, and it was a lot of fun and very time consuming. My favourite part is the skull in the upper left corner, so I'm posting that bit publicly.

[bellabs-dream-lab]

Just remembered I had this screenshot on my phone somewhere and had to post it here because it really speaks to me

[punkitt-is-here]

this duck LOVES pink drink

[punkryuki]

[japaneseaesthetics]

Artist: Kawase Hasui Title: Omiya in Rain (Ame no Omiya) Date: 1930 Medium: Color woodblock print; oban Credit Line: Gift of Oliver Statler

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

I’ll never forget the fanfic space on wattpad back in 2016-2017’ish where its culture was that writers would not post their new chapters until they reached x amount of votes (kudos) and comments. I mean I’d never judge anyone for how they chose to update their fics even though I didn’t agree with them. but like. it was the entire wattpad fanfic culture back then that made most writers believe they had to set these specific numbers of votes and comments that they must reach first before they posted the next chapters. so if you were on the fanfic corner of wattpad during that time, you’d most likely have seen fics where it said in the chapter something like “50 votes and 20 comments for the next chapter!” and it was literally the norm and so normalized that I didn’t see anything weird about it back then. but looking back, years after I’ve left wattpad for ao3, yeah that culture as a whole was weird and it shaped writers into thinking that they wrote for the sake of shallow engagement instead for the joy of getting to create, it shaped writers into thinking that their fics’ worth was decided and dictated by strangers’ approval. and then tiktok became a thing and this mindset continued. not to mention how wattpad is full of ads now unless you pay the site monthly for a premium, ad-free service.

so like. man, this is why I love ao3. there’s none of these capitalism or algorithm bullshit on ao3. just writers creating out of love and passion. everybody say thank you ao3