plaque
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/museumartifact24511
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Accession Code
- HV975.5.1006
- Description
- Red-stained wood rectangular signage plaque with hook for hanging in the middle of the top edge. Chinese characters and the numbers 1-70 are black-inked vertically from the top right corner to bottom left corner.
- Object History
- This item originates from the Chinese Herbalist Store “Way Sang Yuen Wat Kee & Co.”, Victoria B.C. Plaque is the legend for the arrangement of apothecary drawers (HV975.5.2) used in at Way Sang Yuen Wat Kee & Co. and currently on display in the Burnaby Village Museum exhibit. Each drawer has Chinese words on the side and sequence of drawers was arranged according to The Thousand-Character Writing (QianZiWen). The Thousand-Character Text, is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand characters, each used only once, arranged into 250 lines of four characters apiece and grouped into four line rhyming stanzas to make it easy to memorize. It is sung in a way similar to children learning the Latin alphabet singing an "alphabet song." Along with the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames, it formed the basis of literacy training in traditional China. There are some rules for allocating Chinese medicinal material into the apothecary drawers. Chinese medicinal materials are assigned into different drawers based on their scent and property in general. Usually Chinese medicinal material with similar property would be put together (in the same drawer or nearby). Processed Chinese medicinal materials are separated from minerals. The staff responsible for preparing the medicine for the patient should remember the location, content and the effect of the Chinese medicinal materials in order to have their work done efficiently.
- Classification
- Written Communication T&E
- Measurements
- 30 cm height x 45 cm width