20220630 Culture 1

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• 20220630_Culture_1 papers 1-10: 1: 英语笔译 卞王倩 Bian Wangqian 202170081563 Europeanized Chinese and Cultural Factors Behind it, 2: 英语笔译 曹姣 Cao Jiao 202170081564 Research on court culture in the Tang Dynasty from the perspective of poem -- take Changhenge for example, 3 英语笔译 陈路瑶 Chen Luyao 202170081565, 4 英语笔译 崔晓凡 Cui Xiaofan 202170081566, 5 英语笔译 邓阳林 Deng Yanglin 202170081567, 6 英语笔译 高智慧 Gao Zhihui 202170081568, 7 英语笔译 何丽娜 He Lina 202170081569, 8 英语笔译 胡良明 Hu Liangming 202170081570, 9 英语笔译 黄琼 Huang Qiong 202170081571, 10 英语笔译 邝雨琪 Kuang Yuqi 202170081572
• 20220630_Culture_2 papers 11-20: 11 英语笔译 黎溢佳 Li Yijia 202170081573, 12 英语笔译 李思敏 Li Simin 202170081574, 13 英语笔译 李思源 Li Siyuan 202170081575, 14 英语笔译 李婷 Li Ting 202170081576, 15 英语笔译 李欣 Li Xin 202170081577, 16 英语笔译 李颖 Li Ying 202170081578, 17 英语笔译 李媛 Li Yuan 202170081579, 18 英语笔译 李梓婕 Li Zijie 202170081580, 19 英语笔译 梁思婷 Liang Siting 202170081581, 20 英语笔译 廖诗韵 Liao Shiyun 202170081582
• 20220630_Culture_3 papers 21-30: 21 英语笔译 刘唱 Liu Chang 202170081583, 22 英语笔译 刘乐乐 Liu Lele 202170081584, 23 英语笔译 刘双英 Liu Shuangying 202170081585, 24 英语笔译 刘婷 Liu Ting 202170081586, 25 英语笔译 刘瑶 Liu Yao 202170081587, 26 英语笔译 刘珍 Liu Zhen 202170081588, 27 英语笔译 龙翰良 Long Hanliang 202170081589, 28 英语笔译 罗姚林 Luo Yaolin 202170081590, 29 英语笔译 马艳焕 Ma Yanhuan 202170081591, 30 英语笔译 聂薇 Nie Wei 202170081592
• 20220630_Culture_4 papers 31-40: 31 英语笔译 孙丽君 Sun Lijun 202170081593, 32 英语笔译 仝雨梦 Tong Yumeng 202170081594, 33 英语笔译 童略雅 Tong Lueya 202170081595, 34 英语笔译 庹树梅 Tuo Shumei 202170081596, 35 英语笔译 王思琪 Wang Siqi 202170081597, 36 英语笔译 王亚娟 Wang Yajuan 202170081598, 37 英语笔译 肖冬晴 Xiao Dongqing 202170081599, 38 英语笔译 肖佳莉 Xiao Jiali 202170081600, 39 英语笔译 谢晓莹 Xie Xiaoying 202170081601, 40 英语笔译 熊嘉玲 Xiong Jialing 202170081602
• 20220630_Culture_5 papers 41-50: 41 英语笔译 颜媛 Yan Yuan 202170081603, 42 英语笔译 杨心怡 Yang Xinyi 202170081604, 43 英语笔译 杨紫微 Yang Ziwei 202170081605, 44 英语笔译 张国浩 Zhang Guohao 202170081606, 45 英语笔译 张姣玲 Zhang Jiaoling 202170081607, 46 英语笔译 张瑞 Zhang Rui 202170081608, 47 英语笔译 赵宇翔 Zhao Yuxiang 202170081609, 48 英语笔译 郑冬琴 Zheng Dongqin 202170081610, 49 英语笔译 钟青 Zhong Qing 202170081611, 50 英语笔译 周皓熙 Zhou Haoxi 202170081612
• 20220630_Culture_6 papers 51-60: 51 英语笔译 周哲 Zhou Zhe 202170081613, 52 英语笔译 朱丽娟 Zhu Lijuan 202170081614, 53 英语口译 段小蝶 Duan Xiaodie 202170081615, 54 英语口译 方楚晗 Fang Chuhan 202170081616, 55 英语口译 胡雯雯 Hu Wenwen 202170081617, 56 英语口译 黄天琪 Huang Tianqi 202170081618, 57 英语口译 兰绮 Lan Qi 202170081619, 58 英语口译 李丹 Li Dan 202170081620, 59 英语口译 李立飞 Li Lifei 202170081621, 60 英语口译 莫雨婷 Mo Yuting 202170081622
• 20220630_Culture_7 papers 61-70: 61 英语口译 彭慧璇 Peng Huixuan 202170081623, 62 英语口译 时友洁 Shi Youjie 202170081624, 63 英语口译 伍佳惠 Wu Jiahui 202170081625, 64 英语口译 夏晶 Xia Jing 202170081626, 65 英语口译 向师琦 Xiang Shiqi 202170081627, 66 英语口译 向望 Xiang Wang 202170081628, 67 英语口译 徐舞 Xu Wu 202170081629, 68 英语口译 张静芝 Zhang Jingzhi 202170081630, 69 英语口译 张旻丰 Zhang Minfeng 202170081631, 70 日语笔译 曹梦然 Cao Mengran 202170081632
• 20220630_Culture_8 papers 71-80: 71 日语笔译 胡梦琪 Hu Mengqi 202170081633, 72 日语笔译 张白鹭 Zhang Bailu 202170081634, 73 朝鲜语笔译 刘安莉 Liu Anli 202170081635, 74 朝鲜语笔译 王思佳 Wang Sijia 202170081636, 75 朝朝鲜语笔译 徐盖 Xu Gai 202170081638, 76 朝鲜语笔译 徐文慧 Xu Wenhui 202170081639, 77 外国语言文学 Akira Jantarat 202121080009, 78 比较文学与跨文化研究 Mahzad 202021080004, 79 英语语言文学 Mimi 2020GBJ002301

英语笔译 卞王倩 Bian Wangqian 202170081563

Europeanized Chinese and Cultural Factors Behind it 卞王倩

Abstract

Europeanized Chinese language is directly originated from translation, and first appeared in the translation of scriptures by western missionaries in China in the early 18th century. Translation activities in the late Qing dynasty and Modern Vernacular Chinese Movement and New Culture Movement in 1915 contributed to the Europeanization of the Chinese language. Europeanized Chinese language is mainly manifested in the fact that Chinese has been influenced by English via translation, and thus shows the characteristics of English word formation from the lexical level and syntactic level. In terms of cultural factors behind it, the literary translation boom at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China promoted the formation of a “western paradigm” in Chinese writing; during the May Fourth Era, scholars rejected traditional literature and favored foreign literature, while advocating the Europeanization of translations; after May Fourth, translators pursued a literal translation style in translating foreign literary works to retain the heterogeneous character of foreign language, mainly English. In terms of the effect, Europeanized Chinese language can be divided into benign Europeanization and malignant Europeanization, the former being the positive and the latter negative. In fact, the malignant Europeanized Chinese language has long been criticized by literary scholars and critics in China, but nowadays, against the backdrop of increasingly close cultural exchanges between China and western countries, a fresh look at the Europeanized Chinese language will bring us new inspiration.

Key words

Europeanized Chinese; Cultural Factors; Literary Translation, Modern Vernacular Chinese Movement; New Culture Movement

Introduction

This paper mainly discusses Europeanized Chinese language and its cultural factors. It consists of a literature review and three main parts. The first part is a cases analysis of Europeanized Chinese language, that is, specific examples are given here to illustrate nine elements of Europeanized Chinese language, which are: abuse of subjects and passive voice as well as longer modifiers in a sentence and longer sentences, the former four being counted from the syntactic level; abuse of nouns, conjunctions, articles, pronouns and “的”, the latter five being discussed from the lexical level. The second part is the classification of Europeanized Chinese language, malignant Europeanization and benign Europeanization respectively. Most of the nine elements in the first part can be included as malignant Europeanization, while for benign Europeanization, four types are introduced here, they are more disyllabic words, the multi-class and class shift of words, conjunctions and adverbs that makes sentences’ logic clearer and loanwords, which all remind us of the positive effect of cultural exchange in a certain background. The third part, also the last part, explains what leads to the Europeanization of the Chinese language: one is the importation of strong western culture, and the other is the Chinese language being in a transition around the May Fourth period, both contributing to the Europeanized Chinese language.

Literature Review

According to Yu Guangzhong, a great scholar in modern China, Europeanized Chinese language was massively introduced during the May Fourth period, when the Modern Vernacular Chinese Movement was initiated and the vernacular Chinese came to take place of the classical Chinese as the language mainly used by the literary field and New Culture Movement significantly popularized the vernacular Chinese that was later used by the ordinary people. In the beginning, new-born vernacular Chinese was actually not mature, so such famous scholar and reformist as Lu Xun advocated the introduction of western language forms, especially of English, into the new-baby vernacular Chinese so as to transform it by enriching this new form of language featuring simplicity and being easily understood. In fact, this can be seen as a cultural interchange, to which translation is the best bridge. As a result, translation has emerged as the main source of Europeanized Chinese language, which is mostly seen in translated works. (Wang Li, 1954: 209). Moreover, literary translation contributed to the majority of the formation of Europeanized Chinese language. Accordingly, Europeanized Chinese language initially often existed in translated foreign works and the literary circles and therefore was often appeared in many works by some famous writers and literary men.

As a result, the vernacular Chinese came to carry many characteristics of English in terms of expression forms. The scholars during that period and later were no doubt hit by this wave, there being famous essayists Zhu Ziqing, Zhou Zuoren, Yu Pingbo and master of Chinese culture Qian Mu (Si Guo, 2002: 88). Put it specifically, their works, especially proses, all presented prominent Europeanized features in the use of words and sentence structures, which include the abuse of the abstract nouns, indefinite articles, owner pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and the increasing loanwords and passive voice and long attributive modifiers and so on, which were often seen in English compared with Chinese. Some literary critics, therefore, criticized the use of Europeanized elements in the Chinese language ruining the independent identity of Chinese and its purity and distinctions and even led to the falling of Chinese. This is eventually reduced to what Yu Guangzhong called “Malignant Europeanized Chinese” (Yu Guangzhong, 2014: 129). In contrast, benign Europeanized Chinese is often seen in high-quality works by excellent writers or translators who have been proficient in both Chinese and any other foreign language.

Actually, Europeanized Chinese language not only presents the negative side as has been mentioned above but also carries the positive side. Foreign languages forms and expressions in Chinese have greatly enriched the treasury of Chinese, making it a multi-genres language and thus a distinctive national language. What’s more, it is the result of Sino-foreign exchanges and the reflection of the great impact of cultural factors. As China opens up wider to the outside world, Europeanized Chinese language is no longer abrupt and intolerable. Instead, it comes to be an integral part of the modern Chinese language and gets increased in popularity among international learners.

However, as Yu Guangzhong stressed, benign Europeanized Chinese is a good tool for those able masters, while the rest or most of the translators or translation learners are dealing with malignant Europeanized Chinese language and thus produce awkward Chinese and Chinese translations. And this impact extends to modern times and the field of translation. Europeanized expressions in Chinese are often seen in modern Chinese translation students and even professional translators. In this respect, this is what this writing aims for: to clarify the Europeanized Chinese language and find out its cultural factors. it’s hoped to bring some inspiration for how to correct this mistake and relieve the negative consequences of Europeanized Chinese after this concept and phenomenon is realized and made clear.

Section One Cases Analysis of Europeanized Chinese Language

As has been mentioned before, Europeanized Chinese Language can be found in Europeanized features in the use of words and sentence structures(Peng Xuan, 2003: 88), mainly in terms of the syntactic level and lexical level. The Europeanization seen from the syntactic aspect can be evidenced by the frequent use of subject, long modifiers and passive voice in a sentence and longer sentences and more judgment sentences.

(1)More Subjects in a Sentence

As we all know, Chinese has been seen as a parataxis language while English a hypotaxis language(Dong Xiaobo, 2013: 156). That is to say, Chinese is logically implicit, and is not closely tied by all conjunctions, even the subjects in Chinese sentences are often not a must, as it unfolds around some certain theme. In contrast, English is logically explicit, and often forms a close sentence structure by means of all complete sentence components and conjunctions and so on, especially a subject that almost is never absent. But as the Chinese came to get Europeanized and carry the features of English, more subjects can be seen in the sentences worked out by some famous writers.

Example 1我在康桥时虽没马骑，没轿子坐，却也有我的风流，我常常在夕阳西下时骑了车迎着天边扁大的日头直追。（徐志摩，《我所知道的康桥》）

Example 2脊背微俯，双手松松拢住车把，他活动，利落，准确；看不出急促而跑得很快，快而没有危险。（老舍，《骆驼祥子》）

From Example 1 and Example 2, we can see Chinese is loosely organized and thus contains many clauses. Example 1 and Example 2 both have a personal subject, “I” and “he” respectively. But compared with Example 1, Example 2 is more in accordance with the features of Chinese expression, that is, simplicity, straightforwardness and subject omission. To put it specifically, the same personal subject was used three times in Example 1, while the figure is one in Example 2, which depicts a skillful coachman as the hero clearly.

(2)Longer Modifiers in a Sentence

Example 3 那些自骗自的相信不曾把他们自己的人格混到著作里去的人们，正是被那最谬误的幻见所欺的受害者。（周作人，《文艺批评杂话》）

Example 3 vividly shows how long an attributive modifier could be. Of course, we never deny there are modifiers or modified clauses in Chinese, but not those awkward ones. For Example 3, a more Chinese version could be as follows:

Example 4 有些人自己骗自己，相信不曾把自己的人格混到著作里去，这种人实在是被那谬误的幻见所欺。（王力，《中国现代语法理论》）

Compared with Example 3, Example 4 transformed such a long attributive into two descriptive clauses, providing a smooth and natural premise for the following conclusion “这种人……”.

(3)Passive Voice in a Sentence

Despite a thematic language, Chinese has seen a more active voice in its writing unless there is a necessity or intention to emphasize some information or to describe something unsatisfied or unwanted. (Wang Li, 1954: 340) English, instead, usually prefers passive voice in expression, and so the major information that is placed at the beginning of a sentence as the subject is well emphasized. As a result, Europeanized Chinese language is dotted with “被”, a Chinese character marking a positive voice.

Example 5 昨天捉着的嫌疑犯，经警察局证明无罪，已被释放了。

For the suspect, his release is never a bad thing or unwanted. Therefore, “被” in this sentence can naturally be deleted, so we get: 昨天捉着的嫌疑犯，经警察局证明无罪，已经释放了。

There are many other similar examples:

a.English expression b.Europeanized translation with “被” c.Natural Chinese

a.Be murdered or killed b.被害 c.遇害

Be buried 被埋葬 下葬

Be regarded as 被视为 算是、算得上

Be guided 被领着 有人领着

Be passed 被通过 予以通过

Be protected 被保护 受到保护

Be entrusted 被委托 受人之托、受到委托

Be reduced 被处于……（某种不好的境地） 沦为

Be reported 被报道 据报道

So we can see that translated Chinese with “被” is totally influenced by English expressions with positive voices, which can be changed into active voice via translation and thus tend to be more authentic and acceptable for Chinese.

(4)Longer Sentences

Given the difference between Chinese and English, the same information will be expressed in simple and short sentences in Chinese due to its less use of conjunctions, while organized and relatively complicated ones in English via conjunctions or prepositions. But as the Europeanization spread in Chinese, longer sentences are emerging.

Example 6 我这本书只预备给一些“本身已离开了学校，或始终就无从接近学校，还认识些中国文字，置身于文学理论、文学批评，以及说谎造谣消息所达不到的那种职务上，在那个社会里生活，而且极关心全个民族在空间与时间下所有的好处与坏处”的人去看……

According to this long sentence, the major part is “I’m writing this book for those who…”. It will never mind if there is a long sentence that serves as an attributive clause after “who” in English, but it will be never the way a Chinese writes by inserting a long long attributive clause inside a sentence with a simple structure. So Yu Guangzhong criticized it as the “aftermath of malignant Europeanization”. From the perspective of vocabulary, the Europeanization of the Chinese language can be seen from the abuse of abstract nouns, indefinite articles, owner pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and the increasing number of loanwords and so on.

(5)Noun Plague

One of the distinct differences between Chinese and English lies in the fact that Chinese is a dynamic language as it favors verbs, while English a static one as it is rich in abstract nouns and prefers practicing nouns (Dong Xiaobo, 2013: 67). Example 7 It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. This famous line comes from Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen, and could be a convincing example of the generous use of nouns in English. Not only literary texts. As a result, the Europeanization of the Chinese language directly leads to the popularity of nouns among Chinese scholars and talents.

One is the increased affixes in Chinese. For words ending with the suffix “-ism”, “主义” is coined in Chinese; for words ending with the affix “anti”, “反” is created in Chinese. So we get 科学主义(scientism)爱国主义(patriotism)、形式主义(to practice formalities for formalities’ sake)、反帝反封建(anti-imperialism and feudalism)、反倾销(anti-dumping) and so on. Second is a growing number of loanwords, mainly nouns. 谷歌 translated from Google and推特 from Twitter; 可口可乐 from Coca-Cola and 瑞幸 from Luckin; 福特 from Ford and 粉丝 from fans; 辉瑞from Pfizer and 新型罐装病毒 from Covid-19, etc., all of those words have been known to Chinese and even used in their daily life. Third, stiff translation transplanting of abstract nouns in English results in the presence of such suffixes of Chinese noun phrases as “度”（-th or -ity）, “性(-ity or -ce)”, “化(-ize)”, “感(-ness)”, which are often seen in “相关度(relativity)” “宽度(width)” “可能性(possibility)” “重要性(importance)” “现代化(modernization)” “挫败感(sadness)” “幸福感(happiness)” and so on.

(6)Abuse of Conjunctive Words

As it is stressed before, Chinese sentences are loosely organized, as it uses few conjunctive words. But in English, all kinds of conjunctions and prepositions both contribute to the close structure of sentences. Affected by such an impressive feature, the Chinese is unavoidably getting assimilated.

For example, 和 is translated from and; 而且 from what’s more or moreover; 然而、但是、可是 from but; 因此、于是、结果 from therefore or as a result; 倘若、如果、要是 from if; 在……中、里 from in or on; 对于……、关于……、就……而言 from as for, with regard to or in terms of. According to Wang Li (1954: 352), there were really no some of those conjunctive words, but Europeanized Chinese language took advantage of some verbs in traditional Chinese to create such responses, and finally get what we have been universally using today.

Example 8 宝玉说丫头们不会放，自己放了半天，只起房高，便落下来了。急得宝玉头上的汗都出来了。

These two lines are chosen from Cao Xueqin’s A Dream of Red Mansion, and lively depict Precious Jade’s poor skills at flying kites and consequent anxiety. But this information is conveyed in even two sentences that have been cut, and with few conjunctive words used.

(7)Abuse of the Articles

The articles are often used before nouns in English sentences, and can be classified into the definite article “the” and indefinite articles “a” and “an”. Once being translated into Chinese, they can be “这个” "那个”“一个” and “一种”. But in fact, there is no responding words in Chinese, so such expressions as “一个” and “一种” will never be a Chinese ones. But in Europeanized writing, such touch is everywhere to see. It can be said, wherever there is an indefinite article in English, there will always be a “一个”“一种” in Chinese. (Wang Li, 1954: 378)

Example 9 一个有钱的单身汉一定想要一个老婆，这是一条举世公认的真理。

This sentence is translated from Example 7, which is a good example that the articles are universally used before nouns in English. But it will never be a good translation as presented in Example 9 if we preserve those articles. The problem lies in that the Chinese use them little or never. In contrast, the version by Sun Zhiyi, a famous Chinese translator, is short and pithy, more Chinese most importantly:

有钱的单身汉总想要娶位太太，这是一条举世公认的真理。

English articles are seen not only in translated Chinese, but also in the Chinese works that were written by those writers affected by western philosophy and English grammar.

Example 10 但一个人要写他最心爱的对象，不论是人是地，是多么使他为难的一个工作？（徐志摩《我所知道的康桥》）

According to Si Guo(2002: 90), the two “一个” used in this sentence is never better than no use of them, even the second “一个” is a wrong use. Despite the wrong use, isn’t the sentence without superfluous articles more enjoyable for readers:

但人要写他最心爱的对象，不论是人是地，是多么使他为难的工作？

(8)Abuse of Pronouns

Here Europeanized Chinese language caused by personal pronouns and adjectival possessive pronouns is discussed here. Firstly, we have to make it clear that, the vernacular Chinese during May Fourth Period came to use personal pronouns in a frequent and general manner. But before that, “他” (he in English) could be the only choice. In English, however, personal pronouns are so diversified: first person singular “I”, first-person plural “we”, second person singular and plural “you”, for third-person singular, “he” is used to refer to man, “she” refer to woman, and “it” refers to inanimate objects or any living creatures except for humans, and their common plural “they”. So are adjectival possessive pronouns: my, your, his, her, its and their. Such rich expressions are once introduced, they will definitely affect the Chinese. As a result, “我”(I in English) “他”(he), “她”(she), “它”(it), “我们”(we) and even “他们”“她们”“它们” and “我们的”“我的”“他的”“她的”“它的”“他们的” and so on, all have joined the Chinese language.

Example 11 我们的祖母，我们的母亲的少女时代已无从想象了，因为即使是想象，也要凭藉一点亲切的记亿。我们的姊妹，正如我们，到了一个多变幻的歧途。最使我们怀想的是我们那些年青的美丽的姑姑，和那些快要消逝了的闺阁生活。 何其芳，《哀歌》

He Qifang was an excellent poet and essayist in the 1930s literary circle in China and was just as famous as Xu Zhimo. This extract consists of three sentences, in which the writer should use the personal pronoun two times and the adjectival possessive pronoun four times. This is unimaginable. The same problem also appears in Zhu Ziqing’s Rush.

Example 12燕子去了，有再来的时候；杨柳枯了，有再青的时候；桃花谢了，有再开的时候。但是，聪明的，你告诉我，我们的日子为什么一去不复返呢？——是有人偷了他们罢：那是谁？又藏在何处呢？是他们自己逃走了罢：如今又到了哪里呢？

我不知道他们给了我多少日子，但我的手确乎是渐渐空虚了。

According to Yu Guangzhong, firstly, the abuse of pronouns in this part leads to a confusing reference; secondly, the third “他们” is indeed groundless, as we failed to find what it really referred to in this context.

(9)Abuse of “的”

The Chinese character “的” is generally placed after the adjectives in Chinese to form their unique suffix. And with its help, the adjectives can be used as the noun modifiers, along with the noun, forming the subject or attributive in a sentence; as the predicate placed at the end of a judgment sentence; or frankly as a noun to denote one’s identity or career.

Example 13 鲁镇的酒店的格局，是和别处不同的。（鲁迅，《孔乙己》）

The wine shops in Luchen are not like those in other parts of China. (Yang Xianyi)

For the Chinese sentence of example 13, the subject “酒店的格局” consists of a noun and an adjective as its modifier and is modified by a noun modifier with a suffix “的” to denote the wine shop’s location and where this story begins. And its predicate is an adjective ending with “的”. In general, it is a judgment sentence with “的” playing three roles. But it’s worth our attention that the translation from Yang Xianyi contains no adjective. So we can conclude that, for English, it can rely on all kinds of sentence components to form the modifiers to support and enrich the whole sentence, and even a list of adjectives arranged in a sentence will never look weird. But for Chinese, such coordinated modifiers as a list of adjectives in a sentence is tolerable but is never a good way to convey the same information as that in English.

Example 14 She had such a kindly, smiling, tender, gentle, generous heart of her own.

a. 她是厚道的、乐观的、温柔的、和蔼的以及大度的。

b. 她心地厚道，为人乐观，性情温柔，待人和蔼，气量又大。

So according to how Chinese is organized and Chinese expressions, for Example 14, translation b is always better than translation a, because the abuse of “的” is not what Chinese favors. However, the fact is that, even in modern times, affected by English grammar and poor ability to freely use Chinese, many translation learners, with the writer herself included, will often have the difficulty in avoiding using “的” too much while organizing the sentence in Chinese. Just as Yu Guangzhong (2014: 60) commented, “unfortunately, Chinese and the knowledge of Chinese literature have been the weak spots of those students in colleges of foreign languages, where most translation talents are cultivated.” It couldn’t be right anymore.

Section Two Classification of Europeanized Chinese Language

In fact, there is no clear classification of Europeanized Chinese language. But Yu Guangzhong, Si Guo and Jin Shenghua and other respectable experts all referred to this problem in their works, and explicitly called them examples of Europeanized Chinese language “malignant Europeanization”. Accordingly, they also approved the positive sides of the Europeanization of the Chinese language, which here is called “benign Europeanization.”

Let’s first come to malignant Europeanization. It is also called “servile Europeanization” (Si Guo, 2001: 99) Of course, such a saying is aimed at some cases of malignant Europeanization. That is, some awkward Chinese expressions are produced, as we stressed before, due to disqualified translators or writers who fail to get rid of the restriction of English texts and grammar. This is the relatively objective reason. But for another, the Europeanization of Chinese texts is some group’s progressive choice due to their applauding or blind imitation for English and its grammar. This is what we call “servile Europeanization”. Anyway, malignant Europeanization has caused a negative impact on translation and Chinese, blocking translators from producing high-quality translation works and writers from producing native and special works of all fields.

So what are the examples of malignant Europeanization of the Chinese language on earth? Actually, 9 aspects from the perspective of syntactic and vocabulary respectively listed above could be almost included in the category of malignant Europeanization. These problems are lingering now so that generations of Chinese are often unable to produce totally Chinese works. Especially for those students who major in English and are devoted to translation, they are exposed to such an environment where real and pure Chinese is far from their needs and in turn produce strange and unsatisfactory translations but fail to get the point of the problem. So for malignant Europeanization, we all should realize it on our own initiative and correct such problems while engaged in our translation practice.

Given the Europeanization of the Chinese language is the result of cultural exchange, there must be some positive impacts. So benign Europeanization is sure to emerge and has come to be integral of the Chinese.

Benign Europeanization can be seen from such aspects as follows:

(1)More Disyllabic Words

Classical Chinese is a monosyllabic language. As the vernacular Chinese was introduced and got popularized, disyllabic words were followed. And translation from English has promoted this trend and greatly increased the bank of Chinese vocabulary. One is synonymous disyllabic words, such as 资本、权利、甜蜜、解放、活动。The other is disyllabic words evolved from monosyllabic words, such as 情感、丰富、健康、工作、旅行。

(2)The Multi-class and Class Shift of Words

In terms of word formation, the multi-class and class shift of words are distinctive features of English and other European languages. (Liu Zhengbing, Ding Yuanyuan, 2020: 21) Naturally, Europeanized Chinese language has caught this feature. For example, “科学”“迷信”“精神” in Chinese can serve as nouns and adjectives; “明白”“团结”“亲近” can be used as verbs and adjectives; and “便宜”“方便”“麻烦” even can be regarded as noun, verb and adjective respectively in different contexts. The diverse word classes, therefore, determine the flexible shift of word class according to specific contexts. As a result, the use of words is more flexible and Chinese expressions are more various.

(3)Conjunctions and Adverbs Make Logic Clear

Despite featuring being loosely organized, the Chinese have to rely on a certain number of conjunctions and adverbs to make clear or explicit the logic in their professional texts that are not as easy and understandable as the general texts. So the introduction of rich conjunctions and adverbs in English is not always a bad thing. Instead, it will make professional writing more friendly to its layman readers.

(4)Importation of Loanwords

A great many loanwords come to China as the exchange between China and western countries is increasingly close. With translation, more and more newcomer loanwords are known to Chinese people and are playing an important role in their daily life. For example, many smart acronyms are universally used by the Chinese when they refer to or describe something, such as WTO in trade, CCTV in media, PK or KO in game and so on. In conclusion, although malignant Europeanization is more discussed and gets more criticism, benign Europeanization shouldn’t be overlooked. According to Yu Guangzhong, benign Europeanization is usually seen in first-class translation works and outstanding writings, as for the translators and writers involved, Europeanized Chinese can be flexibly used to better serve their translation or writing. The excellent is the minority. So there is still a long way for us most translators or translation learners to go.

Section Three Cultural Factors Responsible for the Europeanization

(1)Importation of Western Culture

Since the early Republic of China, western culture was imported in large quantities through English and translation. The disparity in the political situation at that time determined that western culture was in a strong position, and also determined that the Chinese people were more possibly forced or active to accept the western culture. At the same time, under the influence of the current philosophy of “create the knowledge and serve the society”, literary translations emerged in the late Qing, with the translation of novels playing an important role (Wang Hongzhi, 2000: 43). In this translation boom, in order to take into account the reading needs of the general public, the language used in translated novels was not only the classical one, but also the vernacular one, or a mixture of classical and vernacular. (Lin Yanmei, 2011: 51) Later, the concept of translated literature tended to preserve the heterogeneous elements of western literature that were different from Chinese literature, thus gradually forming a “western paradigm” of literary translation, and the influence of western literature and western culture on the language of translation or Chinese at that time had to have been penetrated into Chinese grammar and syntax.

(2)Chinese Language was in a Transition

During the New Culture Movement, the classical language had become rigid and failed to meet the needs of the times, while the development of the vernacular Chinese was still in its infancy, immature and limited in its ability to be used for expression, and therefore it entails further growth. At the same time, at the beginning of the New Culture Movement, various literary leaders advocated new literature and opposed traditional Chinese literature, and favored foreign literature. And the movement advocators in general (Qian Xuantong, Lu Xun, Fu Sinian, Zhu Ziqing, etc.) believed that western languages were more accurate than Chinese and thus advocated extreme Westernization or Europeanization, especially in the area of writing. During the May Fourth period, calls for total Europeanization was also made. As a result, the tide of Europeanization in the Chinese language was raging, and the Europeanization of translations even was a fashion.

The vernacular Chinese movement of the late Qing Dynasty, together with China's inherent tradition of the vernacular Chinese, led to the growing engagement of literary translation in vernacular Chinese (Deng Wei, 2010: 72), and the tendency to Europeanize the language of the translated literature became more and more obvious. Facing such a landscape, translators pursued the literal translation technique, which was the most direct technical reason for promoting Europeanization; and the original works were designed to imitate western grammar to achieve the effect of Europeanization.

To conclude, the Europeanization of the Chinese language is the result of joint efforts of the literary translation boom in the early Republic of China, the Modern Vernacular Chinese Movement and the New Cultural Movement. They are exactly the cultural factors behind this phenomenon.

Conclusion

In fact, Europeanized Chinese is a new and diverse literary style that has gradually formed since the New Culture Movement and late May Fourth Movement, and it encompasses simple and well-formed classical Chinese and orderly-organized English, and friendly and natural vernacular Chinese. Its influence continues to this day.

References

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• Dong Xiaobo董晓波.(2013).英汉比较与翻译[English-Chinese Comparative Studies and Translation].北京：对外经贸大学出版社 Beijing: the University of International Business and Economics Press，第67、156页.

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• Liu Zhengbing, Dingyuanyuan刘正兵、丁媛媛.(2020).当代汉语语法的欧化现象分析[Analysis of the Europeanization of Contemporary Chinese Grammar]. 温州大学学报（社会科学版）Journal of Wenzhou University(Philosophy and Social Science)，(02):21.

• Peng Xuan彭炫.(2003). “欧化”与翻译——读王力先生《欧化的语法》有感[“Europeanization” and Translation-On Wang Li's The Europeanized Chinese]. 广西大学学报， Journal of Guangxi University (Philosophy and Social Science),(02): 88.

• Si Guo思果.(2002).译道微探[On Translation]. 北京：中国对外翻译出版公司 Beijing: China Translation Corporation，第88、90、209页；翻译新究[On Translation Anew] 北京：中国对外翻译出版公司 Beijing: China Translation Corporation,第99页.

• Wang Hongzhi王宏志.(2000).翻译与创作：中国近代翻译小说论[Translation and Creation: Treatise on Modern Chinese Fiction in Translation]. 北京大学出版社 Peking University Press，第43页.

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英语笔译 曹姣 Cao Jiao 202170081564

Research on court culture in the Tang Dynasty from the perspective of poem -- take Changhenge for example 从诗歌视角浅谈唐朝宫廷文化——以《长恨歌》为例 曹姣CaoJiao

Abstract

As a realistic poem with romantic characteristics, Bai Juyi's The Everlasting Regret tells the love story between Li Lung-chi(李隆基, an emperor in Tang Dynasty) and his beloved Yang Kuifei(杨贵妃, a concubine of the emperor). In addition, it has a unique literary aesthetics in which many of the sentences record the history in realistic details, so it has a profound significance for historical research, playing the role of complementing and interpreting history. This article, inspired by Chen Yinque's “mutual verification of poetry and history”, will analyze The Everlasting Regret from the perspective of history, and discuss it from three aspects: women's makeup and headgear, court banquet, and imperial palace and architecture. This will give us a more comprehensive and authentic look of the cultural life of the court in the Tang Dynasty.

Keywords

Changhenge or The Everlasting Regret; Tang Dynasty; court culture; mutual verification of poetry and history

Introduction

1.Research significance Bai Juyi was a Chinese ancient realist poet. In many of his works, there are descriptions related to the cultural life of the Tang Dynasty court. These descriptions are not made up out of groundless rumor or supposition, but are from his careful observation and speculation on this kind of subject matter, which makes the descriptions appear meticulous and vivid. In this context, his poems not only carry aesthetic function, but also are of great historical significance. Among his masterpieces, "Changhenge", also known as The Everlasting Regret(《长恨歌》), is a distinguished one, composed in realistic means with romantic characteristics, with a name of “a poetic masterpiece through the ages”.

The Everlasting Regret is a long narrative poem, with 979 Chinese characters in total. It interprets Li Longji (also Tang Xuanzong) and Yang Yuhuan's love tragedy against the backdrop before and after the Anshi Rebellion（安史之乱） in the middle Tang Dynasty; meanwhile, it covers a variety of themes, such as eulogizing love, lamenting fate and admonishing Kings. The first part of The Everlasting Regret mainly describes Li and Yang's love story and the lavish and luxurious court life, implying an allegory of the emperor's adultery and mismanagement of the country. The second half is full of poignant and sympathetic description of Xuanzong's profound love for her, praising the constancy of their love. The whole poem adopts the realistic writing technique with romantic characteristics so that the narrative and lyric feelings complement each other, which has become the artistic feature of The Everlasting Regret, and also leaves an endless aftertaste and research space for the future generations. What’s particularly valuable is that it contains a lot of information reflecting Tang Dynasty court culture life details, and involves the depiction of characters, women’s dress and makeup, court architecture, music of court banquets and so on. In this sense, The Everlasting Regret as an unprecedented literary masterpiece unseen in ten centuries, is of great historical value in the study of court culture in the Tang Dynasty. (c.f: Yao Ronghua 2012,121-127)

2.Research background China’s research on court culture has come to the fore for a long time. Throughout Chinese history, Tang Dynasty is a unique period when the aspects including culture, politics, economy, and diplomacy have registered very high achievements, symbolizing the golden age of China’s history. (The culture in Tang Dynasty represents the following features: first, the cultural system is inclusive and comprehensive, showing an increasingly high-level development; second, the culture of Tang Dynasty is very open; third, the Tang culture seemingly approaches the people, emphasizing the real world and not adhering to the ancient system. ) As a significant part of its culture, the court culture of the Tang Dynasty plays a complementary role. Therefore, understanding the court culture of the Tang Dynasty helps us to better comprehend the history of this dynasty.

Liu Zunming, a famous scholar from Hubei University, believes that court culture should be composed of material and non-material culture, and is the sum collection of lifestyles, ideologies and products created by the imperial aristocracy. Then the scope of court culture should include imperial architecture, politics, system, economy, religion, education, literature and art, lifestyles in court and so on. In this context, many renowned scholars have studied court culture in the Tang Dynasty including the system of court diet, banquet music, eyebrow-painting, architecture, and so on. Zhang Yan conducted research on the system of court diet in the Tang Dynasty. His paper introduced the whole system of court diet from five aspects including its historical development, the supply and management of food materials in Tang Dynasty court, the court diet management institutions in Tang Dynasty (like Food Department, Guanglu Temple, Shangshi Bureau, and diet management institutions for the East Palace), the food system embodied in the court ceremonial activities and the bestowed dinning after the morning audience, and the characteristics of the system of court diet in the Tang Dynasty. In conclusion, the system of court diet was further embellished and perfected in the Tang Dynasty, which had a profound influence on the diet system of the later dynasties. Xu Shuqi, in A Study on the Music of Court Banquets in Ancient China in 2021, made a comparative analysis, through comparative research method, of the differences in music forms in the court banquets of past dynasties, and explored the development process of the music of ancient China’s court banquets. Tian Miao, in A Critical Exposition on the Development of Women's Eyebrow-painting in Tang Dynasty published in 2003, did a very detailed study of the characteristics of women's eyebrow makeup in different historical stages of the Tang Dynasty.

Concerning the poem Changhenge, many discussed whether it's a realistic or romantic one, and some argued whether it's a love story more than an allegorical one. At present, the academic circles have yielded fruitful results in the aspects of the composing purpose, artistic achievement, influence on later generations, and the situation of overseas dissemination. However, there are relatively few works on the analysis of court culture in Tang Dynasty based on the Everlasting Regret. The major works include Li Xiaojiao’s (李晓娇, 2020) Folkloristic Viewpoint for the Study of Song of Everlasting Regret; Deng Wenrui’s Reflections on Cultural Life in the Palace of Tang Dynasty Based on Everlasting Regret; Yao Ronghua’s “A Study of Song of Unending Sorrow and the Cultural Life of Palace in Tang Dynasty”, and “Research on the Poem “Changhenge” from the Perspective of Tang Dynasty’s Court Culture”, and so on. These works have made a detailed interpretation of the court culture of Tang Dynasty and the Everlasting Regret. But as the part of the court banquet in palace culture, they all neglected a very important part -- lychees. Lychees are Yang’s favorite fruit, which is too delicate to stand long journey. In today’s China, with developed science and technology, it is not difficult to eat fresh lychees; while in the Tang dynasty, it was not.

Literature review

With regard to the research on court culture in the Tang Dynasty from the perspective of the Everlasting Regret, there are some studies done by other researchers.

For example, Li Xiaojiao’s (李晓娇, 2020) Folkloristic Viewpoint for the Study of Song of Everlasting Regret elaborated on folkloric culture hiding in the Everlasting Regret. She introduced folkloric culture encompassing three respects: folkloristic costume, activities and Taoism of the Everlasting Regret. Inspired by Chen Yinque's(陈寅恪) method of “mutual verification of poetry and history”, her paper compared and verified the original text of the Everlasting Regret with relevant historical documents and artistic works of the Tang Dynasty, explored the folk elements in it, and tried to make a comprehensive analysis and research.

Deng Wenrui’s(邓文睿，2019) Reflections on Cultural Life in the Palace of Tang Dynasty Based on Everlasting Regret, from women's jewelry and hair accessories, women's makeup, and the Tang Dynasty spring outing in the Everlasting Regret, expounded that this poem has not only shown that cultural life of the court of Tang Dynasty, but also provides the basic theoretical material for the scholars to study the culture of Tang dynasty.

Yao Ronghua’s （姚榕华，2012）“A Study of Song of Unending Sorrow and the Cultural Life of Palace in Tang Dynasty”, and “Research on the Poem ‘Changhenge’ from the Perspective of Tang Dynasty’s Court Culture”, made even more comprehensive explanations of the cultural life of court of the Tang Dynasty. Yao, in his dissertation, also adopted Chen Yinque’s “mutual verification of poetry and history” to talk about his topic in six respects: in chapter 1, he talked about the hairstyle jewelry and the ornamental of hairpins in the poem; in chapter 2, he studied women’s makeup style of in Tang Dynasty; in chapter 3, he talked about the sleeve patterns of women’s dresses; then, he expounded the music and dance in the poem in the 4th chapter; he also elaborated court banquets and springtime excursion in Tang Dynasty; finally, he stressed the significance of the historical and cultural study of ’’the Everlasting Regret’’. At last, he pointed out: ’’the Everlasting regret’’, after all, is a long poem rather than a history book; it’s a work of art, not a historical record. His dissertation is of strong logicality and is well-argued and precisely reasoned.

These works have made a detailed interpretation of the court culture of Tang Dynasty and the Everlasting Regret. Thereby, on the basis of previous studies, my paper adds the transport of lychees, which are Yang’s favorite fruit, to confirm the poetry with historical materials, and outline the authentic and complete appearance of the cultural life of the palace in the turning period of the Tang Dynasty.

Methods and Theories

This paper adopted the literature research method and the theory of “mutual verification of poetry and history ”.

By the literature research method, a large number of relevant literature is collected through a variety of ways and channels. In the literature collection channels, the author draws support from CNKI, Baidu Scholar and Google Scholar, etc.; two main ways to search the literature are utilized, searching in light of keyword or subject, and reference. Moreover, the author in the search for literature with a clear direction. For example, the keywords of this article are "palace culture" or “court culture” and "The Everlasting Regret," so the author enters these two keywords to search the pertinent literature, selects the appropriate one to study, and also searches the literature listed in the references, to help the author form a clear and systematic understanding of the research topic.

The theory of "mutual verification between poetry and history" was first put forward by Huang Zongxi, and the academia unanimously recognized that Chen Yinque and other people made exemplary contributions to this theory. The reason that poetry and history can be each other’s "mutual evidence" is that poetry, as a literary form of expressing aesthetic emotion, can not be separated from the specific historical figures, time and space; the apprehension of poems depends on rich historical details. Mr. Chen, in his "Manuscript of the Investigation of Yuan’s and Bai's Notes and Commentary on Poetry", made an explanation of the " mutual verification between poetry and history ": first, using poetry to verify historical records or supplement historical information, namely, "to prove history with poetry"; second, explaining poetry by means of history, so as to obtain the complete meaning of the poetry, that is, "to explain poetry with history."

Make-up and headgear in The Everlasting Regret

1. On eyebrow makeup “That she outshone in six palaces the fairest face”（六宫粉黛无颜色）, “Until the Lady Yang was killed before the steed”（宛转蛾眉马前死）, “Willow leaves like her brows and lotus like her face”（芙蓉如面柳如眉） and “Eunuchs and waiting maids looked old in palace deep”（椒房阿监青娥老） these four lines depict the female makeup in the imperial court. In the first sentence, "Fendai"（粉黛） refers to beauties in the imperial palace except for Yang, because aristocratic women in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty often adorned their faces and eyes with makeup. However, the two words "fen"(粉) and "dai"（黛） have their own meanings respectively: "fen" is the powder used by ancient women to lighten their complexions; "Dai" is the brunet mineral used when drawing eyebrows, especially in ancient times. According to the differentiated shades, they could produce different eyebrow make-up like black eyebrows or emerald green ones. In this case, “dai” refers to the color of eyebrow make-up. The other three sentences describe eyebrow makeup from the aspect of eyebrow shape, reflecting the two most popular eyebrow makeup forms in the Tang Dynasty – “the willow-leaf shaped eyebrow”（柳叶眉） and “the moth eyebrow”（蛾眉）. The moth eyebrow was the most prominent eyebrow makeup in the Tang Dynasty. It is broad in shape, vaguely ethereal in outline, light and natural in color, and looks like the wings of a moth in appearance, hence the name. As can be seen from the name, the willow-leaf shaped eyebrow is a slender eyebrow makeup similar to willow leaves. It is slightly thick in the middle and tapers at both ends, which can increase the charm of feminine charm. Historical data did not record Yang wearing willow-leaf shaped eyebrows clearly, but from a host of Tang poetry and painting materials, it is easy to judge willow-leaf shaped eyebrows are one of the popular eyebrow makeup styles in the Tang Dynasty, and whether court ladies or ordinary girls are happy to draw it to present their dignified and beautiful amorous feelings. (c.f: Tian Miao 2003,108-112)

2.On headgear

The description of female jewelry in The Everlasting Regret can be seen frequently, such as " flowerlike face and cloudlike hair, golden-headdressed"（云鬓花颜金步摇）, " golden bird and comb with which her head was crowned "（翠翘金雀玉搔头） and " for him to carry back, hairpin and case of gold "（钿合金钗寄将去）. In these sentences, descriptions like “golden-headdressed” or “Zan”（簪）, " golden bird "（金雀）, "Jade headdress"（玉搔头）, "golden hairpin"（金钗）, " case of jewelry "（钿盒） and other things related to women's headgear. Women’s headgears in ancient China were used mainly for hairstyles, with its original function as hair constraint. With the development of society, the specification of women’s headgear became increasingly complex. Consequently, a new feature appeared: headgear was not only the embodiment of a girl well into her adulthood, a demonstration of wealth, and a sign of social status, but also a part of etiquette. There are four main types of headgears mentioned in The Everlasting Regret: Zan, Chai, Buyao, as well as Dianhe or cases of jewelry (inlaid with gold, silver and jewels).

2.1 Zan

Zan（簪） is the most antique and widely spread in ancient China, also the oldest appliance for hair constraint in China. In the early days, most of them were made of natural materials such as wood, bamboo, animal bone, stone, etc., with practical function in general. By the Tang Dynasty, due to the social function of Zan becoming more and more obvious, great progress had been made in materials selection, production technology and decorative design, etc., and Zan, made of jade, gold and silver, emerald green feathers, and shells, appeared. On top of the change in material, its decorative graphics have also seen great changes, more complex and delicate.

2.2 Chai

The main function of the Chai（钗） tends to be a decorative one, compared with Zan. Women decorated hairstyles with them in order to project their charm, and show off wealth and status, so the Chai in the Tang Dynasty became the most important headgear. A set of Chai often contains two pieces each, with symmetrical patterns, inserted in hair with one on the left and the other right. However, women in the Tang Dynasty often wore multiple Chai at the same time, and the number of them varied in light of the height of chignon. The higher the chignon was, the more Chai there would be. Unlike Zan, the foot of the Chai is divided into two sides, which are inserted into the chignon to fix hairstyle, and were called "Chai thighs". In The Everlasting Regret, the sentence “keeping one side of the case and one wing of the Chai" tells that Yang Yuhuan broke the golden Chai into two from the part of the Chai thighs, which well embodies the modeling characteristics of Chai thighs.

2.3 Buyao

Buyao（步摇） is another kind of traditional Chinese women's headgear, which is interpreted in an ancient book as: Buyao, with drooping beads over it, will shake the beads as a wearer is walking. Therefore, the name of "Buyao" is taken from the meaning of "shaking as stepping". The buyao vibrates with the steps of women, and the intertwining of beads, jade, gold and silver makes it appear colorful, which can best reflect the graceful bearing of women's vigor and vitality. By the Tang Dynasty, with the increasing prosperity of the social economy and the increasing extravagance and pomp, the etiquette symbolized in gold Buyao started to tamper among the aristocracy and gradually became popular among ordinary people. The popular shape of Buyao in the Tang Dynasty was like " a gold phoenix, with a bottom at below, a pin at the front, decorated with colorful jade beads shaking as stepping by."(Yao Ronghua,2012)

Court banquets

1. Banquets

In addition to embodying the deep love between Yang and Li， those two sentences "in revels as in feasts she shared her lord’s delight"（承欢侍宴无闲暇） and “drunk with wine and spring at banquet in Jade Tower”（玉楼宴罢醉和春） can also reflect the frequency of holding court banquets or banquets for all. Court banquet（宫廷宴会） generally refers to the feast held by the emperor for rewarding reasons, attended by officials at all levels and envoys from all over the world, in which court music, dance and acrobatics performances on a certain scale would be arranged. If it was on a larger scale, where even ordinary people may attend, it was called "banquet for all"（酺会）, normally lasting for several days. Rulers held banquets for all, also known as "bestowing banquets"（赐宴）, and the whole country was covered in huge hilarity in the banquet hall during the events. Both the aristocracy and the common people could find their freedom and happiness in the private banquet. Concerning the purpose of bestowing banquets, on the one hand, it was to satisfy the cultural needs of the people as well as seek cohesiveness from them; on the other, was to consolidate its feudal regime, demonstrate the rulers' authority and give benefits to the people. (Yang Guoyu,2016)

2. The exclusive affection and lychees

2. 1 The exclusive affection for Yang The Everlasting Regret also says, " In revels as in feasts she shared her lord’s delight, His companion on trips and his mistress at night. In inner palace dwelt three thousand ladies fair; Her beauty served the night when dressed in Golden Bower Or drunk with wine and spring at banquet in Jade Tower. On her alone was lavished royal love and care. " These sentences reflect the inseparable love between the Emperor and Yang. These descriptions, especially “on her alone was lavished royal love and care”, are not fabricated by personal imagination, or merely literary exaggeration, but can be tested through history. New History of the Tang Dynasty (《新唐书》) has a record of Yang like eating litchi: "Concubine Yang is fond of lychees, especially fresh ones. So the post station knights travel day and night, speeding up tirelessly, running thousands of miles. Without changing the flavor, lychees have been sent to the capital. " This record indicates that the Emperor gave orders to the national post system, which was originally used to pass state documents and administrative personnel back and forth, to transport fresh lychees for Yang, which is enough to prove the high status of Yang in the eyes of the emperor. No wonder Du Mu, a poet in the Middle Tang Dynasty, once said, " Viewed from Chang'an, Mount Li seemed a piece of embroidery; Countless gates opened one after another on a hill-top. At a horse raising red dust the imperial concubine smiled; No one knew it was for the litchi fruit it had brought. " --Passing Huaqing Palace(1) from Du Mu

2. 2 Lychees Everyone knows that Yang Kuifei likes lychees. But where did lychees be sent from and how were they transported to Chang 'an, the capital of Tang Dynasty?

Yan Gengwang, a prestigious Chinese historian, had compared the records of lychee transporting in the Tang dynasty with the Song Dynasty’s, and found an intriguing phenomenon: Tang people generally believed that litchi comes from Lingnan, while after the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is believed that litchi comes from Fuzhou, Sichuan Province (now Fuling District, Chongqing Province). However, litchi is a delicate fruit with characteristics of the color changing in one day, the fragrance changing in two days, and the taste changing in three days. From Lingnan to Chang 'an is no less than five thousand miles. If computed in line with the fastest speed available in that dynasty, it is difficult to avoid taste change. However, it is only more than 2,000 miles from Fuzhou to Chang 'an. Therefore, Scholars Li Long and Cai Dongzhou considering many factors such as mileage, lychee varieties, preservation technology and Yang's lot, believe that Yang's favorite lychees mainly comes from Fuzhou. Due to Yang's affection, combined with the high appraisal from the respectable prime minister Zhang Jiuling, officials probably have tried to transport lychees grown in Lingnan to the capital. (Li Long and Cai Dongzhou, 2016, p. 5)

So what could be the delivery route of lychee in that dynasty? In light of Yan Gengwang's fourth volume "Tianbao Litchi Road" in his book "Traffic Map Examination of Tang Dynasty", we can roughly outline the route map of litchi transportation: Fuling--Wanzhou--Dazhou--Wanyuan--Xixiang--Yang County--Meridian Valley--Chang 'an. Scholars Wang Fei, according to historical records, combined with field investigation, determines the basic route of Litchi Road more specifically: Fuling-Dianjiang-Liangping-Dazhu-Daxian-Xuanhan -Pingchang County (Yan Kou village, Ma 'an village) --Wanyuan City (Ying Bei village, Ming Yang town in Miao Ya village, San Guan Chang town in Qin He village, Yudai village, Wei village)--Tongjiang County (Longfeng village, Hong Kou village, Jibo village)--then Wanyuan City again (Zhu Yu village, Hongqiao village) --Zhenba County, Dingyuan, Yue Jiulong Zhai (Chen’s Tan) Yang Jiahe, Si Shang, Luo Zhenzhai-- Ziwu Town in Xixiang County, into the Meridian Road, and ultimately arrived in Chang’an City. [涪陵——垫江——梁平——大竹——达县——宣 汉 ( 大成乡瓦窑坝折入三桥、隘口、马渡) ——平昌县 ( 岩口乡、马鞍乡) ——万源市 (鹰背乡、庙垭乡名扬、秦河乡三官场、玉带乡、魏家乡) ——通江县 (龙凤乡、洪口乡、澌波乡) ——再入万源市 ( 竹峪乡、虹桥乡) —— 镇巴县，定远，越九龙砦 ( 陈家滩) 杨家河、司上、罗镇砦——西乡县子午镇， 进入子午道，到达西安] The whole journey was more than 1000 kilometers, which was more reasonable.(Wang Fei, 2016, p.2-3)

Although the Everlasting Regret does not mention the word "lychee" at all, the poem speaks of the two's affection, so I have to mention it to testify to their love, which is exactly one of the forms of the research method “mutual interpretation between poetry and history ”.

Palaces and architectures

Among the names of palaces or places mentioned in the poem, some of which are authentic, while some are fictitious for artistic reasons.

“She bathed in glassy water of Huaqing Pool”（春寒赐浴华清池）, “ in lotus-flower curtain she spent the night blessed”（芙蓉帐暖度春宵”）, “her beauty served the night when dressed in Golden Bower ”（金屋妆成娇侍夜）, “drunk with wine and spring at banquet in Jade Tower”（玉楼宴罢醉和春） etc., these parts describe the Huaqing Pool, Golden Bower（Jinwu）, Jade Tower and other palaces or places served as living rooms for the imperial family. These descriptions have three functions: First, they describe the places where Tang Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan dated and spent time together; Second, the poet describes the content of their life submerged in love, selecting some representative scenes, including bathing in Huaqing Pool, daily feasts and playing scenes; Third, as royal palaces, the poet has depicted the magnificence and glory of these architectures, in order to foil the noble identity of Tang Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan as Emperor and Keifei(贵妃), and also render their love story.

In the sentences of " Knocking at the western gate of palace hall, he bade"（金阙西厢叩玉扃）, " days and months appeared long in the fairyland halls"（蓬莱宫中日月长）, "Jin Que" or “ Palace Hall”（金阙）, and "Penglai Palace"（蓬莱阁） both are palaces existing only in Chinese mythology, which are set off as the background for the appearance of this imperial concubine. Sentences "love and happiness long ended within the wall of Zhaoyang Palace"(昭阳殿里恩爱绝) and “on the seventh day of the seventh moon when none was near the Eternal Youth Palace(七月七日长生殿)” are still closely related to the theme of the whole poem -- love, indicating Yang’s unswerving love to Li. Among those two sentences, "Zhaoyang Palace" (昭阳殿)refers to the palace where they lived together during those years, while "Golden House"（金乌） and "Jade Tower"（玉楼） are also set off with the sentence " on the seventh day of the seventh moon when none was near the Eternal Youth Palace". These palaces witnessed their sweet love, but this love no longer existed. However, "Penglai Palace" in the poem implied that Yang's longing for Tang Xuanzong was everlasting and would never die away.

Conclusion

In summary, descriptions of women’s makeup and dressings, the cultural life of the court, and architecture in The Everlasting Regret were meant to reflect the love between the two, and show us what the history was. On the other hand, regarding this poem as part of the historical materials provides a significant perspective on historical research.

Some scholars (especially literary researchers) have questioned the approach of mutual verification of poetry and history. In many cases, actually, the poet can exaggerate and imagine the narrative material according to the needs of artistic expression, creating a new version of the historical facts that will greatly enhance the artistic impact of the poem and further deepen the impression and understanding of the artistic recipient of the historical events described. In this sense, it would be too harsh and unfair to poetry as a work of art to examine the poems in a completely historiographical way, or to trace whether the time, people and geography narrated in the poems are faithful to historical truth. In ’’The Everlasting Regret’’, in addition to revealing information about 'special historical facts' such as time, place and people, the poem also contains 'universal historical facts' such as the characteristics of the Tang people's lifestyle, the distinctive aesthetic colours of the Tang period and the sentimental feelings towards the prosperous world. These are currently new areas of research on ’’The Everlasting Regret’’, and need to be studied in depth in conjunction with historical sources. Only in this way can we get a clearer insight into and a deeper appreciationthe of the "splendor of the Tang Dynasty" as outlined in ’’The Everlasting Regret’'.

Preferences

• Yao Ronghua姚榕华.(2012).唐代宫廷文化视野中的《长恨歌》研究[Research on the Poem Changhenge from the Perspective of Tang Dynasty’s Court Culture].南京师大学报(社会科学版)Journal of Nanjing University (Social Science Edition)(06),121-127.
• Yao Ronghua姚榕华.(2012).《长恨歌》与唐代宫廷文化生活研究[A Study of Song of Unending Sorrow and the Cultural Life of Palace in Tang Dynasty](博士学位论文,山东大学).https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbname=CDFD1214&filename=1013140595.nh
• Yang Guoyu杨国誉.(2016).“开禁”还是“飨宴”?——汉唐北宋赐酺举措缘起、背景与施行动因的再探讨[On the Causes of the “Giving Drink Feast” Measure in the Han，Tang and Northern Song Dynasties]. 北京社会科学 (Social Science of Bejing)(12),4-12. doi:10.13262/j.bjsshkxy.bjshkx.161201.
• Tian Miao田苗.(2003).唐代妇女眉妆演变考论[A Critical Exposition on the Development of Women's Eyebrow-painting in Tang Dynasty]. 西北大学学报(哲学社会科学版)Journal of the Northwest University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition)(02),108-112.
• Li Long & Cai Dongzhou李龙 & 蔡东洲.(2016).杨贵妃所嗜荔枝贡地考辨[Exploration of the Provenance of the Tribute Litchi to Yang Guifei]. 西南石油大学学报(社会科学版)Journal of Southwest Petroleum University (Social Science Edition)(05),86-90.
• Wang Fei王飞.(2016).荔枝道与杜甫荔枝诗[Litchi Road and Litchi Poems of Du Fu ]. 杜甫研究学刊Journal of Dufu Studies(04),16-22.

Terms and Expressions

The Everlasting Regret 《长恨歌》 the Anshi Rebellion 安史之乱 eyebrow makeup 眉妆 headgear 头饰 the willow-leaf shaped eyebrow 柳叶眉 the moth eyebrow 蛾眉 golden-headdressed; Zan 簪 Chai 钗 Buyao 步摇 court banquet banquet for all 酺会 bestowing banquet 赐酺 Huaqing Pool 华清池 Golden Bower（Jinwu） 金屋 Jade Tower 玉楼 Jin Que or Palace Hall: 金阙 Penglai Palace：蓬莱阁

英语笔译 陈路瑶 Chen Luyao 202170081565

Ancient Chinese Values Handed Down Until Today Chen Luyao

Abstract

Values exist in every society, and with the development and progress of society, values will continue to change and progress. This process is very long. When we study the values of a certain group, we can not only understand the development history of this group, but also investigate the role of social, economic, political, cultural and other conditions that have caused changes in values. Based on the analysis of the development and changes of China's values in different periods, we can grasp the development direction of China's values. At the same time, we can learn from previous experience, take its essence, discard its dross, educate the younger generation with better values,and lead the development of Chinese society.

Key words

Ancient values; Development; Conditions

Introduction

This paper mainly discusses the ancient Chinese values that have been handed down to this day. It includes literature review and five main parts. The first part introduces the definition and origin of values. The second part classifies the values. According to the different communication objects, the values are divided into three categories: the values generated by the interaction between people, the values generated by the interaction between people and nature, and the values generated by the interaction between people and themselves. The third part expounds the main values from Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties to modern times. The fourth part is to screen the values mentioned above and summarize the retained values. The fifth part explains the influence of the values that have been spread to this day on Contemporary China.

Literature Review

At present, the research on Chinese values mainly has the following achievements: first, it discusses the basic theoretical issues such as the concept, basic content, basic characteristics, significance and ideological resources of Chinese values; second, it studies the practical issues such as the construction and dissemination of Chinese values. The main deficiencies in the study of Chinese values are: at the basic theoretical level, there are inconsistent definitions and content induction. Looking forward to the future, the study of Chinese values should focus on the deepening of basic theories, and at the same time, it should further understand the problems of the construction subject and the communication subject at the practical level.

From the current research results, the academic research on the basic theory of Chinese values mainly involves some of the most basic issues, such as concept definition, basic content, basic characteristics, significance and ideological resources. There is no consensus on the definition of Chinese values in the academic circles. Most researchers confuse Chinese values with Chinese cultural values, and only a few scholars define this concept from different angles. Luo Ping defines "Chinese values" from the perspective of significance and function, and believes that "Chinese values are a value system that reflects the spirit of the times, fully displays China's national image and reflects the soul of China's national soft power". Liu Minzhu defined "Chinese values" from the perspective of practical basis and theoretical origin, It holds that "Chinese values are the overall understanding of value relations formed by the Chinese people in the process of participating in the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics. They are a value system formed by the Chinese people based on the requirements of the times, practice and their own demands, and integrating many essence of socialist core values, Chinese traditional cultural values and western modern cultural values. They have the attributes of socialism and contemporary China". Chen Guofu defines "Chinese values" from the perspective of essence and function, and points out that "as an important part of socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese values are not only the source of social theory, but also the driving force to promote economic and social development, but also conducive to highlighting the discourse power of socialism with Chinese characteristics."

Methods and Theories

This paper mainly adopts the literature research method in the writing process. Literature research method is to collect and analyze a large number of relevant literature through multiple channels. The author first puts forward the subject of this paper, designs the framework of the paper, then collects the literature, and finally compiles the review after the literature is sorted out. The literature method transcends the time and space constraints. Through the investigation of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign documents, we can study a wide range of social situations. This advantage is impossible for other investigation methods.

Introduction

1.The Introduction to Values

In modern society, 'values' is a common word. According to Marxism, values are the understanding, theory and doctrine of value, and the fundamental views of people on what is value and how to create value. Yanhui, a scholar, defines values as: values are the understanding of whether an object has value and how much value it has formed by individuals and organizations in a specific environment. In short, values are the cognition, understanding, judgment or choice made by people based on certain thinking senses, that is, a kind of thinking or orientation that people identify things and distinguish right from wrong, so as to reflect the certain value or function of people, things and things.

Values can be traced back to the written Xia Dynasty. At that time, the Chinese people gradually got rid of the savage lifestyle and emerged private ownership, followed by the concept of state and ruler. In general, the values of the Chinese people are influenced by the natural environment, cognitive level, scientific and technological level and other factors, and show a trend of progress and improvement. With the passage of time, the values inconsistent with China's social development gradually disappeared, while some values have been inherited for thousands of years. Values are characterized by stability and persistence, historicity and selectivity, and subjectivity. It plays a very important role in the orientation and regulation of people's own behavior, and determines people's self-awareness.

2.The Classification of Values

Chinese traditional values are different from the ancient Greek "truth-seeking" values, but a "goodness seeking" value focusing on the ethical relationship between people. The "good" here is manifested in paying attention to the realistic human relations, pursuing the harmonious coexistence of the realistic human relations, specifically advocating the harmonious coexistence between people and nature, and realizing the improvement and perfection of personal moral quality through self-cultivation.

Values are generated by the interaction between people and surrounding things. Specifically, it can be divided into two kinds: the values generated by the interaction between people, the values generated by the interaction between people and nature, and the values generated by the interaction between people and themselves.

Contents in Different Periods

In different periods, China has different values. The following introduces the background and reasons for the emergence of China's main values in five stages from three aspects.

1.Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties

The first is the values generated by interpersonal communication: women are required to maintain chastity.

In Chinese history, China belonged to the matrilineal society before the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and then changed into the paternal society, which lasted for thousands of years. The marriage form and female status in matrilineal society are determined by the level of productivity. The low level of productivity determines the division of labor between men and women. Women engaged in gathering can provide relatively stable means of living than men engaged in fishing and hunting. In addition, women are responsible for processing animal skins, grinding bone needles, sewing clothes and domesticating wild animals. With the development of productive forces, farming has become the main production activity, and men with strong physical strength gradually occupy a leading position in the production sector. The changes of the mode of production and lifestyle have shaken the material foundation of matriarchal society. At the same time, with the increase of products and uneven distribution, the gap between the rich and the poor arose, and the matriarchal clan public ownership was challenged. The differentiation of interests led to wars between groups, which strengthened the trend of male leaders' increasing power, status and wealth. Then they asked to change the tradition of lineage inheritance, that is, from female lineage to male lineage inheritance. At this time, the marriage and family system of monogamy and multiple concubines with paternal parents as the main body was gradually established. With the establishment of private ownership, in order to ensure that property is passed on to their own offspring, compulsory measures for women to maintain chastity have gradually emerged.

The second is the values generated by the interaction between man and nature: worship nature and revere nature.

In recent decades, archaeological data, documentary records, ethnological investigations and research results of related disciplines have been mutually confirmed and comprehensively analyzed, outlining a rough picture for the study of people's worship in ancient times. It is found that the God system of people in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties is a pluralistic and complex system. The worship of gods can be divided into natural God worship, ghost worship, totem worship and ancestor worship.

The earliest is the worship of nature. Nature is not only the giver and dependent object of human life, but also constantly brings various disasters to human beings. Because the ancients had a low level of understanding and could not correctly understand various natural phenomena, they had a sense of mystery, dependence and fear of natural gods. The ancients believed that there was a God behind everything. They were as conscious and thoughtful as people. These gods were omnipresent, mysterious and moody. They sometimes gave gifts and sometimes came disasters. They were the masters of human destiny. So the ancients regarded the sun, moon, stars, wind, rain, lightning, mountains, lakes, animals and plants as gods and worshipped them.

Finally, it is the values generated by the interaction between people and themselves: respecting morality and cultivating morality.

After the gradual formation of private ownership, the ruling tool of the state also appeared. But the worship of nature formed before this time is still deeply rooted. In order to gain more power, the rulers took measures to strengthen their status and required the people to follow certain self-cultivation concepts.

In order to prove the rationality of the regime, the rulers put forward the idea that "the emperor has no relatives, but morality is the auxiliary". As long as a ruler has virtue, heaven will give him rights, that is, endowments to virtue. Therefore, respecting and cultivating morality naturally became an important mission of social members in this period. So how to respect and cultivate virtue? The rulers took advantage of the situation and formulated the ethical norms of "respect for relatives" and "respect for respect" with the core idea of "respect for etiquette and performance, respect for ghosts and gods". Be close to the people you should be close to, and respect the people you should respect. The members of the society should follow the strict etiquette that conforms to their hierarchical status, so as to strengthen the monarchy, patriarchy and husband power, and sanctify the patriarchal concept of moral order and status hierarchy. In addition to solidifying class interests, from the perspective of governing the country and stabilizing the country, under the guidance of the consciousness of "respecting morality and cultivating morality", the people-oriented thought of "loving the people as a son" emerged as the parents of the people.

2.Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period

The first is the value of interpersonal communication: benevolence.

In dealing with the relationship between people, although there were many schools of thought and diversified values in this period, they came to the same goal through different paths, taking "heaven" as the root of "Virtue" and the real life of people as the focus of attention. Linking "heaven" with "Virtue" and "discussing virtue with heaven" were the ways for various schools of thought to prove the rationality of the values they advocated during this period. Mencius believed that "benevolence" was the necessary meaning of "good nature", while "good nature" was determined by "heaven". To achieve morality is to "know the heaven", "do the heaven" and "be worthy of the heaven". In order to persuade everyone to implement his value proposition of universal love, Mozi introduced the concept of "heaven" sanctions. The will of the emperor of heaven is that all people should love each other. If they practice universal love, they will be rewarded by heaven, otherwise they will be punished. Zhuangzi believed that "Virtue" means giving full play to self

However, the natural ability of nature, "Virtue" makes people human, and the only way to obtain "Virtue" is to conform to heaven. In addition to the view of heaven and man of "discussing heaven with virtue", various schools of thought in this period elaborated their concern for human beings from different ways. Confucius poured rich humanistic care into his thought of "propriety, filial piety and benevolence" and affirmed human dignity and value. Ritual is not only a form of life, but also a cultural phenomenon containing human nature and emotional needs. The thought of filial piety reflects the children's duty of serving their elders and their love for others. His benevolent thought of "benevolent, people also" expresses a high degree of concern for people themselves.

The second is the values generated by the interaction between man and nature: the unity of heaven and man.

In dealing with the relationship between man and nature, the ecological view of the unity of man and nature seems to have become the core value orientation of this period. Confucianism and Taoism have expounded this ideal in different ways. Confucius advocated that the moral code of interpersonal relationship "benevolence" should be applied to the field between man and nature. If man can love nature, his behavior will be good, otherwise it will be evil. At the same time, Taoism expressed the attitude of protecting natural resources with the idea that everything is the same and nothing is noble or inferior. Benevolence towards all things, the unity of heaven and man, starting from people's rational emotions, made the ecological protection thought in this period more active and conscious than the ecological concept of pursuing advantages and avoiding disadvantages and following the natural laws in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Finally, it is the values generated by the interaction between people and themselves: ideal personality.

"Ideal personality" of the national self-cultivation concept. During this period, the value concept of dealing with the relationship between people and themselves has made a breakthrough under the guidance of the humanistic spirit. All schools have put forward the concept of self-cultivation with the ideal personality as the goal, from the son of heaven to the common people, in order to make social members meet the requirements of "heaven" for people's "Virtue" cultivation. Confucius put forward the self-cultivation thought with "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith" as the core content, and advocated that individuals improve their personality cultivation through a series of self-education methods such as determination, diligent thinking and introspection. Mencius emphasized the main role of moral practitioners and learners, and advocated self-cultivation methods such as "being intentional, having few desires, nourishing qi, sharpening ambition, knowing shame, correcting mistakes, thinking sincerely, reflexively, loyal and forgiving". During this period, Taoism also put forward the concept of self-cultivation education, which was guided by the principles of imitating nature, practicing the harmony between nature and Taoism, embracing simplicity and truth, and being weak and indisputable, and followed the path of teaching without words, promoting moral education, promoting emptiness and quietness, and abandoning wisdom.

3.Qin and Han Dynasties

The first is the values generated by people's interaction: the three cardinal principles, namely, the monarch is the subject, the father is the son, and the husband is the wife.

"Three cardinal principles" refer to the three main ethical and moral relationships between people in feudal society, that is, "the monarch is the subject, the father is the son, and the husband is the wife". Han Fei, a representative of Legalist school, once talked about these three relations: "the minister is the king, the son is the father, and the wife is the husband. If the three go along, the world will be governed, and if the three go against, the world will be in chaos. This is the common way of the world. In the Ming Dynasty, the monarch, the virtuous minister, and the Buddha will change." Confucius also talked about the hierarchical relationship between the emperor and his subjects. In the Analects of Confucius, Yan Yuan said, "Duke Qi asked Confucius about governance. Confucius said to him, 'the emperor, his subjects, father and son.' the public said: good! Faith is like a king without a king, a minister without a minister, a father without a father, and a son without a son. Although there are millet, I will eat it. 'after clarifying the hierarchical relationship between the emperor and his subjects, father and son, and husband and wife, the society can be in order, and the country can be peaceful and harmonious. Dong Zhongshu's "three cardinal principles" thought obviously inherited the moral education thought of pre Qin Confucianism, and at the same time integrated the relevant thoughts of Legalists, and put forward the theory of the relationship between monarchs and officials that adapted to the feudal rule of the Han Dynasty, It also uses religious theology and the theory of yin and yang to demonstrate the rationality of the thought of "three cardinal principles": "the heaven is revealed for the king, and held by the officials. The Yang is born for the husband, and the Yin is helped by the woman. The spring is born for the father, and the summer is raised for the son. The autumn is a coffin for death, and the winter is a pain and funeral. The three cardinal principles of Wang Dao can be found in the heaven." "The righteousness of monarch and minister, father and son, and husband and wife is based on Yin and Yang. The monarch is Yang, and the minister is Yin; the father is Yang, and the son is Yin; the husband is Yang, and the wife is Yin. The vagina does nothing alone.

The beginning should not be dedicated, and the end should not be divided. It has both meanings. It is the reason why the minister owes both to the king, the son to the father, the wife to the husband, the Yin to the Yang, and the earth to the heaven. " According to the view that Yang respects Yin and is inferior to Yin in the theory of yin and Yang, in these three relationships, the monarch, father and husband are Yang, and the minister, son and wife are yin. Yin must be completely subject to Yang, so the minister, son and wife must also be subject to the monarch, father and husband. After Dong Zhongshu's demonstration, the thought of "three cardinal principles" has achieved the supreme status of being in harmony with the way of heaven, thus making the feudal autocratic concept of political power, monarchy and husband's power become a natural and inviolable creed, and its purpose is to make the hierarchical order of patriarchal society absolute and eternal. This set of theories, which is very naive today, played a role in maintaining the feudal autocratic rule under the historical conditions at that time.

The second is the values generated by the interaction between man and nature: the coexistence of traditional gods and newly created gods.

During this period, people had long-term contact with nature. Before this, people worshiped nature extremely, and then changed into the unity of heaven and man. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, the object and focus of people's worship changed again. People changed from worshiping natural gods to the supreme ruler, and then to some outstanding and representative figures. At this time, traditional gods and newly created gods coexist.

There are many gods inherited from the pre-Qin period, including various natural gods such as wind, rain, thunder and lightning related to agricultural production, various functional gods that protect people from old age and death, ancestral gods that shade future generations, as well as loyal gods who make unremitting efforts to consolidate the state power but eventually die of immorality The ancient sages and sages who have paid a lot of blood for the development of national culture and the progress of Chinese civilization, and the plague God who has brought serious threats to human production, life and health.

In addition to the traditional gods, many new gods appeared in the Qin and Han Dynasties, such as emperors such as Liu Bang, contemporary saints and sages represented by Xunli, loyal and virtuous men represented by Luan Bu and Liu Zhang, imaginary gods represented by Bao Jun and Shi Xianshi, and local ordinary gods introduced by local people. Such as emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Xuandi of the Han Dynasty can be regarded as symbols of their deification.

Finally, the values generated by the interaction between people and themselves: five constants, namely benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith.

"Wuchang" refers to the five moral concepts of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith", which are the moral principles that individuals should achieve. It reflects the moral principles of China's feudal autocratic society. Mencius discussed the "four ends" of human nature from the perspective of the original goodness, that is, "compassion, benevolence, shame, righteousness, respect, courtesy, right and wrong, wisdom. Benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom are not from the outside, but from the inside."

Dong Zhongshu's "three cardinal principles and five standing principles" has normative and mandatory characteristics compared with the ethics and moral concepts of the pre Qin period. For example, Confucius emphasized the mutual restraint of the morality of both sides when talking about the relationship between the monarch and the minister. "The monarch and the minister should be polite, and the minister should be loyal to the monarch." the monarch and the minister are equal, and the minister has a certain restrictive effect on the monarch, that is to say, the loyalty of the minister to the monarch is based on the courtesy of the monarch to the minister, otherwise the minister can not be loyal to the monarch. Dong Zhongshu's "three cardinal principles and five permanent principles" unilaterally emphasized the absolute obedience of the lower to the upper, which made the Confucian ethics and morality into a feudal hierarchical rule theory, which was mandatory, and its purpose was to maintain and strengthen the centralization of power. This has played a decisive role in the relationship between human relations and morality in the traditional Chinese society, and has a far-reaching impact on the Chinese people's ideas and interpersonal communication. This concept of hierarchy still affects the Chinese people's thinking and values, whether overt or covert, tangible or intangible, and affects the socialist democratic process. Its negative impact should be highly valued and should be clearly criticized and rejected.

4.Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties

The first is the value of interpersonal communication: filial piety and universal love.

From the end of the feudal separatist regime of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms by zhaokuangyin in 960 A.D. to the establishment of the Song Dynasty, to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, moral education has developed rapidly in the history of more than 800 years. Both the content and the form of moral education are constantly developing and changing, showing unique characteristics. This is not an accident, but a certain historical inevitability.

The ethics education in feudal society has always been the top priority of its education. It "standardized the obligations of people to each other, and its purpose is to achieve the harmony of interpersonal relations". Therefore, the content of moral education advocated by moral education textbooks in the song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties always put "filial piety" in the first place. Teach children to be filial to their parents, to love their brothers and sisters, to push themselves to others, not only to love and respect their parents and relatives, but also to respect other people, so as to "love all".

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the feudal autocracy was continuously strengthened and Neo Confucianism was constantly flourishing. The rulers needed to further strengthen the imprisonment of the people's thoughts, and the Confucian ethics became more and more rigid. In this way, the ethical principles of "filial piety, benevolence and righteousness" and "universal love for the people" became the focus of moral education. Therefore, the length of moral education textbooks in this period was reduced and shortened, However, the content of human relations education has not been reduced. Moral upbringing textbooks such as children's language and Di Zi Gui still retain this important educational content. They not only teach children to be filial to their parents and teachers, but also give specific guidance in their lives. Therefore, it can be seen that the educational content of "filial piety and universal love" occupied an important position and played an irreplaceable role in the moral education textbooks in the song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The second is the values generated by the interaction between man and nature: the use of nature.

Urban public gardens, which began to flourish and develop in the Song Dynasty, are the garden types that can best embody political economy, social culture and landscape aesthetics, and are most closely related to urban life and spatial form. As an important part of urban and rural space, public gardens affect the daily life of urban and rural residents and the composition of urban and rural spatial form. They are one of the important material carriers of China's historical landscape garden culture. Compared with the royal gardens and private gardens of the same period, urban public gardens not only embody the Confucian concept of "sharing happiness", but also, as the stage of daily life of all levels of society, show a close relationship with the corresponding development of social economy and folk culture, which is a subject worthy of attention in the history of cities and gardens.

The utilization of water in Song Dynasty also reached a new height. Water conservancy has been a national public project in China since ancient times, which also makes Chinese society branded as a water conservancy society. From the large-scale flood control and water conservancy projects for national security carried out by Dayu in ancient times, to Dujiangyan in Chengdu Plain, zhengguoqu in Guanzhong, Lingqu in Guangxi and Jiangnan canal completed only in the Sui Dynasty in the Qin and Han Dynasties, water conservancy projects before the Tang and Song Dynasties often focused on large-scale agricultural and transportation water conservancy projects at the national level. By the Tang and Song Dynasties, water conservancy projects were gradually combined with the process of urbanization, and urban water conservancy projects were generally rising. Scenic spots formed by suburban lakes such as Hanzhou West Lake, Fushun West Lake, Hangzhou West Lake, etc. had been praised by poets in the Tang Dynasty. Under the influence of the gradual maturity of the landscape culture and the popularization and secularization of cities, the water conservancy facilities in the Song Dynasty were more garden like than those in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and had become a necessary measure for various water conservancy projects, thus becoming an important public garden carrier in various places, forming a number of famous cities for the construction of water culture gardens, such as Hangzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Guilin, Ningbo, Jinan, Yingzhou, etc, It has become a mature era for the construction of urban water culture gardens in ancient China.

Finally, the values generated by the interaction between people and themselves: valuing morality; Let go of human desires and preserve natural principles.

The Chinese nation has always been famous for its civilization and morality, and has the reputation of "a land of etiquette". In the song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, moral education textbooks emerged in endlessly. They are part of Chinese traditional culture and the inheritance of traditional culture with "valuing morality" as the core, and have extremely important value. Because only by emphasizing the cultivation of the spirit of "filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, benevolence and love", can it be conducive to the cultivation of the concept of loving oneself and others; Only by attaching importance to the establishment of the concept of "determination and morality, diligence and honesty" can we strengthen moral education and improve the moral quality of the whole people; Only by attaching importance to the cultivation of moral concepts and the training of moral behaviors, can it contribute to the cultivation of social morality. In a word, the moral education textbooks in song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties are of great benefit to inherit and carry forward the excellent Chinese traditional culture with "valuing morality" as the core, and to the construction of the spiritual civilization world of the Chinese nation, future generations and even the whole mankind.

5.Since the Founding of New China

The first is the values generated by interpersonal communication: collectivism weakened and individualism strengthened.

In 1972, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, China began to implement reform and opening up, and the socialist market economy was gradually established. In this context, the values of the Chinese people have quietly changed. With the establishment of market economy, the society has stepped into a stage of rapid development, and social competition is becoming increasingly fierce. People get rid of the psychology of relying on the collective society and become self reliant, so as to improve their own ability and personal competitiveness. "Natural selection, survival of the fittest" has become people's Creed. The awareness of self-worth was significantly enhanced. Market economy requires full affirmation and respect for personal material interests. Therefore, an atmosphere of respecting knowledge and talents has been formed, which has strengthened people's growing "self-awareness". In the process of pursuing value, they began to pay attention to their personal interests and roles, and asked to put "self" in its proper position.

The second is the values generated by the interaction between man and nature: protecting nature.

In the early stage of reform and opening up, due to the urgent need of economic development, we are still repeating the old road of "pollution first, governance later" and other capitalist countries. For this reason, it has brought about such environmental problems as the sharp reduction of forests, water, soil and air pollution, soil desertification and rocky desertification, and the ecological environment is almost on the verge of collapse.

With the increasing expansion of international exchanges, the impact of the introduction of international environmental protection ideas on China, the positive appeals of domestic scholars and the increasingly serious domestic ecological problems, our party's view of nature has also undergone new changes. Silent spring reminds people that they must re-examine the relationship between man and nature and choose a new ruler to measure the relationship between man and nature. In particular, the Research Report "our common future" published by the United Nations World Commission on environment and development in february1987 put forward the idea of "sustainable development". It warns people that we should guide people from simply considering environmental protection to effectively combining environmental protection with human development. This report has had a profound impact on our party.

As the report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China incorporated the construction of ecological civilization into the "five in one" overall layout of the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and into the important construction content of a beautiful China and the Chinese dream, the construction of ecological civilization has further risen to the will of the party and the country, our party's view of nature has ushered in new development, and the status of nature has been further confirmed. After the theory and practice since the reform and opening up, the concept that nature is the foundation of human survival and development has gradually taken root in the hearts of the people. In particular, China has implemented real-time monitoring of air quality since December 2011, and released PM2.5 monitoring data in the air quality index of major cities, which constantly reminds people to pay attention to environmental issues. However, the consensus of the whole Party has not yet been formed, and the backward concept of "pollution before treatment" has not been completely eliminated. Therefore, General Secretary Xi has repeatedly warned the whole party on the issue of environmental protection We have no other choice, because we cannot follow the old path of development of the United States and Europe in building a modern country.

Finally, the values generated by the interaction between people and themselves: patriotism, dedication, honesty and friendliness.

Patriotism has always been a personal character emphasized by the Chinese nation since ancient times, and it is also a symbolic collective spirit of Chinese society. Putting patriotism in the first place of socialist core values at the individual level fully illustrates its importance. As early as 2000 years ago in the bookofsongs, a song "Guofeng · Qinfeng · Wuyi" firmly expressed the patriotic spirit of unity and common resistance to foreign humiliations.

Dedication is an important value requirement for citizens' personal behavior. As an important part of the core values at the individual level of our citizens, the development of the country and the progress of the society are inseparable from the working state of dedication. Dedication is to require individual citizens to have a serious and responsible attitude towards their work or career, to maintain a sense of dedication and responsibility in spirit, and to adhere to diligent learning and improve professional skills in practice. Dedication is not only an important value criterion for citizens to participate in social work, but also a basic professional ethics requirement for citizens.

Honesty is undoubtedly an important core value in any society. Perhaps it is because the integrity standards before and after the reform have changed. People often express their dissatisfaction and worry about the current integrity with a nostalgic mood and a critical eye. We must admit that the integrity issue in China is indeed in a difficult construction process. There is an essential difference between the political "honesty" in the planned economy period and the contractual "honesty" under the market economy system. "Honesty" is bound to be fragile in the transformation from the traditional relational society to the modern open society.

The last is kindness. As the core value goal at the personal level, friendliness is the basic criterion for dealing with interpersonal relationships. As a social moral code and value orientation, friendliness requires people in the society to treat each other with an open-minded and kind-hearted attitude. In reality, the driving force of market economy to maximize people's interests has transformed the traditional acquaintance society into an open stranger society, resulting in the alienation of interpersonal relations and the lack of friendliness in the society. With the continuous deepening of China's social reform and opening up, many unknown contradictions and conflicts will be touched. To maintain a harmonious social environment and eliminate conflicts, contradictions, estrangements and misunderstandings in human relations, friendship is an important guarantee.

Take the Essence and Discard the Dross of the Values that Have Been Handed down to this Day

The above part lists three values in the five main periods, among which the values of interpersonal communication have gone through the changes from "requiring women to maintain chastity" to "benevolence", to "three cardinal principles, namely, the monarch is the subject, the father is the son, and the husband is the wife", to "filial piety and universal love", and finally to "the collective interest is weakened and the personal interest is enhanced". The values of communication between man and nature have experienced the changes from "worshiping nature and fearing nature" to "the unity of heaven and man", to "the coexistence of traditional gods and newly created gods", to "using nature", and finally to "protecting nature". The values of people's communication with themselves have gone through "respecting morality and cultivating morality" to "ideal personality", to "five constants, i.e. benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith", to "valuing morality; eliminating human desires and preserving natural principles", and finally to "patriotism, dedication, honesty and friendliness". After thousands of years of development, these values are generally developing towards science and in line with the trend of the times. In this process, backward values have gradually disappeared in the long river of history.

The first is the values generated by interpersonal communication. The values in this aspect show an overall trend of equality, and selfish individualism has been eliminated. The second is the values of communication between man and nature. Due to the deepening of man's understanding of nature, the feedback from nature and the development of philosophy, protecting nature has become the mainstream values. Finally, the values of communication between people and themselves, as a whole, are developing in the direction of improving self morality.

Influence of Values that Have Been Passed down to the Present

On the whole, Chinese values are based on Confucianism, which leads to many details. From the perspective of the values spread from ancient times to now, the values pursued by Confucianism still occupy the mainstream position.

First, let's look at the characteristics of the system form of Confucian core values. The core values of the Confucianists are based on the five cardinal principles and the three cardinal principles. The five cardinal principles are based on benevolence and propriety, and emphasize the unification of propriety with benevolence. Benevolence and propriety are closely linked with the value order and value norms of the three cardinal principles, and can complement each other in terms of theoretical connotation and form. As far as the systematic structure of the core values of Confucianism is concerned, the five permanent principles and the three cardinal principles respectively regulate the basic values of human social life from the two levels of universality and particularity, while sex, heaven and Taoism constitute the theoretical basis for its transcendence, and at the same time, the individual personality perfection implemented in the life values constitutes a universal and special, metaphysical and metaphysical Group order and individual pursuit are perfectly combined as a justice system, which closely conforms to the fundamental national conditions of the autocratic monarchy hierarchical society based on the traditional family standard in China. In this sense, the form of the Confucian core values system is worthy of our reference, which inspires us to make the core concepts more prominent and the justice system more compact in the construction of socialist core values.

Second, the characteristics of the specific content of the Confucian core values system. The core values of Confucianism have a huge and far-reaching impact on the traditional Chinese society, and are people's basic living standards and even the ultimate spiritual concern. Huang Daozhou, a great Confucian in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, died in the war against the Qing Dynasty. His dying blood book "the principles of justice will last forever. Heaven and earth know me, and my family will have no worries". It points out the way for the creative transformation and innovative development of Confucian core values. As the core values of Confucianism, the three cardinal principles and the five constant principles are more integrated with the ethical relations and political rule of reality, and their specific norms should be changed with the development of the times. The five constant principles reflect more universal value pursuit, and should be combined with the life style of modern society to transform their ideological connotation. The three cardinal principles and the five constant principles correspond to the birth of heaven, the integration of all things The core values of Confucianism, such as inner sage and outer king, are also valuable ideological resources for us to construct a new value philosophy and value ideal today.

Conclusion

In the new era, with the interweaving of socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics, world modernization and economic globalization, cultural diversity and cultural conflict and integration in the process of international exchanges have become one of the important characteristics of the world, and the people's needs for values are also increasing. Contemporary Chinese values are both generated and dependent on cultural self-confidence. They point out the direction for integrating and leading diversified social thoughts and various social consciousness, and also converge into a powerful force to promote social harmony. Through the necessary sublation and innovation, we can further enrich and expand people's cultural vision and spiritual realm. At the same time, in the face of today's international society with cultural differences and diverse values, enhancing the recognition and self-confidence of contemporary Chinese values is of great significance for coping with the challenge of global diverse values, improving China's cultural soft power and its discourse position in the international community.

Reference

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Terms and Expressions

values 价值观

matriarchal society 母系社会

improve virtues 敬德修德

benevolence 仁

harmony between heaven and man 天人合一

ideal personality 理想人格

the three cardinal guides as specified in the feudal ethical code 三纲

the five constant virtues as specified in the feudal ethical code 五常

Be filial to elders and friendly to others 孝亲泛爱

individualism 个人主义

collectivism 集体主义

to build socialism with Chinese characteristics, the overall layout is a five in one process: economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress 五位一体

patriotism 爱国

be dedicated to work 敬业

be honest 诚信

be friendly 友善

Questions

1.What three values are involved in this paper?

2.What is the overall direction of these values?

3.Has collectivism been strengthened since the founding of new China?

Answers

1.The values of interpersonal communication, the values of interpersonal communication with nature, and the values of interpersonal communication with oneself.

2.These values are generally developing in the direction of science and in line with the trend of the times.

3.Yes.

英语笔译 崔晓凡 Cui Xiaofan 202170081566

China Central Plain Culture Cui Xiaofan

Introduction

The Central Plain of China was the political, economic, cultural and transportation center of ancient China, as well as the place where North and South cultures collided in the country, so there is a saying that "the ancients compete for the Central Plain can only establish the world". Central Plain culture is the sum of material culture and spiritual culture based on the Central Plains region. It is the foundation and backbone of Chinese culture.

Broadly speaking, Central Plain culture is the general term for culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Geographically, it mainly takes Henan as the core and radiates outside to neighboring areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. In ancient times, Yuzhou lived in Kyushu, known as Zhongzhou, also known as the Central Plain, including most of Henan Province. Therefore, the Central Plain culture mainly relies on Henan Province. In a restricted sense, Central Plain culture refers to Henan culture. The birthplace of the world's major civilizations, as we all know, is surrounded by the major rivers in its territory, and China has always called the Yellow River the "Mother River". The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are the birthplace of Chinese civilization and the cradle of the Chinese nation.

A great quantity of prehistoric cultural artifacts have been discovered in Henan, according to archaeology findings. Four of the eight ancient capitals of China are located in Henan, namely Zhengzhou, Anyang, Luoyang and Kaifeng. Among them, the last capital of the Xia Dynasty was built in Luoyang Yanshi, Zhengzhou in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, and Anyang in the late Shang Dynasty. The civilization of the Xia, Shang and Zhou three dynasties can be said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. On this basis, hundreds of thought, especially Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and other ideas, originated in the Central Plain and occupied an prominent position in China's centuries-old feudal ruling mentality, and has been continuously inherited and developed. Therefore, from the perspective of historical development, the main feature of the distinction between Central Plain culture and other regional cultures in China is that it is closely tied to Chinese culture and is the source of Chinese culture. Central Plain culture plays an extremely important role in the formation and development of the Chinese nation and Chinese culture.

Nine Main Parts of the China Central Plain Culture

The China Central culture is a combination of the material and spiritual culture of the Central plain region, covering all aspects, and many of which have been passed on as the mainstream culture of the Chinese nation to this day. In terms of content, this kind of culture can be roughly divided into the following categories. 2.1 Prehistoric Culture Prehistoric culture. Prehistoric culture refers to the human culture before the emergence of writing. The prehistoric culture in the Central Plains region is very rich, with a large number of sites related to the Peiligang culture of the middle and late Neolithic period 8,000 years ago, the Yangshao culture of 7,000 years ago, the Longshan culture of 5,000 years ago, and the Erlitou culture of 4,000 years ago, all found in Henan. The continuous and large-scale occurrence of these prehistoric sites in Henan fully proves that Henan has always been in the leading position in China's prehistoric civilization. The Pei Ligang culture, Yangshao culture and Longshan cultural sites in the Neolithic era of the primitive society were found archaeological achievements here. The earliest record of these cultures were seen in 1324 BC, and the Book of Songs, the Analects of Confucius, the Classic of Mountains and Seas and other works have recorded this place. In 526 BC, Confucius and Lord Ye discussed the policy of governing the country here, leaving a famous saying that “those who are near will be pleased, those who are far will come”. Since the middle and late period of Yangshao culture, the number and scale of settlements in various places had expanded steadily and finally reached its peak until the period of Longshan and Erlitou culture. With the growth of settlements and population, agriculture and livestock breeding had also developed rapidly. Animal and plant archaeological research shows that the mature rice and millet mixed agricultural economic form and pig-based livestock breeding industry had developed since Yangshao culture in the Central Plain. From the late stage of Yangshao culture, urban sites began to appear in some regional center settlements. By the Longshan culture period, the discovery of prehistoric city sites was quite common in all parts of the Central Plain. According to the archaeological inference, the construction of such a city site requires the organization and mobilization of several settlements to complete together. It can be seen that the central settlement already has a considerable degree of social organization and management functions. 2.2 Totem Culture Dragon is the symbol of China, signifying qualities such as auspiciousness, wisdom, courage, dignity and so on. To this day Chinese still call themselves the heirs of the dragon, which shows that the dragon is not only a national symbol in China, but also a spiritual one. Henan is known as the hometown of dragons, and archaeologists have found a large number of dragon-shaped artifacts in Henan, the most famous being the Puyang "Benglong" (6400 years ago), which is known as the "first dragon in China". Turquoise dragon-shaped artifacts dating back 3,700 years were also found at the Erlitou site, which is known as the "Chinese dragon". During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Pingdingshan, Henan province was the fiefdom of the Marquis of the King of Wu, and Ying State took the eagle as the totem, so Pingdingshan City was also known as Eagle City.(曲） The pottery of Erlitou culture is mainly gray pottery. The shallow scratches include dragon patterns, snake patterns, fish patterns, tadpole patterns, animal surface patterns and human-shaped patterns, other patterns like clouds and thunder patterns, circle patterns and petal patterns.

2.3 Ideological Culture During the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, princes competed for hegemony in the Central Plain, which promoted the emergence and development of the thoughts of hundreds of thought. Confucius was the founder of Confucianism. His lectures, lobbying and other activities are mainly carried out in the Central Plain. Song agency was founded by the brothers Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, who pushed Confucianism to a new level. Taoism's thought of innocence, Mohism's thought of "universal love, non-offensive" were all formed in the Central Plain. 2.4 Chinese Character Culture Chinese characters are one of the oldest characters in the world, and the important nodes of their creation and development were completed in the Central Plain. It was first written by Cangjie during the Yellow Emperor period, and now the Cangjie relics are found in Nanle, Yucheng, and Kaifeng, Henan Province. Oracle found in Anyang, Henan Province is the earliest systematic script found in China and has important research value. Li Si (Shangcai, Henan) in the Qin Dynasty helped Qin Shihuang to complete the important tasks of "same script" and created small seal fonts, which was the first national standardized font in Chinese history. Xu Shen (a native of Luohe, Henan) wrote the world's first dictionary, Shuowen Jiezi, and systematically introduced the six writing rules of Chinese characters. The world-famous movable type printing originated in Henan. The computer font "Song Style Character" we are now using is said to have been created by Qin Hui in Kaifeng, Henan. The five-stroke font input method was invented by Wang Yongmin from Henan Province. To a certain extent, the development history of Chinese characters in the Central Plain is a history of the development of Chinese characters. 2.5 Science and Technology Culture Science and technology culture. In ancient times, the Central Plain was the center of development of science and technology in China. It is said that the Yellow Emperor's concubine Leizu invented the method of planting mulberry and raising silkworms, and now Xiping, Henan Province, was named the Township of Leizu Culture in China. The Houmuwu Tripod excavated in Anyang, Henan Province, and the Lotus and Crane Square Hu excavated in Xinzheng, Henan Province, represent the most advanced bronze smelting technology of the time. The compass, paper-making and gunpowder, among the four great inventions of China, all originated in Henan. The earliest form of compass was Sinan, and the earliest spoon diagram of Sinan was unearthed in Nanyang, Henan; the earliest use of gunpowder for military practice also occurred in the Central Plain during the Han and Tang dynasties; Cai Lun invented paper-making method in Luoyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The stargazing platform in Dengfeng, Henan, and the Zhougong Scenic Observatory are the oldest existing astronomical structures. In the Tang dynasty, the idea of "stars on their own" was first proposed by Monk Yixing (a native of Nanle, Henan), more than 1,000 years before British astronomers made a similar claim. 2.6 Art Culture

 In terms of music, the Central Plain is one of the three major cradles of Chinese music culture. The Jiahu Bone Flute, unearthed in Wuyang, Henan Province, is known as the "First Chinese Flute" and is the earliest musical instrument found in China, dating from 9,000 to 7,700 years ago. In this area，Ge Tian's music of the ancient tribe, the music and dance "Da Xia" of the Xia Dynasty, Shennong piano making, the rock of the Shang Dynasty, and the songs and dances of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were generated.  In the archaeological activities in Henan Province, portrait bricks engraved with bell and flute and drum bands, as well as a large number of musical materials in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, reflecting the continuous inheritance and development of the music culture of the Central Plain.
  In terms of drama, Youling, the predecessor of Chinese opera, appeared in the Xia Dynasty, and Nuoyi( 傩仪） existed on a large scale in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. During the Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Luoyang, Henan Province was the active center of acrobatics or Baixi(百戏）; Kaifeng, Henan Province, was the birthplace of Song operas; Henan opera ranked first among various local operas in China, and it is still inherited and innovated constantly on a large scale so far. 

In terms of painting, the painting art of the Central Plain began in the Neolithic Age, and a large number of valuable murals, silk paintings, stone portraits, etc. have been excavated in the historical sites of the Central Plain. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the painting level in the Central Area had reached the peak of the whole country, and the most famous work was the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival based on Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan). 2.7 Poetry Culture The Central Plain is the birthplace of Chinese literature. Among the 15-nation style of The Book of Songs-China’s first collection of poems, the eight national styles come from the Central Plain, accounting for more than half of the total. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Luoyang historians sorted out the earliest collection of prose in China-The Book of Documents. During the Han and Wei Dynasties, there was a saying that "half articles in the Han and Wei dynasties originated in Luoyang”. and the poetic style of Cao’s family(Jian’an Fenggu) was also born in the Central Plain. During the Western Jin Dynasty, Zuo Si's "Ode to the Three Capitals" handed down the good story of "Luoyang paper is expensive". Among the more than 2,000 poets in the Tang Dynasty who left their names, Henan people accounted for one fifth. 2.8 Martial Arts/Wushu Shaolin Temple, Dengfeng, Henan Province, is now a famous cultural brand in Henan, and Shaolin Kung Fu is even more famous all over the world. Chen's Taijiquan in Jiaozuo, Henan Province is an important part of Taijiquan in China, also well-known in the world at present. To study Chinese martial arts culture, we must study the martial arts of the Central Plain, because the Central Plains gave birth to two famous boxing species in the world, namely Songshan Shaolinquan, Chen's Taijiquan in Wen County, and the Xijia Boxing and "Zhongqi Boxing" founded by Nai Zhou during the Kang and Qian period，which are the treasures of the Central Plain martial arts culture. When people talk about Kung Fu, they often say that "the world's Kung Fu comes out of Shaolin"; when people compete with martial arts friends in a mild manner, Chen’s Taichiquan is also naturally talked about. Chinese Wushu pays attention to "Qigong", and an important work that systematically discusses Wushu Qigong is the "Zhongqi Theory" written by Pei Naizhou, a priest of Rongyin, which is also the essence of Chinese Wushu culture. Wushu in the Central Plain has a long history, rich culture, profound connotation, and profoundness and breadth, which is a valuable cultural heritage constantly accumulated and developed by the people of the Central Plain in their long-term life and practice. According to the statistics of the "Chinese Wushu Atlas", there are 129 martial arts styles in China. A few were initially formed as a system before the Qing Dynasty, and most of them were formally formed in the Qing Dynasty. The different schools of Chinese martial arts are mostly based on the regional culture, and are bred from the regional culture. "The origin is orderly, the boxing principle is clear, the style is unique, and it is a self-contained system." Among the many schools of Chinese martial arts, there are more than 40 types of boxing that have been formed and popular in Henan Province. Although regional culture is a cultural type marked by geography, its formation and development are inseparable from the historical environment and cultural context. Central Plain martial arts is a characteristic cultural form that grows in the vast Central Plain. In the process of its development, it has been deeply influenced by political, economic, military, scientific and technological, educational, cultural, artistic, folklore and other factors in different periods in the Central Plain, and has gradually formed, completed and improved in these specific historical and cultural atmospheres. Today, the martial arts culture has been listed as an intangible cultural heritage, which has attracted more and more people's attention and preference. Shaolin Kung Fu and Taijiquan have been included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage lists in the country, and have been further disseminated and promoted. The Central Plain Wushu integrates into Chinese traditional culture, so that it not only has a profound cultural heritage, but also has the distinctive characteristics of devine skills, magical and wonderful. It enriches the connotation of Chinese martial arts culture, enhances some qualities of Chinese martial arts culture, and sublimates the humanistic spirit of Chinese martial arts culture, as well as owns a higher level and taste of cultural spiritual realm, which is the reason why the general public and international friends love and learn the Central Plain Wushu.

2.9 Medical Culture In terms of medicine, Yellow Emperor is recognized as the inventor of traditional Chinese medicine, and the Inner Canon of Huangdi （黄帝内经）plays an important role in the history and development of traditional medicine. The Central Plain brings together many masters of traditional Chinese medicine and giants of traditional Chinese medicine. The Theory of Typhoid and Miscellaneous Diseases (伤寒杂病论）written by Zhang Zhongjing (now from Dengzhou, Henan) is still one of the main basic courses offered by domestic traditional Chinese medical colleges.

 The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic: The publication of the Inner Canon of Huangdi during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period marked the formation of the theoretical system of acupuncture and moxibustion，which is the first summary of acupuncture academics in history. Most contemporary researchers of the Inner Canon of Huangdi believe that the this masterpiece was written in the Central Plain. The theoretical system of acupuncture and moxibustion formed in the Central Plain directly guided the academic innovation and development of later generations.

For example, the second comprehensive summary of acupuncture and moxibustion is "Acupuncture and Moxibustion Jia and Yi Classic" (written by Huangfu Mi of Jin Dynasty) and the third "Complete of Acupuncture and Moxibustion" (written by Yang Jizhou of Ming Dynasty), both of which are based on the Inner Canon of Huangdi to compile. Zhang Zhongjing’s The Theory of Typhoid and Miscellaneous Diseases: The medical saint Zhang Zhongjing (Nanyang native in Henan province) founded the six classics dialectics. In this book, he not only left many effective classic prescriptions for later generations, but also advocated the combination of acupuncture and medicine, as well as proposed acupuncture, moxibustion, smoking, burning acupuncture, and warming acupuncture, which had a significant impact on later generations of physicians. Cui Zhiti and "Moxibustion Prescriptions for Bone Steaming Diseases": Cui Zhiti (615-685), a medical scientist in the Tang Dynasty, was born in Yanling (now under the jurisdiction of Henan). Good at moxibustion bone steaming method. In this book, the method of selecting "Sihua Points" is described in detail and the map of acupoint selection is attached，which was adopted by later doctors to treat this series of disease. There are different acupuncture and moxibustion treatment methods in most of his works. He also compiled the book of "Moxibustion Method for Hemorrhoid". Wang Huaiyin and "Taiping Shenghui Prescription": Wang Huaiyin, a medical scientist in Song Dynasty, was born in Juyang, Songzhou (now Shangqiu, Henan). In 992 AD, he and other physicians compiled 100 volumes of "Taiping Shenghui Prescription", which contained a large number of acupuncture and moxibustion contents, mainly concentrated in volumes 99 and 100. Volume 99 is The Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Volume 100 is The Classic of Moxibustion (also known as the Classic of Moxibustion in Mingtang). Zhang Congzheng: Zhang Congzheng (about 1156 to 1228), one of the four great masters of Jin and Yuan Dynasty, was born in Kaocheng (now Lankao County or Minquan County in Henan Province). In addition to using drugs to treat diseases, Zhang was also good at acupuncture, Bianstone shooting, fumigation, ironing, massage, guidance, qigong and other treatment methods. He is especially good at piercing the collaterals and draining blood, which highlights the application of the ideas of "breaking down" and "removing evil" in acupuncture. Zhang's bloodletting method had a great influence on later generations, who was an outstanding physician daring to innovate and he was also a master of the Gengxia School, who had made outstanding contributions to the development of traditional Chinese medicine. The above shows that many traditional Chinese medicine technologies originated in the Central Plain. Many physicians in this region have written a large number of acupuncture works, which had played an important role in the development of acupuncture academics and made important contributions to the development of Chinese medicine and world medicine.

(10) Food Culture

In terms of diet, Henan cuisine is the oldest cuisine in China. It began in Xia and Shang Dynasties and was designated as a national banquet dish in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The book "Exploring Henan", edited by Wang Ying and published by Beijing Publishing House, uses a variety of pictures to present a food map with unique Henan characteristics for readers from the perspective of sightseeing and tourism，combines Henan's tourist attractions with the specialties of various regions, and vividly displays Henan's local food culture. The book "Exploring Henan" consists of eight parts. The first part takes Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province, as the introduction object. On the basis of studying Zhengzhou's geographical location and customs, it makes a comprehensive discussion from five aspects: eating, housing, transportation, play and shopping, focusing on Zhengzhou’s local cuisine, such as stewed noodles, mutton soup, jar meat, etc., which fully highlights Zhengzhou's Regional characteristics; the second part transitions to Kaifeng, a neighboring city in Zhengzhou. Kaifeng not only has a long history and civilization, but also has a strong and distinctive food culture, such as soup dumplings, pot stickers tofu and lotus cakes； the third part expounds the peony city - Luoyang, whether it is pulp noodles, even soup slices or Horseshoe Street’s wontons, they fully demonstrate the gourmet characteristics of “soaked in soup and water" in Luoyang area; the fourth part focuses on the introduction of Laozi's hometown, Zhoukou city, where the main delicacies include Xiaoyao Town Hu maeuntang soup, Baiji steamed bun and grainsed fish; the fifth part shows the food culture from the perspective of Shangqiu City in eastern Henan, introducing delicacies such as water-flavored buns, white sugar fermented bean curd and whistle soup; the sixth part is the city of Jiaozuo located at the foot of Taihang Mountain, whose donkey soup is a masterpiece of Jiaozuo cuisine. the last two parts respectively introduce Nanyang and Xinyang, two water-adjacent cities, including Nanyang delicacies such as Wozi noodles, steamed vegetables and Jiangmi lotus, as well as Xinyang delicacies such as stuffed pot meat and beef tripe.

Main Characters of Central Plain Culture

3.1The Root of Chinese Culture

The history of the Central Plains has a long history, running through the formation and development of the entire Chinese nation, which is long and lasting. From the beginning of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Chinese civilization began to sprout in the Central Plain. The root can be traced back to the period before the Yellow Emperor. It is said that the Central Plain first belonged to the Shennong (also known as Emperor Yan) tribe, who tasted all kinds of herbs and started farming. It is said that Fuxi, the ancestor of China, first established his capital in the Central Plain, today, there are still Fuxi Taihao Mausoleum ruins in Huaiyang, Zhoukou, and activities to commemorate him, such as the "Human Zuhui" on February 2, which shows the deep and broad inheritance of Fuxi culture. However, what is more well-known to the public is the Huangdi of the Xuanyuan clan after Shennong and Fuxi, whose capital was built in Youxiong (now Xinzheng, Henan). For the first time, the Yellow Emperor ruled the world, and the Central Plain area became the political center at that time. In historical research, people generally agree that the creation of writing, silkworm farming, boats, medicine, rhythm, arithmetic, and technology all began in the period of the Yellow Emperor. The influence of the Yellow Emperor culture on the Chinese nation is very far-reaching, even up to now, all the Chinese, especially overseas Chinese, still calls themselves "the descendants of Yan and Huang". After Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor Period, the rule of Zhuanxu (颛顼）and Diku（帝喾） among the five emperors was also concentrated in the Central Plain. Now there are two emperors' mausoleums in Anyang Neihuang（内黄）, which are the legendary tombs of Zhuanxu and Diku. In terms of archaeology, a large number of early human civilization cultural sites such as Peiligang Culture（裴李岗文化）, Yangshao Culture（仰韶文化）, Longshan Culture （龙山文化）and Erlitou Culture（二里头文化） have been found in Henan . It can be said that the civilization of the Chinese nation began and originated in the Central Plain. No matter from myths and legends or from archaeological achievements, the Central Plains culture is in a position of origin and matrix in the Chinese civilization system. 3.2The Inclusiveness of the Culture The Central Plain is located in a vast area, which is fertile and suitable for human beings to live for a long time. The Central Plains had long been in the political and economic center of the Chinese nation in Chinese ancient times, therefore, the area once became a key place for rebel fighters. As the old saying goes, "Whoever wins the Central Plains wins the world”. Many famous battles in history took place in the Central Plain, which also promoted the integration of all ethnic groups in China to some extent. In a series of political, economic and cultural exchanges such as war, alliance, migration and exchanges, the Central Plain culture has shown a trend of inclusiveness. After the cultural collision of various ethnic groups, the Central Plain culture has been absorbing the excellent parts of other cultures and continuously integrating and developing. At the same time, it has covered widely, that is, the boundary between two cultures is not obvious, and various cultures are often intertwined and dependent on each other, which makes the Central Plain culture a whole and integrated into the daily life of all walks of life. This kind of cultural sharing has enhanced the Chinese nation’s high sense of identity with the Central Plain culture. The tolerance and coverage of Central Plain culture has given itself a strong vitality, so that the culture can continue to develop and last for a long time in the long river of history.

Conclusion

Henan has a long history and rich culture. As an important birthplace of the Chinese nation and Chinese civilization, Henan had once been the political, economic and cultural center of the country for three thousand years out of the five thousand years of Chinese civilization history. There is a saying in historical circles: Shanghai represents the past 100 years in China, Beijing represents 1000 years, Shaanxi 3000 years, and Henan 5,000 years. For the Central Plain culture to occupy such an important position in Chinese culture, it must be inseparable from its rich and profound cultural heritage.

References

[1]高希言,徐瑾,姜懿轩,林延,任之强.中原针灸对我国医学的贡献[J].中医学报,2012,27(08):1061-1062. [2]曲越.历史悠久 始于原始社会新石器时代 文化厚重 裴李岗文化仰韶文化龙山文化均在此地发现 名人辈出 思想家墨子汉相张良唐代诗人元结的故里 平顶山 “登尧山”“观古迹”“沐神汤”[J].中国地名,2013(08):72-73. [3]武超.中原文化的内涵、特征及对外传播问题探析[J].安阳师范学院学报,2022(01):153-156. [4]张海,陈建立.史前青铜冶铸业与中原早期国家形成的关系[J].中原文物,2013(01):52-59. [5]张青波.从美食的角度宣传河南国际形象——评《寻味河南》[J].粮食与油脂,2021,34(09):166-167.

Terms and Expressions

Confucianism:儒家 Taoism：道家 Mohism：墨家 Peiligang culture：裴李岗文化 Yangshao culture：仰韶文化 Longshan culture：龙山文化 Erlitou culture ：二里头文化 the Book of Songs：《诗经》 the Analects of Confucius：《论语》 the Classic of Mountains and Seas：《山海经》 Puyang：濮阳 Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi：程灏，程颐 "universal love, non-offensive”：兼爱非攻 Cangjie：仓颉 Oracle：甲骨文 Li Si ：李斯 Xu Shen：许慎 Shuowen Jiezi：《说文解字》 Song Style Character：宋体字 Houmuwu Tripod：后母戊鼎 Lotus and Crane Square Hu： 鹤莲方壶 Sinan：司南 Cai Lun ：蔡伦 Jiahu Bone Flute：贾湖骨笛 Wuyang：舞阳 Shennong：神农 Henan opera：豫剧 Nuoyi：傩仪 the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival ：《清明上河图》 poetic style of Cao’s family(Jian’an Fenggu)：建安风骨 Zuo Si：左思 Ode to the Three Capitals：《三都赋》 Shaolin Temple：少林寺 Dengfeng：登封 Taijiquan：太极拳 Kung Fu：功夫 Qigong：气功 Yellow Emperor：黄帝 the Inner Canon of Huangdi ：黄帝内经 Zhang Zhongjing：张仲景 The Theory of Typhoid and Miscellaneous Diseases ：伤寒杂病论 acupuncture and moxibustion：针灸 stewed noodles：烩面 mutton soup：羊肉汤 jar meat：罐子肉 soup dumplings：灌汤包 pot stickers tofu ：锅贴豆腐 lotus cakes：莲花酥 Zhoukou ：周口 Xiaoyao Town Hu maeuntang soup：逍遥镇胡辣汤 Baiji steamed bun ：白吉馍 grainsed fish： 糟鱼 Jiaozuo ：焦作 Taihang Mountain：太行山 donkey soup：驴肉汤 Zhuanxu ：颛顼 Diku：帝喾 Neihuang：内黄

Questions

1.What are the most representative martial arts in China? 2.Please list the prehistoric cultures in Central Plain. 3.Give the most notable medical works generated in China Central Plain.

Answers

1.Shaolin Kung Fu in Songshan Mountain and Chen’s Taichiquan in Wen County. 2.Peiligang, Yangshao, Longshan and Erlitou culture 3.The Inner Canon of Huangdi written by Yellow Emperor and The Theory of Typhoid and Miscellaneous Diseases written by Zhang Zhongjing

英语笔译 邓阳林 Deng Yanglin 202170081567

A type of verse popular in the Yuan Dynasty Deng Yanglin

Abstract

Yuan Qu is a literary form prevailing in the Yuan Dynasty, the wisdom of the Yuan scholars, including Zaju and Sanqu, and sometimes it specially refers to Zaju. It embodies unique characteristics in ideological content and artistic achievement and owns a status as important as that of the Tang poetry and Song poem.The three kinds of literatures have become three important milestones in the history of Chinese literature. Generally speaking, the objects depicted and written in Yuan Opera are not limited to beauty, ugliness, elegance and vulgarity and it shows a rich and broad expressive force. Different from Tang poetry and Song poem, Yuan Qu revealed the profound reality of the time in an alternative way, including extensive subjects, plain words, lively forms, fresh styles, vivid description, and changeable techniques. It often describes revolting against the political dictatorship, scolding the dark fighting glory of the society, and is full of the mood of resistance. This paper mainly consists of six parts including introduction, literature review, methods and theories, text and conclusion, aiming at introducing the development process, social value and artistic value of Yuan Qu, so as to gain insight into the social status quo and folk suffering at that time.

Key words

Yuan Qu；the Yuan Dynasty; Guan Hanqing; Zheng Guangzu; Bai Pu

Introduction

After Tang poetry and Song ci, Yuan Qu, which is a flourishing literature, has its unique charm. On the one hand, Yuan Qu inherits the elegant and graceful poetry. On the one hand, the society of the Yuan Dynasty placed the scholars in the position of "eight prostitutes, nine scholars and ten beggars", political monopoly and social darkness, which made the Yuan Song radiate the brilliance of fighting and showed the mood of resistance. The sharp point is directed at social malpractice, the society in which "people who do not read are the best, those who do not read are the best, and those who do not know things boast of their beauty", and the world in which "people are ashamed of their lives and do not see money". The works describing love in the Yuan Dynasty are also more aggressive and bold than the poems of the past dynasties. All these are enough to keep its artistic charm forever. The rise of Yuanqu had a profound influence on the Chinese national poetry development, cultural prosperity and outstanding contributions. As other art flower, it is not only a scholar xu chi lines as handy tool, but also to reflect the yuan dynasty social life provides the people happy new art form it arises immediately showed exuberant vitality. This thesis aims to study the four masters Guan Hanqing of Yuan Qu; Ma Zhiyuan; Zheng Guangzu; Bai Pu and his works to understand the development of Yuan Qu, so that readers can have a general understanding of the rise and fall of Yuan Qu, so that the unique artistic characteristics of Yuan Qu for the world to understand.

Literature Review

Pan Chaoqing and Tu Ping pointed out in On the Inheritance and Development of Yuan Opera to The Humorous Culture of Song Dynasty that Yuan Zaju inherited and developed the basic form of Song Zaju, developed into a relatively complete drama structure, and performed a variety of drama styles. Is different from other art forms, the key is rooted in drama guan mu structure of internal texture, the drama structure has been mature art form, will not easily change by conversion of aesthetic fashion, but also as a comic effect the structure of the fragment, as well as the flexibility to thrust in the drama structure, and can be organically integrated into the drama, As a plot factor to show conflicts and shape characters, the widely used "three branches of law" and the "teasing" mode of two people are typical representatives.

In the Development Background of Yuan Opera and its Special Language Phenomenon, Wang Qinghua points out that Yuan Opera is mainly composed of miscellaneous songs of Yuan Dynasty, supplemented by sanqu, which is the inevitable result of its rich and complicated language for the audience of all levels. When we appreciate yuan qu, we should not only understand the background of its language formation, but also pay attention to the regional dialects, common falsities and common features, which are of great benefit to us to appreciate yuan literary works better.

Li Sheng pointed out in The Development of Opera Criticism from the Evolution of the Four Masters of Yuan Opera that Strictly speaking, the so-called "four masters of Yuan Opera" are the "Guan, Zheng, Bai and Ma" four people assessed by yuan People. Their arrangement order is influenced by the drama theory of each era and their position changes, from which we can also see the development of drama theory. Generally speaking, it has experienced the smooth development of the heavy tone and rhyme. To stress the standard of melody and lyrics of the emotional "nature", and finally to pay attention to the script writing such a process. Today we look at the "four everybody", natural need not limited to, zheng, white and Ma Siren, Mr Tan Zhengbi wrote the biography of yuanqu six people slightly, he will be wang shifu and georgie also included, reflecting the view of his opera, but we don't need to in the "four everybody" wenxuan, but from another Angle to look at it, There must be something else in it.

Methods and Theories

This paper adopts the method of literature research.It mainly refers to the method of collecting, identifying and sorting out literature, and forming a scientific understanding of facts through literature research. Literature method is an old and vigorous scientific research method. General process The general process of literature method includes five basic steps, which are: putting forward a topic or hypothesis, research design, collecting literature, sorting out literature and conducting literature review. The proposed topic or hypothesis of literature method refers to the idea of analyzing and sorting or reclassifying relevant literature according to existing theories, facts and needs. The first step in research design is to establish research objectives. Research objectives are designed into specific, operable and repeatable literature research activities based on the subject or hypothesis in an operable definition, which can solve special problems and have certain significance. The main advantages (1) The literature method transcends the limitation of time and space, and can study a wide range of social situations through the investigation of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literatures. This advantage is not possible with other survey methods. (2) The literature method is mainly written survey. If the literature collected is real, it can obtain more accurate and reliable information than oral survey. Avoid all kinds of recording errors that may occur in oral investigation. (3) Literature method is an indirect and non-interventional survey. It only investigates and studies various literatures without contacting the respondents or intervening in any reaction of the respondents. This avoids all kinds of reactive errors that may occur during the interaction between the surveyors and the respondents in the direct survey. (4) Literature method is a very convenient, free and safe survey method. Literature investigation is less restricted by the outside world, so as long as the necessary literature is found, research can be carried out anytime and anywhere; Even if there is a mistake, it can be remedied through re-study, so its safety factor is high. (5) Document method saves time, money and high efficiency. Literature survey is based on the achievements of predecessors and others, which is a shortcut to acquire knowledge. It does not require a large number of researchers or special equipment, and can obtain more information than other survey methods with less manpower, money and time. Therefore, it is an efficient survey method.

Zheng Guangzu and Yuan Qu

Zheng Guangzu was born in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty (1264 AD). His courtesy name was Dehui, han nationality, and he was a famous composer of zaju and sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty. He lived in Xiangling, Pingyang (xiangfen County, Linfen City, Shanxi Province today). We know from zhong Sicheng's Book recording Ghosts, a drama writer of the same period as Zheng Guangzu, that he studied Confucianism as his career in his early years, and later was appointed as an official of Hangzhou Road, so he lived in the south. He was "upright" and not good at communicating with officials, so they looked down on him. As you can imagine, his official life is very difficult. The beautiful scenery of Hangzhou and its clever singing girls constantly aroused his feelings. Zheng Guangzu was engaged in the creation of zaju all his life and devoted all his talents to this folk art, enjoying a high reputation in the art circle at that time. Lingling people all respected him as Mr. Zheng, his works through the dissemination of many Lingling people, had a wide influence in the people. He had a close relationship with the Lingren in Suzhou and Hangzhou. After his death, he was cremated by lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. Zheng Guangzu, one of the "four masters of Yuan Opera", was deeply influenced by Wang Shifu for his plays depicting the love lives of men and women. Its " Mei Xiang cheated the Hanlin Fengyue" and "fan Qingsuqian Girl left the Soul" two works are obviously influenced by "Romance of the Western chamber", but the achievements are different. " Mei Xiang" can be called the failure of The Yuan Song, and "A Beautiful Girl Leaving her Soul" is a masterpiece. There are various reasons for this phenomenon, but one of the important reasons is that the author adopted two different attitudes when learning and inheriting the Romance of the Western Chamber: imitation and innovation. "Innovation is the soul of a nation's progress and an inexhaustible driving force for its prosperity... Innovation requires constant emancipation of the mind, seeking truth from facts and advancing with The Times." Therefore, we can also deduce that only innovation can literary works have the development of inheritance in the real sense. " Mei Xiang" in "set number, appearance, all ritual" West Wing ", predecessors make this evaluation is too strict, but basically in line with the reality. Because it does too much imitation of the "Romance of the Western Chamber" traces, and finally annihilated in the full bloom of the Yuan Qu garden. In contrast, the author of "A Beautiful Girl Leaving her Soul" is not satisfied with the existing achievements of "Romance of the Western Chamber", but made some new development and development to it, thus achieving the brilliant author and work.

Guang Hanqin and Yuan Qu

Guan Hanqing (about 1234 - 1300), original name unknown, word Han Qing, name Yizhai (also known as Yizhai, Yizhai Sou), Han nationality, jiezhou (now Yuncheng, Shanxi Province), also born in Dadu (now Beijing)and Qi Zhou (now Anguo, Hebei Province), etc. [6] Founder of Yuan Zaju, Together with Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan and Zheng Guangzu, guan Hanqing is the first of the four masters of Yuan Qu. His life was rich in drama. There are more than sixty plays, most of them lost. His drama, tragedy, comedy, broad themes, deeply exposed the dark and decadent social reality of the Yuan Dynasty. His works "Dou E Yuan", "Save the Wind", "Wangjiang Pavilion", "Lu Zhailang" and "Shan Dao Hui" are all popular works. His "grows DouE case" is the best the most glorious yuan drama script, it is an outrage to the rulers of the yuan dynasty a campaign by the tragedy of the pure, good DouE, revealed the social usury exploitation, bullies, wandered and yuan dynasty official graft, proposes the crimes, tackling a social chaos of the yuan dynasty, the ugly nature of malformation and eat people. In the long-term creation practice, he has formed a profound theme, rigorous structure, lively and vivid image, sharp language simple zaju characteristics. He is a writer with the most works and the greatest achievements in the history of Chinese drama.

Ma Zhiyuan and Yuan Qu

Ma Zhiyuan (c. 1250 -- 1321 -- autumn 1324), also known as Dongli, was a writer of opera, sanqu and essayist in the Yuan Dynasty. And Guan Hanqing, Zheng Guangzu, Bai Pu said the "Four masters of Yuan Qu". Ma Zhiyuan was born in a rich and have the family of literacy, keen to obtain fame when he was young, once seemed to prince borjigin, real gold sing and so was the officer, probably due to the death of borjigin, real gold after towns in jiangsu and zhejiang provinces services officer, yuan zhen years after early early (1295-1297) participated in the "yuan zhen book will", later lived in hangzhou, He died in the first year of Zhi zhi (1321) to the first year of Taiding (1324). In the aspect of opera creation, Ma Zhiyuan experienced the transformation from Confucianism to Taoism in music thought. In the creation of sanqu, he has the characteristics of rich and profound thought content and superb artistic skills, and in the creation of zaju, he has the tendency of sanqu and the beauty of the combination of virtual and reality. Ma Zhiyuan received Confucian education from his childhood. He was full of poetry and books, studied the six arts, followed the rites and music, and had a special liking for the art of guqin. The Confucian rites and music thought played a major role in his early musical life. After middle age, with the change of his political career, Ma Zhiyuan's music thought underwent a transformation from Confucianism to Taoism. At that time, Ma Zhiyuan specialized in the creation of zaju and sanqu, whether it is to express feelings and lament the world sanqu, or the fairy Taoist zaju, reveal the obvious Taoist thoughts. Confucian thought of rites and music

Scholars and literati in the feudal society learned the six arts from their childhood, and paid attention to the shaping of people by rites and music, that is, "flourishing in poetry, standing in rites, becoming and music" (" The Analects of Confucius · Taibo "), so as to cultivate their morality and cultivate their temperament, so as to prepare for the future "learning the arts of literature and martial arts, and being a good emperor" (" Pang Juan night walking maling Road "). Like many ancient scholars, Ma Zhiyuan received Confucian education at an early age and abided by Confucian ritual and music culture. He "lived up to his dreams at night and respected his teachers" and "buried himself in poetic rites and pottery feelings" (" Happy Spring Comes · Six Arts · Ritual "), but he had his own understanding of some problems in Confucian ritual and music culture. In terms of The Times, these understandings have a certain progressive significance, which is mainly reflected as follows:

① As for the influence of "Qin Music" on people, literatures such as Zuo Zhuan and Bai Hu Tong argue that "Qin music" can enlighten people's mind by regulating their morality, while fu Qin can enlighten people, but restrict the artistic and aesthetic function of guqin. As a traditional literati, Ma Zhiyuan respected and loved guqin and believed that music had the role of cultivating emotions, regulating moods and relieving depression, which was more comprehensive than Confucianism's emphasis on guqin ritual and music restraint, which was more in line with the characteristics of "guqin music" art and had certain significance. ② As for the influence of music on politics, as early as in ancient times, there was a saying of "the voice of subjugations". However, Ma Zhiyuan realized that music itself was not the bane of the country, but because the emperor was addicted to music and ignored government affairs, it would delay government affairs and lead to the country's demise. That is, the rise and fall of the feudal dynasty is mainly determined by personnel, not music itself.

Taoist thought of retreat Like many scholars, in the case of full of scriptures without serve, Ma Zhiyuan to born road, specializing in opera creation, in drunk, the piano to express their own feelings and ambitions, the creation of lines as sigh the sanqu and immortal, tao in the drama reveals obvious Taoist thoughts, he prowled the of Confucianism. Its main performance is:

(1) In the suite "Happy Spring come · Six Arts", Ma Zhiyuan thinks that since the "long-cherished night and sleep" to comply with the ethics still did not get the desired success and fame, it is better to break with the world of honor and disgrace, even if only get a "wave name"; At the same time, Ma Zhiyuan repositioned the role of "rites", that "body latent poem rites" can be tao sentiment, and yearning for peng Ying, drunk life.

(2) in the suites, four pieces of jade, sigh the Ma Zhiyuan described himself to the change in temperature of disappointment and desire to escape from this world, reveal their searches and riches and honour after middle age to the life, view of music: "stay away from dust dry zhangs wave, big to carefree happy", and "fight for fame and wealth, riches and honour, is crazy", and "in the life all MoGang, at any time sent Sue gave birth to the". At the same time, in the disillusionment again and again, Ma Zhiyuan in his later years to live in seclusion, shengxian tao interest, thus creating a lot of fairy drama. Deeply influenced by Quanzhen Religion, his plays of immortals and Taoism often show his determination to convert to religion and his pure and distant music creation thoughts.

Creation of the genre The ideological content is rich and profound

Ma Zhiyuan's thought of sanqu is rich in content, involving the themes of chanting history, sighing the world, retreat, boudoir and narration in the Yuan Sanqu, and each of his achievements has expanded the theme range of sanqu. Its main performance is:

(1) In his works, Ma Zhiyuan expressed his views on life, reality and history by evaluating the achievements and losses of the ancients, and repinned his mind. He paid more attention to the value of life, and returned to nature.

(2) About half of ma Zhiyuan's extant sanqu is a sigh for the world to return to work, these works set Ma Zhiyuan unrecognized lonely anger, unfulfilled ambitions of the sad, detached from the unrestrained in a body, full of generous and carefree feelings, a profound reflection of the social reality at that time.

(3) Ma Zhiyuan's boudoir song mostly write men and women's love, acacia separation of the bitter, think women complain women's aspirations, performance think women, lovers sincere feelings and the pursuit of happiness wishes, write deep, meticulous, vivid, vivid and no powder gas, no vulgar frivolous language. For example: "After parting, no one can hear from you. Every one I see, every one I see, because THEY say, 'If I do not believe you, your ears are not hot.'" Use shallow, instinctive color to be like the language of spoken language to apply colours to a drawing strongly to come out, it is no longer the sad wan of meek, lament, reflected the hero to love bold force beg, give a person with happy wet feeling, show the loyalty that pursues to love and affection.

In the creation of narrative long set, Ma Zhiyuan to text as music, the structure of prose magnificent into the song, such as the Yangtze River flowing thousands of miles, there are "Play a child · Borrow a horse", "Shao Biao · Zhang Yuyan cursive", "a flower · Chant Zhuangzong pleasure" and "collection of sages bin · Thinking" and other narrative long set of masterpieces. In these works, Ma Zhiyuan or outline the character's character characteristics, or describe the character's mood and situation, shaped a very vivid character image: love horse as life of the horse master, open mind Of Zhang Yuyan, only know to treat the pear garden zhang Yue Fu after the Tang Zhuang Zong, Jinshan Temple inscription of su Xiaoqing.

The artistry is highly accomplished Ma Zhiyuan makes the song exquisite art, long in the psychological description, is good at using a variety of rhetoric, to achieve a high artistic realm, the language of sanqu is clear and natural, the characters are lifely. full of painting and style elegant, unrestrained, old and spicy, pure Juan, artistic conception, improve the artistic conception of sanqu. Its main performance is:

① There are paintings in the song. Ma Zhiyuan gives full play to the richness and freedom of sanqu language, and gives subtle and vivid descriptions of color, form and state of things, arousing readers' association and imagination, and forming a vivid picture. Ma Zhiyuan, on the one hand, to seize the main characteristics of the things, not do XiSuo describe when pictorial synthesis, but subtly capture the most striking a and spectacular moment, put scenery neatly in a picture in the space, make the music scene with the layers, strewn at random, to highlight the rendering, like a picture show in the sight of the reader, and leave sufficient imaginary space to the readers. On the other hand, Ma Zhiyuan makes use of extensive use of luxuriousness in sensory language -- according to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 100 words of color in Ma Zhiyuan's sans-music. Some of his works have five or six or even more than ten words of color in just a few dozen words. The use of these words makes Ma Zhiyuan's sanqu more vivid, more bright, more picturesque, and can also trigger readers' association.

② Colorful language. On the one hand, Ma Zhiyuan often uses very popular and clear spoken language in sanqu, and rarely uses rare characters. The language of Sanqu is full of distinct personality in accordance with the specific situation of his works, and presents different styles in different themes, with the characteristics of swaying and colorful, gorgeous and matchless. On the other hand, Ma Zhiyuan is also good at the former verse for his own use, easy to use, like inadvertently coincidence, no trace with rich literary talent, elegant and free characteristics. Such as the Tang Dynasty Su flavor "fifteenth night of the first month" in the "fire tree silver, star bridge iron lock open" two sentences into "according to the star bridge fire tree silver" (" Green Brother · December · the first month "); The "gold well under wutong leaf" in Zhang Ji's "Princess Of Chu" in tang Dynasty was transformed into "Gold well carved at the beginning of Wutong Leaf" (" Green Brother · December · July "). In Tang Dynasty Li Bai's "Send congratulatory guests back to Yue", "If mountain Yin Taoist priest meet, should write Huangting in exchange for white goose" was changed into "write Huangting in exchange, Taoist Goose return" (" Whistle Everywhere · Zhang Yuyan cursive ").

The tendency of Sanqu Sanqu and zaju belong to different genres. Sanqu is a lyric poem in which the writer expresses his feelings directly, and the writer can speak freely. Zaju belongs to the drama of spokespersons in nature, and it is the basic requirement to write the characters' personalized language and lyrics. However, Ma Zhiyuan created zaju in the way of sanqu, which made his zaju have lyric poet's way of thinking and writing style under the coat of representative body, showing the tendency of sanqu. Its specific performance is as follows:

① The lyrical poetics of the way of speech. Throughout ma Zhiyuan's existing all drama know, Ma Zhiyuan's drama is not completely spokespersons, in the character of the aspect of extreme indifference, no matter how the identity of the character, its recitals and lyrics of the tone is absolutely different, its feelings are similar -- or express anger, or express the heart of hiding. Such as "the thunder jianfu memorial in the middle of the night," Zhang Gao don't cry of promotion, the west huashan Chen tuan high lie, Chen tuan lines, etc, on the surface is Zhang Gao inconsolable, Chen tuan's escape calm, in fact is Ma Zhiyuan borrow the characters of express their cynical of love and the feeling of death, and its main tendency in the genre, In the way of speech, there is an obvious tendency of sanqu, that is, the tendency of lyric poetry. ② The plot unfolds without drama. Ma Zhiyuan wrote plays in the form of sanqu, plot is not the main aesthetic goal he pursues, so in terms of the requirements of dramatic plot, Ma Zhiyuan's drama has the nature of non-dramatic plot development. First of all, from dramatic action, from conflict, especially the characters inner conflict of will and to achieve attractive drama, also should have concentrated the faltering, tension, features, while the drama Ma Zhiyuan mostly lack of fundamental conflicts, such as "the west huashan Chen tuan high lie," the play throughout the absence of conflict is actually a hypothesis; "Ma Danyang three degrees of any wind child" and "Lv Dongbin three drunk Yue Yang floor" in the conflict, one party is holding a decisive force, the other party is completely in the position of the decision, lack of "put the soul on the fire kao" inner tension. Second, in the development of drama action, character destiny happened sudden turn constitute the plot climax, emotional elicits the most turbulent time constitute the emotional climax, the shorter the distance between them, the stronger the drama inherent drama, the distance is zero can produce the strongest dramatic effect, and the characters in the Ma Zhiyuan drama actions lack of inner logic, After the climax of the plot, a whole fold of the length is used to render feelings, and it is difficult to find a clear climax, but the plot development is subject to the expression of feelings, leading readers and viewers to immerse themselves in the character's feelings and feel the stagnation of action. Finally, to the fourth fold to narrative, Ma Zhiyuan's drama highlights its action of artificial and far-fetched plot, snake feet repeatedly appear but no drama, with an obvious "spent force" problem, such as "Ma Danyang Three times as the Wind child" and "midnight Lei Hujian Fu Tablet" and other dramas, the fourth fold of the narrative is optional. ③ Focus on lyrical self-entertainment. The purpose of drama creation is nothing more than two, one is for entertainment, the other is to have some sustenance. Like the majority of drama writers, Ma Zhiyuan engaged in drama creation is to amuse himself first, entertaining people in the second. Because of their own experience, Ma Zhiyuan on apparent contradictions feeling to the deep, understanding of social problems from anger to negative bishi, therefore in the creation of drama put on their fantastic in the first place, to borrow a drama, reality of the line to amuse themselves, borrow the characters, to convey, experiencing the naivete of the zaju creation motive and leading tendency and description is not, Or to reveal social contradictions and express the sound of injustice; Or the performance of immortal tao, to express the heart of retreat.

The beauty of reality The artistic conception of literary works usually forms a related virtual image in addition to the concrete and tangible real image, so as to produce the artistic effect of complete speech and infinite meaning. In Ma Zhiyuan's drama, the beauty of "the image outside the image" and "the scene outside the scene" comes from the beauty of time and space, the beauty of galloping imagination, and the beauty of peace and dilute. These three kinds of aesthetic feeling are in harmony with each other and form the aesthetic effect of virtual reality in Ma Zhiyuan's drama.

The structure of drama has the beauty of the interlacing of time and space. One of the aesthetic characteristics of traditional opera is the virtual life, which includes the simplicity of stage design rather than heavy work, the performance props are more virtual than real, the characters sing more lyrical rather than narrative. This form of performance determines the characteristics of traditional opera freehand style, that is, simple and indulgent writing to depict the character's charm temperament, although the lack of western drama will be true to life on the stage realism, but increased the sense of space in the stage tense and the depth of the character's emotional diachronic state. This kind of aesthetic feeling is particularly evident in Ma Zhiyuan's dramas with the background of the present world. For example, in "Lonely Wild Goose Han Palace Autumn", the sentence pattern of reciprocating shows the ups and downs of the Emotion of Emperor Yuan of The Han Dynasty, and turns into the lonely figure of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty after Wang Zhaojun left. The second compromise of Jiangzhou Sima Blue Shirt tears gives readers a sense of unpredictable things by describing the time of rapid progress, and conveys the vicissitudes of human feelings particularly clearly.

The figure has the beauty of galloping imagination. In the characterization of Ma Zhiyuan's drama, the characteristics of yuan dynasty painting are vaguely revealed: a vast and profound imagination space is constructed in the straightforward and concise style of writing and ink. Such as in "broken dream gu Yan Han Palace autumn" in shaping wang Zhaojun's image, to set off wang Zhaojun's beauty, wang Zhaojun will be compared to the Emperor of Han dynasty "came to this makeup behind, yuan to broad cold temple Chang e in this month is bright", leave infinite imagination space for readers. In Ma Zhiyuan with mass-tone he prowled the drama, the image of the word and not often virtual to real, more with the lyrics makes the intercourse of mental characters, such as "west huashan Chen tuan high lie" in "crested wild take a Taoist priest, with the wind the bright moon two idle people" will come out of a put in the world, beyond the meta born of the spirit of temperament.

The image selection has the beauty of peace and dilution. In Ma Zhiyuan's drama, the four images of mirror, flower, water and moon often appear in interlacing and uneven contrast, sketching the inner mood of the protagonist with obscure qubi brush, and harmonizing with Ma Zhiyuan's romantic lyrical temperament:

"Mirror" for the beauty of sad and lingering, such as in "broken dream gu Yan Han Palace autumn", After the Emperor of Han Yuan saw off Wang Zhaojun, back to the luan, facing Wang Zhaojun left the object, to think of people, full of sorrow and hatred to the mirror come clean.

"Flower" is the beauty of the desolation of the late evening, and women have a close relationship, and Ma Zhiyuan often lament the good female character in the drama "car crush residual flowers, jade people on, blow flute; Did not meet the official baby, is several degrees add white hair "(" broken dream gu Yan Han Palace autumn"), to the drama in bad character of the female is often cursed "a old gentleman pushed in the suburbs, ah you wave woman niang hug others sleep. Don't kill to how also bo elder brother, don't kill to how also bo elder brother, contend as I dream zhou Gong high lie in three pole day "(" Lv Dongbin three drunk Yueyang tower").

The beauty of "water" as the airy flow in the drama of Ma Zhiyuan, overall planning and water's charm lies in its plays phrasing of stream of consciousness, such as "the thunder jianfu memorial in the middle of the night," the sense of water in the stream of consciousness is in the plot ups and downs, outsize plot, character big zhong rape, emotions like earlier, all the various elements of art to the extreme, It has a fascinating charm.

"Moon" is a beautiful and smooth beauty. In Ma Zhiyuan's drama, the image of the moon has a poetic personality of Taoism, creating a quiet and elegant realm and a degree of human color of Buddhism, creating the beauty in the smooth beauty of Zen.

Bai Pu and Yuan Qu

Bai Pu (1226 -- 1310 A.D.) was a native of Yuzhou (now Jiuxian County, Hequ County, Shanxi Province). His original name was Huan, and his courtesy name was Renfu and Taisu, also known as Mr. Langu [3]. He was a native of yuzhou (now the hequ area of Shanxi), a native of Nanjing Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), and a native of Zhending, Hebei (now Zhengding). In the seventeenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1280), he moved to Jiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu province). He has written 16 kinds of operas, including two extant ones, Wutong Rain and Wall Top Horse. Another "Sounds of Nature collection", received words for more than 200, followed by more than 40 sanqu. Together with Guan Hanqing, Ma Zhiyuan, Zheng Guangzu, known as the four Masters of Yuan Qu.

White stinkwood Famous opera writer of yuan Dynasty. And Guan Hanqing, Zheng Guangzu, Ma Zhiyuan known as the "Four Yuan Qu." Bai Pu was born in a bureaucrat and scholar-official family. His father Bai Hua was jin Zhenyou three years (1215) jinshi, the official to the Privy Council judge, and his father Bai Ben was Jin Zhang Zong Tai and Jian Jinshi, who had done the county magistrate. His uncle died early, but had a poem name. White and Yuan Haowan father and son for family friends, close. The children of the two families often communicate with each other in poetry and prose.

Born in such a family, Bai Pu should have enjoyed leisure and leisure, reading and learning, in order to gain fame in the future. [5] His youth, however, was ravaged by war, and he spent his days with his family in terror and bewilderment. Soon after Bai Pu was born, the City of Nanjing Bianliang of the Jin Dynasty was surrounded by the Mongolian army. Bai Hua, who was in the center of the Jin Dynasty, was busy all day for the survival of the Jin Dynasty and had no time to take care of his wife, children and family. [6] In 1232, in the first year of Emperor Aizong's reign, the Mongol army attacked the city with tree guns. Emperor Aizong decided to leave the city north and go to Guide (today's Shangqiu, Henan province). Bai Hua had to leave his family in Bianjing and followed Emperor Aizong across the river. In March of the following year, bianjing city was destroyed, the Mongolian army column plundered the city, the ordinary people were killed, wealth was unprecedented looting. In the war, Bai Pu mother and son lost, fortunately, yuan Haowen was also in the city, just put him and his sister up, in chaos and famine to save his life. At the end of April, Yuan Hao-wen took bai Pu's sisters and brothers north across the River. They lived in Liaocheng and then resided in the Shogunate of Zhao Tian-xi, the magistrate of Guan Family (now Guan County, Shandong Province). Although Yuan Hao-ask is also the minister of the country, life is very hard, but he sees Bai Pu elder sister and younger brother as one's own, care to. Bai Pu was dying of the plague. Yuan Hao-wen held him in his arms day and night, but on the sixth day he sweated and recovered. Bai Pu was clever and clever, so he was fond of reading since childhood. Yuan Hao-wen cultivated him carefully and taught him to read and learn the classics and conduct himself, so that he received a good education when he was young.

Bai Pu's father, Bai Hua, surrendered to the Southern Song after the fall of the Jin Dynasty and became junzhou Tirou (Palpin officer). Soon, Bai Huasui went north to the Yuan Dynasty. In the ninth year of Emperor Taizong of Mongolia (1237), when Bai Pu was 12 years old, some fugitive ministers of The Bai Hua Kai Jin Dynasty came to Zhending and attached themselves to shi Tianze, a Mongolian general who was in Charge of Zhending. In the autumn of the same year, Yuan Haowen returned to Taiyuan from the Guan family and passed zhending. He sent bai Pu and his sister back to Baihua, so that they could be reunited after being separated for several years. When the father and son met, Bai Hua felt great joy. He wrote a poem called "Man Tingfang · Shiliezi Xin" to express his feelings at that time: "Light lu tai, generals pavilion, ten years in the middle of a dream. Short coat horse, see zhenzhou mountain again. Naehan was drunk, but the sarong is still tall and broad. Today, children in front of the lamp, floating happy to survive ". He is also very grateful to Yuan Hao-ask generation for the care of the children of the grace, had a poem thank yue: "gu me really become a bereaved dog, Lai Jun had to protect the nest."

As the north settled down, baek and his son settled down in Jinjeong. From then on, according to his father's request, he wrote poems and studied for the examination. He was very progressive in the study of law fu, and soon became famous for his ability to write good poems. At that time, Yuan Haowen, in order to write the history books of the Jin Dynasty, often visited The capital, so as to come and go to Zhending, concerned about his studies, every home, to guide him to the path of learning, a poem praised Bai Pu said: "Yuan Bai tongjia old, zhulang only ru xian." Encourage him to work hard and succeed in his career. However, the Mongolian ruler of the brutal plunder, so that bai Pu heart wounds difficult to recover, he is full of hatred of the Mongolian ruler, war and chaos in the mother and child, so that he often mountains everywhere sigh, more feel for the ruler's sad service. Therefore, he gave up the pursuit of fame and wealth in the official circles, and to the subogized people to adapt, to poetry as a special occupation, with the song vent their depression and dissatisfaction in the chest.

As she grew older and experienced more, she became more knowledgeable. Yuan Shizu zhongtong two years (1261), Bai Pu 36 years old. In April of that year, Yuan Shizu ordered the various xuanfu generals to recommend those who could take the examination for literary talents to be employed. Shi Tianze, who had been working as xuanfu generals in Henan Road, recommended Bai Pu to be an official, but he declined. He not only against shi Tianze recommended the idea, consciously inconvenient to stay in Zhending for a long time, to facilitate this year to abandon home south travel, but also to express his withdrawal depression, never official road determination. However, the feelings of his wife and son could not be cut off, and he often suffered from his own contradictory feelings and felt very painful.

Bai Pu first arrived at Hankou and then entered Jiujiang. At the age of 41, he returned north to Zhending, passing bianjing. After that, he went south again, traveling between Jiujiang and Dongting, and settled down in Jinling in 1280, the 17th year of the Yuan Dynasty. Around this time, probably due to the death of his first wife, he had returned to Zhending for the bereavement of his wife. On this occasion, someone suggested that he become an official in the Central Court, but he declined. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Jinling. From then on, he mainly traveled around Hangzhou and Yangzhou, south of the Yangtze River, until he returned to Yangzhou at the age of 81. After that, there was no trace of him.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, Yuan Qu is an extremely important milestone in the history of Chinese literature. Its development has experienced the initial stage of rise and the middle stage of prosperity, and its development is closely related to the style characteristics of the "four masters of Yuan Qu" : Guan Hanqing, Bai Pu, Zheng Guangzu and Ma Zhiyuan. They used different styles to describe the social scene and human conditions at that time from different angles of the society, and indirectly predicted the future trend of the society. Therefore, Yuan Opera is not only a work of art, but also a magnificent painting of the society of the time.

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英语笔译 高智慧 Gao Zhihui 202170081568

The History of Chinese Noodles 高智慧 Gao Zhihui

Introduction

The earliest known noodles found in China can be dated back to 4 thousand years ago. They were found in archeological findings near the Yellow River in China. However, first concrete written records of noodles come from the time when Eastern Han Dynasty reigned between 25 and 200 AD. There are many stories about the origin of noodles. To a certain extent, noodles also reflect the cultural traditions and customs of China, which essentially means "human nature" and "worldly common sense". There are thousands of varieties of noodles in China, according to the classification of the shape of noodles, seasoning gravy, cooking craft, and so on. Many noodles have local characteristics. Noodles are accepted by people from all over the world. The industrial revolution and the development of the food industry have successfully transitioned the way we produce noodles, from a traditional handicraft industry to mass production using machinery. In addition, the invention of instant noodles and their mass production also greatly changed the noodle industry. In essence, noodles are a kind of cereal food, which is the main body of the traditional Chinese diet. It is the main source of energy for Chinese people and the most economical energy food. Adhering to the principle of making cereal food the main food, is to maintain our Chinese good diet tradition, which can avoid the disadvantages of a high energy, high fat, and low carbohydrate diet, and promote health. The importance of the status of noodles in the dietary structure of residents China and the health impact should not be ignored.

The Origin of Noodles

Mix water and flour and knead into a dough, you now have a plethora of prospects in the palm of your hands. Noodles are the epitome of versatility and flexibility, and it's this adaptable nature that has contributed to its rise as a world renowned food. Noodles are eaten as pho in Vietnam, chow-chow in Nepal, seviyan in India and many other permutations and combinations throughout the globe. While the popularity of noodles is a widely accepted consensus, its origin is still a prominently debated subject. There are numerous contenders who have claimed to be the creators of the Noodle. Italians profess that they are the pioneers of this plant based food, whereas the Chinese argue that they invented this culinary sensation. In this paper I will endeavor to trace the geneses of this cereal food and subsequently attempt to end the age old dispute surrounding it.

We begin our historical research in the East Asian country, China. Noodles are believed to have originated here, as "Bing" or cake in English, during the early rule of the Han Dynasty. They were then diversified by experimentation and the evolution of additional shapes and cooking methods. Noodles further gained cultural prominence via folklore related to "health, religion, economy" and with the emergence of Chinese superstitions. (Zhang Na and Ma Guansheng, 2016) However, due to recent archeological discoveries it's likely that noodles were around much prior to the rise of the Han Rule. Excavation sites have revealed that wheat grains and early production apparatuses existed from the early to late Neolithic period – an astounding ten thousand years before now. More tangible evidence, which testifies to the existence of Noodles well into the past, was unearthed in 1999. "Noodles discovered among relics at the Lajia archeological site in Minhe(民和) County, Qinghai Province". After scientists analysed the noodles and bowl of noodles found at the site through radioactive dating, it was disclosed that noodles were crafted and cooked four thousand years ago during the early Xia Dynasty. These archaeological findings thus provide us with physical evidence which date back to periods long before the present day. They reveal that the noodle has been closely interwoven into the Chinese society and their culinary practices for eons.

China has the most promising data to support its claim of being the inventors of this simple wheat and water based dough. The discovery of the noodle remains and bowl occurred two thousand years prior to Horace's mentions of Lagane, which means pasta. With its physical, archeological evidence predating even the written records of Italian, Arabic and Mediterranean pasta, it truly does make China victorious in the contention. However, even though China may be the site of the first instances of noodles and they may have introduced some countries like Japan and India to them, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they were the ones who introduced the rest of the world to it. Italians were enjoying pasta long before Marco Polo brought back the secrets of the Chinese noodle trade. As there is very little documented data and only a few preserved artifacts related to Italian pasta, it’s not right to make any broad claims about its beginning. It is also plausible that pasta developed spontaneously in China and Italy at different time periods. New evidence is bound to be unearthed at some point in the future, which will give more concrete and reliable sources with information about who introduced the Italians to the noodle.

Ancient Records of Chinese Noodles

There were various kinds of shapes for noodles, such as sheets and strips. Sheets of noodles are cooked by pulling the dough into sheets and cooking in a pot with boiling water. In the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, the shapes of the noodles gradually increased. Two special kinds of noodles, called shui yin (水引) and bo tuo (馎饦), were included in the book Qi Min Yao Shu or Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People (《齐民要术》)in the middle ancient era. Shui yin is cooked by pulling the dough into strips as thick as chopsticks, cutting these into segments 30cm long, soaking in a dish of water, then pressing them into flat noodles shaped as a leek leaf and cooking in a pot with boiling water. Bo tuo is especially smooth and delicious. In the Sui, Tang, and Five dynasty periods, there were more varieties of noodles. With the increase of noodle varieties, the methods and techniques of cooking have been continuously improved. There was a kind of cold noodle with a unique flavor, called Leng tao (冷淘), which was appreciated by the great poet Du Fu, describing it “as cold as snow when gliding through the teeth (经齿冷于雪)”. There was another kind of noodle with full tenacity, referred to as “one of the seven wonderful health foods”, which has a saying “wet noodles can be used to tie the shoe”. In the Song and Yuan dynasty period, fine dried noodles appeared, such as pig and sheep raw noodles and vegetable raw noodles sold in Linan (临安) city during the Southern Song period. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasty, there were more varieties of noodles. In the Qing dynasty, five spicy noodles and eight treasures noodles were included in Xian Qing Ou Ji 《闲情偶寄》 by dramatist Li Yu (李渔). These two kinds of noodles were made of five and eight kinds of animal and plant raw material powder, respectively, and mixed into flour, which were considered as top grade noodles.

Stories of Noodles

Food is not only a source of human nutrition, it also plays many roles in the aspects of religion and economy, etc. People use special food to celebrate important events and festivals, for instance, we eat sweet dumplings in the Lantern Festival, we eat traditional Chinese rice-puddings in the Dragon Boat Festival, we eat moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and we eat dumplings in Spring Festival.

In the aspect of noodles, Chinese people have lots of customs, which essentially mean “human nature” and “worldly common sense” materialized in the noodles. At birthdays, people eat longevity noodles; at the time of marriage and moving into a new house people eat noodles with gravy (打卤面), which means flavored life; on the day of lunar February 2 “dragon head (龙抬头)”, people eat dragon whiskers noodles (龙须面) to look forward to good weather. We eat different noodles in different seasons and different festivals.

Famous noodles in China have a unique value of traditional culture. Seafood noodles (三鲜伊面) are also called dutiful son’s noodle (孝子面). According to historical records, Yi Yin’s (伊尹) mother was perennially sick and bedridden. So he made noodles with eggs and flour, and then steamed and fried these noodles. Even if he was not at home it was convenient for his mother to eat these nonperishable noodles. The noodles were added to a soup made with chicken, pig bones, and seafood. Under the tender care of Yi Yin, his mother soon recovered. This was the reason why seafood noodles are also called dutiful son’s noodles. The processing method of seafood noodles in ancient time was very similar to industrialized manufacturing methods of instant noodles in modern times.

Sichuan (四川) dandan noodles (担担面)are known to every family. In the old days, hawkers sold noodles on the street with a shoulder pole, giving the name dandan noodles. There was a pot and stove on the shoulder pole, which made it convenient to cook noodles with full seasoning at any time. The business philosophy of wholehearted customer service is the essence for dandan noodles to stay prosperous.

Qishan (岐山) minced noodles (臊子面) with special flavor, also called ashamed son noodles, also has a story in Shaanxi (陕西). Qishan minced noodles were originally called sister-in-law noodles (嫂子面). Previously, there was a poor scholar, whose parents died when he was young. He was raised by his elder brother and sister-in-law. In order to let him read books for fame, his sister-in-law made noodles for him. His sister-in-law was not only good at cooking noodles, but also good at making gravy with meat and vegetables. Oil sprinkled over chili was also mixed in noodles to increase appetite. Under the care of his sister-in-law, he passed the provincial civil service examination as expected under the old Chinese examination system. Therefore, it was also called sister in law noodles. Later, many people followed the example of cooking noodles to seek fame for their children, but repeatedly failed. Feeling shame for their son, the noodles were also called ashamed son noodles, which was pronounced as sào zi in Chinese.

Guangxi (广西) vinegar-pepper old friend noodles (老友面) has a story about friendship. Once upon a time, there was a Zhou teahouse where a customer drank tea almost every day. For a few days, the teahouse owner Zhou found the regular customer did not come to tea. Out of concern for an old friend, he went to visit him. He discovered that the old friend was sick. The shopkeeper quickly made a bowl of vinegar-pepper noodle soup with sautéed garlic and fermented black beans and sent the noodles to his friend. The old friend ate the noodles in a sweat and then recovered. So vinegar-pepper noodles have another name old friend noodles.

Another famous type of Chinese noodles is the Crossing-the-Bridge noodles(过桥米线), which is a rice noodle soup from the Yunnan Province. Crossing-the-Bridge noodles also has an interesting story associated with it. The story described a boy who was ordered by his father to study for the Imperial Exams in the cottage of an island, and the boy was not allowed to leave the island until his studies were completed. Since the island was far away from his house, and the story took place in the coldest months of the year, all the meals that the family cook had cooked for the boy would become cold and unpalatable when the meals reach the boy. After being troubled by this problem for a long time, the cook finally came up with an idea and invented a new type of noodle dish, Crossing-the-Bridge noodles, by adding an extra layer of hot chicken broth and chicken fat to the noodle soup. According to the story, the noodle was invented to have the capability of keeping warm for a long time under cold winds and temperatures, so that when the cook brings the noodle soup across the bridge to the boy who was studying for the imperial examinations, the noodle soup would still be hot and warm enough to eat. “ ‘It is too hot!’ he said, and began laughing. ‘I know,’ said the cook, nodding happily. ‘It is the fat that keeps out the wind, the cold, and the bad spirits. Now that you have the nourishment you need, learning will come naturally and gracefully.’ The boy ate the delicious soup with a hunger that he did not know he had as he watched the chef skipping like a child across the bridge back to his kitchen.” Therefore, Crossing-the-Bridge noodles reflected the cleverness and mastery of the cook in cooking, as well as the love and care he had for the boy, and the passion he had for pleasing people with his food.

The Classification of Noodles

There are thousands of varieties of noodles in China, according to the classification of the composition of noodles, the shapes of noodles, and the different gravy seasoning. The main compositions of noodles are wheat and rice. Most kinds of noodles are made of flour (the powder made from wheat). There is also another special composition of noodles: rice noodles (米线). Rice noodles are frequently seen in Southern style cooking, such as Yunnan province: over-the-bridge rice noodles. In addition, noodles can be classified according to the thickness: they can be as thick as chopsticks or as thin as hair, such as the dragon beard noodles. Some can be classified according to the how they are made, such as hand-pulled noodles (拉面), shaved noodles (刀削面), and so on. They can also be classified according to the seasoning, such as Beijing fried bean sauce noodles (北京炸酱面) and Shandong noodles with gravy (山东打卤面). Others are classified according to cooking crafts, such as noodles mixed with scallion, oil, and soy sauce (葱油拌面), noodles with quick-fried eel shreds and shelled shrimps (虾爆鳝面), and so on.

China has a vast territory and abundant resources and mainly can be divided into the following areas: East China, Southern China, Central China, North China, Northwest China, Southwest China, Northeast China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan areas. There are also some local characteristic noodles. In East China, there are Shanghai noodles in superior soup (上海阳春面), Nanjing small boiled noodles (南京小煮面), Hangzhou Pian Er Chuan noodles (noodles with preserved vegetable, sliced Pork, and bamboo shoots in soup) (杭州片儿川面), Wenzhou vegetable raw noodles (温州素面), Zhenjiang pot noodles (镇江锅盖面), Shandong Fushan hand-pulled noodles (山东福山拉面), Suzhou Su style soup noodles (苏州苏式汤面), Fuzhou line noodles (福州线面), and Anhui flat noodles (安徽板面). In Southern China, there are Guangzhou wonton noodles (广州馄饨面). In Central China, there are Wuhan hot noodles with sesame paste (武汉热干面). In North China, there are Beijing fried bean sauce noodles, Shanxi shaved noodles (山西刀削面) and noodles with braised string bean (豆角焖面), Hebei dragon whiskers noodles (河北龙须面) (saute fine noodles with shredded chicken), fine dried noodles, sesame paste noodles (麻酱面), and Neimenggu braised noodles with string bean (内蒙古焖面). In Northwest China, there are Xinjiang pulled noodles (新疆拉条子), Shanxi oil-splashing noodles (陕西油泼面), Biángbiáng noodles (Biángbiáng 面), a type of noodle popular in the cuisine of China's Shaanxi Province, and serofluid noodles (浆水面), Henan stewed noodles (河南烩面), steamed noodles (蒸面), and Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles (兰州拉面). In Southwest China, there are Guizhou noodles with pig’s blood and internal organs (贵州肠旺面), Sichuan dandan noodles (四川担担面), bean curd pudding noodles (豆花面), zhazha noodles with chili oil hot pepper and pork-bone soup (渣渣面), burning noodles from Yibin (宜宾燃面), longevity noodles and bedding noodles (铺盖面). In Northeast China, there are Jilin cold noodles (吉林冷面). In Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, there are Hong Kong strained noodles (捞面), rickshaw noodles (车仔面) and shrimp roe noodles (虾子面), southern Taiwanese-style noodles (担仔面), and clam noodles (花蛤仔面). Noodles are usually eaten as a staple food in or to the north of the Yellow River Valley, but eaten as breakfast in the southern region.

There are also some kinds of representative noodles. Beijing fried bean sauce noodles are a traditional Chinese food, popular in Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, and other places. Beijing fried bean sauce noodles are cooked in the following way: first prepare the fresh-cut vegetables, blanch and set aside; next, put minced meat stir-fried with scallion, ginger, garlic, and soybean paste in hot oil; then boil the noodles and scoop them up, pour sauce on them; lastly, mix with the vegetables.

Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles, also known as one of the top ten Chinese noodles, are Islamic-style snacks in the Gansu Province. The noodles have special characteristics: “soup clear like mirror, the strong scent of cooked meat, thin noodles”. The noodles also have a set of standards: “clear (clear soup), white (white radish), red (red pepper oil), green (green coriander and garlic bolt), and yellow (yellow noodles)”. Locally, people named them “beef noodles”.

The Industrialization of Noodle Production

Since the advent of noodles, although the culture and heritage of the craft are different in various areas, noodles were always processed in a manual way. With the development of the industrial revolution, it realized the transition from a traditional handicraft industry to machine mass production. In the 1850s, machine-made noodles appeared in the market for the first time, and are still in use. At present, China is the world's largest consumer of noodles; the annual consumption and production value are amazing. Data showed that from 2007 to 2012, China's sales value of noodles increased from 8.6 billion yuan to 20.26 billion yuan. In recent decades, it can be said that the advent and development of instant noodles brought the greatest impact.

As early as before the invention of instant noodles, in the ancient East and West, there have been similar processing methods: noodles were boiled first, then fried with hot oil, and finally served with soup. In ancient China, there were similar noodles called Yi noodles (伊面). According to legend in the Qing Dynasty, Yi bingshou (伊秉绶) gave a banquet to celebrate his mother's birthday at home. There were so many guests that the rushed chef mistakenly put the cooked egg noodles into the boiling pan. Without an alternative solution, the chef scooped up these noodles, then fried them in hot oil, and finally served with soup. Guests unexpectedly praised the noodles, so the cooking craft has been handed down. In the early days, Yi noodles was written on the packaging of instant noodles.

In 1958, Taiwanese–Japanese Momofuku Ando (安藤百福) invented the instant noodles as fast food, and created a revolution in the world's eating habits(Zhao,2015,24). At that time one had to wait in line for a long time to eat a bowl of noodles, so he invented the convenient instant noodles. After the invention, Momofuku Ando also founded Nissin food company (日清公司) to sell chicken soup hand-pulled noodles (鸡汤拉面). The initial price was 35 yen. Imitation products immediately appeared which resulted in price competition. Ando soon realized that it was necessary to regulate the market, in order to maintain the reputation of the new products. In 1960, he won the lawsuit about the copyright of instant noodles, and registered the chicken soup hand-pulled noodles trademark in the 2nd year. In 1964, Ando founded Japan Hand-Pulled Noodle Industry Association and transferred the patent to the industry. Ando said that the purpose of this move was to expand the industry, so as to provide cheap instant noodles to the residents.

The Nissin food company started looking more actively for opportunities abroad after the invention of instant noodles. In 1963, it first cooperated with South Korea Miyaki food company (三养食品). In 1968, it once again cooperated with the international food company in Taiwan to launch the chicken soup taste instant ramen. At the beginning, the market of instant ramen with Japanese formula was not good. After adjusting the sauce and the noodles, it became the best-selling product in Taiwan. Most customers buy it as snack food.

According to official data of the World Association of instant noodles, since 2009 China's total consumption of instant noodles has been ranked first in the world. In 2013 the total consumption of instant noodles in the world reached a total of about 105.59 billion bags, while China ranked first for the total consumption of 46.22 billion bags, the per capita consumption reached 34 packets.

The Nutritional Composition and Health of Noodles

The basic raw material for making noodles is flour. Therefore, its main nutrients are basically the same as flour, including protein, carbohydrates, minerals, and low fat. Taking the ordinary fine dried noodles found in the market for example, 100 g fine dried noodles contain 10.3 g protein, 75.6 g carbohydrates, just 0.6 g fat, 129 mg potassium, 18.45 mg sodium, 11.8μg selenium, and so on.

Noodles are classified as cereal foods. Cereal food is the main body of the traditional Chinese diet, the main source of energy for the human body, and also the most economical energy food. With the development of the economy and the improvement of life, Chinese people tend to eat more animal food and oil. An authoritative survey found that in some of the more affluent families, the consumption of animal food has exceeded the consumption of cereal food. Animal food contains more energy and fat, but less dietary fiber, which is not conducive to the prevention and treatment of some chronic diseases. A report on the status of nutrition and chronic diseases of Chinese residents showed that the daily fat intake of Chinese residents was too much, providing more than 30% of the total dietary energy, while a deficiency of calcium, iron, vitamins A and D, and some other nutrients still existed(2015). Adhering to the principle of “making cereal food the main food”, the purpose is to maintain our Chinese good diet tradition, which can avoid the disadvantages of a high energy, high fat, and low carbohydrate diet. Therefore, the importance of the status of noodles in the dietary structure of the residents in our country and their health impact should not be ignored.

In the process of making noodles, eggs are added. Therefore, noodles contain the nutritional content of eggs, with the amount of nutritional content depending on the amount of added eggs. Protein amino acid composition of eggs is the closest to the needs of the human body with very high nutritional value. Eggs contain between 10% and ∼15% fat with 98% of the fat found in egg yolk; egg white contains very little fat. The fat in egg yolk is easily digested and absorbed and also contains a high content and full range of vitamins, including all the B vitamins, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, and trace amounts of vitamin C. Therefore, adding eggs can improve the nutritional value of noodles.

Salts are added in the process of making noodles. Excessive salt intake will increase the risk of high blood pressure. A report on the status of nutrition and chronic diseases of Chinese residents showed that the daily intake of salt was 10.5 g /d in 2012; however, the daily recommended intake of salt is 6 g/d according to Dietary guidelines for Chinese Residents and 5 g according to the World Health Organization. It is worth noting that the prevalent rate of high blood pressure for adults aged ≥18 years was 25.2% in 2012. This is an increase when compared with 2002 (rate was 18.8%). Therefore, food companies should try to reduce the addition of salt as much as possible.

In addition to the health impact of the original nutritional composition of noodles, we should also pay attention to the health impact of the cooking craft and other related factors.

Gravy: in order to improve the taste, people often eat noodles with gravy. Some kinds of gravy contain fat and salt. For example, fried bean sauce noodles contain more fat and salt. In order to avoid an increase in the risk of chronic diseases, we should add less gravy when eating noodles.

Ingredients: when cooking noodles, we can add eggs, vegetables, and other ingredients, so as to make noodles achieve the principle of “food diversification”, and promote health for people.

Instant noodles: the seasoning packet in instant noodles contains more salt, so we should add half a packet of seasoning when eating instant noodles, in order to reduce salt intake.

Terms and Expressions

soup cake 汤饼

Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties 魏晋南北朝

Qi Min Yao Shu or Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People 《齐民要术》

fine dried noodles 挂面

pig and sheep raw noodles 猪羊庵生面

vegetable raw noodles 素面

five spicy noodles 五香面

eight treasures noodles 八珍面

longevity noodles 长寿面

noodles with gravy 打卤面

dragon whiskers noodles 龙须面

dutiful son’s noodle 孝子面

dandan noodles 担担面

minced noodles/ ashamed son noodles 臊子面

sister-in-law noodles 嫂子面

vinegar-pepper old friend noodles 老友面

Crossing-the-Bridge noodles 过桥米线

rice noodles 米线

hand-pulled noodles 拉面

shaved noodles 刀削面

Beijing fried bean sauce noodles 北京炸酱面

noodles mixed with scallion, oil, and soy sauce 葱油拌面

noodles with quick-fried eel shreds and shelled shrimps 虾爆鳝面

Shanghai noodles in superior soup 上海阳春面

Nanjing small boiled noodles 南京小煮面

Hangzhou Pian Er Chuan noodles (noodles with preserved vegetable, sliced Pork, and bamboo shoots in soup) 杭州片儿川面

Wenzhou vegetable raw noodles 温州素面

Zhenjiang pot noodles 镇江锅盖面

Shandong Fushan hand-pulled noodles 山东福山拉面

Suzhou Su style soup noodles 苏州苏式汤面

Fuzhou line noodles 福州线面

Anhui flat noodles 安徽板面

Guangzhou wonton noodles 广州馄饨面

Wuhan hot noodles with sesame paste 武汉热干面

Shanxi shaved noodles 山西刀削面

noodles with braised string bean 豆角焖面

Hebei dragon whiskers noodles (saute fine noodles with shredded chicken) 河北龙须面

sesame paste noodles 麻酱面

Neimenggu braised noodles with string bean 内蒙古焖面

Xinjiang pulled noodles 新疆拉条子

Shanxi oil-splashing noodles 陕西油泼面

serofluid noodles 浆水面

Henan stewed noodles 河南烩面

Guizhou noodles with pig’s blood and internal organs 贵州肠旺面

Sichuan dandan noodles 四川担担面

bean curd pudding noodles 豆花面

zhazha noodles with chili oil hot pepper and pork-bone soup 渣渣面

bedding noodles 铺盖面

Jilin cold noodles 吉林冷面

Hong Kong strained noodles 捞面

rickshaw noodles 车仔面

shrimp roe noodles 虾子面

southern Taiwanese-style noodles 担仔面

clam noodles 花蛤仔面

References

• Zhang Na,Ma Guansheng 张娜，马冠生.(2016).Journal of Ethnic Foods.

• Zhao Guanghui 赵光辉(2015).“被饥饿催生”的方便面的故事 [The story of instant noodles created by hunger].中国农资J China Agric,(28),24.

• National Health and Family Planning Commission Disease Prevention and Control Bureau 国家卫生健康委员会.(2015).《中国居民营养与慢性病状况报告(2015年)》Report on the Status of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents.

Questions

1.Which country is considered to be the inventor of noodles?

2.The first concrete written records of noodles can be dated back to which dynasty?

3.What are the representative noodles in the Gansu Province?

4.What is the basic raw material for making noodles?

Answers

1.China.

2.Eastern Han Dynasty.

3.Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles.

4.Flour.

英语笔译 何丽娜 He Lina 202170081569

Ancient Chinese Civilization--the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City He Lina

Introduction

The Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City(良渚古城遗址)(ca. 3300-2300 BC),is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, and belongs to the late Neolithic archaeological culture. According to archaeological findings, the Liangzhu site is characterized by its exquisite jade, stone and black pottery craftsmanship which embody its social etiquette system, early urban planning and large-scale engineering construction as well as its social organization system, and the world's earliest large-scale plowed rice farming and early specialization of handicraft industry. (Zhou Yin,Wu Jin,2004:2) In addition, as a representative site of large prehistoric settlements in East Asia in the history of human civilization, the Liangzhu Site in China was approved for inclusion in the World Heritage List on July 6, 2019. This article will make a brief introduction and the summary in some aspects from geography, archaeological discovery, heritage elements of the Liangzhu ancient city ruins, the value of the heritage and the protection and inheritance of Liangzhu cultural sites, to further explore the extensive and profound influence of Liangzhu culture on Chinese civilization.

Geographical Position

Liangzhu Culture is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River around Taihu Lake （太湖）which are in the southeast of China, and its distribution area is very broad. Its central settlements are clustered in Liangzhu Site, Liangzhu town（良渚镇） and Pingyao Town（瓶窑镇）, Yuhang District（余杭区）, Hangzhou city（杭州市）, Zhejiang Province（浙江省）. Its geographical coordinates are 119°56 '40 "~120°03' 228" EAST longitude, 30°22 '36 "~30°26' 17" north latitude, with a subtropical monsoon climate.(Liangzhu Archaaeological Site)

In terms of topography, Hangzhou is located in the junction zone between low hills which are stretching branches of Tianmu Mountain(天目山) and Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou Plain(杭嘉湖平原), the biggest accumulation plain in Zhejiang Province. And the whole plain is covered with river channels ,which is very suitable for rice cultivation and has convenient water conservancy and transportation.

The site distribution area is just situated in the northwest of Hangzhou, enjoying the advantages of its natural geographical location. It is located in the alluvial plain in the transition zone between hills and plains, surrounded by mountains in the west, north and south, with some isolated hills scattered inside.

Archaeological Findings

In 1935, He Tianxing(何天行), a native of Hangzhou, made an investigation in the area where Liangzhu Site is seated and discovered a black pottery plate inscribed with ceramic inscriptions. Later, more than 100 cultural relics were discovered successively, and he wrote one of the earliest archaeological reports in China: Stone Tools and Black Pottery in Liangzhu Town, Hangzhou County. His discovery was the prelude to the archaeological culture of Liangzhu Culture. On this basis, after a year of arduous investigation, Shi Xingeng（施昕更） from The West Lake Museum in Zhejiang Province carried out several archaeological excavations near Liangzhu Town in 1936, and collected a number of prehistoric remains characterized by black pottery. In 1938, he published the book: Liangzhu: Preliminary Report on the Site of Black Pottery in the Second District of Hangzhou County. Their discovery caused a stir in Chinese academic circles, which greatly promoted the study of Yangtze Civilization and the development of fledgling Chinese archaeology. In 1959, Xia Nai(夏鼐), a researcher of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, officially named these findings Liangzhu Culture. (Zhou Yin,Wu Jin,2004:11-14)

After that, until the 1980s, a large number of sites were successively discovered in the Taihu Basin（太湖流域） around the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. However, these sites were very scattered, and archaeologists' understanding of these sites was still in the initial stage on which the archaeologists only focused on single sites and failed to form an overall understanding.

From 1986 to 2006, with the excavations of Fanshan Royal Tomb (反山王陵)(1986) and Yaoshan Tomb（瑶山墓葬） (1987), many exquisite jade articles representing high status were unearthed, which made a major breakthrough in archaeology of Liangzhu site and gradually formed the concept of "Liangzhu Site Group". In 2007, the ruins of the ancient city were discovered. Later, the outer city of Liangzhu ancient City was preliminarily confirmed in 2010. After 5 years, Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology discovered and confirmed a large water conservancy system outside the ancient city. (Wang Ningyuan 2016:106)

With the efforts of the archaeological staff over the years, the ancient city of Liangzhu has been clearly shown to the world bit by bit, and the value of Liangzhu culture in the academic world has also been rising, exerting a world-class influence.

Heritage Elements of Liangzhu Ancient City Site

The results of archaeological excavation and research show that the Liangzhu ancient city site is large in scale, complex in type and rich in connotation, and the overall value of its heritage is jointly carried by the city site, peripheral water conservancy system, hierarchical cemetery (including altar) and unearthed artifacts represented by Liangzhu jade ware.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

1. The Ancient City Site (古城遗址)

The ancient city site is the core area of the Liangzhu site. The spatial layout of the city site is a centriped-type triple structure, which is composed of three groups of man-made remains including palace area, inner city and outer city, from inside to outside.

The palace area, located in the center of the inner city, consists of three major elevated ruins: Mojiaoshan(莫角山), Chizhongsi(池中寺) and Huangfenshan（皇坟山）. According to investigation, it should be the area where the ruling class of Liangzhu Kingdom lived. Mojiaoshan palace area is the largest area of the three platforms. Seated in the center of the ancient city, it is a man-made rectangular earth platform, about 670 meters long from east to west, 450 meters wide from north to south, with an area of nearly 300,000 spare meters, occupying 1/10 of the area of the ancient city. The investigation shows that the height of the artificial platform in the east of Mojiao Mountain is about 10~12 meters, and that in the west is about 2~6 meters. Mojiao Mountain platform can be divided into three smaller ones: Big Mojiaoshan(大莫角山), Little Mojiao shan(小莫角山) and Wuguishan(乌龟山), which are the main base of the palace. As can be seen from the picture, Big Mojiaoshan is located in the northeast of the Mojiaoshan Palace area, while Little Mojiaoshan is located in the northwest and Wuguishan is in the southwest. There is also a wide area between the three platforms serving as the sand and soil square, presumably the site for some important ceremonial activities.To the south of the Wuguishan platform is the Chizhongsi platform where nearly 100,000 kg of carbonized rice and a reservoir have been excavated, which can be inferred to be the main storage area. To the east of the area is Huangfenshan platform which is also a palace base site according to investigation.(Liang Wei,2020:3)

The inner city is surrounded by four walls, east, west, north and south. It is an irregular rectangle with rounded corners, about 1,910 meters long from north to south and 1,770 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of about 300 hectares. The total length of the wall is about 6km, with a width ranging from 20 to 150 meters and a proximate height of 4 meters. Alongside the ancient city wall on the east, west and north sides run rivers outside of the city. What's more, close to the inside of the wall many man-made channels are found in the inner city, forming a very complex river network system. After archaeological exploration of these walls, a total of 9 gates were found, among which only one land gate was located in the southern wall, and the rest were water gates. There are two water gates on each side of the city wall, which are connected with all water systems. These water gates connect the city river inside and outside the ancient city, forming a convenient water conservancy and transportation pattern.(Liang Wei,2020:3)

The inner city was found with many platforms in addition to the central palace area. After archaeological excavation, some platforms are the royal burial site while others are speculated to be the areas for the residents in the ancient city to live and work for a large number of remains of manufacturing materials related to jade production such as jade,jade drilling and black quartz piece, wood ware as well as paint bone artifacts were unearthed. Through such scraps, it can be inferred that except for the farmers, there were also a large number of artisans who worked in the handicrafts workshops manufacturing jade and stone productions.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

2. Water Conservancy System on the Outskirts（古城外围水利系统）

During the period from 1995 to 2015, a huge water conservancy system composed of multiple dams was gradually found outside the ancient city of Liangzhu. Located in Pingyao town, the water system is distributed in the north and west of Liangzhu Ancient City, and is currently found to be composed of 11 dams. This large-scale water conservancy system is connected with the internal and external waterways of the ancient city. It is speculated that it should be an organic part of the unified planning and design at the beginning of the construction of Liangzhu Ancient City with the help of natural geographical advantages.(Liangzhu Museum)

These dams can be divided into three categories according to their different forms and locations: Embankments in front of the Mountains(山前长堤), High Dams at the Mouth of the Valley(谷口高坝) and Low Dams on the Plain(平原低坝).(Liangzhu Museum)

High Dams at the Mouth of the Valley: a total of 6 dam sites have been found in the mouth of the valley about 11 kilometers northwest to Liangzhu Ancient City site, which can be divided into two groups: east and west. Each group blocks one valley mouth as a flood barrier. The eastern group includes sites of Zhoujiafan(周家畈), Laohuling(老虎岭) and Ganggongling(岗公岭); The western group includes Qiuwu(秋坞), Shiwu(石坞) and Mifenglong(蜜蜂垄) sites. The distance between the east and west is not far, about 2.3 kilometers, and the earthwork volume of the whole high dam area is about 60 cubic meters. According to the survey, High Dams at the Mouth of the Valley were built in about 3100-3000 BC, through which it can be inferred that the rulers of the ancient city of Liangzhu had taken the water conservancy construction into consideration at the beginning of the construction of the ancient city, reflecting the ruler's strong ability to organize the society and to play the layout of a city and demonstrating a highly developed degree of civilization.(Wang Ningyuan,2019:31)

Low Dams on the Plain: this dam area is located in the southwest side of the ancient city site, composed of four sites including Wutonglong(梧桐弄), Guanshan(官山), Liyushan(鲤鱼山), Shizishan(狮子山), with different lengths ranging from 140 to 400 meters and a total earthwork volume of 30 cubic meters. Built between separate hills, these four dikes are connected with these hills, forming a closed barrier which cut off the otherwise wide body of water to form a huge reservoir.(Wang Ningyuan,2019:31)

Embankments in front of the Mountains: the Embankments in front of the Mountains, also known as Tangshan Site(塘山遗址), is located in front of the mountain about 2km north to Liangzhu Ancient City, with a total length of about 5km from east to west. It is the largest single site of the water conservancy system outside liangzhu Ancient City site, and its earthwork volume is about 198 cubic meters. Tangshan dam is different from the other two dam areas for it has a north-south double dam structure. The compound dam has a high ridge of soil at the east and west ends as well as in the middle, forming two closed reservoirs. The Embankments in front of the Mountains has a great protective effect on the ancient city. Once torrents of water rush down the mountain to the north of the ancient city, it can serve as a buffer against the flood.(Wang Ningyuan,2019:31)

Archeologically, these dams may have served as a combination of flood control, transportation and water use. These dams were connected with the river in the ancient city and had a great impact on the work and lives of the residents in their times. It can be said that Liangzhu water conservancy system is the earliest large-scale water conservancy project in China with a highly degree of integrity. This system fully shows the development degree of Chinese prehistoric civilization and is an important embodiment of Chinese ancient civilization.

3. Graded Cemeteries（分等级墓地）

There are also large and small cemeteries in and around liangzhu ancient city, among which five well-preserved and representative cemeteries are Fanshan Cemetery(反山墓地), Yaoshan Cemetery(瑶山墓地), Jiangjiashan Cemetery(姜家山墓地), Wenjiashan cemetery(文家山墓地) and Bianjiashan cemetery(卞家山墓地). Except that Yaoshan cemetery was discovered outside the ancient city ruins, the other four were excavated in the ancient city.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

Fanshan Cemetery:it is located on a high ground in the northwest of the ancient city, east to the Mojiaoshan Palace area. A total of 11 noble tombs were cleared through archaeological excavations, roughly in two rows, one in the north and another in the south, with the two highest ranking tombs in the middle. Along with the excavation of cemeteries, a large number of funerary goods were unearthed, including jade, stone tools and pottery, among which jade wares were the most abundant. At the same time, the number of jade articles unearthed in the Fanshan Cemetery is also the largest among several cemeteries, and the production techniques are the most exquisite. It can be identified that the Fanshan Cemetery is the highest grade cemetery in Liangzhu culture so far, which is slightly later than the Yaoshan Cemetery.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

Yaoshan Cemetery: located about 5000 meters northeast to the ancient city site, it is divided into two parts: an altar and a cemetery. Archaeological excavations cleared 13 large tombs of nobles, which were divided into two rows on the south side of the altar. Yaoshan cemetery and Fanshan cemetery belong to high grade cemetery.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

Jiangjiashan Cemetery: this cemetery is also located to the west side of Mojiaoshan in the central area of Liangzhu city, and is in the south of the Fanshan Cemetery. After the archaeological excavation, the cemetery was cleared out of 17 tombs, including the large tombs of nobles and the tombs of civilians and children with fewer burial goods, so it is archaeologically speculated that it should be the family cemetery of nobles.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

Wenjiashan Cemetery: it is located in a small mound slope on the west side of the outer city. The cemetery was cleared out of 18 tombs, and tombs of different grades coexist. so it is archaeologically speculated that it should be a lower grade noble family cemetery.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

Bianjiashan Cemetery: located on the artificial terrace of the settlement area in the south of the outer city, 66 tombs have been excavated. There is no obvious sequence of these tombs, and they are all low-ranking civilian tombs. It is speculated that they should belong to public tombs.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

The excavations of these tombs are of breakthrough significance in the archaeological activities of Liangzhu culture. Archaeological researchers divided these tombs into four grades: high grade, the higher level, the intermediate and low level on the basis of the locations of the five cemeteries, the distribution and the arrangement of the tombs, and unearthed artifacts with the shape, number, etc., revealing there have been a more clear and complex social hierarchy in the Liangzhu period, for early tangible evidence of the existence of regional countries.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

4. The Unearthed Objects Represented by Liangzhu Jade Ware

Along with the excavations of cemeteries and the discovery of ancient city sites, a large number of movable relics of Liangzhu ancient city site have been unearthed. These relics are not only large in number, but also rich in variety. They are mainly jade wares, pottery, lacquer wares, stone tools, bamboo wares, bone and horn wares and so on which were found in graded graveyards, river channels and handicraft workshops, reflecting the social life of Liangzhu residents from the ruling class down to the common people and providing solid material evidence for archeologists to restore the civilization of prehistoric times. Among these relics, the number of jade articles unearthed far outweighs other remains. At the same time, these jade craftsmanship is exquisite, which not only reflects the superb skills of craftsmen in the ancient city of Liangzhu, but also testifies to the degree of civilization at that time. Jade has been an integral part of traditional Chinese culture since ancient times and is regarded as a symbol of royal power and divine power. Judging from a large number of jade articles unearthed in Liangzhu Ancient City site, the idea of divine right of kings and theocracy had already appeared in Liangzhu ancient City period, and the ritual system of the early state also began to take shape.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

These jades were mainly unearthed in hierarchical cemeteries with an amount not less than 7000 and a great variety of models, mainly including jade cong(玉琮), jade yue(玉钺), jade bi(玉璧), y-shaped jade wares（三叉型玉器）,jade bracelet（玉镯）, jade weaving wares（玉织具）, etc. In addition, some jades were found carved into birds, turtles, fish, cicadas and other animal.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

Jade cong is the most important and representative jade ware in Liangzhu culture. This kind of jade is cylindrical, round and hollow inside and square outside with four symmetrical triangular shaped convex surface, implying Liangzhu ancestors' primitive world view that heaven is round and earth is square. The four convex surfaces are engraved with special symbols, the upper part of which is the image of a crested god, the middle is the face of a beast with round eyes and fangs, and the lower part is the claw of a bird, expressing the worship and yearning for the god behind it (generally believed to be the god of sun). Cong is also the most influential jade with the widest distribution.(Liangzhu Archaeological Site)

Jade bi is the largest jade ware of Liangzhu culture in unit area, and it is also one of the typical representatives of Liangzhu culture jade ware and even Chinese jade ware. The aperture of this kind of perforated oblate jade ware is usually no more than half of its diameter. Most of them are plain jade, but some of them are engraved with the bird and the sun. It is mentioned in "Rites of Zhou" 《周礼》that jade bi is a special sacrificial vessel made of jade for offering sacrifices to heaven, and the large jade bi found in the site of Yaoshan cemetery as an altar seems to prove this point.(Zhou Yin,Wu Jin,2004:25-26)

Jade yue, shaped like an axe, is also an important part of Liangzhu jade ware.The earliest yue(钺) may have been a stone axe. The jade yue of Liangzhu culture generally has two types: long trapezoidal jade yue (长方梯行钺)and narrow trapezoidal jade yue（扁方梯形钺）. Generally, there is only one jade yue in a tomb, which is far less in number than jade cong and jade bi. It is mainly unearthed in high-level male tombs, considered to be a symbol of royal power or military commander's power. (Zhou Yin,Wu Jin,2004:26)

The Heritage Value of Liangzhu Ancient City Site

Due to the limited scale of archaeological excavation, many connotations and details of Liangzhu ancient city site have not been completely and clearly revealed and presented, all of which are still waiting for further archaeological research. But there are indications that early regional states have emerged in the Circum-Taihu region around the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China between 3300 and 2300 BC. This is much earlier than the Xia(夏), Shang(商) and Zhou(周) dynasties, which are widely known, and is a strong testament to the long and profound history of Chinese civilization.(Zhou Yin,Wu Jin,2004:166)

The layout of the ancient city of Liangzhu from the inside to the outside of the three layers of space and the grading of the cemetery size indicate that in the Liangzhu period, there had been a multi-level social stratification and the combination of theocratic and royal political rule. A large number of funerary jade articles and special tatoo of gods, humans and beasts were the spiritual and cultural representation of that time, thus establishing the early social etiquette system. The carbonized rice and handicraft remains found in archaeological sites also indicate that the Liangzhu society not only developed rice-farming and plough agriculture, but also developed handicraft industry to a certain extent, reflecting the social division of labor at that time. The construction of large-scale water conservancy project has unique planning features and construction technology of "water city", which is an outstanding example of combining artificial technologies and nature for survival and development of Liangzhu ancestors, and represents their ability to use land and river network in plain area in the early stage of East Asia.(Zhou Yin,Wu Jin,2004:166)

On July 6, 2019, the Ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City was inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 43rd World Heritage Conference held in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, showing the great river civilization in the Yangtze River basin of China to the world.

Protection and Inheritance

1. Protection Comes First

Before the 1980s, the development of the town where the site is located was slow, and the contradiction between the protection of the site and urbanization development were not prominent. Local people also attached great importance to the protection of the site. In 1961, the Ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City was announced as a key cultural relic protection unit of Zhejiang Province. Later, with the development of the times, the local economy developed rapidly and the progress of urbanization accelerated, which undoubtedly caused some difficulties for the archaeological exploration and protection of the site. However, the local government has been supporting the archaeological undertaking, and established a special protection agency: Yuhang Liangzhu Cultural Site Management Institute(余杭县良渚文化遗址管理所) in 1987. Later, the national road near the site was diverted and a printing plant was relocated for archaeological excavation work. In addition, the government of Hangzhou and Yuhang District also formulated many policies and regulations for site protection, and established and improved an effective management mechanism. The government strengthens the training of professional knowledge, protection management techniques, strengthen heritage protection management monitoring and other means to implement conservation management, so that heritage can be effectively protected. (c.f:Zhou Su,2020)

In addition, the ancient city site is not isolated, but organically integrated with its surrounding natural geographical environment. Therefore, the protection of the site is not limited to its body, but should also pay attention to the protection of the natural environment around the site, protecting the mountainous vegetation and wetlands around the site, and closing the ore factories around the site, and etc.(Zhou Su,2020:)

2. Cultural Display and Dissemination The ruins of Liangzhu ancient City is of great academic value and should also let more people appreciate this prehistoric civilization. On-site displays and pavilion displays are great to help people learn about this excellent culture. The Liangzhu Museum was first constructed and opened in 1994, and then rebuilt with the further development of Liangzhu archaeological work. It was redeveloped in 2018. The Liangzhu Site National Park can display the Liangzhu culture in an all-round way to visitors. By giving full play to the main function of the national archaeological site park, the site can be better "alive", so that the most basic cultural gene of the Chinese nation can adapt to the contemporary culture and coordinate with the modern society.(Zhou Su,2020:)

3.Promoting Integrated Development

On the premise of ensuring the safety of cultural relics and the priority of archaeology, overall consideration should be given to the land use, such as population distribution, industrial layout, public facilities and infrastructure allocation around the sites, so as to realize the integrated development of historical sites and urban and rural areas. With the development of economy, the level of education can also be improved, so as to further enhance the public's awareness of the preservation of the site.(c.f:Zhou Su,2020)

References

Liang Wei梁伟.(2020).良渚古城的规划及其深远影响研究[The Urban Planning and Prehistorical Liangzhu City]. 现代城市研究 Modern Urban Research(01):2-8.

Wang Ningyuan王宁远(2016).良渚古城及外围水利系统的遗址调查与发掘[Survey and Excavation of the Water Conservancy System in Liangzhu City and Surroundings].遗产与保护研究 Research on Heritages and Preservation(05):102-110.

Wang Ningyuan王宁远(2019).比三个西湖还大的史前巨作——良渚古城外围水利系统发现纪实[A prehistoric masterpiece larger than three West Lakes: a documentary of the discovery of the water conservancy system outside the ancient city of Liangzhu]. 杭州(周刊) Hangzhou Weekly(26),26-31.

Zhou Yin,Wu Jin周膺、吴晶(2004).中国5000年文明第一证：良渚文化与良渚古国[The First Evidence of The 5000-Year Civilization of China: Liangzhu Culture and Early State of Liangzhu].Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press浙江大学出版社.

Zhou Su周苏(2020).良渚古城遗址保护管理实践概述[Overview of Conservation and Management Practice of the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City].自然与文化遗产研究Study on Natural and Cultural Heritage(03):36-46.

服务-良渚博物院 [lzmuseum.cn]https://www.lzmuseum.cn/FuWuZhiNan/index.html

良渚遗址官网[Liangzhu Archaeologial site].https://www.lzsite.cn/classinfo.aspx?classid=1

Terms and expressions

The Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City良渚古城遗址

late Neolithic archaeological culture 新石器时代晚期的考古文化

social etiquette system 社会礼仪制度

World Heritage List 世界自然遗产名录

the Circum-Taihu Lake Area太湖流域

geographical coordinates 地理坐标

accumulation plain 堆积平原

alluvial plain 冲积平原，沉积平原

Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology浙江省文物考古研究所

the Ancient City Site 古城遗址

a centriped-type triple structure 一个中心型三层结构

carbonized rice 碳化水稻

Water Conservancy System on the Outskirts古城外围水利系统

Embankments in front of the Mountains山前长堤

High Dams at the Mouth of the Valley谷口高坝

Low Dams on the Plain平原低坝

earthwork volume 土方量

Graded Cemeteries分等级墓地

"Rites of Zhou" 《周礼》

jade cong玉琮

jade yue玉钺

jade bi玉璧

y-shaped jade wares三叉型玉器

jade bracelet玉镯

jade weaving wares玉织具

long trapezoidal jade yue 长方梯行钺

narrow trapezoidal jade yue扁方梯形钺

multi-level social stratification 多层次社会分层

Questions

1.When was the Archaeological Ruins of Ancient Liangzhu City approved for inclusion in the World Heritage List?

2. Where is the Liangzhu Culture located?

3. Which cemetery does also serve as a altar?

4.Were there only farmers in the ancient Liangzhu city? Why?

5.What is the symbol of jade yue? And where is it often discovered?

Answers

1. It was approved on July 6, 2019.

2.Liangzhu Culture is located in the Circum-Taihu Lake Area in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River which are in the southeast of China.

3. Yaoshan Cemetery.

4. No, there existed artisans in the ancient Liangzhu city. Because many handicraft remains found in archaeological sites.

5.It is mainly unearthed in high-level male tombs, considered to be a symbol of royal power or military commander's power.

英语笔译 胡良明 Hu Liangming 202170081570

A Study of the English Translation of Chu Ci by Xu Yuanchong Under Three Beauties Principle Hu Liangming

Abstract

Qu Yuan’s Chu Ci is the first collection of romantic poetry in China, which has a very important position in the history of Chinese literature. In the middle and late 19th century, with the constant contacts and communication between China and foreign countries, domestic and foreign translators began to study and translate the Chu Ci and produced many indepth works. This thesis takes the English translation of Chu Ci by Xu Yuanchong as the research object, takes the Three Beauties Principle as theoretical basis, uses contrastive method, literature research and text analysis method, and analyses the English translation of Chu Ci by Xu Yuanchong from three aspects: beauty in sound, beauty in form and beauty in sense. It is found that Xu Yuanchong used rhetorical devices such as onomatopoeia, repetition, simile, personification and so on to reflect Three Beauties Principle in the process of translating Chu Ci into Chinese. The study can promote[?] the translation of Chinese classical literature by translators at home and abroad, thus promoting[?] the cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, and embody the advantages of Chinese literary theory in ancient Chinese ancient translation, which has an important[?] guiding role for future literary translation.

Key words

Chu Ci, Xu Yuanchong, Three Beauties Principle

Introduction

The Original meaning of Chu Ci is the words of Chu, which gradually evolved into two meanings: one is the genre of poetry, and the other is the name of the collection of poems. In the beginning, Chu Ci is a new poetry genre founded by Qu Yuan. The works use the literary style of Chu (now around Hu Nan province and Hu Bei province), describing the mountains and rivers and historical customs of Chu, with strong local characteristics. In the Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang edited Qu Yuan’s works and Song Yu’s works into a collection called Chu Ci. It is a very important collection of romantic poems and songs in the history of Chinese literature, with its unrestrained feelings, strange imagination, rich local characteristics of Chu and myth. Since Qu Yuan’s works came into being, people began the research of them and the history of research has lasted more than 2000 years. However, the study on English translation of Chi Ci was short. Until the 19th century, people began to pay more and more attention to the translation of Chu Ci. There are many people who have translated Chu Ci at home and abroad. For example, Yang Xianyi and his wife, Sun Dayu, Zhuo Zhenying, Xu Yuanchong and so on. And there are many foreign translators, such as Edward Harper Parker, Herbert Giles, James Legge, Arthur Waley and many other people. Among so many English translated versions of Chu Ci, the English translation of Chu Ci by Xu Yuanchong is the most classic. He translated Chu Ci with his Three Beauties Principle and combined the translation with Chinese culture. At present, few scholars have studied the relationship between Xu Yuanchong’s English translation of Chu Ci and the Three Beauties Principle theory. Therefore, it is of a great significance to explore the mutual confirmation between Three Beauties Principle and the English translation of Chu Ci by Xu Yuanchong.

Literature Review

Chu Ci is a new poetry genre founded by Qu Yuan in the Warring States Period. The works use the literary style of Chu (now around Hu Nan province and Hu Bei province), describing the mountains and rivers and historical customs of Chu, which has unique characteristics. In the Han Dynasty, Liu Xiang edited Qu Yuan’ s works and Song Yu’s works into a collection, which was called Chu Ci. It has become a collection of poems with far reaching-reaching influence on Chinese literature after The Book of Songs. The original meaning of Chu Ci was the words of Chu, and it gradually evolved into two meanings: one is the genre of poetry, and the other is the name of poetry collection(in a certain extent, it also represents the literature of Chu). As far as poetry genre is concerned, it is a new poetic style founded by Qu Yuan as a representative poet in the late Warring States Period on the basis of Chu folk songs. As far as the name of the collection in the style of Chu Ci edited by Liu Xiang in the Han Dynasty on the basis of predecessors, it included 16 works written by Qu Yuan and Song Yu of Chu people in the Warring States Period and by Jia Yi, Zhuang Ji, Dong Fangshuo and Liu Xiang in the Han Dynasty. The main author of Chu Ci is Qu Yuan, he created immortal works such as Li Sao, Nine Chapters, Nine Songs and so on. The form of poetry is processed and formed on the basis of Chu folk songs, and a large number of local customs and dialects of Chu are quoted in the poems. The historical legends, mythological stories, customs and habits involved in the works, as well as the artistic means and the rich lyrical style are all marked with Chu culture. These are the basic characteristics of Chu Ci, and they are an important part of Chu culture that complements the Central Plains culture. Chu Ci occupies an important position in the history of Chinese poetry. Its appearance broke two or three centuries’ silence after the Book of Songs, and shined brilliantly in poetry circles. Chu Ci not only opened up the following Fu style, but also influenced the prose creation of the following dynasties. It is the source of active romantic poetry creation. Tao Yuanming and Li Bai of later generations are all affected by it. Since Qu Yuan’s works came into being, people began the research of them and the history of research has lasted more than 2000 years. However, the study of English translation of Chi Ci was short. Until the 19th century, people began to pay more and more attention to the translation of Chu Ci. There are many people who have translated Chu Ci at home and abroad. At home, such as Yang Xianyi and his wife, Sun Dayu and Xu Yuanchong all have translated Chu Ci. There are many foreign translators, such as Arthur Waley, David Hawkes and some other people. At home, Yang Xianyi and his wife published the English translation of Li Sao and some other poems of Chu Ci by Foreign Languages Press in 1955, Xu Yuanchong published the English Translation of the complete works of Chu Ci by Hunan People’s Publishing House and China Translation and Publishing Corporation in 1994 and 2005 respectively, Zhuo Zhenying published Chinese Classic· Chu Region in Chinese and English by Hunan People’s Publishing House in 2006, and Sun Dayu published Selected poems of Qu Yuan by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press in 2007. In the western countries, Edward Harper Parker’s The Sadness of Separation, or Li Sao was regarded as the earliest English version related to the anthology and it was published in The China Review: or Notes and Queries on the Far East in 1879. In 1884 Gems of Chinese Literature was published by Herbert Giles in Shanghai, he selectively translated Bu Ju, Yu Fu, Shan Gui and so on in his bo. In 1895, for the purpose of preaching, Li Sao, Guo Shang and Li Hun was translated by James Legge as Confucian classics and published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1919, Arthur Waley selectively translated Guo Shang and Da Zhao in his anthologies A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems and More Translations from Chinese. He also translated Jiu Ge into English in 1955. In 1959, David Hawkes’s The Songs of the South was published by the Oxford University Press, which is the most authoritative English translation of Chu Ci in the West.

Methods and Theories

Three Beauties Principle is originated from Lun Xun’s opinion. He put forward the theory of Three Beauties in Chinese literary creation in his article From Words to Articles. The original text is: Beauty in sense is to feel from the heart, this is the first step; beauty in sound is to feel from the ears, this is the second step; and beauty in form is to feel from the eyes, this is the third step. Xu Yuanchong of Peking University transplanted this theory into translation theory and formed his own Three Beauties Principle for poetry translation. According to Xu, “I applied Lu Xun’s ‘three beauties’ to translation and it is ‘three beauties’ principle on poetry translation. That is to say, the rendition should move the readers as the original, this is beauty in meaning; it should have rhyme pleasant to ear as the original, this is beauty in sound; the translators should try to keep the original form (such as the length of poetic lines and antithesis), this is beauty in form.” In 1979, Xu Yuanchong raised the poetry translation theory of beauty in meaning, beauty in sound and beauty in form in the preface of the version of Mao Zedong’s Poetry. Which marks the birth of Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Principle. Xu Yuanchong raised this theory on the basis of sixty years’ experience in poetry translation. When this principle came into being, it is received wide attention. Xu Yuanchong has also grasped and got inspiration from other translators’ opinions or theories. Such as Yan Fu’s theory of “faithful, expressiveness and elegance” and Qian Zhongshu’s translation theory of “The Translation Art of Hua”. However, it is not easy to do this, which is why Xu Yuanchong was praised by his teacher, Qian Zhongshu, who is a master of Chinese and western learning: “ You dance with the shackles of rhyme and cadence, which is flexible and amazing.”

Beauty in Sound

Beauty in Sound refers to the rhyme and smoothness of poetry. It means the translated poems should keep the same melodious rhythm as the original poems. The beauty of sound is composed of rhymes, rhythms and tones. Generally speaking, poetry emphasizes the beauty of sound. Xu Yuanchong pays attention to sound because it is very important in poetry. Xu thinks that it is reasonable to use rhyme in hundred years because there are few Chinese poems with more than 200 lines. As we all know, poetry is written in a language with harmonious rhythm. Harmonious rhythm and rhyme play an important role in poetry. According to Xu, poetry should have rhythm, be written fluently and sound pleasing to the ear, which is the beauty of Sound. Generally speaking, the translation of phonetic features is the most difficult to achieve, because different languages, especially English and Chinese, have different sound systems. In poetry translation, Professor Xu believes that the English version of Chinese classical poetry should and must have unique characteristics. Although Chinese and English poems have their own metrical systems and rhyming schemes to form the musicality of poetry, equivalence can be achieved by translating Chinese poems into English iambic, inflection, fingering or anaphora. In a word, we only use the weak beat and strong beat in English translation instead of the flat beat in Chinese. As long as the adoption of rhythm does not sacrifice consciousness, the translator should transplant the rhythm of the original work; This is especially true in the translation of Chinese classical poetry, because rhyme is an important feature of poetry. In this case, the beauty of sound will not be lost, so that readers can experience the same artistic feelings as local readers. The word homeoteleuton means “similarity in endings,” and in this device words, phrases or clauses in close succession end with the same ending suffix or syllable. In the English translation of Chu Ci by Xu Yuanchong, he used the rhetorical device of homeoteleuton to reflect Beauty in sound. However, the rhyme scheme of the translation is not equivalent with the original poem. e.g.1 君不行兮夷犹，蹇谁留兮中洲？美要眇兮宜修，沛吾乘兮桂舟。 Why don’t you come, oh! Still hesitating? For whom on midway isle, oh! Are you waiting? Duly adorned, Oh! And fair, I float. On rapid stream, oh! My cassia boat. In the original text, the first sentence rhymes with third sentence and the second sentence rhymes with the fourth sentence. It is the rhyme style of abab. However, in the translation, “hesitating” rhymes with “waiting”, “float” rhymes with “boat”, it is the rhyme style of aabb. These words show Mrs Xiang’s anxiety while waiting for Xiang Jun. Also, after using this rhetorical device, poetry is more catchy to read. e.g.2 荪壁兮紫坛，播芳椒兮成堂。桂栋兮兰橑，辛夷楣兮药房。 In purple court, oh! thyme decks the wall; With fragrant pepper, oh! is spread the hall. Pillars of cassia, oh! stand upright, And rooms smeel sweet, oh! with clover white. In the original text, the second sentence rhymes with the fourth sentence, and it is the rhyme style of abcb. However, in the translation, “wall” rhymes with “hall”, “upright” rhymes with “white”, it is the rhyme style of abab. These words describe the good environment where Mrs Xiang lives, thus praising the hero’s noble character.

Beauty in Form

Beauty in Form refers to neat rows and lengths and neat confrontation. It means that the translated poems should keep the same form (length, antithesis) as the original poems. Form is unique to poetry, and it is a remarkable feature between poetry and other literary genres. Only the lines of poetry are arranged according to a certain set of rules, especially Chinese classical poetry. As for beauty in form, it is mainly about length and symmetry. Chinese poetry emphasizes balance, symmetry and harmony. For example, in an eight-line poem, the middle four lines should form two couplets, in which each character in the first line should be compared with the corresponding character in the next line in meaning, part of speech and tone. On the relationship between formal beauty and the other two kinds of beauty, Xu Yuanchong explained that among the three beauties, the beauty of meaning is the most important, the beauty of sound is the second, and the beauty of form is the third. However,'beauty in form' is essential; Beauty in sense and beauty in form constitute the unity of contradiction. On one hand, a good form should serve good content. Without good content, no matter how good the form is, it is useless. On the other hand, the content should be expressed in a good form; Otherwise, the inner beauty of the original poem will be destroyed. On the premise of "beauty in meaning" and "beauty in sound", we should try our best to convey "beauty in form", so that these three beauties in the version can be realized. However, if these three can't be realized at the same time, we should give up the beauty in sound and form, but realize the beauty in sense. Therefore, Xu put forward a request to himself, that is, to try his best to convey the beauty of form and harmony on the premise of conveying the beauty of meaning. Antithesis is the deliberate arrangement of contrasting words or ideas in balanced structural forms to achieve force and emphasis. The form of the expression is very important for effect, for the force of the emphasis, whether for profundity of judgement, for humor or for satire, depends chiefly on the juxtaposition of direct opposites, of glaring contrasts. e.g.1 朝搴阰之木兰兮，夕揽洲之宿莽。 At dawn I gather mountain grass, oh! At dusk I pick secluded one. In the original text, 朝 corresponds to 暮，搴corresponds to 揽，阰之木兰corresponds to 洲之宿莽. Similarly, in the translation, “at dawn” corresponds to “at dusk”, “gather” corresponds to “pick”, and “mountain grass corresponds to “secluded one”. The structure between every two poems is very neat, subject corresponds to subject, adverbial corresponds to adverbial, and noun corresponds to noun. The author uses this rhetorical device, the beauty in rhyme in the poem is reflected. Also, the poem becomes more concise, symmetrical and elegant. e.g.2 朝骋鹜兮江皋，夕弭节兮北渚。鸟次兮屋上，水周兮堂下。 At dawn I drive my cab, oh！By riverside; At dusk on northern isle, oh! I stop my ride. Under the eaves, oh! the birds reposed; Around the house, oh! the river flows. In the original text, 朝 corresponds to 夕，屋上corresponds to 堂下. Similarly, in the translation, “at dawn” corresponds to “at dusk”, “under the eaves” corresponds to “around the house”. The structure between every two poems is very neat, subject corresponds to subject, adverbial corresponds to adverbial, and noun corresponds to noun. In addition, the translator mentions “on northern isle” in the first half of the sentence, which provides convenience for the rhyme of aabb of the whole poem.

Beauty in Sense

Beauty in Sense refers to the beauty of content. It means the translated poems should keep the same meaning as the original poems and move people with meaning. Xu (1984) thinks that the foundation of the three beauties is three similarities, namely, similarity in meaning, similarity in sound and similarity in form. In order to seek similarity in meaning, translators should convey the meaning of the original text without misinterpreting or increasing readers' thoughts. Generally speaking, the similarity in meaning can be equated with the beauty in meaning of the original text. However, sometimes the similarity in meaning and beauty in meaning are contradictory, and the similarity in meaning cannot convey the beauty in meaning of the original text. This is because the sense of beauty is caused by association or some historical reasons; Therefore, the target readers will not have the same connection with the authors, because they do not have the same historical background. Often, in that case, beauty in meaning is difficult to translate. As for some beautiful words in Chinese, it is difficult to find equivalent words in English. This is because the beauty in meaning is sometimes combined by the beauty in sound and the beauty in form, not just the similarity in meaning. Although the beauty in meaning is based on the similarity in meaning, the beauty in meaning lies in the deep layer, while the similarity in meaning lies in the surface structure. For example, when Xu Yuanchong (2004) translated Li Shangyin's famous poem Untitled Poem, he translated "春蚕到死丝方尽" into “silkworm till its death spin silk from love-sick heart”. Because of Three Beauties Principle is put forward for Tang poetry and Song lyrics, Xu created a beautiful picture full of images with his simple language.

Conclusion

This paper proves that Three Beauties Principle has guiding significance for the translation of Chu Ci and other Chinese classical literature; Therefore, the communication between China and other countries is better conducted. In this thesis, the author uses a whole chapter to illustrate how the translator conveys the beauty in meaning, sound and form in the translation by various methods. In order to translate beauty in meaning, translators should properly handle and translate images, rhetoric and characters. All these require translators to have a good understanding of Chinese traditional literature and Chinese culture. And translators should be very careful when dealing with these things. In order to translate the beauty in sound, translators should have a good understanding of the rhythm and rhymes of both Chinese and English. Rhyme is a bit complicated, including ending rhyme, alliteration and onomatopoeia. Translators can properly translate the rhythm and prosody of one language into that of another. Xu believes that beauty in form includes line length, confrontation, duplication and so on. Therefore, in order to convey the beauty in form, translators should pay attention to the length and balance of sections and lines. As the most important thing in the world, Three Beauty Principle also has its shortcomings. However, from the examples given in this paper, the narration and explanation of this theory, and the nature of translation theory and poetic language, the Three Beauties Principle is a good principle. It has certain guiding significance for future poetry translation.

References

• [1]Feng Lilian 冯立茜. 浅议许渊冲“三美原则”在其诗歌翻译中的体现[D]. 成都：成都理工大学，2018.
• [2]Liu Miqing刘宓庆. 文学翻译论纲[M].武汉：湖北教育出版社，1999.
• [3]Liu Yuanyuan刘园园. 《楚辞》西方翻译与研究的现状、问题及对策研究[D]. 荆州: 长江大学, 2020.

英语笔译 黄琼 Huang Qiong 202170081571

Bamboo Weaving in Yiyang Hunan Huang Qiong

Abstract

Yiyang has a subtropical monsoon climate with high temperatures, cold winters and hot summers, and abundant precipitation. Bamboo mostly likes warm and humid climates, and Yiyang has abundant rainfall and heat, which is an ideal ecological environment for bamboo to grow, thus it is also known as the “Bamboo Capital of China”. Bamboo has always been a representative cultural image in China, which not only contains rich cultural values but also its artistic and economic values. Yiyang has a history of bamboo weaving for hundreds of years, and its bamboo products have long been famous, among which “Xiaoyu Bamboo Weaving Art” is a representative list of national intangible cultural heritage projects, and local bamboo products cover all aspects of production and life. This article not only introduces the art of bamboo weaving but also focuses on the process of weaving bamboo mats as an example to show the charm of Bamboo weaving.

Key words

Yiyang, bamboo weaving, Xiaoyu Bamboo Weaving Art, bamboo mat

Literature Review

Yiyang bamboo weaving art is a relative minority topic. More than 60 journals and papers can be found by searching "Yiyang Bamboo" on CNKI, but there are only a few articles, and the general research is not very in-depth. With "Yiyang Bamboo Weaving" as the keyword search, a total of 9 journals, and 13 papers are found. Zhang Jiang Shiqin's Research on the Development of Bamboo Culture Industry in Yiyang describes the development context, environment, current situation, and strategies for promoting the bamboo culture industry. Luo Fen's Research and Development of Yiyang Bamboo Weaving Art mainly introduces Yiyang bamboo weaving art, comprehensively uses various research methods, through sorting out Yiyang traditional bamboo weaving art, tries to put forward good solutions to the existing problems and follow-up development of Yiyang bamboo weaving. Jiang Xiangdong's Inheritance and Development of Hunan Traditional Bamboo Weaving, based on the actual situation of the development of Hunan traditional bamboo weaving, put forward several countermeasures such as "government support", "intensive management" and "talent training", which has practical guiding significance for the inheritance and development of Hunan traditional bamboo weaving art. Domestic research on Yiyang bamboo weaving art is very limited, there is no foreign paper on Yiyang bamboo weaving. Use "China Bamboo weaving" as the keyword to find literature on Google Scholar. The literature writers are all Chinese with few foreigners studying Bamboo weaving art, let alone Yiyang Bamboo weaving art. In addition, it is difficult to find any further theoretical works on Yiyang bamboo weaving. Moreover, the research on the bamboo weaving art in Yiyang is not comprehensive enough, and there is no in-depth discussion on the characteristics and causes of the bamboo weaving art in Yiyang.

The Introduction to Bamboo weaving and its History

Bamboo is always an important part of Chinese culture, and literati have often used it as imagery to express their high-minded sentiments. Bai Juyi said in The Annals of Bamboo Cultivation: "The root of bamboo is firm, which is to establish the nature of bamboo. When a gentleman sees this nature of bamboo, he thinks of being upright and selfless, and not to be attached to the influential. When a gentleman sees the heart of bamboo, he thinks of accepting all useful things with an open mind. When a gentleman sees its knot, he thinks of refining his character and being consistent, no matter when things are going well or when he encounters danger."(竹性直，直以立身；君子见其性，则思中立不倚者。竹心空，空以体道；君子见其心，则思应虚受者。竹节贞，贞以立志；君子见其节，则思砥砺名行，夷险一致者。) In China, bamboo is both upright and steadfast in character, and also has a verdant and attractive posture, and has been loved by the literati since ancient times, along with plum blossoms and pine trees are known as the "Three Friends of Winter"(岁寒三友). The pine symbolizes evergreen; the bamboo symbolizes the way of a gentleman and the plum symbolizes pure. In addition to bamboo as cultural imagery, bamboo itself has great value. Bamboo has a long history of being used in architectural art. Bamboo buildings are houses of ordinary people. Southwest minorities such as the Dai nationality(傣族) still live in bamboo buildings. The Dai bamboo building is mainly made of bamboo, and the walls are also woven from bamboo, which has high air permeability, so the ventilation of the house is good. Bamboo can also be used as musical instruments. Traditional Chinese musical instruments such as flute（笛子）, xiao(箫 a vertical bamboo flute), sheng（笙 thirteen bamboo tubes of different lengths）, zheng(筝 the ancient Chinese traditional plucking instrument), erhu（二胡 a two-stringed bowed instrument with a lower register than jinghu） are inseparable from bamboo. Word-formation of these instruments shows that they are related to bamboo(⺮，汉字的偏旁部首，读作“竹字头”). A famous calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty, Wang Xizhi, wrote in the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion: "Seated by the bank of brook, people will still regale themselves right by poetizing their mixed feelings and emotions with wine and songs, never mind the absence of melody from string and wind instruments."(It is the translation of Lin Yutang 林语堂：虽无丝竹管弦之盛，一觞一咏，亦足以畅叙幽情) Thus, since ancient China, bamboo has been used to refer to music.

The art of bamboo weaving in China is also popular, and Hunan Yiyang is also a city with a cultural heritage of bamboo art. Bamboo weaving art reflects the wisdom and value of the working people. With the development over hundreds of years, the craft is more and more advanced, not only embodies the essence of Chinese traditional handicraft but is also an important carrier of Hunan culture. In ancient times, restricted by economic conditions and transportation, ancient people could only use local materials to make tools needed for daily life. The origin of bamboo weaving can be traced back to the Neolithic Age. The Neolithic Age refers to the last phase of the Stone Age in archaeology, beginning about 10,000 years ago and ending from 5,000 to 2,000 years ago. During the Gaomiao culture of Hunan province, which dates back to more than 7,000 years ago, a bamboo mat was placed under the skeleton of a female body. There is no visual difference between this bamboo mat and today's bamboo mat products, but it has been charred (Jiang Xiangdong 2019, 146) More than 6,000 years ago, traces of bamboo weaving were found on cultural relics unearthed from Tujiatai site in Nanxian county （a county in Yiyang）during the Daxi Culture period（Pan & Tan 1994, 34）The Daxi culture dates from about 4400 to 3300 BC. The discovery of Daxi culture reveals a regional cultural heritage in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, which is dominated by red pottery and contains colored pottery. Bamboo handles for spears were unearthed from the tomb sites of the Warring States Period. Yiyang bamboo weaving became a trade in the Ming Dynasty and was exported in the Qing Dynasty. The Yiyang Museum also displays bamboo products from the Qing Dynasty, including bird cages, baskets, and so on. In the old days, farmers used to make baskets of bamboo to carry things, make hats to hide from the sun and wind and rain, make backpacks to carry farming things, and bamboo fans made of bamboo became a tool for farmers to avoid the summer heat and keep cool. In summer, after a hard day’s work, farmers lie on top of the deck chair made of bamboo, shaking the fan, chasing away mosquitoes, listening to the cicadas, looking at the moon overhead, and chatting with neighbors. These show that Yiyang bamboo weaving has a long history.

Yiyang' s Natural Environment and Bamboo

Yiyang, a prefectural city under the jurisdiction of Hunan Province, is located in the central and northern part of Hunan province, on the south bank of Dongting Lake(洞庭湖). It has been a fertile "land of fish and rice"（鱼米之乡） in the south of the Yangtze River since ancient times. Yiyang has a humid subtropical continental monsoon climate with generally high temperatures, cold winters and hot summers, and abundant precipitation year after year. It rains a lot in July and generally has low sunshine throughout the year. The average annual temperature is 16.1℃-16.9℃, sunshine 1348 hours to 1772 hours and rainfall is 1230mm to 1700mm, which is suitable for growing crops. Yiyang's climate and ecological environment are very suitable for the growth of bamboo. Yiyang is rich in Phyllostachys heteroclada（水竹）and phyllostachys pubescens （楠竹）. Phyllostachys heteroclada has excellent elasticity and toughness, fine texture, and enjoys a cool and humid environment with excellent water absorption performance and a cool bamboo body. It is an excellent material for weaving various living and production appliances. Phyllostachys pubescens can be used to weave all kinds of utensils and crafts, branches as brooms, and young bamboo as raw materials for paper.

Yiyang has abundant bamboo resources. Taojiang County(桃江) is under the jurisdiction of Yiyang City of Hunan Province, known as the township of Bamboo. According to reports from Hunan province in recent years, Yiyang's bamboo forest covers an area of 2.36 million mu(about 177333 hectares）（Mu is a unit of land area under the municipal system in China. One mu is about 666.667 square meters. Fifteen mu equals one hectare）, and its rich bamboo resources support the development of the local bamboo industry. In 2020, the output value of the bamboo and bamboo industry in Taojiang County reached 12 billion yuan, and 200,000 farmers engaged in local bamboo production and processing（Wen, Xiong & Hu 2022, 44）, which shows how important bamboo is in the production and life of Yiyang people.

There are different types of bamboo weaving art developed in Yiyang. According to the form, bamboo weaving can be divided into three-dimensional weaving, plane weaving, and mixed bamboo weaving（Guo Jie 2011, 90）. For example, the bamboo mats and fans commonly used by workers are plane weaving. Some bamboo baskets, bamboo boxes, and bamboo hats are woven in three dimensions. Whether it is flat or three-dimensional weaving, it requires a high level of skill and patience to complete beautiful bamboo weaving work.

Xiaoyu Bamboo Art(小郁竹艺) is an excellent traditional handicraft in Yiyang and is a representation of the development of Yiyang's bamboo industry. Xiaoyu Bamboo Art ware is beautiful in shape and fine in workmanship. In 2006, Xiaoyu Bamboo Art was listed in Hunan Province’s first batch of intangible cultural heritage protection lists. It was selected into the third batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage protection list in 2012. According to UNESCO, Intangible cultural heritage is traditional, contemporary, and living at the same time. It does not only represent inherited traditions from the past but also contemporary rural and urban practices in which diverse cultural groups take part. Intangible cultural heritage is not merely valued as a cultural good, on a comparative basis, for its exclusivity or its exceptional value. It thrives on its basis in communities and depends on those whose knowledge of traditions, skills, and customs are passed on to the rest of the community, from generation to generation, or to other communities. Intangible cultural heritage includes oral traditions and forms of expression; performing arts; social practice, ceremony, and festival activities; traditional crafts, and so on. Xiaoyu Bamboo Art belongs to the traditional handicraft so it is a kind of intangible cultural heritage. As one of Yiyang’s three national intangible cultural heritages, it can be seen that Yiyang has devoted a lot of effort to build the bamboo brand.

However, with the development of science and technology and the progress of people's living standards, more and more traditional handicrafts have gradually disappeared, and there are fewer and fewer craftsmen. Even Xiaoyu Bamboo art is facing development difficulties. How to inherit and develop bamboo weaving art is worth thinking about.

The Procedure of Bamboo Weaving--Bamboo Mat as an example

Because Yiyang bamboo weaving products are numerous, due to the limitation of space, the following is a brief introduction to the weaving process of the bamboo mat. Yiyang is hot and humid in summer, and the bamboo mat woven with bamboo strips has always been a traditional antidote to the heat. As early as during the reign of Emperor Yuanshun (元顺帝 1333-1370), the people of Yiyang began to weave bamboo mats with Phyllostachys heteroclada（水竹）as raw materials, with a history of more than 600 years（Liu & Liu 2014, 98）. A handmade mat in Yiyang can be sold for around 800 to 1,500 yuan. This kind of bamboo mat is placed on top of the sheets in summer and is very cool. Every night before going to bed, it needed to wipe with hot water to absorb heat as the water evaporates. When people lie down on the bamboo mat, sweat is absorbed by the bamboo, then body temperature will drop and the bamboo becomes more warm and cool. The longer the bamboo mat is used, the better the heat dissipation performance is. With the use of time getting longer and longer, the surface of the bamboo mat is getting smoother and darker. The bamboo mat that has not been used at the beginning is yellow, and gradually becomes red, and finally becomes dark brown. A good mat will last 20 or 30 years without deterioration. Such durable bamboo mats cannot be made without excellent bamboo materials and meticulous workmanship by craftsmen. Although bamboo mat is a kind of flat weaving, it also requires a lot of skills. A series of steps are required to process the raw material before the product can be woven.

The first is choosing which bamboo to use as raw material. As mentioned above, there are many Phyllostachys heteroclada and phyllostachys pubescens in Yiyang, so these two kinds of bamboo are generally used. One reason is that this kind of bamboo is abundant, widely distributed, easily transported, and grows relatively quickly compared with other kinds of bamboo, making it easy to use materials. Second, this kind of bamboo is tough, not easy to break, and has high compressive strength, which is very suitable for use as bamboo weaving material. The bamboo mat in Yiyang is usually bamboo that has grown for 3-5 years, and the fiber of such bamboo has been finalized. The growing environment of water bamboo also affects the quality of bamboo. Phyllostachys heteroclada growing on the hillside has a dense texture, while Phyllostachys heteroclada growing near the lakes and fields has a loose texture. Although bamboo prefers wet and damp conditions, it cannot be processed if it grows with little or no sunlight. Selecting raw materials is also an art.

Secondly, after selecting the raw material, the bamboo should be fully soaked to make it shrink, and after soaking, the bamboo should be dried, and only after fully drying can the bamboo be treated. Generally, it takes a few days of exposure to dry the bamboo, but since it rains a lot in the summer in Yiyang, it usually takes a little longer. If want to shorten the work period, workers should look at the weather forecast in advance.

After the bamboo is dried, the knotted part of the bamboo needs to be scraped off, which is a step called Juan Jie（卷节）. It means that after selecting the right bamboo, the bamboo is initially treated with a gimlet knife（蔑刀）. First, the craftsman scrape off the protruding parts of the bamboo joints so that they are as flat as possible against the bamboo wall.

The middle of the bamboo is not unobstructed; there are bamboo joints inside the bamboo that also need to be removed. This step is called Qu Jie(去结)。The next step is to scrape the green surface of bamboo（刮青）. Bamboo woven products are usually yellow or dark red in color, not the green color of the bamboo surface. The layer of greenish skin on the outside of the bamboo is called bamboo green(竹青). The yellow part on the inside of bamboo is called bamboo yellow（竹黄）. The craftsman uses a knife to scrape the green off the outer layer of the bamboo. It is important to scrape the green from the top down so that the bamboo skin is not damaged. Scraping the green is a technical task; if the scraping is deep, it will affect the beauty and durability of the bamboo, while if the scraping is shallow, the residual green will also affect the beauty. In addition to this reason, there is another reason for scraping the green. The surface of the bamboo may leave spots, and removing the bamboo green can also remove the spots. There are also differences in the hue of the bamboo surface due to the age and growing environment of the bamboo, and most craftsmen choose to remove the bamboo green in order to unify the hue, although this step is very hard and time-consuming.

The next step is called Qi Jian(起间). The craftsman uses a cleaver to split the bamboo in half, and on top of that, he keeps splitting it in half until it reaches the desired width. This ideal width depends on the bamboo sticks(竹篾 Zhu Mie). Bamboo sticks, called Mi Pian Zi in the Yiyang dialect, are thin strips of bamboo, which are the basic material for bamboo weaving, and with which the artisan can begin to weave. There are two types of bamboo sticks: thin sticks and thick sticks. The difference between thin and thick sticks is mainly in width, followed by thin sticks that are softer and more delicate, with better smoothness and comfort. After that, it is necessary to split the sticks(分蔑). Specifically, each section of bamboo is split into three parts: a surface layer, a middle layer, and an inner layer. The craftsman has to divide the bamboo into three layers, which are only about one millimeter thick, which tests the craftsman's experience and skill.

The next step is San Fang（三防）. This is to prevent mold, moths, and cracking. By doing San Fang, bamboo mats can be preserved and used for decades. Bamboo is prone to mold and attracts pests at the right temperature and moderation, resulting in poor quality bamboo. Mildew and insect infestation can also hinder the beauty of bamboo weaving. There are also many ways to prevent insects in bamboo. Physical methods include a high-temperature method, chemical methods include steaming, soaking, and smoking. In addition to preventing mold and insects, it is also necessary to prevent the bamboo sticks from cracking, for example, there is the pressurization method. The bamboo material is subjected to external forces that can eliminate internal forces and prevent cracking. Generally, the artisan puts the divided bamboo sticks into a pot and steams them in boiling water for about an hour. After the high temperature steaming, it can prevent insects and mildew, and also increase the softness of the bamboo for the next weaving step.

Then the artisan should dye the bamboo sticks. The dyeing of bamboo sticks is an extremely important process in the manufacturing process of bamboo weaving. Heat is used to increase the dyeing speed. The addition of surfactants to the dyeing solution(染液) is an effective means of improving the dyeing effect by giving it higher adsorption and surface activity. Dyeing solution composition, dyeing time, room temperature, and moisture content of the bamboo sticks all affect the dyeing effect of the sticks（Ref. Sun Delin, Liu Wenjin & Yao Wenliang 2012, 9）.In addition to dyeing with solution, workers can also dye the main material with hot oil. The dried bamboo material is placed inside the hot oil at 200 degrees Celsius. The bamboo material taken out appears purplish red. Bamboo dyeing is a very complicated procedure, and the color is unpredictable every time. Since each layer of fiber is different, this can lead to uneven absorption of the solution and differences in the resulting dyeing effect. The consistency of the color is the basis for the artistic effect of bamboo weaving. Inconsistencies in the color of the sticks affect the presentation of the bamboo weaving.

All the steps before weaving have been completed and the bamboo sticks are ready. Bamboo mats have nearly 20 working procedures, and each square meter weighs 470 grams above. Generally, bamboo mats are arranged with 14 or 16 sticks per 3.3 centimeters, and the high-quality products are 18 ~ 24 sticks. Bamboo mats can be woven into patterns such as phoenix tails, plum blossom scenes, interlocking locks, flowers and birds, insects and fish, figures, landscapes, paintings, and other patterns(Su Wei 2010, 7). The pattern of ordinary household bamboo mats looks like the Chinese character "ren"(人). This highly regular weaving technique is relatively simple. The next bamboo stick can be hidden under the previous bamboo stick so that the surface of the bamboo mat is smooth and flat. In addition, this style is also convenient for bamboo mat maintenance.

Weaving techniques are also very rich. There are two main weaving methods of the bamboo mat in Yiyang:Tiao 2 Ya 2 (挑2压2) and Tiao 3 Ya 3(挑3压3). Tiao 2 Ya 2 (挑2压2) means that the two sticks are on top and the two stricks are on the bottom, which is the most commonly used and delicate method of bamboo mat weaving. Tiao 3 Ya 3(挑3压3) means 3 bamboo sticks on top and 3 bamboo sticks on the bottom. Few people use this method at present(Liu & Liu 2014, 100). A good craftsman weaves a bamboo mat that is durable. Everything must be measured as if it had been.

Now let's introduce t bamboo mat with a “人” pattern, which is woven in the way of Tiao 2 Ya 2 (挑2压2). Start from the middle part of the right triangle on one side of the mat. The starting part is about five cun wide（寸, a unit of length, five cun about 16 centimeters）, and the length is about one meter in the right direction. When weaving the main part, the craftsman uses a bamboo board to press the whole starting part and sits cross-legged on the mat, picks up the sticks from both sides to the middle at the same time with both hands, then picks up the sticks with his index finger and put them into his palm. After all of them are picked up, pick up the bamboo board with the right hand and put it under the picked sticks, then put in the sticks to be woven, and knock them hard and evenly. Repeat this step. When most of the bamboo mat is finished, the artisan twists and closes the edges of the mat（扭边和收边）. The four sides of the mat are dipped in water to prevent the bamboo sticks from breaking, and then the reverse side of the sticks is twisted to 360 degrees to cover the sticks below. The craftsman squats barefoot on top of the mat, cuts the twisted sticks, leaving only one cun long, and sets the front sticks at a 30-degree angle into the back sticks, finishing one by one by pressing two. After closing the edge, insert the closed sticks into the seam of the mat, and arrange them in order, without overlapping and without breaking.

This technique is actually very complicated, and it usually takes 4 or 5 days for an old craftsman to finish weaving a cool mat. If a new man learns to weave bamboo mats, many mistakes will be made, such as wrong patterns, and he may even get injured. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer men who know how to weave bamboo mats because there are technical requirements, not everyone can weave well, and fewer and fewer people are willing to spend time learning how to weave. The development and inheritance of the Yiyang bamboo mat are the results of thousands of years of polishing and perfecting.

Conclusion

Chinese bamboo weaving products have a long history, the production skills are very exquisite, and gradually to the direction of elegant art. Traditional bamboo weaving is the precious wealth of Chinese culture, but under the strong impact of industrial civilization, the status of handicrafts has been greatly inferior. At present, the Yiyang bamboo products processing level is still in the primary stage, and there is no high technology content. Most of them are made by hand, and a low production rate has always been a problem. Even though machine production is now vigorously developed, the quality of products is difficult to match that of hand weaving. The shape and color of bamboo products in Yiyang are slightly inadequate. The price of bamboo crafts is relatively low. There is a lack of good brands and few high-grade artworks that combine the advantages of product decoration effect, practical efficiency, innovation ability, and art appreciation in one. The art of bamboo weaving in Yiyang has survived thousands of years of weathering and it has been quite difficult to survive(Luo Fen 2013, 42). We need to research and develop new techniques, develop new ideas, pioneer and innovate on the basis of inheriting traditional handicrafts and do a good job of modernizing and transforming the art of bamboo weaving. First of all, set up a bamboo art industry association, organize and plan bamboo art expositions, and regularly host bamboo culture seminars, which can promote exchanges between bamboo weaving artists, bamboo weaving enthusiasts, and bamboo weaving researchers, and can also play a propaganda role. Second, increase the training of talents. We can introduce advanced technology from domestic and foreign places where the art of bamboo weaving is better developed, send Yiyang’s bamboo weaving artists and processing and production personnel to other regions to learn modern science and technology, or give appropriate financial subsidies to bamboo weaving inheritors. Yiyang bamboo weaving is an extremely representative traditional craft of Yiyang. It is also an indispensable part of our Chinese cultural treasures. The preservation and protection of Chinese traditional crafts is the top priority.

References

• Guo Jie 郭杰.(2011). 浅谈益阳竹编工艺[A Brief Discussion on Yiyang Bamboo Weaving Technology].现代交际 Modern communication,(06):90.
• Jiang Xiangdong 姜向东.(2019).湖南传统竹编的传承和发展[Inheritance and Development of Hunan Traditional Bamboo Weaving].艺海 The Sea of Art(01),146-149.
• Liu Yingwu & Liu Lang 刘英武 & 刘浪.(2014).茅竹湖水竹凉席装饰特征与制篾工艺探析[The Analysis of Decorative Features and Bamboo Sheet Technology of Maozhu Lake Bamboo Mat]. 装饰 Decoration (07),98-100.
• Luo Fen 罗芬.(2013).益阳竹编艺术的研究与开发[Research and development of Bamboo weaving art in Yiyang]湖南师范大学 Hunan Normal University
• Pan Yuehui & Tan Guoming 潘茂辉,谈国鸣.(1994).南县涂家台早期新石器时代遗址调查报告[Investigation report on the Early Neolithic site of Tujiatai, Nanxian County]. 湖南考古辑刊 Journal of Hunan Archaeology (00),34-43.
• Su Wie 苏伟.(2010). 益阳水竹凉席[Yiyang's Bamboo Mat]. 湖南农业 Hunan Agriculture (02),7.
• Sun Delin, Liu Wenjin & Yao Wenliang 孙德林,刘文金 & 姚文亮.(2012).竹篾染色工艺的优化研究[Optimization of Bamboo Sticks Dyeing Research].包装工程 Packaging engineering (05),9-12.
• Wen Aihua, Xiong Yanhui & Hu Dehe 文爱华,熊艳辉 & 胡德合.(2022).把乡里笋竹做成“世界宝宝”[Make Bamboo Shoots into "World Babies"]. 湖南农业 Hunan Agriculture(01),44-45.
• Xu Wei 徐薇.(2012).益阳小郁竹艺工艺与文化研究[Study on the Craft and culture of Yiyang Xiaoyu Bamboo Art] 湖南师范大学 Hunan Normal University.

Terms and Expressions

1. 竹编 bamboo weaving 2. 竹篾 bamboo split 3. 水竹 Phyllostachys heteroclada Oliver 4. 毛竹 Phyllostachys edulis 5. 亚热带季风气候 subtropical monsoon climate

Questions

1. What is the climate type of Yiyang? 2. What is the National Intangible Cultural Heritage of Yiyang?

Answers

1. subtropical monsoon climate 2. Xiaoyu Bamboo Weaving art

英语笔译 邝雨琪 Kuang Yuqi 202170081572

Chinese Mooncake Culture 邝雨琪Kuang Yuqi

Introduction

Chinese moon cake is the representative food of the Mooncake Festival, or more commonly known as Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar and is celebrated with family gatherings, feasts, and an abundance of lights, lanterns, and candles. Mooncake is a kind of round cookie with various fillings and different artistic patterns on the surface, depicting the legends of the festival and conveying auspicious meanings. During the festival, people sacrifice these cookies to the moon as offerings*, eat them for celebration and present them to relatives and friends for good wishes. (Gu Xijia 2010)

*Worship the Moon

The moon worship is an ancient royal ritual and an important Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival activity, to pray for the moon to bless the people. At the night of Mid-Autumn Fetisval, people place a table that faces the moon, put mooncakes and other sacrifices on the table, make wishes and offer incense to the moon. At the end of the worship, people burn the special papers to the moon. Then they share the sacrifices. The wishes they usually made are family reunion, happiness, success and beauty. The worship ceremony is to show respect to the moon god.

Mooncake Mythology

According to legend, in ancient times the earth orbited ten suns, with a single sun appearing each day. However, on one particularly sweltering day, all ten rose in the sky at once, scorching the earth and its inhabitants. The emperor called upon Hou Yi（后羿）, a famed archer, to shoot down the nine extras. Upon his success and the subsequent salvation of all of the poor sunburned souls below, Hou Yi, in essence, became a celebrity. People from far and wide flocked to him aggressively. The people of ancient China gifted Hou Yi with considerably valuable items---the Elixir of Life from the Goddess of Heaven.

Upon receiving this particular gift, Hou Yi recognized its value and gave it to his beautiful and beloved wife, Chang Er（嫦娥）, for safekeeping. However, Peng Meng（逄蒙）, an evil follower of Hou Yi, witnessed the exchange and sought to steal the elixir for himself. Soon thereafter, he cornered Chang Er with a sword and attempted to force her into handing it over. Chang Er, knowing there was no other escape, quickly swallowed the elixir herself. However, the dose was too strong, and she immediately began floating far into the sky, where she finally came to rest on the moon. After Hou Yi learned all this, he went insane with attempts to reach her. But he could not, and had to satisfy his love for her by setting her offerings of fruit and sweets and nightly worship of that white orb in the sky. As a result, the moon cakes have become metaphorical items for lonely Chang Er and her husband Hou Yi, who miss each other, dreaming of reunion and expressing their feelings.

For a more specific look at mooncakes, we can also fast forward a few thousand years to the Yuan dynasty. Around 1368, tired of being oppressively ruled by the Mongols, the Han Chinese decided to organize a rebellion. Wary of being found out, they communicated the idea of the revolution to their fellow Han by baking slips of paper with the date of the uprising in to mooncakes. They knew that the Mongols would never eat this Han style treat. The cakes were distributed far and wide across the city. So, when the Han bit into their afternoon snacks and pulled paper out of their mouths, they were all in on the secret. Due to their ingenuity, the revolution was a success and a new dynasty began. Nowadays, mooncakes are eaten on the exact day, as a reminder of the triumph of the Han during the Mid-Autumn Festival many years ago.

The History of Mooncake

Mooncake history is as long as 3,000 years in China. The predecessor of mooncake is the Taishi cake（太师饼）in the Shang Dynasty (17th century BC-1046 BC) and Zhou Dynasty (17th century BC-256 BC). For a long time in history, mooncakes were used as a sacrifice on the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is said that the custom of eating mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival began in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD); in Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), it became popular in the royal palace; in late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD), it has been spread widely to the folks; in Ming (1368-1644 AD) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911AD), it has become a common dietary habit of Chinese people. (Ou Shinan 2015)

Origin of Mooncake - Taishi Cake（太师饼）

According to historical records, in Shang and Zhou Dynasties (17th century BC-256 BC) in China, there were Taishi cakes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. At that time, Taishi cakes were made to commemorate Wenzhong, who invented the cake, which was thin in edge and thick in the middle. It is the predecessor of mooncake in China. (Yang Binhu 2015)

Wulnuts Cake（胡饼）in Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD)

In Han Dynasty, Zhangqian（张骞）, who was sent on a diplomatic mission to the western of China, introduced sesame seeds and walnuts from the west. Then the sesame seeds and walnuts were used as the fillings of mooncakes. People called it Hu cake at that time. (Yang Binhu 2015)

Round Cakes Eaten on Mid-autumn Festival since Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD)

In Tang Dynasty, the Emperor Li Shimin（李世民）ordered a general called Lijing（李靖）to lead the troops to conquer Turk, a nationality in the north. On the 15th day the 8th lunar month, Li Jing returned triumphantly. Li Shimin celebrated the triumph of Li Jing and the troops. There was a trader from Tibet offered some round cakes to Li Shimin to congratulate victory. Li Shimin was very happy to receive this gift and introduced the round cakes to his faithful subjects. After that, the round cakes became popular both in palace and among the folks. People ate the round cakes on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. In mooncake history, we cannot avoid mentioning Concubine Yang Yuhuan（杨玉环）of a later Tang emperor Li Longji（李隆基）. It is said it is Yang who named the round cake “mooncake”. (Yang Binhu 2015)

Court Cakes（宫饼）Prevailed in Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD)

In Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), mooncake was called “Court Cake” and was not only popular in the palace but also the folklore. Later, people gave it meaning of reunion, reflecting the good wishes for family reunion, and also deep miss of friends. The written record of the characters “moon cake” were first seen in a book of Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 AD), which is an important textual evidence in mooncake history. (Yang Binhu 2015)

Mooncake Uprising in Late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD)

In late Yuan Dynasty, people could not bear the cruel rule of the court. Zhu Yuanzhang（朱元璋）, the founder of Ming, united various resistance forces to prepare for the uprising. But it was hard to deliver military message secretly. Liu Bowen（刘伯温）, a subject of Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with an idea that put the note writing “Uprising on the 15th night of 8th lunar month” into the mooncakes, and then sent them to other resistance forces. On the day of the uprising, the uprising troops from different places got together and fight against the Yuan troop. Soon the uprising succeeded and Zhu Yuanzhang presented mooncakes to the ministers as gifts. It is said that since then the custom of eating mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival was formed. This is an essential event in mooncake history.

Eating mooncakes got popular in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD)

There is a detailed record of the mooncake from the Ming Dynasty: “Mid-Autumn Festival is on the 15th day of 8th lunar month, and people celebrate family reunion by eating mooncakes.” From the record, we can see eating mooncake in Mid-Autumn Festival has got popular in the folk. (Yang Binhu 2015)

Homemade mooncakes are essential for Mid-autumn Festival in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911AD)

According to mooncake history, eating mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival has become a wide spread custom in the Qing Dynasty, and there are more historical records about mooncakes. At that time, mooncakes were mostly homemade. Many books recorded the making process of mooncake with flour, nuts, sugar and lard, etc.

Famous brands of mooncakes rose since 20th century

Since 1900s, Dao Xiang Cun（稻香村）, Lian Xiang Lou（莲香楼）, Guan Sheng Yuan（冠生园） and other mooncake brands have shown up. So far, some mooncake brands have already been over 100 years old. Nowadays, Chinese people eat mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival, and present mooncakes to each other.

In recent years, the mooncakes have become more and more elaborate, and there are extremely high-priced mooncakes. As gifts, some moon cakes are luxuriously packaged, and a box of moon cakes can reach several thousand or even tens of thousands RMB.

Mooncakes Symbolize Family Reunion

Shaped like the full moon, the moon cake is made round. The round moon cake looks exactly like the full moon in the night sky. In ancient times, mooncakes were a kind of offering to the moon. Over the centuries, these special cakes have become the most popular food of the Mid-Autumn Festival. They are named after the moon goddess (Chang'e), who is said to make this kind of cake.

In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes completeness and togetherness. A full moon symbolizes prosperity and reunion for the whole family. Round mooncakes complement the harvest moon in the night sky at the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion and “round” has a similar pronunciation with “reunion” in Chinese.

The mooncake is not just a food, but more of a cultural element deeply penetrated into Chinese people’s hearts, symbolizing family reunion and embodying spiritual feelings. At Mid-Autumn Festival people eat mooncakes together with family, or present mooncakes to relatives or friends, to express love and best wishes. It is a celebration of the fullest and brightest moon of the year. The moon cake is undoubtedly a key element in the Chinese culture.

Even today, while eating moon cakes on Mid-autumn Festival, overseas Chinese miss their relatives and beloved ones in China even more, eagerly hoping to reunite with them. Mooncakes are the most iconic food of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Under China’s influence, southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand also make it a custom to eat moon cakes on the Mid-autumn Festival.

The Top 10 Mooncake Flavors

Mooncake, a kind of pastry, is a popular festival food in China for Mid-Autumn Festival. Because of the different materials, especially the fillings, mooncakes come in many flavors, basically sweet or salty. Here are ten of the most popular mooncake flavors. (Qiao Fengqi 2014)

1.Wuren Mooncake（五仁月饼）– Mixed Nuts Mooncake

Wuren literally means five kinds of nuts or kernels such as walnut kernels, almonds, sesame seeds, melon seeds, hawthorn, red beans and so on. You will get a different taste with each bite. Wuren Mooncake is a typical and popular mooncake flavor in China. Though Chinese young people don’t like it very much, Wuren mooncake is much welcomed by the old.

2.Red Bean Mooncake（豆沙月饼）

Sweet red bean mooncake has always been a classic type that many people prefer. Through careful production, the combination of sweet bean paste and the outer skin makes the mooncake smooth and have a richer flavor. Some people don't like such a sweet taste, but a cup of tea is a good choice to go with them.

3.White Lotus Mooncake（莲蓉月饼）

The lotus mooncake is the representative of Cantonese-style mooncake. The filling is white lotus paste, which is made of the fresh lotus seeds of the year with a natural fragrance. Since the sugar is added and calories are high in lotus paste mooncake, the elderly and diabetics should not eat too much.

4.Salted Egg Yolk Mooncake（蛋黄月饼）

As it implied in the name, the filling of this kind of mooncake is the solid salted egg yolk. The unique taste makes this mooncake popular. The fresh lotus seeds paste or red bean paste are the most common combinations for mooncake fillings with egg yolks.

5.Snow Skin Mooncake（冰皮月饼）

Snow skin mooncake is a new mooncake flavor in recent years. It is small and cute, and the cake skin is crystal clear made of glutinous rice flour. It is very suitable for young people who are pursuing fashion trends. Different from other mooncakes, it needs to be stored in the refrigerator.

6.Minced Pork Mooncake（鲜肉月饼）

Minced pork mooncake is a traditional snack in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai regions. The filling is fresh minced pork. The wrapper is permeated by meat juice and baked, which makes it crisp and a special taste. Meat lovers can also have a try of another meat mooncake flavor, Cantonese style ham mooncake.

7.Green Tea Mooncake（茶叶月饼）

The biggest feature of green tea mooncake is the fresh natural taste. With the taste of fresh tea leaves, the usually greasy taste of mooncake is well balanced. Green tea powder is added into the skin or the fillings. Different from other types of mooncakes, it is not overly sweet and has a certain health effect!

8.Fruits Mooncake（水果月饼）

Fruit mooncake blends the taste of fruit. The sweet but not greasy taste is loved by many people. The fillings is usually added with the freshest fruits like strawberry, orange, peach, and pineapple. The durian mooncake is the popular fruit mooncake flavor in recent years.

9.Flower Cake（鲜花饼）

Flower mooncakes have been well received in the market in recent years. The fillings are added with flowers, bringing a fragrant taste. The variety is quite rich and the most popular ones are rose and sweet-scented osmanthus.

10.Yam Mooncake（芋泥月饼）

Yam mooncake is also a new mooncake flavor. The filling is sweet yam paste. The mucus protein contained in the yam can improve the body’s resistance. So the yam mooncake is popular among those who want to keep healthy. Also, it has a great taste.

12 Types of Regional Mooncakes in China

In China, traditional mooncakes are classified into 4 types depending on the origin, sales volume and features: Cantonese-style, Beijing-style, Suzhou-style, and Chaoshan-style. As time passed by, more types appeared: Hong Kong-style, Shanghai-style, Yunnan style, Shaanxi style… (Qiao Fengqi 2014)

1.Cantonese-style Mooncake（广式月饼）

Flavor: sweet or salty with thin crust The characteristics of Cantonese-style mooncake are thin crust and large fillings. The stuffing is mainly of lotus seed paste, coconut paste, yolks, bean paste, jujube paste or various meat. Cantonese-style moon cakes taste soft, and it is better to eat them together with tea.

2.Chaoshan-style Mooncake（潮汕月饼）

Flavor: soft with crispy crust, oily but not fatty, sweet or salty but not greasy The Chaoshan-style mooncake, or the teochew mooncake, is a famous traditional flaky mooncake in the Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province. According to the different types of stuffing, it can be divided into mung bean mooncake, black bean mooncake, seafood mooncake, yolks mooncake, etc. The kernel inside stuffing is commonly yolks or seafood.

3.Beijing-style Mooncake（京式月饼）

Flavor: sweet The most distinctive feature of the Beijing-style mooncake is the cooking method handed down from ancient royal palace; the process of selecting materials and making is quite complicated. The fillings are usually made from nuts, sweet-scented osmanthus, and rock sugar, etc. It is exquisite in appearance, and the crust is thin and crispy, attracting a lot of foodies.

4.Shanghai-style Mooncake（上海月饼）

Flavor: salty It is a kind of baked flaky mooncake, and it tastes the best soon after it is cooked. The stuffing of it is entirely fresh pork, which tastes smooth. The crust is crispy, and the rich gravy penetrates into it, making it extremely delicious.

5.Hong Kong-style Mooncake（港式月饼）

Flavor: salty sweet The traditional mooncake representative in Hong Kong is stuffed of white lotus seed paste with double yolks. It is exquisite of the materials and making process. The crust is thin, the thickness is even, and the two salted golden yellow yolks are neatly centered with silky red oil. The mooncake tastes smooth and delicious. There are also other popular Hong Kong-style mooncakes, such as five nuts, salty meat and ham mooncake.

6.Suzhou-style Mooncake（苏式月饼）

Flavor: sweet or salty, heavily oily but not greasy Suzhou-style mooncake is featured with crispy taste. As for the sweet ones, the stuffing are mainly rose petals, five nuts and bean paste, which is tightly pressed. And it is sweeter than mooncakes of other regions. For the salty ones, Suzhou-style mooncakes can be divided into spiced salt mooncakes, ham mooncakes, shallot mooncakes, shrimp mooncakes, etc.

7.Yunnan-style Mooncake（滇式月饼）

Flavor: sweet and a little salty, oily but not greasy Yunnan-style mooncake is also called ham mooncake because the stuffing is made from Xuanwei ham, a specialty in Yunnan, with honey, lard and white sugar. Made of purple wheat flour from Chenggong in Kunming, the crust is a little hard. After baking, its surface is golden yellow or brownish red, oily and gorgeous. This traditional mooncake has a fragrant flavor of ham.

8.Anhui-style Mooncake（徽式月饼）

Flavor: sweet or salty Auhui-style mooncake is featured with its thin crust and full stuffing. It is a smaller than other types of mooncake, which makes it delicate. The crust is made by mixing of fine flour and vegetable oil. The stuffing is made of various vegetables which are marinated and mixed with fresh pork oil and white sugar. The representative one is the prune mooncake.

9.Quzhou-style Mooncake（衢式月饼）

Flavor: sweet and crispy with a flavor of sesame Sesames is the most important material of Quzhou-style mooncake. People use sesames as the stuffing or decorate the skin with sesames. On the larger-sized ones, people would paint auspicious images with colored sesames.

10.Shaanxi-style Mooncake（秦式月饼）

Flavor: sweet but not greasy Shaanxi-style mooncakes are mainly vegetal, locally called Crystal Cakes. The stuffing is the mixture of sugar, nuts, animal oil or vegetable oil, preserved fruits, roses and orange peels. It is more desiccated and the crust is thicker than other types of mooncake.

11.Shanxi-style Mooncake（晋式月饼）

Flavor: crispy, mainly sweet For traditional mooncakes in Shanxi-style, the ingredients of crust are mainly oil, sugar and eggs, and the stuffing can be jujube paste, five nuts, red sugar, osmanthus, etc. Shanxi-style mooncake is featured with its sweet taste. The most common and most popular is the sugar mixed mooncake; different sugars are added into both crust and stuffing.

12.Fengzhen Mooncake（内蒙古丰镇月饼）

Flavor: sweet There is no stuffing in Fengzhen Mooncake of Inner Mongolia. People mix the fried linseed oil, syrup of red sugar and flour into a dough, and grow it. Then it is divided into smaller doughs, pressed and baked with sesames and linseed oil on the surface. The Fengzhen mooncake tastes better two or three days later after baking, when the color becomes darker.

Mooncake recipe–(Quick and easy)

Mooncake is the indispensable Chinese dessert served during the mid-autumn festival which falls on the 15th of August of the Chinese lunar calendar. The style and purpose of this festive dessert have evolved considerably in the modern day. Various cake shops and restaurants produce mooncakes with different varieties and designs, packed in deluxe boxes with elegant decoration. It has also become a fad to purchase mooncake as a gift among relatives, friends, and business associates to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. As a result, a large number of overpriced moon cakes have appeared in the market every year due to high demand. The selling price is many folds compared to the cost of the ingredients. Therefore, homemade mooncakes would be a good choice which is low cost and can also show your sincerity, hard work, and effort. Below is an easy mooncake recipe for beginners to make red bean paste mooncake with yolk, one of the most popular flavors.

Preparation

1. Make Crust: Mix invert syrup or honey, alkaline water and peanut oil well, add flour and mix well again, then knead the mixture into a dough, and let the dough grow for about 3 hours. If there is no alkaline water, you can make 2g of baking soda dissolve in a little water and use it. 2. Make Egg Yolk: Crack the eggs, take out the egg yolks and bake them for 5 minutes at 150℃ (300℉) in an oven. 3. You can also make red bean paste by yourself: soak about 100g red beans a day in advance, boil them in a pressure cooker, then add 50g brown sugar to the cooked red beans and crush them with a spoon. If you want it to be drier, fry it.

Directions

Step 1. Divide the dough into smaller pieces each 25g and divide bean paste each 30g. Step 2. Flat the bean paste, put in an egg yolk and wrap it into a ball. A filling ball is fine. Make the rest fillings like this. Step 3. Flat the flour dough, put in a filling ball, wrap it and shape the whole into an oval. Step 4. Sprinkle some flour into the moon cake mold evenly, then put the oval dough into the mold and shape the dough. Follow step 3 and step 4 of this mooncake recipe to make the rest. Step 5. Put a piece of oil-absorbing paper on the baking tray, then put the shaped mooncakes on it. Step 6. Preheat the oven for 5 minutes, bake them for 5 minutes at 170℃ (340℉). Step 7. Brush egg liquid on the mooncakes and then bake them again in the oven for 15 minutes.

Ready

Take them out of the oven and serve them on a fine plate. The red bean paste mooncake with yolks are ready to be enjoyed. It tastes better after being stored in sealed fresh-keeping bags for 2 days.

Tips on How to Make Mooncakes

1.The ratio of pastry to filling is critical. A good mooncake should have a thin layer of pastry with plenty of fillings. The ratio should be one part of pastry to two parts of fillings. A skillful chef can use even less pastry to encase the filling.

2.Marinate egg yolks in cooking wine for a few minutes to remove the unwanted smell before baking them.

3.The red bean mooncake recipe provide a common cooking method. Instead of red bean paste, the sweet dough can be stuffed with other nuts or seed paste.

How to Store Mooncakes

1. Generally, five nuts mooncakes can be kept for about 15 days at a temperature below 25℃ (77 F) and those filled with sweet bean paste, lotus seed paste and jujube paste less than 10 days; if the temperature is higher than 30℃ (86 F), the storage period should be no longer than 7 days; for fillings of fresh meat, chicken shreds and ham, one should buy them just before eating.

2. Keep in a cool, dry, ventilated place and avoid storage in direct sunlight or near sources of heat. Chinese moon cakes contain rich oil and sugar, so both heat and humidity can cause them to go bad.

3. Store them in a separate place so they don't pick up odors from other foods.

4.Handle gently. Some types of the cookies, such as Yunnan-style, have soft, loose crusts. Any mishandling may break them.

Note:

Most mooncakes contain high sugar and oil, so are not healthy. People suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, hyperlipoidemia, stomach disease, hepatobiliary disease, and the overweight, old and little kids should not eat too much or stay away from them.

To decrease the harmfulness the high fat and calorie bringing to our body, some foods are recommended to eat together with mooncakes, including tea, sour fruit like grapefruit, hawthorn and kiwifruit and wine. They help digest, take away fat in our body, so to avoid retention of food in the stomach and obesity. Also, do not eat too much at one time. (Luo Yiran 2010)

Mooncake culture in Other Asian Countries

Influenced by Chinese culture, Mid-Autumn Festival is also a traditional festival in some neighboring Asian countries. However, the customs are not quite the same in different countries. (Shen Haibin 2007)

Singapore

To Singaporeans, Mid-Autumn Festival is a good time to make friendly contacts, express thanks, and give greetings and best wishes to relatives, friends, and business partners by the way of sending moon cakes. As the country is a famous tourist destination, local people never miss the chance to attract tourists. They decorate Orchard Road, river banks, Chinatown, Chinese Garden and other places to welcome tourists worldwide.

Malaysia

Eating moon cakes, appreciating the moon and parading with lanterns have been the Mid-Autumn Festival custom of Malaysian Chinese for generations. During the festival, old-brands promote moon cakes; special counters are set up in shopping malls to sell moon cakes; newspapers, TV programmers are thick with moon cake advertisements. Besides the parade, there may be lion and dragon dances, fancy car parades and other celebrations.

Japan

The Japanese also celebrate the festival on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. When the festival was introduced into Japan from China about 1,000 years ago, the custom of appreciating the moon while holding a party formed, named appropriately “Moon Appreciation Party”. Although the Chinese lunar calendar is not used in Japan any more, the custom of moon appreciation is kept in many places of the country. The festival food in Japan is not moon cake, but glutinous rice cake.

Thailand

According to Thai legend, on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the Eight Immortals go to the Moon Palace to send peach-shaped cakes and birthday greetings to Guanyin (a Bodhisattva). So their offerings usually include some peach-shaped cakes. All family members, men and women, the young and old, then sit around the table with offerings to worship the moon, pray and exchange greetings.

Philippines

During the festival, Chinese towns and Chinese colonies all over the country are decorated with lanterns and colorful banners, especially the China town in Manila. Various home-made and imported moon cakes are sold in lots of shops. Activities like dragon dance parade, traditional Chinese clothing parade, lantern parade, and fancy car parade are held.

Vietnam

The leading roles of Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam are children. As the day approaches, markets are full of lanterns and toys in spite of moon cakes. When adults eat moon cakes and appreciate the moon on that night, children usually play around with their beautiful lanterns. During the days, people there also hold Mid-Autumn Festival competitions to see who can make the most beautiful lantern. Lion dance performances are held in some places to enhance the celebration.

References

• Gu Xijia 顾希佳.(2010).月亮节与人间情怀[Moon Festival and Human Feelings]. 文化艺术研究Studies in Literature and Art (04),91-95.

• Luo Yiran 骆怡然.(2010).月饼种类多 食用有讲究[Diversified Mooncakes, Dainty Eating]. 广西质量监督导报Guangxi Quality Supervision Guide Periodical (08),14.

• Ou Shinan 欧石楠.(2015).月饼的传说[The Legend of Mooncake]. 农家参谋The Farmers Consultant (09),56.

• Qiao Fengqi 乔凤岐.(2014).中秋月饼的由来及其制作工艺[The Origin of Mid-Autumn Moon Cake and Its Making Process]. 焦作师范高等专科学校学报Journal of Jiaozuo Teachers College (01),32-35+49.

• Shen Haibin 沈海滨.(2007).亚洲各国的中秋节[Mid-Autumn Festival in Asian Countries]. 世界文化World Culture (10),51.

• Yang Binhu 杨斌鹄.(2015).月饼名称演变史[The History of Mooncake Names]. 人才资源开发Human Resource Development (19),34.

Terms and Expressions

the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar 农历八月十五

the Elixir of Life 长生不老药

Mongols 蒙古人

Taishi Cake 太师饼

Wulnuts Cake胡饼

Court Cake 宫饼

Wuren Mooncake 五仁月饼---Mixed Nuts Mooncake

Yam Mooncake 芋泥月饼

Shaanxi-style Mooncake 秦式月饼

Shanxi-style Mooncake 晋式月饼

hyperlipoidemia 高血脂

hawthorn 山楂

Questions

1.When is Mid-Autumn Festival?

2.What is mooncake?

3.Why are mooncakes round?

4.Why do we eat mooncakes on Mooncake Festival?

5.What are the 10 most popular mooncake flavors?

Answers

1.Mid-Autumn Festival is on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar month.

2.Mooncake is the representative food of the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a kind of round cookie with various fillings and different artistic patterns on the surface, depicting the legends of the festival and conveying auspicious meanings.

3.In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes completeness and togetherness. Mooncakes are generally made round to symbolize prosperity and reunion for the whole family.

4.On the festival day, all families eat mooncakes to celebrate the family reunion. The mooncake is not just a food, but more of a cultural element deeply penetrated into Chinese people’s hearts, symbolizing family reunion and embodying spiritual feelings.

5.Wuren mooncake; Red bean mooncake; White lotus mooncake; Salted egg yolk mooncake; Snow skin mooncake; Minced pork mooncake; Green tea mooncake; Fruits mooncake; Flower mooncake; Yam mooncake.