20201215 cultexam

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Final Exam Paper. Please write now and improve until grading on 2020 12 15

You can use the texts in the coursebook as an example (like Unit 1, Text A). Please write the text and indicate ALL SOURCES with bibliographical references. Please also add a vocabulary list and questions.

Alsied, Saffana

"Chinese Astrology"--SAFFANA ALSIED 2 (talk) 17:07, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Cao Runxin 曹润鑫

A.Spring Festival Couplets

Spring Festival Couplets, Chunlian in Chinese, is also known as Spring Couplets or Chinese New Year Couplets. It is the most common and important custom when celebrating Chinese New Year. This tradition is widely kept both in modern cities and rural areas of China.With black or golden characters written on red paper, Spring Festival Couplets are composed of a pair of poetry lines vertically pasted on both sides of the front door and a four-character horizontal scroll affixed above the doorframe. Pasting couplets expresses people’s delight in the festival and wishes for a better life in the coming year.

Spring Couplets originated from Taofu, an inscription on boards made from peach trees in the Zhou Dynasty. According to the legend, a rooster perching in a big peach tree will crow at dawn to call all the traveling ghosts back. In front of the entrance of the dark world, there are two guards named Shentu and Yulei. If the ghosts harm any people at night, the guards will kill them.People believed that peach trees can scare and subdue evil things, so they hung peach boards in front of the doors with the guards’ names written or inscribed on them. During the Song Dynasty, the wood board was replaced by paper, and people focused more on bright wishes for the future. The custom became popular in Ming Dynasty. When the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang traveled for inspection, he found those pairs of scrolls interesting. In order to advocate and promote this cultural activity, he ordered all household to paste the scrolls during the Chinese New Year. This tradition continues today.

The upper scroll and the lower scroll have parallel structures and antithetical meanings. The two lines should have an equal number of characters, while their meaning must be related and antithetical. There must be a one-to-one correspondence between the two lines. The tone pattern is emphasized but rhythm is not important. The horizontal scroll is a four-character phrase, which sums up the two lines’ meaning. When you read a spring festival couplets, first,look at the horizontal scroll. If the four characters are written from left to right, the upper scroll will be on the left and the lower scroll on the right. If the characters of the horizontal scroll are reversed, the two side scrolls should be read from right to left.

Terms and Expressions

Paste 贴

Horizontal scroll 横联

Upper scroll 上联

Lower scroll 下联

Chen Han 陈涵

Chinese traditional musical instrument

Guzheng

Guzheng or Zheng is one of the oldest traditional ethnic musical instruments in China. It belongs to plucked stringed instruments. As early as 2500 years ago, zheng has become an important instrument which was widespread at that time. Due to the long history and its primitive simplicity and elegant sound, people are used to calling it guzheng (gu refers to “ancient”). It has beautiful timbre, broad ranges, rich performance skills and strong expressive power, so it is deeply loved by Chinese.

There are varied accounts for how the zheng came to be. The first legend says the history of guzheng can date back to the Warring States Period. The oldest specimen yet discovered held 13 strings. Zheng was regarded as a weapon at that time which was used vertically to beat enemies. There was also an old saying that “the zheng makes a pleasant sound when placed horizontally and becomes a soldier when placed vertically”. Later, strings were added to it, and when plucked, it was found to be pleasing to the ears, so it developed into an instrument. As time went by, the weapons became lighter and lighter, and the zheng, a large and heavy weapon, was abandoned. The second legend says the early form of zheng is said to have been invented by Meng Tian, a general of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). But according to the biographies of Meng Tian in Historical Records, there is no record of his invention of the zheng. The third legend says the guzheng came about largely influenced by the se which was recorded by Zhao Lin in Records on Words. When two people fought over a 25-string se, they broke it in half, one person receiving a 12-string part and the other the 13-string part.

The modern-day Guzheng usually has 21 strings and movable bridges and is 163 centimeters long. It should not be confused with the guqin, another ancient Chinese zither with 7 strings played without movable bridges. The strings were formerly made of silk. By the 20th century, most players used metal strings. Since the mid-20th century, steel strings wound with nylon are common to be seen. The body of the guzheng is approximately rectangular, with a slight protrusion in the middle of the faceplate. The head and tail of the guzheng are respectively anterior mountain and posterior mountain. The two mountains are connected by 21 strings which are supported by 21 movable bridges, also known as Yan Zhu which are moved to change the timbres. The strings at the anterior side are wound around the string pegs in the turning box. And the guzheng was usually placed on the zither feet. The timbre of the guzheng is determined by the quality of the wood. As the tension of paulownia is better, the body of the guzheng are mostly made of paulownia. The head, tail and other parts of the guzheng are generally made of mahogany wood, and some patterns are decorated on the head and the tail.

Terms and expressions

• Meng Tian 蒙恬

• Zhao Lin 赵璘

• Records on Words 《因话录》

• anterior mountain 前岳山

• posterior mountain 后岳山

• Yan Zhu 雁柱

• string pegs 弦钉

• turning box 调音盒

• zither feet 琴足

• paulownia 桐木

• mahogany 红木

Chen Jingjing 陈静静

A. Facial makeup

Facial makeup, a sort of makeup art used in stage performance, is painted on the face of traditional opera singers in China and varies when it come to different types of role. The character roles in Beijing opera are divided into four main types according to the sex, age, social status and profession of the character. Sheng refers to male roles and is divided into laosheng (middle-aged or old men), xiaosheng (young men) and wusheng ( men with martial skills). Dan refers to female roles and is also subdivided into various types. Qingyi is a woman with a strict moral code; and laodan is an elderly woman. Jing refers to the roles with painted faces. They are usually warriors, statesmen or even demons. Chou, clown, is a comic character and can be recognized at first sight for his special make-up. The facial makeup of “sheng” and “dan” is quite simple with a thin layer of powder, called “plain face” while that of “jing” and “chou” is relatively complicated, and the former, in particular, is applied with heavy color and complicated patterns, thus gaining the name of “painted face”. In Beijing Opera, facial make-up, which is applied to Jing roles only, shows the character’s age and personality by using different colors. “Chou” is commonly called the clown as they are accustomed to wiping a patch of white powder on the nose.

People hold different views when speaking of the origin of the facial makeup. It was said facial makeup was closely related to a kind of dance, called Damian, which appeared in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and thrived in the Tang Dynasty. It was performed by a single man aiming to extol King Lanling Gao Changgong’s outstanding military service and merits. He was courageous and good-looking and was bound to win every time he worn a mask that seemed frightening in the battlefield. As for the facial makeup used in opera, it is used to highlight the roles’ character, appearance as well as status, achieving a colorful and fantastic stage.

The legendary drama played a dominant role in Ming Dynasty, rich in content and fine in role division. Both jing and chou are painted their own special facial makeup. The basic color is mostly designed based on the description in the drama literature or the singers’ personal imagination. For instance, facial makeup of Guanyu is red and that of Baozhen is black. Their brow and eyes are exaggerated in some way. The pattern ratio has changed as well. Unlike the Ming Dyansty, there are both simple and sophisticated facial makeups with the same basic color. In the Mid-Qing Dynasty, as the local drama arose, facial makeup varied greatly in different places and possessed distinct local features and folk color. More than 300 kinds of dramas sprung up after the 18th century. Therefore, the drama characters mount and their division is much more finer. More colors like blue, green, yellow, grey and orange are added in jing.

Red

Red facial makeup is symbolic of loyalty, upright and integrity like the characters Guan Yu and Wu Han.

Black

Black facial makeup gives people the impression that he is serious, rarely shows smiling expression and courageous and wise like Bao Zheng, a impartial official. It also stands for mighty force and boldness like Zhang Fei in drama the Three Kingdoms and Li Kuai in drama Water Margin of the Marsh.

White

White facial makeup bears a derogatory sense, indicating a deceitful and suspicious nature like Cao Cao in drama the Three Kingdoms and Yan Song, Qin Kuai.

Blue

Characters wearing blue facial makeup tend to be upright ,outspoken ,obstinate and even unruly like Ma Wu and Dou Erdun .

Purple

Purple facial makeup shows more sedate and righteous like Xu Yanzhao and Zhuan Zhu.

Golden

Golden facial makeup symbolizes dignity and power fitting roles like supernatural being like Tathagata(Sakyamuni, the creator of Buddhism) and Erlang Shen( a Chinese God with a third truth-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead).

The features of facial makeup are mainly as follows: First, it is a contradictory unit of beauty and ugliness.Second, it is closely related to the character’s personality.Thirdly, its pattern is stylized. Chinese Peking opera makeup is favored by many opera enthusiasts and is widely known both at home and abroad, having been regarded as one of the mark of traditional Chinese culture. It is derived from the stage and could be seen on some large buildings, packages of some commercials, various porcelains and people’s clothes in different styles. It is far beyond the scope of stage use, showing its status in people’s heart and the strong vitality. Out of curiosity and affection for Chinese opera facial makeup, a great many foreign friends and domestic men of insight start to explore the mystery of it.

B. Terms and Expressions

painted face 花脸

clown 丑角

legend，romance 传奇剧

Tathagata 如来佛

Sakyamuni 释迦牟尼

Dashkin, Gennadii

Four Worldwide Famous Chinese Novelists of Modern Science Fiction and Fantasy

1.Liu Cixin（刘慈欣）

2.Chen Qiufan( 陈楸帆 ）

3.Rebecca F.Kuang( 匡蘦秀）

4.Li Jun(李俊）or Baoshu(宝树）

Ding Daifeng 丁代凤

Lion dance

Gan Fengyu 甘奉玉

A. The Eight Tang-Song Prose Masters

 Media:Example.oggThe Eight Tang-Song Prose Masters are Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan in Tang Dynasty and Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Wang Anshi, Zeng Gong in Song Dynasty. This title was first appeared in the Banknotes of Eight Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties. 
 Among them, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan are the leaders of the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty, while Ouyang Xiu and Three Su(Su Xun, Su shi, Su Zhe) are the core figures of the ancient prose movement in the Song Dynasty, and Wang Anshi and Zeng Gong are the representative figures of Linchuan Literature. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan are the advacators of the "Ancient Prose Movement". Su Shi, Su Xun and Su Zhe are called Three Su. What else, Su Xun is the their father and Su Shi is the older brother. While Su Shi's teacher is Ouyang Xiu, who is also the teacher of Wang Anshi and Zeng Gong.
 In a word, they both advocated prose and opposd parallel prose, which has exerted profound influence on the literary world at that time and later generations. Their sucessive waves of innovation of ancient ancient prose has changed the obsolete appearence of poetry and prose.

1. Han Yu

 Han Yu was a litterateur, philosopher, and thinker of Tang Dynasty. He was native in Heyang, now Jiaozuo city in Henan province. Han Yu was honored as “ The Decline of Eight Generations” by Su Shi in Song Dynasty, as well as the head of Eight Masters of Prose in Tang and Song Dynasty. Han Yu was called “Han Liu” with Liu Zongyuan, and his proses were juxtaposed with Du Fu’s poems as “ Du poem Han pen” by Du Mu. He enjoyed the fame as “ The Article Giant” and “ Admired Literate of One Hundred Generations” with great works like forty volumes of Han Changli Collection, ten volumes of External collection and The Teacher's Theory. 
 Although disagreement in Liu Zongyuan’s political view, he still worked with Liu Zongyuan in advocating the Ancient Prose Movement. As the pioneers, they were both against excessive pursuit of form of parallel prose but for the prose of Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties and both emphasized the importance of article’s contents so as to expand the expressive function of writing in classical Chinese.
 He was once demoted to Yuan Zhou, which is now in Yichun city in Jiangxi Province because of his comments on Buddha bones.

2. Liu Zongyuan

 Liu Zongyuan was a litterateur, philosopher, proser and thinker of the Tang Dynasty. His ancestral home was Hedong , now in Yongji area of Yuncheng in Shanxi province. He was known as "Liu Hedong ", " Mr. Hedong ", also known as" Liu Liuzhou " because of his official end of feudal provincial of Liuzhou. He was born in Changan and became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in the 9th year of Zhenyuan, later official supervisor of imperial censor .
 He was juxtaposed with Han Yu as "Han Liu ", with Liu Yuxi as " Liu Liu ", with Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and Wei Yingwu as "Wang Meng Wei Liu ". In his lifetime of less than 50 years, he left us more than 600 poems with more achievements in writing than poetry. The "Liu He Dong JColloection" was one of his representatives.
 He was a deep-thinking philosopher and litterateur, who attached importance to the content of the article and advocated that writings should be practical. Therefore, he paid attention to the social function of literature and emphasized that literature should benefit the world. Moreover, he advocated the perfect combination of ideological content and artistic form with a serious attitude in writing. That means, it is important for the writer to have highly moral cultivation.

3. Ouyang Xiu

 Ouyang Xiu was a statesman, litterateur, historian and poet in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was called the “Liu Yi scholar”, which means that he had ten thousands volumes of collections, a thousand volumes of collections of inscriptions of Xia, Shang, Zhou Dynasties, a piano, a chess, a pot of wine and a drunk Weng alone. He was native in Jizhou Yongfeng, now Yongfeng county of Ji’an city in Jiangxi province but born in Mianzhou, now Minayang city in Sichuan province.
 Ouyang Xiu’s poems, Ci and prose were all the crown of that time. His poetry was smooth, lyrical and euphemistic with a similar prose style stressing on momentum while keeping natural smoothness. His Ci was profound and graceful, inheriting the Yu Feng of the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Anthology of Ouyang Wenzhong Gong was his representatives.
 Ouyang Xiu inherited and carried forward the fine tradition of Han and Liu’s ancient prose, and led the Northern Song Dynasty poetry innovation movement. As the leader of this movement, Ouyang Xiu not only drove away the odd style of writing in the literary world, but also opened up a new style in poetry and also a new field of creation with his own unique style and high talent. It has made new achievements and pushed the creation of poetry and prose to a new height.

4. Su Xun

 Su Xun was a native of Meishan in Sichuan. When he was young, he performed poor in learning. In 19 years old, he married Mrs. Cheng. Later in 27 years old, he determined to study hard. After decade of hard work, he made a huge academic progress.
 Su Xun was a man of political ambition. He said that the main purpose of his works was "to speak for the world ", to" apply to the present ". He put forward a whole set of ideas of political innovation in some important argumentative papers such as Heng Lun and The Book to the Emperor. Because he had a better understanding of that social reality and was good at summing up experience and lessons from past history. Therefore, putting aside certain pedantic and biased views in his political discourse, many of them were still right on the spot.  

5. Su Shi

 Su Shi, with a fame as " Dongpo Jushi ", was native in Meishan in Sichuan . He was a famous litterateur, calligrapher, essayist, Ci writer, poet and the representative of the Unconstrained Ci School in Northern Song Dynasty .
 Su Shi has made great achievements in poetry, Ci, prose, calligraphy, painting and so on. He was regarded as one of the most outstanding man in literary and artistic attainments in thousands of years of Chinese history. His was called "Han Chao Su hai" with Han Yu in the prose area, "Ou Su" with Ouyang Xiu, "Su Huang" with Huang Tingjian, and "Su Xin" with Xin Qiji in the Ci area, so he was called "the first all-round talent in ancient China".
 Su Shi's literary viewpoint was in line with Ouyang Xiu's, but he emphasized the originality, expressiveness and artistic value of literature more. His literary thought emphasized "creating for certain purposes", advocating nature and getting rid of bondage. Su Shi was a leading figure in the literary circle of the Northern Song Dynasty after Ouyang Xiu. Moreover, Huang Tingjian, Qin Guan, Chao Buzhi and Zhang Lei, the four litterateurs of the Northern Song Dynasty, had been trained, rewarded and recommended by him, so they were called “Su Men Four bachelors”.

6. Su Zhe

 Su Zhe was born in Meishan, Meizhou , now Sichuan province. In the Jiayou second year (in 1057), he with his brother Su Shi climbed jinshi branch.
 Su Zhe's prose showed the deep and mellow spirit. He had his own views on ancient writing. In the Book to Han Tai Wei in Privy Council, he put forward the theory of "literary style" . He was good at politics and history. He discussed world affairs in some political works such as The New Theory and the Six States.  From these works, we can draw lessons from the past and criticize the current problems. He was also very insightful in reform. In addition, he was also quite outstanding in Ode , such as The "Ode to Ink bamboo".

7. Wang Anshi

 Wang Anshi, also known as Banshan in his twilight years, was conferred the title of Duke Jing . He was born in Linchuan in the Northern Song Dynasty, now Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province .
 Wang Anshi was not only an outstanding politician and thinker, but also a brilliant litterateur. In order to realize his political ideal, he closely linked literary creation with political activities, emphasizing that literature aimed to serve the society first, that means, he emphasized the realistic function and social effect of articles, and advocated the unity of literature and Taoism. His prose largely carried out his literary propositions because his essays were mostly about the enlightenment of political decrees and suitable for world use.

8. Zeng Gong

 Zeng Gong was known as "Mr. Nan Feng". He was born in Nanfeng, Jianchang, now Nanfeng County, Fuzhou city, Jiangxi Province. In Jiayou second year (in 1057), he became a Jinshi. As a politician and essayist of the Northern Song Dynasty and one of the "eight masters" of the Tang and Song Dynasties, he was also one of the "Seven Zengs of Nanfeng" , including Zeng Gong, Zeng Zhao, Zeng Bu, Zeng Yu, Zeng Hong, Zeng Xie and Zeng Dun.
 Zeng Gong was a supporter and participant of Ouyang Xiu's ancient prose movement. He advocated the doctrine before the text. His prose was natural and simple and little attention to literary grace. Of the eight masters, he was the less affectionate one. His articles were rarely lyrical works, but mostly argumentation and narrative. His prose was good at making arguments, for example, the Book to Ouyang She Ren, the Book to Bachelor CAI. In these works, he argued on the treatment of disorder and expressed his deep feelings.

B. Terms and Expressions

The Eight Tang-Song Prose Masters 唐宋八大家

Banknotes of Eight Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties 《唐宋八大家文钞》

Ancient Prose Movement 古文运动

parallel prose 骈文

Gao Mingzhu 高明珠

Pipa--Gao Mingzhu (talk) 08:22, 2 November 2020 (UTC)Gao Mingzhu

Grosheva, Anna

Huli-jing figure in Chinese mythology and its analogs in Japan and Korea

1. Huli-jing (狐狸精) in China

2. Kitsune (キツネ) in Japan

3. Kumiho (구미호) in Korea

Gu Dongfang 顾东方

Chinese Characters

Guan Qinqing 管钦清

Four Chinese Folk Love Stories

1.Meng Jiangnü Cries the Great Wall

2.The Legend of White Snake

3.The Butterfly Lovers

4.The Cowherd and the Girl Weaver

Vocabulary list

Questions

Guirou, Barthelemy

Chinese Mythology

A. Pan Gu Created the Universe

B. Nü Wa Created Human Beings

C. Fushi Taught the People

D. Yu Rebuilt the Earth

Gui Yizhi 桂一枝

Chinese gods and immortals--Gui Yizhi (talk) 16:09, 8 November 2020 (UTC)

Guo Lu 郭露

Classical Prose Movement of late Tang dynasty and Song dynasty

Definition

The Classical Prose Movement of late Tang dynasty and Song dynasty in China, also known as the "Classical Prose Movement", is a movement with the style reform as its surface and Confucianism Renaissance as its core. The word “Gu Wen” was first introduced by Han Yu, it indicates the prose of the pre-Qin period and of Han dynasty. This movement took clarity and precision as priorities, it stood against the florid pianwen or parallel prose style that had been popular starting from Han dynasty. Parallel prose had a rigid structure and was criticized for being overly ornate at the expense of content. Therefore, Han Yu, together with Liu Zongyuan, launched this movement to make a difference so that they could revive the Confucianism and promote their political thoughts. This movement tended to follow the spirit of pre-Qin prose rather than to imitate it directly. People used elements of colloquial language to make their writings more direct.

Development

The Classical Prose Movement went through three stages. The first promoters of this movement were Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan who were not only great writers but also great theorists, forming the foundation of it. Both were enthusiastic to promote the movement and were keen to teach young people so that it could achieve further development and then revive the Confucianism.

However, after the deaths of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, the movement fell into a decline, their students writing with such ancient characters as to hinder understanding or neglecting the importance of writing good essays. Furthermore, the government only allowed people to use pianwen for official use, so those who want to be officials had to learn that style.

After that, Ouyang Xiu once again advocated the classical prose in the Song dynasty. As many people were dissatisfied with the florid piantiwen style, the Classical Prose Movement reached another peak during that period. This movement is consequently also called the Classical Prose Movement of the late Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty.

Representatives

1.Han Yu

Han Yu (768 – 824), courtesy name Tuizhi, also known his art names Han Changli or Chang Li Xian Sheng. He was born in present-day Mengzhou, Henan, he was a Chinese prose writer, poet, and philosopher who significantly influenced the development of Neo-Confucianism. Due to his influence on the Chinese literary tradition, he is described as “Comparable in stature to Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe”. Meanwhile, he is often considered to be among China’s finest prose writers. Ming dynasty scholar Mao Kun ranked him first in the "Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song"，and Su Shi, another famous poet, once praised that “His prose reversed the literary decline of eight dynasties”.

Han Yu wrote a large volume of works, which includes over 700 poems and nearly 400 prosses. He is especially famous for his On Teachers, which says “A teacher is one who passes on the truth, imparts knowledge and solves puzzles”. This persuasive pross is short but well structured, and it has a strong appeal to people, which also has a positive impact on youth education.

2.Liu Zongyuan

Liu Zongyuan (773 – 819), courtesy name Zihou, also known by his art names He Dong Xian Sheng or Liu He Dong, was a Chinese literature, philosopher, politician and poet who lived during the Tang Dynasty. And Liu was born in present-day Yongji, Shanxi. Along with Han Yu, they were called Han Liu. Besides that, he has been classed as one of the “Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song”, which also includes Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu. Liu's best-known travel pieces are the Eight Records of Excursions in Yongzhou. And one of his most famous poems is Jiangxue.

3.Ouyang Xiu

Ouyang Xiu (1007 – 1072), courtesy name Yong Shu, also known by his art names Zuiweng and Liu Yi Jushi. He was a Chinese essayist, historian, poet, calligrapher and even a politician of the Song dynasty. Being a much-celebrated writer, both among his contemporaries and in subsequent centuries.

Ouyang Xiu was in charge of the writing of the New Book of Tang, and he also wrote the Historical Records of the Five Dynasties independently, the only book in the Twenty-Four Histories to have been written in private by a single author. As a poet, he was a noted writer of both the shi and ci genres. But it was his prose writings like Zuiweng Tingji that won him the greatest acclaim. The poem's most well-known line is: The Old Toper cares not for the wine, his interest lies in the landscape, an idiom still used in modern Chinese to describe someone with an ulterior motive. Together with Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and Su Shi, Ouyang Xiu was considered to be one of the Article four all through the ages.

Except for Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and Ouyang Xiu, there were many other representatives of this movement. For example, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi also made great contributions to the Classical Pross Movement. Considering their influences, they were also listed as Eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties.

Masterworks

Under the influence of the Classical Prose Movement of the late Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty, there appeared a large volume of masterpieces, which have a far-reaching influence on later ages. Except from the works of Han Yu, Liu Zong Yuan and Ouyang Xiu, other works like Shang Zhongyong written by Wang Anshi, On Jia Yi and First Ode to the Red Cliff by Su Zhi, were also considered the representative works of this movement.

Influence

The Classical Prose Movement of the late Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty is a milestone during the development of Chinese ancient prose, it has a profound influence on the later schools of literature like Tang-Song School in the Ming dynasty and Tong Cheng school in the Qing dynasty. Besides that, it also helped to lay a solid foundation of pross in China, and acted as a fine example for later scholars.

Ha, Thi Thu Hang

The culture of Red envelope and Lucky money--HATHITHUHANG2 (talk) 09:02, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

The tradition of Red envelope and Lucky money--Root (talk) 08:04, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

He Changqi 何长琦

17.1 The orgin and development of the twenty-four solar terms

“The twenty-four solar term” is a unique phenomenon on traditional lunar calendar, with a profound history in China. Created by ancient Chinese when observing the annual movement of the sun, the twenty-four solar system is seen as a system of time knowledge and the agricultural guideline. It originated in the Yellow River valley, and is the result of people's observation, exploration and summary of astronomy, meteorology, and weather, which is an excellent cultural heritage created by the ancient Chinese people. By the late Western Zhou Dynasty, people had already measured the first four solar terms: winter solstice, summer solstice, spring equinox and autumn equinox. Afterwards, with the improvement of measurement technology and the further strengthening of people's understanding of the laws of nature, during the Warring States period, the complete twenty-four solar terms were basically formed, and during the Qin and Han dynasties, the complete twenty-four solar terms system was perfected and formed into today's complete twenty-four solar terms system.1

17.2 The definition and classification of the twenty-four solar terms

“The twenty-four solar term” is a unique phenomenon on traditional lunar calendar. To facilitate agricultural production, ancient Chinese people summarized a supplementary calendar that divides a year into 24 segments according to the sun’s movement on the ecliptic and seasonal changes in weather and other natural phenomena, with 24 segments proportionally distributed through 12 months. (术语) A solar term that starts in the early part of a month is called jie (节), and one that starts in the meddle part of a month is called qi (气). ( Every three years there would be a month which has only a jie without a qi, or a month which has only a qi without a jie, in which case a leap month would be added to regulate it. ) The solar terms are so named that they represent the changes in season,phenology and climate. The eight solar terms that reflect seasonal changes are Beginning of Spring, Vernal Equinox, Beginning of Summer, Summer Solstice, Beginning of Autumn, Autumnal Equinox,Beginning of Winter, and Winter Solstice; the four solar terms that represent phenological changes are Waking of Insects, Fresh Green, Lesser fullness and Grain in Ear; and the 12 solar terms that indicate the changes in climate are Rain Water,Grain Rain,Lesser Heat, Greater Heat, End of Heat, White Dew, Cold Dew, First Frost, Light Snow, Heavy Snow, Lesser Cold, and Greater Cold.

Vocabulary List

--He Changqi (talk) 08:10, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

Questions

References:He Changqi (talk) 10:11, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

Hu Baihui 胡百辉

Collection of Yue Fu Poetry《乐府诗集》

Introduction

1.Brief introduction

Collection of Yue Fu Poetry is the essence of Han, Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties folk songs. The content is very rich, reflecting a wide range of social life. It mainly collects more than 5000 Yuefu songs from Han, Wei to Tang and Five Dynasties, as well as from pre Qin to the end of Tang Dynasty.

"Yuefu", originally the name of the institution in charge of music, was first set up in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and there were also Yuefu institutions in the northern and Southern Dynasties. Its specific task is to make music score, collect lyrics and train music talents. There are two sources of lyrics: one is specially written by literati, the other is collected from Chinese folk. Later, people called the poems collected by Yuefu organs as Yuefu, or Yuefu Poems and Yuefu songs, so Yuefu changed from official name to poetic name.

2.About the author

Guo Maoqian (1041-1099) was born in Xucheng, Yunzhou, Song Dynasty. He is the grandson of Guo Quan, and the son of Guo Yuanming. Song Shenzong Yuanfeng seven years (1084), Cao joined the army in Henan Province. He wrote a hundred volumes of Collection of Yue Fu Poetry, which was handed down from generation to generation.

3.Content introduction

It divides Yuefu Poems into 12 categories, including suburban Temple songs, Yan shooting songs, drum songs, horizontal blowing songs, Xianghe songs, etc. In these different kinds of music, the songs of Jiaomiao and yanshe belong to the movements used by the imperial court, and their ideological content and artistic skills are less desirable. There are also some works with poor artistic value. But generally speaking, most of the poems it collects are excellent folk songs and poems written by scholars with old Yuefu titles. In the existing poetry collection, "Yuefu Poetry Collection" is an important book with the most complete collection of all kinds of Yuefu Poetry in the past dynasties.

Masterpieces

1.The Peacock Flies to Southeast

The Peacock Flies to Southeast is the first long narrative poem in the history of Chinese literature, and it is also the peak work in the history of Yuefu Poetry.

It is based on a marriage tragedy in Lujiang County during the reign of Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The poem has more than 350 sentences and 1700 words. It mainly tells the story of Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi's forced separation and suicide. It accuses the cruelty and ruthlessness of feudal ethics and praises their sincere feelings and rebellious spirit.

As the longest narrative poem in ancient history, the story of Peacock Flying Southeast is complicated and simple, and its characters are vividly portrayed. It not only portrays the image of Jiaoliu and his wife, but also depicts the stubbornness of Jiao's mother and the arrogance of brother Liu. At the end of the article, the myth of Liu Lanzhi and Jiao Zhongqing turning into mandarin ducks after their death is conceived, and the people's strong desire for love freedom and happy life is placed.

2.Mulan Poetry

Mulan poetry is a folk song in the Northern Dynasty of China. This is a long narrative poem about a girl named Mulan. She disguised herself as a man, joined the army for her father, established meritorious service in the battlefield, and refused to be an official after returning to the imperial court. She only wanted to go home for reunion. She warmly praised the woman's brave and kind-hearted quality, her enthusiasm for defending her country and her brave and fearless spirit. "Mulan is a girl" is used to conceive the legend of Mulan, which is full of romantic color. The detailed arrangement is very ingenious. Although it is about war theme, it is mainly about the life scene and children's mood, which is full of life flavor. It describes the character's mood by means of character's question and answer, narration, parallelism, antithesis and intertextuality, which is vivid, detailed and full of vitality, It has strong artistic appeal.

Evaluation

1.Contributions

The important contribution of it is to collect and classify the songs of past dynasties according to their tunes, so that many works can be compiled into books. This provides great convenience for the collation and research of Yuefu Poetry. For example, some excellent Chinese folk songs of Han Dynasty, such as "Moshangsang", "dongmenxing", were collected and recorded by editors. In particular, some ancient folk songs and proverbs are scattered in various historical books and some academic works, and miscellaneous ballads and sayings are mostly ignored by the former. Yuefu Poetry Collection introduces and explains in detail the origin, nature and musical instruments used in singing of various kinds of music. So that many precious historical materials can be preserved. This is of great value to the study of literature history and music history.

There are narrative poems and lyric poems in Yuefu Poems, and the achievements of narrative poems are more prominent. The Book of Songs and The Songs of Chu are basically lyric poems, and sometimes narrative is interspersed in the process of lyric, but narrative is attached to lyric. The emergence of Yuefu narrative poetry marks the maturity of Chinese ancient narrative poetry, and it is all caused by sadness and happiness. When choosing narrative objects, the creative subject is good at finding poetic scenes and absorbing pictures in time.

2.Shortcomings

There are some imperfections in Collection of Yue Fu Poetry . For example, Ji Yun in the Qing Dynasty pointed out that it was not appropriate to include some literati poems in the titles of Yuefu. In addition, because of its emphasis on melody, the recorded songs are often inconsistent with the description of tunes. But on the whole, as an ancient Chinese literature, this giant has made a certain contribution.

Jiang Fengyi 蒋凤仪

Chinese Paper Cutting 剪纸

Text

Terms and Expressions

Questions

Kang Haoyu 康浩宇

Chinese Red Culture

Chinese red culture is unique in the world. As a very important cultural resource, it has both tangible culture and intangible culture. Red culture in China refers to the advance culture with Chinese characteristics created by party and people in revolutionary years.

1. Development

China has brilliant history and splendid civilization in ancient times. However, with the Opium War of 1840, China was plunged into the darkness of domestic turmoil and foreign aggression. Despite of all efforts that countless dedicated patriots had made, they still failed to change the plight. The October Revolution in Russia brought Marxism-Leninism. With Communism as the the highest ideal and ultimate goal, the Communist Party of China shouldered the historic mission of national rejuvenation. With the firm leadership of the party, Chinese people embraced national independence, people's liberation, national reunification and social stability, and stepped into a new era of prosperity and happiness.

Red culture is condensed by the Communist Party of China in the great struggle of leading the Chinese revolution. It is an advanced Marxism culture that was inherited and developed in the new period of socialist construction. It's a collectivism culture of bravery, sacrifice and devotion that seeks happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation.Red culture is embodied in the aspects of ideal belief, value pursuit and spiritual outlook, and is integrated into material remains, mechanism behaviors and cultural and artistic forms.

First of all, red culture is a revolutionary culture, which was formed by the Chinese Communist Party in the great struggle of leading the Chinese revolution. After the founding of People's Republic of China, the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to inherit and carry forward the revolutionary culture. In the new period of socialist construction and reform and opening up, a vigorous and advanced socialist culture was formed, which enriched and developed the connotation of red culture. Revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture are two major components of red culture, and are the core value and spiritual subject of contemporary Chinese culture. As for Chinese red culture, Among them, Marxism is the soul, the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the theme, the national spirit and the spirit of the times are the essence, and the socialist concept of honor and disgrace is the foundation. These four aspects influence, infiltrate and interact with each other, revealing the essential characteristics of red culture scientifically and completely.

2. Symbols

The word “red” in “red culture” has many symbols. Chinese people have “red” complex since ancient time. Red represents authority. For, example, official documents are also called red heading documents. Red represents courage. Red is the color of Chinese national flag. Chinese military strategists and generals have a deep understanding of the role of red in war, so they use red flags to unite their morale, inspire their fighting and their courage, and summon the spirit of going forward bravely and not fearing sacrifice. Red represents honor and auspiciousness. For instance, the places are always adorned with red for conference and ceremony. People are awarded with red flower and red certificates. Red represents revolution. When Marx was asked about "favorite color" in his early years, he clearly answered "red". In 1864, First International was founded, and its logo was red. The first army of Communist Party of China was named Red Army, and Ruijin, the first revolutionary base area, was called Red Capital. There were also red boats in South Lake and red flags in Jinggangshan.

3. Values

Red culture has many values. Red culture has the value of history. It witnesses the early development history of the Communist Party of China. It shows the inevitability of the socialist road in China. And it is an important weapon to guide the success of Chinese revolution. Besides, red culture has the value of civilization. Carrying forward the red culture is an urgent need to cultivate a new national spirit. Red culture is important for the construction of socialism culture and ideology. Moreover, red culture has the value of economy. Red culture is a powerful driving force for the development of socialist market economy. It is an important medium of economic development under the new historical conditions. The red cultural industry has become a new economic growth point.

4. Red Culture in Nanchang

Nanchang is the capital city of Jiangxi Province and it is where August 1st uprising took place. Nanchang is renowned as the cradle of Chinese revolution and the place where the military flag rose. Because in August 1st uprising, communist party of china formed its first army in Nanchang. There are lots of red culture resources in Nanchang. Bayi Square is at the center of Nanchang city. It was built to memorize August 1st uprising. Bayi Square highlights the theme of "Bayi History and Culture" in all directions. The memorial area, cultural area, reminiscence area and leisure area of Bayi Square show Bayi Uprising in different forms. The landmark in the square is Bayi Nanchang Uprising Memorial Tower. Besides, Nangchang August 1st Memorial Hall is a special memorial hall established to commemorate Nanchang Uprising.

Lei Fangyuan 雷方圆

The Ancient Tea Horse Road

Introduction

The Ancient Tea Horse Road is a folk international trade route that exists in southwest China and is a corridor for ethnic economic and cultural exchanges with horses as the main means of transportation. The ancient tea horse road is divided into two routes: the Sichuan-Tibet line and the Yunnan-Tibet line. The ancient tea horse road originated from the ancient southwest frontier of the tea horse mutual market, flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and most prosperous in the middle and late World War II. The ancient Tea Horse Road divided into Shanxi-Gan, Shanxi-Kangtang (folk called wade ancient road, Sichuan-Tibet line is part of it), Yunnan-Tibet and other three main routes, connecting Sichuan, Yunnan-Tibet, extending into the territory of Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, India, until reaching West Asia, West Africa, the Red Sea coast. 5 March 2013, the Tea Horse Road was listed by the State Council as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics conservation units.

Historical Routes

China’s ancient tea horse road is divided into: 1. The Shanxi-Gansu tea horse road is the main route for tea to travel westward in mainland China and exchange for horses. It is one of the main routes of the ancient Silk Road. 2. Shanxi and Tibet tea horse road (wade ancient road), began in the Han Dynasty, formed by the Shanxi merchants and the ancient southwest border tea and horse each other. Due to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the government control of tea trafficking, tea trafficking sub-regional, including the most prosperous tea horse trading market in Kangding, known as the wade ancient road. 3. the ancient Yunnan-Tibet Tea Horse Road. Formed around the late sixth century AD, it is south of Yunnan's main tea producing areas in Xishuangbanna Yiwu, Pu'er City, intermediate through today's Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture and Lijiang City, Shangri-La into Tibet, directly to Lhasa. Some also re-exported from Tibet to India and Nepal, is an important trade channel between ancient China and South Asia. 4.Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Road is a part of the Shan-Kang-Tibet Tea Horse Road, east of Yazhou edge tea production Ya'an, after playing arrow furnace (now Kangding), west to Lhasa, Tibet, and finally through to Bhutan, Nepal and India, a total length of nearly four thousand kilometers, is an essential bridge and link between ancient Tibet and the interior. There are three main routes of the ancient tea-horse road: the Qinghai-Tibet line (the ancient Tang and Tibetan road), the Yunnan-Tibet line and the Sichuan-Tibet line. Among the three ancient tea-horse roads, the Qinghai-Tibet line was established in the Tang Dynasty and developed earlier, while the Sichuan-Tibet line was the most influential and well-known later. These three routes are closely related to Chengdu, among them, the Yunnan-Tibet route and the Sichuan-Tibet route must pass through Chengdu, and their development is closely related to the tea-horse trade.

Historical Value

The Silk Road in the north and the ancient Tea Horse Road in the south. The ancient Tea Horse Road, a passage that once played an important role in the birth and development of the Chinese nation just like the Silk Road, has been gradually buried in the dust of history with the washing away of modern civilization. However, its history and value will always shine brightly. 1.The Golden Road of Tourism The ancient tea-horse road tour has unique scenery, profound cultural connotation, exclusive resources and is unparalleled in the world. 2. Ancient Roads for the Propagation of Civilization The ancient Tea Horse Road was not only an important migration corridor for the ancient ancestors between Wei-Tibet and present Sichuan and Yunnan, but also an important aperture for the spread and exchange of ancient civilizations between present Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet. 3.Migration Corridor of National Cultures On this ancient road, which stretches for more than 10,000 miles, Chinese, Tibetan, Yi, Naxi, Lisu, Hani, Kino, Qiang, Pumi, Bai, Nu, Jingpo, Achang and other ethnic groups have flourished here for thousands of years, highlighting the diversity and original form of ethnic culture in southwest China. 4.Religious Propagation Road With the development of the tea-horse trade and the extension of the ancient tea-horse route, Tibetan Buddhism spread widely along this route on the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas. The development and spread of Tibetan stupas can be roughly divided into two routes: one is Tibet - Qinghai - Gansu - Inner Mongolia - the other is Tibet - Qinghai - Gansu - Inner Mongolia. -Liaoning--Jilin--Heilongjiang--Beijing--Hebei --Henan--Jiangsu; second, Tibet--Yunnan--Sichuan. --Guangxi--Hubei. 5. The Path of National Spirituality You can't talk about the ancient tea-horse road without mentioning the horse gangs. The horse gangs have formed a unique cultural carrier in the course of thousands of years. Their spirit is attached to this ancient road, and become part of the Chinese national spirit. 6.The Road of National Unity and Integration The ancient tea-horse road is like a huge net in southwest China, through which people of all nationalities strengthen their ties and communication, promote political, economic and cultural interaction, development and integration among all nationalities, and enhance the emotional ties between them. 7.The Road of Securing the Borders The expansion of the ancient tea-horse road and the flourishing of the tea-horse trade contributed to the stability and consolidation of China's southwest frontier. 8.the road to economic development The Thousand-Year Tea Horse Trail contributed to the formation of many towns in the region through the tea and horse trade, which greatly contributed to the economic development of the region.--Lei Fangyuan (talk) 03:42, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Vocabulary List

1.The Ancient Tea Horse Road(茶马古道)

2.Sichuan-Tibet Line（川藏线）

3.Yunnan-Tibet line（滇藏线）

4.wade ancient road（蹚古道）

Questions

1.What is the ancient tea horse road ?

2.What do you know about the history of the ancient tea horse road?

3.How many main routes does the ancient tea-horse road conclude?

4.What is the historical value? --Lei Fangyuan (talk) 04:15, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

Lei Kuangxi 雷旷溪

Four satirical novels in ancient China--Lei kuangxi (talk) 08:22, 9 November 2020 (UTC)Lei Kuangxi

Li Lili 李丽丽

Shadow Puppets(皮影戏)

Li Liqin 李丽琴

Confucian Culture

Introduction

Confucian school is an academic school founded by Confucius, developed by Mencius, and composed by Xunzi. Today, it still retains a certain vitality. Confucian school takes Confucianism as its guiding ideology whose central ideas are forgiveness, loyalty, filial piety, brotherhood, courage, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith. Confucian school was on an equal footing with the other hundred schools in the pre-Qin period. After the First Emperor of Qin, also called Qin Shihuang, burned books and buried scholars alive, the development of the Confucian school suffered a serious defeat. Then, in order to maintain the feudal autocratic rule, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty followed Dong Zhongshu's advice of "banishing other schools of thought and worshiping Confucianism only" and imposed restrictions on thought, which led to the revival of Confucian school. The concepts of "Confucian school", "Confucianism", and "Confucian Religion" should be distinguished since Confucian school is a school of theory, Confucianism a social stratification, and Confucian religion a belief. Laozi founded Chinese Taoist school; Confucius started Chinese Confucian school; Sun Tzu initiated Chinese military strategist school; Mozi was the founder of Mohism in the early Warring States. Confucianism contributes to guiding the code of conduct and constructing social order; Daoism focuses on fostering the view of nature and the orientation of spiritual development; Legalism serves the system construction of national political management.; the concepts of Universal Love and utilitarianism are two cornerstones for the Mohism. The General Unity idea of Confucianism has played an important role in the unification of a nation, the enhancement of national cohesion and the integration of cultural values. After more than two thousand years of development and evolution, Confucian culture has built up a complete ideological system, involving politics, education, morality, ethics, code of conduct, life skills and other aspects. It has cultivated the wisdom and soul of the Chinese people throughout the history, and formed deep-rooted set patterns of thinking, psychology and survival.

Analysis of Confucian culture

Intelligence development

Confucius is a great educator, as well as a pioneer and practitioner of mass education. After Confucianism was established as a dominant culture, both the rulers and the public respected the teachings of the sage and attached great importance to education. In this context, a basic requirement is to stay highly cultured and steeped in propriety. After the Emperor Wen initiated the imperial examination system in the Sui Dynasty, those who are good scholars could make an official, which inspired students of poor families to change their lives by studying hard and diligent. For generations, the Chinese people have attached great importance to the education of their children, which is conducive to the improvement of the thinking ability of the whole nation. However, the corrupt of bureaucracy and the darkness of officialdom in metaphase and anaphase made many literati feel despairing about official career and discredit about the concept. In addition, the Four Books and Five Classics were the main learning content of Confucianism. Apart from government-run schools, private schools and self-study can hardly meet the requirements of the Six Classical Arts. Therefore, the Four Books and Five Classics were the focus of students, while the Six Classical Arts were not highly valued.

Spiritual guidance

In terms of spirit, Confucianism contends that "As heaven maintains vigor through movements, a gentleman should constantly strive for self-perfection; The terrain is vast, a gentleman carries goods with great virtue." Benevolent people love each other, which reflects the essence of “Unity of Man and Nature” and also the most brilliant connotation of Confucianism. This philosophy calls for people’s active contributions to the society. It is still alive in modern times, and is the fundamental requirement of people's spiritual orientation in the future.

Order construction

In the age of barbarism and backwardness, a common feature was that a small number of people used power and force to suppress and enslave the majority, thus resulting in labor division and unfair distribution of wealth and generating corresponding social hierarchy and concepts. Given the fact that Confucianism developed in the transitional period of feudal society, the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius were rooted in the idealist view of destiny and did not break the shackles of social hierarchy. In addition, they even advocated the distinguish between the noble and the humble and highlighted the importance of hierarchy division. In this context, the benevolence they advocated had great limitations in political management. The public could not be treated equally in terms of political status. Instead, the so-called benevolence calls for improvement of the living conditions of the public and more benefits from the ruling class. However, its purpose was to maintain social order and reconcile social contradictions. This is also the root cause of feudal rulers’ favoring of Confucianism. In essence, Confucianism did not promote social equality, instead, it worked to maintain the unequal feudal hierarchy that aggravated servitude. In fact, after a long history of feudal rule, the sense of hierarchy would be part of the national psyche. With the progress of times and civilization, the view of destiny and the thought of social order have become psychological shackles of the Chinese people. After eliminating the ideology of feudal hierarchy and formalism, some philosophies of Confucianism still generate positive effects on modern society. Specifically, the spirit of benevolence and universal love is conducive to cultivate people’s spirits; the concept of “the country belongs to the public” reflects a sense of social responsibility to make contributions for society, which can be expanded into a sharing social and political philosophy for different countries. Filial piety and brotherhood increase the harmony and stability of family; Loyalty, faithfulness, propriety and forgiveness are conducive to the relationship between different countries, societies and people. "Loyalty" means that people should stay loyal to the country and people; "Friendliness" and "forgiveness" play an important role in resolving various contradictions and animosities; when it comes to "filial piety" and "propriety", many redundant forms inherited from feudal society should be eradicated and be more practical.

The contemporary value of Confucian culture

Today, Confucian culture is still of great significance. We must explore the value of Confucian culture on the basis of the excellent tradition of the Chinese nation and by combining the characteristics of the times with and the actual situation. The Confucian culture has affected Chinese more than two thousand years and gone deep into each aspect of Chinese society.

Ideological and political education

Confucian culture calls for “the people-oriented” philosophy, and it places a high priority on human value and dignity. Over the years, the Chinese nation has been influenced by this excellent philosophy. On this occasion, its behavioral pattern and psychological structure are endowed with uniqueness, which is mainly manifested in two aspects. One is to respect yourself, learn how to love and care yourself. Moreover, gain dignity and achieve the development of human value through the continuous improvement of moral cultivation. Second, respect others and show respect for others' personality by respecting, understanding and caring for others.

Modern economic construction

Under today’s circumstance, some ideological contents are still alive and produce positive effects on promoting the economic construction of modernization and fostering modern patriotism emotion of the Chinese people. First of all, Confucian culture emphasizes the thought of "benevolence" and group consciousness. It is conducive to the cultivation of collectivism and provides a spiritual pillar for China's modern economy. Since Confucian culture reflects a collectivist view on life, individuals are full of sense of duty and responsibility towards others and groups. In this context, their self-cultivation targets at regulating the family, country and the world. Thus, the value of individual is closely linked with the rise and fall of the country, so they have a strong sense of responsibility. "Everyone being responsible for the fate of his country" has been a common belief for thousands of years. Such a social responsibility will give rise to a huge driving force for the development of the country and society. Second, the consciousness of "self-improvement" and the proposition of "seeking truth" in the Confucian culture strengthen the national spirit and provide a source power for China’s economic modernization. Yi Zhuan put forward: "As heaven maintains vigor through movements, a gentleman should constantly strive for self-perfection.’’ It means that continuous development is the law of nature and that a gentleman should pursue progress and be strong, unyielding resilient and positive. For thousands of years, the Chinese nation has formed a fine tradition of working hard and striving for strength under the influence of these thoughts. Today, we carry forward the spirits of “self-improvement” and "seeking truth" in ways that further enhance national spirits and provide a strong driving force for the socialist modernization. Third, the "reform and innovation" concept in Confucian culture is conducive to the expansion of the reform and opening up and the acceleration of China's socialist modernization. On the basis of admitting the fact that the continuous development is the universal law of nature, Confucian culture puts forward the "innovation idea". The Book of Rites said, "If you can in one day renovate yourself; do so from day to day and let there be daily renovation." The Book of Changes said, "Reform refers to destroy the old, while innovation means to establish the new.” The concept is not only serves as the theoretical basis for reform and innovation throughout the history, but also provides valuable lessons for the reform in socialist economic and political systems today. Domestically, promoting the innovative spirits can greatly enhance the reform consciousness of the Chinese people. Externally, it is conducive to advancing the opening up by leveraging the global influence of Confucian culture.

Legal construction

Confucian culture places a high priority on personal cultivation, while a highly civilized society under the rule of law must be composed of highly educated citizens. Confucian school, a school with thousands of years of history in China, has become an integral part of the Chinese culture. Nowadays, since China has called for the policy of combining the rule of virtue with the rule of law, it is the time for Confucian culture to find its historical position and fully play its role. Exploring the influence of Confucian culture on the construction of contemporary Chinese rule by law, not only can we help us more deeply understand the traditional culture, but also can promote the process of building the rule of law in contemporary China. The rule by virtue thought is an important part of Confucian culture and it emphasizes the importance of moral education. It is a national strategy pursued by ancient Chinese rulers and a method of national governance embodying reference significance in today’s China. In terms of national governance, Confucianism emphasizes the importance of morality, believing that national governance should not mainly rely on harsh punishment, instead, moral education should be applied to reform people. Confucius said, "By governing with virtue, rulers will be loved by the public, just like stars surround the North Star." By comparing rulers to the North Star and people to the stars, Confucius emphasized the importance of moral governance. How to rule by virtue? First of all, rulers should pay attention to their personal cultivation and develop good moral characters, so that they can set a good example for the public. Only when officials and common people obey the ruler sincerely, can a good social atmosphere be formed. Secondly, since Confucianism takes "benevolence" as its core and calls for the rule of virtue, many people subconsciously believe that Confucianism denies the role of criminal law and that Confucian culture does not call for the rule of law. In fact, this is not the case. While Confucianism advocates the rule of virtue, it also emphasizes the supplementary role of rule of law. Confucius said, "Sages believe that national governance must combine the rule of virtue and law." That is to say, if people are governed by systems and laws, they seek for impunity but lack of conscience; however, if they are guided by morality and etiquette, they will have a sense of right and wrong and will impose strict requirements on themselves. In a word, we should clearly realize that, although Confucian culture is an excellent traditional culture in China, it was generated from the feudal society and its original intention was to maintain the feudal autocratic monarchy. Therefore, it inevitably has some drawbacks and limitations. Under this circumstance, we must analyse Confucian culture dialectically and explore the value of Confucian culture. At the same time, we should discard the bad habits and unfavorable factors left by it, so as to better carry forward our traditional culture and accelerate the construction of the rule of law in contemporary China.

The Confucius institute

With the improvement of China's international status and the increasingly extensive international exchanges, Chinese culture has won wider foreign attention and the world is more eager to learn and understand the Chinese culture. The Confucius Institute project, founded in 2004, emerges in response to the call of the times. Today, Confucius Institutes have spread throughout Asia, Africa, The Americas, Europe and Oceania. Fundamentally speaking, its is conducive to the "going out" of Chinese culture since language is an important carrier of Chinese culture. It is of positive significance to the construction of China's national image, the promotion of China's international influence, the realization of wider international communication. The rapid development of Confucius Institutes has fully demonstrated the needs and aspirations of people around the world to learn Chinese and learn more about China, but there are still some problems in this process. Today, countries are committed to spreading their own language and culture, so there is a fierce competition in international cultural promotion. In addition, the Confucius Institutes is struggling to achieve sustainable development. Internally, its development has been restricted by many factors, including the shortage of teachers and textbooks, the low quality and the lack of pertinence. At present, Confucius Institutes are prevalent all over the world, but the promotion strategy seeking for quantity and speed results in a serious shortage of teachers capable of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. According to statistics, there is a global shortage of at least five million TCSL teachers. Secondly, the lack of high-quality and localized teaching materials for Chinese has also become a bottleneck for the development of Confucius Institutes. The shortage of Chinese textbooks affects the depth of cultural communication of Confucius Institutes directly. Thirdly, Confucius Institutes are not capable of spreading the ideological depth of the Chinese culture. Although the textbooks are rich in content, they mainly focus on promoting folk culture by introducing Chinese food, tea and wine, traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. Meanwhile, they rarely involve the ideological essence of traditional Chinese culture and the modern value of Chinese culture. The Confucius Institutes should fully explore the modern significance of Confucianism and cast the quintessence of Chinese culture, and strengthen the spread of the core idea of Chinese culture and its modern cultural value. The connotation of Chinese culture is very rich. What Confucius Institutes should spread is not all the contents of Chinese culture, but the contents with universal value that are different from other countries and represent the essence of Chinese culture.

Liu Liu 刘柳

Qian Zhongshu--Liu Liu (talk) 02:19, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Liu Ou 刘欧

相声 Cross Talk 1. The History of Cross Talk

Cross talk, in the ancient time was known as onomatopoeia, originally refers to imitate others’ voices, also known as neighboring cross talk. It was evolved and further developed from the folk music in North China, and integrated with imitating oral skills and other folk art forms. It is generally believed to be formed during the Emperor Xianfeng （1850—1861）and Emperor Tongzhi（1861—1874）period in Qing dynasty. It’s a folk vocal art that uses jokes or funny questioning and answering to make the audience laugh. In the early years of the Republic of China, cross talk gradually developed from one-person ventriloquism to stand-up one person talk, and the name changed to cross talk. Later, it gradually developed into stand-up cross talk, dual cross talk, and group cross talk. And become a veritable form of art. After years of development, dual cross talk has finally become the most popular form of cross talk among audiences.--Liu Ou (talk) 06:33, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

2. Famous Artists of Cross Talk

Liu Yi 刘艺

Go 围棋--Liu Yi (talk) 08:04, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Liu Yiyu 刘怡瑜

The four most handsome men in ancient China

Lou Cancan 娄灿灿

The Four Grottoes of China--Lou Cancan (talk) 08:23, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Luo Weijia 罗维嘉

Ancient Chinese Education

1. The History of Ancient Education

2.Classification of Ancient Chinese Education

3.Civil Service Examination System

4.Ancient China Academies --Luo Weijia (talk) 08:27, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Luo Yuqing 罗雨晴

The Forbidden City--Luo Yuqing (talk) 08:30, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Mo Ling 莫玲

Chinese Marriage Customs--Mo Ling (talk) 08:24, 2 November 2020 (UTC)Mo Ling

A.Procedures

B.Development

Ngo, Thi Minh Huong

Topic: Chinese cinema (dramas and movies) and its popularity and affection in Vietnam

Ouyang Ling 欧阳玲

Twelve Animals of the Chinese Zodiac --Ouyang Ling

A.Origin

B.Development

C.Influence

Peng Ruihong 彭锐宏

Green Tea--Peng Ruihong (talk) 08:20, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Diagram.

Phyo, Su Kyi

Chinese Traditional clothing Phyo Su Kyi talk 5-11-202

Pingki, Tanchangya

Chinese traditional dance--PINGKI TANCHANGYA 4 (talk) 02:46, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Insert non-formatted text hereInsert non-formatted text here==Phyo, Su Kyi== Chinese Traditional women clothing 1- History of Chinese clothing

History of Chinese clothing China has many ethnic groups with a long history while Han people dominate most periods in history. For thousands of years, generations of clothing designers have devoted themselves to building the Kingdom of Clothes, making the garments that cover the human body into an important component of Chinese culture. The progress of nation can be seen through its changes in clothing styles.Clothing manufacture in China dates back to prehistoric times, at least 7,000 years ago. Archaeological findings of 18,000 year-old artifacts such as bone sewing needles and stone beads and shells with holes bored in them attest to the existence of ornamentation and of sewing extremely early in Chinese civilization.

A- Chinese Clothing during Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C - 220 A.D)

The Qin and Han dynasties (221 B.C. - A.D. 220) witnessed the unification of territory as well as written language. Qin Shihuang, the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, established many social systems, including one for uniforms to distinguish people's ranks and social positions. China's complete code of costume and trappings was established in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). The yarn-dyeing, embroidering and metal-processing technologies developed rapidly in the period, spurring changes in costume and adornments.

B-Chinese Clothing during Wei,Jin, South and North Dynasties(220-589)

Chinese clothing experienced a rapid development during the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern dynasties (220-589). Before 265, the cultures and esthetic views of the peoples in north and south China merged because of the moves initiated by frequent wars. Many philosophical schools of thought influenced both people's lives and the conceptions of clothing design.

C- Chinese Clothing during Tang Dynasty(618-907)

The Tang Dynasty (618-907) wrote the most brilliant page in the history of Chinese clothing. People's clothes were more varied than before because the state was more open to the outside world and people became more cosmopolitan in their thinking. The clothes for women could be called fashionable because they changed rapidly and were showy. Once only a new style came out, many people would be willing to take it.

D-Chinese Clothing during Song, Yuan, Ming Dynasties

Casual wear appeared during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and clothes were simple and elegant.During the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), the Mongolian ethnic group, known as the People on Horseback, was in power. The style of clothing was mainly a combination of Mongolian and Han. Clothes were luxurious for upper class yet simple and unadorned in design.Dramatic changes took place during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). A new conception came into being in clothing design, with no limitation to one style and advocating natural beauty, thus bringing vigor and vitality to the clothing culture.

E- Chinese Clothing during Qing Dynasty

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), clothes became elegant, poised, and glorious. During the 200 years of the Qing Empire, the entire world witnessed dramatic changes such as the Renaissance in Italy and Columbus's discovery of the Americas, but the changes did not affect traditional Chinese clothing because China had a closed-door policy. People still wore clothes showing rank and lifestyle. The retreat from outside cultures has left a precious heritage for traditional Chinese clothes.

F-Chinese Clothing from 1930s till Modern Era Chinese clothing from 1930s till now, Qipao has become into fashion since then. During 1930s to 1940s, dress is further westernized, tailored to flatter body shape. During 1940s to 1960s, Qipao(Cheongsam) survives as everyday wear in Hong Kong until the late 1960s. Vocabulary Questions References.--Phyo Su Kyi 1 (talk) 17:37, 25 November 2020 (UTC)Phyo Su Kyi

Qu Miao 瞿淼

Taoism--Qu Miao (talk) 08:35, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

Media:Example.ogg==Rajabov, Anushervon==

International Education Exchanges and cooperation

1. Confucius Institutes 2. International Schools 3. Belt & Road Education Programs --RAJABOV ANUSHERVON 10 (talk) 08:32, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

Seydou, Sagara

My topic: The Chinese language.

1 Putonghua and Dialects

2 Ancient Chinese and Mordern Chinese

3 Idiomatic phrase -Idioms common sayings,and allegorical sayings

4 language policy.--Sagara Seydou 3 (talk) 02:24, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

Shi Haiyao 石海瑶

The Four Talented Women of Ancient China (中国古代四大才女)

A.Cai Wenji 蔡文姬

B.Zhuo Wenjun 卓文君

C.Li Qingzhao 李清照

D.Ban Zhao 班昭

---

Si Yu 司妤

Ancient Cities and Ancient Towns --Si Yu (talk) 13:27, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

1.Ancient Cities

2.Ancient Towns

3.Pingyao ancient city

Tan Yuanyuan 谭媛媛

Five famous mountains.--Tan Yuanyuan (talk) 08:00, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

1.Mount Song

2.Mount Tai

3.Mount Hua

4.Mount Heng

5.Mount Heng

Tang Bei 汤蓓

Ancient Education

1.History

2.Confucian Educational Theory

3.Chinese Imperial Examination --Tang Bei (talk) 03:04, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

Tang Yiran 汤伊然

Chinese Dining Etiquette

China has an etiquette system encompassing all its ethnic groups, each with a unique culture. Take Luoba nationality for example, before treating guests to dinner, they take a bite first to demonstrate the innocence of their food. In general, Chinese cultural etiquette has evolved largely from the Zhou (1034–221 BC) rituals related to eating.

1. Arrival

2. Seating Arrangements for a Chinese Banquet

3. Eating

4. Table Manners

5. Rules and Conventions Relating to Chopsticks

Arrival

As a guest at a meal, one should be particular about one’s appearance and determine whether to bring small gifts or good wine, according to the degree of relationship with the master of the banquet. It is important to attend and be punctual.

On arrival, one should first introduce oneself, or let the master of the banquet do the introduction if unknown to others, and then take a seat in accordance with the master of the banquet’s arrangement.

Seating Arrangements for a Chinese Banquet

Dining etiquette in ancient times was enacted according to a four-tier social strata:

1. the imperial court

2. local authorities

3. trade associations and

4. farmers and workers

The respect structure in modern dining etiquette has been simplified to:

1. master of the banquet and 2. guests.

Seat of Honor

The seat of honor, reserved for the master of the banquet or the guest with the highest status, is the one in the center facing east or facing the entrance. Those of higher position sit closer to the master of the banquet. The guests of the lowest position sit furthest from the seat of honor. When a family holds a banquet, the seat of honor is for the guest with the highest status and the head of the house takes the least prominent seat.

If the guest of honor or most senior member is not seated, other people are not allowed to be seated. If he hasn’t eaten, others should not begin to eat. When making toasts, the first toast is made from the seat of honor and continuing down the order of prominence.

Round Table

If round tables are used, the seat facing the entrance is the seat of honor. The seats on the left hand side of the seat of honor are second, fourth, sixth, etc in importance, while those on the right are third, fifth, seventh and so on in importance, until they join together.

Square Table

In ancient times there was a piece of furniture known as an Eight Immortals table, a big square table with benches for two people on each side. If there was a seat facing the entrance, then the right hand seat when facing the entrance was for the guest of honor. If there was no seat facing the entrance door (presumably if the meal was outside or there were two or more doors of equal importance), then the right hand seat when facing east was the seat of honor. The seats on the left hand side of the seat of honor were, in order of importance, second, fourth, sixth and eighth and those on the right were third, fifth and seventh.

In Grand Banquet

In a grand banquet of many tables, the table of honor is the one furthest from the entrance (or facing east in the event of no clear main entrance). The tables on the left hand side of the tables of honor are, in order of importance, second, fourth, sixth and so on, and those on the right are third, fifth and seventh. Guests are seated according to their status and degree of relationship to the master of the banquet.

Eating

When eating a meal in China, people are expected to behave in a civilized manner (according to Chinese customs), pay attention to table manners and practice good dining habits. In order to avoid offense diners should pay attention to the following points:

1) Let older people eat first, or if you hear an elder say "let's eat", you can start to eat. You should not steal a march on the elders.

2) You should pick up your bowl with your thumb on the mouth of the bowl, first finger, middle finger the third finger supporting the bottom of the bowl and palm empty. If you don’t pick up your bowl, bend over the table, and eat facing your bowl, it will be regarded as bad table manners. Moreover, it will have the consequence of compressing the stomach and restricting digestion.

Chinese Table Manners

Most table manners in China are similar to in the West. Don't be deceived by what you might see in a local restaurant on the streets. Chinese manners don't consist of slurping food down as quickly as possible, and shouting loudly!

Consider Others

1) When helping yourself to the dishes, you should take food first from the plates in front of you rather than those in the middle of the table or in front of others. It's bad manners to use your chopsticks to burrow through the food and "dig for treasure" and keep your eyes glued to the plates.

2) When finding your favorite dish, you should not gobble it up as quickly as possible or put the plate in front of yourself and proceed to eat like a horse. You should consider others at the table. If there is not much left on a plate and you want to finish it, you should consult others. If they say they don’t want any more, then you can eat proceed.

3) Concentrate on the meal and your companions. Watching television, using your phone, or carrying on some other activity while having a meal is considered a bad habit.

4) You should try to refill your bowl with rice yourself and take the initiative to fill the bowls of elders with rice and food from the dishes. If elders fill your bowl or add food to your bowl, you should express your thanks.

"Thank you" Gesture

Tea usually is served as soon as you have a seat in a restaurant. A waiter/waitress serves you tea while you read the menu and decide what to order. The teapot is left with you on the table after everyone around the table's cup is filled with tea. Guests then serve themselves. When someone pours tea into your cup, you can tap the table with your first two fingers two or three times, showing thanks to the pourer for the service and of being enough tea. The pourer will stop pouring when seeing the gesture.

Elegance

1) It is not good manners to pick up too much food at a time. You should behave elegantly. When taking food, don’t nudge or push against your neighbor. Don’t let the food splash or let soup or sauce drip onto the table.

2) When eating, you should close your mouth to chew food well before you swallow it, which is not only a requirement of etiquette, but also better for digestion. You should by no means open your mouth wide, fill it with large pieces of food and eat up greedily. Don’t put too much food into your mouth at a time to avoid leaving a gluttonous impression. Neither should you stretch your neck, open your mouth wide and extend your tongue to catch food you are lifting to your mouth.

3) When removing bones or other inedible parts of the meal from your mouth, use chopsticks or a hand to take them and put them on a side plate (or the table) in front of you, instead of spitting them directly onto the table or the ground.

4) If there is food around your mouth, use a tissue or a napkin to wipe it, instead of licking it with your tongue. When chewing food, don’t make noises.

5) It is best not to talk with others with your mouth full. Be temperate in laughing lest you spew your food or the food goes down your windpipe and causes choking. If you need to talk, you should speak little and quietly.

6) If you want to cough or sneeze, use your hand or a handkerchief to cover your mouth and turn away. If you find something unpleasant in your mouth when chewing or phlegm in the throat, you should leave the dinner table to spit it out.

Rules and Conventions Relating to Chopsticks

1) Do not stick chopsticks vertically into your food when not using them, especially not into rice, as this will make Chinese people think of funerals. At funerals, joss sticks (sticks of incense) are stuck into a pot by the rice that is put onto the ancestor altar.

2) Do not wave your chopsticks around in the air too much or play with them.

3) Do not stab or skewer food with your chopsticks.

4) Pick food up by exerting sufficient inward pressure on the chopsticks to grasp the food securely and move it smoothly to your mouth or bowl. It is considered bad form to drop food, so ensure it is gripped securely before carrying it. Holding one’s bowl close to the dish when serving oneself or close to the mouth when eating helps.

5) To separate a piece of food into two pieces, exert controlled pressure on the chopsticks while moving them apart from each other. This needs much practice.

6) Some consider it unhygienic to use the chopsticks that have been near (or in) one’s mouth to pick food from the central dishes. Serving spoons or chopsticks can be provided, and in this case you will need to remember to alternate between using the serving chopsticks to move food to your bowl and your personal chopsticks for transferring the food to your mouth.

7) Knives are traditionally seen as violent in China, and breakers of the harmony, so are not provided at the table. Some restaurants in China have forks available and all will have spoons. If you are not used to chopsticks, you can ask the restaurant staff to provide you with a fork or spoon.

Wang Meiling 王美玲

A.Midea

Introduction

Midea is a technology group of consumer electronics, HVAC, robotics and automation systems, and smart supply chain (logistics).Founded in Shunde, China in 1968, Midea officially entered the household appliance industry in 1980. In 1981, Midea registered its brand. The group employs a total of 130000 people, whose headquarter is locate in Shunde, Guangdong Province. Midea Group has about 200 subsidiaries, more than 60 overseas branches and 10 strategic business units worldwide, and is the main shareholder of KUKA group (about 95%) in Germany . Midea now has more than ten brands such as Midea and Little Swan. and has 15 and 6 production bases separately home and abroad.

Business operation:

Midea's diversified development strategy can reflect its wide range of business : consumer electrical appliances mainly including kitchen appliances, refrigerators, washing machines and all kinds of small household appliances; HVAC business focusing on heating and ventilation systems such as household air conditioning and central air conditioning; robot and industrial automation system business with German KUKA group and Midea robot company as the core.Up to July 2020, Midea ranked 22nd in the list of China's Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2020.

Corporate culture

To some extent, enterprises seems like a person. Generally speaking, the style and personality of an enterprise are greatly affected by the values and behavior styles of enterprise leaders. Enterprise style and characters can determine the fate and future itself. Midea focus on sound operation. If Haier and Gree went to two "extremes", Midea would choose the "middle road", which is neither extreme left nor right. It will not suddenly break the original management framework and organizational structure,which, otherwise, would place the enterprise in high risk. Midea Group’s New Vision, mission,values and business principles are not only rooted in the achievements of historical accumulation, but also the strategic blueprint for the future. The New Vision,“the perfection of science and technology lead to the perfection of life”, continues the Midea’s emphasis on science and technology and human-oriented spirit; The new mission,“connecting people and things, enlightening the world of Midea” reflects its strategic thinking on the development trend of technology, industrial chain and global layout, and makes the linkage between people and things in different scenes more advanced, thus stimulating the leapfrog development of people’s lives and production; Through the value“dare to know the future”, Midea could continue carrying forward its spirits of future orientation and embracing changes. From a New Vision, mission, values, the United States of intelligent manufacturing, intelligent life, and the way to give back to society, but also a deeper level of exploration.

Development strategy

(1)Diversified product strategy:

In the light of the wide range of its business, we can see that Midea is actively promoting diversified development: in the area of air-conditioning, Midea，since 1998，has made a series of acquisitions and mergers, expanding its air-conditioning capacity and entering the field of air-conditioning compressors. Moreover, it has produced the core components of air conditioning, increased research and development and cooperation in air conditioning, then begun to produce the core components of air conditioning compressor, increased research and development in the core components; as for small household appliances, since 2001, Midea has mastered the core components of microwave oven and become one of the three largest production bases in the world. Subsequently, the Group has reorganized the small appliance business under direct control and developed professionally on the basis of diversification ; diversification has the advantage of spreading risk, that is the theory of “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” , and its disadvantage lies in the difficulty for firms to concentrate and, relatively speaking, to establish absolute competitive advantage in one or more specific areas.

(2)"Intensive Growth + Extensive Expansion" business strategy

Midea's business strategy can be described as "two-pronged approach". On the one hand, Midea relies on its own enterprise strength to continuously optimize the performance of its core products and has made earnest efforts to improve the quality of its core products. On the other hand, through a series of acquisitions and mergers on home appliance brand，Midea has furthered its market penetration, and enhanced the market share, expanded the user group, leading to its accomplishment of “Extension Expansion” strategy. In fact, the strategy is not limited to mergers and acquisitions, but also includes the continuous paces into new industrial fields. Midea is building its own "Second Runway", that is “New Product Incubation Platform”, which is not limited to the field of home appliances. As long as meeting Midea's standards for "innovative products", any products can enter the incubation platform.

Development prospect

（1)Home

In 2020, affected by the COVID-19, the rising leverage ratio of the residential sector, the rising food prices, as well as the continuing low marriage and birth rates, the pace of further expansion of the household appliance market has been hindered. As one of the three giants in China's home appliance market, Midea is naturally deeply aware of the weakness of the home appliance market, which is reflected specifically in the decline of market demand for color TV sets, air conditioners, kitchen appliances and household appliances. Midea will unswervingly increase R&D investment, maintain high-quality development direction, and adhere to inclusive growth and sustained and effective growth. Midea has further expanded its online market scale which has continuously diverted offline market scale. It has been developing an integrated sales channel with both online and offline, which has been promoted orderly on Suning, Gome, Jingdong, Tmall and other platforms. Facing the domestic market, Midea has been consolidated its basic system and established a unified business language and rules.

（2)Abroad

In 2020, the global trade friction continues to escalate, tariff barriers increases Midea’s risk of overseas market expansion, and the exchange rate between countries continues fluctuating. All of these factors mentioned above has increased Midea’s risk to engage in product export and to exchange loss. Facing the overseas market, Midea will adhere to the consumer-oriented and product-leading strategy, give full play to its network advantages in global R&D and user research, grasp the differentiated needs of foreign consumer groups, improve the construction of multi-brand operation system, leading to further open-up of the foreign market and the improvement of market share.

B.Gree

C.Haier

Wang Xuan 王轩

National Flag of the People’s Republic of China

Wu Qiong 吴琼

China's Four New Inventions

Most people must have known about China's Four Inventions: gunpowder, paper-making, compass, and printing. Those represented how wise the Chinese was and how brilliant history China had. Today, China still holds the places and influence in technology and inventions. In May,2017, teenagers from 20 nations along the Belt and Road selected China's four new inventions: high speed railway, QR code payment, sharing bikes and online shopping. Though these new inventions are not first invented by China, but it is China that makes full use of them, and introduces them to the rest of the world. The four new inventions bring incredible changes and convenience into people's life. China, at the same time, makes contributions to the development of the human beings. World's future will be bright and prosper due to more technologies and inventions such as China's Four New Inventions.

A. High-speed railway

High-speed railway is a railway system with advanced design and high-speed rails run on it. The world's first official high-speed rail system is the Tokaido Shinkansen line and it goes into public in 1964, connecting the three major metropolitan circles of Japan: Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. The high speed railway has promoted the rapid development of Japan. Its designed speed is 200km/h, which then becomes the initial speed standard of high-speed rail. Later, with the advancement of technology, the speed of trains became faster. Different countries have different definitions of high-speed railways in different eras. According to statistics, the length of high-speed railways in operation in China has reached to more than 6,800 kilometers. China has become the country with the most comprehensive high-speed railway system technology, the strongest integration capability, the longest operating mileage, the highest operating speed, and the largest scale of construction in the world.

Features

1. High-speed railways are very smooth to keep safety and comfort. High-speed railways are all seamless steel tracks, and high-speed railways with a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour use ballastless tracks, that is, a monolithic track bed without stones to maintain smoothness. 2. The high-speed railway has few bends, as the bend is of long radius, and the turnouts are all moveable high-speed turnouts. 3. Use a large number of viaducts and tunnels to ensure ride comfort and shorten the distance. 4. The catenary of the high-speed railway, that is, the suspension of the wires on the top of the train, is also different from that of ordinary railways to keep stability and durability of the high-speed EMUs. 5. The signal control system of high-speed railways is higher than that of ordinary railways, because of the frequent departure and high speed of rails, it should be of high safety.

Merits

1. Large passenger capacity. Generally, high speed rails can accommodate 600 people. Compared to other public tools such as bus, boat or airplane, high speed rails have more seats. 2. Less time-consuming. In addition to the maximum operating speed, passengers are more concerned about travel time. High speed rails will not operate in late night, so passengers can get off the rails almost in daytime, thus to finish their business or other private matters which helps save a lot of time. 3. Good safety. Due to the automatic operation of high-speed rails in a fully enclosed environment and a series of complete safety guarantee systems, thus no other transportation means can be matched with it. Since the advent of high-speed railway 35 years ago, Japan, Germany, and France have already transported 5 billion passengers. Although there have been major traffic accidents on high-speed railways, the accident rate is much lower than that of civil aviation and is almost negligible. It is still the safest transportation system. 4. High punctuality. All high-speed railways adopt automatic control and can operate around the clock unless there is an earthquake. 5. Comfortable and convenient. High speed rails have spacious and comfortable seats, stable operation, shock absorption, sound insulation, and quiet environment. 6. Low energy consumption. High-speed trains use electric traction, do not consume precious petroleum and other liquid fuels, and use various forms of energy, which is not a wasteful transportation mean.

Terms and Expressions

High speed railways高速铁路 the Tokaido Shinkansen line东海道新干线

the three major metropolitan circles of Japan: Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.日本三大都市圈: 东京、名古屋和大阪

integration capability整合能力 operating mileage运营里程

seamless steel tracks无缝钢轨 ballastless track无砟轨道

a monolithic track bed整体式道床 moveable high-speed turnouts.可动心高速道岔

viaducts and tunnels高架桥梁和隧道 high-speed EMUs.高速动车组

shock absorption and sound insulation减震隔音 petroleum and other liquid fuels石油等液体燃料

Questions

1. Where does the first high speed railway come from?

2. What is the name of the first high speed railway?

3. What is the advantages of high speed railway?

4. What are the features of high speed railway?

5. Which transportation carries more passengers, high speed rails or trains?

6. From Changsha to Shanghai, which transportation means will you choose?

Wu Yilu 吴一露

A.Huawei

Of all the Chinese phone manufacturers, Huawei is probably the name that needs no introduction. It's the world's second largest smartphone company, and it's at the center of an international battle for technological dominance between Beijing and Washington. 

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. It has more than 194,000 employees, and operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world. Huawei is a private company wholly owned by its employees. No government agency or outside organization holds shares in Huawei.

Their vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. The benefits of digital technology shouldn't just be available to those who can afford it. Huawei's mission is to expand the benefits of technology to everyone, everywhere. To achieve this, they've developed a digital inclusion strategy that focuses on three areas: technology, applications, and skills. For example, three main world-changing technologies built by Huawei are 5G, Huawei cloud and Huawei AI.

Huawei is continuing to focus on research and innovation to seize the opportunities and address the challenges of the future intelligent world.  There are many innovations and inventions of Huawei to drive the industry forward, including advanced wireless networks, optical networks, intelligent O&M, AI computing, smartphone camera, media CODEC standards, software, trustworthiness and so on. Today, Huawei have entered the 5G ear and embarked on 6G research. It is exploring new directions for 6G. To this end, they began research into the basic theories of 6G and initiated extensive open collaboration projects with other industry players and pushed the industry to build a consensus on 6G.

 "Staying customer-centric and creating value for customers" are the company's common values. The company has a well-developed internal governance structure, under which all governance bodies have clear and focused authority and responsibility, but operate under checks and balances. This creates a closed cycle of authority and achieves rational and cyclical succession of authority, so as to drive the facilitation and implementation of the company's common values.

Diagram of Huawei Corporate Governance. Click Governance Structure.jpg for original source.

Once virtually unknown to most Americans, the telecommunications giant was splashed across newspapers when top executive (and daughter of the company's founder) Meng Wangzhou was arrested in Canada for an alleged violation of US sanctions with Iran. Since then, the Chinese telecom has regularly made international headlines, especially since the US Commerce Department banned American companies from doing business with Huawei without first obtaining a license.  For Huawei, that meant it could lose access to crucial technological parts including semiconductors, which are key components used in its base stations and phones. It also meant Huawei's handsets were cut off from the full power of Google's Android operating system, along with several popular apps including the Google Play store, Gmail, Google Maps and apps that rely on Google like Uber and eBay. At its launch in September, the Mate 30 was Huawei's first major phone to launch without Google's proprietary apps. Despite US efforts to constrain Huawei, the company reported first-half earnings this month showing revenue grew more than 13% from a year ago to around $65 billion.

Terms and Expression

Huawei cloud 华为云 Intelligent Collaboration 协同管理技术

optical networks 光纤网络 Carrier Network 承载网络

intelligent O&M 智能委托运营 the Kunpeng 920 鲲鹏920

AI computing 人工智能计算 AppGallery  华为应用程序库

information and communications technology (ICT) 信息与通讯技术 Media CODEC standards 编解码标准

Questions:

1.When is Huawei founded?

2.How many countries and regions does Huawei operate?

3.Do government agency and outside organization hold shares if Huawei?

4.What is the vision and mission of Huawei? And what do they do to achieve this mission?

5.What are the three main world-changing technologies built by Huawei?

6.What are the innovations and inventions of Huawei?

7.What are the company’s common values?

8.What makes that the telecommunications giant frequently was mentioned across newspapers?

9.Which phone is the first major phone launched without Google’s proprietary apps?

10. What’s your opinion towards these two issues mention above? Will these hinder the development of Huawei?

C. Vivo & OPPO

--Wu Yilu (talk) 07:24, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Wu Zijia 吴子佳

Chinese Dialects方言

1.Cantonese

2.Hunan dialect --Wu Zijia (talk) 08:23, 9 November 2020 (UTC)Wu Zijia

Xiao Shuangling 肖双玲

A. Brief Introduction

March of the Volunteers is a song composed by Tian Han and Nie Er. It is the theme song of the film Children of Troubled Times, known as the clarion call of the Liberation of the Chinese nation. Since its birth in 1935 at the critical moment of national crisis, it has played a great role in inspiring the patriotic spirit of the Chinese people, and later became the National Anthem of the People’s Republic of China.

On May 9, 1935, the first version of the song was recorded in the recording studio of EMI Records. In 1951, in order to meet the needs of playing the national anthem, the People's Record Factory recorded and published a rough record composed of a brass ensemble and an orchestral ensemble. In 1959, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the China Record Factory recorded and published a full set of standard national anthem special records. In 1978, a special album for collective lyrics was released. In 1983, China Record Shanghai Company recorded and published a special record for the standard national anthem after the original word was restored.

B. Creation Background

March of the Volunteers is the theme song of the film Children of Troubled Times. In the autumn of 1934, Tian Han wrote a long poem for the film, the last verse of which was selected as the lyrics of the theme song March of the Volunteers. Shortly after the lyrics were written, Tian Han was arrested and imprisoned by the Kuomintang authorities. In February 1935, director Xu Xingzhi took over the shooting of Children of Troubled Times. Soon after, comrades who went to prison to visit brought back the lyrics written by Tian Han in prison on the back of cigarette packing paper, that is, the original manuscript of March of the Volunteers. At that time, Nie Er was preparing to go to Japan to seek refuge. He learned that there was a theme song to write in the film children of the wind and cloud. He took the initiative to compose music for the song and promised to send back the song manuscript as soon as possible after he arrived in Japan.

Nie Er completed the first draft of the score soon after receiving the lyrics. On April 18, 1935, after Nie Er arrived in Tokyo, Japan, he completed the final draft of the score, and sent the final draft to Shanghai Dentsu Film Company at the end of April. Afterwards, in order to make the song tune and rhythm more powerful, Nie Er and Sun Shiyi discussed and made three changes to the lyrics, thus completing the song creation.

After the early shooting of the film Children of Troubled Times was completed, the lyrics of Tian Han's theme song did not determine the name of the song, while Nie Er's lyric composition sent back from Japan only included the word "March". General Zhu Qinglan, as the investor of the film Children of Troubled Times, added "Volunteers" after the words of "March", thus naming the song March of the Volunteers.

C. Song Appreciation

The March of the Volunteers is a very creative song; the composer Nie Er devotes himself to the creation of this song with great passion. First of all, he succeeds in handling the poetic lyrics of Tian Han’s prose in accordance with the laws of music in an extremely vivid, powerful and colloquial way. In terms of melody creation, he not only absorbs the excellent achievements of international revolutionary songs and the style characteristics of Western European march, but also makes it have strong national characteristics, so that the song could be grasped by the broad masses and play its fighting role.

The song begins as a prelude to a six-bar march. It has a sonorous rhythm, bright and majestic melody, among which the magical effect of triplet enhances the fighting atmosphere of the song. Although the prelude is short, it contains the basis for the emotional and melody development of the entire song. The songs are interlocked and advanced layer by layer. This process runs through the whole song, and the end of the song is repeated many times, giving people a sense of unwavering and unstoppable.

According to the characteristics of the lyrics clause, Nie Er treated the song into a free body structure formed by six phrases of varying lengths. Although the melody and structure of each phrase are different, the cohesion between the phrase and the phrase is close, the development is natural, and the singing is ups and downs, and is integrated.

March of the Volunteers, with its soaring, sonorous and powerful melody and inspiring lyrics, expresses the Chinese people's strong resentment and resistance to imperialist aggression, and embodies the heroic spirit of the great Chinese nation in the face of foreign aggression that is brave, strong, united as one to go through national disaster.

D. Chinese and English Lyrics

起来！不愿做奴隶的人们！

把我们的血肉，筑成我们新的长城！

中华民族到了最危险的时候，

每个人被迫着发出最后的吼声。

起来！起来！起来！

我们万众一心，

冒着敌人的炮火,

前进！

冒着敌人的炮火，

前进！

前进！前进、进！

Arise, you who refuse to be bond slaves!

Let’s stand up and fight for

Liberty and true democracy.

All our world is facing

The chains of the tyrants.

Everyone who works for freedom is now crying:

Arise! Arise! Arise!

With the torch of freedom,

March on!

With the torch of freedom,

March on!

March on! March on, and on!

Xiao Ting 肖婷

Zheng He’s Voyages

From 1405 until 1433, the Chinese imperial eunuch Zheng He led seven ocean expeditions for the Ming emperor which is an unprecedented feat in world history.

Zheng He Zheng He was born Ma He to a Muslim family in the far southwest, in today's Yunnan province. It is said that his original surname is Ma,his full name as Ma Sanbao .At ten years old he was captured by soldiers sent there by the first Ming emperor intent on subduing the south. He was sent to the capital to be trained in military ways. Growing up to be a burly, imposing man, over six feet tall with a chest contemporaries said measured over five feet around, he was also extremely talented and intelligent. He received both literary and military training, then made his way up the military ladder with ease, making important allies at court in the process. Besides Zheng He has a background of both Buddhism and lslam.Thus,he was assumed as the perfect choice to lead the emperor’s splendid armada.

Reasons for the voyages The Yongle Emperor sent Zheng He to the “Western oceans”, both to demonstrate the might of the Ming Empire and to realize the diplomatic ideal of peace and harmony among all nations. Zheng He's fleet showed the prosperity ，the imperial power and its advanced navigation technology and exquisite ship-building techniques of China at that time , thus many small countries and bribes agreed to recognize China as their superior and its emperor as lord of “all under Heaven”.These countries and bribes regularly gave gifts of tribute in exchange for certain benefits ,like military posts and treaties. Zheng He's fleet did not act as a sea ruler, it appeared in peace all over the world, laden not only with goods exchanged with those countries, but also with the friendship of peoples.

The seven expeditions These expeditions were astonishing as much for their distance as for their size: during the first ones, Zheng He traveled all the way from China to Southeast Asia and then on to India, all the way to major trading sites on India's southwest coast.The first expedition of this mighty armada was in 11th July of 1405, composed of 317ships and perhaps as many as sixty huge Treasure Ships and nearly 28000men with thousands of soldiers , sailors ,diplomatic specialists ,medical personnel, astronomers and scholars.The fleet stopped in Java and then arrived at Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka ). Compared to the first one, the second voyage(1407-1409) was smaller with only 68ships sending foreign envoys back home.

Zheng He led the third voyage (1409-1411) visiting many of the same countries as the first one did, like Champa and Java. When fighting broke out there between his forces and those of a small kingdom, Zheng put down the fighting, captured the king and brought him back to China where he was released by the emperor and returned home duly impressed

The fourth voyage (1413-15) extended the scope of the expeditions even further. This time in addition to visiting many of the same sites, Zheng He commandeered his 40 ships and over 28,000 men to Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. This trip has 48 ships with doctors , officials ,translators and more than 27000 troops . The fifth voyage (1417-1419) was primarily a return trip for seventeen heads of state from South Asia. They had made their way to China after Zheng He's visits to their homelands in order to present their tribute at the Ming Court. The sixth voyage began in 1421 and lasted for nearly two years.Then the expeditions were halted due to the death of the Yongle emperor. sailed to many of the previously visited Southeast Asian and Indian courts and stops in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the coast of Africa, principally in order to return nineteen ambassadors to their homelands. Zheng He returned to China after less than a year, having sent his fleet onward to pursue several separate itineraries, with some ships going perhaps as far south as Sofala in present day Mozambique. The seventh and final voyage (1431-33) was sent out by the Yongle emperor's successor, his grandson the Xuande emperor.It was on this return trip that Zheng He died.This expedition had more than one hundred large ships and over 27,000 men, and it visited all the important ports in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean as well as Aden and Hormuz. One auxiliary voyage traveled up the Red Sea to Jidda, only a few hundred miles from the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. It was on the return trip in 1433 that Zheng He died and was buried at sea, although his official grave still stands in Nanjing, China. Nearly forgotten in China until recently, he was immortalized among Chinese communities abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia where to this day he is celebrated and revered as a god.

Vocabulary list The Yongle emperor 永乐皇帝（明成祖） Java 爪哇 Ceylon 锡兰（今斯里兰卡） Champe 占城（印度支那古国） Hormuz 霍尔木兹 The Persian Gulf 波斯湾 Medina 麦地那市（沙特阿拉伯西部城市） Mecca 麦加 （穆斯林圣地）

Questions 1.What was Zheng He like? 2. Why did the Yongel Emperor sent the armada to the “Western oceans” 3.How many people did Zheng He bring at the first voyage ,and what did these people do? 4.Why did the expeditions stopped during the 1423-1430? 5.The last trip was sented by?

Xu Jia 徐佳

Four Folk Stories of ancient China

Cowherd and Weaving Girl, Meng Jiangnu Crying on the Great Wall, the Story of the White Snake and Butterfly Lovers are the four major folk love stories in ancient China. As the most charming oral traditions and national intangible cultural heritage in China, the earliest of them has been popular for more than 2000 years, having a profound impact on people’s lives.

1. Cowherd and Weaving Girl

2. Meng Jiangnu Crying on the Great Wall

3. The Story of the White Snake

4. Butterfly Lovers

Cowherd and Weaving Girl

It is said that the story took place in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Cowherd was a simple and honest young man living in the Xiniu village of Nanyang city. His parents died early, so he lived a miserable life with an old ox. One day, Weaving Girl, the daughter of the God of Heaven, came down with other fairies from heaven and took a bathe in a river near Cowherd’s house. The old ox told the Cowherd to steal her clothes so that she was unable to return to the heaven and would stay here to be his wife. With the help of the old ox, Weaving Girl married Cowherd and had a son and a daughter. They led a happy life with husband laboring in the field and wife weaving at home. But their marriage didn't last long. It was discovered by the Queen Mother and incurred her wrath. Ignoring tearful Cowherd and two crying children, she broke up the couple and brought Weaving Girl back. It was the old ox that helped him again. It told Cowherd that it would die tonight and he needed to make three pair of shoes with its skin, which could help him go to heaven and find his wife. Cowherd did as the old ox said. Just as the cowherd was about to catch up with them, however, the Queen Mother took off her golden hairpin and separate them by a large river, which is now called the Milky Way. Hopelessly, the two lovers can only look at each other across the river. Fortunately, magpies were touched by their love. Hundreds of thousands of magpies flied and formed a bridge over the river. Finally the Queen Mother showed a little mercy, allowing them to meet once a year on the magpie bridge. The day was the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which later has become the Chinese Valentine’s Day.

Meng Jiangnu Crying on the Great Wall

During the reign of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty, Fan Xilang, a young man living in the surrounding area of Mengjiang mountain in Lizhou County, Hunan Province, had just finished the forced servitude and returned to his hometown to get married. But unfortunately, on the night of their wedding, Fan Xilang was sent to the north to build the Great Wall. He toiled away with hunger, cold and fatigue, and soon met a miserable death at the end of his efforts. His body was buried under the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnu, Fan’s new wife, got the bad news and went through all kinds of hardships to reach the Great Wall. She cried bitterly there for three days and three nights, and finally cried down the Great Wall and found her husband's remains. On her way to take him home, she suffered a lot and finally died of hunger and thirst in Tongguan County, Shaanxi Province. Sympathetic with the couple’s miserable experience and deeply moved by Meng’s spirits, the local people buried their remains and set up ancestral temples to commemorate them.

The Story of the White Snake

Created in the Southern Song Dynasty and prevailed in the Qing Dynasty, the Story of the White Snake is a model of Chinese folk collective creation. In the book Stories to Warn Man compiled by Feng Menglong, The White Snake under the Leifeng Pagoda has been acknowledged as the first version of this story. After thousands of years of practice in Emei Mountain, two snake named Bai Suzhen and Xiaoqing translated into two beautiful girls and came to visit Hangzhou. After encountering with a young man named Xu Xian in the rain, Bai Suzhen fell in love with him and soon later they get married. But a monk called Fahai saw through Bai’s disguise and thought that it was an intrigue of the white snake to marry a man. He persuaded Xu Xian to intoxicate his wife with realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival. After being drunk, Bai Suzhen couldn’t control herself and showed the shape of a snake, which scared Xu Xian to death. Regardless of her own safety, Bai Suzhen went through many difficulties and got the magical grass, which finally brought Xu Xian back to life. But Fahai did not give up. He then lured Xu Xian to the Jinshan Temple to separate the couple. Bai Suzhen and Xiao Qing had no choice but to inundate the temple with flood. During the fierce battle, Bai was finally defeated and put into a small bowl under the Leifeng Pagoda.

Butterfly Lovers

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Zhu Yingtai, a beautiful and intelligent girl born in a rich family in Shangyu County, Zhejiang Province, wanted to go to Hangzhou to study for there was no good teacher at home. Her father, seeing her eagerness to learn and her ability to disguise herself as a man, finally agreed to her request. On the way to Hangzhou, Zhu Yingtai met Liang Shanbo, a young man who had the same destination with her. He was sincere, gentle and knowledgeable and they clicked immediately. During the school years, they often talked about poetry and articles, cared for each other, and slept in the same bed at night. Zhu had gradually fallen in love with Liang, who, though did not know she was a girl, also cherished her and saw her as his best friend. Three years passed quickly. The moment when they had to part, Zhu constantly gave delicate indications to Liang that she was a girl and she loved him, but Liang failed to take her hint. Zhu had no choice but to lied to Liang that she had a little sister who was similar to her in appearance and learning and she wondered if Liang was willing to marry her. Liang Shanbo readily consented and promised that he would come to visit soon. A months later, Liang Shanbo went to Zhu's home and he was surprised to see Zhu Yingtai dressed up as a girl. Only then did he know the truth and figured all the things out. They then confessed their love to each other and pledged to marry without the permission of parents. But unfortunately, Zhu’s parents didn’t think much of this poor young man. They wanted to marry their daughter to Ma Wencai, the son of the local governor. Zhu Yingtai was unwilling to marry him but her protest was in vain, for her family was in financial crisis and needed Ma’s support. Hopelessly, the two young lovers was forced to part in tears. Since then, Liang slid into a depression. His spirit and health were soon crushed, and he died a few months later. On the wedding day, Zhu asked for a detour to pass by Liang 's tomb so that she could say goodbye to him. Wearing a bright red wedding dress, she knelt in front of his grave and cried bitterly. At that moment, lighting flashed, thunder rolled and the sky went dark. Liang's tomb suddenly cracked open and Ying-tai immediately jumped into it before it closed. Then under the shocked eyes of the onlookers, a pair of beautiful butterflies flied out of the graves and dancing in the sunlight. It is believed that these two butterflies are Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. They finally get rid of all the shackles and bounds and can stay together forever.

Having been adapted into many films and TV plays, these four stories are well-known in China and the rest of the world. As the crystallization of folk culture, they not only represent the rich imagination of ancient Chinese people, but also show their hatred for evil forces and their pursuit for a free and happy life, which is exactly the positive part of folk literature.

Xu Jing 许静

Four Great Pavilions--Xu Jing (talk) 06:21, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Yang Chenting 杨晨婷

Chinese 4 great towers A. origin B. development --Yang chenting (talk) 08:17, 2 November 2020 (UTC)Yang Chenting

Yang Hairong 杨海容

Nanjing, An Ancient Capital of Six Dynasties--Yang Hairong (talk) 08:28, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Yang Hui 阳慧

The Five Constant Virtues A Benevolence

B Righteousness

C Propriety

D Wisdom

F Fidelity

Yang Yue 杨悦

Cheongsam--Yang Yue (talk) 13:16, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Yang Ziling 杨子泠

Stinky Tofu

Yi Zichu 义子楚

Panda--Yi Zichu (talk) 14:26, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

You Yuting 游雨婷

Legalism--You Yuting (talk) 08:29, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

1.Representative figures

2.Values

3.Works

References

Vocabulary List

Questions

Yu Ni 余妮

Four Ancient Chinese Academies 中国古代四大书院 --Yu Ni (talk) 02:18, 21 November 2020 (UTC)

Yuan Tianyi 袁天翼

Milk Tea--Yuan Tianyi (talk) 14:42, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Zeng Liang 曾良

Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden

Zeng Xinyuan 曾心媛

Batik(Lanran)

Batik is a traditional textile printing and dyeing craftsmanship in China. It was called wax valerian in ancient times, also known as one of the four ancient printing techniques which are twisted valerian (tie-dye), gray valerian (hollow printing), and clip-dyeing in ancient China.

History

According to Interpretation of "Laran" in the collection of Wang Aijun of Junyou Society: Batik is an ancient dyeing technique. It is called Batik in Indonesia or Malaysia. The patterns dyed by this method embody both decorative interests and practical values. Batik art, with a long history, emerged in China. According to the records of the “Eryi Records”, Batik appeared in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and then became popular during the Six Dynasties. The court of the Sui Dynasty especially liked this kind of handicrafts, and special patterns appeared in this period. As for the unearthed objects, which was even earlier than it was documented, was a quilt dyed with valerian and excavated in the tomb of Chu in the Warring States Period in Changsha. An unearthed piece of finished product originated in the Jin Dynasty, with overlapping patterns, which is the so-called agate-patterned silk in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Batik was especially popular in the Tang Dynasty, during which the technology was more mature than before. At that time, batik can be divided into two types: single-color dyeing and multi-color dyeing, the latter of which can use as many as four or five colors. Later generations can get a glimpse of the luxurious and beautiful batik patterns in the Tang Dynasty from clothes of two women in Song Huizong’s copy of The Painting of Pounding the Texture by Zhang Xuan, and horsemen’s clothes in The Painting of Lady Guoguo on a Spring Outing. Due to the great influence of Chinese culture in the Tang Dynasty on Japan, Nara’s Shosoin has preserved various treasures of Chinese craftsmanship since the Tang Dynasty, including a set of batik folding screen, which was brought back to Japan by a monk in the Tang Dynasty. Batik has declined in China since the Song Dynasty, but it has become popular in various parts of Southeast Asia at the same time (especially in Java, Sumatra and other islands). So far, Indonesian and Malaysian clothes are almost all made of batik.

Types

China's batik is mainly distributed in Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Hunan, Guangdong, Taiwan, Jiangxi provinces. Chinese batik has different types, such as type of Danzhai, Chonganjiang, Zhijin, Rongjiang, Southern Sichuan, Hainan, Wenshan, etc. The use, craft, pattern and style of batik vary from region to region.

Patterns

--Zeng Xinyuan (talk) 08:38, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

Zhang Hui 张慧

Ancient Chinese weapons中国古代兵器--Zhang Hui (talk) 08:04, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Zhang Ling 张玲

Terra-Cotta Warriors --Zhang Ling (talk) 02:32, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

Zhang Peiwen 张佩闻

bonsai 盆景

Zhang Weihong 张维虹

TikTok（抖音） --Zhang Weihong (talk) 08:31, 21 November 2020 (UTC)Zhang Weihong

Zhang Yinliu 张银柳

San Mao -三毛 OR Four Buddhist Shrines - 佛教四大名山

Zhang Yu 张瑜

Compass

Compass, papermaking, gunpowder and printing were referred to the Four Great Inventions, celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance. Compass, as the ancient China’s advanced science and technology, has made great contribution to the navigation undertaking both in China and the rest of the world. China was the first one to find the magnetism that could guide the polarity and use the polarity in the earth’s magnetic field and invent the instrument that could guide the directions. The earliest reference to magnetism in Chinese literature, Devil Valley Master, was found in the 4th century BC. It recorded that “The lodestone makes iron come, or it attracts it.” The earliest south-pointing device probably appeared in the Warring States Period. It seemed like a spoon made by lodestone. With round bottom, it could rotate freely in the smooth plate. When it stopped, the handle of the spoon would guide the South. Therefore, people all called it “south-governor” or Si Nan. However, in the process of making the south-governor, the lodestone was easy to lose its magnetism due to vibration. Besides, when rotating on the plate, it produced huge friction and resistance, which affected its effects. Therefore, the south-governor has not been applied in a wide range. In the Song Dynasty, the book Wujing Zongyao, written by Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide in 1044, recorded a magnetic device used as a “direction finder”, called “south-pointing fish”. It made by thin iron slice and was magnetized by the earth’s magnetic field. When people made use of it, they could float it in a bowl of water to guide the south. The device was recommended as a means of orientation “in the obscurity of the night”. Although it effectively avoided the shortcomings of the south-governor, the magnetism was weak acquired from the magnetic field, resulting in the decreased in practical values. In the South Song Dynasty, the book Dream Pool Essays written by Shen Kuo recorded the first magnetic needle compass, which was the combination of the magnetic needle and plate. This kind of compass had meridian indicator needle, which directed the south and the north. There are two types of magnetic needle compass, that is wet suspension compass and dry suspension compass. The wet suspension compass was used with its needle floating on the water. And the dry suspension compass was a wooden frame crafted in the shape of a turtle hung upside down by a board, with the lodestone sealed in by wax. When floating, the needle at the tail would always point at the northern cardinal direction.

Compass, as an instrument to guide the direction, had played an important role in people’s daily life and navigation undertaking.

At the beginning, the compass was used for geomancy (prognostication) to determine the best location and time for things such as burials and weddings. It was recorded that Qin emperor used the diving board and compass in royal court to affirm his right to the throne. The original shape of the compass made people believe that the square plate symbolized earth and the circular disc symbolized heaven. And around the circular disc, there inscribed the eight trigrams, the 24 directions (based on the constellations) and the 28 lunar mansions (based on the constellations dividing the Equator). Although the geomancy was a kind of superstition, the compass was endowed with people’s wishful thinking. Nowadays many people still use the concepts of Feng Shui to decide the location of buildings and enterprises as well as the auspicious time for open ceremony.

Before the invention of compass, navigators usually depended on the positions of the sun, the moon and the polestar to take their bearings. However, relying on the celestial phenomena posed another problem. When the navigators met the rainy days, they were unable to distinguish the directions according to the celestial phenomena. The appearance of compass made up for the defect. The compass used for navigation started from the end of Northern Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, it was with the compass that the navigator, Zheng He, could made seven voyages to the western countries. The voyages expanded the foreign trade and promoted the exchanges of economy and cultures between China and western countries. The compass had played an important role in providing guidance.

The compass was introduced to the Arab world and Europe during the Northern Song Dynasty. After the compass entered into the Europe, the Europeans further improved the compass and invented the dry compass with fixed support. Until 15th century, they invented the gimbal to keep the dry compass in a horizontal level. The application of compass in Europe promoted the coming of the age of sail. The great philosopher Marx pointed that Europe opened the global market and established the colony via the compass.

Diagram of a Ming dynasty mariner's compass, Public Domain license by Wikimedia. Click [1] for original source.

References

• Fan, Jialu, Han, Qi, Wang, Zhaochun, Dai, Nianzu. "The four great inventions." A History of Chinese Science and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2015. 161-299
• Andrade, Tonio, ed. (2016). The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Boruchoff, David A. (2012), "The Three Greatest Inventions of Modern Times: An Idea and Its Public", in Hock, Klaus, Gesa; Mackenthun (eds.), Entangled Knowledge: Scientific Discourses and Cultural Difference, Münster: Waxmann, pp. 133–163, ISBN 978-3-8309-2729-7
• Buchanan, Brenda J., ed. (2006). Gunpowder, Explosives and the State: A Technological History. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5259-9.
• Deng Yinke (2005). Ancient Chinese Inventions. Translated by Wang Pingxing. Beijing: China Intercontinental Press. ISBN 7-5085-0837-8.
• Li Shu-hua (1954). "Origine de la Boussole 11. Aimant et Boussole". Isis. Vol. 45 no. 2: July. Oxford. pp. 175–196.
• Needham, Joseph (1962). Physics and Physical Technology, Part 1, Physics. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 4. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
• Needham, Joseph, ed. (1985). Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 1, Tsien Hsuen-Hsuin, Paper and Printing. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Needham, Joseph, ed. (1994). Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Robin D.S. Yates, Krzysztof Gawlikowski, Edward McEwen, Wang Ling (collaborators) Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic. Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• "World Archaeological Congress eNewsletter 11 August 2006" (PDF). [2]

Vocabulary List

Questions

• When was paper invented? (8 BCE)

Zhang Yujie 张毓婕

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

Zhao Xi 赵茜

Four Treasures of the Study 文房四宝

Zhao Xiaoyan 赵晓燕

Chinese Fairy Tales

Zhou Yiwen 周艺文

Questions

--Zhou Yiwen (talk) 11:42, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Zhou Yuanqu 周园曲

中国古代选官制度--Zhou Yuanqu (talk) 12:55, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Zhu Meimei 祝美梅

Ancient Chinese Doors and Windows

In the early age of human existence, the purpose for the construction of buildings was quite clear: to ensure security and ward off the cold. When doors and windows first came into existence, they only had the primary function of ventilation and lighting. Nowadays, the Chinese character for “window” is 窗（chuang），but in ancient times, its was written as 囱（cong），which, both in meaning and pronunciation is the same as the character for “chimney”. This clearly shows that, in ancient times, windows were used for ventilation, at least they were used more for ventilation than for lighting. The traditional Chinese character for “door” is 門（men），composed of two door leaves (hu, 户), originally meaning a door with two leaves. Thus, a door with two door leaves was called a men, and door with one leaf was known as a hu, 牖（you），which is seldom used now, meant a window in the wall, whereas cong was a window in the roof. It is important to acquire this basic knowledge for our understanding of the evolution of doors and windows.

Although no buildings prior to the Qin dynasty have survived, we can imagine how simple they were. Huainanzi. On Mountains contains an illuminative depiction: “When light comes from a crack, a corner is illuminated; when light comes from a window in the wall, the north wall is illuminated; when light comes from the door, all the room is illuminated.” It further comments: “With ten windows fully open, the room is not as bright as when a door is open.” These remarks provide us with plenty of useful information.

First, we know that at that time houses were constructed to face the south, and the direction of doors and windows were consistent with the architectural tradition which lasted thousands of years. Secondly, windows were quite small, to the extent that the area of ten windows was not as big as that of a door. Doors and windows at this time only had basic functions. We can assume that no decoration was applied, and that there were even no window rods. Windows with vertical rods appeared in the Han dynasty, which can only be seen in excavated funeral objects. As elaborate funerals were in fashion in the Han dynasty, construction models as funeral objects have occasionally been unearthed from Han tombs. On these objects ancient doors and windows can be identified. During Han times, paper was not used to cover windows. Although papermaking was invented in the Western Han (206BC-25AD), it was not until hundreds of years later that paper was installed in windows. Historic Records of Later Han (Houhanshu), Biography of Liang Ji describes: “All the windows are covered qi and green suo.” Qi is a kind of fabric that can ward off wind and allow light to enter. Great progress was made in architecture when windows with vertical rods came into existence. First of all, it made it possible to enlarge a window. If windows were not covered, the function of a house to ward off wind and cold would be diminished; if windows were too big, it would be difficult to close and block them up. Windows with vertical rods solved these problems perfectly. In addition, as fabric manufacturing in the Han dynasty was quite developed, windows covered with fabrics were both practical and good-looking.

Windows with vertical rods began to be commonly adopted in Wei adn Jin times. During this period there was a row of windows with vertical rods installed in the enclosed walls of many private residences. In the competition among literati in garden building, the function of doors and windows became sophisticated. Installed between natural scenes and houses, they acted as partitions. Xie Lingyun (385-433), a famous poet and follower of Buddhism, wrote a beautiful couplet in his On the Mountain Cottage, “Ranges of mountains are invited into the door, and mirror-like quiescent water is displayed in front of the window.” To exhibit natural scenes through doors and windows added to the aesthetic function of doors and windows. During the period from the Sui and Tang dynasties to the Song dynasty, doors and windows in constructions gradually matured. From the drawings in the Building Standards, we can see diversified lattice patterns and elaborate carvings in waist panels, showing that a variety of decorative means for doors and windows were in place at that time. However, the style of lattice doors was comparatively simple, with only two types: single-waist-bar type and double-waist-bar type. The “waist bar” was a transversal wood bar inset in the part. Compared with a plank door, this kind of lattice door was better for lighting, more attractive in appearance, and lighter in weight.

In the Song dynasty, windows with vertical rods remained prevalent, while windows with traceries or scroll work were occasionally installed. There were two kinds of lattices used in windows: flat lattice and cuspate lattice.. The cross section of a flat lattice strip was rectangular or square; whereas the cross section of a cuspate lattice strip was a triangle, with an angle pointing outwards and the bottom pointing inwards, so that the indoor side of the lattice could be pasted with paper or fabrics. During the evolutionary development of classical doors, between plank doors and lattice doors there was another kind of door called a “soft door”. A soft door was a frame structure, with a waist bar in the middle, and panels were inset in grooves above and below the bar. The advantage of a soft door was that it was light in weight and resistant to deformation. The soft door is considered to be the predecessor of the lattice door.

Lattice doors in Song times were wide and low, while in the Ming and Qing such doors (renamed “partition doors) became narrower and higher. Two reasons were attributable to such changes. First, horizontal upper windows were seldom installed on top of partition doors in the Ming and Qing. Second, very often in Ming and Qing constructions, partition formed much of the facade of a house, and an increase in the number of such doors could create a more rhythmic effect, which would also make it easier to evenly distribute the doors.

Innumerable doors and windows of the Ming and Qing, either from official buildings or from private residences, have survived today, including all kinds of exquisitely made partition doors and still windows. All the doors and windows illustrated in this book are products of the Ming and Qing dynasties. As the area south of the Yangtze River was prosperous and rich, and possessed a very talented society, doors and windows from this area are especially representative of the talents and adeptness of craftsmen in older times.--Zhumeimei (talk) 01:05, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

Zhu Xu 朱旭

Yuelu Academy--Zhu Xu (talk) 02:29, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Zou Xinyu 邹鑫雨

The Earlist Paper Currency

With the development of the exchange of goods, currency emerged. And at very begining, currency was served by certain recognized equivalents, such as seashells. Gradually precious metals like gold and silver took the place of those equivalents as currency. However, when metal currency was used for a long time, it became worn out and worthless. People realized that they could use other things to replace the metal currency in circulation, so paper currency appeared. The earliest paper currency in the world was the "jiaozi" of Chengdu, Sichuan province, during the Northern Song Dynasty. China was the first country in the world to use paper currency.

Jiaozi(A Paper Currency in Northern Song Dynasty)

Jiaozi(A paper currency in Northern Song Dynasty

The appearance of paper currency in the Northern Song Dynasty was not accidental; it was an inevitable product of socio-political and economic development. With the rapid development of the commodity economy in the Song Dynasty, there was a need for more currency in circulation, but the copper coin was in shortage and couldn't meet the demand in circulation. Iron coin was common in the Sichuan region at the time, and was of low value and heavy weight, making it extremely inconvenient to use. Chengdu was an important economic centre, and the roads to the outside world were extremely rugged, so there was an objective need for a light currency, which is the main reason why paper currency first appeared in Sichuan. Furthermore, although the Northern Song Dynasty was a country of highly centralized feudal dictatorship, the national currency was not uniform and there were several currency zones, each with its own rules, which were not used by the other. In addition, the Song government was frequently attacked by the Liao, Xia and Jin dynasties, and had to issue paper currency to cover its financial deficit. All these reasons led to the creation of the paper currency, "jiaozi".

Initially, jiaozi was issued freely by merchants. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, "jiaozi banks" emerged in Chengdu, Sichuan province, for merchants carrying large sums of money who operated a cash deposit business. At this time, jiaozi was only a form of deposit and withdrawal receipt, not currency. With the development of the commodity economy, the use of jiaozi became more and more widespread, and many merchants joined together to set up jiaozi banks specializing in issuing and exchanging jiaozi, and they also opened branch banks in various places. Due to the creditworthiness of the jiaozi bank owners, people could withdraw their money as they came. And the printed designs of jiaozi were too exquisite to be forged, the bank owners began to print jiaozi with a uniform denomination and format, which was issued to the market as a new means of circulation. This kind of jiaozi was already the symbol for minted coins, and really became paper currency. But it had not yet been recognized by the government, and was still issued by private individuals as "private exchanges". Not all jiaozi banks were law-abiding and trustworthy. During the Jingde reign (1004-1007), Zhang Yong, the governor of Yizhou, reorganized the jiaozi banks, weeding out the outlaws and exclusively let sixteen wealthy merchant run the banks. It was only then that the issuance of jiaozi was recognized by the government. In the first year of the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1023), the government set up the Yizhou Jiaozi Affairs Department, with one or two officials as supervisors to preside over the issuance of jiaozi, and set up a paper-copying academy to eliminate currency forgery, strictly enforcing the printing process. This was the earliest paper currency officially issued by the government in China - the "official jiaozi".

The advent of jiaozi facilitated commercial exchanges and made up for the shortage of money in circulation, which is a major achievement in the history of China's currency. In addition, as the earliest paper currency issued in China and even in the world, jiaozi occupies an important position in the history of printing and printmaking, and is of great significance to the study of China's ancient paper currency printing technology, as well as a contribution of China's financial industry to the world.

References

[1] He Shengming.Dictionary of Finance and Economics[M].China Finance and Economics Press,1990.

[2] Paper currency.Modern Chinese Dictionary (7th Edition)[M].The Commercial Press,2016.

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--Zou Xinyu2 (talk) 07:51, 11 November 2020 (UTC)Zou Xinyu

Zubareva, Ekaterina

Chinese traditional make up--ZubarevaEkaterina (talk) 15:02, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

I.Base make up

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