Tag: Ancient Chinese

Chinese furniture history

The early history of Chinese furniture recorded in excavated material, engraved stone and stamped brick reveals a mat-level furniture culture. The ancient Chinese knelt or sat cross-legged upon woven mats surrounded by various furnishings including low tables, screens, and armrests. Examples of excavated lacquer furniture from the ancient kingdom of Chu (ca. 500 BC) demonstrate an aesthetic of minimalism and simplicity, and others are decorated with unique colorful patterns and bear finely carved decoration in relief and openwork. The blending of artistic form with practical functionality can be seen as a common thread running throughout the long history of Chinese furniture.
Developments toward high seating were influenced by foreign customs and the migration of Buddhism. During the second century AD, the Han emperor Lingdi was recorded to have had a fascination with things foreign, including the foreign or "barbarian" seat (huchuang). This term referred to the folding stool, which at that time was commonly used by nomadic tribes in the more remote northern and western regions where it was also used for mounting horses. Being easily carried over the shoulder, it quickly became a popular seat for traveling or hunting.

Continue Reading →

History of Education in China(1)中国教育的历史（1）

Many Chinese scholars believe the history of education in China can be traced back at as far as the 16th century B.C. during the late "Xia Dynasty" (1523-1027 B.C.). Throughout this period of time, education was the privilege（特权tèquán） of the elites. The teachings of Confucianism during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770-221 B.C.), the curriculum（课程kèchéng） were mainly based on The Four Books and The Five Classics. The Four Books and The Five Classics were the acknowledged subjects of the Confucian culture in the feudal society in ancient China. The Four Books refers to The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, Confucian Analects and The Works of Mencius. And The Five Classics includes The Book of Poetry (also known as The Book of Songs, The Book of Odes), The Book of History, The Book of Rites, The Book of Changes, and The Spring and Autumn Annals.许多中国学者认为中国教育的历史可以追溯到公元前16世纪的夏朝晚期（公元前1523年——公元前1027年），在这整个时期内，教育是精英阶层的特权。春秋战国时期（公元前770年——公元前221年）的儒家教育，其课程主要是基于“四书五经”。在中国古代封建社会，“四书五经”是被公认儒家文化课程。“四书”是指《大学》、《中庸》、《论语》和《孟子》，而“五经”则包括《诗》、《书》、《礼》、《易》、《春秋》。
Confucianism probably is the biggest influence（影响yǐngxiǎng） in education of China throughout the entire Chinese history. Later in Han dynasty, a form of public education system was established. Not only elites from upper class families can study in school, common man can also use education as a path to become a better man, known as gentleman.贯穿整个中国历史，儒家思想恐怕是对中国教育影响最大的学说。在后来的汉代，一种公学教育制度被建立起来。不仅仅只有来自上流阶层的精英可以在校学习，普通人也可以利用教育这一途径成为更优秀的人，也就是我们所知的“君子”。
In Confucianism, a gentleman (Chun Tzu) considers what is right, when the peasant considers what will pay. A gentleman trusts in justice and the peasant trusts in favor. A gentleman is generous and fair, when the peasant is biased and petty. A gentleman looks within for guidance and the peasant looks unto others. A gentleman is easy to serve, and hard to please. The peasant is hard to serve, and easy to please. A gentleman is to know what we know, and know what we do not know. The basic concept of gentleman in Confucianism often emphasizes the different behaviors between the gentleman and the peasant. A peasant in ancient Chinese society can be better described as today’s common man or average citizen. As a result, not everyone can be a gentleman in ancient Chinese society. In fact, studying Confucianism itself was limited to very few people in ancient China. Most of them are from ruling and upper class families. They were the group of people in need to educate in the classics and understand morality. They needed to understand why things have to be done as they had the duty to their families, ancestors and the empire（帝国dìguó）. Gentleman with knowledge will then carry out Chinese cultural traditions or even set rules of society for others.在儒家思想中，“君子怀德，小人怀土”“君子喻于义，小人喻于利”“君子坦荡荡，小人长戚戚”“君子求诸己，小人求诸人”“君子易事而难说也，小人难事而易说也”“（君子）知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也”。儒家经典经常强调“君子”和“小人”二者行为的不同。中国古代的“小人”好比今天的普通人或普通市民。因此，在中国古代社会，不是所有人都可以成为“君子”。事实上，中国古代学习儒家思想本身也仅限于极少的一群人中。他们中的很多人来自统治阶层和上流社会家庭。他们是群有需要学习经典和理解道德的人。由于自身对家族、祖先和帝国的责任，他们需要理解为什么有些事情不得不做。于是乎，拥有学识的君子们便贯彻实行中国文化传统，甚至为其他人设立社会规则。

Continue Reading →

A Shining Pearl in China: Medicinal Cuisine 药膳

Chinese food is well-known all over the world. However, the common Chinese food eaten around the world isn’t authentic. Authentic Chinese food dishes are prepared according to traditional recipes and techniques, based on ancient ideas about how the human body operates, and they described the effect of each kind of meat, grain, herb, or vegetable on the human body.

Continue Reading →

Chinese religion: The Islam

Islam is one of the world's three most important religions, was transmitted from Arabia to China in the mid-7th century A. D. Over many centuries, diplomats and traders built a bridge of economic and cultural exchanges connecting the two major areas, China and Arabia. There are perhaps as many as 15 million Muslims in China today, of whom over seven million are Hui. Politically, Islam is important both because China seeks good relations with Muslim countries and because the non-Hui Muslims live in strategically sensitive border areas.

Continue Reading →

The holiday with 节（jié ）

If you learn Chinese festival, you must know the common word 节（jié ：it means festival or holiday）. The character 节 is, in a word, an instant party—attach it to the end of just about anything and you’ve got yourself a holiday. Tack it on to 劳动 (láodòng), or labor, and you’ve got 劳动节 (Láodòngjié), Labor Day; add it to 妇女 (fùnǚ), woman, and you’ve got 妇女节 (Fùnǚjié), Women’s Day. Add it to spring, 春 (chūn), and you’ve got the biggest holiday of the year: 春节(Chūnjié), or Spring Festival. 节, in other words, has the power to transform the dead of winter into a raging, baijiu-fueled, firework-popping celebration.
Given its alchemical powers, you might be surprised at 节’s rather prosaic roots—its original meaning, as recorded in bronzeware inscriptions (1300 BC-200 BC), was “bamboo joint,” the ridges along poles of bamboo. At that time, 节 was written as 節, which combined the radicals at the top of the character for bamboo, 竹 (zhú), with the pronunciation character 即 (jí).
The appearance of the character started to change during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC), when cursive writing simplified the ⺮ at the top of 節 to 艹. Later still, people started leaving out the left side of the character 即, simplifying it into the modern 节.
The meaning of 节, on the other hand, took a much more convoluted path. Around the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), dictionaries began listing a second definition for节, “bamboo cord,” thanks to the resemblance between bamboo ridges and knotted up bits of twine.
Here’s where the semantic gods of Association begin to run wild. Because twine was used as a restraint, 节 gave birth to 节制 (jiézhì), which means “restrict” or “moderate.” This spun off a host of new words related to restraint or restriction: 节约 (jiéyuē) and 节俭 (jiéjiǎn), for example, both refer to frugality; 节食 (jiéshí) means to diet; 节欲 (jiéyù) is abstinence and节哀 (jié’āi) refers to overcoming grief. When people pass away, we often say 节哀顺变 (jié’āi shùnbiàn), which is short for 节制哀伤 (jiézhì āishāng) “restrain grief,” and 顺应变故 (shùnyìng biàngù) “accept misfortune. ”
节 took another interesting turn with the word 符节 (fújié), which in ancient China referred to the bamboo certifications given to royal envoys. Diplomats came to be called 使节 (shǐjié), which in turn gave way to an army of terms related to the messengers’ supposedly noble characters. Among these are 气节 (qìjié, integrity) and 节操 (jiécāo, moral principles). In ancient Chinese culture节操 was extremely important, a sentiment expressed in the phrase,“饿死事小，失节事大”(È sǐ shì xiǎo, shījié shì dà), which means that starving to death is nothing compared with losing one’s integrity.
A third line of semantic evolution was based on the observation that bamboo joints occur one after the other. As a result, 节节 came to describe something that occurs steadily or in succession. During a war, two defeats followed by a retreat is called 节节败退 (jié jié bàituì). When prices continually rise it’s called 节节上升 (jié jié shàngshēng). The saying 芝麻开花—节节高 (zhīma kāihuā—jié jié gāo, sesame flowers open—and grow steadily tall) means that things are always changing for the better, like a sesame flower blossoming upwards.
Because bamboo joints divide the pole into sections, 节 is also used to describe things in life that have stages. Book chapters and sections are called 章节 (zhāngjié); performance order is called 节目 (jiémù); and seasons are called 季节 (jìjié) and 节气 (jiéqì). It’s this that led to the use of节 to refer to holidays, which were originally used to mark seasonal changes. In addition to 春节 (Chūnjié), there’’s also 清明节 (Qīngmíngjié）or Tomb Sweeping Day, 端午节 (Duānwǔjié) or Dragon Boat Festival, 中秋节 (Zhōngqiūjié) or Mid-Autumn Festival, and so on. Go ahead, try and invent your own. My first nomination: 巧克力节 (Qiǎokèlìjié, Chocolate Festival)…
Welcome to China and enjoy all kinds of 节.

Continue Reading →

Land of the Panda— — Wild China Episode 5

第五集《沃土中原》
该集以长城和黄河流域的中原为中心，镜头扫过这片曾经孕育过中华古文明的大地。在秦岭森林里依然如施过魔法般孕育着神奇的生物：大熊猫、金丝猴、羚牛，还有全世界绝无仅有的上百只被誉为“吉祥鸟”的美丽朱鹮。跟随镜头，来到中国首都及历朝古都北京，看清晨遛鸟打拳的老人和致力于救助猛禽的青年。千百年象征着民族精神的少林寺，也在鹤、猴、蛇等动物身上寻找着师法天然的武术奥秘。

Continue Reading →

The Art of Translating Chinese Menus

“Four Glad Meat Balls,” “Pork Flower,” “Red Burned Lion Head” and “Chicken without Sex” – these are just some of the funky names of Chinese dishes you may have stumbled across when consulting an English menu. Some will prove entirely incomprehensible while others will simply put you off your food, but whatever the result, poor translations are the cause.

Continue Reading →

Qingming, One of the 24 Solar Terms 二十四节气之清明

清明是我国的二十四节气之一。比较客观地反映了一年四季气温、降雨、物候等方面的变化，古代劳动人民用它安排农事活动。Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms of China.Objectively reflect the variations in temperature, rainfall and phenology of a year, the working people in ancient times arranged their farming activities in accordance with them.
但是，清明作为节日，与纯粹的节气又有所不同。节气是我国物候变化、时令顺序的标志，而节日则包含着一定的风俗活动和某种纪念意义。However, as a festival, Qingming is different with other solar terms. Festivals always involve customs and rites of commemoration, while solar terms signify phenological changes and the order of seasons in China.
清明节是我国传统节日，也是最重要的祭祀节日，是祭祖和扫墓的日子。扫墓俗称上坟，祭祀死者的一种活动。汉族和一些少数民族大多都是在清明节扫墓。Qingming Festival is one of China’s traditional festivals and also the most important worship festival for offering sacrifices to ancestors and sweeping tombs. Tomb sweeping, commonly called Shangfen (literally “tend to graves”), is an activity for paying respect to the deceased. The Han nationality and some minority nationalities sweep tombs on Qingming Festival.
按照旧的习俗，扫墓时，人们要携带酒食果品、纸钱等物品到墓地，将食物供祭在亲人墓前，再将纸钱焚化，为坟墓培上新土，折几枝嫩绿的新枝插在坟上，然后叩头行礼祭拜，最后吃掉酒食回家。唐代诗人杜牧的诗《清明》：“清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。借问酒家何处有？牧童遥指杏花村。”写出了清明节的特殊气氛。Pursuant to ancient customs, when sweeping a tomb, celebrants should bring food, fruit, wine, spirit money, etc. to the tomb site, and place the food, fruit and wine before the tomb, and burn spirit money. They should build up the tomb with new soil, break off a couple of twigs and stick them into the soil on the tomb, kneel down, kowtou, bow, pray, have the food, fruit and wine, and go home. Du Mu, a poet in Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem titled Qingming which portrays the special atmosphere on Qingming Festival — “A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day; the mourner's heart is breaking on his way. Where can a wine house be found to drown his sadness? A cowherd points to Xinghua (Almond Flower) Village in the distance.”
清明节，又叫踏青节，按阳历来说，它是在每年的4月4日至6日之间，正是春光明媚草木吐绿的时节，也正是人们春游（古代叫踏青）的好时候，所以古人有清明踏青，并开展一系列体育活动的的习俗。Qingming Festival, also called Taqing (literally “treading on the greenery”) Festival, falls on April 4, 5 or 6 of the solar calendar, a time when plants turn green in bright and warm sunshine and a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime (it was called taqing in ancient times). Therefore, ancient Chinese people had customs related to taqing and doing sports.
直到今天，清明节祭拜祖先，悼念已逝的亲人的习俗仍很盛行。Customs of offering sacrifices to ancestors and commemorating deceased relatives are still popular today.

Continue Reading →