Tag: Traditional Chinese

Hua Tuo 华佗

华佗通晓各种经书和养生的学问。他立志以医济世，为民众解除病苦。沛国相陈珪和太尉黄琬曾先后举荐或征召他出来当官，都被他拒绝了。华佗行医遍及今安徽、江苏、山东、河南的一些地区，深受群众的爱戴和推崇。汉丞相曹操患头风头痛，久治不见效，召华佗治疗。华佗施以针刺，头痛立刻就停止了。曹操要留华佗在身边做侍医，华佗不愿意只为他一人服务，托辞回家不返。曹操一怒之下，将华佗杀害了。Huo Tuo was well versed in various sutras and knowledge of keeping health. He decided to help the people out of diseases with his medical knowledge. Prime Minister of Chen Gui and Commander Huang Wan of Pei Kingdom recommended him to be government official, but he refused. Hua Tuo went to some places in today's Anhui, Jiangsu and Henan to help people, winning their respect and applause. When Cao Cao, Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, suffered from a headache and could not be recovered after long-time treatment. He turned to Hua Tuo for help. Hua Tuo acupunctured Cao Cao's head and cured the disease. Cao Cao hope Hua Tuo could be his private doctor. But Hua Tuo did not want to serve only one people. He got an excuse and went home and refused to go back. Cao Cao was very angry and he killed Hua Tuo.
华佗不仅精于针灸，在妇产科、小儿科、内科杂病和寄生虫病等方面都有很高的造诣。他最大的成就，是在外科方面。他发时了麻沸散，并成功地使病人在全身麻醉下施行腹部外科手术。据史书记载，华佗已能做肿瘤摘除、胃肠缝合一类的手术。他对那些发于体内，针灸服药都不能治好的病，就采用手术治疗。他先让病人用酒服麻沸散，待病人如同酒醉失去知觉时，切开腹壁，若是肿瘤就割除;若病在肠胃，就将胃肠截断，除去疾秽的部分，经过洗涤后再很好地加以缝合，在伤口上敷以一种药膏。四五天后伤口愈合，病人一个月左右就可恢复健康。麻沸散是一种用于全身麻醉的中药麻醉剂。华佗在公元二三世纪发明全身麻醉术，比西方医学家使用乙醚或笑气进行全麻手，要早一千六百多年。因此。华佗不仅是中国第一位，而且是世界上第一位使用麻醉术进行腹腔手术的人。Hua Tuo not only was versed in acupuncture, but also made great achievements in areas such as gynaecology and obstetrics, pediatrics, diseases of internal medicines and verminosis. His greatest achievement was made in surgery. He invented Mafei San (Chinese ancient narcotic drug) and conducted an operation on the abdomen of a patient after being narcotized. According to history books, Hua Tuo could conduct operation of removing tumors and suturing stomach and intestines. For the diseases that were inside the body and could not be cured through acupuncture, Hua Tuo treated them with operation. He first asked the patient to drink Mafei San with liquor; when the patient lost the consciousness, he would cut open the abdomen. If he found tumors, he would remove them; if the diseases were in the stomach or intestines, he would cut them apart and remove the part with the disease. After washing the remaining parts, he would suture them. A kind of ointment was used on the wound. Four or five days later, the wound would, and the patient would be recovered in around a month's time. Mafei San is a kind of traditional Chinese drug of general anesthesia. Hua Tuo invented the technology of general anesthesia in 2-3 Century, more than 1,600 years earlier than the ether and nitrous oxide used by western physicians for general anesthesia. Hua Tuo was the first people to use anesthesia for operation in the abdomen not only in China, but also in the world.
华佗还很多重视体育锻炼。他认为适当的运动可以帮助消化、畅通气血，不但能预防疾病，还可延长寿命。据此，他模仿虎、鹿、熊、猿、鸟的动作，创造了"五禽戏"。他的弟子吴普照这个方法坚持锻炼，活到九十多岁，仍耳聪目明，牙齿坚固。Hua Tuo attached great importance to physical exercises. He believed that appropriate exercises could improve digestion, help energy and blood circulation, prevent diseases and help prolong life. He invented Five-Animal Exercises according to the movement of tiger, deer, bear, monkey and bird. His apprentice Wu Pu practiced the exercises and was still very healthy with good eyesight and hearing and strong teeth.
华佗一生有很多医著，可惜都没有流传下来，这是中国医学的一个重大损失。现在看到的《中藏经》、《华柁神医秘传》等，都是后人托名而作，并非出自华佗之手。Hua Tuo wrote a lot of books on medicines in his life but none of them is available now. It is a great loss for Chinese medicines. The books available today such as Zhongzang Sutra and Secret Skills of Doctor Hua Tuo were actually written by someone else under the name of Hua Tuo.

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What to buy in China?

Chinese elements China has myriads of souvenirs to offer to its visitors. Just to name a few: silks, embroideries, brocades, traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, furniture, medicinal herbs, cloisonne, ceramics, carvings and sculptures, woven hand works, artistic fans, lacquer wares, traditional Chinese stationery, tea, beverages, folk arts and crafts of different ethnic backgrounds, and native products and local specialties.

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Kaiping watchtowers in China’s Guangdong Province

First time got to know watchtowers(a watchtower is a high building which gives a person a good view of the area around the place that they are guarding) in Guangdong(广东Guǎngdōng) was from the famous Chinese film Let the Bullets Fly, and I was shocked not only by the story but also by some architecture(the architecture of a building is the style in which it is designed and constructed) in it. They combine both the Chinese and western building styles including ancient Greek, Roman and Islamic ones, simple but revealing the deep sense of history. Compared with the ancient buildings I had visited before, watchtowers in the film seemed to be more modern.

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Zhongyuan Festival in Guilin City of China

September the 3rd, a special day in China(中国Zhōngguó), the Chinese Zhongyuan Festival(中元节Zhōngyuán Jié) comes. For Chinese people, there are two kinds of calendars we are using among centuries, the solar calendar and the lunar one, the solar one is the same date as the one we usually talk about in our daily lives while the lunar one was commonly used in the old China but is still being used by many people to record their birthdays, the date and it is even used to judge the lucky level on each day and it is used to keep the agricultural seasons for the farmers. Today is the July 15 of the lunar calendar, the traditional Chinese festival today is also called the Hungry Ghost. I have witnessed the celebration activities in Guilin City.

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National Holiday in Xing’an of China

The Xing'an(兴安Xīng’ān) is one of the counties in Guilin(桂林Guìlín), like the world famous city of Guilin, Xing'an is also a great place for tourists especially it enjoys good reputation among Japanese friends. Some of my friend and I have been to this place a couple weeks ago but we decided go back here again in national holiday, because it will be a perfect place for local visitors in our golden week in October, with less crowded people but even more beautiful landscape.

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The Legend of Xishi 西施的传说

Xishi ranked top among the four major beauties in ancient China, symbolizing the image of beauty in traditional Chinese culture. The place where the legend originated –Zhuji City in the central north of Zhejiang Province, was once capital of the state of Yue during the Spring and Autumn Period.西施居中国古代四大美女之首，是中国传统文化中美的象征。西施传说的发端地——浙江省中北部的诸暨，曾是春秋时期越国的古都。
The Legend of Xishi originated in the late Spring Autumn Period. It started as a dictation folktale and the earliest record was found in The Commentary of Mozi and The Commentary of Mencius. Thanks to circulation of generation after generation, it spread more widely with its content constantly enriched. With the war between the State of Wu and the State of Yue as the historical background, the legend took the life of Xishi as the main thread and various related stories as details concerning people (Dongshi: The Copycat of Xishi), names of places (The White Fish Pool), fruit delicacy (Torreya grandis), and legend (Sangjiangkou Water Lamp). It sings high praise for Xishi in terms of her beauty, kindness and sacrifice for the country.西施传说产生于春秋末期，起源于民间口头讲述，最早的文字记载见于《墨子》和《孟子》等，经历代口耳相传，流传范围扩大，内容不断丰富。西施传说以吴越争战为历史背景，以西施一生传奇经历为主干，以人物传说（如“东施效颦”）、地名传说（如“白鱼潭”）、物产传说（如“香榧眼”）、风俗传说（如“三江口水灯”）等为枝叶，从不同角度歌颂了西施的美丽、善良和“为国甘献身”的奉献精神。
The Legend of Xishi is a time-honored one, spanning a history of over 2,500 years from beginning up till now. Its area of circulation has been so wide as to cover not only Zhuji, but also Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and the whole country and Southeast Asian countries like Korea, Japan and Singapore as well as areas of overseas Chinese worldwide. The legend is substantial and varied, involving almost all of the elements of folk literature such as people, names of places, local products, and custom and social practice. Apart from story-telling as folktale, the legend is also circulating in various forms such as traditional opera and play.西施传说历史悠久，自发端流传至今，已有二千五百多年的传承历史。其传播地域广泛，不但流传诸暨全境，辐射江浙乃至全国，甚至远播韩国、日本及新加坡等东南亚国家、地区和世界各地华人区。西施传说内容丰富，涉及人物、地名、物产、风俗等，几乎涵盖了民间文学的所有领域，除以民间文学口耳相外，传说还以曲艺、戏剧等多种形式加以传承流播。
As one of the colorful legends of people in China, the Legend of Xishi is of great value in other aspects besides the inherent significance as folk literature and art: 1) literary value: as popular literature, it circulates widely and suits readers both young and old. It has always been the source of creation for other literary initiatives and literary productions based on the Legend of Xishi have been many and varied. Meanwhile, by means of communication in literary forms, the influence of the legend has been widened and the content consolidated. And studying the interactive relationship is of great importance to the thriving of literature and art; 2) aesthetic value: as symbol of aesthetics, Xishi has taken an exclusive place in the aesthetic history of Chinese nation, which is worthwhile to explore further from the perspective of aesthetics; 3) value of cognition and history: with war between the states of Wu and Yue as the background, the Legend of Xishi was a folk interpretation of history and culture of ancient Wu and Yue, which is of reference value to the studies of history of the Spring and Autumn Period; 4) humanistic value: the praise for truth, good and beauty and the advocacy of heroism and sacrifice are all conducive to spreading the quintessence of humanism.作为中国丰富多样的人物传说之一，西施传说除了民间文艺学本身的学科意义之外，还具有其他方面的重要价值：（1）文学价值：传说作为文学普及读物，流传极广，老少咸宜，而且历来是各种文学样式的创作源泉，以西施传说为题材的文学作品多种多样；同时，通过文学形式的传播，又扩大了“西施传说”的影响，丰富了传说的内容。研究其中相辅相成的关系，对繁荣文学艺术具有重要意义。（2）美学价值：西施作为一个审美符号，在中华民族审美史上占有独一无二的地位，值得从美学角度进行深入研究。（3）认识价值与史学价值：西施传说依附于吴越争战而产生，是对古吴越历史文化的民间诠释，对研究春秋史有重要参照价值。（4）人文价值：传说褒扬真善美，崇尚英雄主义和献身精神，对弘扬优秀的人文精神，有积极意义。

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