love-of-history: In 1215, Beijing was under the control of the Jurchen ruler, Emperor Xuanzong of Jin.

By June of that year, it was captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan. The war had started in 1211, and the Jin dynasty had managed to hold off the Mongols for two years. After the Mongolians won, the Emperor was forced south to Kaifeng and the Yellow River was opened to the Mongolians.

mediumaevum: The Xuande emperor ruled China from 1425-1434. He was the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty (13681644). His rule was one of relative stability, and he devoted much of his time to painting and writing poetry, activities at which he was accomplished. As a painter he had a free brush style. His paintings were often presented as gifts to favored members of the court; this painting, dated 1431, of a rat nibbling at lichee fruit is inscribed to a favorite eunuch.

Tu Youyou
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This is a Chinese name; the family name is Tu.

Tu Youyou
Born December 30, 1930 (age 81) Ningbo, Zhejiang, China

Residence Nationality

Beijing, China P.R.China Clinical medicine Fields Medicinal chemistry China Academy of Chinese Medical Institutions Research Beijing Medical College (current Alma mater Peking University Health Science Center) Traditional Chinese medicine Chinese herbology Known for Artemisinin Dihydroartemisinin Notable Albert Lasker Award for Clinical awards Medical Research (2011) Tu Youyou (Chinese: ; 1930-), is a Chinese medical scientist, pharmaceutical chemist, and educator. She was awarded the 2011 Lasker Award in Clinical Medicine for discovering artemisinin (also known as Qinghaosu) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, which saved millions of lives.[1]

Contents

1 Background 2 Biography o 2.1 Family 3 Research o 3.1 Schistosomiasis o 3.2 Malaria 4 Awards 5 References

Background
Tu carried on her work in the 1960s and 70s during China's Cultural Revolution, when scientists were unpopular. But China's ally, North Vietnam, was at war with South Vietnam and the U.S. Malaria was a major cause of death, and evolving resistance to chloroquine. Malaria was also a major cause of death in Hainan province. Mao Zedong set up a secret drug discovery project, named 523 after its starting date, 23 May 1967. [2] Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success. Tu, a member of the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, was appointed to study Chinese herbs. She screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal extracts, which were tested on mice.[2]

One compound was effective, sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), which was used for "intermittent fevers," a hallmark of malaria. Its preparation was described in a 1,600year old text, in a recipe titled, "Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve." At first, it didn't work, because they extracted it with boiling water, which damaged the active ingredient. They used lower-temperature ether extraction instead, and it was completely effective in mice and monkeys.[2] Tu volunteered to be the first human subject. "As head of this research group, I had the responsibility," she said. It was safe, so she conducted successful clinical trials with human patients. Her work was published anonymously in 1977.[2] "It is scientists' responsibility to continue fighting for the healthcare of all humans," said Tu. "What I have done is what I should have done as a return for the education provided by my country."[2] She was grateful for the Lasker award, but said, "I feel more reward when I see so many patients cured."[2]

Biography
Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China on 30 December 1930.[3] When she was a high school student, she become interested in both traditional Chinese medicine and modern western medicine. In 1951, Tu matriculated at Peking University School of Medicine (In 1952, the Medical School became independent Beijing Medical College, which was renamed as Beijing Medical University in 1985. On 3 April 2000, Beijing Medical University was merged with Peking University and now it is Peking University Health Science Center). [4] Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and graduated in 1955. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine. Tu worked at the Academy of Chinese Medicine (now named as China Academy of Chinese Medical Research) in Beijing after graduation. Tu was promoted to tenured researcher in 1980 (as graduate tutor), and in 2001 promoted to academic adviser for doctorate candidates. Currently she is the Chief Scientist in the Academy.[5] Before 2011, Tu had been obscure for decades, and is described as "almost completely forgotten by people" by Wen Wei Po in Hong Kong.[6] A 2007 interview shows Tu's living conditions are very poor.[3] Her office is in an old apartment building in Dongcheng District, Beijing, where it has heating shortage and only two electricity-consuming household appliances - a telephone and a refrigerator, which is used by her to store herb samples.[3] Tu is regarded as the Professor of Three None's (no postgraduate degree, no study/research experience abroad, not a member of any Chinese national academies, i.e. Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering).[7] Up until 1979, there were no postgraduate degree programs in China, and China was largely isolated from the rest of the world. Tu is now regarded as a representative figure of the first

generation Chinese medical workers since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.[8]

Family
Tu's husband is a metallurgist who was her classmate at Xiaoshi Middle School. He was a senior researcher at the China Central Iron and Steel Research Institute (CISRI), Beijing. The two have two daughters, the older is working for the University of Cambridge in England, the younger is living in Beijing.

Research
Schistosomiasis
During her early years, Tu studied Lobelia chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine, for curing Schistosomiasis, which was widely spread in the first half of the 20th century in Southern China.[citation needed]

Malaria
Tu started her malaria research in China when the Cultural Revolution was in progress. In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of the project, named Project 523 research group at her institute. She collected 2000 candidate recipes, ancient texts, and folk remedies for possible leads for her research. By 1971, her team had made 380 extracts from 200 herbs, and discovered the extracts from Qinghao (Artemisia annua, sweet wormwood) looked particularly promising in dramatically inhibiting Plasmodium growth in animals. Tu found the way to extract it and her innovations boosted potency and slashed toxicity of this extract.[9] In 1972, she and her colleagues obtained the pure substance and named it Qinghaosu () or artemisinin now commonly called in the west,[9][10][11] which has saved millions of lives, especially in the developing world.[12] Tu also studied the chemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin.[9]

theworldofchinese:

Pinyang, Warrior Princess

BY: JOE DORAN The Sui Dynasty (589-618 A.D.) was not a high point in Chinese history. The first Sui emperor, Wen (541-604), did reunify China after nearly four centuries of internal discord but the second, Yang (596-618), left a lot to be desired. Yang, was as an overlyambitious tyrant who (it is believed) gained the throne by poisoning his father, before embarking on a reign that would make him a figure of hatred across China. Yang committed himself to massive construction projects, most notably the completion of the Grand Canal and reconstruction of the Great Wall. Both projects were bought and paid for in blood the blood of six million peasants, to be more specific. Add to that Yangs inept military forays into Korea and Vietnam and you might have some idea why the Chinese people hated him so much. To say that he was an unpopular would be a vast understatement. Read more Me preguntis por qu estoy aqu, en la montaa azul. Yo no contesto, sonro simplemente, en paz el corazn. Caen las flores, corre el agua, todo se va sin dejar huella. Es ste mi universo, diferente del mundo de los hombres. Traduccin de Marcela de Juan (Ma Ce Huang). Me preguntis por qu estoy aqu, en la montaa azul Li Po (701-762)

Top 10 Things China Invented First

40 Now, I love Chinese food. I mean, who doesnt? Weird people who dont like lots of soy sauce and yummy carbs like rice and rice noodles? But what have the Chinese given to us, really? Fortune cookies? Jokes about children working in sweatshops? Id like to think that they have accomplished more than that in their long history, and sure enough, they have (Editors note: The title was changed to Things China Invented First, from Things China Did First we trust this still holds the spirit of the list.)

10. Government-Issued Paper Money

Paper money was first introduced in the 7th century as a way for wealthy merchants to avoid having to carry large quantities of heavy copper coins. Original banknotes were essentially bank slips with the amount of total money available to the merchant written on them, like our deposit receipts. These notes were initially used only by the very wealthy, but eventually they were circulated by the Song Dynasty when there was a shortage of copper coins. They were called jiaozi. These notes did not replace copper coins- they were organized by region (rather than having a national currency) and were more like credit notes with a time limit. A national currency was introduced in the 11th century using another Chinese original, woodblock printing.

9. Printing

The Chinese initially developed two types of printing: woodblock printing and movable type. Woodblock printing is created by carving a design or character text into a block of wood, covering the relief with dye, and printing the relief onto the fabric or paper. The earliest existing example of woodblock printing is on a piece of hemp paper, dating from around 660 AD. It is also the medium of choice for the oldest printed book, the Diamond Sutra printed in 868 AD during the Tang Dynasty. The other type of printing is the predecessor of typesetting, called movable type. It was a process in the making for 630 years. It began as a theory by Chinese scientist, Shen Kuo during the Song Dynasty in 1088 AD. The theory wasnt put into practice until 1298 AD when official Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty created a model arranging the characters by rhyme scheme on a round table with compartments for the characters. In 1490, Hua Sui perfected movable type by putting the characters on bronze blocks instead of wood or clay. The final tweak was added in 1718 when porcelain enamel was used.

8. Paper

If youre going to print, then you need paper, or some sort of printable medium, and pulp paper became popular because it was cheaper and faster to make than other mediums, such as silk, bamboo strips, or clay tablets. There is evidence of pulp paper making that dates back to the 2nd century BC. Then, in 105 AD, a Han court eunuch named Cai Lun improved the process (he is often credited as the inventor of paper). His process involved mashing up tree bark, hemp, linen and fishing nets and adding water until a wooden frame with a sieve of interwoven weeds could be immersed and removed from the mixture. The frame was then hung out to dry and bleached in the sunlight.

7. Gunpowder

Gunpowders invention was actually an accident by Chinese alchemists in the 9th century. One of its first uses outside of the lab was for fireworks, which were used to ward off evil spirits starting in the 10th century. However, since at least 1044, it has been used as the destructive and explosive component that we all have come to know. It was originally used in flamethrowers (no joke), flame tipped arrows, and a gunpowderwhip-arrow, for which I cant think of a modern equivalent. The first firearms did not appear until the 13 century, and were used heavily by the Mongols in their exploits. The first recorded formula for gunpowder was relatively tame as it was not capable of exploding but still very flammable. By the 15th century though, they had perfected 6 formulas for gunpowder, some with up to 91% nitrate, the chemical that makes gunpowder go BOOM.

6. Compass

The first iron compasses created during the Han Dynasty were not used for navigation. In fact, they were used to divine the future in large bowl-like compasses that used a spoon-like instrument. A thermoremanence compass, which uses a heated metal object in water to produce a magnetic force, was documented in 1044. There was also the South Pointing Chariot, circa 3rd century AD, which was a figure on a chariot that would always point south, originally without the use of magnets. This compass instead operated on a differential gear system, much like you find in a car now. Shen Kuo was able to describe magnetic declination and the use of a magnetic needle compass in 1088, while Zhu Yu offered the use of the true north compass for naval use in 1119.

5. Coffins, Tree coffins, Urns

The Chinese ancients seem to have been some of the first who were concerned with burying their dead. Chinese emphasis on showing respect for elders and ancestors by caring for your own body (which they provided you with by giving you life) was just as important as showing respect for theirs when they passed away. Evidence for the earliest coffins and urns have been found in China. The oldest coffin is dated around 5000 BC and holds a four year old girl. The thickness of a coffin and the number of coffins were reflections of wealth or nobility. Also, the earliest known tree trunk coffins, or boat coffins, were of the Songze culture and the Dawenkou culture, recorded dates between 4000-3000 BC and 4100-2600 BC respectively.

4. Fork and Chopstick

While many people attend an Asian restaurant and attempt to eat with the traditional chopsticks, it would actually be more traditional to use the fork that they provide for their diners. Bone forks have been discovered at multiple burial sites dating from the Xia Dynasty, which was in power from 4205-1760 BC. Europeans wouldnt start using forks until roughly 4000 years later. Forks were an exclusive dining tool for the ruling class, and came in two- and three-pronged varieties like they do now. However, due to the nature of Chinese food customs, chopsticks became popular and much easier to come by. Because Chinese culture did not permit that meats should resemble their living form, it was cut into bite-sized pieces. Also, the communal nature of Chinese eating habits made chopsticks an easier tool to maneuver. Not only that, but the chopstick could pick up or divide virtually any cuisine that was presented, thereby making it a much more effective utensil than the fork.

3. Holistic Health

Even more surprising to me than the invention of the fork, was that Chinese medicine was on to some major health points before their time, such as good health through proper diet. In the 4th century, the royal courts had Imperial Dieticians to guide the royal family down the road to healthy eating. In the Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing found out through trial and error that certain foods would address symptoms of poor health. Imperial Dietician Hu Sihui published a similar book in 1330 that put together information on healthy diets dating from the 3rd century. Not only were they proponents of a variable diet, they were also the first endocrinologists, meaning that they were clued in to and could address hormone imbalances before everyone else. In 1110 BC, they were able to extract sex hormones from urine using gypsum and natural soaps like saponin. They could then use these extracted hormones to treat a wide variety of sex hormone issues, from erectile dysfunction to menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea).

2. Restaurant Menu

The biggest reason that the Chinese beat other cultures to the finish line here is because they already had a handle on paper by the time the Song Dynasty rolled around. Due to even ancient Chinas expansive populated regions that would trade with each other, hungry merchants could find an abundance of food to eat, but were not familiar with a lot of it. Thus, the menu was born to provide a guide for hungry merchants and foreign travelers. Menus popped up where ever food was sold: temples, brothels, theaters, and tea houses as well as typical food stalls and restaurants.

1. Toilet Paper

The classic over versus under debate is much older than previously thought. Its first mention is by official Yan Zhitui in 589 BC, again because the Chinese were ahead of the game when it came to paper manufacturing. Their purpose is stated quite clearly by an Arab visitor in 851 AD, who remarks that the Chinese wipe themselves with paper, while the rest of the world was using water, their hands, wood shavings, lace, or the ever popular Roman sponge on a stick. The Chinese even one-upped themselves, and proceeded to perfume their poo paper for the royal family in 1393. (Actual ancient toilet paper not represented in art above.) Read more: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-things-china-did-first.php#ixzz25FXNswJv Read more at http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-things-china-didfirst.php#qg1zZQq3QqrQRuKe.99

huffingtonpost: Ching ShihWhen pirates captured the floating brothel where Ching Shih plied her trade in 1800, she unleashed some serious fury. After marrying the captain (and successfully demanding 50% of all booty), she took complete control when he died in 1807, wrangling thousands of hardened pirates into submission - including castrating rapists. Her Red Flag Fleet of over 1,500 ships and 60,000 men became powerful enough to levy taxes on coastal towns from Canton to Macau, which unleashed the fury of the Emperor. She crushed his forces, then trashed the navies of the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British, making her the most successful pirate in history.

eastasianstudiestumbl: Fun Fact Of the Day: Gold Fish/Carp were the first domesticated fish ever!! The first gold fish which were actually more silvery in colour were first recorded in the Jin Dynasty. Then during the Tang, it became quite fashionable to raise them in ornamental ponds and water gardens. This helped contribute to the golden colour mutation that has become so admired. People by and large preferred these golden/orangey/reddish colours so they got bred almost exclusively. The Song dynasty saw them raise in even more popularity except by the Imperial family who wasnt allowed to have the yellow coloured ones as yellow was the Imperial colour (although logic would have dictated otherwise) causing another selective breeding of orange and red. The Ming dynasty saw goldfish go global to Japan in the early 1600s and though Japan to Portugal and all over Europe.

Just thought you might like to know If you want to learn more random facts to influence and impress people you should click here. Right Now!! DO ITJust sayin

theworldofchinese:

Mysteries of the Fragrant Concubine

BY: JULIJA VELJKOVIC It has been said that the Fragrant Concubines beauty was like no other. With her, she carried an alluring, sensuous scent, free from lavish perfumes and powders. Tales of her exquisiteness reached the Qianlong Emperors ears. Hungry for her beauty, the Manchu monarch demanded that she be brought to him safely. As Burhanad-Dins control over Altishahr (southern Xinjijang) was eventually lost to the Qing conquest in 1755, the young concubine Xiang Fei () was stripped from her home and her husband. Forced to endure a long and arduous journey to the Emperors palace, the concubine bathed in camels milk and had daily butter rundowns to preserve her pure fragrance. When Xiang Fei reached the Imperial City, she was greeted with a doting Qianlong. Showering her with extravagant gifts, the Emperor hoped he could woo the exotic creature. Hami melons and narrow-leaved oleaster ( shzo) were given as a token of his appreciation. But the young woman did not stir. Patiently, Qianlong built her a hall against the southwestern wall of the imperial city and established a small Muslim community, complete with a new mosque and bazaar. The Emperor hoped that when the concubine gazed out the window, she would see the Muslims and feel at home. Still, she did not stir. This is where the legend becomes confusing.

ancientpeoples: As early as 2000 B.C., bronze technology was highly developed in China, and objects made from this alloy of copper, tin, and lead were considered luxury items, reserved for the aristocratic class. Among these coveted pieces were small bronze mirrors, some compact and portable enough to be held in one hand, and others large and heavy enough to require stands. Usually cast from clay molds, they were highly polished on one side, offering a reflective surface, while the other side was decorated with intricate patterns and designs that reveal an astonishing level of skill and artistry in their craftsmanship. Birds, dragons, and serpents were common motifs in the earliest mirrors. Later, more sophisticated and intricate designs included mythological figures, deities, animals of the Chinese zodiac, abstract patterns, background textures, inscriptions, enamelwork, and inlays of jade, turquoise, and mother-of-pearl. That these mirrors were prized by their owners is evident not only in light of their fine craftsmanship but also because of related artifacts that point to how they were valued. A pottery tomb figure dating to about the first century B.C. depicts a woman gazing into a mirror while applying powder to her face. An elaborate cosmetic set includes a bronze mirror from around the first century A.D., accompanied by a silk brocade pouch, a wool powder puff, and a lacquered wooden box. Artifacts such as these, along with the mirrors themselves, provide a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of their users.

GUYS LETS TALK ABOUT THE WORDS WE USE TO DISCUSS CHINESE HISTORY ok because i am sick and tired of people referring to shit as ancient china this and ancient china that even if what theyre referring to took place in fucking 1899 or 1911 ANCIENT CHINA = three sovereigns and five emperors, xia dynasty, shang dynasty, western zhou, eastern zhou (spring and autumn, warring states)

IMPERIAL CHINA = from the first emperor (the one with the tomb and the terracotta soldiers which is in shaanxi not shanxi and who is for some reason known as the dragon king though anyone who knows anything substantial about china will tell you how wrong you are) to the last (the one with the movie called the last emperor and who was ruler of manchukuo for a bit) aka the qin dynasty, the han dynasty (including the western han, xin, and eastern han), three kingdoms, jin (eastern jin, western jin, sixteen kingdoms), nanbeichao/southern and northern dynasties, sui, tang (under which is also included the second zhou under wu zetian though, fearing unrest, she returned the kingdom to the tang dynasty at the end of her reign), five dynasties ten kingdoms, liao, song (northern and southern, not to be confused with the song of the southern and northern dynasty), xixia/western xia, dali (idk if this is generally considered part of chinese history), jin, yuan, ming, and qing late qing is generally considered to be pre-modern china MODERN CHINA = republic of china/nationalist china, which ruled china until 1949 and then retreated to taiwan after the civil war, peoples republic of china/communist china/china, which rules china to this day k? got it? so ancient china is more than an arbitrary phrase you get to assign willynilly to any damn chinese thing that looks vaguely old

bankuei: theworldofchinese:

The Greatest Pirate Who Ever Lived

BY: JOE DORAN

In 1801, a pirate named Zheng Yi was busy raiding Canton. Aside from the prerequisite plundering and rum-drinking, he had given his men one specific order: to break into a local brothel and bring him the prostitute Zheng Yi Sao (), or Zheng Yis wife. One might expect a sinister fate to have awaited Zheng Yi Sao upon her deliverance to the pirate captain (rape, swiftly followed by murder, being the most obvious). In actuality, Zheng Yis intentions were considerably more gentlemanly. He intended to marry her. And recognizing that her current future prospects were rather limited, Zheng Yi Sao accepted. But Zheng Yi Sao didnt intend on spending the rest of her days as some plunderhungry pirates eye candy. She wanted to become a pirate as well, and she did one of the greatest pirates to have ever lived. Read more That first part doesnt do justice, here read this: Right from the get-go, Zheng Yi Sao displayed a staggering degree of cunning. She happily accepted Zheng Yis proposal, but only on the condition that he share his wealth and power with her, equally. Then, while her new husband went about his pirate duties further plunder and rum-drinking, presumably she focused on the business side of things. The result was that in six years, she had engineered an alliance between Zheng Yi and his former pirate rivals, amassed a force of some 1500 ships (called the Red Flag Fleet) and created a swashbuckling empire that extended all the way from Korea to Malaysia. Zheng Yi certainly knew how to pick em. Unfortunately, Zheng Yi was killed in 1807 after a misunderstanding with a typhoon. Unfortunate for him, but extremely fortunate for Zheng Yi Sao. Refusing to step aside like a good, diligent widow, Zheng Yi Sao took charge of the Red Flag Fleet, convinced her late husbands First Mate to support her and swiftly set about making herself the most respected and/or feared individual in all the East. If films/books/video games have taught us anything, its that pirates were a rowdy bunch at the best of times, and their attitudes towards women wereless than progressive. Zheng Yi Sao, of course, was having none of that and quickly established a new pirate code to keep her peg-legged men in line. Anyone who looted a town that had already paid tribute had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean. Anyone caught, or even suspected, of stealing from the treasury had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean. Anyone who raped a female prisoner had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean (theres a pattern there somewhere). Needless to say, Zheng Yi Sao was not messing around. Not all her laws were quite so decapitation-happy, though. Ugly female prisoners were to be set free, and when a crewmember purchased one of the prettier captives, he had no choice but to marry her.

But if he was unfaithfulhead cut off, dumped in the ocean. After just one year leading her pirate hegemony, Zheng Yi Sao had formed one of the largest navies on the planet, with some 17,000 men under her command. Extorted tributes from merchants across the Chinese seas and from the coastal towns between Macau and Canton swelled her treasury to staggering levels, and her power was so great that she became the de facto government of the region. No longer was she merely a pirate; she was an entire political entity.

The Greatest Pirate Who Ever Lived

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN In 1801, a pirate named Zheng Yi was busy raiding Canton. Aside from the prerequisite plundering and rum-drinking, he had given his men one specific order: to break into a local brothel and bring him the prostitute Zheng Yi Sao (), or Zheng Yis wife.

Contemporary depiction of Zheng Yi's proposal...possibly One might expect a sinister fate to have awaited Zheng Yi Sao upon her deliverance to the pirate captain (rape, swiftly followed by murder, being the most obvious). In actuality, Zheng Yis intentions were considerably more gentlemanly. He intended to marry her. And recognizing that her current future prospects were rather limited, Zheng Yi Sao accepted. But Zheng Yi Sao didnt intend on spending the rest of her days as some plunderhungry pirates eye candy. She wanted to become a pirate as well, and she did one of the greatest pirates to have ever lived. Right from the get-go, Zheng Yi Sao displayed a staggering degree of cunning. She happily accepted Zheng Yis proposal, but only on the condition that he share his wealth and power with her, equally. Then, while her new husband went about his pirate duties further plunder and rum-drinking, presumably she focused on the business side of things. The result was that in six years, she had engineered an alliance between Zheng Yi and his former pirate rivals, amassed a force of some 1500 ships (called the Red Flag Fleet) and created a swashbuckling empire that extended all the way from Korea to Malaysia. Zheng Yi certainly knew how to pick em. Unfortunately, Zheng Yi was killed in 1807 after a misunderstanding with a typhoon. Unfortunate for him, but extremely fortunate for Zheng Yi Sao. Refusing to step aside like a good, diligent widow, Zheng Yi Sao took charge of the Red Flag Fleet, convinced her late husbands First Mate to support her and swiftly set about making herself the most respected and/or feared individual in all the East. If films/books/video games have taught us anything, its that pirates were a rowdy bunch at the best of times, and their attitudes towards women wereless than progressive. Zheng Yi Sao, of course, was having none of that and quickly established a new pirate code to keep her peg-legged men in line. Anyone who looted a town that had

already paid tribute had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean. Anyone caught, or even suspected, of stealing from the treasury had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean. Anyone who raped a female prisoner had their head cut off and was dumped in the ocean (theres a pattern there somewhere).

Zheng Yi Sao, as she appears in Pirates of the Caribbean Needless to say, Zheng Yi Sao was not messing around. Not all her laws were quite so decapitation-happy, though. Ugly female prisoners were to be set free, and when a crewmember purchased one of the prettier captives, he had no choice but to marry her. But if he was unfaithfulhead cut off, dumped in the ocean. After just one year leading her pirate hegemony, Zheng Yi Sao had formed one of the largest navies on the planet, with some 17,000 men under her command. Extorted tributes from merchants across the Chinese seas and from the coastal towns between Macau and Canton swelled her treasury to staggering levels, and her power was so great that she became the de facto government of the region. No longer was she merely a pirate; she was an entire political entity. Quite understandably, the reigning Qing Emperor wasnt too thrilled with Zheng Yi Saos ability to supplant his divine authority, so he commissioned an Imperial Navy to put an end to her eye-patched enterprises. Zheng Yi Sao won hands down. Not only did she defeat the emperors forces, but she captured 63 of his ships and persuaded many of his men to join her. How did she persuade them? They were given a choice: join her crew and enjoy the complimentary rum, or be tied to the deck and be beaten to death. It was (assumedly) an easy decision to make. Over the next two years, the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911) kept up its offensive, even going so far as to hire the British and Portuguese navies to see her off. Those two

nations were the superpowers of the time totally unparalleled in their sea-faring prowess and Zheng Yi Sao crushed them both. There was literally no stopping her.

A modern depiction of Zheng Yi Sao. Some artistic license taken. But Zheng Yi Sao didnt let her achievements go to her head. Sick and tired of constant defeat, in 1810 the Qing Emperor offered an amnesty for all pirates if Zheng Yi Sao would agree to make peace. Recognizing that her good fortune would not last forever, Zheng Yi Sao went willingly to the negotiations table. She showed up unannounced at the home of the Governor-general of Canton, convinced him to treat with her despite her gender and secured quite possibly the most generous pension-deal ever. Not only did she get her pardon, and a pardon for the majority of her men, but she kept ownership of all her treasure. Docking her ship for the last time, she promptly married her former husbands First Mate and, at the age of 35, retired to a life on the mainland, where she opened a gambling den and brothel. She ran her new, less pirate-y business for the rest of her life, and by the time she died at the ripe old age of 69 (this was the 19th century. 69 was seriously good) she had become not only a living legend, but a mother and a grandmother too. No doubt she had some interesting bedtime stories to tell her kids. Illustration courtesy of Huang Shuo

Legacy of The Three Kingdoms

Thursday, August 16, 2012 | BY: JUE LIU () The Three Kingdoms period was one of unparalleled bloodshed and turmoil in Chinese history, as the three states in question, the Wei (), Shu () and Wu (), waged decades-long war for control of China. Strictly speaking, the period started from 220 A.D. with the establishment of the first Wei Kingdom, and ended in 280 A. D. with the conquest of the last Wu Kingdom. However, some historians include the previous 36-year period, during which the three states rose to power amid the collapse of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. 220A.D.). Unsurprisingly, the Three Kingdom period has left a lasting mark on Chinese language and culture, including a number of four-character idioms based on famous stories from the conflict. For instance, (sng-mol, three visits to the cottage) relates to the story of Liu Bei (), the leader of the Shu Kingdom, who visits Zhuge Liang () three times in a bid to recruit him as a strategist. Thus the idiom came to mean that you should call on someone repeatedly to show sincerity. Another saying is: Shu coco do, coco ji do, speaking of Cao Cao [the Wei leader], he is already here, which is basically equivalent to saying speak of the devil. The Three Kingdoms period is probably the most read about historical period in China and East Asia, as the historical events manifested in classic literature as well as popular culture. Many people are introduced to this history by one of the four great classics, Romance of the Three Kingdoms (), a fictional work written by Luo Guanzhong () in the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D.-1644 A.D.), more than a thousand years after the events it relates to.

In the novel, Luo is generally acknowledged to have adopted a pro-Shu () stance, and consequently depicted the other two states in a negative light. Those who are more interested in the actual historical events can refer to The Record of the Three Kingdoms (), which was written by Chen Shou () right after the fall of the Wu Kingdom. However, there are more accessible routes to understanding the period, including the handful of popular TV, movie and game adaptions listed below: 1. MovieThe Assassins (), 2012 An upcoming movie due for release later this summer that depicts Cao Cao (), founder of the Wei Kingdom, in his old age, trying to unify the country and stop war. The movie claims to entirely reinterpret Cao Caos character in contrast to his portrayal in the classic novel.

2. MovieRed Cliff (), 2008 In the early third century, the land of Wu is invaded by the warlord Cao Cao with an army of millions at his back. The Wu ruler, Sun Quan (), calls on rival warlord Liu Bei for help, but their two armies are still hopelessly outnumbered. However, the Wu strategist Zhou Yu () sees that Cao Caos army is unused to maritime warfare, offering a glimmer of hope if the pair can exploit this weakness properly.

3. TV Series: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 1995 Classic TV series adapted from the novel of the same title. Produced by CCTV (China Central Television), this series consisted of 84 episodes, each 45 minutes long. Involving a cast and crew of more than 400,000, the show also features live-action battle scenes.

For the full series: http://www.iqiyi.com/dianshiju/sgyy.html?src=alddsj 4. TV Series: Three Kingdoms, 2010 The latest TV adaption of the classic novel. Consisting of 95 episodes, the series was planned by the Television Production Center of China Communication University. First aired on four different channels, the series won an audience vote as the most popular of the year.

For the full series: http://www.iqiyi.com/dianshiju/sg.html?src=alddsj 5. Card Game: Killers of the Three Kingdoms (), 2006 A popular card game set in the Three Kingdoms period featuring 40 characters, each with special skills that conform to their roles in the classic novel. In addition to the character cards they hold, each player has a secret identity (ruler, loyalist, rebel or defector), which the other players must attempt to guess based on their moves and strategy.

Lady of the Drums

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN The Song Dynasty (960 A.D. 1279 A.D.) and the Jin Dynasty (1115 A.D. 1234 A.D.) did not get along. Since the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, political misunderstandings and complications ensured that the two dynasties were at each others throats. Relations really plummeted, however, when the Jin invaded northern China, pushing the Song beyond the Yangtze River and launching what became known as the Southern Song period. The Jins success was owed largely to the absolute mess that was the Song military hierarchy. It had been organized to ensure that no high-ranking officer could ever use his influence to threaten the emperor. A sensible enough precaution, except that it left the army leadership confused and indistinct, crippling any military capability. In the midst of such incompetence, it took a special type of person to achieve anything close to a military victory for the Song Dynasty. Fortunately, one such person existed: Liang Hongyu ().

The details of Liang Hongyus early life lie somewhere between mystery and legend. Some say she was the daughter of a military commander who trained her in the ways of combat and archery, at which she excelled. However, when her family fell on hard times, Liang was forced into prostitution, singing and playing the drums for Song soldiers, including one named Han Shizhong (). She noticed the broody Han, they fell in love and eventually married. It is from this point on that Liangs tale finally enters the realms of semi-reliable history. Her bravery first showed itself shortly after the birth of her first child. While her husband was stationed in Xiu Prefecture, rebel forces captured the Song capital, trapping Liang and her child, along with the emperor and his entire court. While everyone else was sitting on their hands, Liang took action. The story goes that she approached the rebels and convinced them that if she asked, her husband would send his soldiers to join the rebel cause. Either the rebels were extremely gullible, or Liang was very persuasive, because they actually allowed her to go. As promised, Liang rode out to her husband with her baby strapped to her back and returned with his soldierswho promptly set about slaughtering the rebels. In the winter of 1129, the conflict with the Jin escalated. A massive fleet, carrying an army of some 100,000 soldiers, made its way along the Yangtze River, pillaging as it went. Han and Liang were sent to intercept it. The only problem was that they were sent with 8,000 troops. To put that into perspective, every Song solider needed to kill 12.5 Jin soldiers (and not .5 of a soldier less) if they were to be victorious. So what strategy did Liang suggest they use against a force twelve times larger than their own? Why, music, of course. Folklore has it that the night before the battle, Liang suggested an elaborate scheme to her husband, wherein they would divide up their troops and attack the Jin forces from multiple sides. Liang proposed that Han should lead their ground forces, while she would take command of their river fleet and, using no more than some flags and her war drum, lead them in the offensive. Incredibly, it worked. On land and on river, against a staggering number of foes, the Song troops won the day. Liang used different drumbeat rhythms to coordinate her troops perfectly, battering the Jin ships into a retreat and trapping their ground forces on the Huang Tian Dang plain. Things would only have gotten better from there on out, had Han not decided, wrongly, that the battle was already won. He proceeded to get sozzled in celebration, during which time the Jin forces broke through the Song lines and made their escape. Needless to say, Liang was a bit miffed. So much so, in fact, that she refused to be honored for her part in the battle, and instead requested that her husband be reprimanded for his failure.

He wasntfortunately for himbut the gestures sentiment was well-received by the imperial court. Over the next few years Liang and Han, along with another general, Yue Fei (), fought their way across China, forcing the Jin back time and again. By 1140, they were at the gates of the Jin capital, all but ready to smash their enemies and finally bring an end to the conflict. But on the night before their attack, the emperor ordered them back to the Song capital. The trio refused at first, but when the emperor threatened their families, they had little choice but to return. Under the influence of the corrupt government official Qin Hui (), Emperor Gaozong () arrested Yue Fei and declared a policy of peace towards the Jin. Disgusted, Liang and Han foreswore their allegiance to the emperor and left the military to live in exile for the rest of their lives. For Liang, that wasnt very longshe is said to have died of illness shortly thereafter. Politics deprived her of her final victory and robbed her of the honor she deserved, but history continues to remember her as the woman that defied the odds and led her fleet to victory, all with the beat of a drum. Illustration courtesy of Huang Shuo

Pinyang, Warrior Princess

Sunday, July 8, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN The Sui Dynasty (589-618 A.D.) was not a high point in Chinese history. The first Sui emperor, Wen (541-604), did reunify China after nearly four centuries of internal discord but the second, Yang (596-618), left a lot to be desired. Yang, was as an overlyambitious tyrant who (it is believed) gained the throne by poisoning his father, before embarking on a reign that would make him a figure of hatred across China.

Yang, emperor, tyrant, connoisseur of fine hats Yang committed himself to massive construction projects, most notably the completion of the Grand Canal and reconstruction of the Great Wall. Both projects were bought and paid for in blood the blood of 6 million peasants, to be more specific. Add to that Yangs inept military forays into Korea and Vietnam and you might have some idea why the Chinese people hated him so much. To say that he was an unpopular would be a vast understatement.

The Grand Canal

But for every Goliath, theres a David. Pinyang (at this point she was yet to become a princess) was the third-born daughter of Li Yuan a highly successful general in the emperors army. So successful, in fact, that the insecure emperor ordered his execution. Li responsed by declaring rebellion against Yang. This posed a problem for Pinyang, for while her father was a safe distance away, she (along with her husband, Cai Shao) were still living in the capital city, along with a few thousand imperial loyalists. Realizing that they needed to make themselves scarce, Pinyang and her husband fled but not together. Knowing that escaping as a pair would attract too much attention, she told Cai that she would travel separately from him. Being a woman, she would attract less suspicion, she reasoned. Bear in mind that China was in a state of war by now. The country would have been crawling with mobilized warlords and lawless bandits eager to profit from the disarray. That Pinyang opted to make the journey alone was brave, that she made it home unscathed was downright heroic. But she wasnt done yet. Far from it. It was time to overthrow the tyrant emperor. The region around her home estate was suffering from drought, which in turn was causing starvation. Opening up her homes extensive food stores, Pinyang fed the people and, in turn, the most able-bodied agreed to fight for her. Thus began her Army of the Lady. Selling literally everything her family owned, Pinyang set about binding various other rebel factions to her command. Her method was always the same. First, she would offer the rebel leader an officers position in her army. If that failed, she would try to bribe him with food or money. By that point most acquiesced, but for those that didnt, she had one last ploy: destroy them on the battlefield and offer the survivors a choice: join or die. They tended to join up at that point. To put Pinyangs diplomatic skills into context, bear in mind that not only was she a woman in ancient China, but that she was doing all this at the tender age of 20. Getting battle-hardened warlords to even take note of her was impressive enough. Getting them to submit to her leadership was astonishing. Even more incredible is how successfully she exerted control over her army. Pinyang kept her men in line, making sure that when they conquered a village or town, none of the locals were harmed. By contrast, pretty much every other army of the time exercised a strict policy of raping and pillaging. Oddly enough, peasants seemed to prefer Pinyangs way of doing things, especially when more often than not she would give them food upon her arrival. With 70,000 men at her back, Pinyang marched across China. By this point, emperor Yang had realized that he would do well to take her seriously, and so sent his forces against her.

Pinyang tore her way through everything he could muster.

Meeting up with Cai Shao, the couple merged their troops and routed the last of the Sui forces. Recognizing that he was finished, Yang (who had courageously spent the war living in a palace filled with beautiful women) fled with his tail between his legs. He would later die at the hands of his own men (Literally).

Dian Wei: Chinas Ultimate hard man

Wednesday, June 6, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN From 206 BC to 220AD, Imperial China was united under the rule of the Han Dynasty, considered by many to be a golden age. To this day, Chinas majority ethnic group refers to itself as the Han People, in reference to this time of unity and strength.

Dian Wei, as he appears in the Beijing Opera Yet, if there is one universal truth in history, it is that empires dont last forever, and often their decline is marked by turmoil. Such was the case from 189AD onward, as Han dominance waned. These years sparked numerous conflicts, and would eventually lead to the Six Dynasties period (222-589) wherein three separate kings and five different emperors took turns to try and reunify the country, with mixed results. The years leading up to the Six Dynasties period were hard, and appropriately, they bred hard men. Perhaps the hardest of them all was a warrior said to have been gifted with superhuman strength Dian Wei (). Twin halberds were his weapons of choice (each weighing over 20 kilograms) and he used them to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies assuming he hadnt already cut their hearts out.

Dian Wei first distinguished himself as an all-around force of nature when serving under the warlord Cao Cao (), in a campaign against the enemy general L Bu ( ). In the midst of the battle, Cao Caos position was suddenly charged, and the warlord himself came under threat. Not a guy to take things lying down, Dian Wei reacted accordingly. Gathering a group of men about him, Dian and his troops discarded their shields and outfitted themselves with two layers of armor. Taking up spears and halberds (Dians favorite) they rushed to the rescue of their beleaguered warlord.

Dian Wei has entered popular culture. Here's how he appears in the video game Dynasty Warriors. Legend has it that as they ran across the battlefield, enemy soldiers harried Dian with arrows, but under the protection of his double-layered armor, he just kept his head down and carried on. This made it somewhat difficult to see, however, so he ordered one of his men to tell him when the enemy was ten paces away, then five paces away, then as his terrified comrade shouted Theyre here! Dian loosed the ten or twelve spears he was holding, each one finding its quarry. Unsurprisingly, Cao Cao was rather impressed by Dians ability to insert spears into enemy soldiers. He promoted Dian to Chief Commander ( dwi) and put him in charge of his personal bodyguard. To say that Dian took the role seriously would be an understatement. He stood guard outside Cao Caos tent every single day, and even when he slept, he was never far away. Supposedly, he rarely returned to his own quarters. At a dinner party with Zhang Xiu (), governor of Wancheng, Dian Wei stood sentinel over Cao Cao as the warlord feasted holding an axe with a blade over 13 inches in length (even in Imperial China, that was surely impolite). Its said that he struck such an intimidating figure that when

the other guests (all of them hardened soldiers) raised their glasses in toast, they didnt dare look at him. Matters took a turn for the worse when Cao Cao (quite reasonably) decided to take Zhang Xius widowed aunt as a concubine. Oddly enough, Xiu was less than happy with the arrangement and plotted to take revenge. When Cao got wind of his hosts displeasure, he in turn schemed to have Xiu killed. Xiu discovered the plan and promptly declared war on his guest, beginning the Battle of Wancheng. It would seem that Cao Caos ability for reacting to surprise attacks was roughly on-par with his dinner table etiquette, because Xius (not at all predictable) backlash caught him unawares. Vastly outnumbered, Cao Cao retreated to the fortifications of his camp and prepared to flee. His escape needed to be covered, however. Dian Wei stepped up. Placing himself at the entrance to the camp, and assisted only by a few select men, Dian barred the way against the hordes of enemy soldiers. Wielding either one long halberd, or his preferred dual-halberds (sources vary) Dian took the would-be assassins head on. His fellow defenders died quickly, but the vastly outnumbered Dian continued to fight. At least twenty foes were cut down beneath his axe(s), and when he couldnt kill with his weapons, he went ahead and grabbed two men and crushed them to death under his arms, before going on to use their bodies as weapons. Quickly realizing that to attack Dian from the front was tantamount to suicide, the enemy sent a detachment to sneak around and attack him from behind. The bodyguard was soon surrounded, but even then he fought on. It took ten wounds to finally down him, and legend has it that he was still swearing like a madman even as breathed his last.

The Dian Wei mask, as used in the Beijing Opera

At first, Xius forces refused to approach Dians body, for fear that he might still be alive. It took quite a while before any of them dared come near to take his head. By the time they stormed the camp, Cao Cao was long gone. Fighting against overwhelming numbers, Dian Wei had almost singlehandedly ensured his warlords escape. The tale of Dian Wei should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. Its quite likely that the annals have exaggerated his strength and prowess, turning him into a quasi-mythical hero rather than a historical figure. His portrayal in the fictional epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms is certainly guilty of as much. Nonetheless, the legends had to come from somewhere, and if the real life Dian was even half as incredible as the sources write, he can most certainly be held up as Chinas ultimate hard man.

Want more war? Try these:

Trung Trac: The Hero of Vietnam

Thursday, May 31, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN In previous articles, weve seen how Tang China fared when it went up against medieval Islam, and taken a look at the surprising relationship between Han China and Ancient Rome, but nearly 2,000 years ago, China was at war with an external enemy somewhat closer to home: Vietnam. What marks this war as particularly remarkable is that it was not a contest of military might between egotistical men, as war so often is. This was no clash of kings. In the three-year-long uprising against Han rule, the forces of Vietnam were led by women.

By 39 CE, conflict between Vietnam and China had been a long recurring feature of both nations histories, and so determining exactly how long the Vietnamese had been under foreign dominion is complicated. What can be said with some certainty is that Vietnam had been under continual Han rule since at least 111 B.C., the year of the First Chinese Domination. Despite inevitable hostility towards the conquerors, the situation in Vietnam remained reasonably stable until early in the first century CE. Up until this point, actual Chinese rule had been loose, and as such the Vietnamese had retained a degree of cultural independence. This came to an end as Chinese intentions towards Vietnam changed. The Han Dynasty declared two major aims for the region: to develop the agrarian economy as a stable source of revenue, and to enforce a patriarchal culture based on monogamous marriage (ostensibly for moral reasons, but in actuality because registered family units were easier to tax.) Such alterations required overseers, and so prefects were employed to maintain Chinese governance in the region, operating largely through the indigenous Vietnamese ruling class, the Lac Lords. It was the greedy ineptitude of one such prefect, Su Ting, which sparked the war.

One Lac Lord in particular struggled to cooperate with Su Ting. Thi Sach was a noble of fiery temperament, and the Chinese prefect did everything he could to legally restrain him. Sick of Su Tings meddling, Thi Sachs wife, Trung Trac, spurred her husband into

resistance. The result was that she, not Sach, quickly became the leader of a full blown rebellion against Han rule. By 40 CE, Trac commanded an army of 80,000 and had overrun numerous Chinese settlements. Remarkably, many of her officers were female hinting at the matriarchal nature of Vietnamese society at this time. Su Ting, who was better at counting coins than commanding armies, fled, taking the rest of the Chinese with him. Her victory complete, Trac established a royal court in her home province of Me-linh and set about undoing the taxes the Han Dynasty had inflicted. Vietnamese folklore tells the story a little differently. Supposedly, Su Ting executed Tracs husband; that was what drove her to rebel. This account is likely the result of the patriarchal bias that followed in later centuries. Future generations could not accept the notion of a woman leading a rebellion and then ruling as a queen while her husband still lived. Likewise, it is due to the inaccuracy of the folklore that Tracs sister Nhi is remembered as a co-queen. She was Tracs companion, certainly, and played a part in the rebellion, but it was her older sister who was the true leader. Though the victory was great and marked an end to over a hundred years of Han rule in Vietnam, it brought with it the threat of reprisals. Unwilling to tolerate such dissent, the empire struck back. Early in 41 CE, celebrated Chinese general Ma Yuan was, at the age of 56, appointed to bring Vietnam back to heel. Awarded the title of Wave Calming General, he raised 8,000 regular troops and 12,000 militiamen for the task. His journey to Vietnam was not easy. Lacking enough ships to take all his men by sea, his army was forced to march along the coast, building a road as it went. Ma Yuans forces went unchallenged until they reached the Tay-vu region where, after an armed encounter, he withdrew to Langbac and set up camp. Supplied via river by his modest fleet, Ma Yuan dug-in for the long haul, enduring the humid heat of the Vietnamese spring.

Intimidated by the Chinese threat within their borders, the Lac Lords under Trac began to question the wisdom of their rebellion. The fact was, for all their talk of freedom and independence, the Lac Lords cared more for their own preservation than they did for anything else. There was a very real possibility of them going over to Ma Yuan. Recognizing that her support amongst the nobles was rapidly dissolving, Trac had little choice but to launch an all-out attack on the Chinese encampment.

The result was disastrous. The Vietnamese forces were decimated, with several thousand of Tracs partisans taken captive and beheaded. The battle lost, Trac retreated to Me-linh, but Ma Yuan pursued her. By the end of 42 CE, he had both Trac and Nhi in his grasp and soon enough had sent their heads to the emperor.

The Hai Ba Temple - dedicated to the sisters The Vietnamese histories embellish the whole bloody affair with a much greater sense of drama. They laud the Vietnamese troops for their bravery in attacking the Chinese, and even make reference to one female soldier who gave birth on the front line, then returned to battle with babe in one hand and sword in the other. The Trung sisters are given an equally gallant testimonial; rather than losing their heads, they instead honorably commit suicide by walking into a river. As preferable an ending as it might be, it cannot hide the stark reality. Han rule had been reestablished in China, and would remain so until 939. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, in history, the underdog rarely wins. Yet despite the rebellions defeat, it holds a place of high esteem in the Vietnamese popular memory. Now remembered as national heroes (or rather, heroines), both Trac and Nhi have numerous temples dedicated to them, and the rebellion itself is considered one of the countrys proudest moments.

When the Middle East met the Far East

Thursday, May 24, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN In a previous article, we looked at the modest but noteworthy relationship between Ancient Rome and Han China and, naturally, asked the question that everyone was wondering: who would win in a fight?

The site of the battle, the Talas River, as it appears today But it was a question that could never truly be answered because, for better or worse, these two great empires never met on the field of battle. However, if youre still itching for another what if?, then perhaps the events that unfolded in Central Asia in 751CE will satiate your curiosity.

What happened in 751? It saw the Battle of Talas the first and only time in recorded history that the forces of China would clash against the might of medieval Islam. In 751 Islam was still relatively young, yet scarcely two decades after the death of Muhammad in 632CE, the Arab peoples had already swept across the Middle East, completely replacing the 400-year old Sassanid Dynasty the last non-Muslim Persian Empire. It was an astonishing conquest, resulting in the military and cultural superiority of Islam. Meanwhile, in the Far East, China was under the rule of the Tang Dynasty. Considered by historians as a golden age, Tang China rivaled even the Han Dynasty in terms of territory. So massive was its population (50 million, by the 8th Century) that it was able to muster a professional and conscripted army numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Long before the battle even began, both peoples had been making gains in Central Asia. As early as 654, Abbasid Arab forces had been pressing into the region, subjugating the various mercantile cities they encountered. By 750, they had successfully fought as far as Transoxania (modern-day Uzbekistan).

Tang China (circa 700) in green Meanwhile, Tang forces had been using soft power to make their presence felt. Unwilling to commit militarily to full scale conquest, China established control over the peoples of Central Asia through trade agreements and nominal protectorates. Soon enough, similar connections were made with Transoxania, and a collision course with Islam became increasingly likely. The Arabs and Chinese were not totally unfamiliar with each other, however. Chinese records from 713 mention the arrival of a Dashi (the Chinese term for Arabs) ambassador, and in 742 The Great Mosque in Xian was built.

Still, the Battle of Talas was the first time they had come together in battle. Despite their conflicting interests in Central Asia, the eventual conflict was less the result of growing tensions and more to do with opportunism. In 750, a quarrel arose between two minor kingdoms in the area: Ferghana and Chech. Ferghana sent to China for military assistance and received it in the form of a Tang General, who killed the king of Chech. The dead kings son then fled to the Arabs for help and, sensing an opportunity to stem Chinese power, the Abbasid governor Abu Muslim mustered his forces, joined up with the army at Transoxania under Ziyad ibn Salih, and full-scale battle was declared. From this point on as is often the case with military history the accounts of the battle become contradictory. Chinese records put their forces at around 30,000 (20,000 of which were Karluk mercenaries) while Arab accounts make that number 100,000. Likewise, the Chinese estimated the Muslims to have had 200,000 troops, but this is likely a gross exaggeration. It can be said with some certainty, however, that the Arab forces were the greater in number. The battle was an overwhelming victory for the Arabs. Muslim sources state they won due to the superior tactics of Ziyad (though I suspect having more men probably helped). Naturally, the Chinese sources contest that conclusion, laying the blame at the feet of their Karluk mercenaries, who they claim betrayed them mid-battle. In actuality, historical opinion is that the Karluks were probably allied with the Arabs from the very beginning and never pretended to side with the Chinese. The betrayal story was merely a way for the defeated to cover their shame.

The Abbasid Empire, in red (click to enlarge) Theres no such thing as a gracious loser in history. Somewhat surprisingly, the Battle of Talas did not mark the beginning of extended hostilities between the Chinese and Arabian worlds. This is largely because neither side actually wanted a war with the other. Both were too unfamiliar with the landscape of Central Asia to be comfortable fighting on it for long, and though their interests conflicted, a long-term struggle would have done more harm than good. The silk trade was phenomenally profitable for both parties, and war (already a monumentally expensive undertaking) would have done nothing but hinder it.

There does not even seem to have been any bad blood between the two peoples following the battle. When the An Lushan Rebellion broke out in 755, the Abbasid Caliph sent 4000 troops to assist the emperor. Even the (supposedly) treacherous Karluks did not suffer under Chinese hostility. Nor does this clash of titans seem to have had any immediate effect on Central Asia. While the area did become Islamized, the process was slow, occurring over centuries. In the interim, Tang power in the region actually increased and vassal states under Muslim control continued to send embassies to the Chinese emperor, requesting military support against the Abbasids. Overall, the contemporary significance of the conflict appears to have been negligible at best. That the Chinese might try to forget the whole ordeal is understandable, but even the victorious Arabs seemed to care little for their success. It was not until half a century later that any Muslim chroniclers paid attention to the events at Talas.

The Abbasid Flag And yet the Battle of Talas had a truly historic impact on the world. Though militarily and politically unimportant, were it not for the battle, the Middle East, and the West too, might have developed along very different lines. Victory at the Battle of Talas won the Arab world knowledge of paper. The legend goes that a number of skilled Chinese artisans were taken as prisoners of war, and through these individuals the knowledge of paper production (hitherto a closely guarded secret) became widespread. Whatever the truth of the matter, dedicated paper factories soon sprung up in the Middle East, and amongst the texts translated into Arabic were the teachings of ancient Greece and Rome. Were it not for this preservation of classical knowledge, the defining epoch of European history the Renaissance might not have been the defining cultural movement that it was. But, with so many Arabic versions available, translations back into Latin soon reached Europe. Their dissemination was further spurred by the latest technological advancement: the printing press an evolution of the Chinese paper making method. Considering how vastly the Renaissance moved European Culture forward leading to the equally important Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century its fair to say that the Battle of Talas was a fairly significant event. Its repercussions have been felt throughout history, and its effect on the creation of the modern world has been profound.

And its importance certainly goes beyond proving that Abbasid Islam could beat Tang China in a fight. Not that it was a fair fight, though.

The Worlds Oldest Spider Fossil

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 | BY: CHARLIE CUSTER () You probably already know that China has 5,000 years of history, and that it invented everything from paper to dim sum to gunpowder. But did you know that China is also home to the worlds biggest spider fossil? And that the discovery of that fossil makes this the oldest spider genus still alive today? Its true, that terrifying creature which was apparently about 15 cm long in its prime 165 million years ago is the ancestor of todays golden orb weaver spiders. She was probably a female, as the males of the species today are much smaller than the females, but theres no real way to be sure. What we do know is that while this spider is pretty big, she was definitely dwarfed by some of her contemporaries 165 million years ago, which would have included dinosaurs like Allosaurus, Archaeopterix, and the especially giant Apatosaurus and Diplodocus. This fossil was found in Inner Mongolia ( Nimngg), where this spider apparently hung out giving smaller dinosaurs the heebie-jeebies and spinning giant webs out of golden silk. Of course, this information isnt practically useful today, and we strive to be useful, so here is some giant-spider-related vocab Spider Zhzh

Terrifying Kngb Huge Jd Run away!!! Kui po!! !!!

Remember that in the event that you actually see a big, ancient spider, all Chinese should be spoken in the sixth tone. You probably never learned about the sixth tone from your teachers, but its an extremely high-pitched shriek. Good luck. (And yes, I know that 15cm isnt that big, and that not everyone is scared of spiders. But it is pretty big, and they should be scared of spiders, because spiders look pretty scary. Its science.)

China Invented the Totem Pole

Tuesday, December 14, 2010 | BY: CHARLIE CUSTER () The Chinook American Indians may be famous for their totem poles, but theyve got nothing on a mysterious ancient culture from western China. These totem poles are quite different from any youve seen before. Rather than using wood, an ancient Chinese culture discovered at the Sichuan Province Sanxingdui archaeological sitewhich dates back to 2050 B.C.carved startling bronze totem heads that scientists think were placed on wooden poles, making them easily the worlds oldest recorded totem poles.

Archaeologists believe that these totems, which often had carved gold masks placed on them, played an important ceremonial role in Sanxingdui culture. No one knows exactly what they were used for, but it seems likely that they represented the dead, perhaps even specific ancestors, and that the Sanxingdui people believed they could help and protect the living. The totems received ritualistic offerings, and their masks may also have been worn by human participants impersonating dead spirits and other supernatural beings during important rituals. And thats not all that was amazing about the Sanxingdui site. Located along the banks of the JianRiver, the Sanxingdui civilization appeared sometime around 2050 B.C. This is contemporaneous with the Shang Dynasty, but there are no historical records of this civilization or its culture in the annals of Chinese history. Even more mysterious is that the Sanxingdui relics exhibit an artistic style that isnt found anywhere else in China. Moreover, their creators were using a startlingly advanced method of bronze casting that made their bronze stronger than that of any other society in the same time period. The Sanxingdui people left us not only totemic bronze heads, but also the worlds oldest life-sized standing human statue. Some researchers have theorized that totemic culture may have originated in Asia, perhaps with the Sanxingdui people or their ancestors, and spread from there to other parts of the world. Evidence of ancient totem poles can also be found in Korean and Himalayan cultures, as well as Eastern Europe, but none of these totems predate those of Sanxingdui. Oddly, this amazing culture was very nearly completely lost. As its not recorded in written history, no one knew anything about it until a Sichuanfarmer accidentally unearthed a pile of jade relics while he was digging a well. For decades, archaeologists searched the area but were unable to find anything else, until 1986 when a group of workers stumbled upon sacrificial pits containing thousands of artifacts. Subsequent research and excavation revealed that there was a small city at Sanxingdui, complete with canals, timber-framed adobe structures, and earthen city walls that were nearly 10 meters high. And, of course, the totem poles. So, did the Native Americans get their idea for totem poles from the ancient Chinese? Probably not. True totems, like those found at Sanxingdui, are ritualized protectors of a group of people. But North American totem poles were built to communicate information: stories, the lineage of the tribes chieftain, etc. Technically speaking, they arent really totemic!

Whats the deal with Chinese junks?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 | BY: CHARLIE CUSTER () I spent a lot of my childhood on islands. And thanks in no small part to my father, whose hobbies include building and sailing wooden boats, I have always been interested in ships. Chinese junks are a particular fascination, because of their unique sails. Western sailing vessels, historically speaking, were generally square-rigged, which meant they could only sail downwind. And Western ships with more modern sails (mounted parallel rather than perpendicular to the hull, like a junks sails) still dont feature the large wooden battens that make junks so recognizable and iconic. Just why are those big battens there anyway? There are a number of reasons. For one, because a line of rope (called a sheet in sailing terms) is attached to every batten in a junk sail (instead of just having one line attached to the boom, as in most Western sails), the shape of the sail can be controlled more precisely. The battens also make it more convenient to furl parts of the sail, which is crucial for preventing disaster when sailing in strong winds. Finally, the battens also ensure that if the sail is torn, only a small part of the entire sail is affected and the ship is not crippled. Junks were also the first boats to have stern-mounted rudders, although their rudders are different from the stern-mounted rudders that were eventually developed in the West. Chinese junk rudders were extremely strong, and also sometimes quite large. Since junks did not, as a rule, have keels, they often relied on daggerboards or especially large rudders to keep the boats moving forward instead of slipping sideways in the water. These features would have been especially crucial in ancient times, when rescue was not a radio or phone call away and sailors lives depended on the quality of their ships. Junks have been in use in China since the Han Dynasty (206 BC220 AD), and over the years theyve been trusted to make some pretty long trips. Zheng Hes (Zhng H ) famous treasure fleets, whose journeys are chronicled in the popular but controversial

book 1421, were made up of junks. Those junks took Zheng He and his men at least as far as India and the Arabian peninsula, and possibly farther. Zheng He died on the treasure ships seventh and final voyage, but now he has his own museum!

Hieroglyphics in China
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | BY: NICHOLAS RICHARDS () Naxi hieroglyphics are so lifelike you can act them out. Theyre known as the Dongba script ( Dngba wnz) after the Dongba priests who use them. Unlike modern Chinese characters, where it sometimes takes a bit of imagination to see the imbedded pictographs, these glyphs are pretty easy to understand. In Southwest China, scattered among the hills of the legendaryYunnanProvince, youll find the Naxi ethnic group. Theyve lived here for centuries and their written language is estimated to be somewhere around 1,000 years old. Travelers inYunnantoday stop to marvel at the hieroglyphics painted on stone walls, written in town squares and found in shop windows. Some of these pictographs may be easy to interpret, but studying them indepth is another matter. It took Austrian-American explorer Joseph Rock 24 years of field study to decipher their meanings. In the first half of the 20th century, he lived with the Naxi, studying their language and painstakingly translating their manuscripts. He compiled an exhaustive 1,000-page long hieroglyphic dictionary. Rock discovered that these hieroglyphics served an important, ritualistic function. When reciting prayers for a wedding or funeral, Naxi priests would tell ancient legends, and the glyph would act as a visual aid to their prayers or storytelling. In linguistics, we call this a mnemonic.

It might not be a fully-developed writing system, but these hieroglyphics provide insight into how other written scripts have changed over time. Even though there has been a huge push in recent years for its revival and usage, the script has never been commonly used in day-to-day Naxi life. But it still remains active and viable, just as it is, serving an important function in religious rituals.

Characters meaning to drink and to bite, respectively.

The 800 Heroes

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN The Second Sino-Japanese War was a dark period in human history (as wars tend to be) and is only overshadowed by World War II. The casualty figures are staggering: 1.32 million killed in action, 1.79 million wounded in action, 120,000 missing in action, and between 1.7 and 2.2 million civilians killed.

In the West, the Nanjing Massacre (or Rape of Nanjing) is perhaps the most commonly known part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and it is very much representative of the kind of atrocities perpetrated at that time. But while the war was a period of inhumanity, it was also a time of unbelievable bravery on the part of the Chinese. And amongst the bravest was a group who would come to be known as the 800 Heroes (). By August 13, 1937, the Japanese forces had swept into Shanghai and, bolstered somewhat by their superior numbers, training, weaponry, air support and artillery, had thoroughly routed the Chinese, who were left with only the slightest toehold on the vital port-city. The order to pull out was given, but someone needed to stay behind to cover the retreat. An experienced, well-armed detachment with an outstanding commander was the obvious choice. Instead, the job went to the 524th Regiment, 88th Division a group made up primarily of green recruits and battle-weary veterans. And their leader, Xie Jinyuan, hadnt even been a commander for that long. But then Xie wasnt ordered to take the position he volunteered. Why? Because he knew how to get things done.

Namely, getting things done with a machine gun Holing up in a six-story, well-supplied, concrete warehouse, the 88th got to work. They reinforced the doors and windows with sandbags, set up machine guns on every floor and the roof, scoured the surrounding area for medical supplies and razed the buildings around them, setting up choke points and kill zones. The buildings they couldnt get rid of, they filled with explosives because everyone likes a surprise, right? These were wise preparations, considering that out of all the men who had been ordered to join Xie at the warehouse, only 414 had actually made it there alive. Worse, they had no heavy weapons, no anti-tank or anti-air guns, and no reinforcements. Meanwhile, the Japanese forces were not only well-armed, but were the 3rd Divisionthe elites. As prepared as they were ever likely to be, Xies rag-tag defenders took their positions and waited for the hellish might of the Imperial Japanese Army to descend upon them. It began on October 27, with the Japanese severely underestimating what they had gotten themselves into. Bullets were exchanged and grenades were thrown, resulting in the repulsion of the invaders. The conflict lasted into the night, but by 9 pm, the Chinese realized they had made it through the day. But now the Japaneseall 20,000 of themknew what they were up against. Yet as outgunned and outnumbered as the (not quite) 800 Heroes were, they did have one thing going for them. Their warehouse backed onto the Suzhou River, and the other side was a Foreign Concessionmeaning it was occupied by Europeans and Americans. Appropriately fearful of provoking those two powers (who, up until that point, had been content to mutter vaguely about those nasty Japanese aggressors) the invaders were unable to bombard the warehouse with naval artillery or aerial strikes, lest they miss and hit the other side of the river. Nor could they get away with using

mustard gas right in front of the Europeans because this was post-World War I, and the people of Europe were still pretty sensitive about that sort of thing.

Yellow - the warehouse. Green - the Foreign Concession. Red - places where the Japanese were likely to kill you Nonetheless, over the next four days, the Japanese threw everything they could at the defenders. A scouting party approached the building first, but Xie, who was in the middle of a rousing speech, turned them back by promptly picking up a rifle and shooting one of them dead, while they were still a kilometer away. The Japanese then attacked in force from the west, deploying cannons in a nearby building and shelling the defenders position. The warehouses concrete walls proved too thick to penetrate, however, allowing the 88th to force the enemy back with suppressive fire. By this point, news had spread of the Chinese soldiers garrisoned inside the warehouse and dozens of people now crowded the foreign side of the river, cheering the 88th on. Truckloads of supplies were donated by Shanghai refugees, all of which had to be smuggled in under cover of darkness while the Japanese opened fire. The British troops in the concession even agreed to sneak in and take out several wounded soldiers. Among the onlookers was a Girl Guide named Yang Huimin. She asked for a list of defenders names so that they could be announced to the entire country. Fearful of revealing just how few men he actually had left, however, Xie devised a cunning ruse. Using the original troop roster of the 524th regiment, he chose 800 names at random and gave them to Yang. The false list was announced to the rest of the country, immortalizing his (considerably smaller) division as the 800 Heroes. Irked by this sudden upsurge of national moral, the Japanese forces did everything they could to end the standoff. They again deployed cannons, but this time backed them up with tankettes driving the 88th up into the 3rd floor of the warehouse.

In danger of being routed, the 88th fell back, but before they had a chance to rally themselves, the Japanese infantry took to scaling the walls and infiltrating the building through the numerous holes they had finally blasted. The fighting degenerated into bloody hand-to-hand combat, but Xie was ready for such an eventuality. In what must have been a truly awesome scene to behold, he confronted a Japanese soldier crawling through a hole, grabbed the mans rifle in one hand, seized him by the throat with the other, choked him, pushed him back out the hole, shot another soldier who was coming up behind him, and then toppled the ladder they had used. We can only assume he did all this without breaking a sweat.

Pose representative of Xie's innate coolness. Horse added for dramatic effect. Waves and waves of Japanese came at the 88th, all supported by cannons and tankettes, but all were repelled. The carnage was so great that one defender eventually snapped and hurled himself from the warehouse covered in grenades. In the end, the invaders even tried tunneling in, but that failed too. And for as long as there was daylight, the observers on the other side of the river cheered the 88th on, even holding up massive signs revealing Japanese troop positions. By the 30th, the Japanese had all but given up trying to take the warehouse with infantry and had resorted to endless bombard. Reports say that a shell was fired every single second, and that it went on all day.

Suffice to say, the warehouse gained a few new "windows" Finally, with most of the Chinese forces now having escaped Shanghai, the 88th were ordered to retreatwhich Xie refused to do. A few gruff words from his superiors made him see that dying for no reason was rather silly, however, and eventually he acquiesced. At midnight on November 1, Xie led the 376 surviving members of his division across the river. Twenty seven hard-as-nails men volunteered to stay behind and cover the escape. Already badly wounded, they literally gave up their lives so that their comrades could get away. There isnt a designated phrase to describe such men, but if there had to be one, it would probably be bloody heroes. Thanks to the politics of the time, the 376 survivors were arrested and detained in a POW camp upon their triumphant arrival in the concession. Xie would be assassinated three years later, again for political reasons, while the rest of his men were seized by the Japanese when the concession was invaded, and sent to do hard labor. It was an ill-fitting end for such heroic men, but in the years that followed, Xie and his 800 became national heroes. They were visited by hundreds during their time in the POW camp, and even today, they hold a near-legendary status as symbols of Chinese strength and defiance.

NShu: The poetic diary of a subdued sex

Monday, August 13, 2012 | BY: MARIE CAHALANE Chinese () is an overall term for a language which encompasses seven main dialects: Mandarin (), Cantonese (), Wu (), Xiang (), Hakka ( ), Gan () and Min (). Though this disparity exists, a common script unifies them, called hanzi, or Chinese characters. But theres yet another, not commonly known written form in the Chinese language family: NShu (). Its script is defined by a delicate, cursive elegance, an elongated form and exclusively female masters. Romanticism surrounds NShu. Commonly considered a text unknown to men, the facilitator of deep female friendships and secret communications, and a motif of revolution for women condemned to a life of domestic hardship, it has come to represent female empowerment. Allowing room for maneuvering in a strictly patriarchal society, the existence of NShu suggests that beneath the drudgery there was a secret female fraternity. NShus Beginnings NShu stems primarily from Jiangyong, in Hunan Province. Its date of origin is unknown, but it certainly was in circulation before there was any kind of formal education for women late into the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). To combat illiteracy due to lack of education, women developed their own style of writing. NShu evolved as it was passed down through generations by grandmothers and mothers to their daughters. In the hands of women, it was adapted to female uses. The origins of NShu are indeterminable. It is derived from Chinese script, but vastly simplified and adapted to suit more ornamental uses, such as embroidery. Representing

a spoken language, it is phonetic, as opposed to hanzi, which is both semantic and phonetic. The differences are sufficient to render it unintelligible to an eye uneducated in NShu. It was not unknown to men; however, coveted by women, they disregarded it as the folly of the weaker sex. Marriage and Sisterhood Traditionally, NShu is linked with a young womans entrance into society, or rather her husbands household. An avid researcher of NShu, Orie Endo from Bunkyo University in Japan, says NShu was used as a means of recording the forging of lifelong friendships between laotong () (two girls who became ritual siblings), or jiebai zimei () (sworn sisters, usually a number of girls), and what these sisters shared and experienced. To be educated in NShu raised you in the esteem of the community and the alliances between sisters implied loyalty, both characteristics of a good wife. Weddings saw the transfer of NShu imprinted gifts. A sanzhaoshu () (third-day letters), was received from other sisters and contained, in NShu, feelings about what would happen for the married couple and an offering of support and hope. Once married, women continued to gather privately and partake in NShu practices. UN Womens Country Program Manager Julia T. Broussard writes that NShus poetic form, a stylized hepta-syllabic verse, was used to recount folktales, often making the female protagonist more robust than traditional renditions. It was also applied to the recital of autobiographies, not necessarily the womans own, expressing the hardships experienced in life. The content of traditional NShu verse is often melancholic. Broussard offers the following example: Holding my brush to write this letter, two streams of tears flow. Of the thousand hardships Ive suffered, nobody knows. NShu was a respite, a hobby, something to build relationships around, to communicate feelings and to indulge in traditions that perhaps shrouded reality by moderate distraction. The End of a Tradition: Times change and cultures and traditions evolve and dissipate. NShu fell victim to the Cultural Revolution which was rewriting history for a new China. NShu was thought of as a vehicle of espionage and lesbianism. Women were discouraged from involving themselves with it. The educational reforms that were taking place, which enabled and encouraged female education, rendered NShu redundant. It ceased to be taught. In the 1980s Zhou ShouYi published an article on NShu, tweaking widespread interest. Heralded as a womans script, it appealed to both linguists and women. NShu has since been the basis of documentaries, such as that of Yue-Qing Yang in 1999, of literature, like Lisa Sees book The Snowflower and the Secret Fan, and of academic research in linguistics, sociology and womens studies.

By this time, the surviving practitioners of NShu were few and aged. The Chinese government, motivated by a notable chance for cultural tourism, endeavored to save it, and in the township of Puwei, in Yongzhou Prefecture, there exist workshops where you can examine surviving texts and learn the art itself. Endo says that although there are a small number of women who have been designated transmitters of NShu by the local government, only one can be termed a true transmitter, He Yangxin. She says the circumstances under which He Yangxin was taught by her grandmother give insight into the traditions that surround the script. When she taught NShu to He Yangxin, she was singing and crying with pity of He Yangxins miserable destiny, Endo says. Even though He Yangxin learned NShu early, she was never a part of the traditions that surround it. The last link to the sisterhood, Yang Huanyi (who was unrelated to He Yangxin), died in 2004, and the traditions which encircled NShu died with her. Realistically, it is a language that has met its natural end. Rendered useless by the inevitable changes of time, NShu is bound for the archives of linguistics. Photo by Linda Frost

The Fragrant Concubine: An Unsolved Legend

Friday, June 15, 2012 | BY: JULIJA VELJKOVIC It has been said that the Fragrant Concubines beauty was like no other. With her, she carried an alluring, sensuous scent, free from lavish perfumes and powders. Tales of her

exquisiteness reached the Qianlong Emperors ears. Hungry for her beauty, the Manchu monarch demanded that she be brought to him safely.

Xiang Fei- better known as the Fragrant Concubine As Burhanad-Dins control over Altishahr (southern Xinjijang) was eventually lost to the Qing conquest in 1755, the young concubine Xiang Fei () was stripped from her home and her husband. Forced to endure a long and arduous journey to the Emperors palace, the concubine bathed in camels milk and had daily butter rundowns to preserve her pure fragrance. When Xiang Fei reached the Imperial City, she was greeted by a doting Qianlong. Showering her with extravagant gifts, the Emperor hoped he could woo the exotic creature. Hami melons and narrow-leaved oleaster ( shzo) were given as a token of his appreciation. But the young woman would not stir. Patiently, Qianlong built her a hall against the southwestern wall of the imperial city and established a small Muslim community, complete with a new mosque and bazaar. The emperor hoped that when the concubine gazed out the window, she would see the Muslims and feel at home. Still, she did not stir. This is where the legend becomes confusing. Romance historians claim that Xiang Fei sealed her happy ending when the emperor installed a jujube tree bearing golden fruit from her hometown in the palace gardens. The concubine broke her defiant silence and promptly fell in love with the emperor. However, other historians and the Uyghurs have offered different, mismatching versions of the Fragrant Concubines fate making the legend undeniably questionable. Did Xiang Fei come to her senses and fall into the emperors arms? Or did she, in fact, dig her own grave? Uyghur Muslims insist that Xiang Fei was a dangerous woman, harboring vengeful thoughts and a heart of stone. According to them, she boasted to maids that she intended to seek revenge for her lost country and husband. For this purpose, Xiang Fei carried tiny daggers in the sleeves of her robes. Soon, the Empress Dowager Niuhuru became concerned for her sons safety. One day, the emperor left the palace to attend

ceremonial duties. Choosing to sneak in a word or two, the empress confronted Xiang Fei in a corner and demanded that she behave like a proper concubine. When the young woman remained defiant, the empress granted her the favor of death. Through word of mouth, the Emperor eventually realized something was amiss and galloped back to the palace. As he rushed to the concubines bedroom, he realized his mother stood in his way. The door remained locked, while Xiang Fei was given privacy to strangle herself with a silk scarf. When Qianlong was finally allowed in, it was too late. The famed beauty was dead. Only the mysterious scent remained, hovering over her corpse.

Uyghur's version of the Fragrant Concubine, 'Iparhan' published in Sarqi Turkestan Awazi (Voice of Eastern Turkestan) A key question to ask here is this: Is the tale of the fragrant concubine merely a work of histroical fiction or is there truth in the legend? Documents discovered in the Number One Historical Archives in Beijing offer some insight on the matter. A young woman was indeed inducted into Qianlongs harem in the second lunar month of 1760 under the name He Guiren. Imperial household records show details of her diet, place at the table, gifts received, promotions in the harem hierarchy, funeral ceremony and the dispensation of her property after death. These were all highly ritualized activities and suggested that a Muslim concubine walked the halls of the Imperial palace. Yet was this He Guiren the same Fragrant Concubine who committed suicide in defiance of the Qing Dynasty? Yes, a Uyghur Muslim concubine existed and may even have had her portrait painted by one of the Jesuit court artists. There is also evidence to suggest that Qianlongs poems were influenced by his intoxicating infatuation with the young woman. But He Guirens life differed in several respects from the Xiang Fei tale. The Muslim concubine fulfilled her expected sexual role and did produce a daughter. She was not strangled or forced to commit suicide by the Dowager Empress (whom He Guiren outlived by 11 years) but died a natural death. The details surrounding the Fragrant Concubine remain unclear to this day. Maybe the question we should really ask is whether Qianlongs concubine truly carried a special

fragrance with her, or whether this detail, perhaps like many others, was conjured up to keep alive public interest in oft-ignored historical investigations.

What is Chinese culture?

Friday, November 12, 2010 | BY: CHARLIE CUSTER () In the process of doing some search engine research, we stumbled across this article from Harvard Magazine, entitled Who cares about Chinese culture? The article makes an excellent point, and one that we often struggle with here at The World of Chinese: its very difficult to define what Chinese culture is. By way of illustrating this point, Tian Xiaofei (a professor of Chinese literature) notes that Sichuan food, which is now synonymous with the numbing-spicy ( ml) flavor, actually used to be famous for being sweet. Spice is a relatively recent introduction to Sichuan cuisine, having entered the Sichuan diet only after being imported from the New World. So what is truly Chinese now? Is it the original sweeter taste, or todays ml spice? Both types of cuisine could be called Chinese, of course; Tian was simply illustrating that whats considered Chinese culture and what isnt can vary depending on who youre asking, and where and when they live. Moreover, many things that are now considered part of Chinese culture are not, technically speaking, Chinese (Buddhism, for example, has been widespread in China for over a millenia but originated from India). For a magazine such as ours, these topics are the subject of constant discussion. For example, in the new issue of the magazine, our 30 Years column is about heavy metal music, which is obviously originally a Western invention. In internal meetings, we went back and forth about whether the topic was suitable, since heavy metal music isnt, in and of itself, Chinese. Does it count as Chinese culture? There are legitimate arguments on both sides.

Ultimately, we decided it does. Almost everything in modern China is a mix of traditional Chinese and foreign influences, from things as high-tech as search engines to things as traditional as a spicy Sichuan dinner. The measuring stick we often use is whether or not something has been changed to fit Chinese culture after its adopted here. Almost invariably, things have changed. Metal, like Sichuan cuisine, might still be cooked with some Western ingredients, but the dish that results has a flavor thats all its own.

Piecing Together Pinyin

Monday, March 19, 2012 | BY: JESSICA RAPP () Its easy to take pinyin for granted. Its presence on storefronts and signs in China is almost as prevalent as Chinese characters, and its Latin alphabet is highly familiar to the Chinese language learner. The world gave thanks to its father, Zhou Youguang, on his 106th birthday, but the development of pinyin deserves more than just the cursory explanation and acknowledgement it is usually afforded. Its easy to forget that for years during its development in the late 1950s, an unwieldy mix of nationalism, personal divisions and a fondness for traditional calligraphy nearly stopped pinyin in its tracks. When Zhou Youguang first began working on pinyin with a small team of linguists, many scholars still insisted on abandoning Romanization, and sent the bureau hundreds of alternatives. All of these were rejected (surprisingly enough by the ultimate force in the anti-Romanization movement, Mao Zedong himself) in favor of a system that was better suited to economic and technological progress. They also debated other issues, such as whether pinyins pronunciation should be based on Beijing dialect (think the

erhua () phenomenon that has Beijingers saying yidianr instead of yidian), whether it should differ from its predecessor Sin Wenz in indicating tones, and whether it should be adaptable to dialects other than Mandarin. By 1958, Zhou Youguangs team had completed pinyin and began to disseminate it as a learning tool for Mandarin and even promoted its use on street signs, shops and through other commercial means. Despite this big step forward, the Chinese government, according to some scholars, still showed their hesitation in promoting pinyin as the complement to characters in a shuangwenzhi () or two script system. Many signs with pinyin also included English words, such as street instead of lu () or jie (), which was thought to subtly indicate that pinyins primary role was to help foreigners, rather than become an integral part of Chinese language. Still, it was progress, and the advocates of language reform could count it as a success. Until, that is, the Cultural Revolution. The progress of pinyin came to a halt in 1966, and some might even say its promulgation digressed during the following 10 years. There were no further linguistic conferences on the issue. No one published any official papers on the subject of language reform. Pinyin disappeared from the masthead of the Peoples Daily newspaper and the Red Flag Journal. The tool that was once supported by leaders of the Communist Party as the means of educating and uniting the nation was in grave danger of disappearing without a trace. Those who still backed pinyin didnt dare speak of it for fear that they would be denounced for being unpatriotic. The xenophobia that permeated through the Cultural Revolution prompted street signs with pinyin to be torn down and materials displaying Roman characters to be burned. When the Cultural Revolution ended with Maos death in 1976, so did acts of protest against language reform, and almost immediately, pinyin returned to the spotlight. Up until then, Western newspapers had used their own versions of Romanization, including Wade-Giles, to translate Mandarin, but a change in diplomatic relations with the US prompted Chinas International Standards Organization to adopt pinyin in the early 1980s, and Western publications soon began to make the switch over to using it. The United Nations shortly followed suit, adopting pinyin as a standard in 1986, but it wasnt until 2001, after the simplification of Chinese characters, that the PRC issued an official law describing how to use pinyin. Until then, its usefulness was still being observed and documented. The ZT experiment carried out in a number of schools across China in the 80s and 90s, required primary school students and semi-to-illiterate adults to spend more time reading and writing pinyin in lieu the Mandarin study that was normally required in classrooms. Twenty years later, pinyin was shown in studies to be more effective than traditional methods of teaching Mandarin. Even despite its apparent usefulness, its clear that with changing technology, there were and are still problems with the promoting pinyin as a standard-bearer of Mandarin education. Linguists have come up up with a number of ways to efficiently input characters into mobile devices and computers, and pinyin wasnt even the obvious

answer. One of the first well-known methods, called Renzhima Cognitive Coding, required users to memorize the radicals of each character along with their assigned letter codes and type these into the computer. This was, obviously, extremely tedious, and was quickly shot down and replaced by another pretender called the Wubi Method, which assigned keys to the five primary character strokes. Finally, the pinyin input method users are familiar with today became the standard and accepted as an efficient means of allowing the ancient Chinese language to swiftly adapt to changing technologies. Yet, questions remain as to where pinyin will go from here. Most Chinese who learn pinyin in schools still rarely use it in everyday life, at least not enough to call themselves biliterate in the shuangwenzhi, even though many appear permanently glued to their mobile devices. Many can type pinyin, but may not be able to read it. Others have a limited understanding due to their ability to cut corners using predicative text systems that allow the computer to guess which character is about to be typed. There still arent many reading materials in pinyin in China today, and the future of pinyins rise in a society whose language is one of the hardest to learn, is uncertain.

Sin Wenz: The Prequel to Pinyin

Monday, March 12, 2012 | BY: JESSICA RAPP () It happens to all language learners, even the best of us. Its your first day of class, and youre silently panicking, watching in fear as your professors chalk dances across the board with lightning speed, producing the swirls and

dots of Chinese characters. With each new slash, your heart sinks a little lower. How will you ever memorize and pronounce all several thousands of these? Believe it or not, political leaders and scholars in China were worried too. Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, those concerned with language reform began to address the need for a national standard of pronunciation and a way for people across China to more easily learn Mandarin. The process of learning characters was extremely complicated, leaving much of the farming population illiterate. Chinese learners today are probably familiar with pinyin, Zhou Youguangs solution to romanizing the sounds associated with characters, but not many know about the countless trial alphabets that came before it. Creating a language standard that everyone could agree onespecially given the wide variations in Mandarin across the nationwas extremely difficult. Romanization wasnt even the first choice of many of those searching for a new system. In the late 1940s, Joseph Stalin had suggested to Mao Zedong that China find an alternative to Mandarin that they could call their own, but even before then, scholars had made several attempts to use phonetic symbols, ideographs and even the Cyrillic alphabet to replace complicated Chinese characters. Some of these, including Bopomofo, caught on widely for a number of years, but lost support due to disagreements over issues like practicality and the protection of the traditional language. Despite a considerable number of socio-cultural and linguistic setbacks, the issue of language reform remained a prominent one for more than 40 years, and the attempts to use romanization as a solution continued. Zhou Enlai famously noted the usefulness of the Latin alphabet, given its wide application in scientific and technological fields and its ability to help strengthen relationships with many of Chinas neighbors who were already familiar with the Latin alphabet. By the early 1930s, Qu Qiubai, a scholar in Moscow, had worked with other Soviet linguists to develop Sin Wenz, or New Writing, a form of romanization that didnt include tonal markings. Instead, tones could be asserted from context, and were only indicated if necessary by methods such as the doubling of vowels. As it was more linguistically sophisticated and less difficult to use than previous incarnations, Sin Wenz was used to help the more than 100,000 Chinese immigrants to the Soviet Union read Chinese, and later became the first method in China to achieve the same legal status as traditional characters. Sin Wenz was eventually used to translate many Western texts, including the biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin and Charlie Chaplin. It was what many hoped would solve the issue of illiteracy in China and eventually replace characters once and for all, but in just a few years, its spread slowed to a halt. Some sources claim this was because there werent enough people trained to teach Sin Wenz or that it didnt apply well to all of Chinas regional dialects, but others say the reason was more political. As the Communist Party aimed to gain support throughout China in the late 1940s, they withdrew their attention from language reform to appease the many who still believed in the importance of protecting the traditional writing. The issue remained in the background for several more years until Mao came into power in 1949 and once again made the question of literacy a priority, beginning the long story of how the system that saves students lives today came into being.

Zhou Youguang: The Father of Pinyin

Sunday, March 4, 2012 | BY: BROWN ROGERS Zhou Youguang (). The name may not register with the majority of expats in China, but it should. Pinyin (), the method by which every foreigner learns Chinese, was designed in the late 1950s by Zhou and his team of 20 in under three years. Upon its creation, the system was immediately institutionalized and became the officially recognized way of translating Chinese characters into a phonetically-grounded romanized alphabet. Pinyin works to attach the Chinese sound and intonations of a character to the character itself through a system of letters denoting the pronunciation. The Chinese romanization system has revolutionized all facets of communication in China, beginning in 1958 when it was integrated into the curriculum of compulsory education across China as a method for teaching Mandarin. After a revised version of pinyin was adopted as the international standard in 1982, pinyin became crucial to a solution for evolving communication technology: users would be able to fluently type characters into their phones and computers using a keypad or keyboard. By revolutionizing communication in China, pinyin has also had a major impact on Chinas modern day emergence as a global power, or the open sesame effect, as Zhou puts it.

Language is a key to learning and understanding, and pinyin gave more Chinese the ability to turn this key, he said. In the era of mobile phones and globalization, we use pinyin to communicate with the world. Pinyin is like a kind of open sesame, opening up the doors. The system is a bridge between China and the rest of the world. *** Zhou was born in 1906, and spent the greater part of his life as a writer. Throughout his life, he published 30 books, 10 of them being available since the turn of the 20th century. In 1923, Zhou enrolled in Chinas first Western-style university, St. Johns in Shanghai, where he majored in economics and minored in linguistics. During the May 30th Movement in the middle of the Republican period, he transferred to Guanghua University and then graduated in 1927. By this time, he was renowned as one of Chinas brightest young scholars. Zhou spent time in Japan as a foreign exchange student before moving to London, and then New York to work as a Wall Street banker. During his time in New York he built a friendship with Albert Einstein, although he says those discussions have been lost in time. Yes, I visited Einstein a couple of times, Zhou has said matter-of-factly, but with the genuine humility of a Confucian scholar . But I didnt understand relativity at all so we just chatted about everyday things. He also brushed shoulders with several Chinese leaders while being a member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference. Some notable names include Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping. Zhou returned to China during the establishment of the PRC in 1949 to help his country build a modern economy after the Korean War. In Shanghai, he began teaching economics until Maos campaigns began in the late fifties. By then, Zhou had begun to shift his focus to linguistics, but because he had a background as an economist, the father of pinyin was officially labeled a reactionary academic and was sent to the countryside for two years for re-education. Had he not changed professions, he would have spent more than a decade in the countryside. Today, Zhou continues to use his newest degree to write and strive to understand China. His latest book in progress, to be titled Zhao Wen Dao Ji ( ), is based on one of Confuciuss sayings: He who fully realizes the truth in the morning may die without regrets in the evening. The centenarian scholars passion over the course of his life has been learning and helping others to learn, and for foreigners living in China, Zhou has a simple piece of wisdom: Do something to help bridge understanding between Chinas ancient civilization and the modern world.

Legend of the Shaolin Werewolf

Thursday, July 5, 2012 | BY: JOE DORAN Some stories are remarkable, while others are so filled with hyperbole that, despite how amazing they might be, a small part of you cant help but question their factual value. Other stories, though they might be written like real history, are clearly more legend than they are truth. This is one of those stories. Why? Because it concerns a werewolf ( lngrn) who could do kung fu. In the interest of full disclosure, I am compelled to admit that the protagonist of this tale is never actually stated to be a werewolf. Our hero was a man, surnamed Su (), who if he even truly existedis said to have suffered from a very real, very serious genetic disease called hypertrichosis, which caused the hair on his body to grow out of control. Sus legend begins with his birth in the mid-19th century. His was a world with neither Wikipedia nor the joys of Internet self-diagnosis, and as such, his parents misunderstood his condition, denounced him for a demon and abandoned him as a baby in a forest. And there he might well have died, had things not taken a turn so common to kung fu movies that its practically a cliche. He was discovered by some wandering Shaolin monks. Being the righteous, honorable guys that Shaolin monks tend to be, the first thing they did was try to find an adoptive family for the young Su. The locals of the region, however, wouldnt take him in either, so at a loss, the monks accepted Su into their

temple and set about fulfilling another kung fu movie cliche: turning him into an unstoppable martial arts machine.

Even Shaolin monks without hypertrichosis are pretty darn impressive Most likely aware that if he left the temple, hed probably be burned alive by an angry mob with torches and pitchforks (think Frankenstein), Su had little else to do with his time other than study the ways of Shaolin. Normally, a student chose just one art to which they dedicated themselves, but Su chose all of them, learning from each of the Shaolin masters in turn. Over the years, he learned more than 200 empty-hand fighting techniques and mastered 140 weapon types. Supposedly, he even learned the infamous Dian Xue (), or Death Touch (for a visual example, go watch Kill Bill). So incredible was Su, that the other monks appointed him as Su Gong (, Grandmaster Su). From there, the accounts of his skills become increasingly fantastical. At a meeting with 12 Shaolin masters from across China, Su entered the room and was greeted with customary bows from all of the gathered. He did not bow in return. Instead, Su pulled out a knife and hurled it into the ceiling. An assassin plummeted to the ground, the knife embedded in his heart. We can go ahead and assume that there was a dramatic pause between the knife being hurled and the infiltrator dropping down. Su had realized the assassin was hiding in the rafters when, upon entering the room, he could hear 13 people breathing, rather than just 12. How he managed that with all that hair around his ears is beyond me, but then Im not a quasi-legendary Shaolin Grandmasteryet.

When Su wasnt discovering assassins with echo-location, he was fighting bears in the forest for practice. In fairness, the bears may well have taken him for a skinny secondcousin and then were completely blown away when he came at them with kung fu moves. Even a bear would have been caught off-guard by that. And when he wasnt fighting bears, Su was leading his fellow monks in the defense of Fujian Provinces coastline against Japanese pirates, which they did to great success. That the monks succeeded isnt that surprising, however. After all, even pirates will shriek like little girls and turn tail when confronted with a hair-covered Shaolin Grandmaster. And those that didnt runwell, its unlikely Su wasnt putting that Death Touch technique into practice. The story goes that Sus success against the pirates, and the subsequent love it earned him and his fellow monks from the common people, garnered him the attention of the Imperial government, who saw the monks as potential rebels. So a force was dispatched to deal with the monksarmed with gunpowder weapons. That already made it an unfair fight, because as awesome as these quasi-mythical monks were, they probably couldnt dodge cannon fire. And just to make sure the monks didnt try to pull any mystical kung fu stuff, a renegade Shaolin Master was sent to strengthen the attackers. Now I know what youre thinking: you reckon you know exactly how the battle went down. The monks dealt with the cannons and the missiles using only their skill and guile, while Su and the Shaolin Master faced-off in an epic, hand-to-hand, flying through the air, backflipping, frontflipping, sideslipping, high-kicking, one-on-one battle. Well they didnt. Warned of the impending attack and realizing that, in actuality, they were no match for a superior force armed with modern weaponry, the monks chose to take all the valuables out of the temple and then burn it down before the bad guys arrived. But before you condemn the decision as cowardlygoing against all the rules of kung fu courage and honor that you remember from your diligent research into Shaolin lore (read: watching kung fu flicks)bear in mind that the monks didnt relocate to a cushy back-up temple, they went to live in the mountains. It takes a pretty tough bunch of guys to just go live in the mountains. Su died in 1928, at the age of 71, leaving a legacy thatas you can seeis far, far more legend than it is reliable history. We can only hope that perhaps, out there somewhere in confusion of time, there is some tiny kernel of truth to it all. Why else would a legend about a hairy Shaolin Grandmaster exist? No one would make that up out of the blue. Compared to other Chinese myths, its not even that inspired.

It wouldnt even make a good film. Can you imagine, a movie about a super-skilled, hyper-athletic, backflipping werewolf? That would never make it to the big screen.

Chinese Dragon Vs Western Dragon

Monday, January 23, 2012 | BY: BEIJING ZHU () The Chinese dragon is a far different beast from its Western counterpart. Smaug from J.R.R. Tolkiens The Hobbit is perhaps the most widely known dragon from recent Western fiction, a cruel, avaricious and bloodthirsty creature whose lair under the Lonely Mountain identifies him as a creature of the earth. Tolkien drew much of his inspiration for Smaug from the dragon in the Old English epic of Beowulf, penned more than a thousand years earlier, which gives some indication of the depth of the European tradition of portraying dragons as bad news. By contrast, the Chinese dragon is an auspicious creature, symbolizing strength, wisdom, good luck and power over the elements of wind and water. As such, Chinese people proudly claim they are the descendants of the dragon, a story that is firmly rooted in national folklore and history. For example, an anecdote in the Records of the Grand Historian (shj) traces the birth of Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-25AD): One day, his mother falls asleep at a riverside and dreams of a dragon lying on her body, only to wake up and find herself pregnant. Traces of the anecdote survived in the belief that a dragon appearing in a pregnant mothers dream was an auspicious sign indicating she would give birth to a future emperor. Indeed, Chinas feudal rulers did everything they could to maintain this mythic association, surrounding themselves with dragon-related ornamentation, ruling from a Dragon Throne and waging war under a dragon flag. Pretty much everything related to the emperor would be tagged with the character , for example, (imperial robes embroidered with curling dragons), (the emperors seat), (the emperors bed) and (the look of an emperor).

While Smaug and other European dragons have a solid, serpentine connection to the earth, Chinese dragons are indisputably rulers of the sky. The dragon was worshiped as the God of Rain, and in times of drought or flooding, locals would visit a dragon-king temple ( lngwngmio) and burn incense to pray for more favorable conditions. It is also said that natural disasters such

as floods or tornados (, literally, the dragon rolls up the wind) indicate the dragon king is in bad temper. Dragons association with thunder, lightening and rain may have prompted the widespread belief that there are more likely to be a flurry of natural disasters in a Dragon year, and Chinese New Year celebrations the world over will include ceremonies and prayers dedicated to warding off the possibility of such a calamity striking peoples homes. The dragons power to control rain and waves is also closely related to its rank in the pantheon of 12 zodiac animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog and pig). Various tales describe the race of these 12 animals to secure their place on the list, but the sequence is determined by the time of day the animal is most active, at least in the eyes of the ancient Chinese. The dragon corresponds to 7 am to 9 am, when it is most likely to be foggy, allowing the dragon to ride atop clouds and mist. However, parts of the dragon are usually hidden in the heavy fog, giving rise to the phrase (you see the head of the mystical dragon but not its tail), which now refers to someone who has no fixed whereabouts and is difficult for others to trace.

In Chinese folk art paper-cuts, a typical pattern shows the dragon riding on clouds. Another depicts two dragons playing with a pearl ( shunglngxzh), which is often inlaid with a dark, comma-like symbol running through the middle, thought to represent the unification of yin and yang. In Chinese calligraphy, the flying dragon is an aesthetically appealing analogy for cursive and elegant handwriting known as , literally, dragons flying and phoenixes dancing. Given all the positive associations of , its no wonder the character is a top choice for peoples names, including martial arts superstars Jackie Chan () and Bruce Lee (). There is also the Chinese idiom, (literally, hoping ones son will become a dragon), which roughly correlates with meaning parents have high expectations of their children.

However, few parents would want their children to be aggressive leaders involved in violence. Unfortunately, this is the image that struck many Chinese upon seeing the new dragon stamp issued by China Post in early January. Evil and frightening ( xingshnsh), baring fangs and brandishing paws ( zhngywzho) and bristling with anger ( nfchnggun) were just a few of the phrases people responded with when being asked for their first impression of the new stamp. The design has also triggered heated debates among micro bloggers on Sina Weibo, one of whom even compares the image to Chinas notorious city inspectors, who are sometimes caught on camera beating up street vendors, according to The Wall Street Journals China Real Time Report. People born in the year of the dragon are said to be natural leaders charismatic, innovative, free-spirited, and flamboyant, and as such Dragon years are notorious for coinciding with spikes in the birth rate. It remains to be seen whether modern Chinese remain as much in the thrall of dragon worship as their ancestors, and if the phenomenon holds true in the 21st century.

Did soccer originate in China?

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 | BY: JIM NORTON Who invented soccer? Its a debate that has raged among aficionados of the beautiful game for years. Whilst the rules for the modern-day format are less than 200 years old, the origins of football are far older. And according to FIFA President Sepp Blatter a dubious but influential authority it is China that can lay claim to its invention, with Linzi, the capital of the ancient Chinese state of Qi, the designated birthplace. Though the Chinese Football Association was only founded in 1924, centuries before, the nation had a thriving sport going by the name of cuju () which literally translates as kick ball with foot.

Evidence, revealed in ancient poetry and two hefty historical tomes, describes a game being played as early as the Warring States Period (476 221 B.C.) that has striking resemblances to the modern game. Two opposing teams kicking a ball (stuffed with feathers and hair) around a pitch, trying to keep possession and attempting to score before the other team dispossessed them. Sound familiar? Even referees were employed to officiate the strict no hand-ball policy. Though it was still a far cry from the presentday counterpart (the traditional flogging of the losing teams captain might seem a little excessive in the Barclays Premier League), the fundamentals were certainly there. Cuju was as popular then as football is now, transcending both class and gender. At first, during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. 220 A.D.), it was considered an effective military exercise for keeping soldiers fit, teaching the intricacies of defense versus attack, and getting rid of numb legs after a hard days riding. It soon caught the attention of the upper classes and game were staged as entertainment during imperial banquets. Emperors were so taken with the sport that being a skillful cuju player could even be a ticket to the good life. A young man named Gao Qui, for example, is reported to have asked to play for a future emperor in the 12th century, and his fancy footwork impressed so much that he was appointed to a string of increasingly important jobs in the army, eventually rising to defense chief. It was an early victory for feminism too, as the traditional moral concepts restricting Chinese women were relaxed for cuju. Some became professional and, according to records, a 17-year-old girl once beat a team of soldiers. The game evolved throughout consecutive dynasties and even spread to Japan, Korea and Vietnam. But concluding that cuju was the original form of soccer is not so straightforward. It ultimately faded during the Ming Dynasty (1368 A.D. 1644 A.D.), leaving a tenuous connection to the modern game. Some historians claim the basic idea traveled to the West via the Silk Road, spreading out to Egypt, Rome, France and the rest of the world. Cynics, however, are quick to point out that kicking a ball with your feet is not a particularly groundbreaking concept, with other versions played by ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks, and the Romans. FIFA sounds pretty convinced of Chinas claim though, explaining on their website that cuju is The very earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence. This provocative statement should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt though, as it was announced at the Third Football Expo in Beijing to a lucrative and football-mad market. It seems the origin of football is a sensitive subject that will receive continued debate for years to come. But even if China cant prove soccer originated in China, it still has plenty more sports to lay claim to. The 10th century stick-and-ball sport chuiwan () has been declared by some historians to be an early incarnation of golf, whilst jiju ( ), the Tang Dynasty (618 907 A.D.) pastime involving horses and mallets, developed into polo. Photo by Patrick Keogh on Flickr

The 2000-Year History of Shuttlecock

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 | BY: PAUL CUCLIS Though shuttlecock has only recently become an international sport, it is one of Chinas oldest games, dating back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC 220 AD). The Han Dynasty! Many believe that the game evolved from a military exercise called c j (), which was outlined in a book from that period called the Zhngu C (), or Strategies of a Warring State. The cuju ball was originally around the size of a football, but was later made smaller with chicken feathers attached to one end to slow down the flight (adding time to develop tons of sick moves). Throughout the succeeding dynasties, shuttlecock was encouraged by emperors and generals to keep the soldiers entertained and help them improve their hand eye coordination. Though shuttlecock has been around for ages, according to shuttlecock-europe.org, the first national shuttlecock competition didnt take place until 1933, as part of larger sporting event ion Nanjing. It gained international attention when a Chinese athlete did an awe-inspiring demonstration of the game at Berlins 1936 Summer Olympics. Its traditional name, jinzi, was renamed shuttlecock and proceeded to spread across Europe. Shuttlecock became an official national sport in 1984, leading to the formation of an amateur team in Hong Kong. But thats not all theres more! The International Shuttlecock Federation (ISF) was founded in 1999, and since then have been helping to organize the World Shuttlecock Competition, an annual faceoff among the best shuttlecock players in the world. The world I say! In 2003, shuttlecock was? also included as a sport in the Southeastern Asiatic Games.

So next time some roughneck from the hood tries to talk smack about shuttlecock, you can let em know

thatTraditional Chinese Drinking Games

Monday, January 11, 2010 | BY: RANDI S. MILLER Drinking may be leisurely fun to most of us, but in ancient China, booze was serious business. And this applied to the drinking games as well. A far cry from swigging every time Homer exclaims Doh!, some of these contests were so involved that intellectuals had to study literature and pass exams before theyd even be allowed at the table. In one popular literary drinking game, or yaling (), a supervisor would offer a line of poetry, setting down a pattern or rhyme for the others to follow. His drunk buddies then continued the composition on the spot, keeping this exquisite corpse alive. He who missed a line, and lost the rhyme, paid the fine, then drank some wine. (Sorry, we couldnt resist.) Other stewed scholarly games involved tipsy riddles, couplets, tongue twisters, and a terrible assortment of competitions of cleverness. But the uneducated masses werent entirely left out in the cold: popular drinking games, or tongling (), are an equally ancient tradition. Unlike the snobbish yaling, these accessible inebriators continue to be played in parks and pubs across China today. The most commonly seen are finger guessing, dice rolling, and the good old reliable Rockpaper-scissors. Finger guessing is fast, loud, and fun. Two drinkers each throw out a handful of fingers simultaneously, while shouting a number from zero to ten. If one of the drinkers somehow guesses the sum of fingers on show, they win, and the other takes a quaff. If both guess right, or, more likely, neither does, the game goes on. In anticipation of a late night, one rule states that the fool that shouts a number lower than the fingers theyve actually shown is immediately due for a drink. To spice up the rowdy game, players cant simply shout numbers. They have to toss out a pleasant-sounding, poetic phrase, instead. Two springs, reflecting the moon! Three stars, hanging high! Eight immortals, across the sea! A different Homer would have been proud. Probably the most popular tongling alive today, though, is the dice rolling game seen everywhere. The rules vary, but a common version involves two drinkers and ten dice. Each drinker rolls five dice in a cup, upturning it, then peeking at the total. One may see hes showing a trio of threes, so could claim, heartily, Id bet there are four threes showing. The other drinker sneaks a peek at his own five dice, and responds with a total that is higher. Four? Hah! You sot! Id bet there are six threes showing! When the betting is done, theres a full reveal, and a resulting quaff. With all this tasking focus involved, were confused about how there can be drinking as well. Especially when that drink often happens to be baijiu. Now thats a challenge. shuttlecock is not only totally awesome, but its older than Jesus.

Traditional Chinese Drinking Games

Monday, January 11, 2010 | BY: RANDI S. MILLER Drinking may be leisurely fun to most of us, but in ancient China, booze was serious business. And this applied to the drinking games as well. A far cry from swigging every time Homer exclaims Doh!, some of these contests were so involved that intellectuals had to study literature and pass exams before theyd even be allowed at the table. In one popular literary drinking game, or yaling (), a supervisor would offer a line of poetry, setting down a pattern or rhyme for the others to follow. His drunk buddies then continued the composition on the spot, keeping this exquisite corpse alive. He who missed a line, and lost the rhyme, paid the fine, then drank some wine. (Sorry, we couldnt resist.) Other stewed scholarly games involved tipsy riddles, couplets, tongue twisters, and a terrible assortment of competitions of cleverness. But the uneducated masses werent entirely left out in the cold: popular drinking games, or tongling (), are an equally ancient tradition. Unlike the snobbish yaling, these accessible inebriators continue to be played in parks and pubs across China today. The most commonly seen are finger guessing, dice rolling, and the good old reliable Rockpaper-scissors. Finger guessing is fast, loud, and fun. Two drinkers each throw out a handful of fingers simultaneously, while shouting a number from zero to ten. If one of the drinkers somehow guesses the sum of fingers on show, they win, and the other takes a quaff. If both guess right, or, more likely, neither does, the game goes on. In anticipation of a late night, one rule states that the fool that shouts a number lower than the fingers theyve actually shown is immediately due for a drink. To spice up the rowdy game, players cant simply shout numbers. They have to toss out a pleasant-sounding, poetic phrase, instead. Two springs, reflecting the moon! Three stars, hanging high! Eight immortals, across the sea! A different Homer would have been proud. Probably the most popular tongling alive today, though, is the dice rolling game seen everywhere. The rules vary, but a common version involves two drinkers and ten dice. Each drinker rolls five dice in a cup, upturning it, then peeking at the total. One may see hes showing a trio of threes, so could claim, heartily, Id bet there are four threes showing. The other drinker sneaks a peek at his own five dice, and responds with a total that is higher. Four? Hah! You sot! Id bet there are six threes showing! When the betting is done, theres a full reveal, and a resulting quaff. With all this tasking focus involved, were confused about how there can be drinking as well. Especially when that drink often happens to be baijiu. Now thats a challenge.

The Scroll that Says It All

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 | BY: MARIE CAHALANE Along the River During the Qingming Festival ( Qngmng Shngh T), a panoramic painting reputedly created by Song Dynasty (960-1279) artist Zhang Zeduan (), celebrates not only a festival, but an entire culture. The resounding spirit of life captured in this grand painting has played muse for centuries, most recently inspiring a series of animated TV episodes. offers a panoramic view of the festival in Kaifeng (), Henan Province, then the capital of China, but Zhangs true focus lies elsewhere. The ceremonies of the Qingming Festival become a side feature as he vividly portrays the social and political machinations that were integral to the culture of the time. The diversity he captured has endured for centuries and has inspired a long succession of artists to attempt to capture the spirit of their times in near identical fashion. Qingming (, clear and bright) festival falls on March 14 by the lunar calendar, and is probably better known as Tomb Sweeping Day. It is a day of remembrance, a time when respects are paid to ancestors, tombs are swept and gifts bestowed. It also welcomes in the spring and is a time for family outings and reunions. The original scroll is currently housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing, and is an impressive 5.28 meters in length, with three main sections. Using a tableau format, it moves from leisurely rural scenes on the right, through the commotion of commerce in the center, and ends in an urban district, a locus of economic activity. Featured are people from all walks of life taking part in the elaborate play of their day-to-day before an extensive backdrop, which includes detailed infrastructure, contemporary transport and technology, plants and animals. Along the River During the Qingming Festival offers deep insight into 12th century China.

There are a number of versions of the piece, including one from the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) and another from the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), both of which were adapted to reflect the eras in which they were created. A more recent version was executed in digital media and exhibited over three months at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Called River of Wisdom, it brings to life the original Along the River During the Qingming Festival on an epic scale. Projected on a screen 120 meters long and six meters high (30 times the size of the original) it is an animated, four-minute long digital cycle running from day to night. Throughout, figures interact and participate in a wealth of scenes from ancient Chinese life based on those depicted by Zhang, as well as additional night scenes to demonstrate the thriving trade of the night market. Now the piece is about to enter a new phase of life. Xinhua reported earlier this month that it is to be the basis for an animated TV series. Sponsored by Wanhao, an internet, film and TV center and the publicity department of the Kaifeng Communist Party of China Committee, 365 episodes will be developed (yes, one for each day of the year.) Divided into seven parts, it will consider agriculture, transport, science and technology, folklore, commerce, culture and art, and international communication. The ultimate aim is to take Zhangs painting beyond the realm of art, and literally breathe life into each of his characters and the lives they lived. While an in-depth knowledge of ancient Chinese societal culture can be obtained from Along the River During the Qingming Festival, the question remains: how can even this most epic of paintings inspire 365 episodes? Suggestions welcome!

Color Me Confused: Colors and Meaning in Chinese Culture

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 | BY: SHAO LINGWEI Green with envy? Feeling blue? Irrespective of whether youve been forced to pour over the symbolism of a certain shade of gray, perhaps as part of a Literature degree, most Westerners have a decent idea of which colors equate to which emotions. But the Chinese palette is an entirely different animal, with the potential to ruin the best intentions just try giving your Chinese girlfriend a white rose on Valentines Day.

White (bi) symbolizing bereavement, bad luck, death, failure and stupidity Since time immemorial, white has been the dominant color displayed at Chinese funerals, the so-called (bishi), literally, white affairs, while those of lower intelligence, more colloquially known as idiots, are referred to as (bich). When hard work achieves no results and all ones efforts prove to be in vain, Chinese people often say (bimng) or (bifil).

Red (hng) symbolizing enthusiasm, fervor, and luck During a traditional Chinese wedding, it is considered auspicious for the bride and bridegroom to dress in red, in anticipation of a blissful, argument-free union. Red lanterns, red couplets and red papercuts blanketed with the Chinese character (x, bliss) are ubiquitous. Red even makes its way into the lexicon in a term used for female matchmakers, (hngning), literally, Red Ladies.

Yellow (hung) symbolizing royalty, solemnity and sacredness The dragon robe, the official garb of the feudal emperor in Chinese society, is yellow, and the colors symbolism extends to representing imperial power and sovereignty. Chinese people boast that they are the (ynhungzsn), or the offspring of the ancient Chinese Emperors, Yan and Huang, who are regarded as the ancestors of the Chinese people. Moreover, days on which it is considered auspicious to do business are dubbed (hungdo jr).

Black (hi) symbolizing sublimity, equality, righteousness, and solemnity In traditional Chinese plays and dramas, actors whose faces are painted black are playing the role of righteous and just characters. (bozhng), renowned as the most impartial judge in Chinese history and a frequent , is easily recognized by his black face.

Green (L) symbolizing life, peace, vitality, and youth Green has similar connotations in both Chinese and Western culture. The colour appears in agriculture-related Chinese phrases, such as (lzhu) oasis, and (ly) green field. (lmoz), literally, green hat, is an exception. Most men are afraid to wear a green hat as to do so suggests their girlfriend or wife is cheating on them. Courtesy of Thats Zhejiang

Chinas Endless Obsession with The Three Kingdoms

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 | BY: BILLY CHUNG KWOK About two hours northwest of Beijing, three carloads of us took a Sunday off to hike the green mountains that surround the capital city. It wasnt as secluded as I had expected; a legion of fellow Beijingers squatted near the same muddy stream we had sought out. Six of us sat down to play cards, with beer and chuanr in hand. I expected wed start a game of poker, but a colorful box of unfamiliar cards was unveiled instead. On its cover, there was an image of the ancient hero Zhuge Liang, from the classic of Chinese

literature, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms ( Sngu Yny). Appropriately, I learned, the game is called Three Kingdom Kill ( sngush). Its the latest in a string of Three Kingdom-related spin-offs, a country-wide craze. Three Kingdom Kill was first created as a student project at Chinese Media University, but exploded from there. Its played widely by Chinas technically-savvy younger middle class. The game-play is reminiscent of the classic card game Magic: the Gathering, the godfather of all nerdy card games. Like Magic, its addictive. That is, if youre into that sort of thing. Each card from Three Kingdom Kill is adorned with quotes from the tale of Three Kingdoms. Players are advised to Kill with a borrowed knife ( jido shrn), and If all else fails, retreat. ( zu wi shng). We like these games because they force you to think like a true hero, my friendturned-opponent said between turns. Besides, reenacting ancient battles is just really, really cool. In all of the recent Three Kingdom incarnationswhich include films, manga, TV shows, and even foodone might forget that the original story has roots which date back to the 14th century, during the Ming Dynasty. Esteemed as one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms takes place in one of the bloodiest eras in Chinese historya time of bandits, heroes, religious wars, political upheaval and lots of adventure. Historians estimate the death toll during this period at 50 percent of the total population which means over 25 million died in a single generation. The book weaves an engrossing history of it all, featuring a great empire dividing and reuniting, as well as the charismatic characters who fought on both sides. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms takes place almost 2,000 years ago, when there were three powerful rival kingdoms, the Wei, Shu, and Wu, all vying for control of the land. It wasnt a peaceful time, and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms retells these brutal battles and wars in a winding, epic tale. Each kingdom had its own larger-thanlife heroes, who fought bravely, and wise generals, renowned for their shrewd strategies on the battlefield. This enduring tale of adventure has been told and retold for over 700 years. It has inspired books, plays, operas, paintings, video games, card gamesboth popular and fine art. In 1993, CCTV spent 170 million RMB, hired 400,000 actors, and shot for four years, producing a made-for-TV series. The animated remake, a joint Sino-Japan CCTV venture, was unveiled last year. On top of that another CCTV live action series was released this year. In 2008,Hong Kongdirector John Woo took up the Three Kingdoms torch with his two-part Battle of Red Cliff. It broke the Chinese mainland box office record, set almost a decade ago by James Camerons Titanic.

Even the iPad, only a few months old, has already gotten involved. Romance of the Three Kingdoms Touch Plus HD is the latest addition to the long line of Koei ThreeKingdom games that the younger generation has grown up with. Some 18 million copies of these Koei games have been sold worldwide. My friend Zhang religiously plays QQs Three Kingdoms MMORPG, one of Chinas online multiplayer role-playing games. And while these time-consuming computer games might be regarded as pixilated fluff, Zhang assure me that they are actually based in real scholarship. Though he never paid too much attention in history class, Zhang gives the online RPG his full attention. But, if you think that the Three Kingdoms marketing craze is confined only to media, think again. On our way back into the capital city, our group stopped for a meal at the Wooden Bucket Three Kingdoms Restaurant. The restaurants fourth branch has just opened; its menu offers historical delicacies for all of the ThreeKingdom fanatics. Tradition tells us that one of the main characters, benevolent warlord Liu Beis favorite dish actually inspired his successful rise. Young Liu Bei was poor, hungry, and peddling bamboo mats, when one blessed day his mother brought home a paltry chicken. She cooked the dish as best she could, using what minimal seasonings the impoverished family had. Apparently, the meal made an impression on the budding Liu Bei; he continued eating the dish throughout his life, so he wouldnt forget his meager roots. And thus, Liu Beis Spicy Fragrant Chicken ( Li Bi jioxingj) was born. We ordered from the wooden menu and each of us chose dishes that were said to have been eaten by our beloved heroes. I got Zhuge Baked Fish ( Zhg koy), named after the books legendary strategist. We dealt another round of Three Kingdoms Kill, and I drew the card of the general Guan Yu. With this valuable character, I stood a chance. But truth be told, it was all a bit over-the-top, and I was getting a little Three Kingdomed-out. The Storm of Red Mansions A wave of criticism has exploded across the pages of newspapers and websites of China recently, all about a new TV series thats based on a 300-year-old novel. And worst of all, its only being shown in a few local markets. Who knows what will happen when the show is broadcast to larger markets (including Beijing) over the fall. A Dream of Red Mansions, one of Chinas four great classic novels, remains unsurpassed in our literary history. It tells a tragic love story, against the rise and fall of a prestigious family, and was first televised in an extremely successful 1987 series. But in a recent sina.com survey, 87 percent of respondents dont expect the new version, which cost a remarkable 118 million RMB, to live up to the old one. Criticisms

include casting the wrong actors for the roles, using a lousy script, an illiterate director, and even that the hairstyles reminded viewers of copper coins. The other three classic novels face the same explosive drama. A new series based on The Romance of the Three Kingdoms aired this year, and was criticized for having dialogue that sounded too modern. (The appearance of A Dream of Red Mansions has saved face for itpopular online sentiment is that you wont realize how good Three Kingdoms is until youve watched A Dream of Red Mansions.) All this excitement should really gear up next year, when new versions of the final two novels, The Water Margin and Journey to the West, begin broadcasting in 2011. -ZHAO LEI

The Best Museums in China

Sunday, September 12, 2010 | BY: MOLLY BUCKLEY If youve run out of things to do here in China, well, we dont believe you. But if you insist, your solution lies in the pages of China: Museums. Whether youve got a hankering to learn about the development of ancient scissors (Zhang Xiaoquan Scissors Museum) or youre just aching to see thousands of tiny bound-foot shoes (Yang Shaorongs Collection of Three-inch Womens Shoes), youll find everything you need in this bizarre and memorable guide. The book, organized by location for your browsing convenience, offers listings information, photos, and summaries of what each museum has to offer. Its an exciting time to tour museums, too: before the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, ancient artifacts were hidden on the shelves of the rich, far from public view. China is only recently shaking the dust off of its rich history and exposing it to the light. Take advantage of it all, and pick up a copy of China: Museums today! M.B.

A Brief History of Chinese Comics

Thursday, July 7, 2011 | BY: AYESHA SWINSON I remember my first experience in the realm of comic books. I was 13 and my Dad had just bought me an issue of Judge Dredd, an English series started in the 80s about a totalitarian justice system in a post-apocalyptic world. I read it cover-to-cover and instantly wanted more. Thats whats so addictive about comic books: the world they take you to. It might be a futurist dystopia, a medieval kingdom or even a hypothetical metropolis filled with madmen who paint their faces like a clowns and dress like penguins. Comic books or manhua () date back 5000 years. It wasnt, however, until the 19th century that they began to take form. Many took inspiration from ancient mythology, and often featured emancipated and unattainable Venuses and heroes with Adonis-like bodies, mastering the elements and saving the day. Modern manhua, however, often mirror their Japanese counterparts, employing bright colors, realistic fights scenes and lots of technical detail. Meanwhile, instead of depicting maiden voyages across tumultuous and hydra-infested seas, modern comics are now centered around martial

arts battles to the death, magically enchanted staffs and anthropomorphic zebra companions (see An Ideal World, )

Still, some classics remain. Chief among these is the popular and light-hearted Uncle Choi, which ran from the late 50s to the early 70s and saw plenty of cultural change, with the affable Choi eventually becoming a war hero. Choi-mania was followed by a wave of Bruce Lee-inspired gongfu manhua, which flooded the scene during the 70s and 80s. These were parodied with 2000ADs introduction of Stan Lee, a character in Judge Dredd who would serve as Dredds rival. Stan Lee was a martial arts expert hailing from the Wastelands (the radioactive desert area outside the cities). The entire 2000AD universe was created when Lee was transported, in a wormhole of his own devising, to the beginning of time. Striking out in anger at his betrayal, he accidentally created the Big Bang and, consequently, everything thereafter. Western and Eastern comic books have continued to influence one another throughout the past 70 years, both stylistically and thematically. Take for example Marvels Mangaverse series, which started around 2005 and was the first well-known Western series to include Asian-style artwork and storylines. This paved the way for the 2006 emergence Fluid Friction Comics, the first international comic book publisher to have a base in China and write comic books in traditional Chinese and English, it seems like it seems like there is a bright future ahead for nerdy kids worldwide. Oracle bones are pieces of shell or bone, normally from ox scapulae or turtle plastrons, which were used for scapulimancy a form of divination in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. Diviners would submit questions to deities regarding future weather, crop planting, the fortunes of members of the royal family, military endeavors, and other similar topics. These questions were carved onto the bone or shell in oracle bone script using a sharp tool. Intense heat was then applied with a metal rod until the bone or shell cracked due to thermal expansion. The diviner would then interpret the pattern of cracks and write the prognostication upon the piece, as well. By the Zhou dynasty, cinnabar ink and brush became the preferred writing method, resulting in fewer carved inscriptions and often blank oracle bones being unearthed. The oracle bones bear the earliest known significant corpus of ancient Chinese writing, and contain important historical information such as the complete royal genealogy of the Shang dynasty. When they were discovered and deciphered in the early twentieth

century, these records confirmed the existence of the Shang, which some scholars had until then doubted.

Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution

Fu Baoshi (19041965)
January 21April 15, 2012
Accompanied by a catalogue Perhaps the most original figure painter and landscapist of China's modern period, Fu Baoshi created indelible images celebrating his homeland's cultural heritage while living through one of the most devastating periods in Chinese history. He was eight years old in 1912 when China's last imperial dynasty was overthrown and the Chinese Republic was established. He subsequently witnessed the divisive warlord era and Communist rebellion of the 1920s, the Japanese invasion and occupation of eastern China from 1937 to 1945, and the Communist Revolution and establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Over the last fifteen years of his life, his art reflected China's political transformation under Mao Zedong. Throughout his career, however, Fu remained one of China's great individualist masters. This exhibition treats Fu's forty-year career with some seventy paintings, including many of the artist's recognized masterpieces, drawn from the preeminent holdings of China's Nanjing Museum. The exhibition, augmented by superb works from a New York private collection, is the most comprehensive treatment of the artist's oeuvre ever presented outside of Asia. Trained in both China and Japan at a time when arts education stressed the need for the modernization of indigenous traditions through the study of Western methods, Fu developed a new style incorporating foreign styles and techniques, and began creating boldly individualistic and strongly nationalistic work. Noting that Chinese painting had evolved toward too great a dependency on monochromatic, calligraphic brushwork, Fu sought to revive earlier traditions of realistic description that made greater use of color and ink wash. He also stressed the need for an artist to be emotionally and physically present in his art. To achieve this end, Fu often painted while inebriated. He also sought spontaneity through a spattered-ink method of paintinga kind of "action art" that parallels the working methods of some of the Abstract Expressionists. About the Exhibition An introductory section features a rare group of Fu's earliest extant works in the manner of traditional Chinese masters, followed by an in-depth examination of some of his finest works from the early 1940s. On view in this section are Qu Yuan (1942), depicting the poet Qu Yuan (343278 B.C.), who committed suicide to prove his loyalty; and Drunken Monk (1944), a portrait of Huaisu (725ca. 799), a Buddhist monk known for his "wild cursive" calligraphy who, like Fu, is said to have done his best work while inebriated. Both works reflect Fu's use of art to mirror his own state of mind and feelings.

During the war years from 1942 to 1945, Fu revived the millennium-long monumental landscape tradition to evoke the grandeur of China's towering mountains and surging rivers. Whispering Rain at Dusk (1945) exemplifies Fu's unrivaled ability to achieve rich and often brooding atmospheric effects through layered applications of ink wash suffused with pale color. The remainder of the exhibition is devoted to works of art created after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. This part offers insight into how Fu sustained his creative vision while adapting his art to the socialist agenda of Mao Zedong's New China. While he never adopted Soviet-style Social Realism, a group of works that Fu painted in 1957 during a study trip to Eastern Europe shows him applying his spontaneous ink-wash style to the depiction of aerial trams, factory towns, airplanes, and a flotilla of naval vessels. The Far Snows of Minshan Make Us Happy (1953), a bold image of soldiers enduring the hardships of the legendary Long March as they traversed the Min Mountains of Sichuan in 1935, is an example of the kind of image Fu was required to paint celebrating the history of the Party after the Communist Revolution of 1949. During the final decade of his life, Fu drew inspiration from two sources that were beyond reproachthe poetry of Mao Zedong and China's natural scenery. His success in interpreting both led to the most important commission of his career: a vast landscape panorama for the Great Hall of the People that had to be completed by October 1, 1959, in time for the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. Such is the Beauty of our Rivers and Mountains (1959?), a preliminary draft for the monumental painting, is a highlight of the exhibition. From this time forward, Fu often enhanced the political content of his images through the simple device of adding a red flag or a glowing red sky. The exhibition includes Heaven and Earth Glowing Red (1964), depicting a red globe floating over the ocean, which romanticizes the vision of Communist world domination. Also on view is Jinggang Mountain (1964), presenting a powerful image of a mountain known also as the "birthplace of the Red Army and the cradle of the Communist Revolution." But even when the subject matter of his paintings reflects the utilitarian and propagandistic roles that art was required to play, his dramatic ink-wash style and bold compositions remain highly personal interpretations.

9th Jun 2012 | 26 notes

andrej33: Four Beauties - Xi Shi by Zhou Wenmo Xi Shi, the first of the four beauties, lived during the period of time known as the Spring and Autumn Period, 497 BC. The period got its name from writings by Confucius and is a time of many warring states. She is celebrated as a woman of extraordinary natural beauty with a universal appeal. Although many have praised Xishis looks, there is but

little mention of her notable virtue - she had a great love for her country and her people, and said to be so entrancingly beautiful that fish would forget how to swim and sink away from the surface when she walks by.

25th May 2012 | 12 notes

danxii: This is an awesome painting titled Orchid (1306) is done in monochrome ink on paper, in the format of a hand scroll by Chinese artist Zheng Sixiao (1239-1316). This is pretty much one of my favorite protest paintings. How is it a protest painting? Well during this era the Mongols pretty much ruled most of China and people were not happy that foreigners took over, especially Sixiao (he hated Mongols). The purpose of this painting is to show that the state has been taken away. There is no ground, the Orchid is free-floating which represents the societys detachment from the country under Mongol rule. Many artists during this time refused to take the civil service examinations.

collective-history: Chinese Ming banknote, China, AD 1375 After seizing power from the Mongol rulers of China in 1368, the rulers of the Ming dynasty tried to reinstate bronze coins. However, there was not enough metal available for this, and paper money, made of mulberry bark, was produced. These banknotes continued to be issued by the Board of Revenue throughout the Ming dynasty, but inflation quickly eroded their value. The effect of inflation was so devastating that state-issued banknotes were regarded with suspicion for many years. It was not until the 1850s that a Chinese emperor dared to issue banknotes again. The Chinese writing along the top of this note reads (from right to left): Da Ming tong xing bao chao and translates as Great Ming Circulating Treasure Note. Below this, the

denomination is written in two characters yi guan (one string) above a picture of a string of 1000 bronze coins, arranged in ten groups of 100 coins. The long inscription beneath gives instructions for use and a warning that forgers will be punished severely. Dragons, symbolic of the emperor, fill the patterned border. The date on Ming dynasty banknotes usually refers to the Hongwu reign period (13681398) of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (also known as Ming Taizu). A national hero, he had risen from a peasant background to lead a successful rebellion against the Mongols, and establish the new Ming dynasty. British Museum

workman: artemisdreaming: You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest? You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest, and I smile, and am silent, and even my soul remains quiet: it lives in the other world which no one owns. The peach trees blossom, The water flows. Li Po (701 762)

gwebarchaeology: homoarchaeologicus:
5 millenia old chariots and 12 horse skeletons were found in a tomb pit in the city of Luoyang in central China. Archaeologists believe the tomb was dug as part of the funeral rites of a minister or other nobleman during the Eastern Zhou dynasty period, about 2,500 years ago. - National Geographic.

13th May 2012 | 54 notes

mudwerks: Chinese Marriage Coin - this has been sitting around forever - finally figured out what it is:

While sex education was not a topic freely discussed in ancient China, it was nevertheless important for newlyweds to have a basic understanding of what they should do on their wedding night in order to fulfill their obligation to family and society to have sons. There were several ways to accomplish this but one method was to provide the bride with a coin which displayed the basic sexual positions. These marriage coins or charms usually had an innocuous inscription (legend) such as Wind, Flowers, Snow, Moon on one side. The reverse side of the coin would depict one, two, or four couples making love in various sexual positions The Chinese usually refer to these coins as mixiqian () which means secret play or secret fun coins. They are also known as bi huo qian ( ) which means hide (evade) the fire (of lust) coins. In English, they are

variously referred to as Chinese marriage coins, Chinese love coins, Chinese spring money, Chinese erotic coins, Chinese wedding coins, etc. As mentioned, these coins are sometimes called spring (chun ) money. This refers to the ancient Chinese springtime ritual, where boys and girls separated by a stream would sing love songs to each other

fydynasticchina: The story of Jin Midi. Wu Liang Shrine, Jiaxiang, Shandong. 2nd century AD. Ink rubbings derived from stone-carved reliefs as represented in Feng Yunpeng and Feng Yunyuan, Jinshi suo (1824 edition), n.p. Jin Midi (lived 13486 BC) was born a prince of the nomadic Xiongnu, a confederation of Central Asian tribes that once dominated the eastern Eurasian Steppe. He was captured by Han-dynasty Chinese forces and made a slave who tended horses in

imperial stables. However, he gained the trust of Emperor Wu when he thwarted an assassination attempt against him. When Emperor Wu lay dying at his bedside, he designated Jin Midi, Huo Guang, and Shangguan Jie as regents to rule over his Liu Fuling, then crown prince and later Emperor Zhao of Han. Jin Midi thus became one of the top officials in central government. Source: Lillian Lan-Ying Tsengs Mediums and Messages: The Wu Family Shrines and Cultural Production in Qing China, in Rethinking Recarving Chinas Past: Ideals, Practices and Problems of the Wu Family Shrines and Han China (London and New Haven: Yale University Press and Princeton University Art Museum, 2008), page 279.

3rd Mar 2012 | 138 notes

asianhistory: A statue of a Shishi looking over Mount Emei, China

, or Stone Lions are usually historically posted as guardians at doors, gates, and other places of entry in important locations (Palaces, temples, homes of the wealthy) The lions are always presented in pairs, a manifestation of yin and yang, the female representing yin and the male yang. The male lion has one paw (may be right or left) on an embroidered ball called a xi qi (), which is sometimes carved with a geometric pattern known in the West as the Flower of life The female is essentially identical, but has a cub under the other paw to the male, representing the cycle of life. Symbolically, the female lion protects those dwelling inside, while the male guards the structure. Sometimes the female has her mouth closed, and the male open. This symbolizes the enunciation of the sacred word om. However, Japanese adaptions state that the male is inhaling, representing life, while the female exhales, representing death. Other styles have both lions with a single large pearl in each of their partially opened mouths. The pearl is carved so that it can roll about in the lions mouth but sized just large enough so that it can never be removed.

sanspower: The Chinese painting, above, commemorates the great and famous Chinese story about a Friendship between Bo Ya and Zi Qi. Yu Boya was a famous music master during the Spring and Autumn Period. The inspiration for his music came from nature , however, very few people could understand him exactly. One day, Boya played Guqin on a boat along a river side. A woodcutter, Zhong Ziqi, really enjoyed the music and was amazed that he could know the natural scenery correctly from the melody played by Boya. Boya was excited, and said, Bosom friend! Only you can understand my music! They agreed that Boya would visit Zhong Ziqi again on returning from his tour. But when he returned Ziqi had already passed away because of illness. Boya was so sad. He played a tune by Zhong Ziqis tomb, then broke his Guqin into pieces and never again played music. Later, people made a garden named the Heptachord Terrace to commemorate this touching story about friendship. It is at the site where Boya met Ziqi, in Wuhan, China.

letmypeopleshow: One Fly Dragon: An imperial dragon insignia designed to be worn on a mens surcoat during the Late Qing Dynasty, circa 1875-1900, is part of Threads of Heaven (pun intended, we hope!). The exhibition, opening Sunday at the Denver Art Museum, features the spectacular clothing and accessories worn toward the end of Chinas last empire. The badge is embroidered with silk and gold thread on silk, and judging by its imagery, its owner was very powerfulonly men in the extended imperial family through prince of fourth rank were permitted to wear these dragon insignia. The more badges they wore, the more powerful they were. Further, no one below the rank of second-degree prince could wear robes depicting dragons with five claws. So you might say they had clawed their way to the top.

yama-bato: CATHAY Translations by Ezra Pound (1915)

Here is the complete text for each of the nineteen poems originally appearing in Ezra Pounds 1915 collection Cathay. Neither rightly translations nor original poems, they are instead an ingenious highbred devised by the young Pound soon after the widow of Ernest Fenollosa appointed him the literary executor of her husbands work. Pound discovered a working manuscript of notes on a series of poems by the Chinese poets Li Po and Wang Wei, among others. (Fenollosa provided the Japanese equivalents of their names, Rihaku and Omakitsu, respectively.) When writing the poems, Pound had little knowledge of either the Chinese language or its ideograms. From the time of their original publication and through most of the 20th Century, Pounds creative explorations provided both a profound inspiration and a source for great debate. The Cathay poems have undergone scrutiny and controversy for nearly a hundred years while at the same time having a profound influence on Western poetry, including major American and European poets throughout the 20th Century. It greatly encouraged and influenced the imagist movement. Its style was easily akin to the straighforward American style of poetry.

2011 | 24 notes

fightingthroughthewhisky: Bronze ding, courtesy of Wikipedia. The Nine Ding () were cast by Yu the Great of the Xia Dynasty and were each presented to the governors of the Nine Provinces that China was divided into during the Xia and the Shang Dynasties. The Nine Ding were again consolidated by Tang of Shang after he overthrew King Jie and became symbols of state authority. Keeping all nine represented the kings sovereignty and would-be usurpers would plot to steal the bronze cauldrons to lay claim to the kings lands. The relics were eventually lost while in the hands of what would become the Qin Dynasty under Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China (played by Jet Li in that atrocious The Mummy 3).

arthistorianh: Guo Xi, Old Trees, Level Distance, 1072. Old Trees, Level Distance compares closely in brushwork and forms to Early Spring, Guo Xis masterpiece dated 1072 (National Palace Museum, Taipei). In both paintings, landscape forms simultaneously emerge from and recede into a dense moisture-laden atmosphere: rocks and distant mountains are suggested by outlines, texture strokes, and ink washes that run into one another to create an impression of wet blurry surfaces. Guo Xi describes his technique in his painting treatise Linquan gaozhi (Lofty Ambitions in Forests and Streams): After the outlines are made clear by dark ink strokes, use ink wash mixed with blue to retrace these outlines repeatedly so that, even if the ink outlines are clear, they appear always as if they had just come out of the mist and dew. This intimately scaled painting is a late work done for a fellow government official on the eve of his retirement. The opening section sets the mood. Two fishermen in their boats and travelers moving toward the distant mountains are harbingers of an imminent journey into retirement and the final stage of life that waits at the end of the road. The leafless trees and deepening mist impart a forlorn, autumnal air to the scene. The second half of the scroll narrows the focus. A diagonal embankment draws the eye leftward to a bridge, where two elderly figures make their way toward a pavilion. Their stooped forms are echoed by two craggy foreground trees that seem connected at the root. The pavilion may represent one of the kiosks built on the outskirts of the capital where colleagues might gather to bid farewell to a departing friend. Several attendants have gone ahead with food baskets and a zither to prepare a simple meal. Given the advanced age of the two gentlemen, it is likely that this meeting will be their last. The intense emotions of the moment are subtly conveyed by the landscape. Guo Xi: Old Trees, Level Distance (1981.276). In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nsong/ho_1981.276.htm (October 2008)

fyeahasianhistory: Standing court lady, Tang dynasty (618906), mid-7th century China Earthenware with pigment H. 15 1/8 in. (38.5 cm) Anonymous Gift, in memory of Louise G. Dillingham, 1978 (1978.345) This figurine of a woman in stylish dress represents a dancer in the court of the Tang dynasty, a prosperous time when foreign influences on social customs, fashion, and costume were prominent. Musicians, dancers, and other entertainers from the Western Regions (present-day Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) were invited to perform for the enjoyment of the princes and courtiers. The dancer wears a tight high-waisted upper garment with stiffened, out-flaring shoulder projections, a long skirt with billowing streamers, and the fashionable cloud

shoes with exaggerated upturned toes. Her elegantly slender body is echoed by the long sleeves falling to the knees, and her youthfulness is enhanced by the smooth modeling of the face coated with whitish slip. There are traces of polychrome pigments on the garments and gilt on her elaborate headdress. This dancers fanciful costume reflects the exuberant material culture of the Tang court.

30th May 2011 | 36 notes

artemisdreaming: Seated Female Musicians, Tang dynasty (618906), late 7th century China Pottery H. 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm), H. 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm), H. 6 in. (15.2 cm); H. 5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm) Rogers Fund, 1923 (23.180.47) Ensembles featuring female musicians often served as a musical bridge between elite and popular culture. As expert musicians, they were often musical innovators. Here, a small ensemble is shown clapping and playing the pipa, tongbo (small copper cymbals), and konghou (harp). The pipa is played in its original position, like an Arabic lute; its silk strings are plucked with a triangular plectrum. The construction and playing style resemble those of the biwa, a Japanese lute derived from the pipa. Today, the biwa maintains the use of a triangular plectrum, the West Asian plectrum guard, and the Cshaped sound holes seen on the instrument played by the musician here. The Chinese playing style changed during the chaotic Later Tang period (92136), when the plectrum was discarded. The angular konghou harp, introduced at the end of the Han dynasty, was in decline at this time and had gone completely out of use by the end of the Tang. The highest-rated musicians at the Tang court performed seated, while the lower ranks played standing and were also treated less well in other respects. metmuseum

China auction sees Qi Baishi painting sell for $65m

By Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing

The painting was intended as a gift to China's former leader, Chiang Kai-shek A modern Chinese painting has been sold at auction in Beijing for more than $65m (40m). The picture by the artist Qi Baishi depicts an eagle on a pine tree, surrounded by two calligraphy scrolls The high price paid for the painting shows the strength of the art market in the world's second-largest economy. According to one survey China overtook the US last year to become the most valuable art market in the world, accounting for 33% of total sales. Natural scenes The painting was sold at auction for 425.5m yuan ($65.5m) after more than half an hour of bidding, according to the auction house China Guardian. This is the second-highest amount paid for a piece of art at auction in mainland China. An 11th Century scroll by the Chinese calligrapher Huang Tingjian fetched 436.8m ($67.2m) yuan in 2009.

Qi Baishi's work was painted in the 1940s for the man who then led China, Chiang Kaishek. It was intended as a gift for his 60th birthday. Born in Hunan province in 1864 and largely self-taught, Qi is noted for painting natural scenes. "His paintings have not only affected numerous people inside China, but have won global respect," said Guo Tong of China Guardian. Mr Guo might say so, but few people outside his native country will have heard of Qi. He is, however, is one of a clutch of Chinese artists whose work sells well at international art markets. In the last few years Qi's paintings have sold for nearly as much as more established household names, such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. That is partly driven by China's booming economy, which has produced an increasingly large number of wealthy individuals willing to pay high prices for sought-after pieces of art.

Planeta mgico. Zhangjiajie: La montaa de la puerta del cielo.

21 septiembre 2012 22:40 Escrito en Lugares peculiares, Maravillas del mundo Etiquetado china, Cosas que ver en China, Heavens gate, lugares increbles, lugares insolitos, lugares interesantes, Lugares mgicos del mundo, Maravillas del mundo, Montaa de la puerta del Cielo, PLANETA MAGICO, Puerta celestial, Puerta del cielo, turismo en china, Zhangjiajie

La puerta celestial
Cogemos hoy la mochila y las zapatillas de caminar y nos damos un paseo hasta la provincia de Hunan, en China. Para visitar un paraje natural bastante majo conocido

como la puerta del cielo, un monumental agujero creado por la naturaleza en unas cumbres escarpadas quien sabe cuando. La verdad es que el boquete es realmente espectacular, con unas medidas de 131 metros de alto por 57 de ancho y ms de 60 metros de profundidad, el agujero es visible desde muchsimos kilmetros de distancia. Hasta hace apenas una dcada, este rincn del mundo no estaba abierto a las visitas extranjeras, pero desde el 2001 se puede visitar sin ningn tipo de problema. Los chinos, que son mucho de construir escaleras y cuando ms empinadas mejor, pues han hecho su trabajo y ah estn esos interminables escalones para quien tenga ganas y fuerzas de subirlos. Hace unos aos se construy una serpenteante carretera que llega prcticamente hasta la base de las escaleras, aunque durante el invierno queda cerrada al trfico. Pero si tenis pensado visitar el lugar durante los meses de fro, no os preocupis, que tambin hay telefrico de ms de siete kilmetros que funciona durante todo el ao.

Se puede imaginar que antes de construir la carretera y el telefrico, llegar hasta la base del agujero tendra que ser toda una odisea. Por aqu se suele decir, cuando alguien se esfuerza mucho y es bonachn, que se ha ganado las puertas del cielo. Quizs el nombre del lugar, cuando haba que deslomarse para llegar, tuviese en su da tambin ese doble sentido. Sea como fuere, pese a que es muy bonito y espectacular, que nadie piense que al otro lado se va a encontrar a San Jos para darle la bienvenida, ni tampoco el paraso o alguna de las interpretaciones que le podamos dar a ste.

Al final resulta que al otro lado no hay nada y encima hay que volver.

Y para los menos buenos, recordad que tambin podis visitar la puerta del infierno. http://tejiendoelmundo.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/la-puerta-del-diablo/

. . Posteado por Sinuh Fuentes:

https://www.facebook.com/iXiGOcom http://www.pangeale.com/main/2011/04/28/heaven-gate-mountain/ http://romantichoteldeals.com/exotic-places/heaven-door-amazing-nature-panoramazhangjiajie-china/ Hua Dian- Ancient Chinese Forehead Decoration

I have been seeing some people on my dashboard saying that (Chinese flower forehead decoration) are a kind of bindis or originate from India so I feel compelled to write this clarification. I hope this will be useful info for prospective hanfu-wearers. It does not originate from India or have any relation to the bindi. Its not religious but decorative and originates from the legend of Princess Shouyang who fell asleep under a plum tree and had a flower land on her forehead. The court ladies all admired the plum flower look so much they started imitating it with makeup. This started in the Southern Dynasty but became widely popular during the Tang dynasty. The ornamental designs Tang beauties pasted on their foreheads were often of bird feathers or black paper, and possibly of shell, goldleaf, fishbone or mica. Or they would simply paint on a motif. Ancient cosmetic modes often originated in legend. Ornamental designs on the forehead were attributed to a princess named Shouyang, favorite of Southern Dynasty Emperor Songwudi (363AD-422AD). A blossom fell on the princess forehead one afternoon as she slept under the shade of a plum tree in the palace garden. Liking the effect, Shouyang wore the flower for a few days. Other court ladies followed suit, painting ornamental designs and pasting metallic patterns on their foreheads. This

vogue peaked during the Tang Dynasty economic boom that succeeded a period of nationwide chaos. http://www.womenofchina.cn/html/report/98885-1.htm So please do not tell me that it is Indian again. Chinese are not appropriating anything. Thanks.

Tang Wei Min. (Sin ttulo). Dsou Chi, del Reino de Chi, tena seis pies de altura y figura esbelta. Una maana se visti elegantemente, y se contempl en el espejo. -Quin es ms hermoso? -pregunt a su mujer-, el seor Shui de la ciudad del Norte, o yo? -T eres tan hermoso -contest su mujer-, cmo puedes compararte con el seor Shui? Pero ya que el seor Shui de la ciudad del Norte es tan famoso en todo el pas, por lo bien parecido, Dsou Chi no crey del todo a su mujer. Repiti la pregunta a su concubina. -Cmo se puede comparar el seor Shui contigo? -exclam la concubina. Ms tarde, aquella maana, lleg un visitante y Dsou Chi le hizo la pregunta. -Usted es mucho ms hermoso que l -replic este hombre. Al da siguiente, lleg el seor Shui en persona. Tras un anlisis cuidadoso, Dsou Chi se convenci que el seor Shui era mucho mejor parecido que l. Se estudi frente al espejo y no dud que l era de los dos el menos buen mozo. Esa noche, en su lecho, lleg a la siguiente conclusin: mi mujer dice que soy el ms hermoso, porque me lisonjea. Mi concubina lo dice por temor. Y mi husped lo afirma porque necesita algo de m.

Ancdotas de los Reinos Combatientes Traduccin: Retrica Ediciones Fbulas chinas. Antologa P. Wei Chin-Chi. (Recopilador)

collective-history: Empress Wu Zetian is considered to be one of the most powerful women in Chinese history. She lived during the Tang Dynasty and was born to a wealthy and noble family. She was also very well educated. When Wu Zetian was 13, she was sent to Emperor Taizongs court to be one of his concubines. After Emperor Taizongs death in 649 AD, Emperor Gaozong came to power and Wu Zetian was sent off to become a Buddhist nun. Empress Wang, Gaozongs wife, had come into a power struggle with one of his favorite concubines, Consort Xiao. In order to distract Gaozongs attention from Consort Xiao, Empress Wang brought Wu Zetian back to the palace to become another concubine to her husband. This plan, however, backfired on Empress Wang. Wu Zetian eventually became one of Gaozongs favorites and the power struggle between the three women: Wu Zetian, Empress Wang, and Consort Xiao intensified. Empress Wang and Consort Xiao, former rivals, eventually decided to join forces in order to stop Wu Zetians influence over Gaozong. This plan backfired too because in 654 AD, Wu Zetian gave birth to a daughter and her daughter died shortly after. Gaozong and court officials accused Empress Wang of killing the infant. As a result, Gaozong replaced Wu Zetian as his empress. In 655 AD, both Consort Xiao and former Empress Wang were accused of witchcraft and they were both executed on Empress Wu Zetians orders.

As empress, Wu Zetian became extremely powerful. Toward the end of Gaozongs life, she was making virtually all of the major decisions that affected the government. Emperor Gaozong eventually died in 683 AD and Wu Zetian became empress dowager. In 690 AD, Wu Zetian crowned herself Emperor of China and she interrupted the Tang Dynasty by creating her own; the Zhou Dynasty. Wu Zetian is the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor. Despite her ruthlessness to gain power and having many noblemen and noblewomen killed or exiled in the process, Wu Zetian accomplished many things when she was in power. She influenced the spread of Buddhism in China and eventually made it the official religion; replacing Taoism. She was also successful in lowering high taxes and increasing agricultural production. The Empress died in 705 AD at the age of 80.

Postcard from Shanghai, China.

Painting by Fu Baoshi of Tao Yuan Ming. Tao Yuan Ming, according to the postcard writer, was a famous ancient poet in the Six Dynasties poetic period. It was said that his works once influenced the innovations of Beat poetry and the 1960s poetry in [the] USA and Europe. Most good Chinese poets had a poor life. So did he. His poems always depict a life of farming. Aside from his poems, Tao is also known for his prose depiction of land hidden from the outside world called, Peach Blossom Spring. The name has been the standard Chinese term for Utopia.

coolchicksfromhistory: Ho Miu Ling (Madame Wu Ting Fang) photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnson

Ho Miu Ling (1847-1937) was the daughter of a prominent Hong Kong minister. At the age of 17 she married Chinese diplomat Wu Tingfang, this photo was taken during their time in Washington. After her husbands death in 1922 Miu Ling returned to Hong Kong and became a philanthropist. In 1906 a Hong Kong hospital was chartered in her name, which today is known as the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Charity Foundation. Miu-Ling died at the age of 91 in 1937.

mediumaevum: The Xuande emperor ruled China from 1425-1434. He was the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty (13681644). His rule was one of relative stability, and he devoted much of his time to painting and writing poetry, activities at which he was accomplished. As a painter he had a free brush style. His paintings were often presented as gifts to favored members of the court; this painting, dated 1431, of a rat nibbling at lichee fruit is inscribed to a favorite eunuch.

collective-history: The emperor Huizong was anxious to bring ritual court music into accordance with ancient standards. Taking the length of the emperors fingers as a guide, the fundamental pitch was determined (it turned out to be almost exactly middle C). New sets of bells were then cast, their form based on a newly excavated set dating from about the 5th century BC. On each bell, the name of the pitch was engraved on one side and characters meaning Bureau of Music on the other.

The Remarkable History of Kaifengs Jewish Community

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 | BY: THE EDITORS You might be surprised to know that there exists a small Jewish community in Henan Provinces Kaifeng region. Even more astonishing, however, is that the community claims to have descended from the same Jewish merchants who arrived in China during the 8th century, in the late Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). History tells us that the prosperous trade route of the Silk Road proved irresistible to Chinas sole Jewish community. Sometime after its arrival, the community united to vow adherence and loyalty to Chinas laws and emperor, thus affording them the right to settle down in what was then one of the early Northern Song Dynastys (9601127A.D.) most thriving business centers, Kaifeng.

A photography of two Kaifeng Jewish descendants taken in 1906. The community held steadfast in the practice of the beliefs and traditions of their ancestors, until China came under the rule of the mid-Qing Dynasty in 1644. By the time the dynastys influence had passed in the year 1911, the community had undergone a significant metamorphosis, as a result of intermarriage with the Han Chinese and nearly 300 years of isolation from its place of origin. In 1952, two Jewish representatives from Kaifeng were invited to attend National Day celebrations with state leaders of China, an occasion that would mark the peak of the communitys fortunes with the government. Largely due to assimilation, the population has dwindled to around 1,000 inrecent years, many of whom are unable to read or write in Hebrew. The communes claim has been repeatedly challenged by skeptics who doubt the ancient tribes unique heritage, but DNA tests have shown that the blood of those within the community bears a striking resemblance to that of the ancient Jews of Iraq and Iran. Some members even sport the long beards for which those of Jewish descent are famous. But despite all this and the fact that they still consider themselves Jews in a cultural sense, Judaism has not been practiced since the early 20th century. As a result, the Jewish synagogue in Kaifeng now only exists in a few historical photographs and peoples memories. In order to restore some of the traditions lost, several of the communitys members, led by Mr. Zhang Xingwang, have recently taken the initiative to seek outside help from experts. Their search has led them to the gates of Nanjing University, where they are now attending classes on Hebrew. In addition, the members are also making efforts to observe the Sabbath every week. The seemingly anomalous juxtaposition of the community with Chinas native population has garnered international attention, and as a result, more and more tourists are arriving each and every month. The locals have embraced this fortune, evident in one family by the name of Zhao, receiving waves of guests from abroad and other parts of China into their home every month.

Perhaps this attention will help those remaining descendants of the brave explorers, who long ago entered the borders of a far and distant land in hopes of prosperity, to further explore the realms of their profound heritage and cherish not only who they are but what they can be. -Information provided by MKJourneys

Behind the Masks of the Face Changers

Friday, September 28, 2012 | BY: ALICIA ZHANG () A womans mind is just like the weather in June or the face of a child, it changes often. Do you agree with that? In China, if we want to express the meaning of capricious, usually we use the phrase face changing or mask changing ( bin lin). Face changing is not only a phrase, but also a special performance art in Sichuan Opera. Performers wear brightly colored costumes and vividly colored masks, and underlined by dramatic music they wave their arms and twist their hands as their painted masks change within a fraction of a second. It is said that face-changing first appeared in Sichuan Opera during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1644A.D.-1912A.D.). It reflects the characters mood different colors of Chinese opera facial make-up represent different emotions. If you are not familiar with this skill, here is a short video. Face-changing show, Sichuan Opera

But how does the performer do it? Many people are curious about the secret of face-changing. Generally, there are three face-changing techniques: blowing dust ( chu lin), mopping ( m lin) and pulling-down masks ( ch lin). Blowing dust The performer blows powder hidden in his palm or a small box on the stage, so that it blows back into his face following with his move. Mopping The performer mops out the colorful greasepaints which are hidden in a particular part of his face, especially in his sideburns or eyebrows, to change his facial appearance when necessary. Pulling-down The performer can pull down a mask which has previously been hidden on the top of his head, changing his face into red, green, blue or black to express happiness, hate, anger or sadness. This technique is so complicated that the performer must move quickly yet smoothly to achieve the amazing effect.

Even though we know the three techniques in theory, face-changing remains a complex art in practice. In the past, face-changing was a great mystery to most people; following the old coaching principle of many traditional Chinese art forms, face-changing was exclusively passed down from one generation to the next within families and only through male family members ( Chun ni b chun wi, chun nn b chun n). The old way of thinking was that women do not stay within the family and would marry out, so the art was forbidden to women to avoid the secret traveling on to another family. These old rules were all made to keep this unique skill under wraps. Hence when Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau offered 3 million yuan (US$360,000) to learn this secret art from the skilled master Peng Denghui, it aroused widespread public concern. Some people opposed this for they insisted on the old coaching principle. Others argued that face-changing is one of the traditional arts protected by PRC secrecy laws, but PRC Ministry of Culture officials did not verify that some people just say no without any reasons. Under public pressure, Lau only learned how to do the trick, but not how to master it. Now the situation has changed a lot. People who are really interested in face-changing have an opportunity to learn it, regardless of their nationality, gender or age. A Malaysian Chinese girl named Candy Chong has become a popular performer after having learned the art from her father. We can easily find videos of face-changing shows in the internet, which are performed by magicians from different countries.

The Chinese Hamlet: The Orphan of Zhao

Friday, September 14, 2012 | BY: LARA OWEN ()

To right an injustice, no sacrifice is too great. While this concept doesnt quite sit right with our modern sensibilities, its the underlying theme of the Chinese play The Orphan of Zhao ( ), the origins of which can be traced back to 600-500 B.C. Perhaps surprisingly given its venerable heritage, the play continues to captivate audiences here in modern-day China. I first became aware of the piece while trawling the Web for performances I could catch during my short stay in Beijing. In a moment of serendipity, I discovered The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) had a Western opera adaptation of the original play, running from Sep 6-9, which had garnered rave reviews when it premiered in 2011.

Likened to Hamlet by critics, I wondered before the performance how the obscure Ji Junxiang, who the The Orphan of Zhao is often attributed to, could be compared to Shakespeare. Or if the themes which run throughout The Orphan, like Shakespeares much loved plays, transcended culture and time? The plot revolves around the eponymous orphan Zhao and his quest to take revenge on behalf of his people, after he discovers upon coming of age that the tyrant who raised him was responsible for the deaths of his entire clan. While such a simplistic and bloody plot device may seem incongruous with the complexities of modern theater, I could easily see why the ta

le has intrigued generations of Chinese, and indeed why it became one of the first Chinese plays to be translated in the West (in an adaptation by Voltaire) and more recently even inspired Chen Kaige to produce his award-winning 2011 film, Sacrifice.

However, my curiosity was truly piqued when I discovered that Gregory Doran, the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), wanted to include The Orphan of Zhao in the A World Elsewhere season, running this November in Shakespeares birthplace of Stratford. It was one thing, coming to understand how such an ancient story remained popular amongst Chinese theater goers, it was quite another picturing how Doran ( Director) and James Fenton (Script Adapter) could overcome the inherent tensions involved in putting on a Chinese play for a largely British audience. I simply could not picture how a Western audience would respond to the inherent Chineseness of The Orphan. In a quest to find out more about the project and its inspiration I arranged a phone interview with James Fenton himself to find out more: Lara Owen: Obviously the themes which the Orphan deals with: justice, righteousness, sacrifice and friendship etc. are very old- fashioned and perhaps only make sense in the context of the time. How do you think a Western audience will respond to your treatment of such raw themes? James Fenton: The idea of a survival of a clan isnt particularly immediate to us, so what you do is you aim to present an unfamiliar situation but show how it works out. At any point in the play the actual dilemma of the characters on stage will be one which is very comprehensible, not just in terms of plot but in terms of psychology as well. LO: Classical Chinese plays are in fact a type of poetry. Is your adaptation in verse? In what way did you manage to express the original Chinese essence of poetry in your adaptation? JF: The very earliest version of the play has arias, which the author gives to the characters as a means of explaining their situations. So the idea of having music in the play goes back a long way. What I thought was Im going to have songs, by writing them I will try to set not only the situation and the atmosphere but also the idiom for the writing. I wrote one song to begin Act 1, end Act 1, begin Act 2 and end Act 2. LO: How will your adaptation relate or depart from the many Chinese adaptations of the story already out there? JF: Its not like Peking Opera and its not like the movie Sacrifice. It will have Chinese costumes, though its much more like what Brecht did with Chinese drama, its an epic tale which has very wide scope. It remains to be seen if the cast will be able to pull off performing a much loved Chinese classic as a living story. However, in my eyes it seems such an exchange of dramatic styles and practices can only be positive. Both Doran and Fenton have demonstrated their commitment to finding out more about China. Fenton has thoroughly immersed himself in The Book of Songs, the earliest known collection of Chinese poetry that includes works from as long ago as the 10th century B.C., as well as the classical Chinese poetic idiom. For their parts, Designer Niki Turner and Director Gregory Doran completed a whirlwind research trip in China, which included a trip to Beijings Panjiayuan Market to pick up some props.

During their first week of rehearsals, the cast spent some days in workshops under the guidance of Dr. Li Ruru, an expert on Shakespeare in China and daughter of a great star of Peking Opera and stepdaughter of the playwright Cao Yu. There they learned about concepts and basic movements related to the song-dance theater of some indigenous Chinese groups. The stage is set and we only have a month to wait and see how all the hard work translates for the audiences in Stratford. I for one cant wait.

centuriespast: Personal Seal ARTIST:Artist Unknown DATE:Eastern Han dynasty

A superbly modeled chimera comprises the handle of this tiny square seal whose legend, Chen Shang hsin yi, cast on the reverse in negative seal script, may be translated as the personal seal of Chen Shang. Small undecorated seals are known from the Warring States (480-221 B.C.) and Chin (221-206 B.C.) dynasties while more elaborate animal-shaped knobs were popular during Han as the use of official and personal seals became widespread. Seals with tortoise, chimera, ram, and camelshaped knobs were popular and have been excavated from Eastern Han tombs. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

PreviousNext great-china: The term Dongba refers to the religious priests, the culture, and script of the Nakhi people, who are found in southwestern China. The Dongba, also known as wise men, are believed to be the priests of the Bn religion. They play a major role in the Naxi culture, and preach harmony between man and nature. Their costumes show strong Tibetan influence, and pictures of Bn gods can be seen on their headgear. Tibetan prayer flags and Taoist offerings can be seen in their rituals. Religious rituals are also conducted by the priests to propitiate the spirits, as they were believed to be living in every part of the natural world. The core of the Dongba religion is based on the belief that both man and nature are two half-brothers born of two mothers and the same father. This creates revenge from heaven, which befalls upon humans who use up too much natural resources. Prior to Bn influence, it is suggested that the original priests were the female Ll-bu. At that time, statues or religious images could be widely seen everywhere. The Complete Works of Translation Notes to Naxidongba Ancient Book, in 100 volumes, has been published.

PreviousNext collective-history: Guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female. The name Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means Observing the Sounds (or Cries) of the World. Some Buddhists believe that when one of their adherents departs from this world, they are placed by Guanyin in the heart of a lotus, and then sent to the western pure land of Sukhvat. It is generally accepted among East Asian adherents that Guanyin originated as the Sanskrit Avalokitevara. Commonly known in English as the Mercy Goddess or Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin is also revered by Chinese Taoists (or Daoists) as an Immortal.

However, in Chinese mythology, there are other stories about Guanyins origins that are not directly related to Avalokitevara. Guanyin is an extremely popular Goddess in Chinese folk belief and is worshiped in Chinese communities throughout East and South East Asia. Guanyin is revered in the general Chinese population due to her unconditional love, compassion and mercy. She is generally regarded by many as the protector of women and children. By this association she is also seen as a fertility goddess capable of granting children. An old Chinese superstition involves a woman wishing to have a child offering a shoe at a Guanyin Temple. Sometimes a borrowed shoe is used then when the expected child is born the shoe is returned to its owner along with a new pair as a thank you gift. Guanyin is also seen as the champion of the unfortunate, the sick, the disabled, the poor, and those in trouble. Some coastal and river areas of China regard her as the protector of fishermen, sailors, and generally people who are out at sea, thus many also come to believe that Mazu, the Daoist goddess of the sea, is a manifestation of Guanyin. Due to her association with the legend of the Great Flood, where she sent down a dog holding rice grains in its tail after the flood, she is worshiped as a rice goddess. In some quarters, especially among business people and traders, she is looked upon as a Goddess of Luck and Fortune. In recent years there have been claims of her being the protector of air travelers. A brief biography of the Eight Immortals 1. Immortal Woman He or He Xiangu is the only female deity among the Eight Immortals. She was from Yong Prefecture in Tang Dynasty, or from a wealthy and generous family in Zngchng County.
At birth she had six long hairs on the crown of her head. When she was about 14 or 15, a divine personage appeared to her in a dream and instructed her to eat powdered mica, in order that her body might become etherealized and immune from death. So she swallowed it, and also vowed to remain a virgin.

2. Royal Uncle Cao was said to be the uncle of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, being the younger brother of Empress Dowager Cao.
Cao Guojius younger brother Cao Jingzhi was a bully, but no one dared to prosecute him because of his powerful connections, not even after he killed a person. Royal Uncle Cao was so overwhelmed by sadness and shame on his brother that he resigned his office and left home.

3. Iron-Crutch Li is sometimes said to be the most ancient and popular of the Eight Immortals of the Taoist pantheon. The legend says that Iron-crutch Li was born during the Yuan Dynasty period (12791368), and was originally named Li Yan.
He is sometimes described as irascible and ill-tempered, but also benevolent to the poor, sick and the needy, whose suffering he alleviates with special medicine from his gourd. He is often portrayed as an ugly old man with dirty face, scraggy beard, and messy hair held by a golden band. He walks with the aid of an iron crutch (tieh kuai) and often has a gourd slung over his shoulder or held in his hand.

He often is depicted as a clown figure who descends to earth in the form of a beggar who uses his power to fight for the oppressed and needy.

4. Lan Caihe is the least defined of the Eight Immortals. Lan Caihes age and sex are unknown and Lan Caihe is usually depicted in sexually ambiguous clothing, but is often shown as a young boy or girl carrying a bamboo flower basket.
Stories of Lans behaviour are often bizarrely eccentric. Lan is often described as carrying a pair of bamboo castanets which they would clap and make a beat with by hitting the ground, they would then sing to this beat and a group of onlookers would follow and watch in amazement and entertain themselves. After these performances they would give them lots of money as they asked for it, Lan Cai. They would then string this cash and coins on a long string of money that they carried. As they walked the coins would fall off and Lan Cai. They would not care, other beggars would then take the money. Like all the other immortals they were often said to be in a drunken stupor and left this world by flying on a heavenly swan or crane into heaven. One day while in a tavern, they had supposedly gotten up to go to the bathroom. But before leaving they flew off on the crane or swan and stripped off their clothes on the way up.

5. L Dngbn is a historical figure and also a deity/Immortal revered by many in the Chinese culture sphere, especially by Daoists/Taoists. L Dngbn is one of the most widely known of the group of deities known as the Eight Immortals and considered by some to be the de facto leader. He is also a historical figure who was mentioned in the official history book History of Song.
L Dongbin is usually portrayed as a scholarly, clever man with a genuine desire to help people obtain wisdom/enlightenment and to learn the Tao. However, he is often portrayed as having some character flaws, not an uncommon theme for the colorful Taoist immortals, all of whom in general have various eccentricities He is said to be a ladies man, even after (or only after) becoming an immortal - and for this reason he is generally not invoked by people with romantic problems. This may also relate to some of the Taoist sexual arts. He is portrayed as having bouts of drunkenness, which was not uncommon among the often fun-loving Eight Immortals. This also parallels several Taoist artists renowned for their love of drinking. One story relates that early on after becoming immortal, he had a strong temper as a young Immortal, even deforming a riverbank in a bout of anger.

6. Philosopher Han Xiang, one of the Eight Immortals, was born Han Xiang during the Tang Dynasty.
He is said to be the nephew or grandnephew of Han Yu, a prominent statesman of Tang Court. Han Xiang studied Daoism under L Dongbin. Once at a banquet by Han Yu, Han Xiang tried to persuade Han Yu to give up a life of officialdom and to study magic with him. But Han Yu was adamant that Han Xiang should dedicate his life to Confucianism instead of Daoism, so Han Xiang demonstrated the power of the Dao by pouring out cup after cup of wine from the gourd without end. Because his flute gives life, Han became a protector of flautists.

7. Elder Zhang Guo is one of the Eight Immortals. Of the Eight Immortals he, along with Chung-li Chuan and Lu Yen, was a real historical figure; the rest exist only in legend. His existence is said to have begun around the middle or end of the seventh century AD, and ended approximately in the middle of the eighth.
Zhang Guo Lao was known for wandering between the Fen River & Chin territories during his lifetime and was known to travel at least a thousand li per day upon a white donkey or mule.When his journey was finished, he folded his mule up and placed it in his pocket or a small box. When he wished to use the mule again, he poured water on it from his mouth and the mule regained its form. Emperors of the Tang dynasty (Tai Tsung and Kao Tsung) often invited Zhang Guo Lao to court, but he always declined these invitations. Once, when asked by Empress Wu, he finally agreed to leave his hermitage. As he reached the gate of the Temple of the Jealous Woman, he died suddenly. His body was seen decomposing and being consumed by worms, but he was later seen, alive and well, on the mountains of Heng Chou in Ping-yang Fu.

8. Zhongli Quan is one of the most ancient of the Eight Immortals. He is also known as Zhongli of Han because he was said to be born during the Han Dynasty. He possesses a fan which has the magical ability of reviving the dead.
Born in Yantai Zhongli Quan was once a general serving in the army of the Han Dynasty. According to legends, bright beams of light filled the labour room during his birth. After birth he did not stop crying until seven full days had passed. Later Taoists celebrate his birthday on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the Chinese Calendar. In Taoism, he is known as the True-Yang Ancestor-Master. He is also called Master of the CloudChamber in accounts describing his encounter with L Dongbin before achieving immortality.

jindynasty: The Golden Seal of Duke Di Length: 2.25cm Width: 2.15cm Height: 3.2cm As an official seal bestowed on the leader of the Di tribe by the sovereign of the Western Jin regime, this ancient seal is made of pure gold and weighs 87.5 grams. During the Jin and Han dynasties, it was common practice for the emperor to award tribe leaders, who submitted themselves to the ruler of the Central Government, with official titles and relevant seals. Due to the high position of his title, the seal of Duke Di was made of pure gold. Since gold seals are rare in the world, it has become very precious. [Source] (The Di were one of the five northern barbarian tribes, along with the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie and Qiang. The Di people would go on to create many of the Sixteen Kingdoms, including Cheng Han, Former Qin and Later Liang. I had a quick look for some potential recipients of this seal, though I didnt come up with much. One possible

claimant could be Zhang Gui, Duke of Xiping and governor of Liang province. He lived during the fall of Western Jin and was an ancestor to the royal house of Later Liang. Im not sure if he was leader of the Di tribe, but he seemed to be in command of their territory. Ill have a more thorough search later)

Foot Bound Girls, Liao Chow, Shansi, China [c1930] IE Oberholtzer (Probable) [RESTORED]
Entitled: Foot Bound Girls, Liao Chow, Shansi, China [c1920-1930s] likely by IE Oberholtzer [RESTORED]. I took out spots, repaired obvious image defects, increased the contrast and fixed the edges. Another picture worthy of social note was found from a private web gallery. I discovered this wonderful photograph amongst a series of pictures posted to Picassa Web Albums (Google's free picture gallery) by someone named Joe. He has a collection

of images that (from what information I could gather on his gallery), seems to have been taken by one I.E. Oberholtzer in or around the Liao Chow area of Shansi, (modern day Liaozhou, Shanxi Province), China, during the 1920-1930s. His collection captured a wide range of events. There is a detailed series on road construction, a small series on the effects of war, and finally, a section devoted to missionary work, and the social milieu of the Shanxi area. I do not know if Oberholtzer himself was a missionary or not. Other pictures from this series and Joe's magnificent galleries can be seen here: picasaweb.google.com/LlamaLane Beauty is often held to be in the eye of the beholder. One of the most famous, yet puzzling, but distinctly Chinese ideas thereof resided in the form of Bound Feet . This was done by the forcible breaking, folding and binding of young girls feet, so that the resultant footprint was only about half or a third of the size that it would naturally be. This painful, crippling, and sometimes fatal deformity process was performed on Chinese girls as early as three years old. It was considered something that made them more desirable by Chinese men when they reached eventual adulthood. Also known as a Lotus Foot, the practice was almost an exclusive habit of the affluent or wealthy (since the Tang) until the mid to late 1800's, whereupon the very poor too, eventually took up this practice. It was then thought to increase a family's prospects for eventual receipt of a better dowry when a daughter married. Many poor women however, could typically only be married into other poor families, thereby harshly limiting the size of any such dowry. Thus most poor women had their feet crippled for nothing. The practice was eventually outlawed in the early 1900's but remained a cultural imperative clandestinely performed until the middle of the century. At that time, communist Chinese authorities ultimately threatened death sentences to anyone who didn't stop. It was arguably one of the best pro human rights action that the Chinese communists ever did in China. As the above photo shows, by the early 20th century, this slavish "fashion" phenomenon wasn't restricted to the very rich. Three young teenage girls, with poor and threadbare peasant clothing, nonetheless have tiny bound feet. For those that have an interest in this horrifying yet historic practice, do take a look at Flickr member Okinawa Soba's extensive collection of images. His gallery not only has great pics of this cultural phenomenon, it is also peppered with lively discussion about it: www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3462167744/in/set-7215... And for those that don't already know it, Okinawa Soba has one of the finest (if not THE best) Flickr galleries of Old Japan, and general far east period images. His extensive collection is not only inspiring but should serve as a model for all of us Flickr members as to how it really should be done.

Chinese Punishment, Whipping A Lawbreaker [c1900] Attribution Unk [RESTORED]

Entitled Chinese punishment, whipping a lawbreaker [c1900] Attribution Unknown [RESTORED]. The photograph was cleaned of defects, and had contrast and tone adjusted. "But first, ...thirty stokes with the big paddle!!!" is often heard on Chinese period dramas, ostensibly depicting how the Qing courts of yesteryear meted out punishment, or how judges "encourage" a criminal to confess. Bastinado (also Bastinade) is the whipping, flogging, paddling, or caning of a person's feet, legs, or buttocks while they're held supine on the ground, or face down across a punishment rack. This was but one of the many corporal punishment techniques that the Qing routinely dealt out in order to maintain civil obedience. The Bastinadoist (ie the one who delivers the repeated blows) is someone who is specially trained to inflict slow but grinding punishment, even up to the point of death

after many hours of torturous paddling. The technique was readily described and amply pictured in various prints that detailed Chinese culture to Europeans.

Cholon Actress, Cholon, Saigon, French Cochinchina [c1900's] Attribution Unk [RESTORED]
Entitled: Cholon Actress Cholon, Saigon, French Cochinchina [c1900's] Attribution unknown [RESTORED] Picture shown here was spot corrected, given better contrast, and rotational correction applied and cropped to fit. I also evened the tonality of the background to make it less distracting. Cholon is an area of Saigon, that was the heart of the Chinese community in early 1900's Cochinchina, or the southern part of what we now call Viet Nam. At the time of

this photograph, the area was under French dominion. I stumbled upon this magnificent picture while trolling around looking for old picture sites related to China and the Chinese diaspora. There are more pictures here: hinhxua.free.fr/autrefois/chinois/photo_chinois_fr.htm The actress is Chinese, traveling with a theater troupe in either late 1800 or early 1900's Viet Nam. I was so awestruck by her quiet beauty that I just had to share her picture here. If anyone here knows anything more about this picture please do share your information with the rest of us.

Beggars, Beihai Park [c1917-1919] Sydney D. Gamble [RESTORED]

Entitled: Beggars, Beihai Park [c1917-1919] SD Gamble [RESTORED] The picture was taken in Pei Hai Summer Palace Peking (what is known today as Beihai Gong Yuan, Beijing, China) I cropped off about 10 percent image area from the left (with a partial figure), retouched the spots and most of the scratches; corrected the contrast, and added a sepia tone. I also whited out the view of the genitals that was apparent in the original as a nod towards today's anti child porn environment, despite this being an acknowledged and accepted historical image.

A worthwhile image from the Sidney Gamble Collection at Duke University. The full uncensored and uncropped image of the original can be seen here: library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/gamble.252-1420/ One of my favorite stories about China is Pearl S. Buck's, The Good Earth. For those of you that don't know, Buck was the daughter of two American missionaries that were posted to China in the turn of the century 1900's. Though born in the US, at the age of three months, she was taken by her parents on their extended religious mission to China. For all intents and purposes, she was raised in China and became intimately familiar with the indigenous customs, manners, language, culture and ethics. Being one of the first bi-cultural writers in modern history, her serendipitous childhood in China allowed her unique insights that only someone in her position could obtain. In today's culture, her equivalent would be that of an American Born Chinese or Canadian Born Chinese, in which a Chinese child grows up with Chinese trappings in the midst of western culture. Buck's was a western child who grew up with western trappings in the midst of Chinese culture; except for the color of her skin, she was absolutely Chinese. Her prize winning literature detailed the life of an ordinary farmer and his family's rise from poverty. Along the journey she clearly illustrated the distinct and uniquely Chinese pressures and concerns in a way that, for the first time, any westerner could easily understand. Her novel, The Good Earth, written in 1931, won a Pulitzer in 1932, and then the Nobel for literature in 1938. It is still read and enjoyed by many today. Upon seeing this picture, I was instantly recalled to a passage in Buck's story: "...and she said to them, "Each of you take your bowls and hold them thus and cry out thus" And she took her empty bowl in her hand and held it out and called piteously, "A heart, good sir, a heart, good lady! Have a kind heart, a good deed for your life in heaven! The small cash, the copper coin you throw away, feed a starving child!" The little boys stared at her, and Wang Lung also. Where had she learned to cry thus? How much there was of this woman he did not know! She answered his look saying, "So called when was a child and so was fed. In such a year as this was sold a slave." Then the old man, who had been sleeping, awoke, and they gave him a bowl and the four of them went out on the road to beg. The woman began to call out and to shake her bowl at every passerby. She had thrust the girl child into her naked bosom, and the child slept and its head bobbed this way and that as she moved, running hither and thither with her bowl outstretched before her. She pointed to the child as she begged and she cried loudly, "Unless you give, good sir, good Lady, this child dies, we starve, we starve" And indeed the child looked dead, its head shaking this way and that, and there were some, a few, who tossed her unwillingly a small cash..." This picture is interesting in that it is quite obviously posed. I could not imagine that any beggar family would quietly stand still for a portrait unless there was some sort of gain to be had from it. Gamble most likely offered them the remuneration of a few coin for doing so. That they were destitute is clear, wearing literally nothing but rags on their back. My interest is heightened by the nearly naked urchin, third from the left, who has his arm raised. The fact that he is nearly naked and exposed doesn't seem to matter to him at all. He appears to be preoccupied with raising his right arm; what was his purpose for doing so? Was he attempting (with his raised hand), to stop the boy in front from fidgeting; but how would he have known that to take a picture, one had to hold still? Or, was he attempting (with his raised elbow), to stop the boy (second from the left) from further stepping into the picture and stealing a share of the photographer's

promise of a reward? Interesting too, is their style of haircuts and degree of poverty. I noted that while poorly dressed, the second boy from the left is decidedly better off than all the rest of them, and his hair is closely shorn. This suggests (to me least) that he is not a member of the family, and that while a beggar too, was probably an outsider to their group. The remainder of the boys seem to have their hair cut in the Qing tonsure style, that is, the front portion of the skull in shaved while the rear portion is allowed to grow and then is to be eventually tied into a queue. This second boy also has a look on his face, of what? Anger? Or was it determination? In other words, was he determined to intrude into the picture? Considering all of the above, my speculation therefore is that it was probable that the third boy was raising his elbow to protect his family's stake (in the offer of a reward for posing), and the second boy was just as determined to get a piece of that stake. When looking at a picture in this way, I feel that history comes alive with real people and is full of passion.

Boxer Prisoners Captured By 6th US Cavalry, Tientsin, China [1901] Underwood & Co [RESTORED]
Entitled: Some of China's trouble-makers - "Boxer" prisoners captured and brought in by 6th U.S. Cavalry, Tientsin, China [1901] Underwood & Co. [RESTORED] The picture was retouched to eliminate spotting and obvious defects; tonal range was expanded to reveal better details in the shadows; cropped as single image from right side of double imaged stereoscope print, and mildly sepia toned.

The title is not accurate, as it is now believed that most of the supposed Boxer prisoners caught by Foreign troops were just innocent bystanders. Nonetheless, the US Library of Congress, where this historic image resides (under Reproduction Number LC-USZ6268811), maintains the original title as it was historically written or described by the person(s) that originally made or produced the photograph. Original was taken by a photographer employed by the Underwood & Underwood Company. Underwood was one of several companies at the time, whose business purpose was to send photographers to all parts of the world to photographically record interesting events in the hopes of selling the pictures to domestic customers. The double imaged pictures were recorded with a special stereo camera; that is, a camera fitted with two lenses side by side. This optical arrangement mimicked the natural and mildly divergent views of each eye that is necessary for human depth perception. When the resultant processed image was placed at a correct distance from both eyes (using a standardized picture holder - viewer), it reproduced a false sense of depth perception. This effectively made the image seem three dimensional and slightly more authentic, giving the viewer a feeling that they were witnessing the actual real life event. Thousands of these stereoscopic photos were sold in their day, and many may still be found tucked away in the old forgotten boxes of a grandparent's basement or attic. Additionally, black and white photography at that time was limited in terms of how the film perceived the colors of the spectrum. Most films were termed orthochromatic, that is, the film was sensitive to the Blue and Greens but was a poor recorder of the Red end of the spectrum. Thus, the skin tone of darker Asians, especially those worked in the sun and were well tanned, tended to be rendered much darker. This gave many Chinese in early black and white photographs darker skin tones, making them appear more African than Asian. In later years, this phenomenon faded with the introduction of Panchromatic films; that is, film with emulsions that were equally sensitized to all the colors of the spectrum. This picture is a cue to a lot of history. Taken about one year after the suppression of the "Boxers" (as the Chinese participants were known to the foreigners) these men were reportedly captured from the surrounding areas outside of Tientsin, China. The foreign powers had sought to purge and punish the responsible participants that had brought about the rebellion the year before (in 1900). Knowing little and caring even less about the locals, the foreign troops stated mission was to raid supposed Boxer stronghold villages to capture criminal Boxer participants that were still at large and to bring them to justice. However, what they effectively engaged in was pillaging, rape, and razing operations; essentially reprisals for the Chinese wounding of the Europeans. Prisoners that were not killed outright were brought back into the city for show trials and public executions. These expeditions snared mostly farmers, field hands, and otherwise uninvolved and innocent local Chinese. Under agreement with a Qing government that was more worried with preserving its monarchy than to concern itself with jurisprudence, thousands of Chinese were thus rounded up and executed by either western military or an acquiescing Chinese imperial authority. This heinous treatment of the Chinese populace by foreigners drove home the point that the Qing were no longer able to control China, and within this perceived power vacuum, the stage for China's transformation into a republic was ultimately set.

Chinese Family [c1875] Attribution Unk [RESTORED]

Entitled Chinese Family [c1875]. Found in The Face Of China As Seen By Photographers & Travelers 1860-1912, authored by L. Carrington Goodrich, with historical commentary by Nigel Cameron (published in 1978, the book is still in print & is available from Amazon.com). The photograph was retouched to eliminate spots and scratches, and contrast was elevated to improve visual impact. I just love this photograph. Knowing nothing at all of the actual people; that is, who they were or what social or political connections they had, we can only make educated assumptions and guesses about their milieu, based on what is believed or understood about Chinese culture during the late 1800's. From the outset, the viewer is particularly struck by the rather formal arrangement of the seated individuals, and then immediately notes the contrasting inconsistency offered by the starkly informal positioning of the man to the left rear. Further, the setting itself is rather peculiar; the seating is positioned directly in the path of a moon door walkway, which one sees is a part of a weathered wall. One then realizes that this setting is outdoors, perhaps located in a private courtyard, and was most likely artificially arranged for the purpose of the photograph. The wet ground between the paving stones reinforces that the setting was outdoors. It was likely chosen because the visual impact of the doorway lent itself to the creative thought process of the photographer, as well as the practicality of affording enough light to record the image. The purpose of the photograph is another issue. In our present day, a picture being recorded is so uncomplicated and common that we give it scant thought. However, we must appreciate that to the people of those times, being recorded in a photograph was as unlikely and as monumental an undertaking for them, as perhaps a ride on the space shuttle would be for us. My speculation is that the photographic session was arranged for by the man in the photograph to the left. In my view, he is definitely the master of this house, and the others in the picture were his wives and children. The photographic opportunity was likely initiated as an effort to produce a record of his family, as it became highly fashionable for affluent Chinese in the late 1800's to have such portraits taken. The man is standing to the rear (normally a servant's position), but by his very nonchalant stance, and to be so close in physical proximity, that is, to be nearly draped over one of the ladies of the house; reveals clearly that he is not one of the household help, but also reveals that he was not intended to have been in the picture. That is, had he been intended or would have been planned to be in the picture in the first place, where should one expect him to be? I would think that he should have belonged in the center of the photograph, occupying the most important position of all, telling anyone who sees it that he is the master of this setting. So, on that basis, I surmise that this was first intended to be a picture of only the wives and children, and not of him at all. So, if that was the case, what then, is he doing in the picture? His positioning to the far left side is telling. My hypothesis is, that similar to spectators at crime or accident scenes, the man was so caught up in his curiosity to observe that he failed to realize that

he had strayed into the scene and had become a part of the event. The look of the man's face strongly suggests that he was so raptly focused on what the photographer was doing, that he didn't know that he had stepped out of the sidelines and had put himself into the picture. One can only imagine that had the man not been so hypnotically distracted to have thus entered the picture, how much poorer the image would have been. Socially, the furniture belies a family of some affluence. The wooden foot stools at the time were used not for the height challenged but rather to provide insulation against having to put one's feet onto a cold and unheated floor. The man has four wives, all of which seem to have bound feet (except for one who's feet we cannot see) bespeaking already his ability of a high degree of financial security. In the center, the most politically powerful position in any family portrait, is probably the first wife. Seated next to her is the eldest child, likely the first wife's daughter. To the far right is probably the second wife based on appearance of age. Next to her is probably her son, whose importance as heir mandated that despite his reluctance, his presence in the photograph was a considered must. This is evidenced by the notable steadying hand against fidgetting, of an off camera person (probably a servant) holding him in position. On the far left, the two seated ladies are likely wives three and four, with wife (probably) three, holding the third child of the house (borne from her), on her lap. The remaining wife was childless to that point, but still had her youth. The fine embroidary of their clothing further reinforces that these were women of importance, that is, they were all wives and not a wife's personal maid attendant or any member of the serving class.

Greatwall China [1907] Herbert G. Ponting [RESTORED]

Entitled The Great Wall Of China [1907] H Ponting. [RESTORED] I repaired spots and small defects, adjusted contrast, tonality, and adding a sepia tone. Ponting's placement of a person (or in this case, persons) somewhere in the foreground was a de rigueur photographic technique of the day. It was done primarily to add a human element and to provide a sense of scale to the scene. The Great Wall of China is a misnomer (at least in its English translation, the Chinese meaning is more along the lines of "ten thousand Li long city"). It would be

more accurate to describe it as the Great Walls of China, as they are the remnants from a historic series of stone and earthen barriers. Erected throughout northern China, they were mostly built and revised over two thousand years between the 5th century BC and the 16th century. Origins of each wall section from various times were contingent upon their political and military needs in accordance to their dynastic periods. The oldest, original walls were constructed for the purposes of protecting against Xiongnu nomadic incursions into the areas occupied by the various disparate states that were to later form China. After the Qin consolidation, these separate structures were then integrated into an almost continuous whole, mostly using rammed earth structures. Unfortunately, little of that wall actually exists today. The majority of the wall that still remains (ie the one that we have generally come to know) was built during the Ming dynasty, which relied more heavily on integration of brick and masonry work. History, legends and myths about the Great Wall abound. In the last hundred year or so, industrialization and modernization of the areas which the wall passes through has endangered it as entire sections were destroyed to reclaim construction materials. Other sections were refurbished, in some cases rebuilt using modern engineering, and have seen heavy use as tourist attractions; still others have been entirely overgrown or reclaimed by nature. Reportedly, less than 30 percent of the wall remains intact. Nevertheless, it is considered to be one of the most important historic constructions of man and specific parts of it was listed since 1987 as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The present wall starts from Shanhaiguan, dipping into the Bohai Sea in the east, and ends at Xinjiang's Lop Nur in the west, following along the southern border of the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive survey to date has determined that the wall as currently recognized covers a distance of 8,851.8 km (or 5,500.3 miles), consisting of 6,259.6 km (3,889.5 miles) actual wall, combined with various other structures like trenches and natural defensive barriers of impassable hills and rivers. Contrary to popular myth, you cannot see the wall from outer space or the moon. The Great Wall varies from tourist trap (like the section at Badaling, near Beijing) to extreme, off the beaten path wilderness. Certain sections are so dangerous that it would be suicidal to attempt ascending unless one has special climbing equipment with a technical and advanced mountaineering support team. Try as I might, I was not able to gather any real statistics on Great Wall related accidents or deaths, which is unusual as every tourist location has accidents. In any case, I suspect that the PRC government doesn't really want to keep such statistics to begin with. In another forum dedicated to just information about the Great Wall, one writer told of how one tourist was killed, and offered some safety tips:

Example Of A Coiffure On A Tartar Or Manchu Female, Frontview, Peking, Pechili Province, China [1869] John Thomson [RESTORED]
Entitled: (Front view) Example Of A Coiffure On A Tartar Or Manchu Female, who is wearing a long sleeved quilted garment. The hair is wrapped around a flat strip of wood. Peking, Pechili Province, China [1869] J Thomson [RESTORED] Extensive repair work to the sleeves and face, the background was simply stripped, adjustments in contrast and tonality.

Here's another John Thomson classic (albeit with extensive restoration), found again within Wellcome's fantastic collection of his work. Thomson has continued to enthrall people after a century; his work has recently returned to China, where many Chinese for the first time are seeing the essence of their forebears through his eternal artistry. Wellcome's Thomson collection can be found here: library.wellcome.ac.uk/node267.html This girl actually appeared in several of Thomson's pictures. It was apparent that he spent some time in photographing a team of Manchu models both in their natural surrounds and in front of a portable backdrop. In essence my personal suspicion is that his process was remarkably similar to a modern day photo shoot. Of course, he didn't have electronic flashes or digital film, but instead had to look under a dark cloth at an upside down reversed image on a dim matte glass plate. Photography in those days was genuinely a monumental undertaking. As a amateur historian, I know that retouching is a blatant taboo. However, as a photographer and artist looking at a beautiful girl, I found the urge to clean up the image too much to resist. I started simply wanting to remove the big smudge off her forehead, and before I knew it, I was already reconstructing her sleeves, LOL... The original unretouched image can be seen here: www.flickr.com/photos/ralphrepo_photolog/3974179434/ Imagine that; being captivated and enthralled by a woman that's probably been dead for over a century. I guess some beauty is indeed timeless.

Manchurian Plague [c1910] Unknown photographer

Historical photograph found on one of my favorite sites: hahn.zenfolio.com/p933515793 Mr. Hahn writes: "NOTE: Very graphic images! Viewer discretion adviced. This second installment of photographs depicting the very grim realities of the Manchurian Plague are of Russian provenance. The files were generously provided by Mr. Spike Cook in Florida, the owner of this extremely rare album. Each image was processed for perspective control and contrast adjustment. Post-processing was done in PhotoShop/CS2. The captions in Russian await translation into English. The Manchurian (or Pneumonic) Plague, a fiasco in the history of public health in China, came at a time when the imperial court in Beijing was at its weakest and the Republican Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen hadn't occurred yet. With a mortality rate of almost 100%, its outbreak would claim the life of ca. 45,000 to 60,000 residents of Harbin and environs. Not only did the outbreak occur at a crucial moment in Chinese

history, it also took place in a geopolitically highly contested area: Russia, Japan and China all lay claim to controlling this particular region. I recommend the work of William C. Summers and Mark Gamsa for further reading (for English-language materials). Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca Uploaded May 22, 2008" Low resolution copies of this photograph has been repeatedly posted on the net as depiction of the handiwork of the infamous Japanese "Unit 731" that was involved in war crimes against Chinese soldiers and civilians. I also had three native Russian speaking friends separately blind translate (they were not shown the picture, just the wording) the text seen below the photograph, and all confirmed to me that the text described: "Bodies of plague dead held in storage awaiting scientific research (or words to that effect)." In addition, the Russian used in the text is written in a style consistent with that before the 1918 spelling reforms. Other sources about this historic scourge with photographs: Chinese Islamic Calligraphy melissachencq: A while back for my Chinese class I had to do a presentation on world religions and I came across Sini, which is a type of Arabic calligraphy style used in China. Its interesting because not a lot of people realize that China a pretty sizeable Muslim population, especially in Western China. Theres even a writing style that was developed specifically for transliterating Sinitic languages with Arabic script. Ill probably post more on that later but for now, here are some pictures of Sini calligraphy.

Unlike other styles of Arabic calligraphy, Sini uses brushes as opposed to reed pens so you get lots of soft shapes and tapered effects that are characteristic of Chinese calligraphy. According to China Heritage Quarterly, Sini script probably emerged during the Ming Dynasty when China broke off contact with many of the Muslim populations ruled over by the Mongols, who had control of China during the Yuan Dynasty. Here are some pictures of Sini calligraphy used to adorn mosques.

And heres the official site of Hajji Noor Deen Mi Guang Jiang, one of the most famous Sini calligraphers: http://www.hajinoordeen.com/

lovesouthkorea: October 9th holds a very special place in the hearts of Koreans. It is the birthday of Hangeul, the native Korean alphabet invented by King Sejong (reign1418-1450). The name Hangeul is made up of two words: Han () and Geul (). Han means either big or great, and Geul refers to the alphabet; Hangeul, therefore, means the greatest alphabet. The invention of Hangeul was no accident, but the culmination of a methodical and logical process. Before Hangeul, Chinese characters called Hanja had been used in writing. However, Hanja, for its sheer plethora of characters, was difficult to learn, especially for people of lower social status with little or no access to education, and led to rampant illiteracy in the country. In order to resolve the problem, King Sejong began developing a new writing system that would be easy to access as well as to learn. At last, on October 9th, Hangeul (Hunminjeongeum) was invented and disseminated with a thorough explanation of logic behind each stroke of its characters. The invention of Hangeul has contributed to substantially reducing illiteracy in Korea. Today, Hangeul is regarded as the most systematic alphabet in the world, and is annually celebrated on October 9th, designated as Hangeul Day. from-the-east: Jade (, Y) is a type of stone that has been a part of Chinese art, culture, and history for thousands of years since the ancient Chinese empire. This stone was used as material for grave goods for the imperial family, and it is highly valued because it is believed to completely capture both the yin and yang qualities of heaven and earth (thus serving as a link between the spiritual and physical worlds). Jade is thus dubbed as The Stone of Heaven. During the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1050 BC), jade were crafted into ornaments that were used by kings and were also created for ceremonial purposes. The stone was

established as an aid to immortality and continually used in burial rituals by 200 BC. But the custom changed in the Ming and Qing dynasties when jade was primarily used as dcor and art for the imperial court. In the modern day, jade is worn as jewelry such as earrings and bangles, and are worn specifically to ward off bad luck. The Chinese define jade as the fairest of stones for its five virtues: charity, rectitude, wisdom, courage, and equity. The colored stone (ranging from translucent shades of white, green, brown, and black) is a metaphor for human virtues because of its durability and hardness. In a cultural sense, it stands for beauty, grace, and purity. There are even superstitions that jade absorbs bad chi and calms the mind.

ancientpeoples: Elephant relief in bronze. Shang dynasty, ca. 1600-1046 B.C., China. In early China, elephants were very common throughout the area. When the Han and Tang dynasties and rolled by, however, economic growth shrunk the habitat of the elephant until it was almost exclusively found near or south of the Yangtze and Qiantang rivers. After this period, the import of tamed elephants from India became a fixture for emperors, some of them boasting their incredible collection of these animals.

peashooter85: Ancient Chinese Jade Burial Suit, In ancient China it was believed that jade could preserve a body after death. Many wealthy families and nobles had such suits made. Beautiful and complex, the suit consisted of hundreds or thousands of small jade pieces sewn together with silk fabrics and silk thread. Those of especially high class Chinese, such as nobles, emperors, and royal family members, had their suits made of the finest silks, highest quality jade, and sewn together with gold or silver threads. It would often take skilled craftsmen 2-3 years to produce one suit. Jade burial suits were especially popular during the Han Dynasty (206 BC- 220AD).

Does China Really Have 5,000 Years of History?

Wednesday, October 24, 2012 | BY: CHRISTIAN ALLEN

Its often said that China is a nation with 5,000 years of history. What youre less likely to hear is a discussion of where that magic number comes from. Truth be told, what you find when you go back far enough is a loosely weaved tale of conflicting answers, divergent histories and celebrated heroes of varying authenticity. Try to pin this jumble to modern archaeological evidence, and the picture becomes even more blurry. So please, come along with us as we try to unravel this most sinuous of stories, and find out where and when this thing called China really all came from. 2700 BC 2600 BC: Huangdi () or The Yellow Emperor Look for the origins of Chinese society and youre undoubtedly going to come across one name: Huangdi, the legendary Yellow Emperor, the so-called founder of Chinese society. A member of the fabled Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Huangdi is accredited with being the original unifier of China and setting it on the path of artistic and cultural development. This is all well and good, but theres a snag while ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian () does describe the exploits and existence of the Yellow Emperor, no archeological evidence of the fabled ruler exists, suggesting that this Emperor is more myth than man. 2100 BC 1600 BC: The Xia Dynasty () The Xia Dynasty is the first organized Chinese dynasty to be described in historical texts. The aforementioned Sima Qian asserts the existence of the Xia in his Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji, ), and other classical texts such as the Bamboo Annals and the Book of Documents (Shujing,) also describe such a society. However, modern historians now question whether the Xia constituted a functioning dynasty in the way generally defined today. If such a society did exist, it was prior to the development of the oracle bone inscription system, and modern archaeologists have been unable to connect artifacts from the time period to any sort of centralized dynastic system. Despite the insistence of ancient historians, the existence of a fully-fledged dynasty at the time of the Xia is suspect at best. 1600 BC 1046 BC: The Shang Dynasty () While the Xia Dynasty is practically defined by gaps in the archaeological record, the Shang Dynastys existence is all but beyond doubt. Its at this point that the written history and archaeological evidence all start to line up, with thousands of oracle bone fragments and historical artifacts as well as numerous texts all pointing to a society arranged around a singular dynasty. This is where we can legitimately see an organized Chinese nation as we might conceptualize it today. 5,000 Years? Try 3,500 Now, its not the aim of this blog to be a wet blanket. The truth of the matter is, if were speaking of the geographical boundaries of what is now modern-day China, that magical number of 5,000 is an undersell the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, for example, points to the existence of ancient societies as early as 1118,000 B.C. Its all a question of where you draw the line.

The problem with saying China has 5,000 years of history, however, is that such a number takes into account long periods of time for which little concrete historical evidence exists, periods which fall more into the realms of mythology or folklore than anything else. This is to say, if we define China as an organized, dynastic society in the way most historians and archaeologists would conceptualize it, and we define history as a record supported by concrete evidence, that so-oft-repeated number is an overestimate of about 1,500 years. But hey, whats a millennium or two between friends? Photo courtesy of Colin Cookman.

fuckyeahchinesemyths: jindynasty: Xie Daoyun, a native of Henan Province in central China, was a celebrated poet during the late Eastern Jin Dynasty. Xie Daoyun was the daughter of Xie Yi, known as the General Who Pacified the West. Her uncle was the great poet, Xie An, and her husband was Wang Ningzhi, son of the master calligrapher Wang Xizhi. In 399, Wang Ningzhi was killed by the insurgent Sun En. Afterwards, Xie lived in Kuaiji in what is now Zhejiang Province as a widow. Xie Daoyun was an intelligent woman and was very eloquent. Her works include On the Analects of Confucius, a prose, and Taishan Mountain consisting of two poems. Xie Daoyun was born into a great family. She married Wang Ningzhi, the second son of Wang Xizhi. They were a good match. Wang Ningzhi was an accomplished writer and a renowned calligrapher specializing in the cursory and clerical styles. He followed Taoism. To the Wang family, Xie Daoyun was a good daughter-in-law.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasty, it was popular to hold debate sessions among scholars.. Even women were allowed to participate in such debates. One day, Xies brother-in-law was arguing with some scholars, but failed to win them out. Xie, seated behind the green screen, came to his aid. She argued with other scholars. Her speech, richly embellished with allusions and quotations, with deliberate and strong reasoning, She won the debate in the end. Upon the recommendation of Xie An, Wang Ningzhi was once made a prefect of the Jiang Zhou Prefecture. He was further promoted and given charge of the local administrative and military affairs of a greater area. Later, Sun En rebelled against him. While Wang Ningzhi was praying to God asking for help, Xie Daoyun led a small group of family servants she had trained and came out to chase the rebels. She held a sword and bravely fought the insurgents, but was finally taken captive. Sun En first wanted to kill Xies grandson, but he didnt do so out of his admiration for Xie, whom he viewed as a heroine at the time. Instead, Sun En ordered his followers to protect her and send her back to her home. Hence, Xie Daoyun lived as a chaste widow in Kuaiji. Xie Daoyun was also a woman of great learning. Liu Cheng, governor of Kuaiji, paid her a visit. Xie heard that Liu was a talented person, so she received him at her home. The two greatly enjoyed the meeting and they appreciated each others wisdom. Because learning was highly respected in Kuaiji, many came to Xie Daoyun, wishing to be her students. Xie, then over 50 years old, sat behind a green screen and gave lectures. She taught many students and was respected as a great teacher.

jindynasty: Gu Kaizhi wrote three books about painting theory: On Painting, Introduction of Famous Paintings of Wei and Jin Dynasties, and Painting Yuntai Mountain. In one of these, he wrote, In figure paintings the clothes and the appearances are not very important. The eyes are the spirit and the decisive factor. The western expression of the eyes being windows to the soul stems from this. Because the Age of Fragmentation came hand in hand with a period of early artistic and literary enlightenment, many famous sayings and facts arise. China was first known as China at this time (Ill find a reference for that soon) and the first recorded mention of tea also came from this period apparently.

The caption for the picture I found merely read: Gu kaizhi representative works -LIE NV TU. Im unsure if this is a modern depiction of his work or not. But the other pictures had similar titles and were the authentic images, so Ill assume this is for real.

yerawizardharry: Nshu (literally womens writing in Chinese) is a syllabic script created and used exclusively by women in the Jiangyong County in Hunan province of southern China. Up until the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) women were forbidden access to formal education, and so Nshu was developed in secrecy as a means to communicate. Since its discovery in 1982, Nshu remains to be the only gender-specific writing system in the world.

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Brutal secuencia de imgenes de una ejecucin Ling Chi

Por Javier Sanz el 28 octubre 2012 62tweetsTOP5Kretweet A lo largo de la historia hemos demostrado nuestra sobrada capacidad para idear distintos mtodos de tortura o ejecucin pero creo que la muerte Ling Chi (muerte lenta o muerte por mil cortes) supera a todas por su crueldad. El mtodo Ling Chi era una forma de tortura y ejecucin utilizado en China desde aproximadamente el ao 900 hasta su abolicin en 1905. La prctica consista en hacer varios cortes en partes del cuerpo no vitales (pecho, brazos y piernas) con una cuchilla causando una prolongada agona Para terminar matndolo con la decapitacin o la extraccin de un rgano vital y posterior descuartizamiento. Se aplicaba a siervos que hubieran matado a su amo o para crmenes u ofensas contra el Emperador. Aviso que la secuencia de imgenes es despiadada

Lady of the Night in Love

Thursday, October 4, 2012 | BY: THE EDITORS

When Ling Menchus friends finished his book, they were so pleased by what they had read that they slapped their palms against the table, exclaiming Hao! Excellent! And so this book and another of Lings works came to be known as Two Slaps (). The Two Slaps later joined three other books compiled by Feng Menglong known as Three Words of Wisdom (). Together, the series is known as Three Words of Wisdom and Two Slaps ( Sn Yn r Pi). This has been passed down as a classic collection of short stories that vividly reflect life in the late Ming Dynasty (13681644) period. In cooperation with CCTVs hallmark program Lecture Room ( Bi Ji Jingtn) we bring you such a story from Three Words of Wisdom and Two Slaps. Li Jia was a student at the Imperial College when he visited a brothel that was popular with aristocrats and merchants, all drawn by one beautiful womanDu Shiniang. Though it was Lis first visit, his encounter with Du caused a stir. In short, the lady fell in love with him. As their relationship blossomed, Lis pockets emptied and Du began rejecting her other clients. The madam of the house cursed him. Lis father heard of his boys studies and wrote him ordering him home. Dus affection grew wild and she planned her escape from the brothel. Have Li pay me 300 liang of silver in ten days and you can go free! the madam spat at Du, secretly knowing Li didnt have the money. Du agreed and after giving her lover half the funds, sent him to borrow the rest. One friend who was moved by Dus story handed him the coins, scolding, This is for her good, not yours! Soon, Du and Li were on their way, sent off by the merry dances and singing of tearyeyed friends. They bought a boat with the glamorous gifts that Dus friends had showered upon them, only saving one small trunk. And then they traveled the waterways to Lis homethe boy needed his fathers permission to marry. Not far into their journey, a snowstorm trapped the couple in a harbor. Du started singing to pass the time, and soon was overheard by Sun Fu, a salt merchant also trapped in the harbor. He peered out of his boat and searched for her figure, knowing that only a prostitute could sing so well. When his eyes fell on Du, he was hypnotized by her beauty. The merchant began to scheme. He invited Li into his boat for a drink and got the boy drunk. How can your father approve a marriage with a prostitute? Sun asked Li. And even if, where will you live in such poverty? What if Du becomes unfaithful? The merchants feigned concern worked like a charm and Li bowed his head in agreement. Sun pounced, To please your father, sell me the girl for 1000 liang. The boy returned to Du and wept through the night. She pushed Li gently until he confessed Suns offer. Fine! she retorted, We shouldnt miss this opportunity. Return to your father and I will settle down with the merchant. Trembling, Li started for Suns boat. Meanwhile, Du opened the small trunk they had saved. It was filled with gold, pearls, and riches the likes of which neither man had seen

before. The two of them gasped. Piece by piece Du threw the treasures into the water. The splashing awoke Li from his stupor. Howling, he clutched Dus waist and slid to his knees. The girl turned to face Sun, We have gone through so much to get this far, and you separate us for your pathetic lust; I will tell God your sin after I die! She looked down at the groveling boy. These are not gifts, but everything that I saved over the years. I planned to present them to your parents, so they may be moved by my love for you. Ive been sincere, but you turned out to be fickle. And then, before Li could stop her, Du wrapped her arms around the trunk, leapt into the river, and sank straight to the bottom CHINESE YOU NEED (fxn rn, a heartless person) Been dumped? Say, I have been abandoned by someone heartless. Fxn rn poq le w. (wijnz, a hypocrite) Just found out that your friend has cheated you? Say, I didnt know he was such a hypocrite. Mi xing do t sh g wijnz.

Los guerreros de terracota se fabricaron en serie

Guerreros de terracota :: Agencia Materia

El arquelogo espaol Marcos Martinn-Torres lleva seis aos recorriendo el foso donde estn enterrados los famosos guerreros de terracota de Xian, en el Mausoleo de Qin Shi Huang, primer emperador de la China unificada. Frente a un ejrcito inmortal de 7.000 hombres con carros y caballos, este investigador suele ir armado con una fuente porttil de rayos X y silicona de dentista. Su verdadero enemigo es un enigma: cmo se fabricaron las 40.000 puntas de flecha que han aparecido en el yacimiento, todas tan iguales que son indistinguibles para el ojo humano. Y Martinn-Torres cree que ha derrotado a su rival. Su propuesta es sorprendente. "Las armas de los guerreros de terracota se fabricaron en talleres con una organizacin similar a la de las fbricas de Toyota", explica. Su hiptesis de partida era que los artesanos que elaboraron las puntas de flecha hace 2.200 aos trabajaron con un sistema de produccin en cadena, similar al establecido por el fabricante de automviles Henry Ford a comienzos del siglo XX. Igual que en el fordismo un grupo se especializaba en hacer una puerta y otro en armar un motor, Martinn-Torres crea que los artesanos chinos trabajaban en una cadena de produccin en la que cada equipo se concentraba en hacer un componente. Eso explicara por qu las 40.000 puntas de flecha se parecen como gotas de agua. Pero estaba equivocado. DOS MILENIOS ANTES El arquelogo, que trabaja en la Escuela Universitaria de Londres, sostiene que los fabricantes de armas del emperador Qin Shi Huang inventaron lo que hoy se conoce como toyotismo: pequeos grupos de trabajo verstiles e independientes, capaces de producir todos los componentes de cualquier modelo de coche en funcin de la demanda. Se habran adelantado ms de dos milenios a la empresa japonesa Toyota, madre de este sistema de produccin en el siglo XX. Martinn-Torres y su equipo han analizado la composicin qumica del bronce de 1.600 puntas de flecha. Los resultados sugieren que cada carcaj encontrado, con 100 flechas cada uno, procede de talleres diferentes, que habran producido todo: desde la punta de flecha de bronce hasta las plumas, pasando por la varilla de bamb. Sus conclusiones se publican ahora en la revista especializada Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. "El emperador Qin Shi Huang encarg un ejrcito de soldados que pudieran defenderle en el ms all. Sus armas son letales, perfectamente afiladas, y todava hoy podras clavrselas a cualquiera", detalla. ARMAS FIRMADAS Gracias a la silicona con la que los dentistas suelen hacer modelos exactos de una dentadura, los arquelogos han elaborado moldes de las puntas de flecha. Su anlisis con un microscopio electrnico de barrido revela marcas perfectamente paralelas al filo cortante. "Son las marcas que deja una piedra de afilar rotatoria, lo que muestra su impresionante control de calidad", apunta el arquelogo. Las puntas de flecha no estn firmadas por sus autores, pero otras armas de mayor tamao, como espadas y alabardas, s lo estn. En ellas aparecen hasta cuatro nombres, en una cadena jerrquica que va desde el artesano hasta el primer ministro del emperador. "Si el arma no responda a los estndares exigidos por Qin Shi Huang, podan encontrar al responsable y eliminarlo", seala Martinn-Torres. El investigador recuerda que el historiador Sima Qian, que vivi un siglo despus de la construccin del mausoleo, dej escrito que se necesitaron 700.000 trabajadores a lo largo de 40 aos para terminar el complejo. El mausoleo entero ocupa unos 50 kilmetros cuadrados. "Era la primera vez que se construa algo parecido y fue

necesaria una fuerza de trabajo muy adaptable a la demanda", argumenta el experto espaol. La solucin era el 'toyotismo', dos milenios antes de que existiera Toyota. Comercio.pe Dig Ferghana horses were one of Chinas earliest major imports, originating in an area in Central Asia. These horses, as depicted in Tang Dynasty pottery representations of them, resemble the animals on the golden medal of Eucratides, King of Bactria (Bibliothque Nationale in Paris). Dayuan, north of Bactria, was a nation centered in the Ferghana Valley of present-day Central Asia, and even as early as the Han Dynasty, China projected its military power to that area. The Han imperial regime required Ferghana horses and imported such great numbers of them that the rulers of Ferghana closed their borders to such trade. That move resulted in a war that China won. In 102 CE, the Chinese required of the defeated Ferghana that they provide at least ten of their finest horses for breeding purposes, and three thousand Ferghana horses of ordinary quality. However, there are other views: the Records of the Grand Historian and Book of Han provide no description of Ferghana horses, and as it seemed from these chronicles they were not employed in any known Han expeditions and campaigns. Chinese statuary and paintings, as well as the Bactrian coin shown above, indicate that these horses had legs that were proportionally short, powerful crests, and round barrels. The forelegs of the Chinese depictions are very straight, resembling the Guoxia horse of present-day China. According to tradition, these horses sweat blood, giving rise to the name: sweats blood horse . Modern authorities believe that blood-sucking parasites caused sweat to get mixed with blood when the horses were worked. Modern researchers, Mair notes, have come up with two different ideas [for the ancient Chinese references to the Blood-sweating horses of Ferghana]. The first suggests that small subcutaneous blood vessels burst as the horses sustained a long hard gallop. The second theorizes that a parasitic nematode, Parafilaria multipapillosa, triggered the phenomenon. P. multipapillosa is widely distributed across the Russian steppes and makes its living by burrowing into the subcutaneous tissues of horses. The resulting skin nodules bleed often, sometimes copiously, giving rise to a something veterinarians call summer bleeding. Over 2,000 years ago two Chinese armies traveled 10,000 km to Ferghana to find Heavenly Horses, the finest mounts then known, apparently infected with a tiny worm causing them to sweat blood from skin sores: Sometime earlier the emperor had divined by the Book of Changes and been told that divine horses are due to appear from the northwest. When the Wusun came with their horses, which were of an excellent breed, he named them heavenly horses. Later, however, he obtained the blood-sweating horses from Dayuan [= Ferghana], which were even hardier. He therefore changed the name of the Wusun horses, calling them horses from the western extremity, and used the name heavenly horses for the horses of Dayuan. P. multipapillosa is thought to have been the cause of the blood-sweating of these famous and much desired horses from Ferghana, which Emperor Wu of Han China

(Wudi) renamed Heavenly Horses (c. 113 BCE). He sent an army of 40,000 men in 104 BCE the 5,000 km to Ferghana, but they were defeated. Another army of 60,000 men was sent in 103 BCE and they managed to negotiate the acquisition of 3,000 horses (though only a few dozen were top class and only 1,000 made it all the way back to China in 101 BCE). However, they did also get an agreement that Ferghana would send two Heavenly horses each year to the Emperor, and lucerne seed was brought back to China providing superior pasture for breeding raising fine horses in China, to provide cavalry which could cope with the Xiongnu who threatened China. Oracle bones are pieces of shell or bone, normally from ox scapulae or turtle plastrons, which were used for scapulimancy a form of divination in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. Diviners would submit questions to deities regarding future weather, crop planting, the fortunes of members of the royal family, military endeavors, and other similar topics. These questions were carved onto the bone or shell in oracle bone script using a sharp tool. Intense heat was then applied with a metal rod until the bone or shell cracked due to thermal expansion. The diviner would then interpret the pattern of cracks and write the prognostication upon the piece, as well. By the Zhou dynasty, cinnabar ink and brush became the preferred writing method, resulting in fewer carved inscriptions and often blank oracle bones being unearthed. The oracle bones bear the earliest known significant corpus of ancient Chinese writing, and contain important historical information such as the complete royal genealogy of the Shang dynasty. When they were discovered and deciphered in the early twentieth century, these records confirmed the existence of the Shang, which some scholars had until then doubted.

Empress Wu Zetian #1 - The Early Years

Everyone on Tumblr who is interested in Chinese history has blogged about her, cause how can you not? She was the first woman Emperor to rule China, she set up her own dynasty, and basically could be pretty ruthless if you pissed her off. Since shes in every history book Ive touched, I have decided to write about her. I introduce to you a series of posts about her to end all posts about this awe-inspiring monarch, and here they are! It will be so epic that everyone who writes about her after that will look like a total noobcaek. (LOL JK)

(Yes, she really was fabulous. But I aint forgetting that she did some pretty horrible stuff too, so well see.) Wu Zetian (625-705) had many names, like Wu Chao or Wu Hou (). She was also called Tian Hou () but for the purposes of these posts she will be called Empress Wu or Wu Zetian. She was born into a well off family, and her dad, Wu Shi huo, supported Li Yuan, who so became the first Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Li Yuan would so stay over at daddy Wus house when he was in the area, and daddy Wu even give Li Yun some dough so he could wage a rebellion. Anyway, as you know, things worked out fo Li Yuan and he became the first Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and so daddy Wu was made a minister and prefect of Lizhou. So the future Empress grew up in an environment where she learnt to read and write. She was real smart, and people sat up and noticed, like her mums cousin. See, her mums cousin was a concubine in the Imperial Court, and she told Emperor Taizong that she knew someone who was real pretty and smart and shiz. So Emperor Taizong brought her in, and that was that. Wus mum was pretty upset, of course, but Wu Zetian just shrugged and was like, Eh, its good fortune to live with the Emperor, and judgin from her ambitions, she was probably in the right place at the right time. The Famous Story about Horses The future Empress Wu also became one of the Emperors fave concubines cause she was witty and so had a way with words, until one day, of course.

See, Emperor Taizong loved horses and there were like, a shit ton of them. He had this really wild horse called Lion Stallion and no one could tame it, so he brought his concubines to see it and go, Hey ladies. Which one of you can tame the horses? LOLJK. Wu Zetian was all, I can do it, piece of pie. How? The Emperor asked. I need three things. An iron whip, and iron hammer, and iron dagger. If this horse doesnt obey me, I will whip it. If it still wont listen, then Ill use the hammer. If that doesnt work, then Ill stab it in the throat. The Emperor was like, real scared that these cruel words came out of this real sweet and cute lady. He was all, Dude, if she talks like that now, imagine what would happen if she comes into power. From then on, he didnt really pay attention to Wu Zetian, which sucked a little. Other versions of the story say that the Emperor was actually impressed wit her and laughed. But it didnt matter how the Emperor reacted, cause it totally foreshadowed what shed do during her reign. Gettin Her to a Nunnery - and Back Anyway, Wu Zetian was also puttin her moves on Emperor Taizongs son, who totes had a crush on her. (He was called Li Zhi, and would be called Emperor Gaozong later.) So while Emperor Taizong had this weird back sore thing, Li Zhi had to take care of his dad, and so lived with the Emperor for a while. He spent so much time there, and also wit the future Empress Wu, that they so began to flirt wit each other. It was a real smart move, cause of what happened later. See, when Wu Zetian was 26 years old, Emperor Taizong died. During that period of time, the law stated that all of Emperor Taizongs concubines who had children could remain in court, while the others had to be sent to a nunnery. So Wu Zetian became a nun at the Ganye Temple. She was like, so totally bored there, cause she had to recite scriptures and light incense, and do the whole, good Buddhist thing, which she didnt like, even though she was a Buddhist and would later help spread Buddhism in China. So one day, Emperor Gaozong came to the Ganye Temple to pray to his father, and he saw her. Rumour had it that when she saw him she cried, and he was like, Daaaamn I really miss her and shes still really hot, and so he brought her back to the palace. That was like, half of the story anyway, cause durin that time, the Emperors wife, the Empress Wang, was fighting to be top dog and she was against Lady Xiao. So she was thinkin that if she brought back Wu, they could both gang up together against Lady Xiao. And so, Wu Zetian was brought back and had sexytiemz with Emperor Gaozong. Next Part 2: Wu becomes Empress.

Empress Wu Zetian #2 - Becoming Empress

Since coming back into the palace, soon-to-be Empress Wu did lotsa things. She made sure she seduced Emperor Gaozong so that hed love her more than ever, and it worked. This time, Empress Wang got so pissed off cause her plan had clearly backfired and Wu was so dominatin errything in court. So, Empress Wang now teamed up with her previous rival, Lady Xiao, to badmouth Wu. Thing is, the Emperor didnt give a shit bout anyone else cept Wu, so he didnt believe the silly shit his other concubines said about her. Wu Zetian, in the meantime, had already formed her own clique of allies in the court. The Emperor would give her lots of presents, and shed treat errybody in court real nice and give them those presents and shiz. Peeps ended up likin her instead of Lady Xiao or Empress Wang, cause these two court ladies treated their attendants like shit. Anyway, since Wu Zetian had like, so many allies, she could rely on them to tell her what her rivals were doin, and what they said. Later, Wu Zetian gave birth to a girl. Empress Wang came in to see the kid, cause she liked kids and couldnt have no children. Anyway, after she came in to coo at the lil kid. After that, Wu Zetian did some plotting and killed her own daughter - yup, thats right. When the Emperor came in to see his kid, he was all, WTF? Shes not breathing! Wu Zetian was all, No way! and she started fake crying, of course. I think Empress Wang came to see her, but I dont know why shed do a thing like that! Emperor Gaozong carried out an investigation, and Empress Wang was framed and demoted. After this, the Emperor started to get support to nominate Wu Zetian as Empress. Of course, peeps like Zhangsun Wuji was like, I totes object, while others like Li Yifu and Xu Lingxong were totally cool with it. Hes how shit went down.

Since Zhangsun Wuji seriously objected Wu becoming Empress, Wu and the Emperor went to visit him. They brought gold, silk, silver and gifts, and said, Support Wu as Empress and your sons can become officials! But Zhangsun Wuji didnt give a shit and changed the subject. Li Yifu was different, though. Thats cause he was so about to be demoted, and he thought hed best side with Wu, so he wouldnt get kicked out of the palace. Xu Jingzong was all, Hey, old peasants replace their old wives wit a new one after a harvest, so the Emperor should so do the same, (Um, sexist much?) Soon, lotsa people started supportin the future Empress, so yeah. In the 9th month of 655AD, all the senior ministers, like Zhangsun Wuji, Chu Suiliang, Li Ji and Yu Zhining had to have a meeting wit the Emperor, yo. Chu Suiliang was all, This is so about the Empress thing. Imma persuade him till he listens to me, yo! Li Ji heard what it was about, and he was all, Eh, Imma go home cause I feel sick. That was a lie. Li Ji didnt wanna lose his post cause of this disagreement. Durin the meeting, Chu Suiliang was all, Emperor, it was so wrong of you to depose Empress Wang. She was chosen by your late father. You should totes respect that. Also, Wu is like, your dads concubine. How gross and unethical is that? The Emperor was so not convinced and so Chen Suiliang put down his rudimentary clipboard and bashed kowtowed till he bled. Eunuchs totes had to drag the Emperor out of the room. Wu Zetian was listenin and heard errything, so she jumped out and said, This dude should be executed now! Zhangsun Wuji was all, The dude was advisor to the first Emperor of this dynasty! How can you say such shit? So, since Li Ji escaped that meeting, the Emperor was all, Well? What do you think? Should this concubine be mah Empress? Li Ji was all, This aint got anythin to do wit me, yo. Youre the Emperor. Why should you ask me to give you advice in your personal life? And just like that, Wu Zetian was made Empress. After that, Chu Suiliang got demoted and became governor of Tanzhou, which is now present day Changsha. Lady Xiao and Empress Wang were demoted, and Wu Zetian finally became Empress. Next: Empress Wu fucks shit up.

cavetocanvas: Qi Baishi, Lotus and Dragonfly, n.d. From the Indianapolis Museum of Art:

Although the lotus is well known as a sacred Buddhist symbol, it also has connotations of longevity, health, elegance, and nobility. Another association is the seventh month, or summer, as suggested here through the addition of the dragonfly. Qi Baishi was best known for his spontaneous and energetic painting style. Due to illness, he could not work in the fields with the rest of his family in rural Hunan, and he was apprenticed to a carpenter. Though he lacked formal education, he gained a deep knowledge of painting, calligraphy, poetry, and seal-carvingall pursuits that identified him as a traditional Chinese literatus, or scholar-gentleman.

My Opinion: Does China really have 5000 years of history?

Because Jin asked, heres my response to the post I reblogged just now. I do not endorse every single opinion that I reblog, and I find that these articles are interesting and do open up a discussion and dialogue on the internet. So far, Tumblrs been great because people actually think and share their opinions with me in a very civilized way, and its unlike a lot of other websites with trolls running amok. Do I think China has 5000 years of history? Yes. Heres the long answer. Ancient Chinese civilization is complicated. Once you call a bunch of people living together a civilization, you sort of imply that they have some sort of rudimentary system to regulate and sustain themselves. Once this word comes into the discussion, its so tempting to say that all these neo-lithic cultures are not civilized for whatever reasons, which opens up this issue because people disagree as to what makes a person civilized and what makes a civilization. Some cultures didnt think other civilizations were civilized because there was no written script, even though these other cultures had a very sophisticated language system. To say that the Shang Dynasty started the Chinese civilization implies that these neolithic cultures were not civilized, and that this civilization randomly popped up like a wild Pokemon. Thats not true. We all know that something came before that, which makes the Chinese people what they are. There is neo-lithic evidence, and since we do not know enough to confirm our hypotheses, it can prove to be frustrating. Do these Emperors before the Shang Dynasty exist, then? How do we know? We dont. Im going to say, Yes, the Yellow Emperor may not have existed, but this is why China is a civilization. All societies, even modern ones, are built on a big, overarching story about the whole world came to be. The Egyptians had it, the Aztecs had it, and obviously the Greeks had it. These myths are what gave birth to civilization, and help order society so that people will not feel that the universe is arbitrarily dicking around with them. These stories teach the Chinese people lessons on how to govern, and have affected Chinese history for millennia. Thats the beauty and magic of how stories make society, which is why this blog is called Fuck Yeah Chinese Myths. All long-time followers also know that I make use of myths to talk about history, and Im sure they know that this aspect of Chinese culture is increidbly important. Sure, myths are mostly made up, but a lot of history books also do the same thing, or provide a biased re-telling

of events to re-order the way people see their country, like stories. These tales are not just tales, but allow Nationalism to actually come into being - once you realize there is a huge, larger-than-life story of how you came to be, you would want to associate yourself with its greatness - and why not? Its better than thinking you are a tiny dot in a vast universe. People have an identity, a culture and a society to work for. Things become different after that. Of course this leads to #3. Every civilization does this. Every country wants to have a big myth, an overarching story that trumpets their greatness. It makes them sound cool. It separates them from others. The Chinese people certainly didnt give a shit about Zeus or whoever because they thought Fu Xi or Huangdi was cooler and more bad-ass. They also wouldnt want to have a god who screwed around because it was morally wrong, and they looked to more upright and benevolent role models, which is why so many of them are supposedly paragons of virtues. Chinese people wanted to look up to someone who would rule them properly, and so there were these Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, each supposedly greater than the last. I think, because of the germinations of these stories, civilizations exist. Once you tell a story, or use oracle bones to make something up, you are bringing in order into society and teaching people how to function and behave themselves. Egyptian stories are always about the restoration of Maat, or order. Chinese myths are also about the same thing - coping with floods, droughts and looking after everyone in society. These stories have lessons and teachings, and make civilization because people have to stop killing each other and look after one another so their race can survive. Where do these civilizations come from? We have dates, but we dont have the dates for the myths and the stories. Perhaps this is a cop-out, but the Chinese civilization could very well be as old as the human spirit itself, since Man has always taken to telling stories to help order his world.

atla-annotated-replies: I am more than a bit annoyed by the definition of history they are using. It seems custom tailored to fit their need to prove a ridiculous point.

So what if there was no Yellow Emperor. That is a question utterly irrelevant to proving that Chinese history is 500 years old or not. We do not use the Ancient Eqyptian world creation myth to prove that they had a kingdom 5000 years ago, do we? Fact is, there are plenty of Neolithic cultures in the area now the Peoples Republic of China. How do they not count as Chinese history? Because you say so is not a valid argument. And demanding definite proof that something like a National Identity existed 3000 BCE is in and off itself hilarious. Yangshao Culture ca. 5000 BCca. 3000 BC Longshan Culture ca. 3000 BCEca. 2000 BCE Writing, money, sophisticated pottery Read more theworldofchinese: Does China Really Have 5,000 Years of History? By: Christian Allen Its often said that China is a nation with 5,000 years of history. What youre less likely to hear is a discussion of where that magic number comes from. Truth be told, what you find when you go back far enough is a loosely weaved tale of conflicting answers, divergent histories and celebrated heroes of varying authenticity. Try to pin this jumble to modern archaeological evidence, and the picture becomes even more blurry. So please, come along with us as we try to unravel this most sinuous of stories, and find out where and when this thing called China really all came from. 2700 BC 2600 BC: Huangdi () or The Yellow Emperor Look for the origins of Chinese society and youre undoubtedly going to come across one name: Huangdi, the legendary Yellow Emperor, the so-called founder of Chinese society. A member of the fabled Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Huangdi is accredited with being the original unifier of China and setting it on the path of artistic and cultural development. This is all well and good, but theres a snag while ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian () does describe the exploits and existence of the Yellow Emperor, no archeological evidence of the fabled ruler exists, suggesting that this Emperor is more myth than man.

Read more Because I really like Jins insight, I am posting another response to the article here. Do bear in mind that I do not necessarily agree with everything I reblog - these reblogs are merely talking points for all of us to engage in Chinese history and culture. as in Mu Guiying: Better than you in every way. Every way. Ive already mentioned before that the Song Dynasty cantexactly be called a unified dynasty, because it coexisted with the neighbouring dynasties of the Liao, Xixia, Jin, and Dali. Well, it was also engaged in battle with the Liao Dynasty for quite a while. One of the heroes to come out of these conflicts was Mu Guiying, along with the entirety of the Yang clan (which she married into, but Ill talk about them later I care more about Mu Guiying because holy fuck badass woman incoming like a tow truck*). (Most of the stories are folktales, though, and deviate from historical records.) Her father Mu Ke was a Song Dynasty official whod been exiled from court and made his home at , which is known for its enmity with the imperial court. She studied martial arts and battle strategy, and was a brilliant tactician and warrior. She is also, incidentally, from Hunyuan, Datong, Shanxi, my ancestral home. Represent! When the Liao employed Lu Zhong for his , a virtually insurmountable battle formation, to make war on the Song, the Yang family, whose patriarch and all but three of their sons died under that formation, sent for the Mu family for help, as Mu Ke had been a friend of Lu Zhongs, and he and his daughter were the only two who knew how to break the formation. Unfortunately, they sent their grandson and only heir, Yang Zongbao. Which I mean, was a good idea in the long run, but horrid if they wanted to get the secret quickly. He provoked an argument with Mu Guiying, and she challenged him to a series of duels. If he won, hed get the secret, and if he lost, hed have the marry her. Yeah, he ended up marrying her and returning empty-handed, and a day late, to his father Yang Yanzhao, who, angered, decided to execute him (or pretend to execute him in order to draw Guiying out; God, who the fuck knows). So Mu Guiying stormed in and gave the Xianglongmu, or the Dragon-subduing Wood, which was necessary to break the formation, in exchange for his life. She then became a general of the Great Song Army and not only broke the Heavenly Gate Formation, she also broke the Liao Army by burning all their food supplies and sending an army to destroy their base at the same time to cut off their supply lines. She sent another army to recapture the base, Youzhou, which had been lost to the Liao in a

previous conflict. And, legend has it, the Liao were so subdued they never tried to conquer the Song again. After her grandmother-in-law She Saihua, shes the second woman to hold the seal of the Supreme Commander, and legend has it that she fought while pregnant and gave birth to her son on the battlefield. And all this at nineteen. After her husbands death in battle against the invading Western Xia army and the death of her father-in-law Yang Yanzhao, the twelve Yang women, Guiying included, were part of the campaign against them. Shes said to have been very feminine, and to have been Commanding General of the Song Army into her eighties. Her weapon, I believe, is the guandao. (Baidu says its a spear. I havent read Yang Jia Jiang, idk what to trust. Either way shes awesome.) And I love her. I love her so much. Shes as famous than Hua Mulan, which the West may be surprised to hear because as I understand it they think Mulans the only woman ever to have fucked the patriarchy up in China ever. The only woman. In five thousand years. Ever. Because we all know Chinese women are delicate, submissive, traditional, backwards, housewife-y creatures. With the sole exception of Hua Mulan. Yup.
*Well, okay lets be honest all the women both born into and married into the Yang family are so badass they make me vaguely sick and eager to emulate them at every turn. THEY. ARE. SO. COOL. Most TV series focus mostly on the second generation of Yang men, but their widows are so much cooler. THEY ARE THE AND THEY ARE SO MOTHERFUCKING BADASS THEY WILL BLOW YOUR TUPEE AWAY

Okay so I wanted to do a post about her but most of it was folk-lore-y stuff. I also didnt have enough information, so this will do for now. 1 month ago 17 notes Source Reblogged from chineseart great-china: The Tangut script () was a logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia Dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants. The Tangut characters are similar in appearance to Chinese characters, with the same type of strokes, but the methods of forming characters in the Tangut writing system are significantly different from those of forming Chinese characters. As in Chinese calligraphy, regular, running, cursive and seal scripts were used in Tangut writing. The codification of the Tangut script in Unicode is still in progress, but there are some Tangut fonts available, including the set provided by Mojikyo.

According to the Songshi (, History of Song Dynasty), the script was designed by the high-ranking official Yeli Renrong under Western Xia Emperor Li Yuanhaos supervision in 1036. The script was invented in a short period of time, and was put into use quickly. Government schools were founded to teach the script. Official documents were written in the script (with diplomatic ones written bilingually). A great number of Buddhist scriptures were translated from Tibetan and Chinese, and block printed in the script. Although the dynasty collapsed in 1227, the script continued to be used for another few centuries. One of the last examples is a stone tower inscribed in 1502. The script was inspired by Chinese characters, being of the same design. The Tangut script is part of the Chinese family of scripts. A brief biography of the Eight Immortals 1. Immortal Woman He or He Xiangu is the only female deity among the Eight Immortals. She was from Yong Prefecture in Tang Dynasty, or from a wealthy and generous family in Zngchng County.
At birth she had six long hairs on the crown of her head. When she was about 14 or 15, a divine personage appeared to her in a dream and instructed her to eat powdered mica, in order that her body might become etherealized and immune from death. So she swallowed it, and also vowed to remain a virgin.

2. Royal Uncle Cao was said to be the uncle of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, being the younger brother of Empress Dowager Cao.
Cao Guojius younger brother Cao Jingzhi was a bully, but no one dared to prosecute him because of his powerful connections, not even after he killed a person. Royal Uncle Cao was so overwhelmed by sadness and shame on his brother that he resigned his office and left home.

3. Iron-Crutch Li is sometimes said to be the most ancient and popular of the Eight Immortals of the Taoist pantheon. The legend says that Iron-crutch Li was born during the Yuan Dynasty period (12791368), and was originally named Li Yan.
He is sometimes described as irascible and ill-tempered, but also benevolent to the poor, sick and the needy, whose suffering he alleviates with special medicine from his gourd. He is often portrayed as an ugly old man with dirty face, scraggy beard, and messy hair held by a golden band. He walks with the aid of an iron crutch (tieh kuai) and often has a gourd slung over his shoulder or held in his hand. He often is depicted as a clown figure who descends to earth in the form of a beggar who uses his power to fight for the oppressed and needy.

4. Lan Caihe is the least defined of the Eight Immortals. Lan Caihes age and sex are unknown and Lan Caihe is usually depicted in sexually ambiguous clothing, but is often shown as a young boy or girl carrying a bamboo flower basket.
Stories of Lans behaviour are often bizarrely eccentric. Lan is often described as carrying a pair of bamboo castanets which they would clap and make a beat with by hitting the ground, they would then sing to this beat and a group of onlookers would follow and watch in amazement and entertain themselves. After these performances they would give them lots of money as they asked for it, Lan Cai. They would then string this cash and coins on a long string of money

that they carried. As they walked the coins would fall off and Lan Cai. They would not care, other beggars would then take the money. Like all the other immortals they were often said to be in a drunken stupor and left this world by flying on a heavenly swan or crane into heaven. One day while in a tavern, they had supposedly gotten up to go to the bathroom. But before leaving they flew off on the crane or swan and stripped off their clothes on the way up.

5. L Dngbn is a historical figure and also a deity/Immortal revered by many in the Chinese culture sphere, especially by Daoists/Taoists. L Dngbn is one of the most widely known of the group of deities known as the Eight Immortals and considered by some to be the de facto leader. He is also a historical figure who was mentioned in the official history book History of Song.
L Dongbin is usually portrayed as a scholarly, clever man with a genuine desire to help people obtain wisdom/enlightenment and to learn the Tao. However, he is often portrayed as having some character flaws, not an uncommon theme for the colorful Taoist immortals, all of whom in general have various eccentricities He is said to be a ladies man, even after (or only after) becoming an immortal - and for this reason he is generally not invoked by people with romantic problems. This may also relate to some of the Taoist sexual arts. He is portrayed as having bouts of drunkenness, which was not uncommon among the often fun-loving Eight Immortals. This also parallels several Taoist artists renowned for their love of drinking. One story relates that early on after becoming immortal, he had a strong temper as a young Immortal, even deforming a riverbank in a bout of anger.

6. Philosopher Han Xiang, one of the Eight Immortals, was born Han Xiang during the Tang Dynasty.
He is said to be the nephew or grandnephew of Han Yu, a prominent statesman of Tang Court. Han Xiang studied Daoism under L Dongbin. Once at a banquet by Han Yu, Han Xiang tried to persuade Han Yu to give up a life of officialdom and to study magic with him. But Han Yu was adamant that Han Xiang should dedicate his life to Confucianism instead of Daoism, so Han Xiang demonstrated the power of the Dao by pouring out cup after cup of wine from the gourd without end. Because his flute gives life, Han became a protector of flautists.

7. Elder Zhang Guo is one of the Eight Immortals. Of the Eight Immortals he, along with Chung-li Chuan and Lu Yen, was a real historical figure; the rest exist only in legend. His existence is said to have begun around the middle or end of the seventh century AD, and ended approximately in the middle of the eighth.
Zhang Guo Lao was known for wandering between the Fen River & Chin territories during his lifetime and was known to travel at least a thousand li per day upon a white donkey or mule.When his journey was finished, he folded his mule up and placed it in his pocket or a small box. When he wished to use the mule again, he poured water on it from his mouth and the mule regained its form. Emperors of the Tang dynasty (Tai Tsung and Kao Tsung) often invited Zhang Guo Lao to court, but he always declined these invitations. Once, when asked by Empress Wu, he finally agreed to leave his hermitage. As he reached the gate of the Temple of the Jealous Woman, he died suddenly. His body was

seen decomposing and being consumed by worms, but he was later seen, alive and well, on the mountains of Heng Chou in Ping-yang Fu.

8. Zhongli Quan is one of the most ancient of the Eight Immortals. He is also known as Zhongli of Han because he was said to be born during the Han Dynasty. He possesses a fan which has the magical ability of reviving the dead.
Born in Yantai Zhongli Quan was once a general serving in the army of the Han Dynasty. According to legends, bright beams of light filled the labour room during his birth. After birth he did not stop crying until seven full days had passed. Later Taoists celebrate his birthday on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the Chinese Calendar. In Taoism, he is known as the True-Yang Ancestor-Master. He is also called Master of the CloudChamber in accounts describing his encounter with L Dongbin before achieving immortality.

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Madam Xian (I)

Eh, I guess this pic will have to do. Anyway, I should have written about her before Princess Pingyang first because she came before that, but oh well. Madam Xian was such a bad-ass cause she was loyal to three rulers from three dynasties. Three. (Oh yeah, they were the Liang, the Chen, and the Sui.) But before we talk about her, we have to do a lil bit of history, first. After the Han Dynasty collapsed, there were a lot of things to be done. I mean, errbody wanted a piece of the pie that was China, and of course the barbarians from the North were like, Aww yeah, this is mine! and they basically started attacking the areas guess where? - in the North. So all them Han Chinese peeps panicked and stuff and placed their government in the South, which was real far away from the barbarians.

Oh yeah, this is the period known as the period of the Six Dynasties. There was a lotta chaos, yknow the drill. China pretty much undergo this pattern of disintegrating and reuniting again, and you can so tell cause this usually meant a change of dynasties. Anyway, back to the topic! The Li Tribe and Madam Xians Marriage Madam Xian belonged to this tribe called the Li tribe, and this tribe lived in the Yang Jiang area of Gao Liang Jun (its called Guangdong Province today). She wasnt actually Chinese, though, and her family controlled most of the land there. When she was a kid she dreamt that all the tribes would get along, and in a way, she tried to make them happen when she became an adult. Its also real important that her tribe was matriarchal so she really had more freedom than most women. But her role suddenly became more traditional cause she had to go marry Feng Bao, who was the the Governor of Gaoliang. This happened in 535 CE. Anyway, this marriage is like, real important because it made sure that her tribe and the Han Chinese peeps got along. Hey, at least she got to keep her surname. (Yknow, cause of the matrilineal thing.) Relations Between Other Tribes/Peoples: Li Qianshi Anyway, not long after that, this dude, Liangwu from the Southern Chi dynasty got all fed-up and tried to found his own dynasty, the Liang. Yeah, he probably wasnt very imaginative. So he ruled for a while, and another dude, Hou Jing, rebelled against him. While Liangwu called like, his supporters to help him, no one gave a shit, not even Li Qianshi, who was also rebelling against him. Whoa, right? So it was basically a bunch of people rebelling against each other, and since Madam Xian was in a position of power, Li Qianshi was all, Hey! Can you like, support me in my rebellion? But he didnt say that. What he did was that he tried to get Madam Xians husband, Feng Bao, to Gaozhou, which was in Guangdong. When Feng Bao got to Guangdong, Li Qianshi was to kidnap Feng Bao and ransom Madam Xian into helping him. Of course that totally didnt happen, cause Madam Xian was a smart cookie and she told her husband not to go, and since the dirty method didnt work, Li Qianshi launched an all out rebellion. The rebellion spread to the place where Madam Xian was governing and shiz, and she got real pissed off. This is what she did. She went to Li Qianshi wit her troops, sayin that she totally wanted to apologise for her husband not going to Gaozhou earlier. Once they were in the city, they shrugged off their disguises and basically pwned him, which was awesome. The Chen Dynasty Right. One rebellion down, two more to go. She totally took out the Hou Jing rebellion and supported Chen Baxian, who became the emperor of the new Chen dynasty.

Thats all right? Nope! Rebellion broke out like, again, and Madam Xian totally had to send her son to whoop ass. Then, she arranged a meeting between the emperor and the rebels so they could like, negotiate terms. This probably wasnt very successful cause Madam Xian had to step up the plate and stop another rebellion, and the emperor rewarded Feng Pu and was all, Imma let you be magistrate of Yangchun, which was so what happened Ouyang He Against the Chen But that wasnt all. See, this other dude, called Ouyang He also wanted himself some power, and he totally went against the Chen. (Seriously? Whats up with these rebellions?) Anyway, Ouyang He was a dick and he captured Madam Xians son so that Madam Xian would support him. (Man, these politicians dont really know any new tricks.) Anyway, Madam Xian didnt even rescue her son, and charged against Ouyang He, and totally freed her son. This time, errbody really had to step up and the court honoured her for her loyalty and ingenuity. Too bad that the Chen dynasty fell after 32 years, and the Sui dynasty came up. In the next post, well talk about Madam Xians support for this dynasty, and the thangs she did fo it.

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Madam Xian (II)

In the last post, Madam Xian managed to stop a whole series of rebellions, which was great. But in 589 AD, things changed. The Sui dynasty was like, totally established, but it was a real good thing. See, in my post about Princess Pingyang, I mentioned that the Sui peeps managed to unite most states together. By this time, she was like, way over 70 years old too, but that didnt mean she was gonna rest. Nope. More Rebellions! Oh noes!

Peeps were still rebelling and shiz, cause they were still loyal to the Emperor of the Chen dynasty. When Wei Guang, this official of the Sui Emperor came, he saw that peeps were makin trouble. To solve the problem, he asked Madam Xian (who was still livin in the area)to stop this.. So she sent her grandson, Feng Hun, to be all chummy wit Wei Guang and helped the Sui dynasty get a hold of Lingnan. But then, more trouble came up. Since the Sui dynasty wanted to re-built the Great Canal and the Great Wall, they increased taxes, which sucked. The tribes started gettin pissed again, and they all looked to this dude, Wang Zhongxuan. But Madam Xian didnt want this shit to happen, so she sent her grandson, Feng Xuan, to stop the rebellion. Again. But Feng Xuan was all, Grandma, I cant do it! Why? Cause Im friends wit one of the tribe chiefs! Oh okay. Go to prison, then. Yup. Im serious. She threw him in prison. She got her other grandson, Feng Weng to quell the rebellion, while she did the whole, negotiating thing. The Emperor Wendi was like, so impressed he gave her a special seal, built a mansion for her, and a status which meant that she was this kick-ass imperial general. With this, she could get her troops goin to protect the Sui people. The last thing she did, though, was to expose this dude called Zhang Na. Zhang Na was like, this super corrupt official and he taxed all the minorities like there was no tomorrow. Madam Xian got so pissed, wrote a letter to the Sui court, and this dude was executed. Death and Legacy In 602 AD, Madam Xian was, well It wasnt over, though. There are temples of here in the Dianbai, Maoming and Gaozhou areas, and Haikou and Xin Po, in Hainan. And even when the Sui dynasty fell in 618 AD, her grandson, Feng Weng was still loyal to the Sui even though many peeps asked him to join the Tang. He was tryna do what his grandma, Madam Xian, did, which was to unite errbody, and protect the rights of the peeps from minority groups.

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Fu Hao

Right, so now were going all the waaaaay back in Chinese history, and were looking at the first known female General, Fu Hao. How do we know she existed?

Thing is, in 1976, her tomb was actually found! It contained lotsa stuff, like, bronze dagger axes, bows and arrows. There were also these drinking cups called yue, and there were four of them. On these cups there was her name, Fu Hao, These cups were also really heavy - one was like, 9kg and so, along the way, archaeologists figured that she was real important in Ancient China.

(This is how a yue looks like. There are like, so many with different designs, so they didnt look all the same, though.) Thats not all, though. There were hairpins and arrowhead made of bone, 700 pieces of jade, shiny stuff like opal and ivory, and even pottery. The creepy bit was this - all her 16 slaves were buried alive with her. Whoooa. Among all these items, her name was always on it. Both her given name and the name she was given in like, the afterlife, so that people would totally remember her. So who the hell was she and why was she so great? Right, so lets go to some facts. She was obviously someones wife, i.e. the wife of Emperor Wu Ding during the Shang Dynasty. She fought lotsa battles, and we know this because 200 of the 17 000 tortoise shells discovered in Anyang, (Henan Province) said so. So like, once, Fu Hao and her husband were like, mourning, cause her husbands dad totally died, and they had to go on tour in the countryside, yknow, too get over it. They put this dude, Tian Guanqin in charge, and when they were on tour, they found this dude, called Fu Yue.

Thing is, Fu Yue was a slave, and King Wuding was afraid that people might go all, tsk tsk, he invented some story about how the Heavens spoke to him in a dream and said that they must make Fu Yue an official. Fu Yue became the Premier and he was given the name Father of a Dream, and he helped make sure that the Shang troops were like, so ready to fight these bunch of barbarians called the Tu Fang. Also, the Tu Fang were pissed with the Han Chinese peeps cause like, one of them went into their territory when they were sent out from the capital. Guess what Fu Hao did. She was all, Oh man, seriously? Lemme deal with this. Her husband was all, Hmm, sure, cause she had some military training when she was a kid, and her parents also taught her the art of war and shiz. She also knew geography after wanderin round wit her husband, too. The King gave her a bronze yue, like the one they found in the tombs, which pretty much said, Go fight this battle and shit. A fortune teller came in to see if the universe was cool wit it, asked questions with tortoise shells (cause they was how they rolled during that period of time) and she was all set. She didnt do too badly either, fighting at the head of her troops and stuff. The Tu Fang people ran away screamin for their mummies, and didnt trouble them no more. This didnt stop, though. Another tribe threatened the peace, and they were called the Qiang Fang. She asked for a yue, fought, and won. Another tribe called the Yifang wanted power. She asked for another yue, fought, and won again. And finally, this tribe called the Bafang was making trouble again, and you know the drill. She asked for another yue, and commanded an army, but wit her husband this time. The Bafang peeps totally fell into the trap, and she pwned them all. It was really too bad, though, cause like, after she returned, she died from exhaustion. Her only son died, too, amd all the yue were buried with her. The thing is, Fu Hao was buried in a tomb of her own, and not beside her husband, unlike the feudal way, and it pretty much meant that she was her own person. Now that is bad-ass.

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Princess Pingyang (II)

Shit Gets Real - Overthrowing the Sui Lets check in with Princess Pingyang again, and the last we checked, she managed to talk to all these big rebel groups into joining her army, which was no mean feat durin that period of time. When her army marched into counties, she would offer the peasants food and drink and treated them well, so errybody wanted to fight alongside her. Her Womans Army got bigger and bigger. Oh yeah. She was pretty strict with her soldiers and forbade them from raping, looting and robbing innocent peeps, cause it totally went against the principles they were fighting for. Finally, Pingyangs troops reached like 70 000 peeps, and thats when the Sui Emperor knew that he had to take this shit seriously. They tried to attack Pingyangs troops but were beaten. Pingyang fought in Hu county, but her bro and father defeated the rest of the Sui Army, and that left the Sui troops pretty much beaten. And to make sure they were beaten, Cao Shao joined forces with his wife, Pingyang, and whooped Sui troop ass so hard, the Sui Emperor fled.

Establishing the Tang Dynasty Li Yuan then said, Hey guys, the Sui dynasty doesnt exist no more, lets make way for the Tang, yo! and he was crowned the Tang Emperor. Pingyang was given the rank of marshal. She was also given military aides and staff, like a prince, but she was like, real stressed out and died when she was only 23. Death When she died, her father was like, real sad, and named the strategic pass in Pingding county, the Young Ladys pass, after Princess Pingyang. Her father gave her a hugeass military funeral, but some stupid peeps made noise about it cause she was a woman, and women shouldnt have music playing at their funerals. But all the new Emperor said was, STFU, losers. She overthrew the Sui and helped us establish thew new dynasty, and what did you do? Shes no ordinary woman, k? And errbody was all, K. (Except I dont think the Emperor said STFU because he didnt know English acronyms, and also, the internet wasnt invented yet.) More Stuff about the Awesome Tang Dynasty Li Yuan was pretty smart, and some of his family members married the Northern Zhou peeps, and so Chinese peeps could trade in the Silk Road without being threatened by those who lived in the North. Oh yeah. Li Yuan was called Emperor Gaozu (High Progenitor) for a while, then let his son, Li Shimin take over. Li Shimin called himself Emperor Gaozong, which means Grand Ancestor. And yeah, even though men sat on the throne in the Tang Dynasty, all this wouldnt have been possible if a certain daughter and sister took up arms in the Hu County and said, Lets kick Sui ass! So lets give it up for Princess Pingyang for her brains, military tactics, and awesomeness.

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Princess Pingyang (I)

Like errybody else, Im a huge fan of the Tang Dynasty, but did you know a female general had a huge part to play in establishing it? Yeah, I aint gonna lie. Princess Pingyang is pretty bad-ass, and she helped her father Li Yuan, overthrow the Sui dynasty. She also set up the Womans Army, but died really young, so were gonna look at what she did in her real short life. But before we learn how she did all these things, were gonna have to look at how and why the Sui Dynasty crumbled. Collapse of the Sui Dynasty Okay, the thing with dynasties is this: the Emperors rulin during that period of time did really cool stuff, and really douche-y stuff. So, when the Emperor stucks f***ing shit up, people would get pissed, and try and overthrow him and set up their new dynasty. But everything in the new dynasty wouldnt be new, cause people would try and take what was good about the previous dynasty and incorporate wit the new one. K? K. Good Things About the Sui Dynasty

Sui Wendi, the cultured Emperor, reunited China after 400 years, so none of the Southern Dynasties existed after that.

Basically, it was like what the First Emperor did when he established the Qin dynasty. Anyway, I think thats about it. Bad Things About the Sui Dynasty

Patricide/Regicide

Seriously. The second Emperor of the Sui (Yangdi) killed his father, and he didnt even do it right. He hired some people to poison his father, sat on the throne and said, Im Emperor now, bitches! Okay maybe he didnt say that, but you get the idea.

Rapid Expansion

So father conquered North Vietnam, and son conquered South Vietnam. As if that wasnt enough, he went to Sumatra (Indonesia) and Taiwan, asking errybody to pay tribute to him. Besides doing that, he invaded Central Asia and North of China. And finally, finally finally, Yangdi decided that he wanted North Korea and Southern Manchuria, but errybody had enough of his shit.

Taxing for projects to overcompensate for the lack of you know.

So Yangdi had this thing he wanted to do - build a supposedly Great Canal, and re-build the Great wall. Six million people died while building and re-building all of this shit, so you can probably imagine why errbody was real pissed off with the Sui Rulers. Overthrowing the Sui Anyway, in comes Pingyangs father, Li Yuan. Li Yuan was a pretty good military general, and was basically like, really loyal to Emperor Yangdi because he actually supported the Emperor in invading other countries. I mean, he was so good that the enemies in the North were all, K, were not gonna attack you as long as youre in charge of this area, and that was that. Right? Nope. This made the Emperor feel threatened by Li Yuan because the latter really influential and so, he ordered Li Yuan to be imprisoned. Yeah, it was real stupid of him to do that, but it caused Li Yuan to do a lot more. So Li Yuan summoned his son, Li Shimin, and asked for his son-in-law, Cai Shao, a.k.a Princess Pingyangs husband to come help. Cai Shao told his wife that he was gonna leave the Imperial Court and betray the Emperor, but instead of worrying, Princess Pingyang was all, Eh, I got this, and she escaped, too. Cai Shao was all, Um, okay? and he went to join Li Yuans army in Taiyuan. Stuff Princess Pingyang Did Days later, Pingyang set foot in Hu county, where her family was taking refuge. She saw that errbody was like, totally dying of starvation and she opened the food stores to feed them. She also made friends with these peeps, an let them join her Womans Army to support her bro and her father, so they could rebel against the Sui. But of course Pingyang knew that one tiny army of hers wasnt enough to overthrow the Sui, so she made friends with all the other rebel groups. Based on what the Sui Emperor did, it wasnt surprising that lotsa peeps hated him, and so, she gathered the support of the best groups to come support her. There was this dude called Shi Wanbao, and he was really good at martial arts. I guess it also helped that Li Yuans cousin was part of Shi Wanbaos group so it made things easy for Pingyang. Pingyang asked his group to join forces with her, and now she had more peeps on her side.

That wasnt enough, though. She actually talked to this big shot, He Panren, and this dude commanded like, more than 10 000 troops in his own army. Plus, the Sui Prime Minister was on his side, too. Anyway, after some talks, even He Panren joined her and their co-ordinated attacks on defeating the Sui Emperor. Oh yeah, and this dude, Li Zhongweng, joined forces with them too, so it was one heck of an army comin to overthrow the Emperor.

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Liang Hongyu (I)

You guys really do pick the toughest people to write about, but dont worry, this is why running this blog is really fun! See, there were so many myths created about Liang Hongyu that its really difficult to distinguish it from fact, but heres what Im gonna do. Imma write about whats myth and whats fact, and how one of those kick-ass female generals of Chinese history became more than wait for it legendary! This is also the part where I complain, cause Im like, really sick and tired of people callin her Lady of the Drums, or basically that-woman-who-beat-drums-for-herarmy because it seriously implies that she was a support system and wasnt even taking charge at all. Um, hello? So not true. She was a tough fighter, but we obviously gotta dive into her story first. Murky Beginnings So this article says that its really difficult to pin down her early life, cause much of it is not known. I mean, this source says she was born in 1102 AD, though other sources think shes born two years earlier, and died in 1135 AD. According to Wikipedia, no one knows her real name, but the name that we see here means red jade. Some say she was born in Anhui, (well, this source anyway,) and other peeps say shes from Jiangsu. She was most def a general who lived during this weird transitional period from the

Northern to Southern Song dynasties, which sets the stage for her childhood, and the story goes somethin like this. Liang Hongyu was a daughter of a military commander, and he was stationed in the north, cause of the really tough Xiongnu people who were also mentioned here. Anyway, her father taught her all the military tactics, and how to use weapons and shiz. But then, he was killed in battle, and she resolved to take his place in battle, sort of to like, carry on the legacy he left behind. During this period of time, some sources say she became this dancing girl cause she had to find a way to surivive now that her father was dead. Anyway, while she was dancin, lotsa stuff was happening, and it wasnt pleasant. See, there was this tribe called the Nuzhen tribe, and they were becoming really powerful in the North. They were like, so totally powerful that they became known as the Jin kingdom, and they actually challenged the Song government. The thing is, the Song government didnt give a shit about this invasion, cause all of them were too busy taking bribes and being cowards. They ran to the south to set up their government instead, and basically the Song peeps were tryna pleas the Jin peeps. So Liang Hongyu heard about this shit and she was like, really pissed off. She was all, Daf** man? I thought our people were better than that! Marriage and like, more salient Details This is the part where everything gets factual, so here goes. During this period of time, she married Han Shizhong, and he wasnt a real big military official or anythin like that, but he fought wit his wife in in mostly the north and central of China. Oh yeah, and they had two children along the way. Liang Hongyu helped her husband by bein calm, usin her brains to come up with real smart tactics. Liang Hongyu also got promoted wit her husband, but more troubles were comin up. When her husband was defending the Lianglang pass, and he heard that Luanzhou was captured. So he and his first son ran up to re-claim the city, but it was like, one of the worst hasty decisions in the history of forever, cause he got captured by troops. In comes Liang Hongyu to the rescue.When she arrived at the entrance of the city, this guy, Wu Zhu was all, Hey. Lets talk about this calmly, and see how we can work this out, yo. Wu Zhu was actually scared shitless of Liang and said that if she gave up fighting, hed free her husband. But Liang was like, no, cause she stood up to her own ideals. She fought and lost as she was totally outnumbered, Things didnt get easier, though, and lets have a look at what she did on Wednesday, when two Emperors got captured.

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Liang Hongyu (II)

Rebellion within the Ranks Right, sorry for the cliffhanger right there, but after that defeat, things didnt go over too well. See, in 1127 (some peeps say 1129), the Jin peeps got hold of the Song capital, called Bianjiang (though now its called Kaifeng and its in the Henan province.) Anyway, this third dude called Prince Zhaoguo said, Hey, Im the new Song Emperor, again, and the capital should be at Linan (present day Hangzhou). But the prince was like, real scared, and he didnt dare say, Hey Jin peeps! Release the other two Emperors, k? K. Anyway, in the last post, the Southern Song peeps were all about negotiations and not fighting, but Emperor Zhaoguo was so not down with that. He was all about fighting back. So he got rid of all the wusses in court and made plans to get his land back. But there was this guy called Miao Fu, and Miao Fu really, really, really wanted to be the Emperor, so he staged a coup and Zhaoguo ran. But Miao Fu didnt make himself be Emperor, though. Instead, he made Zhaoguos son Emperor, and the Empress Dowager was regent. He tried to do his thang behind the scenes and hoped that hed be the Emperor fo reals one day. Miao Fu also did this really douche-y thing - he captured Liang Hongyu and her youngest son and was all, Pledge allegiance to me, bitch. This was because Liang Hongyus forces were like, super powerful and he was really threatened by them. Liang Hongyu didnt wanna say yes, so she pretended to agree to his terms, provided she get an audience with the Empress Dowager. So, when Liang Hongyu finally got to see the Empress Dowager, she told Her Royal Highness about the rebellion, and the Empress Dowager was real impressed. She asked Liang Hongyu to work wit General Han (her husband, cause hed been promoted in rank) to quash the rebellion. Liang rode on a horse to Xiuzhou non-stop for a day and asked her husband to help her go to the capital and end the rebellion. They did it, and

she earned the name, Madame Huguo, which is a title given to a women who defends her country. And after this, she got paid to be a military general, and it was the first time a woman in China was so celebrated. The Famous Drum Story But while this civil dispute was happening, the Jin peeps were still comin in to the Song Kingdom to loot and raid stuff. Besides, the border wasnt really established or anything. Anyway, once, when the Jin troops captured and looted the city of Hangzhou, they sort of retreated cause they just really wanted the booty. Liang and her husband went to the Yangtze river and intercepted the Jin peeps there, and she used flags to show where the enemy was headin. Plus, she used drums to indicate where her own troops should go, and they whooped Jin ass. Woohoo! Other Battles Anyway, the fight between the Jin army and the Song dynasty wasnt over yet. In fact, it got to a point where Liang Hongyu and her husband trapped them at Lake Huangtiandang for like, 48 days. And this happened when Liangs army had only 8000 troops while the Jin army had like, 100, 000 peeps. If you remember Wu Zhu from the earlier post, he defeated Liang Hongyu. This time, Wu Zhu wanted to negotiate a peace deal wit Liang, but she refused, cause they were waiting for back-up troops. Wu Zhu shrugged and cut a channel through a part where Liang and her troops didnt protect, and he and his troops sailed off. Though it looks like Wu Zhu won, the Jin troops were slowly goin back to the North. They crossed the river in like, 1135 AD, and Liang and her husband went to Chuzou to provide defense and rebuild the city. So instead of fighting, they planted stuff, rebuilt houses and stuff like that. Death Liang died after this cause of the work, and was buried at the bottom of Linyan Hill in Suzhou. The Emperor honoured her by giving her family 500 taels of silver and bolts of cloth. You guys know the rest of the story. People re-tell her story so much that we dont know fact from fiction, but we know the kind of woman she is, and how she made it on her own terms even though she was living under patriarchy. Thats it for our two awesome female generals! I understand that this entry and the previous one may contain inaccurate information, and I was very afraid of writing about Liang Hongyu because I couldnt tell which was the tale, and which was fact. So Im urging all my really smart readers (that is, if they havent done so already) to tell me which is fact and which is fiction! Fridays post will be a short intermission before we continue with bad-ass female generals. For now, Im gonna talk about the Ghost Month a lil bit more and then well resume with bad-ass female generals, k?

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Qin Liangyu (I)

Yeah, so I got this in my askbox eons ago, but I never got round to doing it because Im not actually a member of any libraries in the land of the Sphinx. Anyway, now that Im back, lets take a look at these two bad-asses! Well start off with Qin Liang Yu ( ) today, and look at Liang Hong Yu () the next time.

Look! Idealized portrait of her! But anyway, lets go back to the end of the Ming Dynasty. Qin Liangyu, or Qin, as we shall call her from now on, was born in Mingyuxi, Zhongzhou, Sichuan. Her daddy was Qin Kui, and he was like, really smart wit classical Chinese and military strategies, and while the Manchu people were all tryna invade and stuff, he was teachin all his kids all these things he liked and was good at, so they could be either officials or military people. What was cool was that Qins father was like, super progressive and trained her along with her bros, Qin Bangping, Banghan, and Minping. So, wit her bros, Qin Liang Yu learned the Chinese classics, history books, and kung fu. She even learned about how the generals did their thang and modeled herself according to what they did. Being a girl so did not stop her like, at all. Besides, she was her daddys fave cause she was really smart. Oh yeah. She was good at archery, writing poetry, really brave, and pretty too.

So, when it was time for her to get married, her daddy was all, I aint marryin her to just any man, dude, and he chose Ma Qiancheng for her. They were like, made for each other, cause Ma was like brave and smart aaaaand - this is the best part - descended from a general. They obviously had a lot in common. Ma Qiancheng also listened to his wife, and she helped him control his army, which was pretty cool. Qin Liang Yu was also pretty smart cause she advised her husband to take care of the Shizhu district, which was their district. This place wasnt real important and it was in-between Sichuan and Guizhou, but Qin Liang Yu told her husband that they might actually have to go to war, so they might as well form an army to protect their district. And so, the White Stick Cavalry was formed. No, I know what sticks you are thinkin of, and just to clarify, they were called that because they used white wood for their weapons, just sayin. Guess what happened. Yup, thats right, war broke out. In 1599, there was this guy called Yang Yinglong, and he decided to rebel against the central government. But Ma Qiancheng lead 3000 soldiers, while his wife supported him wit 500 more, yo. They creamed the dude, conquered 7 villages, and controlled the Shangmu Pass. Pretty soon, all dem peeps were talkin bout the White Stick Cavalry, and how awesome they were. Pity that politics was real tricky, though, cause Qins husband offended a eunuch (yeah, theyre pretty temperamental) and he was arrested cause of it. Instead of weeping, she stepped up to the plate and took her husbands post, which the government gave her. So yknow, even though Yang Yinglong was defeated, that wasnt the end of the rebellion. See, he had a military commander called She Congming, and this dude led 20 000 soldiers against the government. He was all like, Hey bitches! Im the King of Daliang, yo! and he started targeting the capital, which was in Chengdu. This didnt faze Qin Liangyu, and she was already on to kick his ass. Though She Congming sent a messenger to bribe Qin Liangyu with gold, she didnt put up with any of that shit. She killed the envoy, gave the gold equally to all her troops. Then, she got 6000 of her troops, asked her bro, Qin Minping, and her nephews, Qin Yiming and Qin Congming to lead 4000 soldiers. They kicked so much ass, and the entire rebellion was quelled in 1622. It was the first time she led an army by herself, and errbody in the Imperial court was dead impressed. Of course she suffered some setbacks, too, and there were difficult times ahead for her. Come back on Friday to see how she kicked some more ass!

Lady of the Drums

BY: JOE DORAN

The Song Dynasty (960 A.D. 1279 A.D.) and the Jin Dynasty (1115 A.D. 1234 A.D.) did not get along. Since the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, political misunderstandings and complications ensured that the two dynasties were at each others throats. Relations really plummeted, however, when the Jin invaded northern China, pushing the Song beyond the Yangtze River and launching what became known as the Southern Song period. The Jins success was owed largely to the absolute mess that was the Song military hierarchy. It had been organized to ensure that no high-ranking officer could ever use his influence to threaten the emperor. A sensible enough precaution, except that it left the army leadership confused and indistinct, crippling any military capability. In the midst of such incompetence, it took a special type of person to achieve anything close to a military victory for the Song Dynasty. Fortunately, one such person existed: Liang Hongyu (). The details of Liang Hongyus early life lie somewhere between mystery and legend. Some say she was the daughter of a military commander who trained her in the ways of combat and archery, at which she excelled. However, when her family fell on hard times, Liang was forced into prostitution, singing and playing the drums for Song soldiers, including one named Han Shizhong (). She noticed the broody Han, they fell in love and eventually married. It is from this point on that Liangs tale finally enters the realms of semi-reliable history. Her bravery first showed itself shortly after the birth of her first child. While her husband was stationed in Xiu Prefecture, rebel forces captured the Song capital, trapping Liang and her child, along with the emperor and his entire court. While everyone else was sitting on their hands, Liang took action. The story goes that she approached the rebels and convinced them that if she asked, her husband would send his soldiers to join the rebel cause. Either the rebels were extremely gullible, or Liang was very persuasive, because they actually allowed her to go. As promised, Liang rode out to her husband with her baby strapped to her back and returned with his soldierswho promptly set about slaughtering the rebels. Read more

Bad-Ass Female Generals: Qin Liangyu (II)

(Guys, lemme know which part of China this is in, k?) Right, so the last time we checked in wit Qin Liangyu, she was doing pretty well. She defeated a rebellion twice, and was pretty much recognized by the Chinese court. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, there were peeps from the Wuzhen tribe makin trouble, looting and harassing peeps, and basically messing up shit in Liaodong and central China. Since Qin was in charge, she was all, Imma deal with this shit, guys, to show, yknow, that she was really loyal and shiz. Two years before the rebellion officially ended (1620), Qin sent her bros, Qin Banping and Qin Minping to fight the Wuzhen tribes in Liaodong. Then, when they had to help soldiers in Shenyang, they encountered the Manchu peeps and they had their butt kicked. It was soo bad that Qin Banping and more than 1000 soldiers died. But Qin Liangyu stepped up and sold her familys property to get military stuff, so that he troops could actually have coats to like, keep warm in the winter. This made the soldiers a lot more cheerful after the defeat, and they finally got stationed at Yu Pass (Shanhai Pass), which is the road you needa walk through to get to Central China. Qin made sure they did all the prep so that no Manchu people would invade. In 1629, the Manchu peeps went to Chongyuan by this other pass, called the Xifeng pass, and they started marching towards the capital, Beijing, which scared the Emperor shitless. He asked 200 soldiers to guard him and the palace, but the soldiers were also afraid that they didnt even wanna fight. In comes Qin. Though she was trainin soldiers at Sichuan, she heard that shit was happenin and raised money for her troops by sellin her things again. She led her amy to the capital, and managed to get back these territories: Yongping, Zunha, Luanzhou and Qianan. The Emperor was like, real impressed and he gave her a top class military suit, cloth, sheep and wine. Oh yeah and he wrote four poems to hail her awesomeness. And it really isnt often that an Emperor is so impressed with a female generals awesomeness. Anyway, if you know your Chinese history, youll know that the Ming Dynasty didnt last for long, cause in 1633, Qin was called back to fight the peasant rebellions. They didnt even stop, though, cause Zhang Xianzhong, the head of the army got hold of Kuizhou (now Fenjie county), which was this really important town in eastern Sichuan. Qin Liangyu had the help of General Zhang Lingfu in Sichuan, and they whooped some butt again. But the rebels wouldnt stop comin, yo. In 1640, Luo Rucais peasant army was whooped by Qin, and since Luo and Zhang were defeated, they teamed up and tried to take Kuizhou. After that, Qin was always defeated by them, which was real sad. By the time 1644 came round, the Manchu people (or Qing army) finally got through to Beijing from the Shanhai Pass. It was recorded as the official end of the Ming dynasty, but there were peeps in the Southern Ming regime still fighting against Qing invaders. Qin geared herself up again, fighting against the Qing peeps, but it was a lost cause.

The thing is, Qin Liangyu had spent her entire life fighting, and in 1644, when she was like, 70, she was still getting orders to go fight against the Qing army. She couldnt even join to fight, though, cause the new Emperor Longwuwas soon overthrown. Qin still stood her ground, though, and guarded the area pf Shizhu. This time, she focused on makin sure that errbody got enough to eat, and started growin crops. Many peeps came to her for sanctuary, and she obliged. Even the Emperor Longwu honoured her, cause he gave her the title of loyal marquis, and also the copper seal of the crown princes teacher and general defense minister. After she died, peeps built a guildhall for her in Sichuan, where she placed her troops. In that place, there is a painting of her in uniform, and the areas near Xuanwu gate are named to remember her. I mean, seriously. How can you not? She never gave up fighting for her country even when the odds were against her, and even when men didnt wanna protect the Emperor, and thats really somethin. Next week, well look at Liang Hongyu! Yeah, I know, I reblogged another post about her, but Imma write thangs my way, cause thats how I roll.

ancientpeoples: As early as 2000 B.C., bronze technology was highly developed in China, and objects made from this alloy of copper, tin, and lead were considered luxury items, reserved for the aristocratic class. Among these coveted pieces were small bronze mirrors, some compact and portable enough to be held in one hand, and others large and heavy enough to require stands. Usually cast from clay molds, they were highly polished on one side, offering a reflective surface, while the other side was decorated with intricate patterns and designs that reveal an astonishing level of skill and artistry in their craftsmanship. Birds, dragons, and serpents were common motifs in the earliest mirrors. Later, more sophisticated and intricate designs included mythological figures, deities, animals of the

Chinese zodiac, abstract patterns, background textures, inscriptions, enamelwork, and inlays of jade, turquoise, and mother-of-pearl. That these mirrors were prized by their owners is evident not only in light of their fine craftsmanship but also because of related artifacts that point to how they were valued. A pottery tomb figure dating to about the first century B.C. depicts a woman gazing into a mirror while applying powder to her face. An elaborate cosmetic set includes a bronze mirror from around the first century A.D., accompanied by a silk brocade pouch, a wool powder puff, and a lacquered wooden box. Artifacts such as these, along with the mirrors themselves, provide a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of their users.

ancientpeoples: Jurisdiction in Ancient China In ancient times, Imperial China was divided up into provinces, which were separated into prefectures, lead by a prefect, or governor. These prefectures were in turn divided up into districts, led by magistrates. The magistrates of a prefecture answered to the prefect, but were otherwise autonomous and the highest authority in their district in cases that required civil law. Matters of the military were handled strictly in military circles, though the two must have sometimes coincided. As a general rule, a magistrate spent only about 3 years in the same district before he was either appointed to another district, or promoted to a higher office.

The magistrate in China was responsible for keeping order in his district, bringing justice and solving crimes and disputes between citizens. Ideally, jurisdiction was not only about penalizing the guilty, but to the same extent focussed on restoring and propitiating the victims. Anyone could appear before the magistrates court and file a complaint against his fellow, or bring a dispute of any kind to attention. However, when a man or woman was falsely accused of a capital crime, he or she would not only be acquitted, but the accuser could face being judged as though he had committed the crime himself. In the course of investigation, the magistrate had a number of methods available to him to make sure justice was served. One of these was torture. The use of this was, in theory, restricted: a case could not be closed without a full confession, so when a suspects guiltiness was clear in light of available evidence, but still he refused to confess, the magistrate would be in his right to order the use of torture to make him speak the truth. This torture could range from anything to a trashing with a light or heavy rod of bamboo, a whip, or even subjection to thumbscrews. Obtaining a declaration of guilt was still paramount, and if the suspect died while being interrogated, or if he wrongly tortured an innocent citizen, the magistrate would be in trouble. He was required to know all that transpired in his district, and could himself be prosecuted by the provincial court if he did not do his office as he should. Punishment for crimes ranged from fines and imprisonment to death in various forms. Depending on the severity of the crime, a criminal could be decapitated, quartered, flogged to death, or subjected to the Slow Death, which was a particularly nasty punishment that could take a couple of forms, but usually entailed the criminal being slowly cut into pieces by the executioner. Crimes that touched state interest, such as high treason, could be passed on to relatives up until the third generation.

collective-history: Empress Wu Zetian is considered to be one of the most powerful women in Chinese history. She lived during the Tang Dynasty and was born to a wealthy and noble family. She was also very well educated. When Wu Zetian was 13, she was sent to Emperor Taizongs court to be one of his concubines. After Emperor Taizongs death in 649 AD, Emperor Gaozong came to power and Wu Zetian was sent off to become a Buddhist nun. Empress Wang, Gaozongs wife, had come into a power struggle with one of his favorite concubines, Consort Xiao. In order to distract Gaozongs attention from Consort Xiao, Empress Wang brought Wu Zetian back to the palace to become another concubine to her husband. This plan, however, backfired on Empress Wang. Wu Zetian eventually became one of Gaozongs favorites and the power struggle between the three women: Wu Zetian, Empress Wang, and Consort Xiao intensified. Empress Wang and Consort Xiao, former rivals, eventually decided to join forces in order to stop Wu Zetians influence over Gaozong. This plan backfired too because in 654 AD, Wu Zetian gave birth to a daughter and her daughter died shortly after. Gaozong and court officials accused Empress Wang of killing the infant. As a result, Gaozong replaced Wu Zetian as his empress. In 655 AD, both Consort Xiao and former Empress Wang were accused of witchcraft and they were both executed on Empress Wu Zetians orders. As empress, Wu Zetian became extremely powerful. Toward the end of Gaozongs life, she was making virtually all of the major decisions that affected the government. Emperor Gaozong eventually died in 683 AD and Wu Zetian became empress dowager. In 690 AD, Wu Zetian crowned herself Emperor of China and she interrupted the Tang Dynasty by creating her own; the Zhou Dynasty. Wu Zetian is the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor. Despite her ruthlessness to gain power and having many noblemen and noblewomen killed or exiled in the process, Wu Zetian accomplished many things when she was in power. She influenced the spread of Buddhism in China and eventually made it the official religion; replacing Taoism. She was also successful in lowering high taxes and increasing agricultural production. The Empress died in 705 AD at the age of 80. The Terracotta Army is part of one of the most lavish burials ever to be discovered. Happened upon in 1974 by local farmers the 3rd Century BC warriors depict the armies of Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Emperor of China (Died 210BC). It is some of the most exquisite and extensive funerary art ever found. The Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi came to the throne at the tender age of 13 (246BC) and had already begun work on his magnificent mausoleum which eventually took 11 years to finish. It is said that the construction required 700,000 workers. His terracotta army has become one of the lasting images of Ancient China. The figures themselves vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in

the pits. Other terracotta non-military figures were also found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians.

The figures were manufactured in workshops by government labourers and by local craftsmen, and the material used to make the terracotta warriors originated on Mount Li. The head, arms, legs and torsos were created separately and then assembled. Studies show that eight face moulds were most likely used, and then clay was added to provide individual facial features.Once assembled, intricate features such as facial expressions were added. The figures would have also carried weapons but these are thought to have been either stolen in antiquity or rotted away over the centuries. In addition to the warriors, an entire man-made necropolis for the Emperor has also been found around the first Emperors tomb mound. The tomb mound is located at the foot of Mount Li as an earthen pyramid, and Qin Shi Huangdis necropolis complex was constructed as a microcosm of his imperial palace or compound. It consists of several offices, halls, stables and other structures placed around the tomb mound which is surrounded by two solidly built rammed earth walls with gateway entrances. Sima Qian, in his most famous work, Shiji, completed a century after the mausoleum completion, wrote that the First Emperor was buried with palaces, towers, officials, valuable artefacts and wonderful objects. According to this account, there were 100 rivers simulated with flowing mercury, and above them the ceiling was decorated with heavenly bodies below which were the features of the land. Scientific analysis of the area shows there to be high levels of mercury in the surrounding earth leading to the conclusion that Qians account may in fact be accurate. The main chamber of the tomb has never been opened as archaeologists fear for the safety of the contents and their preservation. Some of the warriors who were found to have been painted began to deteriorate after excavation with some of the paint flaking off and disintegrating.

Most recently, with the excavation beginning in 2009, new pits have been uncovered revealing more painted soldiers and even the first shield. It is now possible for archaeologists to know what the armies would have carried with them and what weapons they would have used.

distortus: In Chinese mythology and culture, the three-legged crow is called the Sanzuwu and is responsible for the suns passage across the sky. The earliest known depiction of a three-legged crow appears in Neolithic pottery of the Yangzhou culture. The Sanzuwu is used in the decoration of formal imperial silk garments of the Western Han Dynasty 202 BC -220 AD depicts a Sanzuwu perched on a tree. In Japanese mythology, this flying creature is a raven or a Jungle Crow called Yatagarasu and the appearance of the great bird is interpreted as evidence of the will of Heaven or divine intervention in human affairs. This great crow was sent from heaven

as a guide for Emperor Jimmu (reigned 18 February 660 BC - 9 April 585 BC) on his initial journey from the region which would become Kumano. In Korean mythology, it is known as Samjok-o. During the period of the Koguryo Kingdom 37 BCE668 CE, the Samjok-o was a highly regarded emblem of power, thought greater than both the dragon and the Korean phoenix. Raven is the great shape shifter. The three legs symbolize Heaven, Earth and Humanity. It is one of the most universally ancient images of raven, appearing in the China, Japan, Korea, Neolithic site of Newgrange, Celtic art, Scandinavian art, Ancient Italian art, Egyptian art, and cultures throughout Africa.

The Zhuang: A People of Music

Saturday, November 10, 2012 | BY: RACHEL NAQUIN () The Zhuang people are the largest of the 55 ethnic minorities that make up China, with a population of 16, 178, 811 people. Most of these people live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south of China on the Vietnamese border. It is thought that they are descendants of the ancient Chinese Yue people. The Zhuang people have their own language that is split into northern and southern dialects and belongs to the SinoTibetan family of languages. While the language utilizes Chinese characters, in 1955 the Chinese government made an effort to develop a written language based on the Latin alphabet that has since been used to print books, magazines, and other forms of print media. The Zhuang people have no official religion; however, they often practice animism, the belief that every object (living or inanimate) possesses a spirit, and ancestor worship. The Zhuang also have a unique architecture known as the Ganlan style. A Ganlan style house consists of two stories supported by wooden columns, usually built in areas sloping down toward the water. The first story is commonly used to hold livestock or store other belongings. The second floor is meant to house the family.

A Zhuang village on a hillside The Zhuang are wildly known for their beautiful brocade which is utilized in their costumes. The women commonly wear a blue and black, collarless jacket, loose pants or skirt, and an apron featuring the Zhuang brocade. The men often wear a black coat that opens in the front and a belt around the waist. Both men and women will adorn themselves with silver accessories on special occasions. The famous Zhuang brocade has many uses, such as quilt covers, tablecloths, waist belts, scarves, and many other things, and is known world-wide for its beauty and durability. The Zhuang also utilize embroidery in making Xiuqiu, small embroidered balls that are meant to symbolize love and happiness. These balls are made from silk embroidered with flowers, plants, or birds and consist of twelve panels to signify the twelve months in a year. Traditionally, a young girl will find the boy she likes at the Singing Festival and throw him a Xiuqiu to let him know how she feels.

The Zhuang region is often referred to as the ocean of songs because its people love to sing. The Singing Festival is one unique Zhuang celebration. On March 3rd of the lunar calendar, people will gather to honor Liu Sanjie, a famous Zhuang folk singer, who had immense courage to stand up to tyrants of the land. To celebrate, singers will have practiced for months to prepare for singing competitions. In these competitions, participants will sing to each other with the hopes of stumping the other with a lyrical rhyme that cannot be matched. The lyrics of these songs are usually improvised on the spot and are very humorous. Aside from the Singing Festival, Zhuang people will also hold smaller Gexu, or singing competitions, where everyone will don their best costumes and sing folk songs together. The Zhuang are a people with a great and illustrious heritage. From beautiful embroidery to colorful songs, their customs are unique and should be cherished. Image courtesy of tangtang on flickr.com

domingo, 2 de diciembre de 2012

Al rescate de los colores del ejrcito de terracota.

Uno de los ms famosos tesoros arqueolgicos chinos, y probablemente de la Humanidad toda, sea el celebrrimo ejrcito de terracota de Qin Shi Huang Di, el primer Emperador de una China unificada, entre 221 y 210 antes de Cristo. Este gobernante que trajo paz y estabilidad a China por primera vez despus de medio milenio de guerras civiles, al precio de un despotismo despiadado, mand entre otras cosas ser enterrado en medio de un recinto funerario de 90 kilmetros cuadrados, escoltado por soldados construidos a escala natural, en terracota. Cuando uno piensa en el ejrcito de terracota, piensa en el color de la terracota, justamente, ese tono pedruzco sin brillo ni vida. Pero las ms recientes excavaciones arqueolgicas han descubierto que el ejrcito de marras... estaba pintado. En efecto, eran estatuas coloreadas. En realidad, que las estatuas inicialmente estaban pintadas era algo que se saba, debido a que los primeros investigadores en la tumba alcanzaron a atestiguarlo. Pero haba un problema. La pintura elaborada sobre una base de huevo, fue aplicada por los constructores de la tumba sobre una capa doble de laca, encima de cada guerrero. Al abrir la tumba en 1974 y entrar el aire despus de dos milenios enterrada, la laca se sec de manera brusca, se cuarte y de descascar por escamas, llevndose a la pintura con ella, porque si hay algo que una capa doble de laca se dice a s misma cuando se est cayendo, es que no me ir sin llevarme a la pintura conmigo. El proceso era tan rpido que apenas alcanz a ser documentado: estudios posteriores revelan que la laca bajo el color se curvaba y caa en apenas cuatro minutos. Pero la casualidad ayud a los arquelogos. Una seccin del gigantesco complejo funerario, por vueltas del destino, fue sumergido en parte por una capa de lodo. Los arquelogos, al excavar esta seccin, descubrieron todava estatuas pintadas: el pelo negro, las caras rosadas, los ojos de color caf o negro... Los tintes usados son variados: cinabrio para el rojo, carbn para el negro, cinabrio y silicatos para el morado, azurita para el azul, xido de hierro para el rojo oscuro, huesos quemados en hornos para el blanco, malaquita para el verde. Los investigadores chinos, en alianza con la Oficina de

Conservacin del Estado Bvaro en Alemania, desarrollaron un conservador especial para salvar los colores de los guerreros. El procedimiento se transform en algo casi de sala de emergencias: cualquier pieza desenterrada que muestre algn rastro de color, es rociada de inmediato con la substancia en cuestin, y luego se envuelve en plastico. Pero la cosa ha llegado a extremos surrealistas cuando los chinos han tenido que tratar nada menos que al suelo como un objeto arqueolgico. Como suena. Lo que pasa es que muchos artefactos de madera, tales como escudos o tambores, estn semipodridos y son difcilmente rescatables. Pero los diseos pintados sobre stos, cuando la madera y el mundo todava eran nuevos, quedaron estampados en el suelo, supuesto de que hayan estado en contacto con ste porque se han cado o resbalado, por supuesto. De manera que los arquelogos deben ir con un cuidado nico a la hora de tratar el suelo mismo. La pintura antigua, por cierto, se adhiere mejor al suelo que a la laca, de manera que dichos patrones estn tambin mejor conservados. La necesidad es la madre de la invencin, as es que desarrollaron un adhesivo que mantiene cohesionado al suelo, de manera que los colores no se pierdan... Y vaya uno a saber qu sorpresas adicionales esperan ac en los prximos aos. Despus de todo, en casi cuatro dcadas del descubrimiento apenas se ha excavado el uno por ciento del complejo.

fuckyeshuaxia:
[thousand miles] [destined marriage] [one thread] [is led]

The red string [of fate] is a concept originating from Chinese mythology (and if you come onto this post wailing about how its originally from Japan, you are wrong and need to recognise the fact that just because its where you were introduced to the concept doesnt mean it was originally where it came from, and that this is part of the

culture of multiple East Asian countries), wherein the gods tie a red string around the ankles of those who are destined to marry. The story goes that one day, (yu lo)or (yu xi lo rn), the matchmaker god, sat on a cloth sack, reading a book under the moonlight (imagine that). A young, unmarried boy passed by, and, being curious, asked him what he was reading. told him it was a book of fates, a record of all the marriages that are destined to happen. The boy then asked what the purpose of the strands of red silk thread in his cloth sack was. told him they were used to tie together the feet of those who were meant to be married, whether or not the two families had a blood feud, or whether they lived on opposite sides of the country. And once the thread was tied, there was absolutely no way to change it. He also told the boy that his future wife was the daughter of a vegetable stall vendor a few miles north of where they were. He gave the young boy directions to the market. Once he was there, the boy discovered only a old woman holding an ugly two year old girl. Being the horrible, superficial brat he was, he didnt want to marry so ugly a girl, and remembering that the old man had told him there was no way to change who he was tied to, he got a servant to assassinate the girl. The servant, in the dark of night, slashed down towards the girls forehead and left without checking that she was dead, unknowingly only wounding the place between the girls eyebrows. Fourteen years later, because of his fathers influence, this boy became an official. The governor of the province liked him very much, and arranged a marriage between this boy and his daughter. His daughter was very beautiful, with the face of a flower and the countenance of the moon (), but she always had a flower or an ornament stuck to the space between her eyebrows. Being curious (ah, continuity), the young man then asked his wife why she always covered that area, and she responded that, in her youth, someone had injured her there, and so she always kept it covered. Shocked, the young man recounted the story of his murderous assholery, and, realising how fated they were, they fell more in love than ever. I dont know why, because if my husband told me that when I was two he tried to kill me because he thought I was too ugly to be his wife, I would (divorce) him in two seconds. Nevertheless, since then, became known as the god of marriages (and whatever name he might have had in the past, hes now known as , or the old man beneath the moon), and the red string () is a symbol of fate and love.

Hallan las ruinas del palacio del emperador de los soldados de terracota

Ejercito de guerreros de terracota :: Eco Las ruinas de un antiguo palacio cerca de la tumba del primer emperador de China, que ya era clebre por sus soldados de terracota, fueron desenterradas, anunciaron este sbado los medios de comunicacin oficiales. Este descubrimiento es el ltimo en el mausoleo, que data de hace ms de 2.000 aos y se convirti en uno de los mayores hallazgos arqueolgicos modernos despus de que un campesino que cavaba un pozo encontrara a estos guerreros de tamao natural, en 1974. El palacio "es el mayor complejo encontrado hasta la fecha en el cementerio", indic la agencia de noticias oficial Xinhua (China Nueva), citando a Sun Weigang, un investigador del Instituto de Arqueologa de la provincia de Shaanxi (norte), donde se encuentra este lugar. Qin Shihuang, un soberano de la dinasta Qin (221-207 AC), gobern durante la unificacin de China y se declar primer emperador. De acuerdo con sus cimientos, aparentemente el palacio tena una superficie de 690 metros por 250 metros, casi la cuarta parte del tamao de la famosa Ciudad Prohibida de Pekn, afirm China Nueva, citando a Sun.

history-and-shit: Prince Sado was born in 1735, and was married nine years later. It is said that his father, the king of Korea, began hating his son when Sado was very young. Sado had a son of his own when he was seventeen. After the birth of his son, Sado became sick with the measles. He recovered from his illness, but it seemed to have triggered a deep-seated insanity that lurked within the prince. The king became even more disgusted with his son. The king was said to have washed out his mouth, cleaned his ears and changed his clothes whenever Sado talked to him. Prince Sados insanity first presented itself as nightmares and delusions. These episodes were soon followed by violent attacks. By 1757, Sado was physically abusing his servants, and raping any woman who denied him. Sado murdered and raped on a whim. He even took to stalking his own sister. The king eventually tired of the terror his son inflicted. The king ordered Sado into a rice chest, and the prince complied. The king then had the rice chest nailed shut. Sado spent eight days in it before he finally died. Perhaps the kings hatred contributed to Sados insanity. Either way, the cruel prince died a cruel death and, in the kings eyes, justice was served.

goddessofcheese: brofligate: did-you-kno: Source There is literally nothing better than a sexy, badass lady. CHING MOTHERFUCKING SHIH This lady was such a badass, I cant count the ways, but lets try. She got married to an already successful pirate, Zheng Yi, and took over when he died. She was crazy strict to keep an iron fist over her fleet of pirates, and the punishments for stepping out of line were brutal. If you stole or looted from a town that provided assistance or tribute to the pirate fleet, Ching would chop your fucking head off with a battle axe and dump your lifeless body in the ocean. If you stole from the pirate treasury, or she thought you were stealing from the pirate treasury, Ching would chop your fucking head off dump your lifeless body in the ocean. Raping any captured female prisoners was punishable by immediate death. Fuck, if you had consensual

sex while on duty you got your head chopped off and the woman was chucked off the boat no matter where they were at. Ching wasnt fucking around, and she wanted to make damn sure you werent fucking around when you should have been working. Two years after she took over, she got so notorious for ransacking towns and taking taxes on them that she pissed off the entire Chinese government, and sent out a massive fleet to bring her in line. Most pirates probably wouldve said this was out of their pay grade and taken off to hide out or ransack some other country. Ching Shih said fuck that. She not only faced them head on, she wiped the floor with them, killing hundreds and capturing sixty-something ships from the Imperial Fleet. Prisoners were given the choice of joining up or being executed on the spot. The Admiral of the Chinese navy, Kwo Lang, was so afraid of being captured by her or going back to admit hed been beaten by her that he committed suicide. For the next two years, Ching Shih not only kept on pirating, she fought off Chinese forces as well as Dutch and British warships that the navy called in to help. Finally the government gave up and offered her amnesty as well as amnesty for her then SEVENTEEN THOUSAND crewman. Ching Shih got to keep all her plunder, so she retired to the countryside where she opened up a brothel and lived until she was 69. tldr: Ive come to terms with the reality that Ill never be as terrifyingly badass as this woman was.

pimpingweapons: The Sword of Goujian,

Unearthed by Chinese Archeologists in 1965, the Sword of Guijan is an ancient bronze sword dating to the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history (771 to 403 BCE). The most amazing aspects of this sword are its beautiful etchings and its state of preservation. After over 2,500 years the sword has no corrosion or tarnish and is still razor sharp. Scientists theorize that its preservation was due to a special alloy of bronze containing copper, tin, lead, iron, arsenic, and sulfur. It was also contained within a well crafted airtight scabbard. Today the Sword Guijian can be found at the Hubei Provincial Museum.

12/12
Los arquelogos tienen miedo de entrar a la tumba del primer emperador chino
Los arquelogos que trabajan en la tumba del primer emperador de China, Qin Shihuang, conocen bien los sentimientos de frustracin y temor que provoca estar frente al mayor descubrimiento de la era moderna... y no poder tocarlo. "Es como tener un regalo empaquetado en casa, saber que dentro est lo que ms ansas, y no poder abrirlo", comenta uno de los tcnicos. No es para menos. El mausoleo del hombre que unific el Imperio del Centro se mantiene intacto desde hace ms de 2.200 aos en el interior de una pirmide de tres pisos y 76 metros de altura, cubierta de tierra y preservada por un complejo sistema de drenaje. Aunque no se sabe en qu condiciones se encuentran los cuerpos del emperador y de su corte, y uno de los responsables de las excavaciones de los guerreros de terracota, Duan Qingbo, considera que se habrn podrido; escritos antiguos detallan cmo su interior esconde tesoros de valor incalculable que seguramente se han mantenido en tan buen estado como las 6.000 estatuas encontradas hasta ahora. Pero los libros tambin describen trampas que podran dificultar la apertura de la cripta. Los cientficos, que este mes han dado con un conjunto de 10 edificios que abarcan 690 metros de largo y 250 metros de ancho, no se pronuncian al respecto, pero los indicios podran confirmar un mito que bien podra justificar una nueva entrega de Indiana Jones. Se ha encontrado gran cantidad de mercurio que, segn los expertos, podra haber sido utilizado para simular ros dentro del palacio y que, ahora, por su toxicidad, resultara especialmente nocivo para quien entrase. Adems, los planos que han dibujado los arquelogos chinos usando avanzadas tcnicas de volumetra subterrnea hacen pensar que el complejo funerario, cuya distribucin tampoco est clara, guarda todo tipo de sorpresas desagradables, incluidas flechas que se dispararan solas. A juzgar por el revestimiento de cromo encontrado en las que portan algunas de las figuras descubiertas hasta ahora, historiadores como Guo Zhikun, uno de los principales estudiosos de la tumba de Qin, aseguran que las armas podran ser todava totalmente funcionales. "Los artesanos que construyeron las trampas pusieron ballestas de forma que si algn saqueador entraba, fuese disparado inmediatamente". En cualquier caso, el Gobierno no quiere correr ningn riesgo y se niega a conceder todava los permisos para investigar la pirmide y el palacio de Qin. Pekn considera que no existe tecnologa suficientemente avanzada como para asegurar que el interior no se vea afectado con la apertura, y prefiere esperar al momento adecuado. Entre carcajadas, los tcnicos de las excavaciones reconocen que no les gustara ser los primeros en entrar. "A saber lo que hay ah dentro".

Donde s continan las excavaciones es en las cuatro gigantescas naves habitadas por miles de figuras ancestrales. All, cada poco tiempo los arquelogos desentierran, con el mimo propio de una madre y la precisin de un cirujano, nuevas esculturas que todava se esconden en el subsuelo. Sucedi en junio, cuando desenterraron 120 figuras de soldados, acrbatas y trovadores, que acompaan a Qin en un mausoleo que parece no tener fin. Un campesino dio por casualidad con el primero de los yacimientos en 1974 y, desde entonces, los arquelogos han dejado al descubierto ms de 6.000 figuras, todas ellas diferentes, de un total estimado en unas 8.000. Pero el ejrcito de terracota es solo la punta del iceberg de uno de los mayores descubrimientos de la era moderna, y contina el debate sobre lo que realmente se oculta bajo el suelo. Incluso hay quien duda que las figuras representen a hombres de guerra. Jiu Jiusheng, historiador y estudioso del conjunto, asegur en un informe que se trata de sirvientes, guardaespaldas, y parte de la corte del sanguinario emperador. Teoras, sin duda, no faltan. De momento, segn los expertos, lo nico seguro es que Qin mand construir su tumba poco despus de hacerse con la corona del pas, y en ella pretenda continuar disfrutando de los privilegios del emperador incluso en el ms all. Y vaya si lo ha conseguido. A pesar de que el tiempo es un enemigo formidable, como atestiguan las heridas que han sufrido muchos de los soldados y de los caballos que ya han visto la luz decapitados o tullidos, sorprende el buen estado en el que se han conservado las figuras. En las ltimas que han sido desenterradas incluso se ha salvado gran parte del color original, un hecho que otorga an mayor realismo a un ejrcito que, 2.200 aos despus de haber recibido tal misin, contina guardando los restos del padre de China. Tambin sigue, por cierto, aportando una fuente sin fin de ingresos. No importa cuntas veces se hayan visto en fotografas. Al natural, los guerreros de terracota de Xian ponen la piel de gallina y bien valen los casi 20 euros de la entrada.Lo que ms impacta es la sensacin de presenciar un yacimiento arqueolgico que est vivo, y que posiblemente no revele todos sus secretos jams. El Pas

Literary Mind Melding

Sunday, December 9, 2012 | BY: BEIJING ZHU () By day Mi Meng () is the editor of Southern Metropolis Daily, a Guangzhou-based newspaper, but by night shes an active Sina blogger who breathes life into figures from Chinas past. The key focus point of her blog, which is called I Am the Most Powerful Woman ( nrn ni zud), is that the echoes of the past often contain messages relevant to contemporary Chinese society. One of the articles most emblematic of her writing (which, though it never appeared in her blog, was published in Han Hans Party magazine) covered Jin Shengtan (16081661), a distinctive literary critic of the early Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), best known for his unconventional commentary on the classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh ( , Shuh Zhun). Jin was executed along with a group of intellectual friends after publicly protesting against a local official who sold disaster relief crops to ordinary people at an inflated price. The articles title, The Pained Jin Shengtan (), refers to an anecdote about Jin on the day of his execution. Mi writes: Reluctant to see his friends die in front of him, Jin asks the executioner to kill him first. The request is rejected, so he pleads, I have money with me. If you kill me first, you can take it. The executioner performs his duty, only to find two paper balls in the dead mans ears. One says very and the other says painful. We see more of Jins personality through an anecdote told by the prison guard. On the night before his execution, Jin calls the guard to confess something important. The latter brings him a brush pen and some ink, expecting the disclosure of a big secret. Instead, Jin writes, If you eat pickles with dried bean curd, you get the flavor of walnut. If I can pass this discovery to later generations, Ill die without regrets. To add depth to her profile of Jin Shengtan, Mi Meng brings other voices in on the narration, including Shi Naian (1296-1371), the author of Outlaws. In Mi Mengs vision, Shi dismisses Jin as a rude commentator who willfully revised his masterpiece (Jin is famous for cutting Outlaws from its original 120 chapters to the now much more popular 70 chapters). Jin is shameless! an outraged Shi says in an interview with the fictional Time Travel Weekly. He disliked the last 50 chapters of my novel so rudely deleted the rest of the book! He even conjured up a new ending then unblushingly claimed his version as the original. The pirate copy has suffocated the official one. How can I keep calm? The pretender completely ignores my copyright! I have to say the copyright law in your dynasty is far from satisfactory. Jins multifaceted character is further revealed through the narrative voices of his old classmate, who sees him as a cynical examinee who playfully mocks imperial examinations, and Jins contemporary opponent, Gui Zhuang, who sees him as a dangerous reactionary who shamelessly corrupts social morality. Mi herself advertises Jin as a sober drunkard, a cynical talent, a Buddhist who loves dog meat, a fraud who has a profound knowledge of philosophy, a venom-tongued literary critic, a scholar who takes rules as shit, and a filial son and kind father who

opposes feudal ethical codes. Jins pain, as she concludes, results from his outrageous behavior, which was too excessive to be tolerated in his time. To read more of Mi Mengs historical-fiction blogs, just Google Sina and the blog name. The Trung Sisters

The Trung sisters Trung Trac and Trung Nhi were daughters of a powerful Vietnamese lord who lived at the beginning of the first century AD. At that time, Vietnamese women still retained many rights even though their country was occupied by the Chinese Han Dynasty, which did not have such strong beliefs in womens rights. The Vietnamese largely tolerated this foreign rule until 39 A.D., when a Chinese commander raped Trung Trac and killed her husband. The sisters were not having any of that. They organized a full-scale rebellion of 80,000 men and women. Thirty-six of their armys generals were women including the Trung Sisters mother (I guess their no-nonsense attitude ran in the family). Various accounts of their subsequent battles with the Chinese exist, including the story of female leader Phung Thi Chinh who, despite being pregnant at the time, apparently said oh, fudge it. I got this shit, and proceeded to have her baby on the battlefield. She hoisted the newborn child onto her back, and continued fighting. No big deal. The Trung Sisters were ultimately defeated, and many warriors either committed suicide to protect their honor, or died in battle.

ancientpeoples: As early as 2000 B.C., bronze technology was highly developed in China, and objects made from this alloy of copper, tin, and lead were considered luxury items, reserved for the aristocratic class. Among these coveted pieces were small bronze mirrors, some compact and portable enough to be held in one hand, and others large and heavy enough to require stands. Usually cast from clay molds, they were highly polished on one side, offering a reflective surface, while the other side was decorated with intricate patterns and designs that reveal an astonishing level of skill and artistry in their craftsmanship. Birds, dragons, and serpents were common motifs in the earliest mirrors. Later, more sophisticated and intricate designs included mythological figures, deities, animals of the Chinese zodiac, abstract patterns, background textures, inscriptions, enamelwork, and inlays of jade, turquoise, and mother-of-pearl. That these mirrors were prized by their owners is evident not only in light of their fine craftsmanship but also because of related artifacts that point to how they were valued. A pottery tomb figure dating to about the first century B.C. depicts a woman gazing into a mirror while applying powder to her face. An elaborate cosmetic set includes a bronze mirror from around the first century A.D., accompanied by a silk brocade pouch, a wool powder puff, and a lacquered wooden box. Artifacts such as these, along with the mirrors themselves, provide a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of their users.