1.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
2.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
3.
Vietnamese language
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Vietnamese /ˌviɛtnəˈmiːz/ is an Austroasiatic language that originated in the north of modern-day Vietnam, where it is the national and official language. It is the language of the Vietnamese people, as well as a first or second language for the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. As the result of Vietnamese emigration and cultural influence, Vietnamese speakers are found throughout the world, notably in East and Southeast Asia, North America, Australia, Vietnamese has also been officially recognized as a minority language in the Czech Republic. It is part of the Austroasiatic language family of which it has by far the most speakers, Vietnamese vocabulary has borrowings from Chinese, and it formerly used a modified set of Chinese characters called chữ nôm given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese alphabet in use today is a Latin alphabet with diacritics for tones. As the national language, Vietnamese is spoken throughout Vietnam by ethnic Vietnamese, Vietnamese is also the native language of the Gin minority group in southern Guangxi Province in China. A significant number of speakers also reside in neighboring Cambodia. In the United States, Vietnamese is the sixth most spoken language, with over 1.5 million speakers and it is the third most spoken language in Texas, fourth in Arkansas and Louisiana, and fifth in California. Vietnamese is the seventh most spoken language in Australia, in France, it is the most spoken Asian language and the eighth most spoken immigrant language at home. Vietnamese is the official and national language of Vietnam. It is the first language of the majority of the Vietnamese population, in the Czech Republic, Vietnamese has been recognized as one of 14 minority languages, on the basis of communities that have either traditionally or on a long-term basis resided in the country. This status grants Czech citizens from the Vietnamese community the right to use Vietnamese with public authorities, Vietnamese is increasingly being taught in schools and institutions outside of Vietnam. Since the 1980s, Vietnamese language schools have been established for youth in many Vietnamese-speaking communities around the world, furthermore, there has also been a number of Germans studying Vietnamese due to increased economic investment in Vietnam. Vietnamese is taught in schools in the form of immersion to a varying degree in Cambodia, Laos. Classes teach students subjects in Vietnamese and another language, furthermore, in Thailand, Vietnamese is one of the most popular foreign languages in schools and colleges. Vietnamese was identified more than 150 years ago as part of the Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family. Later, Muong was found to be closely related to Vietnamese than other Mon–Khmer languages. The term Vietic was proposed by Hayes, who proposed to redefine Viet–Muong as referring to a subbranch of Vietic containing only Vietnamese and Muong
4.
Hangul
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The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul in South Korea and as Chosŏngŭl/Chosŏn Muntcha in North Korea is the alphabet that has been used to write the Korean language since the 15th century. It was created during the Joseon Dynasty in 1443 by King Sejong the Great, in South Korea, Hangul is used primarily to write the Korean language as using Hanja in typical Korean writing had fallen out of common usage during the late 1990s. In its classical and modern forms, the alphabet has 19 consonant and 21 vowel letters, however, instead of being written sequentially like the letters of the Latin alphabet, Hangul letters are grouped into blocks, such as 한 han, each of which transcribes a syllable. That is, although the syllable 한 han may look like a single character, each syllabic block consists of two to six letters, including at least one consonant and one vowel. These blocks are arranged horizontally from left to right or vertically from top to bottom. Each Korean word consists of one or more syllables, hence one or more blocks, of the 11,172 possible Hangul syllables, the most frequent 256 have a cumulative frequency of 88. 2%, with the top 512, it reaches 99. 9%. The modern name Hangul was coined by Ju Sigyeong in 1912, han meant great in archaic Korean, and geul is the native Korean word for script. Taken together, then, the meaning is great script, as the word han had also become one way of indicating Korea as a whole the name could also potentially be interpreted as Korean script. Korean 한글 is pronounced, and in English as /ˈhɑːn. ɡʊl/ or /ˈhɑːŋɡʊl/, when used as an English word, it is often rendered without the diacritics, hangul, and it is often capitalized as Hangul, as it appears in many English dictionaries. Hankul in the Yale romanization, a system recommended for technical linguistic studies, North Koreans call it Chosŏngŭl, after Chosŏn, the North Korean name for Korea. Because of objections to the names Hangeul, Chosŏngŭl, and urigeul by Koreans in China, until the early 20th century, Hangul was denigrated as vulgar by the literate elite, who preferred the traditional hanja writing system. They gave it such names as these, Achimgeul, in the original Hanja, it is rendered as 故智者不終朝而會，愚者可浹旬而學。 Gugmun Eonmun Amgeul. Am is a prefix that signifies a noun is feminine Ahaetgeul or Ahaegeul Hangul was promulgated by Sejong the Great, the Hall of Worthies, a group of scholars who worked with Sejong to develop and refine the new alphabet, is often credited for the work. The project was completed in late December 1443 or January 1444, the publication date of the Hunmin Jeong-eum, October 9, became Hangul Day in South Korea. Its North Korean equivalent, Chosongul Day, is on January 15, various speculations about the creation process were put to rest by the discovery in 1940 of the 1446 Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye. This document explains the design of the consonant letters according to articulatory phonetics, to assuage this problem, King Sejong created the unique alphabet known as Hangul to promote literacy among the common people. However, it entered popular culture as Sejong had intended, being used especially by women, the late 16th century, however, saw a revival of Hangul, with gasa literature and later sijo flourishing. In the 17th century, Hangul novels became a major genre, by this point spelling had become quite irregular
5.
Hanja
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Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. Borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation, hanja-mal or hanja-eo refers to words that can be written with hanja, and hanmun refers to Classical Chinese writing, although hanja is sometimes used loosely to encompass these other concepts. Because hanja never underwent major reform, they are almost entirely identical to traditional Chinese, only a small number of hanja characters are modified or unique to Korean. By contrast, many of the Chinese characters currently in use in Japan and Mainland China have been simplified, and contain fewer strokes than the corresponding hanja characters. Today, a working knowledge of Chinese characters is still important for anyone who wishes to study older texts. Learning a certain number of hanja is very helpful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words, hanja are not used to write native Korean words, which are always rendered in hangul, and even words of Chinese origin—hanja-eo —are written with the hangul alphabet most of the time. A major motivation for the introduction of Chinese characters into Korea was the spread of Buddhism, the major Chinese text that introduced hanja to Koreans, however, was not a religious text but the Chinese text, Cheonjamun. One way of adapting hanja to write Korean in such systems was to represent native Korean grammatical particles, for example, Gugyeol uses the characters 爲尼 to transcribe the Korean word hăni, in modern Korean, that means does, and so. However, in Chinese, the characters are read as the expression wéi ní. This is an example of Gugyeol words where the radical is read in Korean for its meaning. Hanja was the means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great promoted the invention of hangul in the 15th century. However, even after the invention of hangul, most Korean scholars continued to write in hanmun and it was not until the 20th century that hangul truly replaced hanja. Officially, hanja has not been used in North Korea since June 1949, additionally, many words borrowed from Chinese have been replaced in the North with native Korean words. However, there are a number of Chinese-borrowed words in widespread usage in the North. The replacement has been less total in South Korea where, although usage has declined over time, some remains in common usage in some contexts. Each hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements, the vast majority of hanja use the additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways. This dual meaning-sound reading of a character is called eumhun, the word or words used to denote the meaning are often—though hardly always—words of native Korean origin, and are sometimes archaic words no longer commonly used. South Korean primary schools abandoned the teaching of hanja in 1971 and it is taught in separate courses in South Korean high schools, separately from the normal Korean-language curriculum
6.
Kanji
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Kanji, or kanji, are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana and katakana. The Japanese term kanji for the Chinese characters literally means Han characters and is using the same characters as the Chinese word hànzì. Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, the earliest known instance of such an import was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Yamato emissary in 57 AD. Chinese coins from the first century AD have been found in Yayoi-period archaeological sites, however, the Japanese of that era probably had no comprehension of the script, and would remain illiterate until the fifth century AD. The earliest Japanese documents were written by bilingual Chinese or Korean officials employed at the Yamato court. For example, the correspondence from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in 478 has been praised for its skillful use of allusion. Later, groups of people called fuhito were organized under the monarch to read, during the reign of Empress Suiko, the Yamato court began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in Chinese literacy at the Japanese court. The Japanese language had no form at the time Chinese characters were introduced. Chinese characters also came to be used to write Japanese words, around 650 CE, a writing system called manyōgana evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their sound, rather than for their meaning. Manyōgana written in cursive style evolved into hiragana, or onna-de, that is, ladies hand, major works of Heian-era literature by women were written in hiragana. Katakana emerged via a path, monastery students simplified manyōgana to a single constituent element. Thus the two writing systems, hiragana and katakana, referred to collectively as kana, are descended from kanji. Katakana are mostly used for representing onomatopoeia, non-Japanese loanwords, the names of plants and animals, and for emphasis on certain words. In 1946, following World War II and under the Allied Occupation of Japan and this was done with the goal of facilitating learning for children and simplifying kanji use in literature and periodicals. The number of characters in circulation was reduced, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established, some characters were given simplified glyphs, called shinjitai. Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged and these are simply guidelines, so many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used, these are known as hyōgaiji. The kyōiku kanji are 1,006 characters that Japanese children learn in elementary school, originally the list only contained 881 characters. This was expanded to 996 characters in 1977 and it was not until 1982 the list was expanded to its current size
7.
Hiragana
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Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and in some cases rōmaji. It is a lettering system. The word hiragana literally means ordinary or simple kana, Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems. With one or two exceptions, each sound in the Japanese language is represented by one character in each system. Because the characters of the kana do not represent single consonants, words that do have common kanji renditions may also sometimes be written instead in hiragana, according to an individual authors preference, for example to impart an informal feel. Hiragana is also used to write furigana, a reading aid that shows the pronunciation of kanji characters, There are two main systems of ordering hiragana, the old-fashioned iroha ordering and the more prevalent gojūon ordering. Of the 50 theoretically possible combinations, yi and wu do not exist in the language, wo is usually pronounced as a vowel in modern Japanese, and is preserved in only one use, as a particle. Romanization of the kana does not always follow the consonant-vowel scheme laid out in the table. For example, ち, nominally ti, is very often romanised as chi in an attempt to represent the actual sound in Japanese. These basic characters can be modified in various ways, by adding a dakuten marker, a voiceless consonant is turned into a voiced consonant, k→g, ts/s→z, t→d, h→b and ch/sh→j. Hiragana beginning with an h can also add a handakuten marker changing the h to a p, a small version of the hiragana for ya, yu or yo may be added to hiragana ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide to a, u or o, for example, き plus ゃ becomes きゃ. Addition of the small y kana is called yōon, a small tsu っ, called a sokuon, indicates that the following consonant is geminated. In Japanese this is an important distinction in pronunciation, for example, the sokuon also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop, as in いてっ. However, it cannot be used to double the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables consonants – to double these, Hiragana usually spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana, for example, おかあさん. In informal writing, small versions of the five vowel kana are used to represent trailing off sounds. Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in hiragana as ゝ and ゞ respectively, the following table shows the complete hiragana together with the Hepburn romanization and IPA transcription in the gojūon order. Hiragana with dakuten or handakuten follow the gojūon kana without them, obsolete and normally unused kana are shown in gray
8.
Hepburn romanization
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The system was originally proposed by the Romanization Club in 1885. The revised edition by Romaji-Hirome-kai in 1908 is called standard style romanization, Hepburn is based on English phonology and has competed with the alternative Nihon-shiki romanization, which was developed in Japan as a replacement of Japanese script. In 1930, a Special Romanization Study Commission was appointed to compare the two, the ordinance was temporarily overturned by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers during the Occupation of Japan, but was reissued in 1954. In 1972, a version of Hepburn was codified as ANSI standard Z39. 11-1972. It was proposed in 1989 as a draft for ISO3602, the ANSI Z39. 11-1972 standard was consequently deprecated on October 6,1994. As of 1978, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, in addition The Japan Times, the Japan Travel Bureau, and many other private organizations used Hepburn instead of Kunrei-shiki. The National Diet Library used Kunrei-shiki, although Hepburn is not a government standard, some government agencies mandate it. In many other areas where it de jure status, Hepburn remains the de facto standard. Signs and notices in city offices and police stations, at shrines, temples, English-language newspapers and media use the simplified form of Hepburn. Cities and prefectures use it in information for English-speaking residents and visitors, official tourism information put out by the government uses it, as do guidebooks, local and foreign, on Japan. Many students of Japanese as a foreign language learn Hepburn, there are many variants of Hepburn romanization. The two most common styles are, Traditional Hepburn, as defined in various editions of Hepburns dictionary and this variant is characterized by the rendering of syllabic n as m before the consonants b, m and p, e. g. Shimbashi for 新橋. Modified Hepburn, also known as Revised Hepburn, in which the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is no longer used, in Japan itself, there are some variants officially mandated for various uses, Railway Standard, which follows the Hyōjun-shiki Rōmaji. All JR railways and other major railways use this type for station names, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Standard, which follows the modified Hepburn style. This is used for road signs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Passport Standard, a permissive standard which explicitly allows the use of non-Hepburn romaji in personal names, notably for passports. In particular, rendering the syllabic n as m before b, m, p, details of these variants can be found below. The romanizations set out in the first and second versions of Hepburns dictionary are primarily of historical interest, supporters argue that Hepburn is not intended as a linguistic tool. The long vowels are indicated by macrons
9.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
10.
East Asian cultural sphere
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The Sinosphere, or East Asian cultural sphere, refers to a grouping of countries and regions in East Asia that were historically influenced by the culture of China. The East Asian cultural sphere shares a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, the core regions of the East Asian cultural sphere are Mainland China, Taiwan Island, North Korea, South Korea, Ryukyu Islands, Japan and Vietnam. Although Mongolia and parts of Central Asia are sometimes included and perhaps more on an ethnic basis, the terms East Asian cultural sphere and Chinese character cultural sphere are used interchangeably with Sinosphere but have different denotations. British historian Arnold J. Toynbee listed the Far Eastern civilization as one of the main civilizations outlined in his book and he included Japan and Korea in his Far Eastern civilization, and proposed that it grew out of the Sinic civilization that originated in the Yellow River basin. Toynbee compared the relationship between the Sinic and Far Eastern civilization with that of the Hellenic and Western civilizations, according to Toynbee, the Hellenic and Western civilizations had an apparentation-affiliation relationship, while the Far Eastern world was controlled by the ghost of the Sinic universal state. Japanese historian Nishijima Sadao conceived a Chinese or East Asian cultural sphere largely isolated from other cultures, according to Sadao, this cultural sphere shared the philosophy of Confucianism, the religion of Buddhism, and similar political and social structures. His cultural sphere includes China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the American Sinologist and historian Edwin O. Reischauer grouped China, Korea, and Japan together into a cultural sphere that he called the Sinic world. These countries are centralized states that share a Confucian ethical philosophy, Reischauer states that this culture originated in Northern China, and compared the relationship between Northern China and East Asia with that of Greco-Roman civilization and Europe. The elites of East Asia were tied together through a written language based on Chinese characters. Political scientist Samuel P. Huntington considered the Sinic world as one of civilizations in his The Clash of Civilizations. Huntingtons Sinic civilization includes China, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, of the many civilizations that Huntington discusses, the Sinic world is the only one that is based on a cultural, rather than religious, identity. Huntingtons theory was that in a post-Cold War world, humanity identify with groups, tribes, ethnic groups, religious communities. Huntington argued that the Sinic world would eventually oppose the Wests hegemony in Asia, countries from the East Asian cultural sphere share a common architectural style stemming from the architecture of ancient China. The countries of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Confucianism focuses on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics, the most basic of which are rén, yì, and lǐ. Mid-Imperial Chinese philosophy is defined by the development of Neo-Confucianism. During the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism from India also became a prominent philosophical, Neo-Confucianism has its origins in the Tang Dynasty, the Confucianist scholar Han Yu is seen as a forebear of the Neo-Confucianists of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty philosopher Zhou Dunyi is seen as the first true pioneer of Neo-Confucianism, elsewhere in East Asia, Japanese philosophy began to develop as indigenous Shinto beliefs fused with Buddhism, Confucianism and other schools of Chinese philosophy. Similar to Japan, in Korean philosophy elements of Shamanism were integrated into the Neo-Confucianism imported from China, East Asian literary culture was based on the use of Literary Chinese, which became the medium of scholarship and government across the region
11.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
12.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
13.
Korea
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Korea is a historical state in East Asia, since 1945 divided into two distinct sovereign states, North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest and it is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan. Korea emerged as a political entity after centuries of conflict among the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Later Silla divided into three states during the Later Three Kingdoms period. Goryeo, which had succeeded Goguryeo, defeated the two states and united the Korean Peninsula. Around the same time, Balhae collapsed and its last crown prince fled south to Goryeo, Goryeo, whose name developed into the modern exonym Korea, was a highly cultured state that created the worlds first metal movable type in 1234. However, multiple invasions by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty during the 13th century greatly weakened the nation, following the Yuan Dynastys collapse, severe political strife followed, and Goryeo eventually fell to a coup led by General Yi Seong-gye, who established Joseon in 1388. The first 200 years of Joseon were marked by peace and saw the creation of the Korean alphabet by Sejong the Great in the 14th century. During the later part of the dynasty, however, Koreas isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname of the Hermit Kingdom, by the late 19th century, the country became the object of imperial design by the Empire of Japan. Despite attempts at modernization by the Korean Empire, in 1910 Korea was annexed by Japan and these circumstances soon became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers, exacerbated by their incapability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. To date, both continue to compete with each other as the sole legitimate government of all of Korea. Korea is the spelling of Corea, a name attested in English as early as 1614. It is a derived from Cauli, Marco Polos transcription of the Chinese 高麗. This was the Hanja for the Korean kingdom of Goryeo or Koryŏ, Goryeos name was a continuation of the earlier Goguryeo or Koguryŏ, the northernmost of the Samguk, which was officially known by the shortened form Goryeo after the 5th-century reign of King Jangsu. The original name was a combination of the go with the name of a local Yemaek tribe. The name Korea is now used in English contexts by both North and South Korea. In South Korea, Korea as a whole is referred to as Hanguk, the name references the Samhan—Ma, Jin, and Byeon—who preceded the Three Kingdoms in the southern and central end of the peninsula during the 1st centuries BC and AD. It has been linked with the title khan used by the nomads of Manchuria
14.
Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
15.
May Fourth Movement
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Many political and social leaders of the next decades emerged at this time. The term May Fourth Movement in a broader sense often refers to the period during 1915-1921 more often called the New Culture Movement. The atmosphere and political mood that emerged around 1919, in the words of Mitter, are at the centre of a set of ideas that has shaped Chinas momentous twentieth century, following the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Qing Dynasty disintegrated. This marked the end of thousands of years of imperial rule. However, the reality was that China was a fragmented nation dominated by warlords, the Chinese Beiyang government was occupied with suppressing internal affairs and did little to counter the influence exerted by foreign powers. Leaders of the New Culture Movement believed that traditional Confucian values were responsible for the weakness of the nation. Chinese nationalists called for a rejection of traditional values and the adoption of Western ideals of Mr. Science. These iconoclastic and anti-traditional views and programs have shaped Chinas politics, China had entered World War I on the side of the Allied Triple Entente in 1917 with the condition that all German spheres of influence, such as Shandong, would be returned to China. Although in that year 140,000 Chinese labourers were sent to France, the Western Allies dominated the meeting at Versailles, and paid little heed to Chinese demands. Britain and France were primarily interested in punishing Germany. S, american advocacy of self-determination at the League of Nations was attractive to Chinese intellectuals, but their failure to follow through was seen as a betrayal. To recommend a large-scale gathering in Beijing, to promote the creation of a Beijing student union. To hold a demonstration that afternoon in protest to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, on the afternoon of May 4 over 3,000 students of Peking University and other schools marched from many points to gather in front of Tiananmen. They shouted such slogans as Struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the traitors at home, Do away with the Twenty-One Demands. They voiced their anger at the Allied betrayal of China, denounced the governments inability to protect Chinese interests. Demonstrators insisted on the resignation of three Chinese officials they accused of being collaborators with the Japanese, after burning the residence of one of these officials and beating his servants, student protesters were arrested, jailed, and severely beaten. The next day, students in Beijing as a whole went on strike and in the cities across China, students, patriotic merchants. The demonstrators skillfully appealed to the newspapers and sent representatives to carry the word across the country, from early June, workers and businessmen in Shanghai also went on strike as the center of the movement shifted from Beijing to Shanghai. Chancellors from thirteen universities arranged for the release of student prisoners, and Cai Yuanpei, newspapers, magazines, citizen societies, and chambers of commerce offered support for the students
16.
Pseudonym
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A pseudonym or alias is a name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which can differ from their original or true name. Historically, they have taken the form of anagrams, Graecisms. Pseudonyms should not be confused with new names that replace old ones, actors, musicians, and other performers sometimes use stage names, for example, to mask their ethnic backgrounds. A collective name or collective pseudonym is one shared by two or more persons, for example the co-authors of a work, such as Ellery Queen, the term is derived from the Greek ψευδώνυμον, literally false name, from ψεῦδος, lie, falsehood and ὄνομα, name. A pseudonym is distinct from an allonym, which is the name of another person and this may occur when someone is ghostwriting a book or play, or in parody, or when using a front name, such as by screenwriters blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s. See also pseudepigraph, for falsely attributed authorship, sometimes people change their name in such a manner that the new name becomes permanent and is used by all who know the person. This is not an alias or pseudonym, but in fact a new name, in many countries, including common law countries, a name change can be ratified by a court and become a persons new legal name. He then changed his name again to Malik El-Shabazz when he converted to Islam, likewise some Jews adopted Hebrew family names upon immigrating to Israel, dropping surnames that had been in their families for generations. The politician David Ben-Gurion, for example, was born David Grün in Poland and he adopted his Hebrew name in 1910, when he published his first article in a Zionist journal in Jerusalem. Criminals may use aliases, fictitious business names, and dummy corporations to hide their identity, a pen name, or nom de plume, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. Some female authors used male pen names, in particular in the 19th century, the Brontë family used pen names for their early work, so as not to reveal their gender and so that local residents would not know that the books related to people of the neighbourhood. The Brontës used their neighbours as inspiration for characters in many of their books, anne Brontë published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall under the name Acton Bell. Charlotte Brontë published Shirley and Jane Eyre under the name Currer Bell, emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights as Ellis Bell. A well-known example of the former is Mary Ann Evans, who wrote as George Eliot, Another example is Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, a 19th-century French writer who used the pen name George Sand. In contrast, some twentieth and twenty first century male romance novelists have used pen names. A few examples of male authors using female pseudonyms include Brindle Chase, Peter ODonnell and Christopher Wood. A pen name may be used if a real name is likely to be confused with the name of another writer or notable individual. Authors who write both fiction and non-fiction, or in different genres, may use different pen names to avoid confusing their readers, in some cases, an author may become better known by his pen name than his real name
17.
Julius Caesar
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Gaius Julius Caesar, known as Julius Caesar, was a Roman politician, general, and notable author of Latin prose. He played a role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed an alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to power as Populares were opposed by the Optimates within the Roman Senate. Caesars victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, extended Romes territory to the English Channel, Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both the Channel and the Rhine, when he built a bridge across the Rhine and crossed the Channel to invade Britain. These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, with the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Caesar refused the order, and instead marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with the 13th Legion, leaving his province, Civil war resulted, and Caesars victory in the war put him in an unrivalled position of power and influence. After assuming control of government, Caesar began a programme of social and governmental reforms and he centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed dictator in perpetuity, giving him additional authority. But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, and on the Ides of March 44 BC, a new series of civil wars broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesars adopted heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavian set about solidifying his power, and the era of the Roman Empire began, much of Caesars life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns, and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources, Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history. Caesar was born into a family, the gens Julia. The cognomen Caesar originated, according to Pliny the Elder, with an ancestor who was born by Caesarean section. The Historia Augusta suggests three alternative explanations, that the first Caesar had a head of hair, that he had bright grey eyes. Caesar issued coins featuring images of elephants, suggesting that he favored this interpretation of his name, despite their ancient pedigree, the Julii Caesares were not especially politically influential, although they had enjoyed some revival of their political fortunes in the early 1st century BC. Caesars father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, governed the province of Asia and his mother, Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential family. Little is recorded of Caesars childhood, in 85 BC, Caesars father died suddenly, so Caesar was the head of the family at 16
18.
Coming of age
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Coming of age is a young persons transition from being a child to being an adult. The certain age at which this takes place changes in society. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual or spiritual event, in the past, and in some societies today, such a change is associated with the age of sexual maturity, especially menarche and spermarche. In others, it is associated with an age of religious responsibility, particularly in western societies, modern legal conventions which stipulate points in late adolescence or early adulthood are the focus of the transition. In either case, many cultures retain ceremonies to confirm the coming of age, Coming of age is often a topic of fiction, in the form of a coming-of-age story. In written literature, a novel which deals with the psychological and moral growth often associated with coming of age is called a bildungsroman. Similar stories that are told in film are called coming-of-age films, turning 15, the age of maturity, as the Bahai faith terms it, is a time when a child is considered spiritually mature. Declared Bahais that have reached the age of maturity are expected to begin observing certain Bahai laws, such as obligatory prayer, theravada boys, typically just under the age of 20 years, undergo a Shinbyu ceremony, where they are initiated into the Temple as Novice Monks. They will typically stay in the monastery for between 3 days and 3 years, most commonly for one 3-month rainy season retreat, held annually from late July to early October. After living the monastic life for some time, the boy, now considered to have come of age. Confucianism had a ceremony called Guan Li for young men, at around the age of 20, they would receive their style name. In many Western Christian churches, a young person celebrates his/her Coming of Age with the Sacrament of Confirmation and this is usually done by the Bishop laying his hands upon the foreheads of the young person, and marking them with the seal of the Holy Spirit. In some denominations during this sacrament the child adopts a name which is added onto their Christian name. In Christian denominations that practice Believers Baptism, the ritual can be carried out after the age of accountability has arrived. Some traditions withhold the rite of Holy Communion from those not yet at the age of accountability, mid-teens in the United States, early teens in Ireland and Britain, has in some areas been abandoned in favour of restoring the traditional order of the three sacraments of initiation. These individuals are seen, according to some Christians, as existing in a perpetual state of innocence. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sets the age for baptism at 8 years of age and calls this the age of accountability. All persons younger than 8 are considered innocent and incapable of sinning, the LDS Church considers mentally challenged individuals whose mental age is under 8 to be in a perpetual state of innocence, similar to other Christian churches
19.
Book of Rites
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As a core text of the Confucian canon, it is also known as the Classic of Rites, which some scholars believe was the original title before it was changed by Dai Sheng. The Book of Rites is a collection of texts of varied but uncertain origin and date. Some sections consist of definitions of terms, particularly those found in the Etiquette and Ceremonial, while others contain details of the life. Parts of the text have been traced to such works as the Xunzi and Lüshi Chunqiu. During the reign of Qin Shihuang, many of the Confucian classics were destroyed during the 213 BC Burning of the Books. The Book of Rites was said to have been fully reconstructed, since then, other scholars have attempted to redact these first drafts. According to the Book of Sui, Dai De reworked the text in the 1st century BC, reducing the original 214 books to 85, to this three were added towards the end of the Han dynasty, bringing the total to 49. In 1993, a copy of the Black Robes chapter was found in Tomb 1 of the Guodian Tombs in Jingmen, since the tomb was sealed around 300 BCE, the find reactivated academic arguments about the possible dating of the other Liji chapters by the Warring States period. Confucius described Li as all forms that provided a standard of conduct. Li literally means rites but it can also be used to refer to ceremonial or rules of conduct, the term has come to generally be associated with good form, decorum or politeness. Confucius felt that li should emphasize the spirit of piety and respect for others through rules of conduct, as outlined in the Book of Rites, li is meant to restore the significance of traditional forms by looking at the simplicity of the past. Confucius insisted that a standard of conduct that focused on traditional forms would be a way to ease the turmoil of collapsing Zhou state. The absolute power of li is displayed in the Book of Rites, the ideas of li were thought to become closely associated with human nature, ethics, and social order as the population integrated li into their lives. Li is beneficial to society because it guides people to recognize, as a result of the Book of Rites chapters, using a syncretic system and combining Daoist and Mohist beliefs, later scholars formed both the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean. These two books were believed to be written by two of Confucius disciples one specifically being his grandson. Consequently, the Book of Rites and two of its by-products were large parts of the Chinese beliefs and industry for many centuries. Sacred Books of the East, volumes 27 and 28, Li Ki, ou Mémoires sur les bienséances, texte Chinois avec une double traduction en Francais et en Latin, volumes 1 and 2. Confucianism and the Family Rituals in Imperial China, New Jersey, Princeton University Press,1991, ISBN 978-0-691-03150-7 Confucius, James Legge, Chʻu Chai, Winberg Chai
20.
Disyllabic
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A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the water is composed of two syllables, wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a nucleus with optional initial and final margins. Syllables are often considered the building blocks of words. They can influence the rhythm of a language, its prosody, its poetic meter, syllabic writing began several hundred years before the first letters. The earliest recorded syllables are on tablets written around 2800 BC in the Sumerian city of Ur and this shift from pictograms to syllables has been called the most important advance in the history of writing. A word that consists of a syllable is called a monosyllable. Syllable is an Anglo-Norman variation of Old French sillabe, from Latin syllaba, συλλαβή means what is taken together, referring to letters that are taken together to make a single sound. συλλαβή is a noun from the verb συλλαμβάνω syllambánō, a compound of the preposition σύν sýn with. The noun uses the root λαβ-, which appears in the aorist tense, the present tense stem λαμβάν- is formed by adding a nasal infix ⟨μ⟩ ⟨m⟩ before the β b and a suffix -αν -an at the end. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the period ⟨. ⟩ marks syllable breaks, in practice, however, IPA transcription is typically divided into words by spaces, and often these spaces are also understood to be syllable breaks. When a word comes in the middle of a syllable. The liaison tie is used to join lexical words into phonological words. In the typical theory of structure, the general structure of a syllable consists of three segments. e. Nucleus and coda are grouped together as a rime and onset are only distinguished at the second level, the nucleus is usually the vowel in the middle of a syllable. The onset is the sound or sounds occurring before the nucleus, and they are sometimes collectively known as the shell. The term rime covers the nucleus plus coda, in the one-syllable English word cat, the nucleus is a, the onset c, the coda t, and the rime at. This syllable can be abstracted as a consonant-vowel-consonant syllable, abbreviated CVC, languages vary greatly in the restrictions on the sounds making up the onset, nucleus and coda of a syllable, according to what is termed a languages phonotactics
21.
Chinese characters
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Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and some other Asian languages. In Standard Chinese, and sometimes also in English, they are called hànzì. They have been adapted to write a number of languages including, Japanese, where they are known as kanji, Korean, where they are known as hanja. Collectively, they are known as CJK characters, in English, they are sometimes called Han characters. Chinese characters constitute the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world, Chinese characters number in the tens of thousands, though most of them are minor graphic variants encountered only in historical texts. Studies in China have shown that literacy in written Chinese requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters. In Japan,2,136 are taught through secondary school, the characters used in Japan are distinct from those used in China in many respects. There are various national standard lists of characters, forms, in South Korea, when Chinese characters are used they are of the traditional variant and are almost identical to those used in places like Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Old Chinese, most words were monosyllabic and there was a correspondence between characters and words. Rather, a character almost always corresponds to a syllable that is also a morpheme. However, there are a few exceptions to this correspondence, including bisyllabic morphemes. Modern Chinese has many homophones, thus the same syllable may be represented by many characters. A single character may also have a range of meanings, or sometimes quite distinct meanings, cognates in the several varieties of Chinese are generally written with the same character. They typically have similar meanings, but often quite different pronunciations and these foreign adaptations of Chinese pronunciation are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations, and have been useful in the reconstruction of Middle Chinese. When the script was first used in the late 2nd millennium BC, words of Old Chinese were generally monosyllabic, increasing numbers of polysyllabic words have entered the language from the Western Zhou period to the present day. The process has accelerated over the centuries as phonetic change has increased the number of homophones and it has been estimated that over two thirds of the 3,000 most common words in modern Standard Chinese are polysyllables, the vast majority of those being disyllables. The most common process has been to form compounds of existing words, words have also been created by adding affixes, reduplication and borrowing from other languages. Polysyllabic words are written with one character per syllable
22.
Northern Qi
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The Northern Qi was one of the Northern dynasties of Chinese history and ruled northern China from 550 to 577. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Wenxuan, and it was ended following attacks from Northern Zhou, the Chinese state of Northern Qi was the successor state of the Chinese/Xianbei state of Eastern Wei and was founded by Emperor Wenxuan. Emperor Wenxuan had a Han Chinese father Gao Huan, and a Xianbei mother, Northern Qi was the strongest state of the three main Chinese states when it was established. Northern Qi however was plagued by violence and/or incompetent emperors, corrupt officials, in 571, an important official who guide the emperors Emperor Wucheng and Houzhu, He Shikai, was killed. Houzhu attempted to strengthen the power of throne, instead he triggered a series of purges that became violent in late 573, in 577, Northern Qi was assaulted by Northern Zhou, a kingdom with poorer resources. The Northern Qi, with leadership, quickly disintegrated within a month, with large scale defections of court. Both Houzhu and the last emperor Youzhu were captured, and both died in late 577, Northern Qi ceramics mark a revival of Chinese ceramic art, following the disastrous invasions and the social chaos of the 4th century. Northern Qi tombs have revealed some beautiful artifacts, such as porcellaneous ware with splashed green designs, markedly unique from earlier depictions of the Buddha, Northern Qi statues tend to be smaller, around three feet tall, and columnar in shape. A jar has been found in a Northern Qi tomb, which was closed in 576 CE, also, brown glazed wares designed with Sasanian-style figures have been found in these tombs. These works suggest a strong cosmopolitanism and intense exchanges with Western Asia, the Northen Qi, although founded by a ruler of mixed Han/Xianbei origin, strongly asserted their Xianbei ethnic cultural identity. They regarded surviving ethnic Tuoba and non-Chinese of the Northern Wei court and as well as literati of all ethnicities as near Chinese, however they made use of Chinese and sometimes Central Asian courtiers. While some Qi elite families had expressed strongly anti-Chinese sentiments, they may lay claim to Chinese elite origin. He had became Xianbeified as his family had lived for time in Inner Mongolia after his grandfather was relocated from Bohai. A Chinese scholar translated the Buddhist text Nirvana Sutra text into a Turkic language during this era. Some Zoroastrianism influences that went into previous states continued onto the state of Northern Qi court, such as the love for Persian dogs as they were taken as pets by nobles, the Chinese utilized a number of Persian artifacts and products. Buddhism in China Book of Northern Qi
23.
Chiang Kai-shek
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Chiang Kai-shek, also romanized as Jiang Jieshi and known as Jiang Zhongzheng, was a Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. Chiang was an member of the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party. He became the Commandant of the Kuomintangs Whampoa Military Academy and took Suns place as leader of the KMT, having neutralized the partys left wing, Chiang then led Suns long-postponed Northern Expedition, conquering or reaching accommodations with Chinas many warlords. From 1928 to 1948, he served as chairman of the National Military Council of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China, unable to maintain Suns good relations with the Communists, he purged them in a massacre at Shanghai and repression of uprisings at Guangzhou and elsewhere. After the defeat of the Japanese, the American-sponsored Marshall Mission, the Chinese Civil War resumed, with the Chinese Communist Party defeating the Nationalists and declaring the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Chiangs government and army retreated to Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law, after evacuating to Taiwan, Chiangs government continued to declare its intention to retake mainland China. Chiang ruled Taiwan securely as President of the Republic of China, like many other Chinese historical figures, Chiang used several names throughout his life. That inscribed in the records of his family is Jiang Zhoutai. This so-called register name is the one under which his relatives knew him. In deference to tradition, family members did not use the name in conversation with people outside of the family. In fact, the concept of real or original name is not as clear-cut in China as it is in the Western world, in honor of tradition, Chinese families waited a number of years before officially naming their offspring. In the meantime, they used a name, given to the infant shortly after his birth. Thus, the name that Chiang received at birth was Jiang Ruiyuan. In 1903, the 16-year-old Chiang went to Ningbo to be a student and this was actually the formal name of a person, used by older people to address him, and the one he would use the most in the first decades of his life. The school name that Chiang chose for himself was Zhiqing, for the next fifteen years or so, Chiang was known as Jiang Zhiqing. This is the name under which Sun Yat-sen knew him when Chiang joined the republicans in Guangzhou in the 1910s. In 1912, when Jiang Zhiqing was in Japan, he started to use the name Chiang Kai-shek as a pen name for the articles that he published in a Chinese magazine he founded, Voice of the Army. Jieshi is the Pinyin romanization of this name, based on Mandarin, kai-shek/Jieshi soon became Chiangs courtesy name
24.
Zichan
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Gongsun Qiao, better known by his courtesy name Zichan, was a statesman of the State of Zheng during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. His ancestral surname was Ji, and clan name Guo, a grandson of Duke Mu of Zheng, Zichan served as prime minister of Zheng from 544 BC until his death. Under Zichan, Zheng managed to expand its territory, a task for a small state surrounded by several large states. Zichan reformed the government to emphasise the rule of law, as a philosopher, Zichan separated the domains of heaven and the human world, arguing against superstition and believing that humans should be grounded in reality. Zichan was responsible for reforms that strengthened the state of Zheng. Zichan once prevented other ministers from executing a man for criticising the government, Zichan reformed the government to emphasise the rule of law. In 543 BC, he had the code of law cast in bronze ding. He also enacted harsh punishments for criminals, because of his focus on laws, historians often classify him as a Legalist. Zichan was also skilled in state-to-state politics. He then proceeded to convince Jin not to interfere in Zhengs internal politics, the Multi-state System of Ancient China
25.
Du Fu
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Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty. Along with Li Bai, he is called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a civil servant. His life, like the country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755. Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages, since many of Du Fus poems feature morality and history, this practice is particularly important. Most of what is known of Du Fus life comes from his poems and his paternal grandfather was Du Shenyan, a noted politician and poet during the reign of Empress Wu. Du Fu was born in 712, the birthplace is unknown, except that it was near Luoyang. In later life, he considered himself to belong to the city of Changan. Du Fus mother died shortly after he was born, and he was raised by his aunt. He had a brother, who died young. He also had three brothers and one half sister, to whom he frequently refers in his poems. The son of a minor scholar-official, his youth was spent on the education of a future civil servant, study and memorisation of the Confucian classics of philosophy. He later claimed to have produced creditable poems by his early teens, in the early 730s, he travelled in the Jiangsu/Zhejiang area, his earliest surviving poem, describing a poetry contest, is thought to date from the end of this period, around 735. In that year, he took the civil service exam, likely in Changan and he failed, to his surprise and that of centuries of later critics. Hung concludes that he failed because his prose style at the time was too dense and obscure. After this failure, he went back to traveling, this time around Shandong, Du Fu would have been allowed to enter the civil service because of his fathers rank, but he is thought to have given up the privilege in favour of one of his half brothers. He spent the four years living in the Luoyang area
26.
Confucius
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Confucius was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and his followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death. Confuciuss principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief and he championed strong family loyalty, ancestor veneration, and respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives. He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government and he espoused the well-known principle Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself, the Golden Rule. Confucius is also a deity in Daoism. According to tradition, three generations before Confucius time, his ancestors had migrated from the Song state to the Lu state, Confucius was a descendant of the Shang dynasty Kings through the Dukes of Song. Confucius family and personal name respectively was Kong Qiu, in Chinese, he is most often known as Kongzi. He is also known by the honorific Kong Fuzi, in the Wade–Giles system of romanization, the honorific name is rendered as Kung Fu-tzu. The Latinized name Confucius is derived from Kong Fuzi, and was first coined by 16th-century Jesuit missionaries to China, within the Analects, he is often referred to simply as the Master. In 1 AD, Confucius was given his first posthumous name, in 1530, he was declared the Extremely Sage Departed Teacher. He is also known separately as the Great Sage, First Teacher and it is generally thought that Confucius was born on September 28,551 BC. His birthplace was in Zou, Lu state and his father Kong He, also known as Shuliang He, was an officer in the Lu military. Kong died when Confucius was three years old, and Confucius was raised by his mother Yan Zhengzai in poverty and his mother would later die at less than 40 years of age. At age 19 he married his wife Qiguan, and a year later the couple had their first child, Qiguan and Confucius would later have two daughters together, one of whom is thought to have died early in her life as a child. Confucius was educated at schools for commoners, where he studied and learned the Six Arts, Confucius was born into the class of shi, between the aristocracy and the common people. When his mother died, Confucius is said to have mourned for three years, as was the tradition, the Lu state was headed by a ruling ducal house. Under the duke were three families, whose heads bore the title of viscount and held hereditary positions in the Lu bureaucracy
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Sun Jian
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Sun Jian, courtesy name Wentai, was a military general and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He allied himself with Yuan Shu in 190 when warlords from eastern China formed a coalition to oust Dong Zhuo, after the coalition disbanded in the next year, China fell into massive civil war. In 191, Sun Jian was killed in battle during a campaign against Liu Biao. Born in the Fuchun Prefecture of the Wu Commandery, Sun Jian was said to be a descendant of the military strategist Sun Tzu. No more immediate records survive, indicating his family played a very small part during the Han dynasty. Even his fathers name is unrecorded, although a folk tradition gives it as Sun Zhong, Sun Jian was a civil officer in his prefecture during his youth. When he was sixteen, Sun Jian travelled with his father to Qiantang, Sun Jian jumped on shore with a sabre in hand and pointed in different directions as if commanding a detachment of soldiers to surround the pirates. Seeing this, the pirates were deceived and fled, Sun Jian pursued, and only after taking the head of every pirate did he return. In 184, the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao broke out across the country, Sun Jian joined the general Zhu Jun to quell the rebellion in Yuzhou area. The soldiers fought hard, forcing the rebels to retreat to Wancheng, Sun Jian placed himself in the forefront and climbed onto the city walls alone. The rest then swarmed in and defeated the rebels, around this time, Bian Zhang and Han Sui colluded with the Qiang tribes and rebelled in Liang Province. After Dong Zhuo failed to put down the rebellion, the government sent in his place the Minister of Works Zhang Wen. When Zhang Wen summoned Dong Zhuo to the encampment at Changan, Dong Zhuo procrastinated, when he did, he showed little respect for Zhang Wen. Sun Jian then advised Zhang Wen to execute Dong Zhuo, despite scoring a major victory against the rebels at Meiyang, Zhang Wen could not press their advantage and the rebellion was still not quelled. Zhang Wen and the rest returned to the capital Luoyang in disgrace, meanwhile, another local-scale rebellion broke out near Changsha and the rebels besieged the city. Sun Jian was then made administrator of Changsha, within a month upon taking up office, Sun Jian had quelled the rebellion. Meanwhile, rebellions broke out in the neighboring commanderies of Lingling and Guiyang. Both were put down by Sun Jian, who was then enfeoffed as Marquis of Wucheng, in 189, Emperor Ling died, leaving his young son in the care of regents Empress Dowager He and General-in-Chief He Jin
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Sun Ce
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Sun Ce, courtesy name Bofu, was a military general and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He was the eldest child of Sun Jian, who was killed during the Battle of Xiangyang when Sun Ce was only 16, Sun Ce then broke away from his fathers overlord, Yuan Shu, and headed to southeastern China to establish his own power base there. With the help of people, such as Zhang Zhao and Zhou Yu. In 200, when the warlord Cao Cao was at war with his rival Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu, However, he was assassinated before he could carry out the plan. Sun Ce was posthumously honored as Prince Huan of Changsha by his younger brother Sun Quan when the became the first emperor of Eastern Wu. Chen Shous Records of the Three Kingdoms describes Sun Ce as a man who was full of laughter. He was also a generous and receptive man who employed people according to their abilities, as such, his subjects were willing to risk their lives for him. One detractor named Xu Gong, in a letter to Emperor Xian, likened Sun Ce to Xiang Yu, as a result, Sun Ce was also referred to as the Little Conqueror in popular culture. Born in 175, Sun Ce was the eldest among five sons and one daughter of Sun Jian, in 190, a year after Emperor Ling died, the warlord Dong Zhuo usurped power, placing in the throne the puppet Emperor Xian. Regional warlords in eastern China then launched a campaign against Dong Zhuo, Sun Jian rendered his service to Yuan Shu, one of the leaders of the coalition. The attempt to oust Dong Zhuo soon failed and China slid into a series of civil wars. In the next year, Sun Jian was sent by Yuan Shu to attack Liu Biao, governor of Jing Province, Sun Ce brought his fathers body to Qua for burial and settled his mother down before heading for Danyang, where his uncle Wu Jing was the governor. There he raised a militia a few hundred in strength. This small force was far from sufficient for him to establish his own power so in 194 Sun Ce went to Yuan Shu, Yuan Shu was very impressed with Sun Ce and often lamented that he had no son like him. He also returned Sun Jians former division of troops to Sun Ce, initially, Yuan Shu promised to appoint Sun Ce the governor of Jiujiang but eventually gave the governorship to Chen Ji. Later, when Yuan Shu was denied a loan of grains from the governor of Lujiang, he sent Sun Ce to attack the latter. When Sun Ce did, however, Yuan Shu again went back on his words, the disappointed Sun Ce then began to contemplate leaving. Meanwhile, Liu Yao, who was by imperial decree the governor of Yang Province, occupied Qua as the regional seat Shouchun was already occupied by Yuan Shu
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Sun Quan
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Sun Quan, courtesy name Zhongmou, formally known as Emperor Da of Wu, was the founder of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. He inherited control of the regime established by his elder brother, Sun Ce. He declared formal independence and ruled from 222 to 229 as the King of Wu, Sun Quan was born in Xiapi while his father Sun Jian served there. When Sun Ce was assassinated by the retainers of Xu Gong in 200, the 18-year-old Sun Quan inherited the lands southeast of the Yangtze River from his brother. His administration proved to be stable in those early years as Sun Jian and Sun Ces most senior officers, such as Zhou Yu, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong. Thus throughout the 200s, Sun Quan, under the tutelage of his able advisers, in early 207, his forces finally won complete victory over Huang Zu, a military leader under Liu Biao, who dominated the middle Yangtze. In winter of year, the northern warlord Cao Cao led an army of some 830,000 to conquer the south to complete the reunification of China. Two distinct factions emerged at his court on how to handle the situation, one, led by Zhang Zhao, urged surrender whilst the other, led by Zhou Yu and Lu Su, opposed capitulation. Eventually, Sun Quan decided to oppose Cao Cao in the middle Yangtze with his superior riverine forces, allied with Liu Bei and employing the combined strategies of Zhou Yu and Huang Gai, they defeated Cao Cao decisively at the Battle of Red Cliffs. In 220, Cao Pi, Cao Caos son and successor, seized the throne and proclaimed himself to be the Emperor of China and it was not until the year 229 that he formally declared himself emperor. Because of his skill in gathering important, honourable men to his cause and this primary strength served him well in gaining the support of the common people and surrounding himself with capable generals. After the death of his crown prince, Sun Deng. When Sun He succeeded Sun Deng as the new prince, he was supported by Lu Xun and Zhuge Ke, while his rival Sun Ba was supported by Quan Cong and Bu Zhi. Over a prolonged power struggle, numerous officials were executed. Sun Quan died in 252 at the age of 70 and he enjoyed the longest reign among all the founders of the Three Kingdoms and was succeeded by his son, Sun Liang. Sun Quan was born in 182, while his father Sun Jian was still a general of the Han dynasty, after his fathers death in 191, he became the charge of his brother Sun Ce. As he grew up, he served his brother during the conquests of the south of the Yangtze River. He was made a county magistrate in 196, at the age of 14, the Records of the Three Kingdoms mentioned that Sun Jian was a descendant of Sun Wu, a militarist in the Spring and Autumn Period and the author of The Art of War
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Shang dynasty
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The Shang dynasty or Yin dynasty, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from such as the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project dated them from c.1600 to 1046 BC, the Shang dynasty is the earliest dynasty of traditional Chinese history supported by archaeological evidence. Tens of thousands of bronze, jade, stone, bone, the Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, mostly divinations inscribed on oracle bones – turtle shells, ox scapulae, or other bones. More than 20,000 were discovered in the scientific excavations during the 1920s and 1930s. The inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, many events concerning the Shang dynasty are mentioned in various Chinese classics, including the Book of Documents, the Mencius and the Zuo Zhuan. Working from all the documents, the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian assembled a sequential account of the Shang dynasty as part of his Records of the Grand Historian. His history describes some events in detail, while in other cases only the name of a king is given, a closely related, but slightly different, account is given by the Bamboo Annals. The Annals were interred in 296 BC, but the text has a complex history, the name Yīn is used by Sima Qian for the dynasty, and in the current text version of the Bamboo Annals for both the dynasty and its final capital. It has been a name for the Shang throughout history. Since the Records of Emperors and Kings by Huangfu Mi, it has often used specifically to describe the later half of the Shang dynasty. In Japan and Korea, the Shang are still referred to almost exclusively as the Yin dynasty, however it seems to have been a Zhou name for the earlier dynasty. The word does not appear in the bones, which refer to the state as Shāng. It also does not appear in securely-dated Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, xie is said to have helped Yu the Great to control the Great Flood and for his service to have been granted a place called Shang as a fief. Sima Qian relates that the dynasty itself was founded 13 generations later, when Xies descendant Tang overthrew the impious and cruel final Xia ruler in the Battle of Mingtiao. The Records recount events from the reigns of Tang, Tai Jia, Tai Wu, Pan Geng, Wu Ding, Wu Yi and the final king Di Xin. According to the Records, the Shang moved their capital five times, Di Xin, the last Shang king, is said to have committed suicide after his army was defeated by Wu of Zhou. Legends say that his army and his equipped slaves betrayed him by joining the Zhou rebels in the decisive Battle of Muye, according to the Yi Zhou Shu and Mencius the battle was very bloody
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Zhou dynasty
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The Zhou dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. This period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making, the dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its almost-modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. He even received sacrifice as a harvest god, the term Hòujì was probably an hereditary title attached to a lineage. Jus son Liu, however, led his people to prosperity by restoring agriculture and settling them at a place called Bin, tai later led the clan from Bin to Zhou, an area in the Wei River valley of modern-day Qishan County. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly fled to the Yangtze delta. Jilis son Wen bribed his way out of imprisonment and moved the Zhou capital to Feng, the Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song, which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences, according to Nicholas Bodman, the Zhou appear to have spoken a language not basically different in vocabulary and syntax from that of the Shang. A recent study by David McCraw, using lexical statistics, reached the same conclusion, the Zhou emulated extensively Shang cultural practices, perhaps to legitimize their own rule, and became the successors to Shang culture. At the same time, the Zhou may also have connected to the Xirong, a broadly defined cultural group to the west of the Shang. According to the historian Li Feng, the term Rong during the Western Zhou period was used to designate political and military adversaries rather than cultural. The proto-Zhou were first located in the Shaanxi-Shanxi highland, where they absorbed elements from the Guangshe culture, King Liu moved his people to the lower Fen Valley and to the western bank of the Yellow River, where they resumed agriculture. His son Qing Jie, led the Zhou to the valley of the Jing River. They stayed there until Dan Fu moved again to the Wei Valley in order to avoid incursion by the Rongdi nomads. During this period, the Zhou mingled with the Qiang people, in all these stages, the advanced Shang bronze culture constantly imparted its influence on the Zhou. The Qi area was the region in all these influences would come to fruition. The contact among the proto-Zhou, the native Shaanxi Longshan, the Qiang, King Wu maintained the old capital for ceremonial purposes but constructed a new one for his palace and administration nearby at Hao. Although Wus early death left a young and inexperienced heir, the Duke of Zhou assisted his nephew King Cheng in consolidating royal power. Wary of the Duke of Zhous increasing power, the Three Guards, Zhou princes stationed on the eastern plain, to maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system
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Mongols
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The Mongols are an East-Central Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia and Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They also live as minorities in other regions of China, as well as in Russia, Mongolian people belonging to the Buryat and Kalmyk subgroups live predominantly in the Russian federal subjects of Buryatia and Kalmykia. The Mongols are bound together by a heritage and ethnic identity. Their indigenous dialects are known as the Mongolian language. The ancestors of the modern-day Mongols are referred to as Proto-Mongols, broadly defined, the term includes the Mongols proper, Buryats, Oirats, the Kalmyk people and the Southern Mongols. The latter comprises the Abaga Mongols, Abaganar, Aohans, Baarins, Gorlos Mongols, Jalaids, Jaruud, Khishigten, Khuuchid, Muumyangan, the designation Mongol briefly appeared in 8th century records of Tang China to describe a tribe of Shiwei. It resurfaced in the late 11th century during the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty, after the fall of the Liao in 1125, the Khamag Mongols became a leading tribe on the Mongolian Plateau. However, their wars with the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty and the Tatar confederation had weakened them, in the thirteenth century, the word Mongol grew into an umbrella term for a large group of Mongolic-speaking tribes united under the rule of Genghis Khan. In various times Mongolic peoples have been equated with the Scythians, the Magog, based on Chinese historical texts the ancestry of the Mongolic peoples can be traced back to the Donghu, a nomadic confederation occupying eastern Mongolia and Manchuria. The identity of the Xiongnu is still debated today, although some scholars maintain that they were proto-Mongols, they were more likely a multi-ethnic group of Mongolic and Turkic tribes. It has been suggested that the language of the Huns was related to the Hünnü, the Donghu are mentioned by Sima Qian as already existing in Inner Mongolia north of Yan in 699–632 BCE along with the Shanrong. Mentions in the Yi Zhou Shu and the Classic of Mountains, the Xianbei chieftain was appointed joint guardian of the ritual torch along with Xiong Yi. These early Xianbei came from the nearby Zhukaigou culture in the Ordos Desert, where maternal DNA corresponds to the Mongol Daur people, the Zhukaigou Xianbei had trade relations with the Shang. In the late 2nd century, the Han dynasty scholar Fu Qian wrote in his commentary Jixie that Shanrong, againm in Inner Mongolia another closely connected core Mongolic Xianbei region was the Upper Xiajiadian culture where the Donghu confederation was centered. After the Donghu were defeated by Xiongnu king Modu Chanyu, the Xianbei, tadun Khan of the Wuhuan was the ancestor of the proto-Mongolic Kumo Xi. The Wuhuan are of the direct Donghu royal line and the New Book of Tang says that in 209 BCE, the Xianbei, however, were of the lateral Donghu line and had a somewhat separate identity, although they shared the same language with the Wuhuan. In 49 CE the Xianbei ruler Bianhe raided and defeated the Xiongnu, killing 2000, the Xianbei reached their peak under Tanshihuai Khan who expanded the vast, but short lived, Xianbei state. Three prominent groups split from the Xianbei state as recorded by the Chinese histories, the Rouran, the Khitan people, besides these three Xianbei groups, there were others such as the Murong, Duan and Tuoba
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Manchu people
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The Manchu are an ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. They are sometimes called red-tasseled Manchus, a reference to the ornamentation on traditional Manchu hats, the Later Jin, and Qing dynasty are established by Manchus, who are descended from the Jurchen people who earlier established the Jin dynasty in China. Manchus form the largest branch of the Tungusic peoples and are distributed throughout China and they can be found in 31 Chinese provincial regions. They also form the largest minority group in China without an autonomous region, among them, Liaoning has the largest population and Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Beijing have over 100,000 Manchu residents. About half of the live in Liaoning and one-fifth in Hebei. The Sushen used flint-headed wooden arrows, farmed, hunted and fished, the cognates Sushen or Jichen again appear in the Shan Hai Jing and Book of Wei during the dynastic era referring to the Tungusic Mohe tribes of the far northeast. The Mohe practiced pig farming extensively and were sedentary. They were predominantly farmers and grew soybeans, wheat, millet and rice, in the 10th century CE, the term Jurchen first appeared in documents of the late Tang dynasty in reference to the state of Balhae in present-day northeastern China. Following the fall of Balhae, the Jurchens became vassals of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty, in the year 1114, Wanyan Aguda united the Jurchen tribes and established the Jin dynasty. His brother and successor, Wanyan Wuqimai defeated the Liao dynasty, after the fall of the Liao dynasty, the Jurchens went to war with the Northern Song dynasty, and captured most of northern China in the Jin–Song wars. During the Jin dynasty, the first Jurchen script came into use in the 1120s and it was mainly derived from the Khitan script. The Jurchens were sedentary, settled farmers with advanced agriculture and they farmed grain and millet as their cereal crops, grew flax, and raised oxen, pigs, sheep and horses. Their farming way of life was different from the pastoral nomadism of the Mongols. In 1206, the Mongols, vassals to the Jurchens, rose in Mongolia and their leader, Genghis Khan, led Mongol troops against the Jurchens, who were finally defeated by Ögedei Khan in 1234. From that time, the Jurchens of North China increasingly merged with the Han Chinese while those living in their homeland started to be Mongolized and they adopted Mongolian customs, names and the Mongolian language. As time went on, fewer and fewer Jurchens could recognize their own script, the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty was replaced by the Ming dynasty in 1368. In 1387, Ming forces defeated the Mongol commander Naghachus resisting forces who settled in the Haixi area, at the time, some Jurchen clans were vassals to the Joseon dynasty of Korea such as Odoli and Huligai. Their elites served in the Korean royal bodyguard, the Joseon Koreans tried to deal with the military threat posed by the Jurchen by using both forceful means and incentives, and by launching military attacks
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Laozi
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Laozi was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. He is known as the author of the Tao Te Ching and the founder of philosophical Taoism. A central figure in Chinese culture, Laozi is claimed by both the emperors of the Tang dynasty and modern people of the Li surname as a founder of their lineage, Laozis work has been embraced by various anti-authoritarian movements as well as Chinese legalism. In traditional accounts, Laozis personal name is given as Li Er. A prominent posthumous name was Li Dan, Laozi itself is an honorific title, 老 and 子. It is usually pronounced /ˌlaʊˈdzʌ/ in English and it has been romanized numerous ways, sometimes leading to confusion. The most common present form is Laozi or Lǎozǐ, based on the Hanyu Pinyin system adopted by Mainland China in 1958, during the 20th century, Lao-tzu was more common, based on the formerly prevalent Wade–Giles system. In the 19th century, the title was romanized as Lao-tse. Other forms include the variants Lao-tze and Lao-tsu, as a religious figure, he is worshipped under the name Supreme Old Lord and as one of the Three Pure Ones. During the Tang Dynasty, he was granted the title Supremely Mysterious, the earliest certain reference to the present figure of Laozi is found in the 1st-century BCE Records of the Grand Historian collected by the historian Sima Qian from earlier accounts. In one account, Laozi was said to be a contemporary of Confucius during the 6th or 5th century BCE and his surname was Li and his personal name was Er or Dan. He was an official in the archives and wrote a book in two parts before departing to the west. In another, Laozi was a different contemporary of Confucius titled Lao Laizi, in a third, he was the court astrologer Lao Dan who lived during the 4th century BCE reign of Duke Xian of the Qin Dynasty. The oldest text of the Tao Te Ching so far recovered was written on bamboo slips, according to traditional accounts, Laozi was a scholar who worked as the Keeper of the Archives for the royal court of Zhou. This reportedly allowed him access to the works of the Yellow Emperor. The stories assert that Laozi never opened a school but nonetheless attracted a large number of students. There are many variations of a story retelling his encounter with Confucius and he was sometimes held to have come from the village of Chu Jen in Chu. In accounts where Laozi married, he was said to have had a son named Zong who became a celebrated soldier, many clans of the Li family trace their descent to Laozi, including the emperors of the Tang dynasty
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Sun Tzu
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Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who lived in the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, aside from his legacy as the author of The Art of War, Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and the Culture of Asia as a legendary historical figure. His birth name was Sun Wu, and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing, the name Sun Tzu by which he is best known in the West is an honorific which means Master Sun. Sima Qian and other traditional historians placed him as a minister to King Helü of Wu, modern scholars accepting his historicity nonetheless place the existing text of The Art of War in the later Warring States period based upon its style of composition and its descriptions of warfare. Traditional accounts state that the generals descendant Sun Bin also wrote a treatise on military tactics, since both Sun Wu and Sun Bin were referred to as Sun Tzu in classical Chinese texts, some historians believed them identical prior to the rediscovery of Sun Bins treatise in 1972. Sun Tzus work has been praised and employed throughout East Asia since its composition, during the twentieth century, The Art of War grew in popularity and saw practical use in Western society as well. It continues to influence many competitive endeavors in Asia, Europe, and America including culture, politics, business, the oldest available sources disagree as to where Sun Tzu was born. The Spring and Autumn Annals states that Sun Tzu was born in Qi and it is also worth noting that Sun Tzes surname Sun originated only in the Central Plains and no where else. Sun Tzus victories then inspired him to write The Art of War, Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, appointing the two concubines most favored by the king as the company commanders. When Sun Tzu first ordered the concubines to face right, they giggled, in response, Sun Tzu said that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for ensuring that soldiers understood the commands given to them. Then, he reiterated the command, and again the concubines giggled, Sun Tzu then ordered the execution of the kings two favored concubines, to the kings protests. He explained that if the generals soldiers understood their commands but did not obey, Sun Tzu also said that, once a general was appointed, it was his duty to carry out his mission, even if the king protested. After both concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them, afterwards, both companies, now well aware of the costs of further frivolity, performed their maneuvers flawlessly. Skeptics cite possible historical inaccuracies and anachronisms in the text, the name Sun Wu does appear in later sources such as the Records of the Grand Historian and the Wu Yue chunqiu. The only historical battle attributed to Sun Tzu, the Battle of Boju, has no record of him fighting in that battle, the appearance of features from The Art of War in other historical texts is considered to be proof of his historicity and authorship. Certain strategic concepts, such as classification, are attributed to Sun Tzu. Their use in other such as The Methods of the Sima is considered proof of Sun Tzus historical priority. According to Ralph Sawyer, it is very likely Sun Tzu did exist and not only served as a general but also wrote the core of the book that bears his name
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Cao Cao
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Cao Cao, courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese warlord and the penultimate Chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty who rose to great power in the final years of the dynasty. As one of the figures of the Three Kingdoms period. During the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty, Cao Cao was able to secure the most populated and prosperous cities of the central plains and northern China. Cao had much success as the Han chancellor, but his handling of the Han emperor Liu Xie was heavily criticized and resulted in a continued, opposition directly gathered around warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, whom Cao was unable to quell. Cao was also skilled in poetry and martial arts and wrote many war journals, Cao Cao was born in Qiao in 155. His father Cao Song was a son of Cao Teng. Some historical records, including the Biography of Cao Man, claim that Cao Songs original family name was Xiahou, Cao was known for his craftiness as an adolescent. According to the Biography of Cao Man, Cao Caos uncle complained to Cao Song about Cao Caos indulgence in hunting, in retaliation, Cao Cao feigned a fit before his uncle, who immediately rushed to inform Cao Song. When Cao Song went to see his son, Cao Cao behaved normally, when asked, Cao Cao replied, I have never had a fit, but I lost the love of my uncle, and therefore he deceived you. Afterwards, Cao Song ceased to believe his brother regarding Cao Cao, at that time, there was a man named Xu Shao who lived in Runan and was famous for his ability to evaluate a persons potentials and talents. Cao Cao paid him a visit in hopes of receiving an evaluation that would help him politically. At first, Xu Shao refused to make a statement, however, under persistent questioning, he said, You would be a capable minister in peaceful times. There are two versions of this comment in other unofficial historical records. At the age of 20, Cao Cao was appointed captain of Luoyang. Upon taking up the post, he placed rows of multicolored stakes outside his office and ordered his deputies to flog those who violated the law, regardless of their status. An uncle of Jian Shuo, one of the most powerful and this prompted Jian Shuo and other higher authorities to ostensibly promote Cao Cao to the post of governor of Dunqiu County while actually moving him out of the imperial capital. Cao Cao remained in position for little more than a year. Around 180, Cao Cao returned to court as a Consultant, when the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in 184, Cao Cao was recalled to Luoyang and appointed Captain of the Cavalry and sent to Yingchuan in Yu Province to suppress the rebels
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Guan Yu
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Guan Yu, courtesy name Yunchang, was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He played a significant role in the events led to the collapse of the dynasty. After Liu Bei gained control of Yi Province in 214, Guan Yu remained in Jing Province to govern, by the time Guan Yu found out about the loss of Jing Province after his defeat at Fancheng, it was too late. He was subsequently captured in an ambush by Sun Quans forces, Guan Yu is respected as an epitome of loyalty and righteousness. He is portrayed as having a red face, Guan Yu was deified as early as the Sui dynasty and is still worshipped by many Chinese people today in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among many overseas Chinese communities. In religious devotion he is called the Divus Guan or Lord Guan. He is a deity worshipped in Chinese folk religion, popular Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism and his hometown Yuncheng has also named its airport after him. The authoritative historical source on Guan Yus life is the Records of the Three Kingdoms, during the fifth century, Pei Songzhi annotated the Sanguozhi by incorporating information from other sources to Chen Shous original work and adding his personal commentary. No descriptions of Guan Yus physical appearance exist in historical records, traditionally, he is portrayed as a red-faced warrior with a long lush beard. He had an air and looked quite majestic. Alternatively, the idea of his red face could have borrowed from opera representation. In illustrations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu is traditionally depicted wearing a green robe over his body armour, supposedly, Guan Yus weapon was a guan dao named Green Dragon Crescent Blade, which resembled a glaive and was said to weigh 82 catties. A wooden replica can be today in the Emperor Guan Temple in Xiezhou County. Guan Yu was from Xie County, Hedong Commandery, which is in present-day Yuncheng and his original courtesy name was Changsheng. He was very interested in the Zuo Zhuan and could fluently recite lines from the book and he fled from his hometown after committing a serious crime and arrived in Zhuo Commandery. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in the 180s, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei joined a militia formed by Liu Bei. When Liu Bei was appointed as the Chancellor of Pingyuan State, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were appointed as Majors of Separate Command, the three of them shared a brotherly-like relationship, to the point of sharing the same room. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu also stood guard beside Liu Bei when he sat down at meetings and they followed him on his exploits and protected him from danger
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Liu Bei
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Liu Bei, courtesy name Xuande, was a warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who founded the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period and became its first ruler. Liu Bei overcame his many defeats to carve out his own realm, which at its peak spanned present-day Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan, parts of Hubei, and parts of Gansu. His fictional counterpart in the novel was a example of a ruler who adhered to the Confucian set of moral values, such as loyalty. Historically, Liu Bei like many Han rulers was greatly influenced by Laozi and he was a brilliant politician and leader whose skill was a remarkable demonstration of a Legalist. Liu Beis somewhat Confucian tendencies were also dramatized compared to his rival states founders Cao Pi and Sun Quan, who both ruled as pure Legalists. The historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms described Liu Bei as a man seven chi and five cun tall, with arms that extended beyond his knees. The historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong gave a description about Liu Beis physical appearance. According to the historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei was born in Zhuo County and he was a descendant of Liu Zhen, a son of Liu Sheng and a grandson of Emperor Jing. However, Pei Songzhis commentary, based on the Dianlue, said that Liu Bei was a descendant of the Marquis of Linyi, the title of Marquis of Linyi was held by Liu Fu, and later by Liu Fus son Liu Taotu. All three descended from Emperor Jing, Liu Beis grandfather Liu Xiong and father Liu Hong were both employed as local clerks. Liu Bei grew up in a family, having lost his father when he was still a child. To support themselves, Liu Bei and his mother sold shoes, even so, Liu Bei was full of ambition from childhood, he once said to his peers, while under a tree that resembled the royal chariot, that he desired to become an emperor. At the age of 14, Liu Bei, sponsored by an affluent relative who recognised his potential in leadership. There he met and befriended Gongsun Zan, who would become a prominent warlord in northern China. The adolescent Liu Bei was said to be unenthusiastic in studying and displayed interest in hunting, music, concise in speech, calm in demeanour, and kind to his friends, Liu Bei was well liked by his contemporaries. In 184, at the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liu Bei became much more politically aware and called for the assembly of a volunteer army to help government forces suppress the rebellion. Liu Bei received financial contributions from two wealthy horse merchants named Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang and rallied a group of followers, including Guan Yu, Zhang Fei. Liu Bei led his army to join the provincial army, together, they scored several victories against the rebels
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Zhuge Liang
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Zhuge Liang, courtesy name Kongming, was a chancellor and regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is recognised as the most accomplished strategist of his era, and has compared to Sun Tzu. A self-avowed Legalist, he compared himself with Guan Zhong, developing Shus agriculture and he attached great importance to the works of Shen Buhai and Han Fei, refusing to indulge local elites and adopting strict, but fair and clear laws. In remembrance of his governance, local people maintained shrines to him for ages, often depicted wearing a Taoist robe and holding a hand fan made of crane feathers, Zhuge Liang was an important military strategist, statesman and accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned scholar grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, Zhuge is an uncommon two-character Chinese compound family name. His name – even his surname alone – has become synonymous with intelligence, Zhuge Liang was born in Yangdu County, Langya Commandery, which is in present-day Yishui, Shandong. Orphaned at an age, he was raised by his uncle. Later, he followed his uncle to live in Jing Province, Zhuge Liang enjoyed reciting Liangfu Yin, a folk song popular in Shandong, his birthplace. He also liked to compare himself to Guan Zhong and Yue Yi and he developed close friendships with members of the local literati, such as Xu Shu, Cui Zhouping, Meng Jian and Shi Tao. Zhuge Liang also maintained relations with other well-known intellectuals such as Sima Hui. Huang Chengyan once told Zhuge Liang, I heard that youre seeking a spouse, ive an ugly daughter with a yellow face and dark complexion, but her talent matches yours. Zhuge Liang agreed and married Huang Chengyans daughter, at that time, Liu Bei resided at Xinye County while he was taking shelter under Jing Provinces governor, Liu Biao. Liu Bei visited Sima Hui, who told him, Confucian academics and common scholars and those who analyse current affairs well are elites. Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix are the ones in this region. Xu Shu later recommended Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei again, however, Xu Shu replied, You must visit this man in person. He cannot be invited to meet you, Liu Bei succeeded in recruiting Zhuge Liang in 207 after paying three personal visits. Zhuge Liang presented the Longzhong Plan to Liu Bei and left his residence to follow Liu, afterwards, Liu Bei became very close to Zhuge Liang and often had discussions with him. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were not pleased and complained, Liu Bei explained, Now that I have Kongming, I am like a fish that has found water
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Li Bai
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Li Bai, also known as Li Bo, was a Chinese poet acclaimed from his own day to the present as a genius and a romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du Fu were the two most prominent figures in the flourishing of Chinese poetry in the Tang dynasty, which is called the Golden Age of Chinese Poetry. The expression Three Wonders referred to Li Bais poetry, Pei Mins swordplay, around a thousand poems attributed to him are extant. In the same century, translations of his poems began to appear in Europe, the poems were models for celebrating the pleasures of friendship, the depth of nature, solitude, and the joys of drinking wine. Among the most famous are Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day, The Hard Road to Shu, and Quiet Night Thought, in the West, multi-lingual translations of Lis poems continue to be made. However, of importance are the changes in the times through which he lived. This all changed suddenly and shockingly, beginning with the rebellion of the general An Lushan, Lis poetry as well takes on new tones and qualities. Unlike his younger friend Du Fu, Li was not to live to see the quelling of these disorders, however, much of Lis poetry has survived and it has retained enduring popularity in China and elsewhere. Li is the name, or surname. Li Bai, Li Po, Li Bo, Ri Haku, all of these variants and more, Li Bai generally referred to himself as 白. His given name is written with a Chinese character, which is romanized by variants such as Po, Bo, Bai, Pai. In Hanyu Pinyin, reflecting modern Mandarin Chinese, the main, colloquial equivalent for this character is Bái, however Bó is the correct literary variant and a common pronunciation for his name. The P in Wade–Giles Po indicates a lack of aspiration in the consonant, thus closer to /b/ than /p/, which would be written p, the Cantonese version is baak6, with a final /k/. The reconstructed version of how he and others during the Tang dynasty would have pronounced this is Bhæk and his courtesy name was Taibai, literally Great White, literally meaning Venus. Thus, combining the name with the courtesy name, his name appears in variants such as Li Taibo, Li Taibai, Li Tai-po. When the English transliteration is derived through Japanese, his name may be given as Ri Hakuor Ri Taihaku, the two Books of Tang, The Old Book of Tang and The New Book of Tang, remain the primary sources of bibliographical material on Li Bai. Other sources include internal evidence from poems by or about Li Bai, Li Bai is generally considered to have been born in 701, in Suyab of ancient Chinese Central Asia, where his family had prospered in business at the frontier. Afterwards, the family under the leadership of his father, Li Ke, moved to Jiangyou, near modern Chengdu, in Sichuan province, however, despite much speculation, the facts are scant
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