1.
Chinese paper cutting
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The art of paper-cutting in China may date back to the second century C. E. since paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China. As paper became more affordable, paper-cutting became one of the most important types of Chinese folk art, later, this art form spread to other parts of the world, with different regions adopting their own cultural styles. Because the cut-outs are often used to decorate doors and windows, they are referred to as chuāng huā. People glued the papercuts to the exterior of windows, so the light from the inside would shine through the space of the cutout. Usually, the artworks are made of red paper, as red is associated with festivities and happiness in Chinese culture, normally paper-cutting artwork is used on festivals like Spring Festival, weddings and childbirth. Papercuts always symbolizes luck and happiness, Chinese paper-cutting originated from ancient activities of worshipping ancestors and gods, and is a traditional part of Chinese culture. At that time, people used other materials, like leaves, silver foil, silk and even leather. Later, when paper was invented, people realized that material was easy to cut, store and discard. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, this artistry witnessed its most prosperous period, for over a thousand years, people have been making paper-cuts as part a leisure activity. Paper is a kind of material which mildews and rots easily, in the southeast of China, it usually rains in May and June, which makes paper mildew and rot quickly. As a result, people in southeast didn’t keep them, on the contrast, the weather in the northwest of China is usually dry, which makes it possible to find paper-cutting made in the Northern Dynasties in Turpan, Sinkiang province. When paper-cutting passed down to the Tang Dynasty, the skills of handcraft became mature, paper-cutting was not only a kind of handcraft, but also a piece of artwork, as it could express the idea through the pattern. In Ming and Qing Dynasty, paper-cutting experienced its peak development, folk paper-cutting spread to a wider range and had abundant means of artistic expression. Paper-cutting was used to decorate doors, windows and walls to show happiness, paper-cutting is one of the oldest and the most popular folk arts in China. It can be divided into a southern and a northern style. The southern style, represented by works from Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province and Leqing in Zhejiang Province, features ingenious and beautiful designs, the style of window paper-cuts is usually free, except the flower pattern on the corner. The theme of window paper-cuts has a range, the most popular of which is based on the stories of traditional Chinese opera. As most buyers are farmers, the content of window paper-cut usually describe farming, spinning, fishing, Chinese paper cuttings are usually symmetrical
2.
Pig
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A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig and its ancestor, the common Eurasian wild boar, along with species, related creatures outside the genus include the peccary, the babirusa. Pigs, like all suids, are native to the Eurasian and African continents, juvenile pigs are known as piglets. Pigs are highly social and intelligent animals, with around 1 billion individuals alive at any time, the domesticated pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet. Pigs are omnivores and can consume a range of food. Pigs can harbour a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans, because of the similarities between pigs and humans, pigs are used for human medical research. The Online Etymology Dictionary provides anecdotal evidence as well as linguistic, saying that the term derives probably from Old English *picg, found in compounds, apparently related to Low German bigge, Dutch big. Another Old English word for pig was fearh, related to furh furrow, from PIE *perk- dig and this reflects a widespread IE tendency to name animals from typical attributes or activities. Synonyms grunter, porker are from sailors and fishermens euphemistic avoidance of uttering the word pig at sea, a superstition perhaps based on the fate of the Gadarene swine and it is entirely likely that the word to call pigs, soo-ie, is similarly derived. A typical pig has a head with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is an acute sense organ. There are four hoofed toes on each trotter, with the two larger central toes bearing most of the weight, but the two also being used in soft ground. The dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.33.1.4.3, the rear teeth are adapted for crushing. In the male, the teeth form tusks, which grow continuously and are sharpened by constantly being ground against each other. Occasionally, captive mother pigs may savage their own piglets, often if they become severely stressed, some attacks on newborn piglets are non-fatal. Others may cause the death of the piglets and sometimes, the mother may eat the piglets and it is estimated that 50% of piglet fatalities are due to the mother attacking, or unintentionally crushing, the newborn pre-weaned animals. Scientists have recently discovered that pigs can exhibit a bias and are optimists or pessimests. In a study by the University of Lincoln,36 pigs were tested and they were placed in a room with two food bowls at each end of the room
3.
Chinese zodiac
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The Chinese zodiac is a classification scheme that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating 12-year cycle. The 12-year cycle is an approximation to the 11. 86-year orbital period of Jupiter, nevertheless, there are major differences, the Chinese 12-part cycle corresponds to years, rather than months. The Chinese zodiac is represented by 12 animals, whereas some of the signs in the Western zodiac are not animals, the animals of the Chinese zodiac are not associated with constellations spanned by the ecliptic plane. The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat, the following are the twelve zodiac signs in order and their characteristics. It is a misconception that the animals assigned by year are the only signs. In fact, there are also animal signs assigned by month, by day, while a person might appear to be a Dragon because they were born in the year of the Dragon, they might also be a Snake internally, an Ox truly, and a Goat secretively. A conflict between a persons zodiac sign and how they live is known as tai sui or kai sui, within the Four Pillars, the year is the pillar representing information about the persons family background and society or relationship with their grandparents. The persons age can also be deduced from the sign of the person, the current sign of the year. For example, a person who is a Tiger is either 12,24,36 or 48 years old in 2010, in 2011, the year of the Rabbit, that person is one year older. The following table shows the 60-year cycle matched up to the Western calendar for the years 1924–2043, the sexagenary cycle begins at lichun about February 4 according to some astrological sources. Within the Four Pillars, the month is the pillar representing information about the parents or childhood. Many Chinese astrologers consider the month pillar to be the most important one in determining the circumstances of ones adult life, the 12 animals are also linked to traditional Chinese agricultural calendar, which runs alongside the better known lunar calendar. Instead of months, this calendar is divided into 24 two week segments known as Solar Terms, each animal is linked to two of these solar terms for a period similar to the Western month. Again unlike the cycle of the years, which begins with the Rat. Around summer days are longer than days, because it occurs differences of perihelion and aphelion. As each sign is linked to a month of the solar year, each of the elements is also linked to a season, and the element that shares a season with a sign is known as that signs fixed element. In other words, that element is believed to some of its characteristics to the sign concerned. The fixed element of each sign applies also to the year and hour signs and it is important to note that the fixed element is separate from the cycle of elements which interact with the signs in the 60-year cycle
4.
Chinese calendar
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Traditional Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar which reckons years, months and days according to astronomical phenomena. It is used for activities in China and overseas Chinese communities. It depictures and lists the dates of traditional Chinese holidays, and guides Chinese people in selecting the most auspicious days for weddings, funerals, moving, in the Chinese calendar, the days begin and end at midnight. The months begin on the day with the dark moon, the years begin with the dark moon near the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox. The solar terms are the important components of the Chinese calendar, in a month, there are one to three solar terms. The currently used traditional Chinese calendar is the end result of centuries of evolution, many astronomical and seasonal factors were added by ancient scientists, and people can reckon the date of natural phenomena such as the moon phase and tide upon the Chinese calendar. The Chinese calendar has over 100 variants, whose characteristics reflect the evolutionary path. As with Chinese characters, different variants are used in different parts of the Chinese cultural sphere, calendars in Mongolia and Tibet have absorbed elements from the Chinese calendar and elements from other systems, but they are not direct descendants of the Chinese calendar. The official calendar in China is the Gregorian calendar, but the traditional Chinese calendar still plays an important role there. The Chinese calendar is known officially as the Rural Calendar, but is referred to by other names, such as the Former Calendar. The Chinese calendar preserves traditional East Asian culture, although the month sequences of Chinese calendar is decided by the solar term, the Chinese calendar is not an agriculture calendar. The Chinese calendar has greatly influenced the traditional calendars around Asia, the calendar has a year, month and date frame. The key elements are the day, synodic month and solar year, the Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, similar to the Hindu and Hebrew calendars. The concepts in the Chinese, Hindu, and Hebrew calendars, day, in the Chinese calendar, a day starts from the midnight, in the Hindu calendars, a day starts from sunrise, and in the Hebrew calendar, a day starts from sunset. Month, the time is based on the obliquity of the moon path, a month is about 29 17/32 days. Phase, 1/30 month, 12° obliquity of the moon path, a unique concept of dating method in the Hindu calendar, a phase is about 63/64 day, which derived out the 64 divinatory symbols. Date, the day number in a month, in the Chinese and Hebrew calendars, days are numbered in sequence from 1 to 29 or 30, and in the Hindu calendars, the days are numbered according to the number of the phase in the days. In the Hindu calendars, some dates may be vacant, Year, the time based on the earths revolution
5.
Wu Xing
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The Five Phases are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. This order of presentation is known as the generation sequence. In the order of mutual overcoming, they are Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, the system of five phases was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. The system is used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine. Xing of Wu Xing means moving, a planet is called a star in Chinese. Wu Xing originally refers to the five planets that create five dimensions of earth life. Wu Xing is also translated as Five Elements and this is used extensively by many including practitioners of Five Element acupuncture. This translation arose by analogy with the Western system of the four elements. By the same token, Mù is thought of as Tree rather than Wood, the word element is thus used within the context of Chinese medicine with a different meaning to its usual meaning. It should be recognized that the phase, although commonly preferred, is not perfect. Phase is a translation for the five seasons mentioned below. Manfred Porkert attempts to resolve this by using Evolutive Phase for 五行 Wǔ Xíng and Circuit Phase for 五運 Wǔ Yùn, some of the Mawangdui Silk Texts also present the Wu Xing as five virtues or types of activities. Within Chinese medicine texts the Wu Xing are also referred to as Wu Yun or a combination of the two characters these emphasise the correspondence of five elements to five seasons, another tradition refers to the Wǔ Xíng as Wǔ Dé, the Five Virtues. Wood parts Earth Earth dams Water Water extinguishes Fire Fire melts Metal Metal chops Wood This cycle might also be called controls, according to Wu Xing theory, the structure of the cosmos mirrors the five phases. Each phase has a series of associations with different aspects of nature. In the ancient Chinese form of known as Feng Shui practitioners all based their art. All of these phases are represented within the trigrams, associated with these phases are colors, seasons and shapes, all of which are interacting with each other. Based on a directional energy flow from one phase to the next
6.
Fire (classical element)
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Fire has been an important part of all cultures and religions from pre-history to modern day and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different contexts throughout history, Fire is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science. It was commonly associated with the qualities of energy, assertiveness, in one Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the gods to protect the otherwise helpless humans, but was punished for this charity. Fire was one of many proposed by the Pre-socratics, most of whom sought to reduce the cosmos, or its creation. Heraclitus considered fire to be the most fundamental of all elements and he believed fire gave rise to the other three elements, All things are an interchange for fire, and fire for all things, just like goods for gold and gold for goods. He had a reputation for obscure philosophical principles and for speaking in riddles and this is a concept that anticipates both the four classical elements of Empedocles and Aristotles transmutation of the four elements into one another. This world, which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made, but it always was and will be, an ever-living fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out. Heraclitus regarded the soul as being a mixture of fire and water, with fire being the noble part. He believed the goal of the soul is to be rid of water and become pure fire and he was known as the weeping philosopher and died of hydropsy, a swelling due to abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin. However, Empedocles of Acragas, is best known for having selected all elements as his archai and by the time of Plato, the four Empedoclian elements were well established. This also makes fire the element with the smallest number of sides, and Plato regarded it as appropriate for the heat of fire, which he felt is sharp and stabbing. Fire the hot and dry element, like the elements, was an abstract principle and not identical with the normal solids, liquids and combustion phenomena we experience. According to Aristotle, the four elements rise or fall toward their natural place in concentric layers surrounding the center of the earth, in ancient Greek medicine, each of the four humours became associated with an element. Yellow bile was the humor identified with fire, since both were hot and dry, in alchemy the chemical element of sulfur was often associated with fire and its alchemical symbol and its symbol was an upward-pointing triangle. In alchemic tradition, metals are incubated by fire in the womb of the Earth, Agni is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word agni is Sanskrit for fire, cognate with Latin ignis, Russian огонь, Agni has three forms, fire, lightning and the sun. Agni is one of the most important of the Vedic gods and he is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and he is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day, yet he is also immortal
7.
Earth (classical element)
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Earth is one of the classical elements, in some systems numbering four along with air, fire, and water. Earth is one of the four elements in ancient Greek philosophy. It was commonly associated with qualities of heaviness, matter and the terrestrial world, due to the hero cults, and chthonic underworld deities, the element of earth is also associated with the sensual aspects of both life and death in later occultism. Empedocles of Acragas proposed four archai by which to understand the cosmos, fire, air, water, plato believed the elements were geometric forms and he assigned the cube to the element of earth in his dialogue Timaeus. Aristotle, believed earth was the heaviest element, and his theory of natural place suggested that any earth–laden substances, would fall quickly, straight down, in ancient Greek medicine, each of the four humours became associated with an element. Black bile was the humor identified with earth, since both were cold and dry, in alchemy, earth was believed to be primarily dry, and secondarily cold. Beyond those classical attributes, the chemical substance salt, was associated with earth and its symbol was a downward-pointing triangle. Prithvi is the Hindu earth and mother goddess, according to one such tradition, she is the personification of the Earth itself, according to another, its actual mother, being Prithvi Tattwa, the essence of the element earth. As Prithvi Mata, or Mother Earth, she contrasts with Dyaus Pita, in the Rigveda, earth and sky are frequently addressed as a duality, often indicated by the idea of two complementary half-shells. In addition, the element Earth is associated with Budha or Mercury who represents communication, business, mathematics, people born under the astrological signs of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are thought to have dominant earth personalities. Earth and the other Greek classical elements were incorporated into the Golden Dawn system, zelator is the elemental grade attributed to earth, this grade is also attributed to the Qabbalistic sphere Malkuth. The elemental weapon of earth is the Pentacle, each of the elements has several associated spiritual beings. The archangel of earth is Uriel, the angel is Phorlakh, the ruler is Kerub, the king is Ghob, and the earth elementals are called gnomes. Earth is considered to be passive, it is represented by the symbol for Taurus, many of these associations have since spread throughout the occult community. It is sometimes represented by its Tattva or by a downward pointing triangle with a line through it. Earth is one of the five elements appear in most Wiccan and Pagan traditions. Wicca in particular was influenced by the Golden Dawn system of magic, and Aleister Crowleys mysticism which was in turn inspired by the Golden Dawn. In East Asia, metal is seen as the equivalent of earth and is represented by the White Tiger, known as 白虎 in Chinese, Byakko in Japanese, Bạch Hổ in Vietnamese
8.
Dai people
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For other names, please see the table below. The Dai people form one of the 56 ethnic groups recognized by the Peoples Republic of China. Therefore the word Dai, like with the aforementioned Yao, is a Han-Chinese cultural concept which has now adopted by other languages such as English, French. As a solution in the Thai language, however, as in English and this is because the two main groups actually bear the same name, both meaning Northern Tai. Although they are recognized as a single people by the Chinese state. The two main languages of the Dai are Dai Lü and Dai Nüa, two written languages used by the Dai are Tày Pong and Tai Dam. They all are Tai languages, a group of related languages that includes Thai, Lao, and Zhuang, various dialects of the Tai/Dai language family are spoken from Assam, India to Taiwan and Shanxi Province, China. They are among the few groups in China who nominally practice the Theravada school of Buddhism. Peoples classified as Dai in China speak the following Southwestern Tai languages, Tai Lü language 傣泐方言,400,000 speakers in Sipsongpanna, Menglian County, Jinggu County, Jiangcheng County, etc. Tai Nüa language 傣纳方言,400,000 speakers in Dehong, Gengma, Shuangjiang, Tengchong, Baoshan, Longling, Changning, Cangyuan, Lancang, Zhenkang, Jingdong, Tai Rui 傣端方言,40,000 speakers in Jinping, Maguan, Malipo counties, etc. Tianxin 田心方言,20,000 speakers in Wuding, Luquan, Yongren, Dayao counties, representative dialect, Tianxin 田心, Wuding County The original areas of the Tai Lue included both sides of the Mekong River in the Sipsongpanna. According to the Tai Lue, there were five city-states on the east bank and six on the west, which with Jinghong formed twelve rice field divisions with all twelve having another 32 small provinces. These were, On the west bank - Rung, Ha, Sae, Lu, Ong, Luang, Hun, Phan, Chiang Choeng, Hai, Chiang Lo and Mang, On the east bank - La, Bang, Hing, Pang, La, Wang, Phong, Yuan, Bang and Chiang Thong. In the 14th century Chao Sunanda, son of the ruler of Chiang Rung, given this history, the Tai Yong are the Tai Lue. In Thailand, these people are known as Tai Lue Mueang Yong, as distinct from the Tai Khoen of Kengtung. The term Shan is generally not used in Thai, many Dai live near the Mekong river where it meanders through the far south of Yunnan. The Dai, Or the Tai and Their Architecture & Customs in South China, bangkok, Thailand, and Kunming, Yunnan, China, D D Books and The Science and Technology Press of Yunnan. Les Dai de Chine, Zhongguo de Dai zu, Jean A. Berlie,136 pages, Paris, France, photos related to Dai Theravada Buddhism Site including information on some endangered Tai scripts Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden
9.
Zodiac
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The zodiac is an area of the sky centered upon the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets also remain close to the ecliptic, within the belt of the zodiac, in western astrology and astronomy, the zodiac is divided into twelve signs, each sign occupying 30° of celestial longitude. Because the signs are regular, they do not correspond exactly to the boundaries of the twelve constellations after which they are named, the English word zodiac derives from zōdiacus, the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek zōidiakòs kýklos, meaning circle of little animals. Zōidion is the diminutive of zōion, the name reflects the prominence of animals among the twelve signs. The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemys vast 2nd century AD work, the term zodiac may also refer to the region of the celestial sphere encompassing the paths of the planets corresponding to the band of about eight arc degrees above and below the ecliptic. The zodiac of a planet is the band that contains the path of that particular body, e. g. the zodiac of the Moon is the band of five degrees above. By extension, the zodiac of the comets may refer to the band encompassing most short-period comets, the division of the ecliptic into the zodiacal signs originates in Babylonian astronomy during the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The zodiac draws on stars in earlier Babylonian star catalogues, such as the MUL. APIN catalogue, around the end of the 5th century BC, Babylonian astronomers divided the ecliptic into twelve equal signs, by analogy to twelve schematic months of thirty days each. Each sign contained thirty degrees of longitude, thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system. Because the division was made into equal arcs, 30° each, in Babylonian astronomical diaries, a planet position was generally given with respect to a zodiacal sign alone, less often in specific degrees within a sign. When the degrees of longitude were given, they were expressed with reference to the 30° of the zodiacal sign, in astronomical ephemerides, the positions of significant astronomical phenomena were computed in sexagesimal fractions of a degree. For daily ephemerides, the positions of a planet were not as important as the astrologically significant dates when the planet crossed from one zodiacal sign to the next. The Babylonian star catalogs entered Greek astronomy in the 4th century BC, Babylonia or Chaldea in the Hellenistic world came to be so identified with astrology that Chaldean wisdom became among Greeks and Romans the synonym of divination through the planets and stars. Hellenistic astrology derived in part from Babylonian and Egyptian astrology, horoscopic astrology first appeared in Ptolemaic Egypt. The Dendera zodiac, a dating to ca.50 BC, is the first known depiction of the classical zodiac of twelve signs. The earliest extant Greek text using the Babylonian division of the zodiac into 12 signs of 30 equal degrees each is the Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria. Particularly important in the development of Western horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy, whose work Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition. Under the Greeks, and Ptolemy in particular, the planets, Houses, Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century AD, three centuries after the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by Hipparchus around 130 BC
10.
Gurung people
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The Gurung people, also called Tamu, are an ethnic group from different parts of Nepal. Priestly practitioners of Gurung Dharma include Ghyabri, Pachyu, and Bon Lamas, shamanistic elements among the Gurungs remain strong and most Gurungs often embrace Buddhist and Bön rituals in all communal activities. Nepal, the Living Heritage, Environment and Culture, university of Michigan, Kathmandu Environmental Education Project. The Land of the Gurkhas, Or, The Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, the Gurungs, Thunder of Himal, A Cross Cultural Study of a Nepalese Ethnic Group
11.
Myth
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A myth is any traditional story consisting of events that are ostensibly historical, though often supernatural, explaining the origins of a cultural practice or natural phenomenon. The word myth is derived from the Greek word mythos, which means story. Mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths, myth can mean sacred story, traditional narrative or tale of the gods. A myth can also be a story to explain why something exists, human cultures usually include a cosmogonical or creation myth, concerning the origins of the world, or how the world came to exist. The active beings in myths are generally gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, or animals, most myths are set in a timeless past before recorded time or beginning of the critical history. A myth can be a story involving symbols that are capable of multiple meanings, a myth is a sacred narrative because it holds religious or spiritual significance for those who tell it. Myths also contribute to and express a cultures systems of thought and values, myths are often therefore stories that are currently understood as being exaggerated or fictitious. According to Albert A. Anderson, a professor of philosophy, in these works, the term had several meanings, conversation, narrative, speech, story, tale, and word. Like the related term logos, mythos expresses whatever can be delivered in the form of words, Anderson contrasts the two terms with ergon, a Greek term for action, deed, and work. The term mythos lacks an explicit distinction between true or false narratives, in the context of the Theatre of ancient Greece, the term mythos referred to the myth, the narrative, the plot, and the story of a theatrical play. According to David Wiles, the Greek term mythos in this era covered an entire spectrum of different meanings, from undeniable falsehoods to stories with religious, according to philosopher Aristotle, the spirit of a theatrical play was its mythos. The term mythos was also used for the material of Greek tragedy. The tragedians of the era could draw inspiration from Greek mythology, David Wiles observes that modern conceptions about Greek tragedy can be misleading. It is commonly thought that the ancient audience members were familiar with the mythos behind a play. However, the Greek dramatists were not expected to faithfully reproduce traditional myths when adapting them for the stage and they were instead recreating the myths and producing new versions. Storytellers like Euripides relied on suspense to excite their audiences, in one of his works, Merope attempts to kill her sons murderer with an axe, unaware that the man in question is actually her son. According to an ancient description of reactions to this work. They rose to their feet in terror and caused an uproar, David Wiles points that the traditional mythos of Ancient Greece, was primarily a part of its oral tradition
12.
Jade Emperor
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The Jade Emperor in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god. In Taoist theology he is Yuanshi Tianzun, one of the Three Pure Ones and he is also the Cao Đài of Caodaism known as Ngọc Hoàng Thượng đế. In Buddhist cosmology he is identified with Śakra, in Korean mythology he is known as Hwanin. The Jade Emperor is known by names, including Heavenly Grandfather, which originally meant Heavenly Duke, which is used by commoners. There are many stories in Chinese mythology involving the Jade Emperor and it was said that the Jade Emperor was originally the crown prince of the kingdom of Pure Felicity and Majestic Heavenly Lights and Ornaments. At birth, he emitted a wondrous light that filled the entire kingdom, when he was young, he was kind, intelligent and wise. He devoted his childhood to helping the needy. Furthermore, he showed respect and benevolence to both men and creatures, after his father died, he ascended the throne. He made sure everyone in his kingdom found peace and contentment. After that, he told his ministers that he wished to cultivate Tao on the Bright, after 1,750 kalpas, each kalpa lasting for 129,600 years, he attained Golden Immortality. After another one hundred years of cultivation, he finally became the Jade Emperor One of the myths describes how the Jade Emperor became the monarch of all the deities in heaven. It is one of the few myths in which the Jade Emperor really shows his might, in the beginning of time, the earth was a very difficult place to live, much harsher than it is now. People had to deal with a variety of beings, and they didn’t have many gods to protect them, in addition. The Jade Emperor was an immortal who roamed the earth helping as many people as he could. He was saddened because his powers could only ease the suffering of humans and he retreated to a mountain cave to cultivate his Tao. He passed 3,200 trials, each lasting about 3 million years. On earth at this time, a powerful, evil entity had the ambition to conquer the immortals and gods in heaven and this evil entity also went into retreat and meditation to expand its power, though later than the Jade Emperor did. He passed through 3,000 trials, each lasting about 3 million years
13.
Gautama Buddha
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Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, or simply the Buddha, after the title of Buddha, was an ascetic and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region and he later taught throughout other regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala. Gautama is the figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as a teacher who attained full Buddhahood. Accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death, various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later. Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the facts of the Buddhas life. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddhas lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential schools of thought like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism. Brahmajala Sutta records sixty-two such schools of thought, thus, Buddha was just one of the many śramaṇa philosophers of that time. The times of Gautamas birth and death are uncertain, most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet accepted by all historians. It was either a republic, or an oligarchy, and his father was an elected chieftain. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, no written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, another one of his edicts mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era. These texts may be the precursor of the Pāli Canon and they are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different and these include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, a poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE, the Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE
14.
Chinese mythology
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Chinese mythology includes creation myths and legends, such as myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state. As in many mythologies, Chinese mythology has in the past been believed to be, at least in part. Some myths are widely shared across multiple ethnic groups, but may exist as versions with some differences, historians have written evidence of Chinese mythological symbolism from the 12th century BC in the Oracle bone script. Legends were passed down for over a thousand years before being written in such as Classic of Mountains. Other myths continued to be passed down through oral traditions like theater, imperial historical documents and philosophical canons such as Book of Rites, Records of the Grand Historian, Book of Documents, and Lüshi Chunqiu all contain Chinese myths. Some myths survive in theatrical or literary formats as plays or novels, books in the shenmo genre of vernacular fiction revolve around gods and monsters. Examples include, Shangdi, also sometimes Huángtiān Dàdì, appeared as early as the Shang dynasty, in later eras, he was more commonly referred to as Huángtiān Shàngdì. The use of Huángtiān Dàdì refers to the Jade Emperor and Tian, Yu Di appeared in literature after the establishment of Taoism in China, his appearance as Yu Huang dates back to beyond the times of Yellow Emperor, Nüwa, or Fuxi. Tian appeared in literature c.700 BC, possibly earlier as dating depends on the date of the Shujing, there are no creation-oriented narratives for Tian. The qualities of Tian and Shangdi appear to have merged in later literature and are now worshiped as one entity in, for example, the extent of the distinction between Tian and Shangdi is debated. Nüwa appeared in no earlier than c.350 BC. Her companion, Fuxi, was her brother and husband and they are sometimes worshiped as the ultimate ancestor of all humankind, and are often represented as half-snake, half-humans. It is sometimes believed that Nüwa molded humans from clay for companionship and she repaired the sky after Gong Gong damaged the pillar supporting the heavens. Pangu, written about by Taoist author Xu Zheng c.200 AD, was claimed to be the first sentient being and creator, “making the heavens and these legendary rulers ruled between c.2850 BC to 2205 BC, before the Xia dynasty. The list of names comprising the Three August Ones and Five Emperors vary widely among sources, Emperor Ku, great-grandson of the Huang Emperor and nephew of Zhuanxu. Yao, son of Ku, Yaos elder brother succeeded Ku, Shun, successor of Yao, who passed over his own son and made Shun his successor because of Shuns ability and morality. These rulers are generally regarded as morally upright and benevolent, examples to be emulated by latter day kings, historically, when Qin Shi Huang united China in 221 BC, he felt that his achievements had surpassed those of all the rulers who had gone before him. He combined the ancient titles of Huáng and Dì to create a new title, Huángdì, Shun passed on his place as emperor to Yu the Great
15.
Coastal City
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Coastal City is a shopping and office complex in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China. Located in the business district of Nanshan, it occupies an entire city block bounded by Binhai, Nanhai, Houhai, Houhaibin. The complex consists of the Coastal City shopping arcade and two buildings, namely the West and East towers. The podium of the two towers hosts numerous stores as well, the entire project stands on 6000m2 of reclaimed land, the largest of its kind in Nanshan. Designed by the US architectural firm Callison, the mall opened in 2007 consisting five stories and it hosts the Coastal City Cinema, an ice rink, an AEON supermarket and several dozens of smaller Chinese and international shops and restaurants. Buildings and facilities in its proximity include Heung Kong Tower, Tiley Fame City, Kempinski Shenzhen, Poly Cultural Center, Nanshan Book City, Haiya shopping mall and Shenzhen Bay Sports Center. A bus station is located directly in front of the entrance, it serves as the terminus for bus numbers 121,76,80,231,305,382,353,322,337. The complex is also walking distance from Houhai Station of Shenzhen Metro
16.
Gyeongju
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Gyeongju, historically known as Seorabeol, is a coastal city in the far southeastern corner of North Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. It is the second largest city by area in the province after Andong, covering 1,324 km2 with a population of 264,091 people Gyeongju is 370 km southeast of Seoul, and 55 km east of Daegu. The city borders Cheongdo and Yeongcheon to the west, Ulsan to the south and Pohang to the north, numerous low mountains—outliers of the Taebaek range—are scattered around the city. Gyeongju was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla which ruled about two-thirds of the Korean Peninsula between the 7th and 9th centuries, later Silla was a prosperous and wealthy country, and its metropolitan capital of Gyeongju was the fourth largest city in the world. A vast number of sites and cultural properties from this period remain in the city. Gyeongju is often referred to as the museum without walls, among such historical treasures, Seokguram grotto, Bulguksa temple, Gyeongju Historic Areas and Yangdong Folk Village are designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The many major sites have helped Gyeongju become one of the most popular tourist destinations in South Korea. The city of Gyeongju was united with the nearby rural Gyeongju County in 1995 and is now an urban–rural complex and it is similar to 53 other small- and medium-sized cities with a population under 300,000 people in South Korea. As well as its historical heritage, Gyeongju today is affected by the economic, demographic. Tourism remains the economic driver, but manufacturing activities have developed due to its proximity to major industrial centers such as Ulsan. Gyeongju is connected to the rail and highway networks, which facilitate industrial. The early history of Gyeongju is closely tied to that of the Silla kingdom, Gyeongju first enters non-Korean records as Saro-guk, during the Samhan period in the early Common Era. Korean records, probably based on the chronicles of Silla, record that Saro-guk was established in 57 BCE. As the kingdom expanded, it changed its name to Silla, during the Silla period, the city was called Seorabeol, Gyerim or Geumseong. After the unification of the peninsula up to Taedong River in 668 AD, the city was home to the Silla court and the great majority of the kingdoms elite. Its prosperity became legendary, and was reported as far away as Persia according to the 9th century book The Book of Roads, records of Samguk Yusa give the citys population in its peak period as 178,936 households, suggesting that the total population was almost one million. Many of Gyeongjus most famous sites date from this Unified Silla period, in 940, the founder of Goryeo, King Taejo, changed the citys name to Gyeongju, which literally means Congratulatory district. In 987, as Goryeo introduced a system in three additional capitals were established in politically important provinces outside Gaegyeong, and Gyeongju was designated as Donggyeong
17.
North Gyeongsang Province
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North Gyeongsang Province, also known as Gyeongbuk, is a province in eastern South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the half of the former Gyeongsang province, remained a province of Korea until the countrys division in 1945. Daegu was the capital of North Gyeongsang Province between 1896 and 1981, but has not been a part of the province since 1981, in 2016, the provincial capital moved from Daegu to Andong. The area of the province is 19,030 square kilometres,19. 1% of the area of South Korea. The province is part of the Yeongnam region, on the south by Gyeongsangnam-do, on the west by Jeollabuk-do and Chungcheongbuk-do Provinces, during the summer, Gyeongsangbuk-do is perhaps the hottest province in South Korea. This is helped by the fact that the province is surrounded by mountains, the Taebaek Mountains in the east. Gyeongsangbuk-do is the homeland of the kingdom of Silla and has retained much of its cultural tradition. A number of artists, political leaders and scholars have come from the province, according to the census of 2005, of the people of North Gyeongsang 33. 9% follow Buddhism and 18. 6% follow Christianity. 47. 5% of the population is not religious or follow Muism. Gyeongsangbuk-do is divided into 10 cities and 13 counties, the names below are given in English, hangul, and hanja. List of Korea-related topics Liancourt Rocks Gyeongsangbuk-do provincial government in English Alsace/Gyeongsangbuk-do North Gyeongsang Province travel guide from Wikivoyage
18.
South Korea
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South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The earliest Korean pottery dates to 8000 BC, with three kingdoms flourishing in the 1st century BC and its rich and vibrant culture left 19 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity, the third largest in the world, along with 12 World Heritage Sites. Annexed into Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea was divided after its surrender in 1945, peace has since mostly continued with the two agreeing to work peacefully for reunification and the South solidifying peace as a regional power with the worlds 10th largest defence budget. South Koreas tiger economy soared at an average of 10% for over 30 years in a period of rapid transformation called the Miracle on the Han River. A long legacy of openness and focus on innovation made it successful, today, it is the worlds fifth largest exporter with the G20s largest budget surplus and highest credit rating of any country in East Asia. It has free trade agreements with 75% of the economy and is the only G20 nation trading freely with China, the US. Since 1988, its constitution guarantees a liberal democracy with high government transparency, high personal freedoms led to the rise of a globally influential pop culture such as K-pop and K-drama, a phenomenon called the Korean Wave, known for its distinctive fashionable and trendy style. Home of the UN Green Climate Fund and GGGI, South Korea is a leader in low carbon growth, committed to helping developing countries as a major DAC. It is the third least ignorant country in the Index of Ignorance, ranking eighth highest for peaceful tolerance. It is the worlds largest spender on R&D per GDP, leading the OECD in graduates in science, the name Korea derives from the name Goryeo. The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the name for the entire territory. The new official name has its origin in the ancient country of Gojoseon, in 1897, the Joseon dynasty changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk. The name Daehan, which means great Han literally, derives from Samhan, however, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under Japanese rule, the two names Han and Joseon coexisted, there were several groups who fought for independence, the most notable being the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Following the surrender of Japan, in 1945, the Republic of Korea was adopted as the name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the part of the Korean Peninsula
19.
Nature
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Nature, in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, or material world or universe. Nature can refer to the phenomena of the world. The study of nature is a part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or essential qualities, innate disposition, and in ancient times, literally meant birth. Natura is a Latin translation of the Greek word physis, which related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals. This usage continued during the advent of scientific method in the last several centuries. Within the various uses of the word today, nature often refers to geology, for example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, human nature or the whole of nature. Depending on the context, the term natural might also be distinguished from the unnatural or the supernatural. Earth is the planet known to support life, and its natural features are the subject of many fields of scientific research. Within the solar system, it is third closest to the sun, it is the largest terrestrial planet and its most prominent climatic features are its two large polar regions, two relatively narrow temperate zones, and a wide equatorial tropical to subtropical region. Precipitation varies widely with location, from several metres of water per year to less than a millimetre,71 percent of the Earths surface is covered by salt-water oceans. The remainder consists of continents and islands, with most of the land in the Northern Hemisphere. Earth has evolved through geological and biological processes that have left traces of the original conditions, the outer surface is divided into several gradually migrating tectonic plates. The interior remains active, with a layer of plastic mantle. This iron core is composed of a solid phase. Convective motion in the core generates electric currents through dynamo action, the atmospheric conditions have been significantly altered from the original conditions by the presence of life-forms, which create an ecological balance that stabilizes the surface conditions. Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth, the geology of an area evolves through time as rock units are deposited and inserted and deformational processes change their shapes and locations
20.
Water (classical element)
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Water is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in the Asian Indian system Panchamahabhuta, and in the Chinese cosmological and physiological system Wu Xing. In contemporary esoteric traditions, it is associated with the qualities of emotion and intuition. Water was one of many proposed by the Pre-socratics, most of whom tried to reduce all things to a single substance. However, Empedocles of Acragas selected four archai for his four roots, air, fire, water, Empedocles roots became the four classical elements of Greek philosophy. Plato took over the four elements of Empedocles, in the Timaeus, his major cosmological dialogue, the Platonic solid associated with water is the icosahedron which is formed from twenty equilateral triangles. This makes water the element with the greatest number of sides, plato’s student Aristotle developed a different explanation for the elements based on pairs of qualities. The four elements were arranged concentrically around the center of the Universe to form the sublunary sphere, according to Aristotle, water is both cold and wet and occupies a place between air and earth among the elemental spheres. In ancient Greek medicine, each of the four humours became associated with an element, phlegm was the humor identified with water, since both were cold and wet. In alchemy, the element of mercury was often associated with water. Ap is the Vedic Sanskrit term for water, in Classical Sanskrit occurring only in the plural is not an element. v, āpas, the term is from PIE hxap water. In Hindu philosophy, the term refers to water as an element, one of the Panchamahabhuta, in Hinduism, it is also the name of the deva, a personification of water. The element water is associated with Chandra or the moon and Shukra. People born under the signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces are thought to have dominant water personalities. Water personalities tend to be emotional, deep, nurturing, sympathetic, empathetic, water and the other Greek classical elements were incorporated into the Golden Dawn system. The elemental weapon of water is the cup, each of the elements has several associated spiritual beings. The archangel of water is Gabriel, the angel is Taliahad, the ruler is Tharsis, the king is Nichsa and it is referred to the upper right point of the pentagram in the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. Many of these associations have since spread throughout the occult community, water is one of the five elements that appear in most Wiccan traditions. Wicca in particular was influenced by the Golden Dawn system of magic and Aleister Crowleys mysticism, water Sea and river deity Different versions of the classical elements
21.
Earthly Branches
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The Earthly Branches provide one Chinese system for reckoning time. This system was built from observations of the orbit of Jupiter, Chinese astronomers divided the celestial circle into 12 sections to follow the orbit of 歲星 Suìxīng. Astronomers rounded the orbit of Suixing to 12 years, Suixing was associated with 攝提 Shètí and sometimes called Sheti. In correlative thinking, the years of the Jupiter cycle also identify the twelve months of the year, twelve animals, directions, seasons. When a Branch is used for an hour, the listed periods are meant. When used for a time of a day, it is the center of the period. For instance, 午 means noon or a period from 11am to 1pm, Chinese seasons are based on observations of the sun and stars. Many Chinese calendrical systems have started the new year on the new moon after the winter solstice. The Earthly Branches are today used with the Heavenly Stems in the current version of the traditional Chinese calendar and in Taoism. The Ganzhi combination is a new way to mark time, in the second millennium BC, during the Shang era. The Branches are as old as the Stems, but the Stems were tied to the calendars of Chinese kings. They were not part of the systems for the majority of Chinese people. In the traditional Kazakh version of the 12-year animal cycle, the Dragon is substituted by a snail, since twelve points were not enough for sailing, twelve midpoints were added. Instead of combining two adjacent direction names, they assigned new names as follows, For the four diagonal directions, for the rest, the Heavenly Stems were used. According to the Five Elements theory, east is assigned to wood, thus they were assigned clockwise to the two adjacent points of the east. Following is a table of the 24 directions, Advanced mariners such as Zheng He used 48-point compasses. An additional midpoint was called by a combination of its two closest basic directions, such as 丙午 for the direction of 172. 5°, the midpoint between 丙, 165°, and 午, 180°. Sexagesimal cycle Sheng Xiao Celestial stem Chinese calendar Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches - Hong Kong Observatory
22.
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
23.
Yin and yang
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Many tangible dualities are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang. Duality is found in many systems, but Yin and Yang are parts of a Oneness that is also equated with the Tao. A term has been coined dualistic-monism or dialectical monism, Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. The yin yang shows a balance between two opposites with a portion of the element in each section. In Taoist metaphysics, distinctions between good and bad, along with other dichotomous moral judgments, are perceptual, not real, so, the duality of yin and yang is an indivisible whole. In the ethics of Confucianism on the hand, most notably in the philosophy of Dong Zhongshu. The Chinese terms yīn 陰 or 阴 shady side and yáng 陽 or 阳 sunny side are linguistically analyzable in terms of Chinese characters, pronunciations and etymology, meanings, topography, and loanwords. The first phonetic yīn 侌 cloudy ideographically combines jīn 今 now, present and yún 云 cloud, the second phonetic yáng 昜 bright originally pictured 日 the sun with 勿 rays coming down. This phonetic is expanded with the sun radical into yáng 暘 rising sun, the mound, hill radical 阝full forms semantically specify yīn 陰 shady/dark side of a hill and yáng 陽 sunny/light side of a hill. Compare the Classical Chinese names for these two bodies, Tàiyīn 太陰 moon and Tàiyáng 太陽 sun. Reconstructions of Old Chinese have illuminated the etymology of modern Chinese words, Yin and yang are semantically complex words. A reliable Chinese-English dictionary gives the translation equivalents. Many Chinese place names or toponyms contain the word yang sunny side, similarly, yin refers to north side of a hill in Huayin 華陰, which is north of Mount Hua 華山 in Shaanxi province. English yin, yang, and yin-yang are familiar loanwords of Chinese origin, the Oxford English Dictionary defines, yin Also Yin, Yn. a. Also attrib. or as adj. and transf, comb. as yin-yang, the combination or fusion of the two cosmic forces, freq. attrib. Esp. as yin-yang symbol, a divided by an S-shaped line into a dark. Comb. yang-yin = yin-yang s. v. yin b, for the earliest recorded yin and yang usages, the OED cites 1671 for yin and yang,1850 for yin-yang, and 1959 for yang-yin
24.
Radical 5
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Radical 5 meaning second is one of six of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of only one stroke. In the ancient Chinese cyclic character numeral system tiāngān, 乙 represents the second Celestial stem, in the Kangxi Dictionary there are 42 characters to be found under this radical. Chinese calligraphy, from pictograph to ideogram, the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters, leyi Li, “Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters,500 Cases”. Beijing 1993, ISBN 978-7-5619-0204-2 Unihan Database - U+4E59
25.
Pig (zodiac)
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The Pig is the twelfth and the last sign of the Earthly Branches. In the continuous Sexagenary cycle, every twelfth year corresponds to Hai, there are five types of Pigs, named after the Chinese elements. In order, they are, Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, in the Japanese zodiac and Tibetan zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the boar. In the Dai zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the elephant, in the Gurung zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the deer. According to the myths, the Pig was the last to arrive when the Jade Emperor called for the great meeting, other sources said that Buddha called for a great meeting when he was about to leave the earth. Legend has it that just as the emperor was about to call it a day, the term lazy Pig is due here as the Pig got hungry during the race, promptly stopped for a feast then fell asleep. After the nap, the Pig continued the race and was named the 12th, other sources say that given his very stout form, he was just too slow a swimmer, and thus he could not do anything against the other animals. The natural element of the Pig is water, thus it is commonly associated with emotions and intuitions. Yet, given that along with the elements, the animal zodiac also follows a cycle, however, the Pig is yin, and this only the negative aspects of the elements can be attached to them, thus only 5 kinds of Pigs are found in the zodiac. Thus, a person born on 9 February 1899 still belongs to the preceding zodiac while those born on 31 January 1900 already belongs to the following zodiac, aside from being assigned a year, the Pig is also assigned to govern a month in the Lunar Calendar. As the Lunar month begins on Spring, the Pig is assigned to the 10th month and this lunar month corresponds to the Gregorian calendar as beginning from 7 November and ending at 6 December. The first half of the month is called 立冬, literally, it means the start of winter. It begins when the Sun reaches the longitude of 225°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the longitude of 225°. In the Gregorian calendar, it begins around 7 November. The second half of the month is called 小雪, literally, the time of the Little Snow. It begins when the Sun reaches the longitude of 240°. It more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the longitude of 240°
26.
Radical 49
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Radical 49 meaning oneself is 1 of 31 Kangxi radicals composed of three strokes. In the Kangxi Dictionary there are 20 characters to be found under this radical, in Chinese astrology, 巳 represents the sixth Earthly Branch and corresponds to the Snake in the Chinese zodiac. In the ancient Chinese cyclic character numeral system tiāngān, 己 represents the sixth Celestial stem, Chinese calligraphy, from pictograph to ideogram, the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. CJKV Information Processing, Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing
27.
Lunar calendar
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A lunar calendar is a calendar based upon cycles of the Moons phases, in contrast to solar calendars based solely upon the solar year. A purely lunar calendar is also distinguished from lunisolar calendars whose lunar months are brought into alignment with the year through some process of intercalation. The details of when months begin varies from calendar to calendar, with using new, full, or crescent moons. Because each lunation is a less than 29 days,12 hours,44 minutes. Such holidays include Ramadan, the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian New Year, the Nepali New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chuseok, Loi Krathong, and Diwali. The earliest known lunar calendar was found at Warren Field in Scotland and has dated to c. 8000 BC. Some scholars argue for lunar calendars still further back—Rappenglück in the marks on a c. 17, 000-year-old cave painting at Lascaux and Marshack in the marks on a c. 27, most calendars referred to as lunar calendars are in fact lunisolar calendars. Their months are based on observations of the cycle, with intercalation being used to bring them into general agreement with the solar year. The solar civic calendar of ancient Egypt showed traces of its origin in the lunar calendar. Present-day lunisolar calendars include the Chinese, Hindu, and Thai calendars, synodic months are 29 or 30 days in length, making a lunar year of 12 months about 11 days shorter than a solar year. Some lunar calendars do not use intercalation, such as most Islamic calendars, for those that do, such as the Hebrew calendar, the most common form of intercalation is to add an additional month every second or third year. Some lunisolar calendars are also calibrated by annual natural events which are affected by lunar cycles as well as the solar cycle, an example of this is the lunar calendar of the Banks Islands, which includes three months in which the edible palolo worm mass on the beaches. These events occur at the last quarter of the lunar month, lunar and lunisolar calendars differ as to which day is the first day of the month. In some lunisolar calendars, such as the Chinese calendar, the first day of a month is the day when a new moon occurs in a particular time zone. In others, such as some Hindu calendars, each month begins on the day after the moon or the new moon. Others were based in the past on the first sighting of a lunar crescent, the length of each lunar cycle varies slightly from the average value. In addition, observations are subject to uncertainty and weather conditions, thus to avoid uncertainty about the calendar, there have been attempts to create fixed arithmetical rules to determine the start of each calendar month. The average length of the month is 29.530589 days
28.
Gregorian calendar
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The Gregorian calendar is internationally the most widely used civil calendar. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced it in October 1582, the calendar was a refinement to the Julian calendar involving a 0. 002% correction in the length of the year. The motivation for the reform was to stop the drift of the calendar with respect to the equinoxes and solstices—particularly the northern vernal equinox, transition to the Gregorian calendar would restore the holiday to the time of the year in which it was celebrated when introduced by the early Church. The reform was adopted initially by the Catholic countries of Europe, the last European country to adopt the reform was Greece, in 1923. Many countries that have used the Islamic and other religious calendars have come to adopt this calendar for civil purposes. The reform was a modification of a made by Aloysius Lilius. His proposal included reducing the number of years in four centuries from 100 to 97. Lilius also produced an original and practical scheme for adjusting the epacts of the moon when calculating the date of Easter. For example, the years 1700,1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the years 1600 and 2000 are. The canonical Easter tables were devised at the end of the third century, when the vernal equinox fell either on 20 March or 21 March depending on the years position in the leap year cycle. As the rule was that the full moon preceding Easter was not to precede the equinox, the date was fixed at 21 March for computational purposes, the Gregorian calendar reproduced these conditions by removing ten days. To unambiguously specify a date, dual dating or Old Style, dual dating gives two consecutive years for a given date, because of differences in the starting date of the year, and/or to give both the Julian and the Gregorian dates. The Gregorian calendar continued to use the calendar era, which counts years from the traditional date of the nativity. This year-numbering system, also known as Dionysian era or Common Era, is the predominant international standard today, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. A regular Gregorian year consists of 365 days, but as in the Julian calendar, in a leap year, in the Julian calendar a leap year occurs every 4 years, but the Gregorian calendar omits 3 leap days every 400 years. In the Julian calendar, this day was inserted by doubling 24 February. In the modern period, it has become customary to number the days from the beginning of the month, some churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church, delay February festivals after the 23rd by one day in leap years. Gregorian years are identified by consecutive year numbers, the cycles repeat completely every 146,097 days, which equals 400 years
29.
Government
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A government is the system by which a state or community is controlled. In the Commonwealth of Nations, the government is also used more narrowly to refer to the collective group of people that exercises executive authority in a state. This usage is analogous to what is called an administration in American English, finally, government is also sometimes used in English as a synonym for governance. In the case of its broad definition, government normally consists of legislators, administrators. Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the policy of the state. A form of government, or form of governance, refers to the set of political systems. Government of any kind currently affects every human activity in many important ways, in political science, it has long been a goal to create a typology or taxonomy of polities. as typologies of political systems are not obvious. It is especially important in the science fields of comparative politics. On the surface, identifying a form of government appears to be simple, the United States is a constitutional republic, while the former Soviet Union was a socialist republic. However self-identification is not objective, and as Kopstein and Lichbach argue, for example, elections are a defining characteristic of an electoral democracy, but in practice elections in the former Soviet Union were not free and fair and took place in a one-party state. Voltaire argued that the Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, many governments that officially call themselves a democratic republic are not democratic, nor a republic, they are usually a dictatorship de facto. Communist dictatorships have been prone to use this term. For example, the name of North Vietnam was The Democratic Republic of Vietnam. China uses a variant, The Peoples Republic of China, thus in many practical classifications it would not be considered democratic. Experience with those movements in power, and the ties they may have to particular forms of government. For example, The meaning of conservatism in the United States has little in common with the way the words definition is used elsewhere, as Ribuffo notes, what Americans now call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism. Since the 1950s conservatism in the United States has been associated with the Republican Party. However, during the era of segregation many Southern Democrats were conservatives, values are sorted from 1–100 based on level of democracy and political accountability
30.
Spring (season)
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Spring is one of the four conventional temperate seasons, following winter and preceding summer. There are various definitions of spring, but local usage of the term varies according to local climate, cultures. When it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, at the spring equinox, days are approximately 12 hours long with day length increasing as the season progresses. Spring and springtime refer to the season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, subtropical and tropical areas have climates better described in terms of other seasons, e. g. dry or wet, monsoonal or cyclonic. Often, cultures have locally defined names for seasons which have little equivalence to the terms originating in Europe, Spring is the time when many plants begin to grow and flower. Meteorologists generally define four seasons in many areas, spring, summer, autumn. These are demarcated by the values of their average temperatures on a monthly basis, the three warmest months are by definition summer, the three coldest months are winter and the intervening gaps are spring and autumn. Spring, when defined in this manner, can start on different dates in different regions, in most Northern Hemisphere, temperate locations, spring months are March, April and May, although differences exist from country to country. Most Southern Hemisphere, temperate locations have opposing seasons with spring in September, October and November, in Australia and New Zealand, spring conventionally begins on 1 September and ends 30 November. In some cultures in the Northern Hemisphere, the astronomical Vernal equinox is taken to mark the first day of spring, in Persian culture the first day of spring is the first day of the first month which begins on 20 or 21 March. In other traditions, the equinox is taken as mid-spring, similarly, according to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February and continues until early May. In Ireland, spring traditionally starts on February 1, St Brigids Day, the beginning of spring is not always determined by fixed calendar dates. These indicators, along with the beginning of spring, vary according to the local climate, most ecologists divide the year into six seasons that have no fixed dates. In addition to spring, ecological reckoning identifies an earlier separate prevernal season between the hibernal and vernal seasons and this is a time when only the hardiest flowers like the crocus are in bloom, sometimes while there is still some snowcover on the ground. During early spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, the hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to spring forth, giving the season its name. Any snow begins to melt, swelling streams with runoff and any frosts become less severe, in climates that have no snow, and rare frosts, air and ground temperatures increase more rapidly. Many flowering plants bloom at this time of year, in a succession, sometimes beginning when snow is still on the ground. In normally snowless areas, spring may begin as early as February, heralded by the blooming of deciduous magnolias, cherries, and quince, or August in the same way
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Winter
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Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates, between autumn and spring. Winter is caused by the axis of the Earth in that hemisphere being oriented away from the Sun, different cultures define different dates as the start of winter, and some use a definition based on weather. When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, in many regions, winter is associated with snow and freezing temperatures. The moment of winter solstice is when the elevation with respect to the North or South Pole is at its most negative value, meaning this day will have the shortest day. The English word winter comes from the Proto-Indo-European root wend, relating to water, the tilt of the Earths axis relative to its orbital plane plays a large role in the formation of weather. The Earth is tilted at an angle of 23. 44° to the plane of its orbit, when it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere faces the Sun more directly and thus experiences warmer temperatures than the Northern Hemisphere. Conversely, winter in the Southern Hemisphere occurs when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted more toward the Sun, from the perspective of an observer on the Earth, the winter Sun has a lower maximum altitude in the sky than the summer Sun. During winter in either hemisphere, the altitude of the Sun causes the sunlight to hit that hemisphere at an oblique angle. In regions experiencing winter, the amount of solar radiation is spread out over a larger area. This effect is compounded by the distance that the light must travel through the atmosphere. Compared with these effects, the changes in the distance of the earth from the sun are negligible, the manifestation of the meteorological winter in the northerly snow–prone parallels is highly variable depending on elevation, position versus marine winds and the amount of precipitation. A case in point is Canada, a country associated with tough winters. Winnipeg on the Great Plains at a distance from large bodies of water has a January high of −11.3 °C. In comparison, Vancouver on the coast with an influence from moderating Pacific winds has a January low of 1.4 °C with days well above freezing at 6.9 °C. Both areas are on the 49th parallel north and in the western half of the continent. Winter is often defined by meteorologists to be the three months with the lowest average temperatures. This corresponds to the months of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere, the coldest average temperatures of the season are typically experienced in January or February in the Northern Hemisphere and in June, July or August in the Southern Hemisphere. Blizzards often develop and cause many transportation delays, diamond dust, also known as ice needles or ice crystals, forms at temperatures approaching −40 °F due to air with slightly higher moisture from aloft mixing with colder, surface based air
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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
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Sun
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The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a perfect sphere of hot plasma, with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a dynamo process. It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. Its diameter is about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, accounting for about 99. 86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three quarters of the Suns mass consists of hydrogen, the rest is mostly helium, with smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon. The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star based on its spectral class and it formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud. Most of this matter gathered in the center, whereas the rest flattened into a disk that became the Solar System. The central mass became so hot and dense that it eventually initiated nuclear fusion in its core and it is thought that almost all stars form by this process. The Sun is roughly middle-aged, it has not changed dramatically for more than four billion years and it is calculated that the Sun will become sufficiently large enough to engulf the current orbits of Mercury, Venus, and probably Earth. The enormous effect of the Sun on Earth has been recognized since prehistoric times, the synodic rotation of Earth and its orbit around the Sun are the basis of the solar calendar, which is the predominant calendar in use today. The English proper name Sun developed from Old English sunne and may be related to south, all Germanic terms for the Sun stem from Proto-Germanic *sunnōn. The English weekday name Sunday stems from Old English and is ultimately a result of a Germanic interpretation of Latin dies solis, the Latin name for the Sun, Sol, is not common in general English language use, the adjectival form is the related word solar. The term sol is used by planetary astronomers to refer to the duration of a solar day on another planet. A mean Earth solar day is approximately 24 hours, whereas a mean Martian sol is 24 hours,39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. From at least the 4th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Sun was worshipped as the god Ra, portrayed as a falcon-headed divinity surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. In the New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle, in the form of the Sun disc Aten, the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the Pharaoh Akhenaton. The Sun is viewed as a goddess in Germanic paganism, Sól/Sunna, in ancient Roman culture, Sunday was the day of the Sun god. It was adopted as the Sabbath day by Christians who did not have a Jewish background, the symbol of light was a pagan device adopted by Christians, and perhaps the most important one that did not come from Jewish traditions
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Celestial coordinate system
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In astronomy, a celestial coordinate system is a system for specifying positions of celestial objects, satellites, planets, stars, galaxies, and so on. Coordinate systems can specify a position in 3-dimensional space, or merely the direction of the object on the celestial sphere, the coordinate systems are implemented in either spherical coordinates or rectangular coordinates. Spherical coordinates, projected on the sphere, are analogous to the geographic coordinate system used on the surface of the Earth. These differ in their choice of fundamental plane, which divides the sphere into two equal hemispheres along a great circle. Rectangular coordinates, in units, are simply the cartesian equivalent of the spherical coordinates, with the same fundamental plane. Each coordinate system is named after its choice of fundamental plane, the following table lists the common coordinate systems in use by the astronomical community. The fundamental plane divides the sphere into two equal hemispheres and defines the baseline for the latitudinal coordinates, similar to the equator in the geographic coordinate system. The poles are located at ±90° from the fundamental plane, the primary direction is the starting point of the longitudinal coordinates. The origin is the distance point, the center of the celestial sphere. The horizontal, or altitude-azimuth, system is based on the position of the observer on Earth, the positioning of a celestial object by the horizontal system varies with time, but is a useful coordinate system for locating and tracking objects for observers on Earth. It is based on the position of relative to an observers ideal horizon. The equatorial coordinate system is centered at Earths center, but fixed relative to the celestial poles, the coordinates are based on the location of stars relative to Earths equator if it were projected out to an infinite distance. The equatorial describes the sky as seen from the solar system, the equatorial system is the normal coordinate system for most professional and many amateur astronomers having an equatorial mount that follows the movement of the sky during the night. Celestial objects are found by adjusting the telescopes or other instruments scales so that they match the equatorial coordinates of the object to observe. There are also subdivisions into mean of date coordinates, which average out or ignore nutation, and true of date, the fundamental plane is the plane of the Earths orbit, called the ecliptic plane. The geocentric ecliptic system was the coordinate system for ancient astronomy and is still useful for computing the apparent motions of the Sun, Moon. The heliocentric ecliptic system describes the orbital movement around the Sun. The system is used for computing the positions of planets and other solar system bodies
