Barley
Barley, a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Barley has been used as animal fodder, as a source of fermentable material for beer and certain distilled beverages, as a component of various health foods, it is used in soups and stews, in barley bread of various cultures. Barley grains are made into malt in a traditional and ancient method of preparation. In 2016, barley was ranked fourth among grains in quantity produced behind maize and wheat; the Old English word for'barley' was bære, which traces back to Proto-Indo-European and is cognate to the Latin word farina "flour". The direct ancestor of modern English "barley" in Old English was the derived adjective bærlic, meaning "of barley"; the first citation of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to around 966 CE, in the compound word bærlic-croft. The underived word bære survives in the north of Scotland as bere, refers to a specific strain of six-row barley grown there.
The word barn, which meant "barley-house", is rooted in these words. Barley is a member of the grass family, it is a diploid species with 14 chromosomes. The wild ancestor of domesticated barley, Hordeum vulgare subsp. Spontaneum, is abundant in grasslands and woodlands throughout the Fertile Crescent area of Western Asia and northeast Africa, is abundant in disturbed habitats and orchards. Outside this region, the wild barley is less common and is found in disturbed habitats. However, in a study of genome-wide diversity markers, Tibet was found to be an additional center of domestication of cultivated barley. Wild barley is the ancestor of domestic barley. Over the course of domestication, barley grain morphology changed moving from an elongated shape to a more rounded spherical one. Additionally, wild barley has distinctive genes and regulators with potential for resistance to abiotic or biotic stresses to cultivated barley and adaptation to climatic changes. Wild barley has a brittle spike. Domesticated barley has nonshattering spikes.
The nonshattering condition is caused by a mutation in one of two linked genes known as Bt1 and Bt2. The nonshattering condition is recessive, so varieties of barley that exhibit this condition are homozygous for the mutant allele; each plant gets a set of genes from both parents, so two copies of each gene are in every plant. If one gene copy is a nonworking mutant, but the other gene copy works, the mutation has no effect. Only when the plant is homozygous with both copies of the gene as nonworking mutants does the mutation show its effect by exhibiting the nonshattering condition. Domestication in barley is followed by the change of key phenotypic traits at the genetic level. Little is known about the genetic variation among domesticated and wild genes in the chromosomal regions. Spikelets are arranged in triplets. In wild barley, only the central spikelet is fertile; this condition is retained in certain cultivars known as two-row barleys. A pair of mutations result in fertile lateral spikelets to produce six-row barleys.
Recent genetic studies have revealed that a mutation in one gene, vrs1, is responsible for the transition from two-row to six-row barley. Two-row barley has a lower protein content than six-row barley, thus a more fermentable sugar content. High-protein barley is best suited for animal feed. Malting barley is lower protein which shows more uniform germination, needs shorter steeping, has less protein in the extract that can make beer cloudy. Two-row barley is traditionally used in English ale-style beers, with two-row malted summer barley being preferred for traditional German beers. Six-row barley is common in some American lager-style beers when adjuncts such as corn and rice are used. Hulless or "naked" barley is a form of domesticated barley with an easier-to-remove hull. Naked barley is an ancient food crop, but a new industry has developed around uses of selected hulless barley to increase the digestible energy of the grain for swine and poultry. Hulless barley has been investigated for several potential new applications as whole grain, for its value-added products.
These include flour for multiple food applications. In traditional classifications of barley, these morphological differences have led to different forms of barley being classified as different species. Under these classifications, two-row barley with shattering spikes is classified as Hordeum spontaneum K. Koch. Two-row barley with nonshattering spikes is classified as H. distichum L. six-row barley with nonshattering spikes as H. vulgare L. and six-row with shattering spikes as H. agriocrithon Åberg. Because these differences were driven by single-gene mutations, coupled with cytological and molecular evidence, most recent classifications treat these forms as a single species, H. vulgare L. VocabularyDON: Acronym for deoxynivalenol, a toxic byproduct of Fusarium head blight known as vomitoxin Heading date: A parameter in barley cultivation Lodging: The bending over of the stems near ground level Nutans: A designation for a variety with a lax ear, as opposed to'erectum' (with an erect ea
Cantonese
Cantonese is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou and its surrounding area in Southeastern China. It is the traditional prestige variety and standard form of Yue Chinese, one of the major subgroups of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi, it is the official language of Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese is widely spoken amongst Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western world. While the term Cantonese refers to the prestige variety, it is used in a broader sense for the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese, including related but mutually unintelligible languages and dialects such as Taishanese; when Cantonese and the related Yuehai dialects are classified together, there are about 80 million total speakers. Cantonese is viewed as a vital and inseparable part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swaths of Southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as in overseas communities.
Although Cantonese shares a lot of vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation and lexicon. Sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. A notable difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is; this results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar but are pronounced differently. In English, the term "Cantonese" can be ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton, the traditional English name of Guangzhou; this narrow sense may be specified as "Canton language" or "Guangzhou language". However, "Cantonese" may refer to the primary branch of Chinese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, "Cantonese" is used for Cantonese proper. Speakers called this variety "Canton speech" or "Guangzhou speech", although this term is now used outside Guangzhou. In Guangdong and Guangxi, people call it "provincial capital speech" or "plain speech".
Academically called "Canton prefecture speech". In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, the language is referred to as "Guangdong speech" or "Canton Province speech", or as "Chinese". In mainland China, the term "Guangdong speech" is increasingly being used amongst both native and non-native speakers. Given the history of the development of the Yue languages and dialects during the Tang dynasty migrations to the region, in overseas Chinese communities, it is referred to as "Tang speech", given that the Cantonese people refer to themselves as "people of Tang". Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Yue branch of Chinese varieties, it is called "Standard Cantonese"; the official languages of Hong Kong are English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has many different varieties. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and tribunals.
It is used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language alongside Portuguese; as in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in everyday life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is mutually intelligible with the Cantonese spoken in the mainland city of Guangzhou, although there exist some minor differences in accent and vocabulary. Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China. Due to the city's long standing as an important cultural center, Cantonese emerged as the prestige dialect of the Yue varieties of Chinese in the Southern Song dynasty and its usage spread around most of what is now the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. Despite the cession of Macau to Portugal in 1557 and Hong Kong to Britain in 1842, the ethnic Chinese population of the two territories originated from the 19th and 20th century immigration from Guangzhou and surrounding areas, making Cantonese the predominant Chinese language in the territories.
On the mainland, Cantonese continued to serve as the lingua franca of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces after Mandarin was made the official language of the government by the Qing dynasty in the early 1900s. Cantonese remained a dominant and influential language in southeastern China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and its promotion of Standard Chinese as the sole official language of the nation throughout the last half of the 20th century, although its influence still remains strong within the region. While the Chinese government vehemently discourages the official use of all forms of Chinese except Standard Chinese, Cantonese enjoys a higher standing than other Chinese langua
Traditional Chinese characters
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 the characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong and Macau, in the Kangxi Dictionary; the modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, have been more or less stable since the 5th century. The retronym "traditional Chinese" is used to contrast traditional characters with Simplified Chinese characters, a standardized character set introduced by the government of the People's Republic of China on Mainland China in the 1950s. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau. In contrast, Simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China and Malaysia in official publications. However, several countries – such as Australia, the US and Canada – are increasing their number of printed materials in Simplified Chinese, to better accommodate citizens from mainland China.
The debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. A large number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both character sets. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of China, there is no prohibition against the use of traditional characters. Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China in handwriting and used for inscriptions and religious text, they are retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear. Nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. In Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, simplified Chinese characters in Hong Kong and Macau has appeared to accommodate Mainland Chinese tourists and immigrants; this has led to concerns by many residents to protect their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters.
The use of simplified characters in official documents is prohibited by the government of Taiwan. Simplified characters are understood to a certain extent by any educated Taiwanese, learning to read them takes little effort; some stroke simplifications that have been incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, the semi-simplified name 台灣 is acceptable to write in official documents. 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, 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, used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan. 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 latter half of the 19th century, before the standardization of simplified characters. Therefore, United States public notices and signage in Chinese are in Traditional Chinese. Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world; the government of Taiwan calls traditional Chinese characters standard characters or orthodox characters. However, the same term is used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard and traditional characters from variant and idiomatic characters. In contrast, users of traditional characters outside Taiwan, such as those in Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities, users of simplified Chinese characters, call them complex characters.
An informal name sometimes used by users of simplified characters is "old characters". Users of traditional characters sometimes refer them as "Full Chinese characters" to distinguish them from simplified Chinese characters; some traditional character users argue that traditional characters are the original form of the Chinese characters and cannot be called "complex". Simplified characters cannot be "standard" because they are not used in all Chinese-speaking regions. Conversely, supporters of simplified Chinese characters object to the description of traditional characters as "standard," since they view the new simplified characters as the contemporary standard used by the vast majority of Chinese speakers, they point out that traditional characters are not traditional as many Chinese characters have been made more elaborate over time. Some people refer to traditional characters as "proper characters" and modernized characters as "simplified-stroke characters" (sim
Ancestor veneration in China
Chinese ancestor worship, or Chinese ancestor veneration called the Chinese patriarchal religion, is an aspect of the Chinese traditional religion which revolves around the ritual celebration of the deified ancestors and tutelary deities of people with the same surname organised into lineage societies in ancestral shrines. Ancestors, their ghosts, or spirits, gods are considered part of "this world", that is, they are neither supernatural nor transcendent in the sense of being beyond nature; the ancestors are humans who have become beings who keep their individual identities. For this reason, Chinese religion is founded on veneration of ancestors. Ancestors are believed to be a means of connection to the supreme power of Tian as they are considered embodiments or reproducers of the creative order of Heaven. Confucian philosophy calls for paying respect to one's ancestors, an aspect of filial piety; as the "bedrock faith of the Chinese", traditional patriarchal religion influences the religious psychology of all Chinese and has influenced the other religions of China, as it is evident in the worship of founders of temples and schools of thought in Taoism and Chinese Buddhism.
Ancestor veneration practices prevail in south China, where lineage bonds are stronger and the patrilineal hierarchy is not based upon seniority, access to corporate resources held by a lineage is based upon the equality of all the lines of descent. Some contemporary scholars in China have adopted the names "Chinese traditional patriarchal religion" or "Chinese traditional primordial religion" to define the traditional religious system organised around the worship of ancestor-gods. Zhang Jin and Yang Chunpeng, based at the Folk Religion Institute and Party School Theory Research Section of Xuanen County, in an article on the China Ethnic and Religious Network define Chinese traditional primordial religion as faith in God's original form. Mou Zhongjian defines "clan-based traditional patriarchal religion" as "an orthodox religion, accepted by all classes, had been practiced for thousands of years in ancient China". Mou says that this religion was subordinate to the state, it was "diverse and inclusive" and had "a humanistic spirit that emphasises the social, moral function of religion", is related to politics.
It refers to: « The traditional religion, in place since the Xia and Zhou dynasties. It ancestors, it had the basic components of a religion, including religious concepts and rituals. It had no independent organisation. Instead, it was the kinship structure; the emperor, the son of God, was the representative of the people who worshiped Heaven. Elders of the clans and parents represented the family in the worship of ancestors. Respecting Heaven and honoring ancestors, taking good care in seeing off the deceased, maintaining sacrifices to distant ancestors were the basic religious concepts and emotional expressions in this religion. »According to Zhuo Xinping, Chinese patriarchal religion and Confucianism complemented each other in ancient China, as the Confucian religion traditionally lacked a social religious organisation while traditional patriarchal religion lacked an ideological doctrine. In Chinese folk religion, a person is thought to have multiple souls, categorized as hun and po associated with yang and yin, respectively.
Upon death, hun and po separate. The former ascends into heaven and latter descends into the earth and/or resides within a spirit tablet. In accordance with these traditional beliefs, various practices have arisen to address the perceived needs of the deceased; the mourning of a loved one involves elaborate rituals, which vary according to region and sect. The intensity of the mourning is thought to reflect the quality of relationship one had with the deceased. From the time of Confucius until the 20th century, a three-year mourning period was prescribed, mirroring the first three years in a child's life when they are utterly dependent upon and loved unconditionally by their parents; these mourning practices would include wearing sackcloth or simple garb, leaving hair unkempt, eating a restricted diet of congee two times a day, living in a mourning shack placed beside the house, moaning in pain at certain intervals of the day. It is said that after the death of Confucius his followers engaged in this three-year mourning period to symbolize their commitment to his teachings.
Funerals are considered to be a part of the normal process of family life, serving as a cornerstone in inter-generational traditions. The primary goals, regardless of religious beliefs, are to demonstrate obeisance and provide comfort for the deceased. Other goals include: to protect the descents of the deceased from malevolent spirits and to ensure the proper separation and direction of the deceased's soul into the afterlife; some common elements of Chinese funerals include the expression of grief through prolonged exaggerated wailing.
Wu Chinese
Wu is a group of linguistically similar and related varieties of Chinese spoken in the whole city of Shanghai, Zhejiang province and the southern half of Jiangsu province, as well as bordering areas. Major Wu varieties include those of Shanghai, Wuxi, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Wenzhou/Oujiang and Yongkang. Wu speakers, such as Chiang Kai-shek, Lu Xun and Cai Yuanpei, occupied positions of great importance in modern Chinese culture and politics. Wu can be found being used in Pingtan, Yue opera, Shanghai opera, the former, second only in national popularity to Peking opera. Wu is spoken in a large number of diaspora communities, with significant centers of immigration originating from Shanghai, Ningbo and Wenzhou. Suzhou has traditionally been the linguistic center of Wu and was the first place the distinct variety of Sinitic known as Wu developed. Suzhou dialect is considered to be the most linguistically representative of the family, it was the basis of the Wu lingua franca that developed in Shanghai leading to the formation of standard Shanghainese, which as a center of economic power and possessing the largest population of Wu speakers, has attracted the most attention.
Due to the influence of Shanghainese, Wu as a whole is incorrectly labelled in English as "Shanghainese", when introducing the language family to non-specialists. Wu is the more accurate terminology for the greater grouping that the Shanghainese variety is part of; the Wu group is well-known among linguists and sinologists as being one of the most internally diverse among the Sinitic groups, with little mutual intelligibility between varieties across subgroups. Among speakers of other Sinitic languages, Wu is subjectively judged to be soft and flowing. There is an idiom in Mandarin that describes these qualities of Wu speech: 吴侬软语, which means "the tender speech of Wu". On the other hand, some Wu varieties like Wenzhounese have gained notoriety for their high incomprehensibility to both Wu and non-Wu speakers alike, so much so that Wenzhounese was used during the Second World War to avoid Japanese interception. Wu dialects are typified linguistically as having preserved the voiced initials of Middle Chinese, having a majority of Middle Chinese tones undergo a register split, preserving a checked tone terminating in a glottal stop, although some dialects maintain the tone without the stop and certain dialects of Southern Wu have undergone or are starting to undergo a process of devoicing.
The historical relations which determine Wu classification consist in two main factors: firstly, both in terms of physical geography and distance south or away from Mandarin, that is, Wu varieties are part of a Wu–Min dialect continuum from southern Jiangsu to Fujian and Chaoshan. The second factor is the drawing of historical administrative boundaries, which, in addition to physical barriers, limit mobility and in the majority of cases more or less determine the boundary of a Wu dialect. Wu Chinese, along with Min, is of great significance to historical linguists due to their retention of many ancient features; these two languages have proven pivotal in determining the phonetic history of the Chinese languages. More pressing concerns of the present are those of language preservation. Many within and outside of China fear that the increased usage of Mandarin may altogether supplant the languages that have no written form, legal protection, or official status and are barred from use in public discourse.
However, many analysts believe that a stable state of diglossia will endure for at least several generations if not indefinitely. Speakers of Wu varieties are unaware of this term for their speech since the term "Wu" is a recent classificatory imposition on what are less defined and heterogeneous natural forms. Saying one speaks Wu is akin to saying one speaks a Romance language, it is not a defined entity like Standard Mandarin or Hochdeutsch. Most speakers are only vaguely aware of their local variety's affinities with other classified varieties and will only refer to their local Wu variety rather than the dialect family, they do this by affixing'話' Wo to their location's endonym. For example, 溫州話 Wēnzhōuhuà is used for Wenzhounese. Affixing 閒話 xiánhuà is common and more typical of the Taihu division, as in 嘉興閒話 Kashin'ghenwo for Jiaxing dialect. Wu: the formal name and standard reference in dialectology literature. Wu dialects: another scholastic term. Northern Wu: Wu spoken in the north of Zhejiang, the city of Shanghai and parts of Jiangsu, comprising the Taihu and the Taizhou divisions.
It by default includes the Xuanzhou division in Anhui as well, however this division is neglected in Northern Wu discussions. Southern Wu: Wu spoken in southern Zhejiang and periphery, comprising the Oujiang and Chuqu divisions. Western Wu (simplified Chinese: 西部吴语.
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commonly known as Emperor Ming of Tang or Illustrious August, personal name Li Longji known as Wu Longji from 690 to 705, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 713 to 756 C. E, his reign of 43 years was the longest during the Tang dynasty. In the early half of his reign he was astute ruler. Ably assisted by capable chancellors like Yao Chong, Song Jing and Zhang Yue, he was credited with bringing Tang China to a pinnacle of culture and power. Emperor Xuanzong, was blamed for over-trusting Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong and An Lushan during his late reign, with Tang's golden age ending in the Anshi Rebellion. Li Longji was born at the Tang dynasty eastern capital Luoyang in 685, during the first reign of his father Emperor Ruizong – but at that time, Emperor Ruizong's mother Empress Dowager Wu, not Emperor Ruizong, was in actual control of power as empress dowager and regent. Li Longji was the third son of Emperor Ruizong, his mother was Emperor Ruizong's concubine Consort Dou, ranked.
In 687, as the emperor's son, he was created the Prince of Chu. It was said that he was handsome as a child, was talented in music, he had two older brothers – Li Chengqi, born of Emperor Ruizong's wife Empress Liu, Li Chengyi, as well as three younger brothers – Li Longfan, Li Longye, Li Longti. He had two full younger sisters, Princess Jinxian and Princess Yuzhen, who become Taoist nuns. In 690, Dowager Empress Wu had her son Emperor Ruizong yield the throne to her, she took the throne as empress regnant of a new Zhou dynasty, interrupting Tang, she imposed upon his family the surname Wu to match hers. In 692, Li Longji and his brothers were allowed to have residences outside the palace and were given staffs at their mansions. In 693, both his mother Consort Dou and Li Dan's wife Crown Princess Liu were killed by Wu Zetian inside the palace after Wu Zetian's lady-in-waiting Wei Tuan'er falsely accused them of using witchcraft against Wu Zetian – and not their bodies were recovered. Subsequently, all of Li Dan's sons were reduced in title, Li Longji's title was reduced to Prince of Linzi.
He and his brothers, along with their cousins Li Guangshun the Prince of Yifeng, Li Shouli the Prince of Yong, Li Shouyi the Prince of Yong'an, were kept inside the palace and not allowed to have contact with outsiders until 699, when they were allowed to leave the palace and take up residences outside. In 705, Wu Zetian was overthrown in a coup, Li Longji's uncle Li Xiăn, at that time crown prince, emperor prior to Li Dan, returned to the throne. Li Longji was made the deputy minister of military supplies. In 708, he was made the secretary general of Lu Prefecture. In 710, he was recalled to the capital Chang'an to attend to Emperor Zhongzong when Emperor Zhongzong was sacrificing to heaven and earth. Meanwhile, sorcerers engaged by Emperor Zhongzong believed that there was an aura of an emperor at the area of Chang'an where the mansions Li Longji and his uncles were, Emperor Zhongzong tried to fulfill the vision by visiting Li Longji's mansion and attending a feast there. While Li Longji was back in Chang'an, he spent time to cultivate relationships with imperial guard commanders, as he believed that Emperor Zhongzong's powerful wife Empress Wei would bring harm to the Tang dynasty.
In summer 710, Emperor Zhongzong died suddenly—a death that traditional historians believed to be a poisoning by Empress Wei and her daughter Li Guo'er the Princess Anle so that Empress Wei could become "emperor" like Wu Zetian and Li Guo'er could become crown princess. For the time being, Emperor Zhongzong's son by a concubine, Li Chongmao the Prince of Wen, was named emperor, but Empress Wei retained actual power as empress dowager and regent. Empress Dowager Wei's clan members, along with Zong, Li Guo'er's husband Wu Yanxiu, other officials Zhao Lüwen and Ye Jingneng were advising her to take the throne, like Wu Zetian did, they advised her to eliminate Li Dan and Princess Taiping; the official Cui Riyong leaked their plan to Li Longji. Li Longji responded by conspiring with Princess Taiping, Princess Taiping's son Xue Chongjian, as well as several low level officials close to him—Zhong Shaojing, Wang Chongye, Liu Youqiu, Ma Sizong —to act first. Meanwhile, Empress Wei's nephews Wei Bo and Gao Song, put in command of imperial guards and who had tried to establish their authority by dealing with the guards harshly, had alienated the guards, the guard officers Ge Fushun, Chen Xuanli, Li Xianfu thereafter joined the plot.
Without first informing Li Dan, the conspirators rose on 21 July, first killing Wei Bo, Empress Wei's cousin Wei Gui. They attacked the palace; when Empress Dowager Wei panicked and fled to an imperial guard camp, a guard beheaded her. Li Guo'er, Wu Yanxiu, Lady Helou were killed as well. Li Longji soon slaughtered a number of officials in Empress Dowager's faction as well as her clan, while displaying Empress Dowager Wei's body on the street. At the urging of Princess Taiping, Li Longji, Li Longji's br
Xian (Taoism)
Xian is a Chinese word for an enlightened person, translatable into English as: spiritually immortal. Victor H. Mair describes the xian archetype as: They are immune to heat and cold, untouched by the elements, can fly, mounting upward with a fluttering motion, they dwell apart from the chaotic world of man, subsist on air and dew, are not anxious like ordinary people, have the smooth skin and innocent faces of children. The transcendents live an effortless existence, best described as spontaneous, they recall holy men known as ṛṣi who possessed similar traits. According to the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, Chinese xian can mean rishi, the inspired sage of the Vedas; the most famous Chinese compound of xiān is Bāxiān. Other common words include xiānrén, xiānrénzhăng, xiānnǚ, shénxiān. Besides humans, xiān can refer to supernatural animals; the mythological húlijīng 狐狸精 "fox fairy. The etymology of xiān remains uncertain; the circa 200 CE Shiming, a Chinese dictionary that provided word-pun "etymologies", defines xiān as "to get old and not die," and explains it as someone who qiān the mountains."
Edward H. Schafer defined xian as "transcendent, sylph" Schafer noted xian was cognate to xian 䙴 "soar up", qian 遷 "remove", xianxian 僊僊 "a flapping dance movement". Two linguistic hypotheses for the etymology of xian involve Sino-Tibetan languages. Wu and Davis suggested the source was jinn, or jinni "genie". "The marvelous powers of the Hsien are so like those of the jinni of the Arabian Nights that one wonders whether the Arabic word, may not be derived from the Chinese Hsien." Axel Schuessler's etymological dictionary suggests a Sino-Tibetan connection between xiān "'An immortal'... men and women who attain supernatural abilities. The word xiān is written with three characters 僊, 仙, or 仚, which combine the logographic "radical" rén with two "phonetic" elements; the oldest recorded xiān character 僊 has a xiān phonetic because immortals could "ascend into the heavens". The usual modern xiān character 仙, its rare variant 仚, have a shān phonetic. For a character analysis, Schipper interprets "'the human being of the mountain,' or alternatively,'human mountain.'
The two explanations are appropriate to these beings: they haunt the holy mountains, while embodying nature." The Classic of Poetry contains the oldest occurrence of the character 僊, reduplicated as xiānxiān, rhymed with qiān. "But when they have drunk too much, Their deportment becomes light and frivolous—They leave their seats, go elsewhere, They keep dancing and capering." Needham and Wang suggest. Paper writes, "the function of the term xian in a line describing dancing may be to denote the height of the leaps. Since, "to live for a long time" has no etymological relation to xian, it may be a accretion." The 121 CE Shuowen Jiezi, the first important dictionary of Chinese characters, does not enter 仙 except in the definition for 偓佺. It defines 僊 as "live long and move away" and 仚 as "appearance of a person on a mountaintop"; this section chronologically reviews. While the early Zhuangzi and Liezi texts allegorically used xian immortals and magic islands to describe spiritual immortality ones like the Shenxian zhuan and Baopuzi took immortality an
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