1.
Mawangdui
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Mawangdui is an archaeological site located in Changsha, China. The site consists of two saddle-shaped hills and contained the tombs of three people from the western Han dynasty, Marquis Li Cang, his wife, and a male believed to have been their son, the site was excavated from 1972 to 1974. Most of the artifacts from Mawangdui are displayed at the Hunan Provincial Museum and it was called King Mas Mound because it was initially thought to be the tomb of Ma Yin, a ruler of the Chu kingdom during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The tombs were made of large cypress planks, the outside of the tombs were layered with white clay and charcoal. White clay layering originated with Chu burials, while charcoal layering was practiced during the early western Han dynasty in the Changsha area, the tombs contained nested lacquered coffins, a Chu burial custom. The tombs also followed the burial practices dictated by Emperor Wen of Han,1, contained the remains of a woman in her fifties. Her mummified body was so well-preserved that researchers were able to perform an autopsy on her body, specifically, her diet was too rich in sugars and meats, and she suffered from arterial-coronary problems. Buried with her were skeletons of various food-animals, jujubes, lotus soup, grains, researchers found honeydew melon seeds in her stomach, inferring consumption right before death. She outlived the occupants of the two tombs. Xin Zhuis tomb was by far the best preserved of the three, a complete cosmetic set, lacquered pieces and finely woven silk garments with paintings are almost perfectly preserved. Her coffins were painted according to Chu customs and beliefs with whirling clouds interwoven with mystical animals, there was also a silk painting showing a variety of exercises researchers call the forerunner of Tai ji. 2, was the site of the first Marquis of Dai. The Han dynasty had appointed Li Cang as the chancellor of the Kingdom of Changsha and this tomb had been plundered several times by grave robbers. Tomb 3 was directly south of Tomb 1, and contained the tomb of a man in his thirties who died in 168 BC, the occupant is believed to have been a relative of Li Cang and his wife. This tomb contained a trove of military, medical. Highly regarded artifacts in particular were the lacquered wine-bowls and cosmetic boxes, of the more famous artifacts from Mawangdui were its silk funeral banners, these T-shaped banners were draped on the coffin of Tomb 1. The banners depicted the Chinese abstraction of the cosmos and the afterlife at the time of the western Han dynasty, a silk banner of similar style and function were found in Tomb 3. The T-shaped silk funeral banner in the tomb of the Marquise is called the banner with the written name of the deceased replaced with a portrait
2.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
3.
Zhou dynasty
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The Zhou dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang dynasty and preceded the Qin dynasty. This period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making, the dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its almost-modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. He even received sacrifice as a harvest god, the term Hòujì was probably an hereditary title attached to a lineage. Jus son Liu, however, led his people to prosperity by restoring agriculture and settling them at a place called Bin, tai later led the clan from Bin to Zhou, an area in the Wei River valley of modern-day Qishan County. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly fled to the Yangtze delta. Jilis son Wen bribed his way out of imprisonment and moved the Zhou capital to Feng, the Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song, which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences, according to Nicholas Bodman, the Zhou appear to have spoken a language not basically different in vocabulary and syntax from that of the Shang. A recent study by David McCraw, using lexical statistics, reached the same conclusion, the Zhou emulated extensively Shang cultural practices, perhaps to legitimize their own rule, and became the successors to Shang culture. At the same time, the Zhou may also have connected to the Xirong, a broadly defined cultural group to the west of the Shang. According to the historian Li Feng, the term Rong during the Western Zhou period was used to designate political and military adversaries rather than cultural. The proto-Zhou were first located in the Shaanxi-Shanxi highland, where they absorbed elements from the Guangshe culture, King Liu moved his people to the lower Fen Valley and to the western bank of the Yellow River, where they resumed agriculture. His son Qing Jie, led the Zhou to the valley of the Jing River. They stayed there until Dan Fu moved again to the Wei Valley in order to avoid incursion by the Rongdi nomads. During this period, the Zhou mingled with the Qiang people, in all these stages, the advanced Shang bronze culture constantly imparted its influence on the Zhou. The Qi area was the region in all these influences would come to fruition. The contact among the proto-Zhou, the native Shaanxi Longshan, the Qiang, King Wu maintained the old capital for ceremonial purposes but constructed a new one for his palace and administration nearby at Hao. Although Wus early death left a young and inexperienced heir, the Duke of Zhou assisted his nephew King Cheng in consolidating royal power. Wary of the Duke of Zhous increasing power, the Three Guards, Zhou princes stationed on the eastern plain, to maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system
4.
Classical Chinese
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Classical Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese that evolved from the classical language, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. Literary Chinese was used for almost all formal writing in China until the early 20th century, Literary Chinese is known as kanbun in Japanese, hanmun in Korean, and cổ văn or văn ngôn in Vietnamese. It is often referred to as Classical Chinese, but sinologists generally distinguish it from the language of the early period. During this period the dialects of China became more and more disparate and this situation, the use of Literary Chinese throughout the Chinese cultural sphere despite the existence of disparate regional vernaculars, is called diglossia. It can be compared to the position of Classical Arabic relative to the various regional vernaculars in Arab lands, or of Latin in medieval Europe. The Romance languages continued to evolve, influencing Latin texts of the period, so that by the Middle Ages. Christian missionaries coined the term Wen-li for Literary Chinese, though composed from Chinese roots, this term was never used in that sense in Chinese, and was rejected by non-missionary sinologues. Chinese characters are not alphabetic and only palely reflect sound changes, the tentative reconstruction of Old Chinese is an endeavor only a few centuries old. With the progress of time, every dynasty has updated and modified the official Phonology Dictionary, by the time of the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, the Phonology Dictionary was based on early Mandarin. In practice, all varieties of Chinese combine these two extremes, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese readers of Classical Chinese use systems of pronunciation specific to their own languages. Poetry and other rhyme-based writing thus becomes less coherent than the reading must have been. However, some modern Chinese varieties have certain characteristics that are closer to the older pronunciations than others. Another phenomenon that is common in reading Classical Chinese is homophony and it was written to show how Classical Chinese has become an impractical language for speakers of modern Chinese because Classical Chinese when spoken aloud is largely incomprehensible. However, such homophones are far more common in Literary Chinese than in English, romanizations have been devised giving distinct spellings for the words of Classical Chinese, together with rules for pronunciation in various modern varieties. However none of these systems has seen extensive use, an essay in Classical Chinese, for example, might use half as many Chinese characters as in vernacular Chinese to relate the same content. In terms of conciseness and compactness, Classical Chinese rarely uses words composed of two Chinese characters, nearly all words are of one syllable only and this phenomenon exists, in part, because polysyllabic words evolved in Chinese to disambiguate homophones that result from sound changes. Because Classical Chinese is based on the examples of ancient Chinese literature. Classical Chinese has more pronouns compared to the modern vernacular, in particular, whereas Mandarin has one general character to refer to the first-person pronoun, Literary Chinese has several, many of which are used as part of honorific language
5.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
6.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
7.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
8.
Hanyu 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
9.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
10.
Wu Chinese
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Wu is a group of linguistically similar and historically related varieties of Chinese primarily spoken in the whole city of Shanghai, Zhejiang province, southern Jiangsu province and bordering areas. Major Wu varieties include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Wuxi, Wenzhou/Oujiang, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, 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 also be found being used in Shaoxing opera, which is only in national popularity to Peking opera, as well as in the performances of the popular entertainer. Wu is also spoken in a number of diaspora communities, with significant centers of immigration originating from Shanghai, Qingtian. Suzhou has traditionally been the center of Wu and was likely 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. Due to the influence of Shanghainese, Wu as a whole is incorrectly labelled in English as simply, Shanghainese, among speakers of other Sinitic languages, Wu is often subjectively judged to be soft, light, and flowing. There is an idiom in Mandarin that specifically describes these qualities of Wu speech, Ngu nung nioe ngiu, Wu varieties have the largest vowel quality inventories in the world. The Jinhui dialect spoken in Shanghais Fengxian District has 20 vowel qualities, Wu Chinese, along with Min, is also of great significance to historical linguists due to their retention of many ancient features. These two languages have proven pivotal in determining the history of the Chinese languages. More pressing concerns of the present are those of language preservation, however, many analysts believe that a stable state of diglossia will endure for at least several generations if not indefinitely. Saying one speaks Wu is akin to saying one speaks a Romance language and it is not a particularly defined entity like Standard Mandarin or Hochdeutsch. They do this by affixing 話 Wo to their locations endonym, for example, 溫州話 Wēnzhōuhuà is used for Wenzhounese. Affixing 閒話 xiánhuà is also common and more typical of the Taihu division, Wu, the formal name and standard reference in dialectology literature. Northern Wu, Wu typically spoken in the north of Zhejiang and it by default includes the Xuanzhou division in Anhui as well, however this division is often neglected in Northern Wu discussions. Southern Wu, Wu spoken in southern Zhejiang and periphery, comprising the Oujiang, Wuzhou, Western Wu, A term gaining in usage as a synonym for the Xuanzhou division and modeled after the previous two terms since the Xuanzhou division is less representative of Northern Wu. Shanghainese, is also a common name, used because Shanghai is the most well-known city in the Wu-speaking region. The term Shanghainese is never used by linguists to refer to anything
11.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. 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 it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
12.
Jyutping
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Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
13.
Southern Min
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Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
14.
Hokkien
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Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ is a group of Southern Min dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province and it is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese and Leizhou dialect. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, the term Hokkien is etymologically derived from the Southern Min pronunciation for Fujian, the province from which the language hails. The variety is known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan or Southern Min. Fujianese and Fukienese are also used, although they are somewhat imprecise, the term Hokkien is not usually used in Mainland China or Taiwan. Conversely Hokkien is the name in Southeast Asia in both English, Chinese or other languages. Speakers of Hokkien, particularly those in Southeast Asia, typically refer to Hokkien as a dialect, people in Taiwan most often refer to Hokkien as the Taiwanese language, with Minnan and Holo also being used and 福建話 is not as common. Hokkien originated in the area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is Taiwan, the Taiwanese version mostly have origins with the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect is becoming the modern prestige standard for the language. There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States, many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present day Malaysia and Singapore. Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are similar to Taiwanese and Amoynese. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the Chinese people in the Philippines, Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Southern and part of western Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects, Chinchew, Amoy, Chiangchew and Longyan, originating from the cities of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan. As Xiamen is the city of southern Fujian, Amoy is considered the most important, or even the prestige dialect. It is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, same as Amoy dialect, the varieties of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan are hybrids of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, and are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien or just Taiwanese. Used by a majority of the population, it bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, the varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. The Singaporeans, Southern Malaysians and people in Indonesias Riau and surrounding islands variant is from the Quanzhou area and they speak a distinct form of Quanzhou Hokkien called Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, and other states in Northern Malaysia and Medan, with areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia
15.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
16.
Taoism
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Taoism, also known as Daoism, is a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao. The Tao is an idea in most Chinese philosophical schools, in Taoism, however. Taoism differs from Confucianism by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order, the Tao Te Ching, a compact book containing teachings attributed to Laozi, is widely considered the keystone work of the Taoist tradition, together with the later writings of Zhuangzi. By the Han dynasty, the sources of Taoism had coalesced into a coherent tradition of religious organizations. In earlier ancient China, Taoists were thought of as hermits or recluses who did not participate in political life, Zhuangzi was the best known of these, and it is significant that he lived in the south, where he was part of local Chinese shamanic traditions. Women shamans played an important role in this tradition, which was strong in the southern state of Chu. Early Taoist movements developed their own institution in contrast to shamanism, shamans revealed basic texts of Taoism from early times down to at least the 20th century. Institutional orders of Taoism evolved in various strains that in recent times are conventionally grouped into two main branches, Quanzhen Taoism and Zhengyi Taoism. After Laozi and Zhuangzi, the literature of Taoism grew steadily and was compiled in form of a canon—the Daozang—which was published at the behest of the emperor, throughout Chinese history, Taoism was nominated several times as a state religion. After the 17th century, however, it fell from favor, Chinese alchemy, Chinese astrology, Chan Buddhism, several martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, and many styles of qigong have been intertwined with Taoism throughout history. Beyond China, Taoism also had influence on surrounding societies in Asia, Taoism also has a presence in Hong Kong, Macau, and in Southeast Asia. English speakers continue to debate the preferred romanization of the words Daoism and Taoism, the root Chinese word 道 way, path is romanized tao in the older Wade–Giles system and dào in the modern Pinyin system. In linguistic terminology, English Taoism/Daoism is formed from the Chinese loanword tao/dao 道 way, route, principle and the native suffix -ism. The debate over Taoism vs. Daoism involves sinology, phonemes, loanwords, Daoism is pronounced /ˈdaʊ. ɪzəm/, but English speakers disagree whether Taoism should be /ˈdaʊ. ɪzəm/ or /ˈtaʊ. ɪzəm/. In theory, both Wade–Giles tao and Pinyin dao are articulated identically, as are Taoism and Daoism, an investment book titled The Tao Jones Averages illustrates this /daʊ/ pronunciations widespread familiarity. In speech, Tao and Taoism are often pronounced /ˈtaʊ/ and ˈtaʊ. ɪzəm/, lexicography shows American and British English differences in pronouncing Taoism. Taoist philosophy or Taology, or the mystical aspect — The philosophical doctrines based on the texts of the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching and these texts were linked together as Taoist philosophy during the early Han Dynasty, but notably not before. It is unlikely that Zhuangzi was familiar with the text of the Daodejing, however, the discussed distinction is rejected by the majority of Western and Japanese scholars
17.
Tao
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Tao or Dao is a Chinese word signifying way, path, route, key or sometimes more loosely doctrine or principle. The Tao differs from conventional ontology in that it is an active and holistic practice of the order of Nature and its universal awakening. The Tao is eternally nameless” and to be distinguished from the countless named things which are considered to be its manifestations, the Tao lends its name to the religious tradition and philosophical tradition that are both referred to in English with the single term Taoism. The word Tao has a variety of meanings in ancient and modern Chinese language. Aside from its purely prosaic use to mean road, channel, path, principle, or similar, the Tao can be roughly thought of as the flow of the Universe, or as some essence or pattern behind the natural world that keeps the Universe balanced and ordered. It is related to the idea of qi, the energy of action. The Tao is a non-dualistic principle – it is the whole from which all the individual elements of the Universe derive. The Tao is more expressed in the relationship between wu and yinyang, leading to its central principle of wu wei. The Tao is usually described in terms of elements of nature, like water it is undifferentiated, endlessly self-replenishing, soft and quiet but immensely powerful, and impassively generous. Much of Taoist philosophy centers on the continuity of the natural world. In all its uses, the Tao is considered to have qualities that prevent it from being defined or expressed in words. It can, however, be known or experienced, and its principles can be followed or practiced, much of East Asian philosophical writing focuses on the value of adhering to the principles of the Tao and the various consequences of failing to do so. The Tao was shared with Confucianism, Chán and Zen Buddhism and more broadly throughout East Asian philosophy and religion in general. In Taoism, Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism, the object of spiritual practice is to one with the Tao or to harmonise ones will with Nature in order to achieve effortless action. This involves meditative and moral practices, important in this respect is the Taoist concept of De. De is the generally used to refer to proper adherence to the Tao. Particular things that manifest from the Tao have their own nature that they follow, in accordance with the Tao. Historically, the concept of De differed significantly between Taoists and Confucianists and this led to some philosophical and political conflicts between Taoists and Confucianisms
18.
De (Chinese)
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Chinese de 德 is an ancient and linguistically complex word. The following analyzes it in terms of semantics, graphics, the Hanyu Da Zidian, defines twenty meanings for de 德, translatable as Rise, go up, climb, ascend. Morals, morality, virtue, personal conduct, moral integrity, denoting a wise/enlightened person with moral character. Benevolent rule, good government, good instruction, quality, nature, basic character, characteristics, attribute. For example, Be of one heart and mind, in Five Phases theory, a reference to seasonally productive energy/air. First growth, initial stage, beginning of something, blessings, good fortune, happiness, resulting from benevolent actions. Used for zhí to plant, grow, establish, used for get, obtain, result in. An abbreviation for the Republic of Germany during World War II, another name for the Yellow River. This dictionary provides early usage examples, and all of these de meanings occur in Han or pre-Han Chinese classic texts, translating de into English is problematic and controversial. Arthur Waley believed that de was better translated power than virtue and it is usually translated virtue, and this often seems to work quite well, though where the word occurs in early, pre-moralistic texts such a translation is in reality quite false. But if we study the usage of the word carefully we find that de can be bad as well as good, clearly virtue is not a satisfactory equivalent. Te is anything that happens to one or that one does of a kind indicating that, as a consequence and it means, so to speak, the stock of credit that at any given moment a man has at the bank of fortune. Such a stock is of course built up partly by the carrying out of ritual. Based on the relation between de and zhi to plant, Waley further noted the early Chinese regarded planting seeds as a de, hence it means a latent power. The linguist Peter A. Boodberg investigated the semantics and etymology of de 德 and they find, therefore, no quarrel with rendering tê, almost invariably, as virtue. Philologists are, however, troubled by the absence in the Chinese term of any connotations reminiscent of the Latin etymon vir, such as manliness, other recommended translation, such as energy and essential quality, seem also inadequate from the etymological point of view. Of these, the last is by far the most frequently encountered, unfortunately, it is also probably the least appropriate of all to serve as an accurate translation of te in the Tao Te Ching. De power, virtue is written with the Chinese character 德 in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese and this character 德 combines the chi 彳 footstep, go radical with zhi 直 straight, vertical and xin 心 heart, mind
19.
Taiji (philosophy)
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The term Taiji and its other spelling Tai chi are most commonly used in the West to refer to Taijiquan, an internal martial art, Chinese meditation system and health practice. This article, however, refers only to the use of the term in Chinese philosophy, in analogy with the figurative meanings of English pole, Chinese ji 極 ridgepole can mean geographical pole, direction, magnetic pole, or celestial pole. Combining the two words, 太極 means the source, the beginning of the world, common English translations of the cosmological Taiji are the Supreme Ultimate or Great Ultimate, but other versions are the Supreme Pole, Great Absolute, or Supreme Polarity. Taiji references are found in Chinese classic texts associated with schools of Chinese philosophy. Zhang and Ryden explain the necessity of Taiji. Any philosophy that asserts two elements such as the yin-yang of Chinese philosophy will also look for a term to reconcile the two, to ensure that both belong to the sphere of discourse. The term supreme ultimate performs this role in the philosophy of the Book of Changes, in the Song dynasty it became a metaphysical term on a par with the Way. The Daoist classic Zhuangzi introduced the Taiji concept, one of the Inner Chapters contrasts Taiji 太極 great ultimate and Liuji 六極 six ultimates, six cardinal directions. The Way has attributes and evidence, but it has no action and it may be transmitted but cannot be received. It may be apprehended but cannot be seen, from the root, from the stock, before there was heaven or earth, for all eternity truly has it existed. It inspirits demons and gods, gives birth to heaven and earth and it lies above the zenith but is not high, it lies beneath the nadir but is not deep. It is prior to heaven and earth, but is not ancient, it is senior to high antiquity, the fu-sui 夫煫 gathers fire energy from the sun, the fang-chu 方諸 gathers dew from the moon. What are between Heaven and Earth, even an expert calculator cannot compute their number, thus, though the hand can handle and examine extremely small things, it cannot lay hold of the brightness. Were it within the grasp of ones hand to one category from the Supreme Ultimate above. This is because Yin and Yang share a common chi and move each other, Taiji also appears in the Xìcí 繫辭 Appended Judgments commentary to the I Ching, a late section traditionally attributed to Confucius but more likely dating to about the 3rd century B. C. E. Therefore there is in the Changes the Great Primal Beginning and this generates the two primary forces. The two primary forces generate the four images, the four images generate the eight trigrams. The eight trigrams determine good fortune and misfortune, good fortune and misfortune create the great field of action
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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
21.
Xian (Taoism)
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The xian archetype is described by Victor H. Mair. They are immune to heat and cold, untouched by the elements and they dwell apart from the chaotic world of man, subsist on air and dew, are not anxious like ordinary people, and have the smooth skin and innocent faces of children. The transcendents live an existence that is best described as spontaneous. They recall the ancient Indian ascetics and holy men known as ṛṣi who possessed similar traits.1994,376 According to the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, the most famous Chinese compound of xiān is Bāxiān. Other common words include xiānrén, xiānrénzhăng, xiānnǚ, and shénxiān, besides humans, xiān can also refer to supernatural animals. The mythological húlijīng 狐狸精 fox fairy, vixen, witch, enchantress has a name of húxiān 狐仙. 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. Two linguistic hypotheses for the etymology of xian involve the Arabic language, 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, jinn, may not be derived from the Chinese Hsien. 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 supposedly because immortals could ascend into the heavens. The usual modern xiān character 仙, and 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 mountains, while also embodying nature. The Shijing contains the oldest occurrence of the character 僊, reduplicated as xiānxiān, but when they have drunk too much, Their deportment becomes light and frivolous—They leave their seats, and go elsewhere, They keep dancing and capering. Needham and Wang suggest xian was cognate with wu 巫 shamanic dancing, 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 time has no etymological relation to xian. The 121 CE Shuowen Jiezi, the first important dictionary of Chinese characters and it defines 僊 as live long and move away and 仚 as appearance of a person on a mountaintop. This section chronologically reviews how Chinese texts describe xian immortals, transcendents, on one the hand, neidan techniques included taixi breath control, meditation, visualization, sexual training, and Tao Yin exercises. On the other hand, waidan techniques for immortality included alchemical recipes, magic plants, rare minerals, herbal medicines, drugs, the earliest representations of Chinese immortals, dating from the Han Dynasty, portray them flying with feathery wings or riding dragons
22.
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
23.
Qi
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In traditional Chinese culture, qì or chi is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi literally translates as breath, air, or gas, and figuratively as material energy, life force, Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. Some elements of the concept of qi can be found in the energy when used in the context of various esoteric forms of spirituality. Notions in the West of energeia, élan vital, or vitalism are purported to be similar, despite widespread belief in the reality of qi, it is a non-scientific, unverifiable concept. The logograph 氣 is read with two Chinese pronunciations, the usual qì 氣 air, vital energy and the rare archaic xì 氣 to present food, pronunciations of 氣 in Sino-Xenic borrowings include, Japanese language ki, Korean language gi, and Vietnamese language khi. Reconstructions of the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 氣, standardized to IPA transcription, include, /kʰe̯iH/, /kʰĭəiH/, /kʰiəiH/, /kʰɨjH/, reconstructions of the Old Chinese pronunciation of 氣, standardized to IPA transcription, include, /*kʰɯds/, and /*C. qʰəp-s/. In addition, qì 炁 is an uncommon character especially used in writing Daoist talismans, historically, the word qì was generally written as 气 until the Han dynasty, when it was replaced by the 氣 graph clarified with mǐ 米 rice indicating steam. These oracle, bronze, and seal scripts graphs for qì 气 air, breath, etc. were anciently used as a loan character to write qǐ 乞 plead for, beg, ask. The regular script character qì 氣 is unusual because qì 气 is both the air radical and the phonetic, with mǐ 米 rice semantically indicating steam, vapor. This qì 气 air/gas radical, which was used in a few native Chinese characters like yīnyūn 氤氲 thick mist/smoke, was used to create new scientific characters for gaseous chemical elements. Some examples are based on pronunciations in European languages, fú 氟 fluorine and nǎi 氖 neon, others are based on semantics, qīng 氫 hydrogen and lǜ 氯 chlorine. Qi was an early Chinese loanword in English, romanized as, ki in Church Romanization in the century, chi in Wade–Giles in the mid-19th century. An early form of the idea comes from the writings of the Chinese philosopher Mencius, historically, the Huangdi Neijing/The Yellow Emperors Classic of Medicine is credited with first establishing the pathways through which qi circulates in the human body. The ancient Chinese described it as life force and they believed qi permeated everything and linked their surroundings together. They likened it to the flow of energy around and through the body, forming a cohesive, by understanding its rhythm and flow they believed they could guide exercises and treatments to provide stability and longevity. Although the concept of qi has been important within many Chinese philosophies, until China came into contact with Western scientific and philosophical ideas, they had not categorized all things in terms of matter and energy. Qi and li were fundamental categories similar to matter and energy, yuán qì is a notion of innate or pre-natal qi to distinguish it from acquired qi that a person may develop over the course of their lifetime. The earliest texts that speak of qi give some indications of how the concept developed, the philosopher Mo Di used the word qi to refer to noxious vapors that would in due time arise from a corpse were it not buried at a sufficient depth
24.
Daoist meditation
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Daoist meditation refers to the traditional meditative practices associated with the Chinese philosophy and religion of Daoism, including concentration, mindfulness, contemplation, and visualization. Traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese martial arts have adapted certain Daoist meditative techniques, the Chinese language has several keywords for Daoist meditation practices, some of which are difficult to translate accurately into English. Livia Kohn distinguishes three types of Daoist meditation, concentrative, insight, and visualization. In this sense, Kohn renders ding as intent contemplation or perfect absorption, the Zuowanglun has a section called Taiding 泰定 intense concentration Guan 觀 basically means look at, watch, observe, view, scrutinize. Kohn says the word guan, intimates the role of Taoist sacred sites as places of contact with celestial beings, Guan meditators would seek to merge individual consciousness into emptiness and attain unity with the Dao. For this reason, the word is most commonly rendered to visualize or, as a noun, within the above three types of Daoist meditation, some important practices are, Zuowang 坐忘 sitting forgetting was first recorded in the Zhuangzi. Neiguan 內觀 inner observation, inner vision is visualizing inside ones body and mind, including organs, inner deities, qi movements. Four chapters of the Guanzi have descriptions of practices, Xinshu 心術 Mind techniques, Baixin 白心 Purifying the mind. Modern scholars believe the Neiye text was written in the 4th century BCE, owing to the consensus that proto-Daoist Huang-Lao philosophers at the Jixia Academy in Qi composed the core Guanzi, Neiye meditation techniques are technically Daoistic rather than Daoist. Neiye Verse 8 associates dingxin 定心 stabilizing the mind with acute hearing and clear vision, however, thought, says Roth, is considered an impediment to attaining the well-ordered mind, particularly when it becomes excessive. Verse 18 contains the earliest Chinese reference to practicing breath-control meditation, breathing is said to coil and uncoil or contract and expand, with coiling/contracting referring to exhalation and uncoiling/expanding to inhalation. Several passages in the classic Daodejing are interpreted as referring to meditation, for instance, Attain utmost emptiness, Maintain utter stillness emphasizes xu 虛 empty, void and jing 靜 still, quiet, both of which are central meditative concepts. Verse 10 gives what Roth calls probably the most important evidence for breathing meditation in the Daodejing, Three of these Daodejing phrases resonate with Neiye meditation vocabulary. Baoyi 抱一 embrace unity compares with shouyi 守一 maintain the One, zhuanqi 專氣 focus your vital breath is zhuanqi 摶氣 concentrating your vital breath. Dichu xuanjian 滌除玄覽 cleanse the mirror of mysteries and jingchu qi she 敬除其舍 diligently clean out its lodging place have the same verb chu eliminate, the Daodejing exists in two received versions, named after the commentaries. The Heshang Gong version explains textual references to Daoist meditation, Wang Bi was a scholar of Xuanxue mysterious studies, neo-Daoism, which adapted Confucianism to explain Daoism, and his version eventually became the standard Daodejing interpretation. Richard Wilhelm said Wang Bis commentary changed the Daodejing from a compendiary of magical meditation to a collection of free philosophical aperçus, the Daoist Zhuangzi refers to meditation in more specific terms than the Daodejing. Two well-known examples of disciplines are Confucius and his favorite disciple Yan Hui discussing xinzhai 心齋 heart-mind fasting and zuowang sitting forgetting
25.
Neidan
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It is believed the Xiuzhen Tu is such a cultivation map. In China, it is an important form of practice for most schools of Taoism, the Chinese compound nèidān combines the common word nèi 內 meaning inside, inner, internal with dān 丹 cinnabar, vermillion, elixir, alchemy. The antonym of nèi is wài 外 outside, exterior, external, Chinese alchemical texts and sources ordinarily call neidan the jīndān dào 金丹道 or Way of the Golden Elixir. In Modern Standard Chinese usage, the term nèidān shù 內丹術 refers generally to internal alchemical practices, the date for the earliest use of the term neidan is uncertain. I pray that all the saints and sages will come to my help, so that I may get some good magic mushrooms, in this way I shall be able to practice continually the way of the Sutras and to engage in the several forms of meditations. I shall hope to find a peaceful dwelling in the depths of the mountains, with enough numinous elixirs, thus by the aids of external elixirs I shall be able to cultivate the elixir within. Others believed that neidan first occurred in the biographies of Deng Yuzhi鄧郁之, however, the authenticity of the relevant passages in these pseudo-historical sources is doubtful. Tang texts described internal alchemical practices with the words fúyào 服藥 take drug/medicine and chángshēng 長生 long life, longevity, liu Xiyues 劉希岳988 Taixuan langranzi jindao shi 太玄朗然子進道詩 has the earliest dateable mention of the terms neidan and waidan. The c.1019 Yunji Qiqian Daoist anthology mentions the term neidan, Neidan is part of the Chinese alchemical meditative tradition that is said to have been separated into internal and external at some point during the Tang dynasty. The Cantong qi is the earliest known book on alchemy in China. This text influenced the formation of Neidan, whose earliest existing texts date from the first half of the 8th century, the authors of several Neidan articles refer to their teachings as the Way of the Golden Elixir. The majority of Chinese alchemical sources is found in the Daozang, Neidan shares a significant portion of its notions and methods with classical Chinese medicine, fangshi and with other bodies of practices, such as meditation and the methods for nourishing life. To do so, first keep the body at ease, thereby energy can be made complete. Making ones energy complete, one can nurture the mind, to do so, first keep the mind pure, and make sure there are no thoughts. Thereby spirit can be made complete, making ones spirit complete, one can recover emptiness. To do so, first keep the will sincere, and make sure body, thereby spirit can be returned to emptiness. To attain immortality, there is nothing else but the refinement of these three treasures, essence, energy, spirit. When the three treasures are maintained, along with a balance of yin and yang, it is possible to achieve a healthy body and longevity
26.
I Ching
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The I Ching, or Classic of Changes, is an ancient divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics. The I Ching uses a type of divination called cleromancy, which produces apparently random numbers. Four numbers,6 to 9, are turned into a hexagram, the hexagrams themselves have often acquired cosmological significance and paralleled with many other traditional names for the processes of change such as yin and yang and Wu Xing. The core of the I Ching is a Western Zhou divination text called the Changes of Zhou, various modern scholars suggest dates ranging between the 10th and 4th centuries BC for the assembly of the text in approximately its current form. It is possible that other systems existed at this time. The name Zhou yi literally means the changes of the Zhou dynasty, the changes involved have been interpreted as the transformations of hexagrams, of their lines, or of the numbers obtained from the divination. Feng Youlan proposed that the word for changes originally meant easy, as in a form of divination easier than the oracle bones, there is also an ancient folk etymology that sees the character for changes as containing the sun and moon, the cycle of the day. Modern Sinologists believe the character to be derived either from an image of the sun emerging from clouds, the Zhou yi was traditionally ascribed to the Zhou cultural heroes King Wen of Zhou and the Duke of Zhou, and was also associated with the legendary world ruler Fu Xi. The Zhou yi itself does not contain this legend and indeed says nothing about its own origins, the Rites of Zhou, however, also claims that the hexagrams of the Zhou yi were derived from an initial set of eight trigrams. During the Han dynasty there were various opinions about the relationship between the trigrams and the hexagrams. The basic unit of the Zhou yi is the hexagram, a composed of six stacked horizontal lines. Each line is broken or unbroken. The received text of the Zhou yi contains all 64 possible hexagrams, along with the name, a short hexagram statement. The book opens with the first hexagram statement, yuán hēng lì zhēn, edward Shaughnessy describes this statement as affirming an initial receipt of an offering, beneficial for further divining. The word zhēn was also used for the divine in the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty. It also carried meanings of being or making upright or correct, the names of the hexagrams are usually words that appear in their respective line statements, but in five cases an unrelated character of unclear purpose appears. The hexagram names could have been chosen arbitrarily from the line statements, the line statements, which make up most of the book, are exceedingly cryptic. Each line begins with a word indicating the number, base,2,3,4,5, top
27.
Zhuangzi (book)
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The Zhuangzi is an ancient Chinese text from the late Warring States period which contains stories and anecdotes that exemplify the carefree nature of the ideal Daoist sage. The Zhuangzi consists of a collection of anecdotes, allegories, parables, and fables. Its main themes are of spontaneity in action and of freedom from the human world, the fables and anecdotes in the text attempt to illustrate the falseness of human distinctions between good and bad, large and small, life and death, and human and nature. While other ancient Chinese philosophers focused on moral and personal duty, a masterpiece of both philosophical and literary skill, it has significantly influenced writers for more than 2000 years from the Han dynasty to the present. Almost nothing is known of Zhuangzis life. He is thought to have spent time in the state of Chu, as well as in Linzi. The American scholar and Zhuangzi translator Burton Watson has noted, Whoever Zhuang Zhou was, scholars have recognized since at least the Song dynasty that some parts of the book could not have been written by Zhuangzi himself. Since ancient times, however, the first seven chapters—the nèi piān 內篇 inner chapters—have been considered to be the work of Zhuangzi. How many, if any, of the remaining 26 chapters—the wài piān 外篇 outer chapters, all of the 33 surviving chapters are accepted as compositions from the 4th to 2nd centuries BC. Details of the Zhuangzis textual history prior to the Han dynasty are largely unknown, the Records of the Grand Historian refers to a 100, 000-word Zhuangzi work and references several chapters that are still in the text. The Book of Han, finished in AD111, lists a Zhuangzi in 52 chapters, portions of the Zhuangzi have been discovered among bamboo slip texts from Warring States period and Han dynasty tombs, particularly at the Shuanggudui and Zhangjiashan Han bamboo texts sites. One of the slips from the Guodian bamboo texts, which date to around 300 BC and they collectively form about twelve chapters of Guo Xiangs version of the Zhuangzi, and are preserved mostly at the British Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Among the Japanese national treasures preserved in the Kōzan-ji temple in Kyoto is a Zhuangzi manuscript from the Muromachi period, almost all of the 33 surviving Zhuangzi chapters contain fables and allegories. Unlike other ancient Chinese works, whose allegories were usually based on legends and proverbs. The most famous of all Zhuangzi stories – Zhuang Zhou Dreams of Being a Butterfly – appears at the end of the second chapter, On the Equality of Things. The well known image of Zhuangzi wondering if he was a man who dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of being a man is so striking that whole dramas have been written on its theme. In it Zhuangzi with the theme of transformation, illustrating that the distinction between waking and dreaming is another false dichotomy, if distinguishes them, how can tell if is now dreaming or awake. Another well known Zhuangzi story—The Death of Wonton—illustrates the dangers Zhuangzi saw in going against the nature of things
28.
Three Pure Ones
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They are regarded as pure manifestation of the Tao and the origin of all sentient beings. From the Taoist classic Tao Te Ching, it was held that The Tao produced One, One produced Two, Two produced Three, Three produced All things and it is generally agreed that, Tao produced One—Wuji produced Taiji, One produced Two—Taiji produced Yin and Yang. However, the subject of how Two produced Three has remained a popular debate among Taoist Scholars, most scholars believe that it refers to the Interaction between Yin and Yang, with the presence of Chi, or life force. In religious Taoism, the theory of how Tao produces One, Two, yuánshǐ Tiānzūn oversees the earliest phase of Creation of the Universe, and is henceforth known as Dàobǎo Treasure of the Tao. Therefore, he is known as Jīngbǎo Treasure of the Law/Scripture. While Jīng in popular understanding means scriptures, in context it also mean passing through. In the final phase of Creation, Daode Tianzun is manifested from Língbăo Tiānzūn to bring civilization, therefore, He is also known as Shībǎo Treasure of the Master. Each of the Three Pure Ones represents both a deity and a heaven, Yuanshi tianzun rules the first heaven, Yu-Qing, which is found in the Jade Mountain. The entrance to heaven is named the Golden Door. He is the source of all truth, as the sun is the source of all light, Lingbao Tianzun rules over the heaven of Shang-Qing. Daode Tianzun rules over the heaven of Tai-Qing, the Three Pure Ones are often depicted as throned elders. Schools of Taoist thought developed around each of these deities, Taoist Alchemy was a large part of these schools, as each of the Three Pure Ones represented one of the three essential fields of the body, jing, qi and shen. The congregation of all three Pure Ones resulted in the return to Tao, the first Pure One is universal or heavenly chi. The second Pure One is human plane chi, and the third Pure One is earth chi, heavenly chi includes the chi or energy of all the planets, stars and constellations as well as the energy of God. Human plane chi is the energy that exists on the surface of our planet and sustains life. As the Three Pure Ones are manifestation of Primordial Celestial Energy, each of them holds onto a divine object associated with their task. Yuánshǐ Tiānzūn is usually depicted holding the Pearl of Creation, signifying his role in creating the Universe from void and chaos. The Ruyi held by Lingbao Tianzun represents authority, the phase of Creation where the Yang was separated from the Yin
29.
Guan Yu
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Guan Yu, courtesy name Yunchang, was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He played a significant role in the events led to the collapse of the dynasty. After Liu Bei gained control of Yi Province in 214, Guan Yu remained in Jing Province to govern, by the time Guan Yu found out about the loss of Jing Province after his defeat at Fancheng, it was too late. He was subsequently captured in an ambush by Sun Quans forces, Guan Yu is respected as an epitome of loyalty and righteousness. He is portrayed as having a red face, Guan Yu was deified as early as the Sui dynasty and is still worshipped by many Chinese people today in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and among many overseas Chinese communities. In religious devotion he is called the Divus Guan or Lord Guan. He is a deity worshipped in Chinese folk religion, popular Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism and his hometown Yuncheng has also named its airport after him. The authoritative historical source on Guan Yus life is the Records of the Three Kingdoms, during the fifth century, Pei Songzhi annotated the Sanguozhi by incorporating information from other sources to Chen Shous original work and adding his personal commentary. No descriptions of Guan Yus physical appearance exist in historical records, traditionally, he is portrayed as a red-faced warrior with a long lush beard. He had an air and looked quite majestic. Alternatively, the idea of his red face could have borrowed from opera representation. In illustrations of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu is traditionally depicted wearing a green robe over his body armour, supposedly, Guan Yus weapon was a guan dao named Green Dragon Crescent Blade, which resembled a glaive and was said to weigh 82 catties. A wooden replica can be today in the Emperor Guan Temple in Xiezhou County. Guan Yu was from Xie County, Hedong Commandery, which is in present-day Yuncheng and his original courtesy name was Changsheng. He was very interested in the Zuo Zhuan and could fluently recite lines from the book and he fled from his hometown after committing a serious crime and arrived in Zhuo Commandery. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in the 180s, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei joined a militia formed by Liu Bei. When Liu Bei was appointed as the Chancellor of Pingyuan State, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were appointed as Majors of Separate Command, the three of them shared a brotherly-like relationship, to the point of sharing the same room. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu also stood guard beside Liu Bei when he sat down at meetings and they followed him on his exploits and protected him from danger
30.
Eight Immortals
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The Eight Immortals are a group of legendary xian in Chinese mythology. Each immortals power can be transferred to a tool that can bestow life or destroy evil. Together, these eight tools are called the Covert Eight Immortals, most of them are said to have been born in the Tang or Song dynasty. They are revered by the Taoists and are also an element in the secular Chinese culture. They are said to live on a group of five islands in the Bohai Sea, the Immortals are, He Xiangu Cao Guojiu Li Tieguai Lan Caihe Lü Dongbin Han Xiangzi Zhang Guolao Zhongli Quan In literature before the 1970s, they were sometimes translated as the Eight Genies. First described in the Yuan Dynasty, they were named after the Eight Immortal Scholars of the Han. While cults dedicated to various Taoist immortals date back to the Han dynasty, the art of the Jin tombs of the 12th and 13th centuries depicts a group of eight Taoist immortals in wall murals and sculptures. They officially became known as the Eight Immortals in the writings, the most famous art depiction of the Eight Immortals from this period is a mural of them in the Eternal Joy Temple at Ruicheng. The 8 Immortals are considered to be signs of prosperity and longevity, so they are popular themes in ancient and they were frequent adornments on celadon vases. They were also common in sculptures owned by the nobility and their most common appearance, however, was in paintings. Many silk paintings, wall murals, and wood block prints remain of the Eight Immortals and they were often depicted either together in one group, or alone to give more homage to that specific immortal. This shows that early on, the Eight Immortals quickly became eminent figures of the Taoist religion and had great importance and we can see this importance is only heightened in the Ming and Qing dynasties. During these dynasties, the Eight Immortals were very frequently associated with other prominent spiritual deities in artwork, there are numerous paintings with them and the Three Stars together. Also, other deities of importance, such as the Queen Mother of the West, are seen in the company of the Eight Immortals. The artwork of the Eight Immortals is not limited to paintings or other visual arts and they are quite prominent in written works too. Authors and playwrights wrote numerous stories and plays on the Eight Immortals, one famous story that has been rewritten many times and turned into several plays is The Yellow-Millet Dream, which is the story of how Lǚ Dòngbīn met Zhongli Quan and began his path to immortality. The Immortals are the subject of artistic creations, such as paintings. There is another work, also made during the Ming, by an anonymous writer and it is about the Immortals on their way to attend the Conference of the Magical Peach when they encounter an ocean
31.
Yellow Emperor
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Huangdis cult became prominent in the late Warring States and early Han period, when he was portrayed as the originator of the centralized state, as a cosmic ruler, and as a patron of esoteric arts. A large number of texts – such as the Huangdi Neijing, a classic, and the Huangdi Sijing. To this day the Yellow Emperor remains a powerful nationalist symbol, in the Warring States period, the term di on its own could also refer to the deities associated with the five sacred mountains and colors. Huangdi, the di, was one of the latter. The correlation of the colors in association with different dynasties was mentioned in the Lüshi Chunqiu, the character huang 黄 was often used in place of the homophonous huang 皇, which means august or radiant, giving Huangdi attributes close to those of Shangdi, the Shang supreme god. The Records of the Grand Historian, compiled by Sima Qian in the first century BCE, gives the Yellow Emperors name as Xuanyuan. Third-century scholar Huangfu Mi, who wrote a work on the sovereigns of antiquity, commented that Xuanyuan was the name of a hill where Huangdi had lived, qing-dynasty scholar Liang Yusheng argued instead that the hill was named after the Yellow Emperor. Xuanyuan is also the name of the star Regulus in Chinese and he is also associated to the broader constellations Leo and Lynx, of which the latter is said to represent the body of the Yellow Dragon, Huangdis animal form. Huangdi was also referred to as Youxiong and this name has been interpreted as either a place name or a clan name. According to British sinologist Herbert Allen Giles, that name was taken from that of hereditary principality. William Nienhauser, a translator of the Records of the Grand Historian, states that Huangdi was originally the head of the Youxiong clan. Rémi Mathieu, a French historian of Chinese myths and religion, translates Youxiong as possessor of bears, ye Shuxian has also associated the Yellow Emperor with bear legends common across northeast Asia people as well as the Dangun legend. In Han-dynasty texts the Yellow Emperor is also called upon as the Yellow God, certain accounts interpret him as the incarnation of the Yellow God of the Northern Dipper, another name of the universal god. According to a definition in apocryphal texts related to the Hétú 河圖, as a cosmological deity, the Yellow Emperor is known as the Great Emperor of the Central Peak, and in the Shizi as the Yellow Emperor with Four Faces. His Records of the Grand Historian begins with the Yellow Emperor, throughout most of Chinese history, the Yellow Emperor and the other ancient sages were considered to be real historical figures. Their historicity started to be questioned in the 1920s by historians like Gu Jiegang, Yang Kuan, a member of the same historiographical current, noted that only in the Warring States period had the Yellow Emperor started to be described as the first ruler of China. Yang thus argued that Huangdi was a transformation of Shangdi. Also in the 1920s, French scholars Henri Maspero and Marcel Granet published critical studies of Chinas accounts of high antiquity, most scholars now agree that the Yellow Emperor originated as a god who was later represented as a historical person
32.
Queen Mother of the West
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The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a goddess in Chinese religion and mythology, also worshipped in neighbouring Asian countries, and attested from ancient times. The first historical information on her can be traced back to oracle bone inscriptions of the fifteenth century BC that record sacrifices to a Western Mother, even though these inscriptions illustrate that she predates organized Taoism, she is most often associated with Taoism. From her name alone some of her most important characteristics are revealed, she is royal, female, Queen Mother of the West is the literal translation of Xiwangmu in Chinese sources, Seiōbo in Japan, and Seowangmo in Korea, and Tây Vương Mẫu in Vietnam. She has numerous titles, one of the most popular being the Golden Mother of the Nacre Lake and she is also known in contemporary sources as the Lady Queen Mother. In the Maternist current of Chinese salvationist religions she is the deity and is called upon as the Eternal Venerable Mother. Commoners and poets of the era referred to her simply as the Queen Mother. The first mentions of the Queen Mother date back to the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty, one inscription reads, Crack-making on day IX,9 day, we divined. If we make offering to the mother and the western mother. Western Mother refers to an archaic divinity residing in the west, the exact nature of the Mother divinities in the Shang dynasty is unclear, but they were seen as powerful forces deserving of ritual by the people of the Shang dynasty. After she was adopted into the Taoist pantheon, she was transformed into the goddess of life and immortality. One of the earliest written references to the Queen Mother comes from the writings of the Taoist writer Zhuangzi, no one knows her beginning, no one knows her end. Zhuangzi describes the Queen Mother as one of the highest of the deities, meaning she had gained immortality, Zhuangzi also states that Xiwangmu is seated upon a spiritual western mountain range, suggesting she is connected to not only the heavens, but also to the west. During the Tang dynasty poetry flourished throughout China and it was during this period that the Queen Mother became an extremely popular figure in poetry. Her mythology was recorded in the poems of the Quan Tangshi a collection of surviving poems from the Tang dynasty and this account represents the most complete source of information about Tang societys perceptions of Xīwángmǔ. The Queen Mother of the West usually is depicted holding court within her palace on the mythological Mount Kunlun, usually supposed to be in western China. Her palace is believed to be a perfect and complete paradise, where it was used as a place for the deities. At her palace she was surrounded by a retinue of prominent goddesses. No matter where the peaches were located, the Queen Mother of the West is widely known for serving peaches to her guests and she normally wears a distinctive headdress with the Peaches of Immortality suspended from it
33.
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
34.
Zhuang Zhou
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He is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi, which expresses a philosophy of skepticism. In Simas biography, he is described as an official from the town of Meng in the state of Song, living in the time of King Hui of Liang and King Xuan of Qi. He made The Old Fisherman, The Robber Chih, and The Cutting open Satchels, to satirize and expose the disciples of Confucius, and clearly exhibit the sentiments of Lao. Such names and characters as Wei-lei Hsu and Khang-sang Tze are fictitious, but Chuang was an admirable writer and skillful composer, and by his instances and truthful descriptions hit and exposed the Mohists and Literati. King Wei of Chu, having heard of the ability of Chuang Chau, sent messengers with large gifts to bring him to his court, and promising also that he would make him his chief minister. Chuang-Tze, however, only laughed and said to them, A thousand ounces of silver are a great gain to me, but have you not seen the victim-ox for the border sacrifice. It is carefully fed for several years, and robed with rich embroidery that it may be fit to enter the Grand Temple, when the time comes for it to do so, it would prefer to be a little pig, but it can not get to be so. Go away quickly, and do not soil me with your presence, I had rather amuse and enjoy myself in the midst of a filthy ditch than be subject to the rules and restrictions in the court of a sovereign. I have determined never to take office, but prefer the enjoyment of my own free will, in reality, it was nothing of the sort. The Chuang-tzu known to us today was the production of a thinker of the third century CE named Kuo Hsiang, though Kuo was long called merely a commentator, he was in reality much more, he arranged the texts and compiled the present 33-chapter edition. Regarding the identity of the person named Chuang Chou/Zhuangzi, there is no reliable historical data at all. However, Sima Qians biography of Zhuangzi pre-dates Guo Xiang by centuries, furthermore, the Han Shu Yiwenzhi lists a text Zhuangzi, showing that a text with this title existed no later than the early 1st century CE, again pre-dating Guo Xiang by centuries. Zhuangzi is traditionally credited as the author of at least part of the work bearing his name, further study of the text does not provide a clear choice between these alternatives. On the other hand, chapter 33 has been considered as intrusive. In this spirit, Martin Palmer wrote that trying to read Chuang Tzu sequentially is a mistake, the text is a collection, not a developing argument. Zhuangzi was renowned for his brilliant wordplay and use of parables to convey messages and his critiques of Confucian society and historical figures are humorous and at times ironic. Dream argument Liezi Tao Te Ching Ames, Roger T, ‘The Mencian Concept of Ren Xing, Does it Mean Human Nature. ’ in Chinese Texts and Philosophical Contexts, ed. Henry Rosemont, Jr. LaSalle, Ill. Ames, Roger T. ed. Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi, albany, State University of New York Press
35.
Zhang Daoling
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He is also known as Zhang Daoling, Celestial Master Zhang, Ancestral Celestial Master or Zhengyi Zhenren to Taoists. Zhang is sometimes pictured riding on a tiger, in some Taoist sects, Zhang, along with Ge Xuan, Xu Xun and Sa Shoujian, are called the Four Celestial Masters. The details of the life of the historical figure Zhang Ling are obscure, most of the information about him comes from later scripture, according to these, Zhang traced his ancestral home to Feng County, Jiangsu, and was said to be a descendant of Zhang Liang. He was born in the year of the Jianwu era during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han. He started reading the Tao Te Ching at a young age and he served as a magistrate in Jiangzhou, Ba Commandery during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han. Zhang later retired and led a life at Mount Beimang. When invited to serve as a boshi in the Imperial Academy, Emperor He of Han summoned him thrice to serve as the Taifu but he refused again. Zhang then endeavored to reform supposedly degenerate religious practices, a major change instituted by the new Covenant was the rejection of food and animal sacrifices. Also, the teachings of Laozi as transmitted by Zhang included the first true Taoist religious pantheon as distinguished from the ancient religion of China. The Xianger, a commentary on the Tao Te Ching preserved today in a manuscript, is traditionally ascribed to Zhang Daolings authorship. Zhang is said to have died on Mount Qingcheng in 156 during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han at the age of 123, however, it is also said that Zhang did not die but learned the arcana of Taoism to ascend in broad daylight. Instead, his body became like luminous ether, disappearing from eyesight and his descendants have held the title of Celestial Masters up to the present day. They also held the title of 正一嗣教眞人, list of Celestial Masters Way of the Five Pecks of Rice Way of the Celestial Masters
36.
Zhang Jue
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Zhang Jue was the leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion during the late Eastern Han dynasty. He was said to be a follower of Taoism and a sorcerer and his name is sometimes read as Zhang Jiao, since the Chinese character of Zhangs given name can be read as either Jiao or Jue. Jue is the reading, while Jiao is the modern one. Giving himself the title of Great Teacher, Zhang Jue led the Yellow Turban Rebellion with his younger brothers Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang in a campaign called The Way of Heaven or The Way of Peace. He and his brothers had their own power, Zhang Bao was the General of Land, Zhang Liang was the General of the People, and Zhang Jue was the General of Heaven. The Yellow Turbans conquered much in the years of the rebellion. Zhang Jue is also featured in Luo Guanzhongs historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and he is introduced in chapter 1 as follows, At that time, there lived three brothers in Julu Commandery, Zhang Jue, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang. Zhang Jiao was a failure in the county level examination and he had gone into the mountains to gather some medicinal herbs, when he came across an old man, the old man had a youthful countenance, and was carrying a fat-hen walking stick. The old man beckoned Jue into a cave, presented him with a book in three volumes which had come from the heavens, then said, This book is called The Essential Art of Great Peace. Once you have mastered its contents, you will represent the heavens in spreading this knowledge, if you start to have second thoughts, there will be terrible consequences for you. Jue enquired as to the old mans name, the old man said, I am the old immortal spirit from the southern lands. With that, the old man vanished into thin air, upon receiving this book, Jue practiced night and day. Eventually, he could summon the wind and rain, and came to be known as the Great Peace Taoist and he then goes on to found the rebellion known as the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Little time is devoted to Zhang Jue in the book, and his death is given a line in the second chapter and he is referred to as Zhang Jiao in these games. He is also seen as one of the antagonists of the light gun shooting game SEGA Golden Gun, list of people of the Three Kingdoms Chen Shou
37.
Ge Hong
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Ge Hong — courtesy name Zhichuan — was a minor southern official during the Jìn Dynasty of China, best known for his interest in Daoism, alchemy, and techniques of longevity. Yet religious and esoteric writing represents only a portion of Ges considerable literary output, although a prolific writer of many literary styles, most of Ges early work, such as rhapsodies, verse, historical commentary, and biographies, are now lost. Modern scholars have recognized his influence on writers, such as the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai. Nevertheless, Ge’s work was never enshrined in famous collections of essays and poetry, such as the Wenxuan as was Ji Kang’s essay, Yang sheng, whose style Ge freely imitated. Reflecting the complex landscape of the Jin period, Ge is essential reading for an understanding of early medieval Chinese religion, culture. Recent scholarly and popular translations of Ge’s writing into English have ensured his inclusion in the tide of enthusiasm for esoteric. Biographical sources for Ge are varied, but almost all of them are based either in whole or in part upon his autobiographical Postface to the Outer Chapters and it is nearly impossible to judge the veracity of Ge’s account of his early family history as found in the postface. Following literary convention, he claims that his ancestors were of a ruling house that adopted the name of their dynasty as a family name. The sons of ancestor, Pu Lu and Wen, fought together to assist Emperor Guangwu of Han in restoring the Han dynasty. Due to his status in the government army, Pu Lu received rich rewards and a lofty official appointment while Wen. According to Ge, his grandfather, Ge Xi, was a scholar who governed several counties in modern Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. He eventually rose to the rank of Junior Mentor to the prince of Wu. Ge describes his father, Ge Ti, in similar, laudatory terms as a gentleman of model conduct. Ge Ti served in civil and military positions, and was eventually appointed Governor of Kuaiji prefecture. Around the time of appointment, the Jin dynasty, which had already succeeded in unifying northern China around 265, invaded Wu under the command of the famous literatus and Jin general. Du Yu would return to the north and write a commentary to the Zuo zhuan after the conquest of Wu in 280. The Jin victory changed the fortunes of Ge’s family, because the Jin administration attempted to check the power of the southern gentry by giving them positions of little authority, Ge Ti initially lost prestige and power under Jin rule. He was appointed to posts at the Jin capital of Luoyang
38.
Chen Tuan
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Chen Tuan 陳摶 was a legendary Taoist sage credited with creation of the kung fu system Liuhebafa. The character Tuan is sometimes confused with the very similar-looking character Bo, in Chinese, he is often respectfully referred to as Aged Ancestor Chen Tuan and Ancestral Teacher Xiyi. Chen Tuan, styled Tunan, titled himself Fuyao Zi Known as the Sleeping Immortal, little is certain about his life, including when and where he was born. He was born around the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, by another account, he was born in Zhenyuan of Haozhou. Chen is said to have been astonishingly intelligent and erudite in his childhood, according to certain Taoist schools who claim him as a founder, he lived two decades of a secluded life in the Nine Room Cave on Mount Wudang, though traveled frequently. On the 1st year of Xiande Period of Later Zhou Dynasty he is known to live on the Mount Hua, the story goes that Chen Tuan had planned a career at the Imperial court, but flunked the state examination and became a hermit sage instead. Thus, as a student he was conversant with the Confucian classics, history, among the Confucian classics, he was particularly fond of the Yi jing, which he was unable to put down. Apart from the classics, he was said to be conversant with medical principles, astronomy and geography, Chen Tuan had a good command of primordial Yi learning, taught the River Chart and Luo River Book as well as the Infinite and Taiji Charts. As an important teacher of Taoist doctrines who pioneered the Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming Dynasties, having rejected the emperor’s orders and edicts, he was still conferred the title of “Master Xi Yi by the Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty. I am about to leave, nowadays I’m transformed in the Zhang Chao Valley at the foot of Lotus Peak on the 27th day of the month of the lunar calendar”. By the time he died when he cupped his cheek in his hand his facial features remained unchanged, many tales of Chen Tuan have been circulated around and it is said that He wanders around and shows no concern for worldly benefits. However, despite many mystical and mysterious stories, Chen was known to care about and was compassionate to ordinary people, for this he is deeply respected by the common folk. This Taoist sage was considered the embodiment of the Supreme Lord Lao and received the nickname of “Aged Ancestor”, a symbol of Taoism in Huashan. According to the biography of General Yue Fei, it was the immortal Chen Tuan who, disguised as a wandering Taoist. General Yue Fei ISBN 962-04-1279-6 Chan Yik Yan Wu Yi Hui Toqtoa, history of Liuhebafa and Chen Xiyi www. liuhopafa. com Taoist Culture & Information Center Plexus-Plus, Myth becomes Historical Artifact
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