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The ancient Chinese incorporated their observations and awareness of nature into the shapes of Chinese characters. Learn Chinese: 月(yue: “the moon”) The shape of this character is just like the meniscus. There is an ancient Chinese story named “Chang’e Flies to the Moon”. Chang’e is the wife of Houyi. She consumed the medicine of immortality […]

The ancient Chinese incorporated their observations and awareness of nature into the shapes of Chinese characters. Learn Chinese: 星 (xing, “the star”) The ancient Chinese people referred to all celestial bodies other than the sun and the moon as “星”. It refers to those bright and shiny celestial bodies that appear in the night sky. […]

The ancient Chinese incorporated their observations and awareness of nature into the shapes of Chinese characters. Learn Chinese: 雨(yu, rain) The character for “雨” offers a clear depiction of rainfall. The horizontal line on top represents the sky, and the outer structure looks like a house which represents a layer of clouds covering the world, […]

 The word “liaozhai” first came from the book “liaozhai zhiyi” (1766; “Strange Stories from Liaozhai Studio”: “liaozhai” is the name of a place), which is a book of Pu Songling(1640-1715)—a famous Chinese fiction writer. It is 431 tales of the unusual and supernatural stories, freely adopting forms and themes from the old marvel tales. Some […]

Study Chinese: 木(mu, wood/tree)，林(lin, many trees)，森(sen, forest) The Chinese character of the oracle bone scrip for “木” resembles a tree with roots and branches. In the old days, the character “木” meant “tree”. It is used as a component in many Chinese characters which denote the names of trees or have meanings related to “wood” […]

Study Chinese: 竹 (zhu, bamboo) As you can see, the Chinese character “竹” looks just like a bamboo stem and leaves. The Chinese people are very fond of bamboo. This is because they believe that bamboo is incredibly strong and capable of resisting strong winds and cold temperatures. As a result, bamboo is known as […]

瓜 (gua, “melon”) The ancient Chinese character for “瓜” looks like a growing melon. There are many different kinds of melons in China. In Chinese, watermelons are known as “西瓜” (xi gua: literally means “western melons”), since they grew in China’s ancient Western Regions. Pumpkins, in Chinese is “南瓜” (nan guang: literally means “south melon”). […]

In China, when people write or speak, they frequently make use of such idioms such as “the cold falls on the third nine-day period in winter” or “the coldest days of the year in the nine-day periods”. In China, the winter is measured in nine-day periods because the winter is divided into nine-times-nine. After struggling […]

There were customs of “counting the nine-day periods” and “drawing the nine-day periods” among the ancient people. That is, people noted down the passage of the nine-day periods and the relevant weather changes with interesting pictures and poems. Sometimes, a painting of a plum tree with 81 blossoms was hung on the wall, and in […]

The custom of “Writing the Nine-Day Periods” appeared in the early reign of Emperor Daoguan in the early 19th century. He drew a picture of the nine-day periods by himself with a line on it, “The willow in the front yard respectfully waits for he spring breeze to return.” The line comprised nine contoured Chinese […]