China is known as a state of etiquette and ceremonies. Many proverbs have been passed down from generation to generation such as “civility casts nothing” or “courtesy demands reciprocity” and so on. Once upon a time, a man went on a long tour to visit his friend with a swan as a gift. But it […]
“Let loose the noose only to catch later” is a tactic of deliberately leaving someone at large to give a false impression that he is safe, and then making a sudden move to catch him when he is off guard. This is a very tactic that Chinese are familiar with because there are many stories […]
Li Qingzhao (1084-1155), self-titled Yi’an Jushi, is one of the most-talented women in China history in the literature field. Her life was a bittersweet story. She married Zhao Mingcheng and shared with him the love of poetry and antiquities. They had enjoyed a happy family life before the emperors of the Song Dynasty were captured […]
Because of the long history of Chinese characters, the vast territory in which they were used, and the large population of people using them, the numbers of books and records written in Chinese continued to grow. Also, for various reasons related to engraving, typesetting and proofreading, Chinese characters developed into what seemed like a state […]
The Formation of Chinese Characters Chinese characters were created in accordance with a certain model or prescribled patterns. In China’s first dictionary, “shuowen jiezi” (“Explaining and Analyzing Chinese Characters”), there were character-formation methods. Chinese characters can be classified into four main categories: pictographic characters, self-explanatory characters, associative compounds and pictophoentic characters. 1. Pictographic Characters Many […]
Learn Chinese: Some Chinese characters evolved from pictures. Indeed, many people describe writing Chinese characters as similar in feeling to painting. However, Chinese characters are not merely a random aggregation of lines. They must be written one stroke at a time in an orderly manner. One “stroke” refers to the connected segment that is formed […]
The best-known story about the Dragon Boat Festival is related to the commemoration of Qu Yuan (340-278BC). He was born in the State of Chun in the Warring States Period (275-221BC), he became a minister when he was only 20. An aristocrat named Zilan and a treacherous court official named Jin Shang slandered him in […]
There is a type of literati painting from ancient China which is called “Impressionist painting”. This type of painting has two special traits. One tries to capture the “spirit” of the object being painted which is, not necessarily, the physical likeness. The 2nd trait is about the painting’s attempt to capture a sort of “humble […]
Do you want to study Chinese? Today, we will introduce a character: 春(chūn) Usually, the Chinese festival first comes to people’s minds is the Spring Festival. This is the most important festival of the Chinese people. We can find the reason why it is called “the Spring Festival” by looking at the Chinese character “春”(spring). […]
Shanghai shows different sides of herself to different people. It’s just like Shanghainese women: to Westerners they embody the mysterious East, and to Chinese they represent the fashionable West. In sum, the Shanghainese are the best at making people see what they want to see. In the past 100 years, Shanghai has attracted people from […]