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Xi Zhong
Xi Zhong (Chinese language, Chinese: ) was a legendary Xia dynasty minister claimed to have served Yu the Great credited in traditional Chinese sources with the invention of the Chinese chariot, chariot during the 2nd millennium BC. Modern archaeological evidence has not found support for that, however, and suggests instead a date closer to 1200 BC for the introduction of small-scale use of chariots.Ebrey, Patricia. ''East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History'', p. 14. Houghton Mifflin Co (Boston), 2006. . See also * Chinese chariot * Cangjie References Xia dynasty Chinese inventors {{China-hist-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the world's population) speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be variants of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered separate languages in a family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin (with about 800 million speakers, or 66%), followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min), Wu (74 million, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xia Dynasty
The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In traditional historiography, the Xia was later succeeded by the Shang dynasty. There are no contemporaneous records of the Xia, who are not mentioned in the oldest Chinese texts, since the earliest oracle bone inscriptions date from the late Shang period (13th century BC). The earliest mentions occur in the oldest chapters of the '' Book of Documents'', which report speeches from the early Western Zhou period and are accepted by most scholars as dating from that time. The speeches justify the Zhou conquest of the Shang as the passing of the Mandate of Heaven and liken it to the succession of the Xia by the Shang. That political philosophy was promoted by the Confucian school in the Eastern Zhou period. The succession of dynasties was incorpor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yu The Great
Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominently in the Chinese legend of "Great Yu Who Controlled the Waters" (). The dates which have been proposed for Yu's reign predate the oldest-known written records in China, the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty, by nearly a millennium. Yu's name was not inscribed on any artifacts which were produced during the proposed era in which he lived, nor was it inscribed on the later oracle bones; his name was first inscribed on vessels which date back to the Western Zhou period (c. 1045–771 BC). The lack of substantial contemporary documentary evidence has caused some controversy over Yu's historicity. Thus, proponents of his existence theorize that stories about his life and reign were orally transmitted in various areas of China until ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Chariot
The ancient Chinese chariot () was used as an attack and pursuit vehicle on the open fields and plains of ancient China from around 1200 BCE. Chariots also allowed military commanders a mobile platform from which to control troops while providing archers and soldiers armed with dagger-axes increased mobility. They reached a peak of importance during the Spring and Autumn period, but were largely superseded by cavalry during the Han Dynasty. History Traditional sources attribute the invention of the chariot to the Xia dynasty minister Xi Zhong, and say they were used at the Battle of Gan (甘之戰) in the 21st century BCE. However archeological evidence shows that small scale use of the chariot began around 1200 BCE in the late Shang dynasty.Contemporary oracle bone inscriptions of the character depict a chariot-like two wheeled vehicle with a single pole for the attachment of horses. Chariots reached their apogee and remained a powerful weapon until the end of the Warri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xu Shen
Xu Shen ( CE) was a Chinese calligrapher, philologist, politician, and writer of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-189). He was born in the Zhaoling district of Run'an prefecture (today known as Luohe in Henan Province). During his own lifetime, Xu was recognized as a preeminent scholar of the Five Classics. He was the author of '' Shuowen Jiezi'',''Daijisen'' entry "Xu Shen" (''Kyo Shin'' in Japanese). Shogakukan.'' Kanjigen'' entry "Xu Shen" (''Kyo Shin'' in Japanese). Gakken, 2006. which was the first comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters, as well as the first to organize entries by radical. This work continues to provide scholars with information on the development and historical usage of Chinese characters. Xu Shen completed his first draft in 100 CE but, waited until 121 CE before having his son present the work to the Emperor An of Han. Life Xu was a student of the scholar-official Jia Kui (30-101). Under Jia, he established himself as a master in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuowen Jiezi
''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the ''Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give the rationale behind them, as well as the first to use the principle of organization by sections with shared components called radicals (''bùshǒu'' 部首, lit. "section headers"). Circumstances of compilation Xu Shen, a Han Dynasty scholar of the Five Classics, compiled the ''Shuowen Jiezi''. He finished editing it in 100 CE, but due to an unfavorable imperial attitude towards scholarship, he waited until 121 CE before having his son Xǔ Chōng present it to Emperor An of Han along with a memorial. In analyzing the structure of characters and defining the words represented by them, Xu Shen strove to disambiguate the meaning of the pre-Han Classics, so as to render their usage by government unquestioned and bring about order, and in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shiben
The ''Shiben'' or ''Book of Origins'' (Pinyin: ''shìběn''; Chinese; 世本; ) was an early Chinese encyclopedia which recorded imperial genealogies from the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors down to the late Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BCE), explanations of the origin of clan names, and records of legendary and historical Chinese inventors. It was written during the 2nd century BC at the time of the Han dynasty. Title The title combines the common Chinese words ''shì'' 世 "generation; epoch; hereditary; world" and ''běn'' 本 "root; stem; origin; fundament; wooden tablet". The personal name of Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 627–650) was ''Shimin'' 世民, and owing to the strict naming taboo against writing an emperor's name, the ''Shiben'' 世本 title was changed to ''Xiben'' 系本 or ''Daiben'' 代本 (with the ''shi'' near-synonyms of ''xi'' 系 "system; series; family" and ''dai'' 代 "substitute; generation; dynasty"). Although this Chinese titl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yupian
The ''Yupian'' (; "Jade Chapters") is a c. 543 Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang ( 顧野王; Ku Yeh-wang; 519–581) during the Liang dynasty. It arranges 12,158 character entries under 542 radicals, which differ somewhat from the original 540 in the '' Shuowen Jiezi''. Each character entry gives a fanqie pronunciation gloss and a definition, with occasional annotation. The ''Yupian'' is a significant work in the history of Written Chinese. It is the first major extant dictionary in the four centuries since the completion of ''Shuowen'' and records thousands of new characters that had been introduced into the language in the interim. It is also important for documenting nonstandard ''súzì'' ( 俗字, "popular written forms of characters"), many of which were adopted in the 20th century as official simplified Chinese characters. For instance, the ''Yupian'' records that ''wàn'' (traditional 萬, "ten thousand, myriad") had a popular form of (simplified 万), which is m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cangjie
Cangjie () is a legendary ancient Chinese figure said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet. He is considered a legendary rather than historical figure, or at least not considered to be sole inventor of Chinese characters. Cangjie was the eponym for the (c. 220 BCE) '' Cangjiepian'' proto-dictionary, the Cangjie method of inputting characters into a computer, and a Martian rock visited by the Mars rover '' Spirit'', and named by the rover team. Legend of character creation There are several versions of the legend. One tells that shortly after unifying China, the Yellow Emperor, being dissatisfied with the "rope knot tying" method of recording information, charged Cangjie with the task of creating characters for writing. Cangjie then settled down on the bank of a river, and devoted him ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
