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Demi-Gods And Semi-Devils
''Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). It was first serialised concurrently from 3 September 1963 to 27 May 1966 in the newspapers ''Ming Pao'' in Hong Kong and '' Nanyang Siang Pau'' in Singapore. It has been adapted into films and television series in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China numerous times since the 1970s. Set in 11th-century China, the plot is made up of separate yet intertwining storylines revolving around three protagonists – Qiao Feng, Duan Yu and Xuzhu – and other characters from various empires (Song, Liao, Dali, Western Xia and Tibet) and martial arts sects. The novel examines the cause and effect that form and break the inherent bonds underlying each major character's struggles on five uniquely corresponding levels: self, family, society, ethnic group, and country (dominion). The novel's Chinese title is a reference to the eight races of demi-gods and semi-devils described in Buddhist cosmology as the major charac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jin Yong
Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), was a Hong Kong wuxia novelist and co-founder of '' Ming Pao.'' Cha authored 15 novels between 1955 and 1972 and became one of the most popular Chinese writers of all time, with over 100 million copies sold globally—excluding widespread pirated editions. Cha’s novels, which have been adapted into numerous TV dramas, films, and video games, are esteemed for their literary quality and universal appeal, resonating with both scholarly and popular audiences. Early life Born on 10 March 1924, in Haining, Zhejiang in Republican China, Cha was named Zha Liangyong (Cha Liang-yung) and is the second of seven children. He hailed from the scholarly Zha clan of Haining (), whose members included notable literati of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties such as Zha Jizuo (1601–1676), Zha Shenxing (1650–1727) and Zha Siting (; died 1727). His grandfather, Zha Wenqing (), o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Causality
Causality is an influence by which one Event (philosophy), event, process, state, or Object (philosophy), object (''a'' ''cause'') contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an ''effect'') where the cause is at least partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is at least partly dependent on the cause. The cause of something may also be described as the reason for the event or process. In general, a process can have multiple causes,Compare: which are also said to be ''causal factors'' for it, and all lie in its past. An effect can in turn be a cause of, or causal factor for, many other effects, which all lie in its future. Some writers have held that causality is metaphysics , metaphysically prior to notions of time and space. Causality is an abstraction that indicates how the world progresses. As such it is a basic concept; it is more apt to be an explanation of other concepts of progression than something to be explained by other more fun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yanmen Pass
Yanmen Pass, also known by its Chinese name Yanmenguan and as Xixingguan, is a mountain pass which includes three fortified gatehouses along the Great Wall of China. The area was a strategic choke point in ancient and medieval China, controlling access between the valleys of central Shanxi and the Eurasian Steppe. This made it the scene of various important battles, extending into World War II, and the area around the gatehouses and this stretch of the Great Wall is now a AAAAA-rated tourist attraction. The scenic area is located just outside YanmenguanVillage in Yanmenguan Township in Dai County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province, China. Name Yanmen Pass, sometimes translated in English to Wild Goose Pass or Wildgoose Gate, is named after the wild geese who migrate through the area. ''Yànménguān'' is the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese placename written as or in traditional characters and as in the simplified characters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaolin Monastery
Shaolin Monastery ( zh, labels=no, c=少林寺, p=shàolínsì), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin kung fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the Songshan mountain range in Dengfeng county, Zhengzhou prefecture, in Henan province, China. The name reflects its location in the ancient grove () of Mount Shaoshi, in the hinterland of the Songshan mountains. Mount Song occupied a prominent position among Chinese sacred mountains as early as the 1st century BC, when it was proclaimed one of the Five Holy Peaks (). It is located some southeast of Luoyang, the former capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), and southwest of Zhengzhou, the modern capital of Henan Province. As the first Shaolin abbot, Butuo Buddhabhadra devoted himself to translating Buddhist scriptures and preaching doctrines to hundreds of his followers. According to legend, Bodhidharma, the 28th patria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Daozong Of Liao
Emperor Daozong of Liao (14 September 1032 – 12 February 1101), personal name Chala, sinicised name Yelü Hongji, was the eighth emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ... of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty of China. Life Emperor Daozong succeeded his father, Emperor Xingzong, in 1055. He was notable for reviving the official dynastic name "Great Liao" in 1066, a designation first given the empire by the Emperor Taizong in 947. Other noteworthy achievements made during his reign include the completion of a Liao edition of the Buddhist '' Tripitaka'' and the construction of the Sakyamuni Pagoda in 1056. Emperor Daozong faced a number of assassination attempts throughout his life. In 1063, a group of Khitans, angry that their system of tribal justice had been p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jurchen People
Jurchen (, ; , ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian people, East Asian Tungusic languages, Tungusic-speaking people. They lived in northeastern China, also known as Manchuria, before the 18th century. The Jurchens were renamed Manchu people, Manchus in 1635 by Hong Taiji. Different Jurchen groups lived as hunter-gatherers, pastoralist semi-nomads, or sedentary agriculturists. Generally lacking a central authority, and having little communication with each other, many Jurchen groups fell under the influence of neighbouring dynasties, their chiefs paying tribute and holding nominal posts as effectively hereditary commanders of border guards. Han Chinese, Han officials of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) classified them into three groups, reflecting relative proximity to the Ming: #Jianzhou Jurchens, Jianzhou (Chinese: 建州) Jurchens, some of whom were mixed with Chinese populations, lived in the proximity of the Mudan River, Mudan river, the Changbai Mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northeast China
Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The region is separated from the Russian Far East to the north and east by the Amur, Argun and Ussuri Rivers; from North Korea to the south by the Yalu and Tumen Rivers; and from the neighboring North China to the west by the Greater Khingan Range and Yan Mountains. It is also bounded by the Bohai Bay and Yellow Sea to the southwest, about away from East China's Jiaodong Peninsula across the Bohai Strait, due to be connected via a proposed undersea tunnel. The four prefectures of Inner Mongolia (which is part of North China) east of the Greater Khingan, i.e. Chifeng, Tongliao, Hinggan and Hulunbuir, are sometimes also considered broader parts of Northeast China, and together with the aforementioned three provinces formed what was h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's largest ethnic group, making up about 17.5% of the world population. The Han Chinese represent 91.11% of the population in China and 97% of the population in Taiwan. Han Chinese are also a significant Overseas Chinese, diasporic group in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In Singapore, people of Han Chinese or Chinese descent make up around 75% of the country's population. The Han Chinese have exerted a primary formative influence in the development and growth of Chinese civilization. Originating from Zhongyuan, the Han Chinese trace their ancestry to the Huaxia people, a confederation of agricultural tribes that lived along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the north central plains of Chin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jianghu
''Jianghu'' () is a Chinese term that generally refers to the social environment in which many Chinese ''wuxia'', '' xianxia'', and ''gong'an'' stories are set. The term is used flexibly, and can be used to describe a fictionalized version of rural historical China (usually using loose influences from across the ~1000 BC–280 AD period); a setting of feuding martial arts clans and the people of that community; a secret and possibly criminal underworld; a general sense of the "mythic world" where fantastical stories happen; or some combination thereof. A closely related term, ''wulin'' (武林; wǔlín; 'martial forest'), refers exclusively to the community of martial artists that inhabit a ''jianghu'' setting. The term ''wulin'' has been borrowed into Korean as ''murim'' (무림) to refer to fiction set in Chinese-inspired martial arts worlds. Etymology The original meaning of ''jianghu'' comes from "river" () and "lake" (), which might have originally referred to the Ya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khitan People
The Khitan people (Khitan small script: ; ) were a historical Eurasian nomads, nomadic people from Northeast Asia who, from the 4th century, inhabited an area corresponding to parts of modern Mongolia, Northeast China and the Russian Far East. As a people descended from the proto-Mongols through the Xianbei, Khitans spoke the now-extinct Khitan language, a Para-Mongolic languages, Para-Mongolic language related to the Mongolic languages. The Khitan people founded and led the Liao dynasty (916–1125), which dominated a vast area of Siberia, Mongolia and Northern China. The Khitans of the Liao dynasty used two independent writing systems for their language: Khitan small script and Khitan large script. After the fall of the Liao dynasty in 1125 following the Jin dynasty (1115–1234)#Rise of the Jin and fall of the Liao, Jurchen invasion, many Khitans followed Yelü Dashi's group westward to establish the Qara Khitai or Western Liao dynasty, in Central Asia, which lasted nearly a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beggars' Sect
The Beggar Clan is a fictional martial arts organisation featured prominently in works of ''wuxia'' fiction by writers such as Jin Yong, Gu Long and Wolong Sheng. The clan has also found its way into martial arts films such as ''King of Beggars'' and video games such as ''Age of Wushu''. The clan's members are mostly beggars as its name suggests, but some of them are from other walks of life. They are noticeable in public for their dress code and behaviour. The members adhere to a strict code of conduct and maintain the utmost respect for rank and hierarchy. They uphold justice and help those in need through acts of chivalry. The Beggar Clan is also one of the supporting pillars in the defence of Han Chinese society from foreign invaders. Cha, Louis. ''The Return of the Condor Heroes'' (神雕俠侶). ''Ming Pao'', 1959. The clan has a wide network of communications and the members are reputed for their excellent information gathering skills. This is due to the clan's large size ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duan Zhengchun
Duan Zhengchun, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Zhongzong of Dali, was the 15thIf Gao Shengtai's reign is taken into consideration, Duan Zhengchun would have been the 16th emperor. Se emperor of the Dali Kingdom. He reigned from 1096 to 1108. He was the younger brother of Duan Zhengming, and the first ruler of the Later Dali Kingdom. In 1094, Duan Zhengming was forced by Gao Shengtai to abdicate and become a monk. Gao then crowned himself emperor. However, after two years of reign, Gao Shengtai died in 1096 and made a will to return the throne to the Duan family. Duan Zhengchun ascended to the throne in 1096. Duan Zhengchun abdicated and became a monk in 1108. He was succeeded by his son Duan Yu Duan Yu (1083–1176), courtesy name Heyu, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xianzong of Dali, was the 16thIf Gao Shengtai's reign is taken into consideration, Duan Yu would have been the 17th emperor. Se Emperor of China, emperor of .... In fiction Dua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
