Hongfo Pagoda
The Hongfo Pagoda (), meaning 'Grand Buddha Pagoda', is an octagonal brick Chinese pagoda, pagoda located in Helan County, just north of Yinchuan city, in Ningxia, China. The pagoda was built during the Western Xia (1038–1227), and when it was renovated in 1990 a number of Western Xia statues and printed texts were discovered. History The pagoda is located in the countryside east of Hongxing Village (红星村), Jingui Township (金贵镇), about from Helan city. Based on the discovery of Western Xia period artefacts and texts during renovation in 1990, it has been determined that the pagoda must date to the Western Xia (1038–1227). Radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology dating have given dates of 1140±100 years before present, BP () and 1080±105 years BP (dendrochronology) for the wooden central pillar, and dates of 1050±90 years BP () and 995±95 years BP (dendrochronology) for wooden beams. These dates would suggest that the pagoda was first constructed before the We ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arhat
In Buddhism, an ''Arhat'' () or ''Arahant'' (, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana (Buddhism), Nirvana'' and has been liberated from the Rebirth (Buddhism), endless cycle of rebirth. The understanding of the concept has changed over the centuries, and varies between different schools of Buddhism and different regions. A range of views on the attainment of arhats existed in the early Buddhist schools. The Sarvastivada, Sarvāstivāda, Kāśyapīya, Mahāsāṃghika, Ekavyāvahārika, Lokottaravāda, Bahuśrutīya, Prajñaptivāda, and Caitika schools all regarded arhats as imperfect in their attainments compared to buddhahood, buddhas.Sree Padma. Barber, Anthony W. ''Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra''. 2008. p. 44Warder, A.K. ''Indian Buddhism''. 2000. p. 277 Mahayana Buddhist teachings urge followers to take up the path of a bodhisattva, and to not fall back to the level of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chengtian Temple Pagoda
The Pagoda of Chengtian Temple (), meaning 'Bearing Heaven Pagoda', is an eleven-storeyed brick pagoda located on the site of a previous Buddhist temple in Yinchuan city, Ningxia, China. The pagoda was originally built during the Western Xia, but the current structure dates to the Qing dynasty. At in height it is the tallest pagoda in Ningxia. In contrast to the Haibao Pagoda in Yinchuan, which is known as the Northern Pagoda, Chengtian Temple Pagoda is also informally referred to as the Western Pagoda (). History The first pagoda was built during the infancy of Emperor Yizong of Western Xia (r. 1048–1068). The text of a commemorative stele marking its construction has been preserved, from which it is known that the Empress Dowager ordered the construction of a pagoda to protect the reign of her infant son, and as a reliquary for housing pieces of head bone of the Buddha.Commemorative stele at Chengtian Temple Pagoda, Yinchuan, dated August 1990. The construction of the pagoda ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Major National Historical And Cultural Sites In Ningxia ...
This list is of Major Sites Protected for their Historical and Cultural Value at the National Level in the autonomous region of Ningxia, People's Republic of China. See also * Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China References {{National Heritage Sites in China, state=expanded Ningxia Ningxia, officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in Northwestern China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1954 but was later separated from Gansu in 1958 and reconstituted as an autonomous ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Xuanwu (god)
Xuanwu () or Xuandi (), also known as Zhenwu (, ) or Zhenwu Dadi (, ), is a revered deity in Chinese religion, one of the higher-ranking deities in Taoism. He is revered as a powerful god, able to control the elements and capable of great magic. He is identified as the god of the north ''Heidi'' (, ) and is particularly revered by martial artists. He is the patron god of Hebei, Henan, Manchuria and Mongolia. As some Han Chinese (now the modern-day Cantonese and Fujianese peoples) migrated into the south from Hebei and Henan during the Tang-Song era, Xuanwu is also widely revered in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian provinces, as well as among the overseas diaspora. Since the usurping Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty claimed to receive the divine assistance of Xuanwu during his successful Jingnan Campaign against his nephew, he had a number of Taoist monasteries constructed in the Wudang Mountains of Hubei, where Xuanwu allegedly attained immortality. According to Taoist b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Northern Song
The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song frequently came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China following attacks by the Jin dynasty, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The dynasty's history is divided into two periods: during the Northern Song (; 960–1127), the capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng) and the dynasty controlled most of what is now East China. The Southern Song (; 1127–1279) comprise the period following the loss of control over the northern half of Song territory to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song wars. At that time, the Song court retreated sou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rammed Earth
Rammed earth is a technique for construction, constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as soil, earth, chalk, Lime (material), lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainability, sustainable building material, building method. Under its French name of pisé it is also a material for sculptures, usually small and made in Molding (process), molds. It has been especially used in Central Asia and Tibetan art, and sometimes in China. Edifices formed of rammed earth are found on every continent except Antarctica, in a range of environments including temperate, wet, semiarid desert, montane, and tropical regions. The availability of suitable soil and a architecture, building design appropriate for local climate, climatic conditions are two factors that make its use favourable. The French term "pisé de terre" or "terre pisé" was sometimes used in English for architectural uses, especially in the 19 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nagarjuna
Nāgārjuna (Sanskrit: नागार्जुन, ''Nāgārjuna''; ) was an Indian monk and Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhist Philosophy, philosopher of the Madhyamaka (Centrism, Middle Way) school. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way'', Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nāgārjuna is widely considered to be the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy and a defender of the Mahāyāna movement. His ''Mūlamadhyamakakārikā'' (''Root Verses on Madhyamaka'', MMK) is the most important text on the Madhyamaka philosophy of Śūnyatā, emptiness. The MMK inspired a large number of commentaries in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean and Japanese and continues to be studied today. History Background India in the first and second centuries CE was politically divided into various states, including the Kushan Empire and the Satavahana dynasty, Satavahana Kingdom. At ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carbonization
Carbonization or carbonisation is the conversion of organic matters like plants and dead animal remains into carbon through destructive distillation. Complexity in carbonization Carbonization is a pyrolytic reaction, therefore, is considered a complex process in which many reactions take place concurrently such as dehydrogenation, Condensation reaction, condensation, Transfer hydrogenation, hydrogen transfer and isomerization. Carbonization differs from Coal#Geology, coalification in that it occurs much faster, due to its reaction rate being faster by many orders of magnitude. For the final pyrolysis temperature, the amount of heat applied controls the degree of carbonization and the residual content of foreign elements. For example, at T ~ the carbon content of the residue exceeds a mass fraction of 90 wt.%, whereas at T ~ more than 99 wt.% carbon is found. Carbonization is often exothermic, which means that it could in principle be made self-sustaining and be used as a sou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pearl In The Palm
The ''Pearl in the Palm'' or the ''Timely Pearl'' ( Tangut: ; ) is a bilingual glossary between the Chinese and Tangut languages. It survives as a single complete copy of a 12th-century woodblock printed book that was discovered in the Tangut city of Kharakhoto. In addition, a single page from a different copy of the same edition of the ''Pearl in the Palm'' was found at the Northern Mogao Caves in 1989. The book transcribes the pronunciation of Chinese words into Tangut characters, and the pronunciation of Tangut characters into Chinese characters, and so is a very important source for Tangut historical phonology, and was the primary source before the publication of monolingual Tangut dictionaries. Discovery In 1909, the Russian explorer Pyotr Kozlov unearthed a number of texts and artefacts in Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia, including the ''Pearl in the Palm'' and transported them back to St. Petersburg, Russia. There, Aleksei Ivanovich Ivanov, professor at Saint Peters ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tangut Script
The Tangut script ( Tangut: ; ) is a logographic writing system, formerly used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants. The Tangut characters are similar in appearance to Chinese characters, with the same type of strokes, but the methods of forming characters in the Tangut writing system are significantly different from those of forming Chinese characters. As in Chinese calligraphy, regular, running, cursive and seal scripts were used in Tangut writing. History According to the '' History of Song'' (1346), the script was designed by the high-ranking official Yeli Renrong in 1036. The script was invented in a short period of time, and was put into use quickly. Government schools were founded to teach the script. Official documents were written in the script (with diplomatic ones written bilingually). A great number of Buddhist scriptures were translated from Tibetan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |