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Jī Shēn
''Jī'' () was the ancestral name of the Zhou dynasty which ruled China between the 11th and 3rd centuries BC. Thirty-nine members of the family ruled China during this period while many others ruled as local lords, lords who eventually gained great autonomy during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Ji is a relatively uncommon surname in modern China, largely because its bearers often adopted the names of their states and fiefs as new surnames. The character is composed of the radicals (Old Chinese: ''nra'', "woman") and (OC: ''ɢ(r)ə'', "chin").Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. ''  '', pp. 61, 106, & 175. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011. It is most likely a phono-semantic compound, with ''nra'' common in the earliest Zhou-era family names and ''ɢ(r)ə'' marking a rhyme of (OC: ''K(r)ə''). The legendary and historical record shows the Zhou Ji clan closely entwined with the Jiang (), who seem to have provided many of the Ji lords' high-ranking spouse ...
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Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BC, in the Late Shang period. Chinese bronze inscriptions, Bronze inscriptions became plentiful during the following Zhou dynasty. The latter part of the Zhou period saw a flowering of literature, including Four Books and Five Classics, classical works such as the ''Analects'', the ''Mencius (book), Mencius'', and the ''Zuo Zhuan''. These works served as models for Literary Chinese (or Classical Chinese), which remained the written standard until the early twentieth century, thus preserving the vocabulary and grammar of late Old Chinese. Old Chinese was written with several early forms of Chinese characters, including Oracle bone script, oracle bone, Chinese bronze inscriptions, bronze, and seal scripts. Throughout t ...
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Houji
Hou Ji (or Houji; ) was a legendary Chinese culture hero credited with introducing millet to humanity during the time of the Xia dynasty.. Millet was the original staple grain of northern China, prior to the introduction of wheat. His name translates as Lord of Millet and was a title granted to him by Emperor Shun, according to Records of the Grand Historian. Houji was credited with developing the philosophy of Agriculturalism and with service during the Great Flood in the reign of Yao; he was also claimed as an ancestor of the Ji clan that became the ruling family of the Zhou dynasty or a founder of the Zhou. After the Zhou dynasty, ancient Chinese historians, folklorists, and religious practitioners had a variety of opinions on Hou Ji, including the opinion that he became deified as the god Shennong after his death. History Hou Ji's original name was Qi (), meaning "abandoned". Two separate versions of his origin were common. In one version of Chinese mythology, he was s ...
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Western Guo
Western Guo () was a vassal state in China during the Zhou dynasty. "Guo" was a kinship group that held at least five pieces of territory within the Zhou realm at various times. After King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang dynasty in 1046 BCE, his uncle Guo Shu received grants of land at Yong. The rulers of Western Guo held administrative positions in the court of the Zhou Kings through successive generations. A branch of Western Guo later founded Eastern Guo. Due to harassment and invasion by the Quanrong tribes, Western Guo moved eastwards, eventually migrating to today Sanmenxia in the Yellow River valley between Xi'an and Luoyang. A new capital was built at Shangyang (上阳) straddling both banks of the Yellow River. The Shangyang Guo was called "Southern Guo" (南虢) and Xiayang (下阳) "Northern Guo" (北虢). Later chronicles often became confused with the relationships among the various Guo's, but archaeological discoveries support the view that Northern and Souther ...
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Eastern Guo
Eastern Guo () was a Chinese vassal state of the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–770 BCE). According to transmitted ancient texts, after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang dynasty in 1046 BCE, his two uncles received grants of land. One, known as the Western Guo was at Yongdi and the other, Eastern Guo, at Zhidi () (modern day Xingyang, Henan). However, this account has been questioned by modern scholars such as Li Feng, who believe that Eastern Guo was founded later by a subbranch of Western Guo. Eastern Guo barely survived into the Spring and Autumn period (770–475 BCE). It was conquered by the State of Zheng in 767 BCE.Bamboo Annals The ''Bamboo Annals'' ( zh, t=竹書紀年, p=Zhúshū Jìnián), also known as the ''Ji Tomb Annals'' ( zh, t=汲冢紀年, p=Jí Zhǒng Jìnián), is a chronicle of ancient China. It begins in the earliest legendary time (the age of the Yellow E ... References Zheng (state) {{China-hist-stub ...
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Taibo Of Wu
Taibo () (circa 1150 BCE), or Wu Taibo, was the eldest son of King Tai of Zhou and the legendary founder of the State of Wu. His exact birth and death dates are unknown. Biography According to Sima Qian, Taibo was the founder of the State of Wu. Born into the Jī clan () of predynastic Zhou, Taibo was the eldest son of King Tai of Zhou. He had two younger brothers, Zhongyong of Wu, Zhongyong and Ji, King of Zhou, Jili. The King of Zhou wished to make his youngest son Jili to inherit the reins of power, so Taibo and Zhongyong traveled southeast and settled in Meicun#Zhou Dynasty, Meili in present-day Jiangsu province. There, Taibo and his followers set up the State of Wu, and made Meili its capital. Taibo's grand-nephew, King Wu of Zhou, overthrew the Shang dynasty and started the Zhou dynasty. However, the tale of Taibo being the founder of the State of Wu is disputed. During his reign, Taibo developed irrigation, encouraged agriculture, and dug Taibo River (泰伯瀆) which is ...
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State Of Wu
Wu () was a state during the Western Zhou dynasty and the Spring and Autumn period, outside the Zhou cultural sphere. It was also known as Gouwu () or Gongwu () from the pronunciation of the local language. Wu was located at the mouth of the Yangtze River east of the State of Chu and south of the State of Qi. Its first capital was at Meili (梅里, in modern Wuxi), then Helü's City (闔閭, in present-day Xueyan town near Wuxi), and later moved to Gusu (姑蘇, probably in modern Suzhou). History A founding myth of Wu, first recorded by Sima Qian in the Han dynasty, traced its royal lineage to Taibo, a relative of King Wen of Zhou. According to the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', Taibo was the oldest son of Gugong Danfu and the elder uncle of King Wen who started the Zhou dynasty. Gugong Danfu had three sons named Taibo, Zhongyong, and Jili. Taibo was the oldest of three brothers, Jili being the youngest. Realizing that his youngest brother, Jili, was favored by his ...
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Eight Great Surnames Of Chinese Antiquity
The eight great surnames of Chinese antiquity were among the most important Chinese surname Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicization, Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, ...s in Ancient China, Chinese antiquity. They are all Chinese ancestral surnames, and as such, have Chinese clan surnames branching off from them. During the earliest Chinese antiquity, Chinese society focused on women. Family names often passed from women to their children. Because of this phenomenon, these eight surnames have a component of their Chinese characters, hanzi representing the character woman (女). As of 2019, very few people had one of these surnames as a family name. An exception is the surnames Yao (surname), Yao and Jiāng (surname 姜), Jiang. Of these, there are some well-known Chinese of modern times with these names today ...
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Sima Qian
Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China covering more than two thousand years from the rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and formation of the first Chinese polity to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, during which Sima wrote. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the ''Shiji'' served as a model for official histories for subsequent dynasties across the Sinosphere until the 20th century. Sima Qian's father, Sima Tan, first conceived of the ambitious project of writing a complete history of China, but had completed only some preparatory sketches at the time of his death. After inheriting his father's position as court historian in the imperial court, he was determined to fulfill his father's dying wish of composing and putting together th ...
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Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as a deity individually or as part of the Wufang Shangdi, Five Regions Highest Deities () in Chinese folk religion. Regarded as the initiator of Chinese culture, he is traditionally credited with numerous innovations – including the traditional Chinese calendar, Taoism, wooden houses, boats, carts, the compass needle, "the earliest forms of writing", and cuju, ''cuju'', a ball game. Calculated by Jesuits in China, Jesuit missionaries, as based on various Chinese chronicles, Huangdi's traditional reign dates begin in either 2698 or 2697 BC, spanning one hundred years exactly, later accepted by the twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor. Huangdi's cult is first attested in the Warring States peri ...
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Emperor Ku
Kù (, variant graph ), usually referred to as Dì Kù (), also known as Gaoxin or Gāoxīn Shì () or Qūn (), was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. He went by the name Gaoxin until receiving imperial authority, when he took the name Ku and the title Di, thus being known as Di Ku. He is considered the ancestor of the ruling families of certain subsequent dynasties. Some sources treat Ku as a semi-historical figure, while others make fantastic mythological or religious claims about him. Besides varying in their degree of historicizing Ku, the various sources also differ in what specific stories about him they focus on, so that putting together the various elements of what is known regarding Ku results in a multifaceted story. Di Ku was (according to many versions of the list) one of the Five Emperors of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of Chinese mythology. Birth Ku's lineage is derived from descent from the legendary Yellow Emperor, then through the line of Shaohao (a ...
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Records Of The Grand Historian
The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st centuries BC by the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, building upon work begun by his father Sima Tan. The work covers a 2,500-year period from the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in the author's own time, and describes the world as it was known to the Chinese of the Western Han dynasty. The ''Shiji'' has been called a "foundational text in Chinese civilization". After Confucius and Qin Shi Huang, "Sima Qian was one of the creators of Imperial China, not least because by providing definitive biographies, he virtually created the two earlier figures." The ''Shiji'' set the model for all subsequent dynastic histories of China. In contrast to Western historiographical conventions, the ''Shiji'' does no ...
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Shih King, The Book Of Odes/Part III/The Second Decade/Ode 1
Shih is the Wade–Giles equivalent of Shi in Chinese. It may refer to: *Shi (poetry) (詩/诗), a term for Chinese poetry *Shí (surname), the romanization of several Chinese surnames *Shi (class) (士), the low aristocratic class of Shang/Zhou China, later the scholar-gentry class of imperial China *Shi (personator) (尸), a ceremonial "corpse" involved in early forms of ancestor worship in China *Posthumous name (諡), a traditional East Asian honorary name * ''Shih'' (市), various administrative divisions generally translated "city" on Taiwan and in mainland China * ''Shih'' (時), a traditional Chinese unit of time equal to two hours *Shih, transliteration of Chinese Radical 44 * Shih (composer) or Shih Chieh, Taiwanese-Austrian composer See also *Shi (other) Shi or SHI may refer to: Language * ''Shi'', a Japanese title commonly used as a pronoun * ''Shi'', proposed gender-neutral pronoun * Shi (kana), a kana in Japanese syllabaries * Shi language * ''Shī ...
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