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Legend Of The White Snake
The Legend of the White Snake is a Chinese legend centered around a romance between a man named Xu Xian and a female snake spirit named Bai Suzhen. It is counted as one of China's Four Great Folktales, the others being '' Lady Meng Jiang'', '' Butterfly Lovers'', and '' The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl''. Early versions "Li Huang" The Tang-dynasty story collection ''Boyi zhi'' (; "Vast Records of the Strange"), from the early 9th century, contains a '' chuanqi'' tale about a man named Li Huang () meeting an attractive woman clad in white (whose aunt is clothed in blue-green). After mating with the beauty at her residence, he returns home and falls ill, his body dissolving into water. His family searches for the woman and discovers that she is a giant white snake. "The Three Pagodas of West Lake" In the Ming dynasty, some time before 1547, a collection of early '' huaben'' tales was printed by Hong Pian (); in it was "The Three Pagodas of West Lake" (), likely the first work ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden during the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarters of which is water. Longevity Hill is about high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is the site of splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering , was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. The Summer Palace, which is inspired by the gardens of South China, contains over 3,000 Chinese ancient buildings that house a collection of over 40,000 valuable historical relics from various dynasties. In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvard University Asia Center
The Harvard University Asia Center is an interdisciplinary research and education unit of Harvard University, established on July 1, 1997, with the goal of "driving varied programs focusing on international relations in Asia and comparative studies of Asian countries and regions (...) and supplementing other Asia-related programs and institutes and the University and providing a focal point for interaction and exchange on topics of common interest for the Harvard community and Asian intellectual, political, and business circles," according to its charter. The Asia Center facilitates the scholarly study of Asian studies by coordinating activities which are spread across the University's departments and schools, and by integrating many disciplines. Among the areas which are covered are history, culture, economics, politics, diplomacy, security, and its relationships. Thus, the main emphasis of the Asia Center rests on human and social sciences, with the principal involvement of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xiaoqing (character)
Xiaoqing ( zh, c=小青, l=Little Qing; Little Blue or Little Green) or Qingqing ( zh, c=青青, links=no) is a green or blue snake spirit and one of the protagonists of the Legend of the White Snake, one of China's "four great folktales". Legends Xiaoqing is a green snake who transforms into a human being after five hundred years of disciplined training in Taoism. Xiaoqing is the close confidant or sworn sister of the protagonist Bai Suzhen, the white snake. Bai Suzhen often calls her Qingmei (, ) or Qing'er (, ). After Fahai pushed Bai Suzhen down under the Leifeng Pagoda, Xiaoqing was no match for Fahai, and had no choice but to retreat to Mount Emei, go back into the cave and return to practicing Daoist austerities. Twelve years later, she had finally completed the True Fire of Samadhi, and came to find Fahai for revenge. There was nowhere for Fahai to escape being burned by the True Fire of Samadhi, so in a great rush, he hid inside a crab shell. Leifang Pagoda colla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yue Opera
Yue opera (), also known as Shaoxing opera, is a popular Chinese opera genre, with only Peking opera considered to be more popular nationwide. Originating in Shengzhou, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province in 1906, Yue opera features actresses in male roles as well as femininity in terms of singing, performing, and staging. Despite its rural origin, it has found a second home in Shanghai, China's most affluent city, where it managed to out-compete both Peking opera and the native Shanghai opera. As Yue opera is performed in a variant of Wu Chinese, Wu, it is most popular in Wu-speaking areas including southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. In addition, the opera also has a sizeable following in Hong Kong due to Shanghainese migration to the city. Like its performers, Yue opera fans are mainly women, resulting in a disproportionate number of love stories in its repertoire and very little acrobatic fighting. History Pre-history Prior to 1906, the antecedent to Yue opera was story-si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is a university press that is a part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including Lambda Literary Awards, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Joe A. Callaway Award, and the Nautilus Book Award. The press has published works by authors who have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal and the Nobel Prize in Economics. History From 1858 to 1930, the University of Michigan had no organized entity for its scholarly publications, which were generally conference proceedings or department-specific research. The University Press was established in 1930 under the university's Graduate School, and in 1935, Frank E. Robbins, assistant to university president Alexander G. Ruthven, was appointed as the managing editor of the University Press. He would hold this position until 195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanci
Tanci is a narrative form of song in China that alternates between verse and prose.Wang, Lingzhen, p53 The literal name "plucking rhymes" refers to the singing of verse portions to a ''pipa''.Hu, Siao-chen, p539 A ''tanci'' is usually seven words long. On some occasions the length is ten words. Some scholars refer to ''tanci'' as "plucking rhymes," "southern singing narrative," "story-sining," "strum lyrics". The local forms of Tanci encompasses Suzhou Tanci, Yangzhou Tanci, Siming Nanci, Shaoxing Pinghudiao, etc. ''Tanci'' consists of both spoken storytelling and sung ballads. Another distinct narrative style is '' pinghua'', a storytelling art form which is purely spoken. The word '' pingtan'' is used as a collective term to refer to ''tanci'' and ''pinghua''.Webster-Chang, p26 History Historically ''tanci'' was a popular art form with women in the lower Yangtze River Valley, specifically the Jiangnan region. It originated as a popular literary genre in the Ming dynas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuanqi (theatre)
''Chuanqi'' () is a form of Chinese opera popular in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and early Qing dynasty (1644–1912). It emerged in the mid-Ming dynasty from the older form of '' nanxi''. As it spread throughout the empire, it absorbed regional music styles and topolects and eventually evolved into different local genres, among them ''kunqu''. Of the 2000 plus titles recorded in history, over 600 ''chuanqi'' plays are extant and are still performed today, including ''The Peony Pavilion'' by Tang Xianzu, '' The Palace of Eternal Life'' by Hong Sheng, and '' The Peach Blossom Fan'' by Kong Shangren. This tradition of theatre has the same name ''Chuanqi'' (傳奇/传奇) as the tradition of short story and novella, Chuanqi, in Tang dynasty, because at the beginning the plots of the Chuanqi theatre often originated from the Chuanqi stories. Music Whereas its precursor '' nanxi'' predominantly used southern Chinese tunes, which were pentatonic, melismatic, slow and soft, ''chu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quyi
''Quyi'' ("melodious art") and ''shuochang yishu'' ("speaking and singing art") are umbrella terms for over 300 regional genres of traditional Chinese oral performing arts. ''Quyi'' is distinguished from ''xiqu'' (Chinese opera) by its emphasis on narration, as opposed to acting, although they share many elements including the same traditional stories. ''Quyi'' artists generally wear no to little makeup. Musical instruments like drums, wooden clappers, ''pipa'', ''yangqin'', or ''sanxian'' are commonly seen in ''quyi'', as are hand fans. History While the storytelling art concept has been around for centuries, the narrative art concept was mostly recognized in the 1920s. Only after 1949 with the founding of the People's Republic of China did the term ''quyi'' become widely used. Prior to this, it was just classified as ''shuochang yishu''. This is one of the art category that gained momentum since the New Culture Movement. With the exception of the Cultural Revolution period, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Opera
Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more than a thousand years, reaching its mature form in the 13th century, during the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD). Early forms of Chinese theater are simple; however, over time, various art forms such as music, song and dance, martial arts, acrobatics, costume and make-up art, as well as literary art forms were incorporated to form traditional Chinese opera. Performers had to practice for many years to gain an understanding of the roles. Exaggerated features and colors made it easier for the audience to identify the roles portrayed by the performers. There are over a hundred regional branches of traditional Chinese opera today. In the 20th century, the Peking opera emerged in popularity and has come to be known as the "national theatre" of China ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leifeng Pagoda
Leifeng Pagoda is a five story tall tower with eight sides, located on Sunset Hill south of the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Originally constructed in the year AD 975, it collapsed in 1924 but was rebuilt in 2002. Since then, it has become a popular tourist attraction. As a protected cultural heritage unit, the Ten Views of West Lake - Leifeng Sunset consists of the Sunset Hill, Leifeng Pagoda, the Imperial Monument (rebuilt in recent years) and the courtyard and other buildings. History Original The original pagoda was built in 975 AD, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, at the order of King Zhongyi (Qian Chu) of Wuyue for his favorite concubine, Consort Huang. The Leifeng Pagoda was an octagonal, five-story structure built of brick and wood with a base built of bricks. During the Ming dynasty, Japanese pirates attacked Hangzhou. Suspecting the pagoda contained weapons, they burned its wooden elements, leaving only the brick skeleton, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fish In Chinese Mythology
Fish are an important motif in Chinese mythology. There are various myths involving fish. Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China. The geographic area of "China" is of course a concept which has evolved of changed through history. Fish in Chinese mythology include myths in Chinese language, Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other officially recognized 56 Ethnic minorities in China, minority ethnic groups in China. The Chinese word for "fish", ''yú'', is a homophone for "abundance", "plenty", and "affluence" (); therefore, fishes are a symbol of wealth. The Chinese dragon is the head of the fish clan. The act of fishing is also an important motif in Chinese mythology and culture. Cultural significance and symbolism Yu (fish) Fishes are a symbol of wealth in Chinese culture. The Chinese character for fish is yu (). Though now pronounced with a different tone in modern Chinese, , meaning "abunda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fahai (character)
Fahai () is a fictional Buddhist monk and a major character of the Legend of the White Snake, one of China's "four great folktales". Serving as the abbot of Zhenjiang's Jinshan Temple, Fahai possesses magic powers (such as the ability to call on protective deities of Buddhism) and he is determined to destroy the marriage between the snake Bai Suzhen and her mortal husband Xu Xian. Following a fierce battle against Bai Suzhen and her companion Xiaoqing which resulted in the flooding of Jinshan Temple, Fahai successfully entraps Bai Suzhen under the Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou. In the Ming-dynasty version of the legend, contained in ''Stories to Caution the World'' (1624) compiled by Feng Menglong, Fahai is depicted positively as a righteous and heroic demon-slayer, and Xu Xuan (Xu Xian's earlier version) even becomes his disciple. However, as audiences increasingly empathized with the devoted wife Bai Suzhen, Fahai's characterization turned more and more negative especially in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
