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Written Cantonese
Written Cantonese is the most complete written form of a Chinese language after that for Mandarin Chinese and Classical Chinese. Written Chinese was the main literary language of China until the 19th century. Written vernacular Chinese first appeared in the 17th century, and a written form of Mandarin became standard throughout China in the early 20th century. Cantonese is a common language in places like Hong Kong and Macau. While the Mandarin form can to some extent be read and spoken word for word in other Varieties of Chinese, Chinese varieties, its intelligibility to non-Mandarin speakers is poor to incomprehensible because of differences in idioms, grammar and usage. Modern Cantonese speakers have therefore developed new Chinese character, characters for words that do not have characters for them and have retained others that have been lost in standard Chinese. With the advent of the computer and standardization of character sets specifically for Cantonese, many printed m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logographic
In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chinese characters as used in Written Chinese, Chinese as well as other languages are logograms, as are Egyptian hieroglyphs and characters in cuneiform script. A writing system that primarily uses logograms is called a ''logography''. Non-logographic writing systems, such as alphabets and syllabaries, are ''phonemic'': their individual symbols represent sounds directly and lack any inherent meaning. However, all known logographies have some phonetic component, generally based on the rebus principle, and the addition of a phonetic component to pure ideographs is considered to be a key innovation in enabling the writing system to adequately encode human language. Types of logographic systems Some of the earliest recorded writing systems are logograp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caizi Jiaren
Caizi jiaren ( and "scholar and beauty") is a genre of Chinese fiction typically involving a romance between a young scholar and a beautiful girl. They were highly popular during the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty.Starr, p40 History Three Tang dynasty works "particularly influential in the development of the ''caizi-jiaren'' model" were ''Yingying's Biography'', ''The Tale of Li Wa'', and ''Huo Xiaoyu zhuan'' (:zh:霍小玉傳, 霍小玉傳, "The story of Huo Xiaoyu"). Song Geng writes that ''Iu-Kiao-Li'' (''Yu Jiao Li'') was "one of the best-known ''caizi-jiaren'' novels". Chloë F. Starr adds that among the best known were ''Iu-Kiao-Li'', ''Ping Shan Leng Yan'', and ''Haoqiu zhuan''. Elements of this theme are also common in Chinese opera, such as ''Romance of the Western Chamber'', which uses the term ''caizi jiaren'' in its text, and ''The Peony Pavilion''. In both of these operas, lovers elope, have secret trysts, or were perfect matches in spite of parental disapp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faazin Gei
''Faazin Gei'' (), or ''The Flowery Paper'' is a Chinese '' mukjyusyu'' style ballad written in the late Ming era. It is the earliest known work containing elements of written Cantonese. This book was also of particular interest to early European Sinology. Along with '' Iu-Kiao-Li'', it is regarded as one of the most influential Chinese books for 19th century European writers. Name There is no conventional English translation for the title of the book. Variants mentioned in various works include: * ''The Flower's Leaf'' * ''The Flowery Scroll'' * ''The Flowered Letter-Paper'' * ''The Floral Writing Paper'' * ''The Flowery Notepaper'' * ''The Flowery Billet'' * ''The Flowered Stationery'' * ''Story of the flower-letter '' * ''The Flowery Letterhead'' * ''Romance of the Fancy Notepaper'' * ''Record of the billet-doux'' The subtitle "The Eighth Outstanding Work" () implies that this book is a part of a certain canon with ten or eleven books included. Such canons are extension ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naamyam
''Naamyam'' (; lit. "southern tunes") is a unique local narrative singing tradition in Cantonese in the form of rap-like rhyme, which is different from the '' nanguan'' (lit. "southern pipes") tradition originating from Southern Fujian. Naamyam is originated in the Pearl River Delta in the late Qing Dynasty and was very popular in Hong Kong, Canton, Macau and other Cantonese-speaking areas. Naamyam in a broad sense refers to Cantonese tunes, including Dei Seoi Naamyam (地水南音, lit. “earth and water” Naamyam), Hei Kuk Naamyam (戲曲南音, lit. Opera Naamyam), Lou Geoi Naamyam (老舉南音, lit. Prostitute Naamyam). A singer would be engaged for a single performance or for regular performances over an extended period of time. Famous naamyam singers included Chung Tak (1860–1929), Dou Wun (; 1910–1979), Yuen Siu-fai and Au Kwan-cheung. Dei Seoi Naamyam was a unique regional narrative singing tradition in Cantonese that became popular in the 20th century when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wooden Fish
A wooden fish, also known as a Chinese temple block, wooden bell, or ''muyu'', is a type of Woodblock (instrument), woodblock that originated from China that is used as a percussion instrument by monks and lay people in the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism. They are used in Buddhist ceremonies in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other Asian countries. They may be referred to as a Chinese block, Korean block or, rarely, as a skull. Wooden fish often used in rituals usually involving the recitation of sutras, mantras, or other Buddhist texts. In Chan Buddhism, the wooden fish serve to maintain rhythm during chanting. In Pure Land Buddhism, they are used when chanting the name of Amitabha. Wooden fish come in many sizes and shapes, ranging from , for laity use or sole daily practice, or to for usage in temples. Wooden fish are often (in Chinese temples) placed on the left of the altar, alongside a Rin gong, bell bowl, its metal percussion counterpart. Wooden fish often rest on a sma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century Before the Common Era, BCE. It is the Major religious groups, world's fourth-largest religion, with about 500 million followers, known as Buddhists, who comprise four percent of the global population. It arose in the eastern Gangetic plain as a movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia. Buddhism has subsequently played a major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to Western world, the West in the 20th century. According to tradition, the Buddha instructed his followers in a path of bhavana, development which leads to Enlightenment in Buddhism, awakening and moksha, full liberation from ''Duḥkha, dukkha'' (). He regarded this path as a Middle Way between extremes su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty near modern Wuzhou, whose name is a reference to an order by Emperor Wu of Han to "widely bestow favors and sow trust". Together, Guangdong and Guangxi are called ''Liangguang, Loeng gwong'' ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t=兩廣, s=两广 , p=liǎng guǎng) During the Song dynasty, the Two Guangs were formally separated as ''Guǎngnán Dōnglù'' ( zh, first=t, t=廣南東路, s=广南东路, l=East Circuit (administrative division), Circuit in Southern Guang , labels=no) and ''Guǎngnán Xīlù'' ( zh, first=t, t=廣南西路, s=广南西路, l=West Circuit (administrative division), Circuit in Southern Guang , labels=no), which became abbreviated as ''Guǎngdōng Lù'' ( zh, first=t, t=廣東路, s=广东路 , labels=no) and ''Guǎngxī Lù ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinitic Languages
The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a language group, group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split between the Sinitic languages and the rest of the family (the Tibeto-Burman languages). This view is rejected by some researchers but has found phylogenetic support among others. The Macro-Bai languages, whose classification is difficult, may be an offshoot of Old Chinese and thus Sinitic; otherwise, Sinitic is defined only by the many varieties of Chinese unified by a shared historical background, and usage of the term "Sinitic" may reflect the linguistic view that Chinese language, Chinese constitutes a family of distinct languages, rather than variants of a single language. Population Over 91% of the Chinese population speaks a Sinitic language, of whom about three-quarters speak a Mandarin variety. Estimates of the number ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, 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 Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period#Ten Kingdoms, Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song frequently came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao dynasty, Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasty (1115–1234), 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 History of the Song dynasty, 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, Southern Song (; 1127–1279) comprise the period following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
