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Xu Xiaoxiang
Xu Xiaoxiang (11 January 1832 – ?), born Xu Xin, courtesy name Xinyi and art name Diexian, was a Qing dynasty ''kunqu'' and Peking opera artist based in Beijing. He specialized in portraying '' xiaosheng'' roles, or younger gentlemen. His best known roles included Zhou Yu in ''Meeting of Heroes'' (), Xu Xian in ''Legend of the White Snake'', and Liu Mengmei in ''The Peony Pavilion''. He was a member of the famed Three Celebrations Troupe led by Cheng Changgeng. Biography Xu Xiaoxiang's biographical information mainly came from his student Cao Xinquan (). According to Cao, Xu Xiaoxiang was born as Xu Xin in Wu County, Suzhou, Jiangsu, though his ancestral home was Changzhou, Jiangsu. When he was still a child, he went to the Qing dynasty capital Beijing to learn Peking opera, receiving his first trainings in Yinxiu Hall (). He imitated the styles of Hubei native Long Deyun () and Beijing native Cao Meixian (), both '' xiaosheng'' actors, forging his own style from their strengths ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu County
Wu County or Wuxian (; 221 B.C. – December 2000) is a former county and city located in modern Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Its name refers to its former status as the capital of the state of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period. History In 221 BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huang established Wu County as the capital of Kuaiji Commandery. The city itself was often known as Kuaiji from this role, prior to return of Kuaiji's administration to present-day Shaoxing on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay. In 1928, the government of the Republic of China split the urban area of Wu County and set up Suzhou City. Two years later, the decision was withdrawn. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Suzhou City was divided from Wu County again in 1949. In March 1983, Wu County became a county of prefecture-level city Suzhou. In June 1995, Wu County was renamed to Wuxian City, a county-level city. In December 2000, it was divided into two districts, currently known as Wuzho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liu Mengmei
Liu Mengmei (柳梦梅/柳夢梅) is the main fictionalized character within Tang Xianzu's play The Peony Pavilion, "Liu" meaning 'willow' and "Mengmei" 'dream of plum'. Mengmei was a descendant to the reputed poet Liu Zongyuan, Prefect of Liuzhou during the Tang dynasty period, and would be born into a family branch present within the District of Longnan. His father respectively held the title of Doctor-at-Large; his mother: Lady of the County. Having been orphaned at an early age and taken into the care of a gardener by the name of Camelback Guo, Mengmei rose from his place of residence by mid-adulthood, resolved to reach the capital prefecture of Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong ... and complete the secondary examinations for political office. Two weeks pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guangxu Emperor
The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, without Empress Dowager Cixi's influence, only from 1889 to 1898. He initiated the Hundred Days' Reform, but was abruptly stopped when the empress dowager launched a coup in 1898, after which he became powerless and was held under house arrest until his death by poisoning. His era name, "Guangxu", means "glorious succession". The emperor died in 1908 and it was widely suspected at the time that he had been poisoned. A forensic examination on his remains confirmed in 2008 that the cause of death was arsenic poisoning. The level of arsenic in his remains was 2,000 times higher than normal. Accession to the throne and upbringing Zaitian was the second son of Yixuan (Prince Chun), and his primary spouse Yehenara Wanzhen, a younger siste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tongzhi Emperor
The Tongzhi Emperor (27 April 1856 – 12 January 1875), born Zaichun of the Aisin Gioro clan, was the ninth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the eighth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign, from 1861 to 1875, which effectively lasted through his adolescence, was largely overshadowed by the rule of his mother, Empress Dowager Cixi. Although he had little influence over state affairs, the events of his reign gave rise to what historians call the " Tongzhi Restoration", an unsuccessful modernization program. Life The only surviving son of the Xianfeng Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi, the Tongzhi Emperor was namesake to the attempted political reform initiated by his mother, called the Tongzhi Restoration. His first regnal name was Qixiang (祺祥; Manchu: ''Fengšengge sabingga''), but this name was later changed, as per tradition upon his succession, to "Tongzhi". The regnal name means 'order and prosperity' coming from the Confucian teaching that "there are many ways ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hui Opera
Hui opera, or ''Huiju'' (), is a regional genre of Chinese opera originally from southern Anhui. It is popular in the area around Huangshan City and Chizhou, as well as Wuyuan County, Jiangxi, and was formerly also popular in neighboring Zhejiang. It has existed for over 300 years. It is named for the historical region of Huizhou (now the city of Huangshan, Anhui), where it originated. ''Huiju'' was introduced to Beijing during the Qianlong Emperor's eightieth birthday celebrations, and was influential in being a precursor of Beijing opera. The most prominent ''Huiju'' troupe is the Huiju Opera Troupe of Anhui Province, which was established in 1956 and is based in the city of Hefei Hefei (; ) is the capital and largest city of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, and cultural center of Anhui. Its population was 9,369,881 as of the 2020 census and its built-up ( .... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhuge Liang
Zhuge Liang ( zh, t=諸葛亮 / 诸葛亮) (181 – September 234), courtesy name Kongming, was a Chinese statesman and military strategist. He was chancellor and later regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is recognised as the most accomplished strategist of his era, and has been compared to Sun Tzu, the author of ''The Art of War''. His reputation as an intelligent and learned scholar grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, earning him the nickname "Wolong" or "Fulong", meaning "Crouching Dragon" or "Sleeping Dragon". Zhuge Liang is often depicted wearing a Taoist robe and holding a hand fan made of crane feathers. Zhuge Liang was a Confucian-oriented "Legalist". He liked to compare himself to the sage minister Guan Zhong and Yue Yi developing Shu's agriculture and industry to become a regional power, and attached great importance to the works of Shen Buhai and Han Fei, refusing to indulge local elites and adopting strict, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qi Rushan
In traditional Chinese culture and the East Asian cultural sphere, ''qi'', also ''ki'' or ''chi'' in Wade–Giles romanization ( ), is believed to be a vital force forming part of any living entity. Literally meaning "vapor", "air", or "breath", the word ''qi'' is often translated as "vital energy", "vital force", "material energy", or simply as "energy". ''Qi'' is the central underlying principle in Chinese traditional medicine and in Chinese martial arts. The practice of cultivating and balancing ''qi'' is called ''qigong''. Believers in ''qi'' describe it as a vital force, the flow of which must be unimpeded for health. ''Qi'' is a pseudoscientific, unverified concept, and is unrelated to the concept of energy used in science "Despite complete scientific rejection, the concept of a special biological fields within living things remains deeply engraved in human thinking. It is now working its way into modern health care systems, as non-scientific alternative therapies bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hand Fan
A handheld fan, or simply hand fan, is any broad, flat surface that is waved back-and-forth to create an airflow. Generally, purpose-made handheld fans are folding fans, which are shaped like a sector of a circle and made of a thin material (such as paper or feathers) mounted on slats which revolve around a pivot so that it can be closed when not in use. Hand fans were used before mechanical fans were invented. On human skin, the airflow from handfans increases evaporation which has a cooling effect due to the latent heat of evaporation of water. It also increases heat convection by displacing the warmer air produced by body heat that surrounds the skin, which has an additional cooling effect, provided that the ambient air temperature is lower than the skin temperature – which is typically about . Fans are convenient to carry around, especially folding fans. Next to the folding fan, the rigid hand screen fan was also a highly decorative and desired object among the higher cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The provincial capital, Wuhan, serves as a major transportation hub and the political, cultural, and economic hub of central China. Hubei's name is officially abbreviated to "" (), an ancient name associated with the eastern part of the province since the State of E of the Western Zhou dynasty of –771 BCE; a popular name for Hubei is "" () (suggested by that of the powerful State of Chu, which existed in the area during the Eastern Zhou dynasty of 770 – 256 BCE). Hubei borders the provinces of Henan to the north, Anhui to the east, Jiangxi to the southeast, Hunan to the south, Chongqing to the west, and Shaanxi to the northwest. The high-profile Three Gorges Dam is located at Yichang, in the west of the province. Hubei is the 7th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CNKI
CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure; ) is a private-owned publishing company in China since 2014. CNKI maintains high annual subscription fees due to its ''de facto'' monopoly status on journal search in China. Because its subscription fee raised sharply every year, many elite Chinese universities and research institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University, have stopped subscribing to CNKI. CNKI owns a system called "China Integrated Knowledge Resources System," including journals, doctoral dissertations, masters' theses, proceedings, newspapers, yearbooks, statistical yearbooks, e-books, patents and standards. In January 2013, CNKI became the second designated DOI agent in mainland China, after the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China under the Ministry of Science and Technology. In May 2022, the State Administration for Market Regulation of China launched an antitrust investigation into CNKI for anti-competitive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Changzhou
Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhenjiang to the northwest, Wuxi to the east, and the province of Zhejiang to the south. Changzhou is located in the highly developed Yangtze Delta region of China extending from Shanghai going northwest. The population of Changzhou city was 4,592,431 at the 2010 census.Linked from the OEChere The city is the birthplace of Zhou Youguang who created the pinyin romanization system. History "The Ruins of Yancheng" (), comprise the remains of a walled city located in the Wujin district of Changzhou that was founded over 3000 years ago at the beginning of the Western Zhou dynasty. The earliest record of a settlement on the site of modern Changzhou is as a commandery founded in 221 BC at the beg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancestral Home (Chinese)
In Chinese culture, hometown or ancestral home () is the place of origin of one's extended family. It may or may not be the place where one is born. For instance, two people may both be born in Shanghai, but the hometowns of their ancestors may be different. Definition A subjective concept, a person's ancestral home could be the birthplace of ''any'' of their patriline ancestors. Su Shi limited it to five generations, i.e. it refers to the home of one's great-great-grandfather. Even more broadly, an ancestral home can refer to the first locality where a surname came to be established or prominent. Commonly, a person usually defines their hometown as what their father considers to be his ancestral home. In practice, most people would define their ancestral homes as the birthplace of their patriline ancestors from the early 20th century, around the time when government authorities began to collect such information from individuals. Moreover, a person's ancestral home can be d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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