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Former Ode On The Red Cliffs
The "Former Ode on the Red Cliffs" () is a piece of writing in the ''fu'' form, written by the Chinese poet Su Shi in 1082, describing a trip that Su Shi took with his friends on the Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ..., which took them past the purported site of the Battle of Red Cliffs. Background After Su Shi was arrested for his poetry satirizing policies of the Song court, known as the Crow Terrace Poetry Trial, he was demoted to serve as the deputy of the regiment () of Huangzhou. Synopsis The author and his friends took a boat trip by the Red Cliffs. He sang a song, and one of his friends accompanied him with a xiao, a traditional Chinese flute. The tune was sad, so the author asked why. The guest said that the place reminded him of Cao Cao, ...
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Fu (poetry)
''Fu'' (), often translated "rhapsody" or "poetic exposition", is a form of Chinese rhymed prose that was the dominant literary form during the Han dynasty (206AD220). ''Fu'' are intermediary pieces between poetry and prose in which a place, object, feeling, or other subject is described and rhapsodized in exhaustive detail and from as many angles as possible. Features characteristic of ''fu'' include alternating rhyme and prose, varying line length, close alliteration, onomatopoeia, loose parallelism, and extensive cataloging of their topics. ''Fu'' composers usually strove to use as wide a vocabulary as possible, and classical ''fu'' often contain many rare and archaic Chinese words. They were not sung like songs, but were recited or chanted. The ''fu'' genre came into being around the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC and continued to be regularly used into the Song dynasty (9601279). ''Fu'' were used as grand praises for the imperial courts, palaces, and cities, but were also used ...
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Su Shi
Su Shi (; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty. A major personality of the Song era, at times holding high-level political positions, Su Shi was also an important figure in Song Dynasty politics, aligning himself with Sima Guang and others, against the New Policy party led by Wang Anshi, gaining some level of popular support through his actions, and also sometimes experiencing politically motivated reversals to his government career. Su Shi is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished figures in classical Chinese literature, having produced some of the most well-known poems, lyrics, prose, and essays. Su Shi was famed as an essayist, and his prose writings lucidly contribute to the understanding of topics such as 11th-century Chinese travel literature or detailed information on the contemporary Chine ...
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Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea. It is the List of rivers by discharge, seventh-largest river by discharge volume in the world. Its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the demographics of China, country's population. The Yangtze has played a major role in the history of China, history, culture of China, culture, and economy of China. For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking, and war. The prosperous Yangtze Delta generates as much as 20% of historical GDP of China, China's GDP. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze is the list ...
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Battle Of Red Cliffs
The Battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, was a decisive naval battle in the winter of AD 208–209 at the end of the Han dynasty, about twelve years prior to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. The battle was fought between the allied forces of the southern warlords Sun Quan, Liu Bei, and Liu Qi against the numerically-superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao. Liu Bei and Sun Quan frustrated Cao Cao's effort to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River and reunite the territory of the Eastern Han dynasty. The allied victory at Red Cliffs ensured the survival of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, gave them control of the Yangtze, and provided a line of defence that was the basis for the later creation of the two southern states of Shu Han and Eastern Wu. According to Norwich University, this was the largest naval battle in history in terms of the numbers involved. Descriptions of the battle differ widely and the site of the battle is ...
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Crow Terrace Poetry Trial
The Crow Terrace Poetry Trial (or Crow Terrace Poetry Case, 烏臺詩案) was a trial on charges including treason and lèse majesté that occurred in the year 1079 of Song dynasty era in Chinese history. The legal action conducted against Su Shi ("Dong Po") by government prosecutors has abiding interest in the case of government censorship versus artistic freedom. "Crow Terrace" refers to the nickname of the Imperial Office of the Censorate (御史臺), which prosecuted the case, citing Sung Criminal Code, Article 122: "Denouncing the Imperial Chariot". The most prominent figure of the dozens accused was the official and artist Su Shi (1037 – 1101), whose works of poetry were produced in court as evidence against him. The trial was a major landmark in the struggle for free speech, in medieval China. The trial resulted in Su Shi's conviction and exile, as well as the conviction of over thirty other individuals, who faced varying punishments including fines and official reprima ...
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Xiao (flute)
The ''xiao'' (, pronounced ) is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of bamboo. It is also sometimes called ''dòngxiāo'' (), ''dòng'' meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is ''shùzhúdí'' (, lit. "vertical bamboo flute", ) but the name ''xiāo'' in ancient times also included the side-blown bamboo flute, '' dizi''. The ''xiāo'' is a very ancient Chinese instrument usually thought to have developed from a simple end-blown flute used by the Qiang people of Southwest China in ancient period. In the oral traditions of the Xiao, practitioners and poets say its sound resembles the sweetness of the Phoenix's call, the king of birds in Chinese belief.e.g. in a story attributed to Liu Xiang, the player Xiao Shi "could imitate the sound of the phoenix with his flute. He married a princess, and later, with her, transformed into two phoenixes and flew away," from ''Liexian zhuan'' (Collected Life Stories of Immortals), in ''Dao zang'' (complete collect ...
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Cao Cao
Cao Cao () (; 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde (), was a Chinese statesman, warlord and poet. He was the penultimate Grand chancellor (China), grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the End of the Han dynasty, dynasty's final years. As one of the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao laid the foundations for what became the state of Cao Wei, and he was posthumously honoured as "Emperor Wu of Wei", despite the fact that he never officially proclaimed himself Emperor of China or Son of Heaven. Cao Cao remains a controversial historical figure—he is often portrayed as a cruel and merciless tyrant in literature, but he has also been praised as a brilliant ruler, military genius, and great poet possessing unrivalled charisma, who treated his subordinates like family. During the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty, Cao Cao was able to secure most of northern China—which was at the time the most populated and developed ...
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National Palace Museum
The National Palace Museum (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Kwet-li̍p kù-kiung pok-vu̍t-yèn), is a museum in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, many of which were moved from the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing, as well as five other institutions throughout mainland China during the ROC retreat. These collections had been transferred to several locations before finally settling on present-day Shilin, Taipei and establishing the museum there in 1965, making it one of the largest of its type in the world. The museum's collection encompasses items spanning 8,000 years of Chinese history from the neolithic age to the modern period. The National Palace Museum shares its roots with the Palace Museum of Beijing, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. History Establishment in Beijing and relocation T ...
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Song Poetry
Song poetry refers to Classical Chinese poetry of or typical of the Song dynasty of China (960–1279). The dynasty was established by the Zhao family in China in 960 and lasted until 1279. Many of the best known Classical Chinese poems, popular also in translation, are from the Song dynasty poets, such as Su Shi (Dongpo), Ouyang Xiu, Lu You and Yang Wanli. This was also a time of great achievement in painting and literature, and many artists were accomplished in more than one of these, as well as often being government officials. Historical background The Song dynasty (960–1279) was the first time that China was unified into one state since the Tang dynasty, the two dynasties were separated from each other by the Tang-Song transition period, known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, a period of disunity. The Song period is divided into two parts, the first being the Northern Song (960–1127) which consisted of the China as reunified by the dynastic founder Emper ...
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