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Niulang And Zhinv (Long Corridor)
Niulang is a Chinese deity who is identified as the star Altair in the constellation Aquila. He was a legendary figure and main character in the popular Chinese folk tale ''The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl''. The earliest record of this myth is traced to over 2600 years ago. Legend Some legend said that Niulang and Zhinü were actually gods on Heaven. Niulang is responsible for the celestial herds. Zhinü is the seventh daughter of the Jade Emperor. They fell in love and were banished from Heaven because celestial laws forbade their romance. Zhinü was punished by her father and forced to weave colorful clouds all day long. Niulang was reincarnated as a cowherd on earth who lost his parents at a young age and lived with his older brother and sister-in-law, and their story begins. One day Zhinü came down to Earth and, while bathing in a river, Niulang was passing by the river and he saw Zhinu. He was extremely happy and stole her clothes. Without her clothes, Zhinü was unab ... [...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 in 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 rich with 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. Inspired by the gardens in South China, in the Summer Palace there are over 3,000 various Chinese ancient buildings that house a collection of over 40,000 kinds of valuable historical relics from each dynasty. 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] |
Altair
Altair is the brightest star in the constellation of Aquila and the twelfth-brightest star in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation Alpha Aquilae, which is Latinised from α Aquilae and abbreviated Alpha Aql or α Aql. Altair is an A-type main-sequence star with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.77 and is one of the vertices of the Summer Triangle asterism; the other two vertices are marked by Deneb and Vega. It is located at a distance of from the Sun. Altair is currently in the G-cloud—a nearby interstellar cloud, an accumulation of gas and dust. Altair rotates rapidly, with a velocity at the equator of approximately 286 km/s.From values of ''v'' sin ''i'' and ''i'' in the second column of Table 1, Monnier et al. 2007. This is a significant fraction of the star's estimated breakup speed of 400 km/s. A study with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer revealed that Altair is not spherical, but is flattened at the poles due to i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aquila (constellation)
Aquila is a constellation on the celestial equator. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it represents the bird that carried Zeus/Jupiter's thunderbolts in Greek-Roman mythology. Its brightest star, Altair, is one vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism. The constellation is best seen in the northern summer, as it is located along the Milky Way. Because of this location, many clusters and nebulae are found within its borders, but they are dim and galaxies are few. History Aquila was one of the 48 constellations described by the second-century astronomer Ptolemy. It had been earlier mentioned by Eudoxus in the fourth century BC and Aratus in the third century BC. It is now one of the 88 constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union. The constellation was also known as ''Vultur volans'' (the flying vulture) to the Romans, not to be confused with ''Vultur cadens'' which was their name for Lyra. It is often held to represent the eagle which held Zeus's/Jupiter's t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cowherd And The Weaver Girl
"The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" are characters found in Chinese mythology and characters appearing eponymously in a romantic Chinese folk tale. The story tells of the romance between Zhinü (; the weaver girl, symbolizing the star Vega) and Niulang (; the cowherd, symbolizing the star Altair). Their love was not allowed, and thus they were banished to opposite sides of the heavenly river (symbolizing the Milky Way). Once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, a flock of magpies would form a bridge to reunite the lovers for a single day. Though there are many variations of the story, the earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to a poem from the Classic of Poetry from over 2600 years ago. "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl" originated from people’s worship of natural celestial phenomena, and later developed into the Qixi Festival since the Han Dynasty. It has also been celebrated as the Tanabata festival in Japan and the Chilseok festival in K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhinü
Zhinü is the goddess of weaving and the star Vega in Chinese mythology. She was the youngest of seven daughters of the Jade Emperor. It is believed that she weaved her father’s royal robes out of the clouds. She is identified as the star Vega in the constellation Lyra. Zhinü was a legendary figure and main character in the popular Chinese folk tale ''The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl''. The earliest record of this myth is traced to over 2600 years ago. Legend Zhinü was the seventh daughter of the Jade Emperor. One day she came down to Earth and, while bathing in a river, met Niulang, a cowherd. Niulang was so amazed by her beauty that he instantly fell in love with her and stole her clothes. Without her clothes, Zhinü was unable to return to heaven. Instead, she decided to marry Niulang. Niulang farmed in the fields while Zhinü weaved at home and took care of their children. Zhinü was so deeply in love and for so long that she no longer desired a return to heaven. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jade Emperor
The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the three primordial emanations of the Tao. He is often identified with Śakra in Chinese Buddhist cosmology. The Jade Emperor is known by many names, including Heavenly Grandfather (, '), which originally meant "Heavenly Duke", which is used by commoners; the Jade Lord; the Highest Emperor; Great Emperor of Jade (, ' or , '). Chinese mythology There are many stories in Chinese mythology involving the Jade Emperor. He can also be regarded as a traditional figure among the White Lotus secret society. Origin It was said that Jade Emperor was originally the crown prince of the kingdom of Pure Felicity and Majestic Heavenly Lights and Ornaments. At birth, he emitted a wondrous light that filled the entire kingdom. When he was young, he was kind, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoshitoshi - 100 Aspects Of The Moon - 40-2
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi ( ja, 月岡 芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi ; 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese printmaker. Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005)"Tsukoka Kōgyō"in ''Japan Encyclopedia,'' p. 1000. Yoshitoshi has widely been recognized as the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting. He is also regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing. By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting Western mass reproduction methods li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Mother Of The West
The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a mother goddess in Chinese religion and mythology, also worshipped in neighbouring Asian countries, and attested from ancient times. From her name alone some of her most important characteristics are revealed: she is royal, female, and is associated with the west. The first historical information on her can be traced back to oracle bone inscriptions of the 15th century BCE that record sacrifices to a "Western Mother". Even though these inscriptions illustrate that she predates organized Taoism, she is most often associated with Taoism. The growing popularity of the Queen Mother of the West, as well as the beliefs that she was the dispenser of prosperity, longevity, and eternal bliss, took place during Han dynasty, in the 2nd century BCE, when the northern and western parts of China were able to be better known because of the opening of the Silk Road. Names ''Queen Mother of the West'' is a calque of Xiwangmu in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term ''Milky Way'' is a translation of the Latin ', from the Greek ('), meaning "milky circle". From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated D25 isophotal diameter of , but only about 1,000 light years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magpie
Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one of the few non-mammal species able to recognize itself in a mirror test. They are particularly well known for their songs and were once popular as cagebirds. In addition to other members of the genus '' Pica'', corvids considered as magpies are in the genera '' Cissa'', ''Urocissa'', and ''Cyanopica''. Magpies of the genus ''Pica'' are generally found in temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and western North America, with populations also present in Tibet and high-elevation areas of Kashmir. Magpies of the genus ''Cyanopica'' are found in East Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. The birds called magpies in Australia are, however, not related to the magpies in the rest of the world. Name References dating back to Old English call the bird a "p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qixi Festival
The Qixi Festival ( zh, 七夕), also known as the Qiqiao Festival ( zh, 七巧, links=no), is a Chinese festival celebrating the annual meeting of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, Zhinü and Niulang in Chinese mythology... The festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunisolar month on the Chinese lunisolar calendar... The festival was derived from Chinese mythology. People celebrated for the romantic legend of two lovers, Zhinü and Niulang, who were the weaver girl and the cowherd, respectively. The tale of ''The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl'' has been celebrated in the Qixi Festival since the Han dynasty.. The earliest-known reference to this famous myth dates back to over 2600 years ago, which was told in a poem from the ''Classic of Poetry''.. The Qixi festival inspired the Tanabata festival in Japan, Chilseok festival in Korea, and :vi:Thất Tịch, Thất Tịch festival in Vietnam. The festival has variously been called the Double Seventh Festival, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valentine’s Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, through later folk traditions, has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world. There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14, including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century. According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer. Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: an 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution; another ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
