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The King Of The Snakes (Chinese Folktale)
The King of the Snakes is a Chinese folktale published by John Macgowan in 1910. It tells the story of a woman who marries a snake spirit, but her sister conspires to take her place and kills her. The woman goes through a cycle of transformations, regains human form and takes revenge on her sister. Scholars relate the tale and variants to the cycle of the animal bridegroom, but consider it a tale type that developed in East Asia, particularly China. Summary The tale begins by describing how a society of snakes is so refined and advanced that some of its members are dissatisfied with their low condition and wish to become humans. One of them, who becomes the ruler of the snakes, discovers how to alternate between human and snake forms, becomes human and owns a great state in the human realm. In this state, there is a beautiful garden unlike any other in the Flowery Kingdom. One day, this Prince of Snakes sees an old man plucking flowers in his own gardens and, irritated, asks t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Folklore
Chinese folklore encompasses the folklore of China, and includes songs, poetry, dances, puppetry, and tales. It often tells stories of human nature, historical or legendary events, love, and the supernatural. The stories often explain natural phenomena and distinctive landmarks. Along with Chinese mythology, it forms an important element in Chinese folk religion. History Folktales The main influences on Chinese folk tales have been Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. Some folktales may have arrived from Germany when Grimm brothers had contributed some materials for the folktales regard to the country life of the German dwellers since the 1840s; others have no known western counterparts, but are widespread throughout East Asia.Eberhard, Wolfram, ''Folktales of China.''(1965). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1965. University of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-25440 Chinese folktales include a vast variety of forms such as myths, legends, fables, etc. A number of collections ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jujube Tree
Jujube (), sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'' and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus ''Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. Description It is a small deciduous tree or shrub reaching a height of , usually with thorny branches. The leaves are shiny-green, ovate-acute, long and wide, with three conspicuous veins at the base, and a finely toothed margin. The flowers are small, wide, with five inconspicuous yellowish-green petals. The fruit is an edible oval drupe deep; when immature it is smooth-green, with the consistency and taste of an apple with lower acidity, maturing brown to purplish-black, and eventually wrinkled, looking like a small date. There is a single hard kernel, similar to an olive pit, containing two seeds. Chemistry Leaves contain saponin and ziziphin, which suppresses the ability to perceive sweet taste. Flavinoids found in the fruits include Kaempfero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koho People
The K'Ho, Cơ Ho, or Koho are an ethnic group living in the Lâm Đồng province of Vietnam's Central Highlands. They speak K'Ho language, a southern Bahnaric branch of Mon–Khmer language. They are related to the Cho Ro and Mạ people. The Lạch people, a subgroup of K'Ho, is the indigenous group of Lâm Đồng. The name of the city of Da Lat Da Lat (also written as Dalat, vi, Đà Lạt; ), is the capital of Lâm Đồng Province and the largest city of the Central Highlands region in Vietnam. The city is located above sea level on the Langbian Plateau. Da Lat is one of the mo ... (Lâm Đồng's capital) originated from Đà Lạch (literally "river of the Lạch people"). Culture They have a musical instrument called ''kăm boat'' and the dish sour gruel. K'ho people's folk religion worships a pantheon of gods, including Yang N'Du, the Supreme God, forest god, water god, fire god... The majority of the Koho people now identify as Christian. K'ho people a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
False Hero
The false hero is a stock character in fairy tales, and sometimes also in ballads. The character appears near the end of a story in order to claim to be the hero or heroine and is usually of the same sex as the hero or heroine. The false hero presents some claim to the position. By testing, it is revealed that the claims are false, and the hero's true. The false hero is usually punished, and the true hero put in his place. Vladimir Propp identified it as one of the seven roles he found in an analysis of Russian folktales, but the figure is widely found in many nations' tales. Traits In some tales, the false hero appears early, and constitutes the main obstacle to the hero. These include ''The Goose Girl'' where a serving maid takes the princess's place, and makes her a goose girl, ''The White and the Black Bride'' where the stepmother pushes the bride into the river and puts her own daughter in her place, and ''The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward'', where the steward robs the you ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meo People
The Miao are a group of linguistically-related peoples living in Southern China and Southeast Asia, who are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 official ethnic groups. The Miao live primarily in southern China's mountains, in the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hainan. Some sub-groups of the Miao, most notably the Hmong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, mainly in the United States, France, and Australia. Miao is a Chinese term, while the component groups of people have their own autonyms, such as (with some variant spellings) Hmong, Hmu, Xong (Qo-Xiong), and A-Hmao. These people (except those in Hainan) speak Hmongic languages, a subfamily of the Hmong–Mien languages including many mutually unintelligible languages such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it the world's sixteenth-most populous country. Vietnam borders China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to the west. It shares maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia through the South China Sea. Its capital is Hanoi and its largest city is Ho Chi Minh City (commonly known as Saigon). Vietnam was inhabited by the Paleolithic age, with states established in the first millennium BC on the Red River Delta in modern-day northern Vietnam. The Han dynasty annexed Northern and Central Vietnam under Chinese rule from 111 BC, until the first dynasty emerged in 939. Successive monarchical dynasties absorbed Chinese influences through Confucianism and Buddhism, and expanded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vetala
A vetala ( sa, वेताल ') or Betal is a Bhairava form of Shiva in Hindu mythology, usually defined as a knowledgeable (fortune telling) paranormal entity said to be dwelling at charnel grounds. The vetala is comparable to the vampires of Western mythology. Reanimated corpses are used as vehicles by the spirits for movement, the corpse no longer decays while it is inhabited by a ''vetala''. A vetala may possess and also leave a dead body at will. Description In Hindu folklore, the vetala is an evil spirit who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession of corpses. They make their displeasure known by troubling humans. They can drive people mad, kill children, and cause miscarriages, but also guard villages. They are hostile spirits of the dead trapped in the 'twilight zone' between life and afterlife. These creatures can be repelled by the chanting of mantras. One can free them from their ghostly existence by performing their funerary rites. Being unaffected by the laws ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, Monpa, Tamang people, Tamang, Qiang people, Qiang, Sherpa people, Sherpa and Lhoba peoples and now also considerable numbers of Han Chinese and Hui people, Hui settlers. Since Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China, 1951, the entire plateau has been under the administration of the People's Republic of China, a major portion in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and other portions in the Qinghai and Sichuan provinces. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of . Located in the Himalayas, the highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) above sea level. The Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century. At its height in the 9th century, the Tibet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mulao People
The Mulao people (; own name: ''Mulam'') are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. In their name, ''Mulam'', ''mu''6 is a classifier for human beings and ''lam''1 (in some dialects it is ''kyam''1) is another form of the name used by the Dong (''Kam''), to whom the Mulao people are ethnically related. A large portion of the Mulao in Guangxi live in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County of Hechi, Guangxi, China. As of the 2010 Chinese Census, there are 216,257 Mulao people in China, comprising about 0.016% of China's total population. History It is believed that the Mulao are the descendants of the ancient ''Ling'' and ''Liao'' tribes that inhabited the region during the time of the Jin Dynasty. During the Yuan dynasty, the Mulao lived in a feudal society and they paid a series of tributes twice a year to the emperor. During the Qing Dynasty, their territories suffered an administrative division; their lands w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monguor People
The Monguor (; Tu: Mongghul), the Tu people (), the White Mongol or the Tsagaan Mongol, are Mongolic people and one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. The "Tu" ethnic category was created in the 1950s. According to the 2000 census, the total population was 241,198, who mostly lived in the Qinghai and the Gansu provinces. The 2010 census gave their number as 289,565. The Monguor people speak the Monguor language, which belongs to the family of Mongolic languages but has been heavily influenced by both the local Chinese and Tibetan dialects. Today, nearly all Tu people also speak Chinese. Most are farmers and some keep livestock. Their culture and the social organizations have been influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and local beliefs. A few Tu in Huzhu and Minhe are Christian, the result of on-going American and Korean missionary work in the area. Ethnic origins The ethnic history of the Monguor is contested. It has been variously sugges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Year Of The Snake
The snake ( 蛇) is the sixth of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Snake is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 巳. According to one legend, there is a reason for the order of the animals in the cycle. The story goes that a race was held to cross a great river, and the order of the animals in the cycle was based upon their order in finishing the race. In this story, the snake compensated for not being the best swimmer by hitching a hidden ride on the Horse's hoof, and when the horse was just about to cross the finish line, jumping out, scaring the horse, and thus edging it out for sixth place. The same twelve animals are also used to symbolize the cycle of hours in the day, each being associated with a two-hour time period. The hour of the snake is 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., the time when the Sun warms up the Earth, and snakes are said to slither out of their holes. The month of the sna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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