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The Great Dunhuang
''The Great Dunhuang'' is a Chinese television series based on the history of the oasis city of Dunhuang, which lies on the ancient Silk Road. With a Buddhist sutra printed in gold lettering as the plot device, the series retells the rise, fall and rebirth of Dunhuang in three parts, each covering a different period in Chinese history: the Western Xia, the late Qing dynasty, and the Republican era. The series was first broadcast in mainland China on CCTV from 31 October – 25 November 2006. Plot The original version did not have titles for the 3 parts. The Japanese DVD version, however, gave the following titles: Part One, , Part Two, , and Part Three, . Part One (episodes 1–12) Part One is set in the Jingyou era (1034–1038) of the reign of Emperor Renzong in the Song dynasty. The Kingdom of Khotan is conquered by the Kara-Khanid Khanate. Meiduo, a Khotan princess, flees to Dunhuang to join her elder sister, Zhenniang. Along the way, she meets Li Yuanhao, the ambitious Wester ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tang Guoqiang
Tang Guoqiang (born 4 May 1952) is a Chinese actor best known for portraying historical figures in several films and television series. Some of his more notable roles include: various Chinese emperors (e.g. Emperor Taizong of Tang, Yongle Emperor, Yongzheng Emperor), Zhuge Liang, Yan Zhenqing and Mao Zedong. Tang started his acting career when he first joined a performance troupe in 1970 after graduating from middle school. He made his film debut in 1975 as the male lead in ''Storm over the South China Sea''. He is also a member of the Chinese Calligraphy Society. Early life and education Tang was born in Qingdao, Shandong, on 4 May 1952, while his ancestral home in Yantai. After graduating from Qingdao No.39 High School, he joined the Qingdao Drama Troupe in 1970 and then the August First Film Studio in 1975. Acting career Tang rise to fame started in 1979, with his role in the military-themed film '' Little Flower'', becoming something of a pop idol after his appearance in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Renzong Of Song
Emperor Renzong of Song (30 May 1010 – 30 April 1063), personal name Zhao Zhen, was the fourth emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned for about 41 years from 1022 to his death in 1063, and was the longest reigning Song dynasty emperor. He was the sixth son of his predecessor, Emperor Zhenzong, and was succeeded by his cousin's son, Zhao Shu who took the throne as Emperor Yingzong because his own sons died prematurely. His original personal name was Zhao Shouyi but it was changed by imperial decree in 1018 to "Zhao Zhen", which means 'auspicious' in Chinese. Reign His father Emperor Zhenzong died in 1022 leaving Renzong who was only 12 at the time as the new emperor. His stepmother Liu was the regent since he was young. In 1027, he was old enough to rule on his own but Liu refused to step down and ruled until her death. Compared to other famous Chinese emperors, Emperor Renzong was not widely known. His reign marked the high point of Song influence and power but was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beijing
} Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 million residents. It has an administrative area of , the third in the country after Guangzhou and Shanghai. It is located in Northern China, and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts.Figures based on 2006 statistics published in 2007 National Statistical Yearbook of China and available online at archive. Retrieved 21 April 2009. Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin to the southeast; together, the three divisions form the Jingjinji megalopolis and the national capital region of China. Beijing is a global city and one of the world's leading centres for culture, diplomacy, politics, finance, busi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eight-Nation Alliance
The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove foreign imperialism in China. The Allied forces consisted of about 45,000 troops from what have, in popular tradition, been called eight 'nations' but included several empires, so thus actually far more than 8 nations in our contemporary 21st century terms, comprising: the German Empire, the Empire of Japan, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, particularly including forces from its full and sub-continent domains of Australia which was not a discrete official alliance signatory and the Empire of India, France which continued with overseas possessions, the United States which as democracy has historically demurred its global reach as 'empire', Italy, a kingdom in this peirod, and the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Neither the Chinese nor the qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunhuang Manuscripts
Dunhuang manuscripts refer to a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, but also including some woodblock-printed texts) in Chinese and other languages that were discovered at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, during the 20th century. The majority of the surviving texts come from a large cache of documents produced between the late 4th and early 11th centuries which had been sealed in the so-called ' Library Cave' (Cave 17) at some point in the early 11th century. The Library Cave was discovered by a Daoist monk called Wang Yuanlu in 1900, and much of the contents of the cave were subsequently sold to European explorers such as Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot. In addition to the Library Cave, manuscripts and printed texts have also been discovered in several other caves at the site. Notably, Pelliot retrieved a large number of documents from Caves 464 and 465 in the northern section of the Mogao Caves. These documents mostly date to the Yuan dynasty (12 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Departments And Six Ministries
The Three Departments and Six Ministries () system was the primary administrative structure in imperial China from the Sui dynasty (581–618) to the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). It was also used by Balhae (698–926) and Goryeo (918–1392) and various other kingdoms in Manchuria, Korea and Vietnam. The Three Departments were three top-level administrative structures in imperial China. They were the Central Secretariat, responsible for drafting policy, the Chancellery, responsible for reviewing policy and advising the emperor, and the Department of State Affairs, responsible for implementing policy. The former two were loosely joined as the Secretariat-Chancellery during the late Tang dynasty, Song dynasty and in the Korean kingdom of Goryeo. The Six Ministries (also translated as Six Boards) were direct administrative organs of the state under the authority of the Department of State Affairs. They were the Ministries of Personnel, Rites, War, Justice, Works, and Revenue. D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mogao Caves
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China. The caves may also be known as the Dunhuang Caves; however, this term is also used as a collective term to include other Buddhist cave sites in and around the Dunhuang area, such as the Western Thousand Buddha Caves, Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves, Yulin Caves, and Five Temple Caves. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in AD 366 as places of Buddhist meditation and worship, later the caves became a place of pilgrimage and worship, and caves continued to be built at the site until the 14th century. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the thre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bride Price
Bride price, bride-dowry (Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dowry is equivalent to dowry paid to the groom in some cultures, or used by the bride to help establish the new household, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. Some cultures may practice both simultaneously. Many cultures practiced bride dowry prior to existing records. The tradition of giving bride dowry is practised in many Asian countries, the Middle East, parts of Africa and in some Pacific Island societies, notably those in Melanesia. The amount changing hands may range from a token to continue the traditional ritual, to many thousands of US dollars in some marriages in Thailand, and as much as a $100,000 in exceptionally large bride dowry in parts of Papua New Guinea where br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guazhou County
Guazhou County (), formerly (until 2006) Anxi County () or Ansichow, is a county in the northwest of Gansu province, the People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Jiuquan City. History Emperor Wudi (140-87 BCE) had the Great Wall extended northwestward all the way to the Gate of Jade (Yumen Pass), the westernmost garrison town near Dunhuang. He then set up a system of garrisons all along this part of the Great Wall and put its headquarters in a town called Anxi (“Tranquil West”) and where the northern and southern Silk Routes historically diverged." The name Guazhou (land/prefecture of melons) has a long contentious history; the name first appeared in records from the Warring States period, but Chinese historians have debated (since the 3rd century) whether it referred to a region in modern-day Gansu or Shaanxi. From Northern Wei to Sui dynasty, Guazhou Prefecture contained both modern-day Dunhuang and Guazhou counties; in the Tang dynasty, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanlin Academy
The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court. One of its main duties was to decide on an interpretation of the Chinese classics. This formed the basis of the Imperial examinations, which aspiring government bureaucrats had to pass to attain higher-level government posts. Painters working for the court were also attached to the academy. Academy members Some of the more famous academicians of Hanlin were: *Li Bai (701–762) – Poet *Bai Juyi (772–846) – Poet *Yan Shu (991–1055) – Poet, calligrapher, (prime minister, 1042) * Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) – Historian * Shen Kuo (1031–1095) – Chancellor *Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145) – Painter *Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322) – Painter, calligrapher, poet (rector, 1314–1320) * Huang Zichen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liao Dynasty
The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü clan of the Khitan people. Founded around the time of the collapse of the Tang dynasty, at its greatest extent it ruled over Northeast China, the Mongolian Plateau, the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, southern portions of the Russian Far East, and the northern tip of the North China Plain. The dynasty had a history of territorial expansion. The most important early gains was the Sixteen Prefectures (including present-day Beijing and part of Hebei) by fueling a proxy war that led to the collapse of the Later Tang dynasty (923–936). In 1004, the Liao dynasty launched an imperial expedition against the Northern Song dynasty. After heavy fighting and large casualties between the two empires, both sides worked out the Chanyuan Trea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Jingzong Of Western Xia
Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia (1003–1048), born Li Yuanhao () or Tuoba Yuanhao (), also known as Zhao Yuanhao (趙元昊), Weiming Yuanhao (嵬名元昊) and Weiming Nangxiao (嵬名曩霄), was the founding emperor of the Western Xia dynasty of China, reigning from 1038 to 1048. He was the eldest son of the Tangut ruler Li Deming. Early background Yuanhao was born to Tuoba Weiming's consort, lady Weimu as "Weimai" (嵬埋). After his father died in 1032, he became the leader of the Tangut. He was described as a talented army general and had always wanted to establish a country for the Tanguts. Military campaigns Early in his leadership, Jingzong abolished the surname Zhao which had been given by the Song dynasty, replacing it with the surname Weiming (Chinese: 嵬名, Tangut: ). He had also started a revolution, changing the lifestyles of the Tangut people. He ordered Tangut men to shave their heads or they would face public execution. He also ordered a change of clot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
