Xiang River Goddesses
The Xiangshuishen or Xiang River Goddesses are goddesses (or spirits and sometimes gods) of the Xiang River in Chinese folk religion. The Xiang flowed into Dongting Lake through the ancient kingdom of Chu, whose songs in their worship have been recorded in a work attributed to Qu Yuan. According to the ''Shanhaijing'', the Xiang River deities were daughters of the supreme deity, Di. According to a somewhat later tradition, the Xiang goddesses were daughters of Emperor Yao, who were named Ehuang (; Fairy Radiance) and Nüying (; Maiden Bloom) who were said to have been married by him to his chosen successor, and eventually emperor, Shun, as a sort of test of his administrative abilities: then, later, they became goddesses, after the death of their husband. Shun's wives According to the mythological Ehuang-Nuying version, sometime in the twenty-third century BCE, before becoming divine goddesses, these two daughters of Emperor Yao were married to Shun at the planning of their fat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jiu Ge
''Jiu Ge'', or ''Nine Songs'', () is an ancient set of poems. Together, these poems constitute one of the 17 sections of the poetry anthology which was published under the title of the ''Chuci'' (also known as the ''Songs of Chu'' or as the ''Songs of the South''). Despite the "''Nine", '' in the title, the number of these poetic pieces actually consists of eleven separate songs, or elegies. This set of verses seems to be part of some rituals of the Yangzi River valley area (as well as a northern tradition or traditions) involving the invocation of divine beings and seeking their blessings by means of a process of courtship. Though the poetry consists of lyrics written for a performance, the lack of indications of who is supposed to be singing at any one time or whether some of the lines represent lines for a chorus makes an accurate reconstruction impossible. Nonetheless there are internal textual clues, for example indicating the use of costumes for the performers, and an exten ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zhou Dunyi
Zhou Dunyi (; 1017–1073) was a Chinese cosmologist, philosopher, and writer during the Song dynasty. He conceptualized the Neo-Confucian cosmology of the day, explaining the relationship between human conduct and universal forces. In this way, he emphasizes that humans can master their '' qi'' ("spirit") in order to accord with nature. He was a major influence to Zhu Xi, who was the architect of Neo-Confucianism. Zhou Dunyi was mainly concerned with Taiji (supreme polarity) and Wuji (limitless potential), the yin and yang, and the wu xing (the five phases). He is also venerated and credited in Taoism as the first philosopher to popularize the concept of the taijitu or "yin-yang symbol". Life Born in 1017 in Yingdao County, Daozhou prefecture, in present-day Yongzhou, southern Hunan, Zhou was originally named Zhou Dunshi. Raised by a scholar-official family, he changed his name in 1063 to avoid a character in the personal name of the new Emperor Yingzong. His father die ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Portrait Of The Goddess And The Lady Of The Xiang, Wen Zhengming
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer. History Prehistorical portraiture Plastered human skulls were reconstructed human skulls that were made in the ancient Levant between 9000 and 6000 BC in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. They represent some of the oldest forms of art in the Middle East and demonstrate that the prehistoric population took great care in burying their ancestors below their homes. The skulls denote some of the earliest sculptural examples of portraiture in the history of art. Historical portraitur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wu Pass
Wu Pass or Wuguan was one of four strategic mountain passes along the southern border of the ancient Qin (state), state of Qin and the north western border of Chu (state), Chu. Wuguan is a modern-day Towns of China, town in Danfeng County, Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. Popular culture In Manga Kingdom (manga), Kingdom, Wu Pass was used by Li Mu to try to attack Xianyang. But Lord Biao sensed it and chased them. A siege ensued when Ying Zheng decided to make Zui, the last city on the road to Xianyang, as the last stand, with a surprise if they held the line for a week. Yang Duan He arrives with her army and attacked Zhao's soldiers, the surprise Zheng says. Years later, Xin and Zui Army used the pass to lift the siege of Xianyang, this time against Lao Ai's army. See also *Hangu Pass {{Mountain passes of China Mountain passes of China ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Junshan Island
Junshan Island () is an island in Hunan province in China on Dongting Lake. The name means ''Princesses' Island'', and derives from the legend of the Xiang River goddesses. It is in area. It was formerly a Daoist retreat. History Junshan Island consists of 72 peaks on an oval-shaped island in Dongting Lake. It was initially called "Mount Xiang" () in ancient times, also referred to as "Mount Dongting" (). Junshan Island is full of historical sites such as the Tomb of Xiangfei (). Legend said that 4,000 years ago during Emperor Shun's inspection visit in the south, two concubines named "Ehuang" () and "Nüying" () followed him to Dongting Lake, but they were stopped by stormy weather. When they heard that Emperor Shun had died suddenly they cried bitterly that their teardrops turned the bamboo into mottled bamboo. Soon they died of overwhelming sadness and locals built a tomb on Junshan Island to commemorate them. Attractions * Feilai Bell * Junshan Garden of Love * Liu Yi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sacred Mountains Of China
The Sacred Mountains of China are divided into several groups. The ''Five Great Mountains'' () refers to five of the most renowned mountains in Chinese history, and they were the subjects of imperial pilgrimage by emperors throughout ages. They are associated with the supreme God of Heaven and the five main cosmic deities of Chinese traditional religion. The group associated with Buddhism is referred to as the ''Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism'' (), and the group associated with Taoism is referred to as the ''Four Sacred Mountains of Taoism'' (). The sacred mountains have all been important destinations for pilgrimage, the Chinese expression for pilgrimage () being a shortened version of an expression which means ''"paying respect to a holy mountain"'' (). The Five Great Mountains The ''Five Great Mountains'' or ''Wuyue'' are arranged according to the five cardinal directions of Chinese geomancy, which includes the center as a direction. The grouping of the five mountains ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mount Heng (Hunan)
Hengshan (), also known as Mount Heng, is a mountain in southcentral China's Hunan Province known as the southern mountain () of the Five Great Mountains of China. Heng Shan is a mountain range long with 72 peaks and lies at . The Huiyan Peak is the south end of the peaks, Yuelu Mountain in Changsha City is the north end, and the Zhurong Peak is the highest at above sea level. At the foot of the mountain stands the largest temple in southern China, the Grand Temple of Mount Heng (Nanyue Damiao), which is the largest group of ancient buildings in Hunan Province. Other notable sites in the area include Shangfeng Temple, Fuyan Temple, Zhusheng Temple Zhusheng Temple () * Zhusheng Temple (Hunan), in Hengshan, Hunan, China * Zhusheng Temple (Yunnan), Binchuan County, Yunnan, China Buddhist temple disambiguation pages {{Disambiguation ... (8th-century Buddhist monastery) and Zhurong Gong, a small stone temple. Climate References Further reading * * {{Aut ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor () of the Qin dynasty from 221 to 210 BC. His self-invented title "emperor" ( ') would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia. Historically, he was often portrayed as a tyrannical ruler and strict Legalist, in part from the Han dynasty's scathing assessments of him. Since the mid 20th-century, scholars have begun to question this evaluation, inciting considerable discussion on the actual nature of his policies and reforms. Regardless, according to sinologist Michael Loewe "few would contest the view that the achievements of his reign have exercised a paramount influence on the whole of China's subsequent history, marking the start of an epoch that closed in 1911". Born in the Zhao state capital Handan, as Ying ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Records Of The Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian, whose father Sima Tan had begun it several decades earlier. The work covers a 2,500-year period from the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in the author's own time, and describes the world as it was known to the Chinese of the Western Han dynasty. The ''Records'' has been called a "foundational text in Chinese civilization". After Confucius and the First Emperor of Qin, "Sima Qian was one of the creators of Imperial China, not least because by providing definitive biographies, he virtually created the two earlier figures." The ''Records'' set the model for all subsequent dynastic histories of China. In contrast to Western historical works, the ''Records'' do not treat history as "a cont ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sima Qian
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years beginning from the rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and the formation of the first Chinese polity to the reigning sovereign of Sima Qian's time, Emperor Wu of Han. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the ''Records of the Grand Historian'' served as a model for official history-writing for subsequent Chinese dynasties and the Chinese cultural sphere (Korea, Vietnam, Japan) up until the 20th century. Sima Qian's father Sima Tan first conceived of the ambitious project of writing a complete history of China, but had completed only some preparatory sketches at the time of his death. After inheriting his father's position as court historian in the imperial court, he was determined to fulfill ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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8 Famous Sights Of Xiao & Xiang Rivers By Yokoyama Taikan (TNM) - Autumn Moon Over Lake Dongting
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of the form , being an integer greater than 1. * the first number which is neither prime nor semiprime. * the base of the octal number system, which is mostly used with computers. In octal, one digit represents three bits. In modern computers, a byte is a grouping of eight bits, also called an octet. * a Fibonacci number, being plus . The next Fibonacci number is . 8 is the only positive Fibonacci number, aside from 1, that is a perfect cube. * the only nonzero perfect power that is one less than another perfect power, by Mihăilescu's Theorem. * the order of the smallest non-abelian group all of whose subgroups are normal. * the dimension of the octonions and is the highest possible dimension of a normed division algebra. * the first number ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jiuyi Mountains
The Jiuyi Mountains ( ''Jiuyi Shan'') are a mountain range in Hunan province, China. They are located in the Yongzhou, Ningyuan County, Ningyuan and Lanshan County, Lanshan region, bordering Guangdong province. They are part of the Mengzhu Mountains of the Nanling Mountains, Nanling Range. These mountains are reputed to be the burial place of Emperor Shun in ancient Chinese tradition. It is traditionally inhabited by the Yao people. Autonomous counties include: Daqiao Yao Ethnic Township References Ranges of the Nanling Mountains Mountain ranges of Hunan {{Hunan-geo-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |