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Dog (zodiac)
The Dog ( 狗) is eleventh of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dog is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 戌. The character 狗, also refers to the actual animal while 戌, also refers to the zodiac animal. Years and the Five Elements People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Dog", while also bearing the following elemental sign: Basic astrology elements 2018 In the sexagenary cycle, 2018 (16 February 2018–4 February 2019, and every 60-year multiple before and after), is the Celestial stem/Earthly Branch year indicated by the characters 戊戌. For the 2018 Year of the Dog, many countries and regions issued lunar new year stamps. These included countries where the holiday is traditionally observed as well as countries in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Oceania. The U.S.-China Institute at USC created a web collection of more than 10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the 7th century). It is the most common style in modern writings and third most common in publications (after the Ming and gothic styles, which are used exclusively in print). History The ''Calligraphy Manual of Xuanhe Era'' (; Xuānhé Shūpǔ) credit Wáng Cìzhòng () with creating Regular script based on Clerical script in the early Western Hàn. This script came into popular usage between the Eastern Hàn and Cáo Wèi dynasties,Qiú 2000 p. 143 and its first known master was Zhōng Yáo (; sometimes also read Zhōng Yóu), who lived in the Eastern Hàn to Cáo Wèi period, c. 151–230 CE. He is also known as the "father of regular script", and his famous works include the ''Xuānshì Biǎo'' (), ''Jiànjìzhí Biǎo'' (), and ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twelve Heavenly Generals
In East Asian Buddhism, the Twelve Heavenly Generals or Twelve Divine Generals are the protective deities, or ''yaksha'', of Bhaisajyaguru, the buddha of healing. They are introduced in the ''Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharāja Sūtra''. They are collectively named as follows: * *Japanese: or or Names of generals The precise names of the generals seem to vary depending on tradition. Those listed below are from an available Sanskrit transcription of the ''Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra'': While the ''Honji'' and zodiac correspondences listed above are the standard in Japanese sources, there is variation among texts and regional traditions. Popular culture * Statues of the Twelve Heavenly Generals stand in Ngong Ping, Hong Kong. * The Heavenly Generals and their names were used as character material for the powerful digital monster characters who serve the "Four Holy Beasts" (Digimon Sovereigns in the English Dub) in the Digital World, from the 2001 series D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal Worship
The term Animal worship (or zoolatry) is an umbrella term designating religious or ritual practices involving animals. This includes the worship of animal deities or animal sacrifice. An animal 'cult' is formed when a species is taken to represent a religious figure ( Teeter et al., 2002, p. 355). Animal cults can be classified according to their formal features or by their symbolic content ( Thomas 1911, p. 51). The classical author Diodorus situated the origin of animal worship in a myth in which the gods, threatened by giants, disguised themselves as animals. The people then began to worship these animals and continued even after the gods returned to their normal state ( Lubbock, 2005, p. 252). In 1906, Weissenborn suggested that animal worship resulted from humans fascination with the natural world. Primitive man would observe an animal that had a unique trait and the inexplicability would engender curiosity ( Weissenborn, 1906b, p. 282). Wonder resulte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dog In Chinese Mythology
Dogs are an important motif in Chinese mythology. These motifs include a particular dog which accompanies a hero, the dog as one of the twelve totem creatures for which years are named, a dog giving first provision of grain which allowed current agriculture, and claims of having a magical dog as an original ancestor in the case of certain ethnic groups. Myth versus history Chinese mythology includes myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other ethnic groups (of which fifty-six are officially recognized by the current administration of China). (Yang 2005:4) In the study of historical Chinese culture, many of the stories that have been told regarding characters and events which have been written or told of the distant past have a double tradition: one which tradition which presents a more historicized and one which presents a more mythological version.(Yang 2005: 12–13) This is also true of some accounts related to mythological dogs in China ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philately
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps. For instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare or reside only in museums. Etymology The word "philately" is the English transliteration of the French "", coined by Georges Herpin in 1864. Herpin stated that stamps had been collected and studied for the previous six or seven years and a better name was required for the new hobby than ''timbromanie'' (roughly "stamp quest"), which was disliked.Williams, L.N. & M. ''Fundamentals of Philately''. State College: The American Philatelic Society, 1971, p.20. The alternative terms "timbromania", "timbrophily", and "timbrology" gradually fell out of use as ''philately'' gained acceptance during the 1860s. Herpin took the Greek root word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celestial Stem
The ten Heavenly Stems or Celestial Stems () are a Chinese system of ordinals that first appear during the Shang dynasty, c. 1250 BC, as the names of the ten days of the week. They were also used in Shang-period ritual as names for dead family members, who were offered sacrifices on the corresponding day of the Shang week. The Heavenly Stems were used in combination with the Earthly Branches, a similar cycle of twelve days, to produce a compound cycle of sixty days. Subsequently, the Heavenly Stems lost their original function as names for days of the week and dead kin, and acquired many other uses, the most prominent and long lasting of which was their use together with the Earthly Branches as a 60-year calendrical cycle. The system is used throughout East Asia. Table The Japanese names of the Heavenly Stems are based on their corresponding Wuxing elements (e.g. ''ki'' for "wood", ''mizu'' for "water"), followed by the possessive/attributive particle の (''no'') and the word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexagenary Cycle
The sexagenary cycle, also known as the Stems-and-Branches or ganzhi ( zh, 干支, gānzhī), is a cycle of sixty terms, each corresponding to one year, thus a total of sixty years for one cycle, historically used for recording time in China and the rest of the East Asian cultural sphere. It appears as a means of recording days in the first Chinese written texts, the Shang dynasty, Shang oracle bones of the late second millennium BC. Its use to record years began around the middle of the 3rd century BC. The cycle and its variations have been an important part of the traditional calendrical systems in Chinese-influenced Asian states and territories, particularly those of Japanese calendar, Japan, Korean calendar, Korea, and Vietnamese calendar, Vietnam, with the old Chinese system still in use in Taiwanese calendar, Taiwan, and to a lesser extent, in Mainland China. This traditional method of numbering days and years no longer has any significant role in modern Chinese time-keeping ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orchidaceae
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants. The Orchidaceae have about 28,000 currently accepted species, distributed in about 763 genera. (See ''External links'' below). The determination of which family is larger is still under debate, because verified data on the members of such enormous families are continually in flux. Regardless, the number of orchid species is nearly equal to the number of bony fishes, more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species. The family encompasses about 6–11% of all species of seed plants. The largest genera are ''Bulbophyllum'' (2,000 species), ''Epidendrum'' (1,500 species), ''Dendrobium'' (1,400 species) and ''Pleurothallis'' (1,000 species). It also includes ''Vanilla'' (the genus of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cymbidium
''Cymbidium'' , commonly known as boat orchids, is a genus of evergreen flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are epiphytic, lithophytic, terrestrial or rarely leafless saprophytic herbs usually with pseudobulbs. There are usually between three and twelve leaves arranged in two ranks on each pseudobulb or shoot and lasting for several years. From one to a large number of flowers are arranged on an unbranched flowering stem arising from the base of the pseudobulb. The sepals and petals are all free from and similar to each other. The labellum is significantly different from the other petals and the sepals and has three lobes. There are about fifty-five species and sixteen further natural hybrids occurring in the wild from tropical and subtropical Asia to Australia. Cymbidiums are well known in horticulture and many cultivars have been developed. Description Plants in the genus ''Cymbidium'' are epiphytic, lithophytic or terrestrial plants, or ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oncidium
''Oncidium'', abbreviated as Onc. in the horticultural trade, is a genus that contains about 330 species of orchids from the subtribe Oncidiinae of the orchid family (Orchidaceae). As presently conceived (May 2014), it is distributed across much of South America, Central America, Mexico and the West Indies, with one species ''(O. ensatum)'' extending into Florida. Common names for plants in this genus include dancing-lady orchid and golden shower orchid. In 2008, Oxfords Annals of Botany labeled the ''Oncidium'' alliance "grossly polyphyletic." The American Orchid Society labeled this genus a "dumping ground."Lindleyana : The scientific journal of the American Orchid Society. December 2008 Pg 20 After DNA testing and much debate, a consensus was announced (April 2013) resulting in major taxonomic changes to ''Oncidium, Gomesa, Odontoglossum, Miltonia,'' and others. Much of this debate and subsequent housekeeping was initiated by significant research for the scientific publication ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Their flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and northwestern Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses. Etymology The name ''rose'' comes from L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
