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Bao Si
Bao Si () was a consort of King You of Zhou. She was considered one of the most beautiful women of the ancient era. Life Legends record that during the last years of the Xia dynasty, two dragons entered the palace of the king. When they left, the Xia king ordered that the dragon's saliva left inside the palace be kept in a wooden box. During the time of King Li of Zhou, he tried to open the box despite a taboo against such an act. The saliva accidentally spilled and transformed into a black lizard. The lizard crawled in front of a seven-year-old slave girl. Eight years later she became pregnant while still a virgin, and gave birth to a girl. The mother abandoned the baby, who was later adopted by a couple who escaped to the and raised her to adulthood. She was later presented by the ruler of Bao to King You. In 779 BC, Bao Si entered the palace and came into King You's favor. They had a son named Bofu. King You decided to depose and her son, Crown Prince Yijiu, and replace the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King You Of Zhou
King You of Zhou (795–771 BC), personal name Ji Gongsheng, was a king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty and the last from the Western Zhou dynasty. He reigned from 781 to 771 BC. History In 780 BC, a major earthquake struck Guanzhong. A soothsayer named Bo Yangfu () considered this an omen foretelling the destruction of the Zhou Dynasty. In 779 BC, a concubine named Bao Si entered the palace and came into the King You's favour. They had a son named Bofu. King You deposed and Crown Prince Yijiu. He made Bao Si the new queen and Bofu the new crown prince. Queen Shen's father, the Marquess of Shen, was furious at the deposition of his daughter and grandson Crown Prince Yijiu and mounted an attack on King You's palace with the Quanrong. King You called for his nobles using the previously abused beacons but none came. In the end, King You and Bofu were killed and Bao Si was captured. After King You died, nobles including the Marquess of Shen, the Marquess of Zeng () and supporte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Records Of The Grand Historian
The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st centuries BC by the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, building upon work begun by his father Sima Tan. 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 ''Shiji'' has been called a "foundational text in Chinese civilization". After Confucius and Qin Shi Huang, "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 ''Shiji'' set the model for all subsequent dynastic histories of China. In contrast to Western historiographical conventions, the ''Shiji'' does no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xi Shi
Xi Shi (Hsi Shih; , ), also known by the nickname Xizi, was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have lived in a small Yue village (today part of Zhuji, a county-level city in Shaoxing, Zhejiang) during the end of the Spring and Autumn period. According to legend, Xi Shi was originally a girl who regularly washed gauze in the Huan Sha river. In traditional stories, Xi Shi was named Shi Yiguang (施夷光). She was discovered by the Yue minister Fan Li and given to King Fuchai of Wu by King Goujian of Yue in a sexpionage operation which successfully brought down the State of Wu in 473 BC. This account first appeared in '' Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue'' published five centuries after the conquest, and is completely absent in earlier works such as '' Guoyu'', ''Zuo zhuan'', and ''Records of the Grand Historian''. Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan and Yang Guifei are known as the “Four Beauties in Ancient China”, among which Xi Shi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yang Guifei
Yang Yuhuan (; 719 – 15 July 756Volume 218 of ''Zizhi Tongjian'' recorded that Yang was killed on the ''bing'shen'' day of the 6th month of the 1st year of the ''Zhi'de'' era of Tang Suzong's reign. This date corresponds to 15 Jul 756 on the Gregorian calendar.), often known as Yang Guifei (, with ''Guifei'' being the highest rank for Imperial Chinese harem system, imperial consorts during her time), and known briefly by the Taoist nun name Taizhen (), was the beloved consort of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang during his later years. She is known as one of the Four Beauties, Four Beauties of ancient China. During the An Lushan Rebellion, as Emperor Xuanzong and his cortege were fleeing from the capital Chang'an to Chengdu, the emperor's guards demanded that he put Yang to death because they blamed the rebellion on her cousin Yang Guozhong and the rest of her family. The emperor capitulated and reluctantly ordered his attendant Gao Lishi to supervise her forced suicide. Background Ya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Four Beauties
The Four Beauties or Four Great Beauties are four Chinese people, Chinese women who are renowned for their beauty and their impact on Chinese history through the influence they exercised over powerful men. The four are usually identified as Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan, and Yang Yuhuan. Among them, Diaochan is a fictional character while the rest have been greatly embellished by legend. Background One of the earliest references to qualities later associated with the canonical Four Great Beauties appears in the ''Zhuangzi (book), Zhuangzi''. In one chapter, the women Mao Qiang and Lady Li are described as "great beauties" who "when fish see them they dart into the depths, when birds see them they soar into the skies, when deer see them they bolt away without looking back". This passage is the source of the well-known chengyu, Chinese idiom "to make fish sink and birds fall", which refers to feminine beauty (see wikt:沉魚落雁, 沉魚落雁). Biographies Xi Shi Xi Shi lived a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daji
Daji ( zh, c=妲己, p=Dájǐ, w=Ta2-chi3) was the favourite consort of King Zhou of Shang, the last king of the Shang dynasty in ancient China. In legends and fictions, she is portrayed as a malevolent fox spirit who kills and impersonates the real Daji. Her identification as a fox spirit seems to have originated from at least the Tang dynasty. These accounts have been popularized in works such as the (), the , and the . She is considered a classic example of how a beautiful femme fatale can cause the downfall of a dynasty in Chinese culture. In the Song dynasty, fox spirit cults, including those dedicated to Daji, became outlawed, but their suppression was unsuccessful. For example, in 1111, an imperial edict was issued for the destruction of many spirit shrines within Kaifeng, including those of Daji. Biography Daji was from a noble family of Yousu (); her style name is Da (), and her clan name is Ji (). Hence, she is also known as Su Da Ji or Da Ji in ancient sources. At ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olivia Milburn
Olivia Milburn (born 1976) is a sinologist, author and literary translator who specialises in Chinese cultural history and in Chinese minority groups. Life and career Milburn is a professor at the School of Chinese, Hong Kong University. Milburn grew up in a multilingual family living in eight different countries, and became interested in Chinese literature as a teenager, after reading a translation of the '' Dream of the Red Chamber''. She completed a bachelor's degree at St Hilda's College, University of Oxford in 1998, a master's at Downing College, University of Cambridge in 1999, and a doctorate in classical Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 2003. After working as a lecturer at the University of London, she joined Seoul National University in 2008 and was appointed as a professor there in 2017. She started her current role at Hong Kong University in April 2022. Contributions Milburn has authored several books including '' Cher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feng Menglong
Feng Menglong (1574–1646), courtesy names Youlong (), Gongyu (), Ziyou (), or Eryou (), was a Chinese historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty. He was born in Changzhou County, now part of Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province. Life Feng was born into a scholar-bureaucrat gentry household, where he and his brothers Feng Menggui () and Feng Mengxiong () were educated in the classics and the traditional gentlemanly arts. He and his brothers, all well-known as accomplished writers, artists, and poets, became known collectively as the "Three Fengs of the Wu Area" (). In spite of his literary talent and his zeal for scholarship from a young age, Feng sat the imperial civil service examinations many times without success, eventually giving up and making a living as a tutor and teacher. In 1626, he narrowly avoided punishment after being implicated as an associate of Zhou Shunchang (), who was purged by the eunuch Wei Zhongxian. He resolved to complete his trilogy of vernacular Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chronicles Of The Eastern Zhou Kingdoms
The ''Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms'' () is a Chinese historical novel in 108 chapters written by Feng Menglong in the late Ming dynasty. Set in the Eastern Zhou dynasty, the novel starts from the Chinese kingdom beginning to break apart into smaller states and ends with the first unification of the land accomplished by Qin Shi Huang. It is one of the best-known historical novels regarding ancient China. The novel based its sources from classic texts such as the '' Zuo Tradition'' and the ''Records of the Grand Historian'' and some of the sacred classic books of China such as the ''Book of Rites'' and the ''Classic of Poetry''. File:Harvard drs 53925769 新列國志 v.5.pdf, page=7, Pages from a printed edition of the novel ''Chronicles of the East Zhou Kingdoms'' File:Harvard drs 53925769 新列國志 v.5.pdf, page=8, Pages from a printed edition of the novel ''Chronicles of the East Zhou Kingdoms'' File:Harvard drs 53925769 新列國志 v.5.pdf, page=9, Pages from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. It is also a member in the C9 League. Tsinghua University's campus is in northwest Beijing, on the site of the former imperial gardens of the Qing dynasty. The university has 21 schools and 59 departments, with faculties in science, engineering, humanities, law, medicine, history, philosophy, economics, management, education, and art. History Early 20th century (1911–1949) Tsinghua University was established in Beijing during a tumultuous period of national upheaval and conflicts with foreign powers which culminated in the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against foreign influence in China. After the suppression of the revolt by a foreign alliance including the United States, the ruling Qing dynasty was required to pay inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring interregnum known as the Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). The dynasty was briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD) established by the usurping regent Wang Mang, and is thus separated into two periods—the #Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD), Western Han (202 BC9 AD) and the #Eastern Han (25–220 AD), Eastern Han (25–220 AD). Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a Golden ages of China, golden age in Chinese history, and had a permanent impact on Chinese identity in later periods. The majority ethnic group of modern China refer to themselves as the "Han people" or "Han Chinese". The spoken Chinese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
