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Sima Qian
Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China covering more than two thousand years from the rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and formation of the first Chinese polity to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, during which Sima wrote. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the ''Shiji'' served as a model for official histories for subsequent dynasties across the Sinosphere 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 his father's dying wish of composing and putting together th ...
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Sima (Chinese Surname)
Sima (, ) is a Chinese family name. It is one of the rare Chinese compound surname, two-character Chinese family names; most Chinese family names consist of only a single Chinese character, character. It is an occupational surname, literally meaning "control" (sī) "horses" (mǎ), or "horse officer". The family name originated from Sima (office), one of the offices of the Zhou dynasty. History The Sima clan were said to be the descendants of the mythological figures Zhuanxu, Gaoyang and Zhu Rong (god), Chongli (Gaoyang's son). They served as ''xiaguan'' (夏官; "officers of summer") in the reigns of the mythical emperors Emperor Yao, Yao and Emperor Shun, Shun and through the Xia dynasty, Xia and Shang dynasty, Shang dynasties. During the Zhou dynasty, officials holding the appointment of ''xiaguan'' oversaw military affairs and were collectively known as "''xiaguan sima''". Cheng-bo Xiufu (程伯休甫), a descendant of Chongli (Zhurong), helped King Xuan of Zhou, King Xuan of th ...
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Sun Bin
Sun Bin (died 316 BC) was a Chinese general, military strategist, and writer who lived during the Warring States period of Chinese history. A supposed descendant of Sun Tzu, Sun was tutored in military strategy by the hermit Guiguzi. He was accused of treason by Pang Juan while serving Wei and punished by being branded and crippled. Sun escaped and became a strategist and commander for Qi, defeating Wei at the Battle of Guiling and the Battle of Maling; Pang was killed at Maling. Sun's '' Art of War'' with the Yinqueshan Han Slips were discovered in 1972 after going missing for at least 1400 years. Life Early life and service in Wei Sun Bin was allegedly a descendant of Sun Tzu. Sun Bin excelled while studying military strategy under the hermit Guiguzi; he could recite ''The Art of War'' and identified by Guiguzi as a role model for other students. Pang Juan, a fellow student, became Sun's blood brother. Pang left to be a Wei general, and built a reputation throu ...
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Yu The Great
Yu the Great or Yu the Engineer was a legendary king in ancient China who was credited with "the first successful state efforts at flood control", his establishment of the Xia dynasty, which inaugurated Dynasties in Chinese history, dynastic rule in China, and for his upright moral character. He figures prominently in the Chinese legend titled "Great Yu Controls the Waters" (). Yu and other sage-kings of ancient China were lauded for their virtues and morals by Confucius and other Chinese teachers. He is one of the few Chinese monarchs who is posthumously honored with the epithet "the Great". There is no contemporary evidence of Yu's existence as traditionally attested in the ''Shiji''. Yu is said to have ruled as sage-king during the late 3rd millennium BC, which predates the oracle bone script used during the late Shang dynasty—the oldest known form of writing in China—by nearly a millennium. Yu's name was not inscribed on any artifacts which were produced during the ...
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Warring States
The Warring States period in Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and struggles for greater hegemonic influence among the various autonomous feudal states of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the eventual unification of China by the western state of Qin under Qin Shi Huang, who conquered all other contender states by 221 BC and found the Qin dynasty, the first imperial dynasty in East Asian history. While scholars have identified several different dates as marking the beginning of the Warring States period, Sima Qian's choice of 475 BC, the first year of King Yuan of Zhou's reign, is the most often cited due to the paucity of preceding annals after the Qin Shi Huang's burning of books and burying of scholars. The Warring States era largely corresponds to the ...
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Miluo River
The Miluo River (, and with modified Wade–Giles using the form Mi-lo) is located on the eastern bank of Dongting Lake, the largest tributary of the Xiang River in the northern Hunan Province. It is an important river in the Dongting Lake watershed, known as the location of the ritual suicide in 278 BC of Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu state during the Warring States period, in protest against the corruption of the era. Originating in Xiushui County of Jiangxi province, the Miluo river is about long. It passes Pingjiang county in Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ... and empties into Dongting Lake in Miluo city. The river is formed by the confluence of the Mi and Luo rivers, of which the Mi river is the main branch. The two rivers become the Miluo river afte ...
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Hunan
Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, and Guizhou and Chongqing to the northwest. Its capital and largest city is Changsha, which abuts the Xiang River. Hengyang, Zhuzhou, and Yueyang are among its most populous urban cities. With a population of just over 66 million residing in an area of approximately , it is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, 7th-most populous province, the third-most populous among landlocked provinces (after Henan and Sichuan), the third-most populous in South Central China (after Guangdong and Henan), and the second-most populous province in Central China. It is the largest province in South Central China and the fourth-largest landlocked province. Hunan's Gross domestic product#Nominal GDP ...
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Changsha Kingdom
The Changsha Kingdom was a kingdom within the Han Empire of China, located in present-day Hunan and some surrounding areas. The kingdom was founded when Emperor Gaozu granted the territory to his follower Wu Rui in 203 or 202 BC, around the same time as the establishment of the Han dynasty. Wu Rui and his descendants held the kingdom for five generations until Wu Zhu died without an heir in 157 BC. In 155 BC, the kingdom was reestablished for a member of the imperial family. However, the creation of this second kingdom coincided with the Rebellion of the Seven States and the subsequent reforms under Emperor Jing, and Changsha under the imperial family saw its autonomy greatly diminished. The kingdom was dissolved during Wang Mang's usurpation (AD 9 – 23), briefly restored after the founding of the Eastern Han, and finally abolished in and converted to a commandery under the imperial government. Changsha was one of the largest and longest-lasting kingdoms in Han China. D ...
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Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea. It is the fifth-largest primary river by discharge volume in the world. Its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the country's population. The Yangtze has played a major role in the history, culture, and economy of China. For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking, and war. The Yangtze Delta generates as much as 20% of China's GDP, and the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. In mid-2014, the Chinese government announced it was building a multi-tier transport network, comprising railway ...
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Xi'an
Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populous city in Northwestern China. Its total population was 12.95 million as of the 2020 census, including an urban population of 9.28 million. Known as Chang'an throughout much of its history, Xi'an is one of China's Historical capitals of China, Four Great Ancient Capitals, having held the position under several of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including the Western Zhou, Qin dynasty, Qin, Western Han, Sui dynasty, Sui, Northern Zhou and Tang dynasty, Tang. Xi'an is now the second-most popular tourist destination in China. The city was one of the terminal points on the Silk Road during the ancient and medieval eras, as well as the home of the 3rd-century BC Terracotta Army commissioned by Emperor Qin Shi Huan ...
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Chang'an
Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in what is now the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, China's first emperor, held his imperial court and constructed his massive mausoleum guarded by the Terracotta Army. From its capital at Xianyang, the Qin dynasty ruled a larger area than either of the preceding dynasties. The imperial city of Chang'an during the Han dynasty was located northwest of today's Xi'an. During the Tang dynasty, the area that came to be known as Chang'an included the area inside the Ming Xi'an fortification, plus some small areas to its east and west, and a substantial part of its southern suburbs. Thus, Tang Chang'an was eight t ...
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Filial Piety
Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors, particularly within the context of Confucian ethics, Confucian, Chinese Buddhism, Chinese Buddhist ethics, Buddhist, and Daoism, Daoist ethics. The Confucian ''Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the late Warring States-Qin dynasty, Qin-Han dynasty, Han period, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of filial piety. The book—a purported dialogue between Confucius and his student Zengzi—is about how to set up a good society using the principle of filial piety. Filial piety is central to Confucian role ethics. In more general terms, filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct, not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to show love, respect, and support; to display courtesy; to ensure male heirs; to uph ...
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Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius in the Hundred Schools of Thought era (c. 500 BCE), Confucianism integrates philosophy, ethics, and social governance, with a core focus on virtue, social harmony, and familial responsibility. Confucianism emphasizes virtue through self-cultivation and communal effort. Key virtues include '' ren'' (benevolence), '' yi'' (righteousness), '' li'' (propriety), '' zhi'' (wisdom), and '' xin'' (sincerity). These values, deeply tied to the notion of '' tian'' (heaven), present a worldview where human relationships and social order are manifestations of sacred moral principles.. While Confucianism does not emphasize an omnipotent deity, it upholds ''tian'' as a transcendent moral order. Confucius regarded himself as a transmitter of cultura ...
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