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Xi Zhong
Xi Zhong ( Chinese: ) was a legendary Xia dynasty minister claimed to have served Yu the Great credited in traditional Chinese sources with the invention of the chariot during the 2nd millennium BC. Modern archaeological evidence has not found support for that, however, and suggests instead a date closer to 1200 BC for the introduction of small-scale use of chariots.Ebrey, Patricia. ''East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History'', p. 14. Houghton Mifflin Co (Boston), 2006. . See also * Chinese chariot * Cangjie Cangjie is a legendary figure in Chinese mythology, said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities ... References Xia dynasty people Chinese inventors {{China-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Language
Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic languages, Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a Language family, family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin with 66%, or around 800&nb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xia Dynasty
The Xia dynasty (; ) is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, it was established by the legendary figure Yu the Great, after Emperor Shun, Shun, the last of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In traditional historiography, the Xia was succeeded by the Shang dynasty. There are no contemporaneous records of the Xia, and they are not mentioned in the oldest Chinese texts, the earliest oracle bone inscriptions dating from the Late Shang period (13th century BC). The earliest mentions occur in the oldest chapters of the ''Book of Documents'', which report speeches from the early Western Zhou period and are accepted by most scholars as dating from that time. The speeches justify the Zhou conquest of the Shang as the passing of the Mandate of Heaven and liken it to the succession of the Xia by the Shang. That political philosophy was promoted by the Confucian school in the Eastern Zhou period. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Chariot
The ancient Chinese chariot () was used as an attack and pursuit vehicle on the open fields and plains of ancient China from around 1200 BCE. Chariots also allowed military commanders a mobile platform from which to control troops while providing archers and soldiers armed with dagger-axes increased mobility. They reached a peak of importance during the Spring and Autumn period, but were largely superseded by cavalry during the Han dynasty. History Traditional sources attribute the invention of the chariot to the Xia dynasty minister Xi Zhong, and say they were used at the Battle of Gan (甘之戰) in the 21st century BCE. However archeological evidence shows that small scale use of the chariot began around 1200 BCE in the Late Shang period. They were probably introduced through the northern steppes, probably from the area of the Deer stones culture. Contemporary oracle bone inscriptions of the character depict a chariot-like two wheeled vehicle with a single pole for the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xu Shen
Xu Shen () was a Chinese calligrapher, philologist, politician, and writer of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–189 CE). During his own lifetime, Xu was recognized as a preeminent scholar of the Five Classics. He was the author of ''Shuowen Jiezi'','' Daijisen'' entry "Xu Shen" (''Kyo Shin'' in Japanese). Shogakukan.'' Kanjigen'' entry "Xu Shen" (''Kyo Shin'' in Japanese). Gakken, 2006. which was the first comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters, as well as the first to organize entries by radical. This work continues to provide scholars with information on the development and historical usage of Chinese characters. Xu Shen completed his first draft in 100 CE but, waited until 121 CE before having his son present the work to the Emperor An of Han. Life Xu was born about 58 CE in the Zhaoling district of Run'an prefecture (modern Luohe in Henan). He was a student of the scholar-official Jia Kui (30–101 CE). Under Jia, he established himself as a master in his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuowen Jiezi
The ''Shuowen Jiezi'' is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen , during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). While prefigured by earlier reference works for Chinese characters like the ''Erya'' (), the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' contains the first comprehensive analysis of characters in terms of their structure, where Xu attempted to provide rationales for their construction. It was also the first to organize its entries into sections according to shared components called Chinese character radicals, radicals. Background Xu Shen was a scholar of the Five Classics during the Han dynasty. He finished compiling the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' in 100 CE. However, due to an unfavorable imperial attitude towards scholarship, he waited until 121 before his son Xu Chong presented it to Emperor An of Han, along with a memorial. In analyzing the structure of characters and defining the words represented by them, Xu strove to clarify the meaning of the pre-Han classics, so as to ensure order and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shiben
The ''Shiben'' or ''Book of Origins'' (Pinyin: ''shìběn''; Chinese; 世本; ) was an early Chinese encyclopedia which recorded imperial genealogies from the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors down to the late Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BCE), explanations of the origin of clan names, and records of legendary and historical Chinese inventors. It was written during the 2nd century BC at the time of the Han dynasty. The work was lost in the 10th century, but partially reconstructed from quotations during the Qing dynasty. Title The title combines the common Chinese words ''shì'' 世 "generation; epoch; hereditary; world" and ''běn'' 本 "root; stem; origin; fundament; wooden tablet". The personal name of Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 627–650) was ''Shimin'' 世民, and owing to the strict naming taboo against writing an emperor's name, the ''Shiben'' 世本 title was changed to ''Xiben'' 系本 or ''Daiben'' 代本 (with the ''shi'' near-synonyms of ''xi'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yupian
The ''Yupian'' (; "Jade Chapters") is a c. 543 Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang ( 顧野王; Ku Yeh-wang; 519–581) during the Liang dynasty. It arranges 12,158 character entries under 542 radicals, which differ somewhat from the original 540 in the ''Shuowen Jiezi''. Each character entry gives a fanqie pronunciation gloss and a definition, with occasional annotation. The ''Yupian'' is a significant work in the history of Written Chinese. It is the first major extant dictionary in the four centuries since the completion of ''Shuowen'' and records thousands of new characters that had been introduced into the language in the interim. It is also important for documenting nonstandard ''súzì'' ( 俗字, "popular written forms of characters"), many of which were adopted in the 20th century as official simplified Chinese characters. For instance, the ''Yupian'' records that ''wàn'' ( traditional 萬, "ten thousand, myriad") had a popular form of (simplified 万), which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cangjie
Cangjie is a legendary figure in Chinese mythology, said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet. He is considered a legendary rather than historical figure, or at least not considered to be the sole inventor of Chinese characters. Cangjie was the eponym for the ''Cangjiepian'' proto-dictionary, the Cangjie method of inputting characters into a computer, and a Martian rock visited by the Mars rover '' Spirit'', and named by the rover team. Legend of character creation There are several versions of the legend. One tells that shortly after unifying China, the Yellow Emperor, being dissatisfied with the "rope knot tying" method of recording information, charged Cangjie with the task of creating characters for writing. Cangjie then settled down on the bank of a river, and devoted himself ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xia Dynasty People
Xia (Hsia in Wade–Giles) may refer to: Chinese history * Xia dynasty (c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC), the first orthodox dynasty in Chinese history * Xia (Sixteen Kingdoms) (407–431), a Xiongnu-led dynasty * Xia (617–621), a state founded by Dou Jiande near the end of the Sui dynasty * Western Xia (1038–1227), a Tangut-led dynasty * Eastern Xia (1215–1233), a Jurchen-led dynasty * Ming Xia (1362–1371), a short-lived dynasty that existed during the late Yuan dynasty period Other uses * Huaxia or Xia, an ancient ethnic group later known as the Han Chinese * Xia (surname), a Chinese surname * Xia (philosophy), a Chinese philosophy somewhat like the chivalrous code of European knights * Xia County, Shanxi, China * Xia Vigor (born 2009), British-Filipino actress * Xiafs, a file system developed for the Linux operating system together with the Ext2 file system * Xia class submarine, a Chinese ballistic missile submarine * BYD Xia, a minivan produced by BYD Auto named after t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
