Celestial Secrets
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The Web That Has No Weaver
THE WEB THAT HAS NO WEAVER Understanding Chinese Medicine “The Web That Has No Weaver opens the great door of understanding to the profoundness of Chinese medicine.” —People’s Daily, Beijing, China “The Web That Has No Weaver with its manifold merits … is a successful introduction to Chinese medicine. We recommend it to our colleagues in China.” —Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China “Ted Kaptchuk’s book [has] something for practically everyone . Kaptchuk, himself an extraordinary combination of elements, is a thinker whose writing is more accessible than that of Joseph Needham or Manfred Porkert with no less scholarship. There is more here to think about, chew over, ponder or reflect upon than you are liable to find elsewhere. This may sound like a rave review: it is.” —Journal of Traditional Acupuncture “The Web That Has No Weaver is an encyclopedia of how to tell from the Eastern perspective ‘what is wrong.’” —Larry Dossey, author of Space, Time, and Medicine “Valuable as a compendium of traditional Chinese medical doctrine.” —Joseph Needham, author of Science and Civilization in China “The only approximation for authenticity is The Barefoot Doctor’s Manual, and this will take readers much further.” —The Kirkus Reviews “Kaptchuk has become a lyricist for the art of healing. And the more he tells us about traditional Chinese medicine, the more clearly we see the link between philosophy, art, and the physician’s craft.” —Houston Chronicle “Ted Kaptchuk’s book was inspirational in the development of my acupuncture practice and gave me a deep understanding of traditional Chinese medicine. -
Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road
PROCEEDINGS International Mogao Grottes Conference at Dunhuang on the Conservation of Conservation October of Grotto Sites 1993Mogao Grottes Ancient Sites at Dunhuang on the Silk Road October 1993 The Getty Conservation Institute Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road Proceedings of an International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites Conference organized by the Getty Conservation Institute, the Dunhuang Academy, and the Chinese National Institute of Cultural Property Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang The People’s Republic of China 3–8 October 1993 Edited by Neville Agnew THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE LOS ANGELES Cover: Four bodhisattvas (late style), Cave 328, Mogao grottoes at Dunhuang. Courtesy of the Dunhuang Academy. Photograph by Lois Conner. Dinah Berland, Managing Editor Po-Ming Lin, Kwo-Ling Chyi, and Charles Ridley, Translators of Chinese Texts Anita Keys, Production Coordinator Jeffrey Cohen, Series Designer Hespenheide Design, Book Designer Arizona Lithographers, Printer Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 © 1997 The J. Paul Getty Trust All rights reserved The Getty Conservation Institute, an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, works internation- ally to further the appreciation and preservation of the world’s cultural heritage for the enrichment and use of present and future generations. The listing of product names and suppliers in this book is provided for information purposes only and is not intended as an endorsement by the Getty Conservation Institute. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Conservation of ancient sites on the Silk Road : proceedings of an international conference on the conservation of grotto sites / edited by Neville Agnew p. -
Transformation of Capital City in Tang and Song China, Ca. 700-1100
From Closed Capital to Open Metropolis: Transformation of Capital City in Tang and Song China, ca. 700-1100 Hang Lin [email protected] Abstract. Chang’an of the Tang dynasty (630-907) and Kaifeng of the Song dynasty (960- 1127) represents two major stages in the development of the capital city in premodern China. In contrast to Chang’an, a semi-autonomous walled “urban village” separated by wide expanse of transitory space, Kaifeng was a dense city criss-crossed by ad hoc commercial streets filled with a variety of urban activities during days and nights. Indeed, during this period, a number of significant changes took place, which helped to erode the Tang urban structure and to give birth to a new, one in which the closed walled city transformed into an open market city. Based primarily on textual and material evidence, this paper outlines the characteristics of the layout and structure of the two cities and examines various aspects of the daily life in both cities. This comparative analysis sheds light on the unique pattern of transformation of cities in medieval China. Keywords: Chinese capital city, city transformation, Chang’an, Kaifeng, Tang dynasty, Song dynasty. Introduction Historians of premodern Chinese urbanism have long assumed that the origins of the Chinese imperial city plan stem from a passage in the Kaogong ji (Record of Artificers) section of the classical text Zhouli (Rituals of Zhou), which describes the city of the King of Zhou (Fig. 1): ‘When the artificer build the capital, [the city should be] a square of nine li on each side, with three gates on each side. -
Ancient Chinese Constellations Junjun Xu Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Room 424, Apartment 20, No
The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 260, 2009 c International Astronomical Union 2011 D. Valls-Gabaud & A. Boksenberg, eds. doi:10.1017/S174392131100319X Ancient Chinese constellations Junjun Xu Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Room 424, Apartment 20, No. 37 Xueyuan Street, Beijing, China email: [email protected] Abstract. China, a country with a long history and a specific culture, has also a long and specific astronomy. Ancient Chinese astronomers observed the stars, named and distributed them into constellations in a very specific way, which is quite different from the current one. Around the Zodiac, stars are divided into four big regions corresponding with the four orientations, and each is related to a totem, either the Azure Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, the White Tiger or the Murky Warrior. We present a general pattern of the ancient Chinese constellations, including the four totems, their stars and their names. Keywords. China, constellations, mansions 1. Introduction Three enclosures, four symbols and twenty-eight mansions characterise the ancient Chinese constellations. This division of the starry sky began to appear in China before the Zhou and Qin dynasties. The three enclosures refer to three areas around the North celestial pole: the Purple Forbidden enclosure, the Supreme Palace enclosure and the Heavenly Market enclosure. The four symbols are distributed near the ecliptic Zodiac and the lunar orbit and are represented by four totems: the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermillion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West and the Black Tortoise of the North. Every symbol was divided into seven sections which were know as mansions. -
CHAPTER 1665 This Sound Penetration Is Extremely Strong. All
CHAPTER 1665 This sound penetration is extremely strong. All over every corner of Li’s ancestral home. Everyone was shocked by this huge sound, and they all came outside the house of Li Jiazu. “hiss!” Seeing the scene before him, everyone gasped. Because outside the Li family’s ancestral home, there are densely packed soldiers… Can’t see the head at a glance. Looking at the flying flags, everyone recognized that this was the one hundred thousand Iron Brigade. Next to him are Ray’s Shura Army and Fan Shengnan’s Great Wall Army. Azure Dragon, Qilin, White Tiger… Heavenly Tribulation and Eighteen Horses; Dragoon Ghost army Heavenly Army, Earth Army, Xuanzi Army, Yellow Army; … Familiar faces. A hot-blooded man. Once they followed the God of War battlefield to kill the enemy. But the times have changed, after the era of warriors. These modern armies have all been abandoned, and few people can remember them anymore. They almost disappeared from public view. These are all undefeated teams! But now the national crisis is at stake. They stood up again. Even in the face of powerful warriors, they resolutely wanted to fight. Everyone has the same idea-to shed blood and sacrifice for Erudia! Shocked! Everyone in Jiangbei was shocked by the army in front of them! “Three hundred thousand troops, please go out of the mountain to protect Erudia and repel foreign enemies!” The 300,000 army knelt down to the ground and shouted together. Today’s main forces are all warriors, especially those who take the lead are the powerhouses of the supreme fourth and fifth heavens. -
The Symbol of the Dragon and the Tiger in Chinese and Japanese Art
THE RULERS OF SKY AND EARTH THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON AND THE TIGER IN CHINESE AND JAPANESE ART Grade Level This lesson is written for grades 9-12; it can be used in a World History or an Art class. Purpose To look at how symbols of power, the dragon and the tiger, are portrayed in the art of China and Japan; students will then compare and contrast this with the Western conception and portrayal of the dragon. Concepts In the Western world, dragons are portrayed as evil, fire-breathing creatures that must be subdued and killed by heroes. The Western dragon is seen as essentially negative, a symbol of evil and a sign of the devil. In Asia, the dragon is a positive force, a symbol of peace and harmony. Chinese and Japanese dragons are considered to be benevolent and auspicious. They breathe water rather than fire and have the power to bring rain, an important attribute in an agricultural society. The Chinese dragon is a supernatural, mythical creature that inhabits the sky and the waters and is connected with clouds, rains, and fertility on one hand and the emperor and his venerated ancestors on the other. For the last 4,000 years, the dragon has intertwined itself into all phases of China's social and political life as well as every form of art and literature. The dragon is the most important symbol of power, and the symbol of the emperor; no other animal has occupied such an important place in the thought and art of the Chinese people. -
The Symbol of the Dragon and Ways to Shape Cultural Identities in Institute Working Vietnam and Japan Paper Series
2015 - HARVARD-YENCHING THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON AND WAYS TO SHAPE CULTURAL IDENTITIES IN INSTITUTE WORKING VIETNAM AND JAPAN PAPER SERIES Nguyen Ngoc Tho | University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON AND WAYS TO SHAPE 1 CULTURAL IDENTITIES IN VIETNAM AND JAPAN Nguyen Ngoc Tho University of Social Sciences and Humanities Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City Abstract Vietnam, a member of the ASEAN community, and Japan have been sharing Han- Chinese cultural ideology (Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism etc.) and pre-modern history; therefore, a great number of common values could be found among the diverse differences. As a paddy-rice agricultural state of Southeast Asia, Vietnam has localized Confucianism and absorbed it into Southeast Asian culture. Therefore, Vietnamese Confucianism has been decentralized and horizontalized after being introduced and accepted. Beside the local uniqueness of Shintoism, Japan has shared Confucianism, the Indian-originated Mahayana Buddhism and other East Asian philosophies; therefore, both Confucian and Buddhist philosophies should be wisely laid as a common channel for cultural exchange between Japan and Vietnam. This semiotic research aims to investigate and generalize the symbol of dragons in Vietnam and Japan, looking at their Confucian and Buddhist absorption and separate impacts in each culture, from which the common and different values through the symbolic significances of the dragons are obviously generalized. The comparative study of Vietnamese and Japanese dragons can be enlarged as a study of East Asian dragons and the Southeast Asian legendary naga snake/dragon in a broader sense. The current and future political, economic and cultural exchanges between Japan and Vietnam could be sped up by applying a starting point at these commonalities. -
Origin Narratives: Reading and Reverence in Late-Ming China
Origin Narratives: Reading and Reverence in Late-Ming China Noga Ganany Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Noga Ganany All rights reserved ABSTRACT Origin Narratives: Reading and Reverence in Late Ming China Noga Ganany In this dissertation, I examine a genre of commercially-published, illustrated hagiographical books. Recounting the life stories of some of China’s most beloved cultural icons, from Confucius to Guanyin, I term these hagiographical books “origin narratives” (chushen zhuan 出身傳). Weaving a plethora of legends and ritual traditions into the new “vernacular” xiaoshuo format, origin narratives offered comprehensive portrayals of gods, sages, and immortals in narrative form, and were marketed to a general, lay readership. Their narratives were often accompanied by additional materials (or “paratexts”), such as worship manuals, advertisements for temples, and messages from the gods themselves, that reveal the intimate connection of these books to contemporaneous cultic reverence of their protagonists. The content and composition of origin narratives reflect the extensive range of possibilities of late-Ming xiaoshuo narrative writing, challenging our understanding of reading. I argue that origin narratives functioned as entertaining and informative encyclopedic sourcebooks that consolidated all knowledge about their protagonists, from their hagiographies to their ritual traditions. Origin narratives also alert us to the hagiographical substrate in late-imperial literature and religious practice, wherein widely-revered figures played multiple roles in the culture. The reverence of these cultural icons was constructed through the relationship between what I call the Three Ps: their personas (and life stories), the practices surrounding their lore, and the places associated with them (or “sacred geographies”). -
Nomenclature for Lunar Features at the Chang'e-3 Landing Site
Acta Geochim (2017) 36(2):213–223 DOI 10.1007/s11631-017-0159-1 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Nomenclature for lunar features at the Chang’e-3 landing site Zhoubin Zhang1,2 · Chunlai Li1,2,3 · Wei Zuo1,2,3 · Xingguo Zeng1,2 Received: 22 December 2016 / Revised: 15 February 2017 / Accepted: 9 April 2017 / Published online: 27 April 2017 © Science Press, Institute of Geochemistry, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract Nomenclatures for lunar features always published after some necessary approval procedures by the accompany the progresses of human lunar exploration, International Astronomical Union. which has an important dual meaning in culture and sci- ence. The naming of lunar features not only can Keywords Moon · Chang’e-3 · Landing site · Lunar commemorate the outstanding contributions of academics, feature nomenclature masters in various fields, and popularize the traditional cultures of ethnic groups all over the world, but also have a critical function of providing accurate indicative informa- 1 Introduction tion on features with special morphology, origin, nature and scientific value. However, nomenclature for features at Planetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is the Chang’e-3 landing site, which has a more arbitrary used to uniquely identify a feature on the surface of a form without many constrains posed by a uniformed sys- planet or satellite so that the feature can be easily located, tem, is unlike the features for other morphological units. described, and discussed. Nomenclature for lunar features This paper originated from the actual needs for the originated in the seventeenth century, as early scientists in description of scientific exploration activities, interpreta- that era used telescopes to observe the lunar surface, named tion of scientific research and dissemination of scientific the remarkable features on the lunar surface according to results. -
Worth the Splurge
2016 BLACK BOOK SALONS & SPASWORTH THE SPLURGE WHETHER YOU’RE IN THE MARKET FOR A CHROME MANI OR HIGHLIGHTS THAT’LL CONVINCE CO-WORKERS YOU WERE BORN A BLONDE, THIS GUIDE TO BUZZY BEAUTY HUBS AROUND THE U.S. (TESTED BY A TEAM OF REPORTERS!) WILL PROVE INDISPENSABLE. DID WE MENTION YOU GET A DISCOUNT? by KATHLEEN FIFIELD reported by GRACE LEE THE NOW IN LOS ANGELES 245 BEAUTY BLACK BOOK Star stylists Alex Polillo and Mara Roszak, along with colorist Denis De Souza, opened Mare Salon CUT early this year. ANN ARBOR, NEW YORK MICH. BLACKSTONES 2 Ave. of the Americas; LILY GRACE 646-666-0574. COSMETICS & SPA In this bright white-on-white 306 S. Main St.; salon located in the lobby of 734-761-9350. TriBeCa’s hip Roxy Hotel, With an elegant but homey you’ll find stylist, founder, and HOW THE INSTYLE DISCOUNT WORKS ambience (imagine a hair genie Joey Silvestera. Mention InStyle when booking. The 20 percent discount charming tin ceiling painted “I showed him a picture of applies to the specific service and location described in navy and cream), this model Alessandra Ambrosio,” these pages (or on InStyle.com) in the month of October 2016. boutique-spa hybrid is the says our tester, “and he said, Offer is for one discount per person, per location. beauty destination in this ‘I can give you that exact college town. Whether cut,’” and he did just that. you’re a local or a visitor, After a shampoo in the five- consider it your go-to spot chair space, Silvestera (who grazed the cut with scissors “movement and definition” to get that unfussy cool- kept a positive atmosphere, to add a “diffused softness” without a side of high- girl lob courtesy of hair complimenting our reporter’s to the lob. -
The Metaphysical Symbolism of the Chinese Tortoise
This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The metaphysical symbolism of the chinese tortoise Chong, Alan Wei Lun 2018 Chong, A. W. L. (2018). The metaphysical symbolism of the chinese tortoise. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73204 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/73204 Downloaded on 10 Oct 2021 09:40:57 SGT THE METAPHYSICAL SYMBOLISM OF THE CHINESE TORTOISE THE METAPHYSICAL SYMBOLISM THE METAPHYSICAL OF THE CHINESE TORTOISE CHONG WEI LUN ALAN CHONG WEI LUN, ALAN CHONG WEI LUN, SCHOOL OF ART, DESIGN AND MEDIA 2018 A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media for believing in me and granting me the scholarship for my Masters research. I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Dr. Nanci Takeyama of the School of Art, Design and Media, College of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University. The door to Prof. Takeyama office was always open whenever I ran into a trouble spot or had a question about my research or writing. Her valuable advice and exceeding patience has steered me in the right the direction whenever she thought I needed it. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Sujatha Meegama of the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University for advising in my report, and I am gratefully indebted to her for her valuable input for my research process. -
Stele for Magistrate Jing Yun 景雲: an Eastern Han Memorial Stele from the South-West with Reference to the Chuci 楚辭
Bulletin of SOAS, 84, 1 (2021), 115–140. © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unre- stricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/S0041977X20003079 First published online 14 January 2021 Stele for Magistrate Jing Yun 景雲: An Eastern Han memorial stele from the south-west with reference to the Chuci 楚辭 Hajni Elias1 University of Cambridge [email protected] Abstract An Eastern Han stele with an unusual relief decoration and 367 character memorial inscription tells us much about the south-west of China in early imperial times. Unearthed in 2004 from the banks of the Yangtze River and dated to 173 CE, the stele was dedicated to Quren county magistrate Jing Yun who died 70 years earlier in 103 CE. The paper provides a full translation, annotation, and analysis of the stele’s commemorative text, which borrows from the content and language of one of China’soldest anthologies of poems, the Chuci, and places it in its historical context. It also examines the iconography at the head of the stele which reflects beliefs in transcendence and the pursuit of immortality prevalent at the time and demonstrates its close relation to the inscription. Overall, the paper suggests that the decoration and text together exhibit a regional heritage that is distinct to the south-west, its memorial culture, and poetic and religious traditions.