Chinese culture and thoughts, and has become one of the most important religions in China at that time.
Its Deity is Sakyamuni(释迦牟尼);
Its doctrine is based on transmigration(轮回). What is the fundamental cause of all suffering? Desire!
What did the Buddha teach?
The doctrine of Four Noble Truths (四谛)
? life is suffering,
? the cause of suffering is desire, ? the answer is to quench (抑制) desire,
? the way to this end is to follow the Eight-Fold Path (八正道). What do Buddhists believe?
Nirvana is a peaceful, detached state of mind.
Achieving Nirvana means escape from the cycle of rebirth.
Buddhism in China has developed into three sections, namely the Han, Tibetan and Southern Buddhism.
Chapter 3 Chinese Characters, Calligraphy and Painting
Words and Expressions: Chinese Characters 汉字
calligraphy书法 calligrapher书法家 Oracle bone script甲骨文 The regular Script 楷书
Four Treasures of the Study 文房四宝 brush 毛笔 ink stick 墨 ink stone 砚台 The origin of the Chinese characters 1.Keep records by tying knots (结绳说） 2.The Eight Diagrams (八卦说)
3.Cang Jie created the characters(仓颉造字说)
The evolution of Chinese characters font(汉字的字体演变)
Oracle bone script
It refers to incised(雕刻的 ) ancient Chinese characters found on oracle bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells used in divination(预言) in ancient China. Bronze ware script金文
It refers to characters found engraved on bronze vessels, utensils, weapons etc. The Seal Characters (篆书)
Soft lines of strokes and upright rectangular shape keep the seal form characters more close to pictography (象形文字). Each of the characters has a balanced and symmetrical (对称的) pattern. The Official Script(隶书)
It was the turning point in the evolution of Chinese scripts and is the foundation of the later script forms. It turned the remaining curved and round strokes of the seal form into linear (直线的) and flat square (扁方形) shapes. The regular Script (楷书)
It is still today?s standard writing. It is square in form, and non-cursive in strokes. The running Script (行书)
The running form is somewhere between the regular and the cursive forms allowing simpler and faster writing.
The Cursive/Grass Character(草书)
This style of calligraphy is smooth and lively with strokes flowing and characters linking together.The characters are often joined, with the last stroke of one merging into the initial stroke of the next. It is executed freely and rapidly so that parts of the characters appear exaggerated (夸张的). Calligraphy
Playing musical instruments, playing chess, calligraphy and painting were considered as the four essential skills for a learned scholar.
The Chinese saying “The handwriting reveals the person” (字如其人), is directly related to calligraphy.
Four Treasures of the Study 文房四宝 brush毛笔 ink stick墨 paper 纸 ink stone砚 Famous Chinese Calligraphers in History
Wang Xizhi —the sage of Chinese calligraphy
Zhang Xu (张旭）——the “sage of the cursive hand” ”草圣” Yan Zhenqing——the four greatest masters of Regular script.
Liu Gongquan——a master of Regular Script and Running-cursive(行草) Painting Painting
Chinese Traditional Painting refers to ink - wash painting (水墨画) .Traditional Chinese paintings are not “purely” paintings. They combine fine art, poetry, calligraphy, and seal engraving to achieve an artistic unison (一致). Human figures, landscapes, flowers, birds, and pavilions are the most important themes of traditional Chinese painting. The classification of Chinese painting According to subject matter Figure painting Landscape painting Bird-and-flower painting According to the technique The xie yi school The gong bi school
Chapter 4 Literature
Words and Expressions Celestial Poet (诗仙) Saint Poet (诗圣)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 《三国演义》 Water Margin《水浒传》 Journey to the West《西游记》 Dream of the Red Mansions《红楼梦》 The Tang Poem
The Tang Dynasty saw the continued development of Chinese poetry. The Complete Anthology of Tang Poems (《全唐诗》), edited in the early Qing Dynasty, is the biggest-ever collection of Chinese poetry. It contains 48,977 poems by 2,208 poets who wrote in different styles.
The development of poetry in the Tang Dynasty can be classified into four stages, namely Early Tang, High Tang, Mid Tang, and Late Tang (初唐，盛唐，中唐，晚唐） Early Tang
The Four Literary Eminences(初唐四杰) Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Luo Binwang, and Lu Zhaolin High Tang
A whole generation of literary giants appeared during the High Tang period when society enjoyed prosperity and stability. Li Bai and Du Fu are regarded as the twin master poets of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Bai, the “Celestial Poet (诗仙)”, has long been regarded the greatest romantic poet in Chinese literature. In his poems, imagination, exaggeration, diction and sonorous rhythms are blended effortlessly.
Du Fu, the “Saint Poet (诗圣)”, has been considered as the greatest realistic poet in Chinese literature. A mirror of the times, his poems faithfully and profoundly reflect the social realities of Tang Dynasty in decline, like a poetic historical account. Because he reached perfection in developing a depressing literary style, his works have been considered as the classics of realism. The other poets in this period can be grouped into two categories: frontier poets (边塞诗人）represented by Gao Shi and Cen Shen, and pastoral poets (田园诗人）represented by Meng Haoran and Wang Wei. Mid-Tang
The outstanding poet Bai Juyi succeeded Du Fu with poems reflecting the reality of society. Late Tang
With the deterioration of the government in the late Tang Dynasty, the poems reflected, more and more, the hopeless and helpless feelings of the people. Poets turned to the theme of nostalgia (怀旧) for the former splendor (辉煌 )of old times. The most talented of these were Li Shangyin and Du Mu, who were often called “Young Li Bai and Du Fu”. Fiction in the Ming and Qing Dynasty
In the Song Dynasty, huaben (话本), the earliest novels written in colloquial language started to appear. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, novels grew rapidly as a lively and free literary form. The language of the novels was simple, easy to understand, and welcomed by the public.
Four famous Chinese classical novels
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 《三国演义》 Water Margin《水浒传》 Journey to the West《西游记》 Dream of the Red Mansions《红楼梦》 Winner of the Noble Prize in Literature, Mo Yan
On 11 October 2012, the Swedish Academy announced that Mo Yan had received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work . Aged 57 at the time of the announcement, he was the 109th recipient of the award and the first ever resident of mainland China to receive it .
Mo Yan has written 11 novels, and several novellas and short story collections.
《红高粱家族》 Red Sorghum, 《天堂蒜薹之歌》 The Garlic Ballads, 《十三步》 Thirteen Step,《食草家族》 The Herbivorous Family, 《丰乳肥臀》 Big Breasts and Wide Hips, 《酒国》 The Republic of Wine: A Novel, 《红树林》 Red Forest, 《檀香刑》 Sandalwood Death, 《生死疲劳》Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, 《四十一炮》 Pow!, 《蛙》 Frog
Chapter 5 Education
Words and Expressions Private Schools私塾 Official Schools官学
the Four Books and the Five Classics四书五经 Imperial Examination 科举
Nine-year Compulsory Education 九年制义务教育 Vocational Education 职业教育 College Entrance Examination 高考 Bachelor?s degree学士学位 Master?s degree 硕士学位 Doctor?s degree 博士学位 Confucius Institute孔子学院 Private Schools
A private school refers to a school set up by a family, clan, or teacher that generally had just one teacher who gave individual tuition, and that had no set textbooks and no specified time span of study.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, private schools prevailed and many scholars of different schools