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Contributions of Chinese Civilization

ARTS & LETTERS


URN AND PORCELAIN
Chinese ceramics are the most significant forms of Chinese art, as China has always been richly endowed with the raw
materials vital for making ceramics.
Ranges from:
Early bricks and tiles to the sophisticated porcelain collectors
History:
Contrasting geology of the N and S
What:
Obvious differences of raw materials in making ceramics
Why:
Continental drift in the middle of the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers
Where:
Taipeis National Palace Museum
What:
Examples of the almost translucent eggshell china (English term)
POTTERY WHEEL
Pottery first began in Neolithic China as coil building, and then beating the shapes with a paddle. At the end of the period,
there came the handbuilt technique, and then finished on a wheel. A stone potter wheel was found in Iraq (Mesopotamian
city of Ur) dated to about 3000 BC.
PAPER
Paper is considered as one of the four great inventions of the Chinese, next to the compass, gunpowder and printing.
Started: 105 AD
By:
Cai Lun, an official in the Imperial Court of the Han Dynasty
How:
Created a sheet using mulberry and other brast fibres with fishnet, old rags, hemp waste
Use:
2nd Century: Wrapping, Padding;
3rd Century: As a writing medium
6th Century: Sheets of paper as toilet paper
Tang Dynasty: Paper was folded, sewn into square bags
Why: to preserve the flavor of tea
Sung Dynasty: Government issued paper currency
DIAMOND SUTRA
This is a short and well-known Mahyna stra from the "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice of nonabiding and non-attachment
Copy found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century and dated back to 868, is, in the words of the British
Library, "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book."
ZHEZHI
Zhezhi is the art of paper folding; predecessor of origami.
When: 1993
Who:
group of Chinese refugees
Where: in custody of ship: Golden Venture, held in American prison
What:
Made models combining traditional modular paperfolding with a form of paper mache; sold to aiding refugees,
sold at charity fund raisers
JIANZHI
Jianzhi is the art of paper cutting.
AKA:
Window Flower
When: Holidays (e.g. Chinese New Year)
INK
Chinese ink differs from Western ink in composition and ability to stand the tests of time. Ancient or Antique insticks are
considered a collectors item.
Why:
Doesnt fade to the extent that Western ink does when exposed to light
CALLIGRAPHY
It is regarded as the most abstract and most sublime form of art.
Why:
Most revealing of ones personality
What:
Imperial Era; used as an important criterion for selection of executives to the Imperial court
Why:
strokes require careful planning and confident execution
Calligraphy is a mental exercise coordinating the mind and the body.
Why:
choose the best styling to better express the content of the passage
What:
most relaxing yet highly disciplined exercise for ones physical/spiritual well-being
TANGRAM
It is considered as the most popular dissection puzzles in the world.
AKA:
Seven Boards of Skill
Def:
Seven flat shapes (tans) put together to form a particular image
When: Became popular in Europe and World War II
LACQUER PAINT

It is one of the exquisite Chinese crafts.


When: The original wares in China, coated black and red, date as early as the New Stone Age
What:
Used for writing before ink

NAVIGATION
SINAN
Sinan is the Chineses compass.
Parts:
Metal Spoon (loadstone) and a Square Bronze Plate with markings for different positions
How:
Due to the earths magnetic field, the handle of the spoon always points to the South.
FLOATING COMPASS
This is considered as the typical Chinese navigational compass.
What:
In the form of a magnetic needle floating in a bowl of water
How:
The needle is able to move to align its magnetic field with the earths magnetic field
due to the low friction offered by the paper on the water
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
MEDICINE
This includes Herbal Medicine, Massage Therapy, Dietary Therapy and Acupuncture.
These are considered alternative medicine in the West.
Yin Yang :
symbol for balance; in Traditional Chinese Medicine, good health requires balance with Yin/Yang
ACUPUNCTURE
The alternative medicine that treats patients by inserting and manipulating needles in the body
What:
relieves pain, treats infertility, treats disease, prevents disease, or promotes general health
ASTRONOMY
Chinese most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena in the world before the Arabs
SOLAR ECLIPSES
Occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, and the moon fully/partially covers the sun
Can only happen during a new moon
Two to five solar eclipses occur each year; no more than two can be total eclipses
Total solar eclipses:
July 22, 2010; November 13, 2012
Partial solar eclipses:
June 1, 2011 and July 1, 2011; November 25, 2011
HALLEYS COMET
Observed by the Chinese, as well as the Babylonians and medieval European chroniclers
Appears every 75 to 76 years
Periodicity was determined by Edmond Halley in 1705
1986 - 2061
STAR CATALOGUE
An astronomical catalogue listing stars
Han Dynasty astronomers observed and recorded names for all stars visible by the naked eye
STAR MAP
A map of the night sky
Used to identify and locate astronomical objects (e.g. stars, constellations, galaxies)
Been used for human navigation
Oldest surviving manuscript star chart (Discovered in the Mogao Caves)
SEISMOGRAPH
Def:
records the seismic waves that travel through the earth
Chang Hengs Dragon Jar: 132 AD, scientist Chang Heng invented first seismoscope
What:
instrument that could register the occurrence of an earthquake
AKA:
The dragon jar
Def:
cylindrical jar with 8 dragonheads around the brim; each dragon w/ ball on mouth
Around the jar: 8 frogs, directly under a dragonhead
When an E happened, a ball drops, caught by the frog
DAILY LIFE
SILK
China is known as the birthplace of silk
Sericulture raising and keeping of silkworms for silk production
Long & colorful history unknown to most: Lady Hsi-Ling-Shih, wife of the mythical Yellow Emperor Huangdi
For more than two thousand years the Chinese kept the secret of silk to themselves.
It was the most zealously guarded secret in history
522 A.D. :
East Roman Empire emperor asked 2 monks to spy on China and find out the secret of sericulture.
Nowadays, although 35 countries around the world can produce silk, China ranks first (accounts 50% of the total output)

MATCHES
What:
small sticks of pinewood impregnated with sulfur
When: 577 AD
History: Besieged by military forces of Northern Zhou and Chen, Northern Qi court ladies were out of tinder
Desperate to start fires for cooking and heating
WHEELBARROW
Def:
single wheel in the middle of the wheelbarrow
To transport military supplies
Proof:
118 AD: painted tomb mural of a man pushing a wheelbarrow found in a tomb at Chengdu, Sichuan province
WATERWHEEL
Use:
to crush grain in mills and to power the piston-bellows in forging iron ore into cast iron
Science: Zhang Heng; was the 1st to apply motive power in rotating the astronomical instrument of an armillary sphere
SUNDIAL
This is a device used to measure time by the position of the sun
Rigui
Earliest: 547 AD
Used by Chinese to count hours during the sunny days
How:
When sun moves, it casts a shadow from its gnomon (thin rod/sharp); lines on dial indicate hours of day
PAPER MONEY
Used gold, silver and silk for large sums, bronze for everyday transactions
First paper banknotes: China 806 AD
For letters of credit transferred over large distances; labeled as flying money (Chinese = pragmatic)
DOMINO
Chinese dominoes are way different from Western dominoes. About the only thing both games have in common is a
relationship to the dice used in their cultures. However, Chinese dominoes are very strongly related to Chinese dice.
JUMP ROPE
Chinese jump rope = Chinese garter = hopscotch
KITES
Many credit the Chinese with the kite because they had bamboo to build the frame and silk to make the sail and flying line. Both
materials were strong enough and light enough to fly.

Four Types:

Centipede (w/ dragon heads), Hard-Winged, Soft-Winged, Flat (single pane)

TEA CERENOMY
Chinese tea culture refers to the methods of preparation of tea, the equipment used to make tea and the occasions in which
tea is consumed in China.
In addition to being a drink, Chinese tea is used in traditional Chinese medicine and in Chinese cuisine.
Customs:
sign of respect; family fathering; apologizing; connect large families on wedding days
Folding tea napkins is done to ward off bad energy
Finger tapping: thanking the tea server for tea after being poured (on table)
FOLDING UMBRELA
When: Cao Wei dynasty; 1700 years ago
What:
made from silk; treated with wax/lacquer to make them waterproof; frame/handle from bark of mulberry/bamboo
ANIMAL HARNESS
Chinese farmers greatly improved the ability of horses to pull wagons or plows with the "collar harness." Unlike the "throat
harnesses" used in Europe, the collar harness did not choke the animal. When horses breathed easier, they could pull more
weight greater distances.
FORK
The fork had been used in China long before the chopstick;
A bone fork has been discovered by archaeologists
Where: at a burial site of the early Bronze Age Qijia culture (24001900 BC)
Where: in tombs of the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600c. 1050 BC) and subsequent Chinese dynasties

CHOPSTICKS

Chopsticks are small, often tapered, sticks used in pairs of equal length as the traditional eating utensils of China and its
diasporas, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Northern provinces of Laos, Thailand and Burma
Chinese manners: hide the rice bowl; use chopsticks to push rice directly into the mouth
Acceptable to transfer food to closely related people
Pass food to the elderly first before dinner starts
Poor etiquette: tap chopsticks
Poor etiquette: point rested chopstick towards others on table
Poor etiquette: spear food with chopstick
Chopsticks shouldnt be left vertically stuck into bowl of rice

Resembles ritual of incense-burning symbolizing feeding the dead


Holding chopsticks incorrectly reflects on parents
FIREWORKS
Fireworks were invented in ancient China in the 12th century to scare away evil spirits, as a natural extension of the Four
Great Inventions of ancient China of gunpowder.
WARFARE
GUNPOWDER
Serendipity: discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality
BRONZE AND IRON CANNONS
Development was driven by creation of gunpowder
Used as flamethrower in China
Mounted over 3,000 bronze and iron cannons on the Great Wall of China to defend themselves from the Mongols
CANNONBALLS
In his 1341 poem, The Iron Cannon Affair, one of the first accounts of the use of gunpowder artillery in China, Xian
Zhang wrote that a cannonball fired from an eruptor could "pierce the heart or belly when it strikes a man or horse,
and can even transfix several persons at once."
ARCHERY
WARFARE:
RITUAL:
HUNTING:

China has a long history of mounted archery (shooting on horseback). Prior to the Warring States
period (475221 BCE), shooting from chariot was the primary form of battlefield archery.
In the Zhou dynasty (1146256 BCE), nobles regularly held archery rituals which symbolized and
reinforced order within the aristocratic hierarchy.
Hunting was an important discipline in Chinese archery, and scenes of hunting using horseback archery
feature prominently in Chinese artwork.

BOW AND ARROW


Horn Bows: processing of several materials (oxs horn, bamboo fetal, oxs tendon); lasts for 110 years
Composite Bow: three parts: wooded portion, horn, tendon
Strings of Bows: Nomads used the animal tendon, grape rattan
Arrows: Head: bronze or iron; Shaft: bamboo or wood; Fletching: feathers
Instruments for pulling strings: wearing of thumb rings (leather, bone, metal, horn, stone)

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