The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian tradition,themselves an abridgment of the Thirteen Classics. The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors,now known as Classical Chinese. A common Chinese word for "classic" literally means 'warp thread',in reference to the techniques by which works of this period were bound into volumes.
The Western Zhou was a period of Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended in 771 BC when Quanrong pastoralists sacked the Zhou capital at Haojing and killed King You of Zhou. The "Western" label for the period refers to the location of the Zhou royal capitals,which were clustered in the Wei River valley near present-day Xi'an.
The Shuowen Jiezi is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen c. 100 CE,during the Eastern Han dynasty. While prefigured by earlier Chinese character reference works like the Erya,the Shuowen Jiezi featured the first comprehensive analysis of characters in terms of their structure,and attempted to provide a rationale for their construction. It was also the first to organize its entries into sections according to shared components called radicals.
The Book of Rites,also known as the Liji,is a collection of texts describing the social forms,administration,and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The Book of Rites,along with the Rites of Zhou (Zhōulǐ) and the Book of Etiquette and Rites (Yílǐ),which are together known as the "Three Li (Sānlǐ)," constitute the ritual (lǐ) section of the Five Classics which lay at the core of the traditional Confucian canon. As a core text of the Confucian canon,it is also known as the Classic of Rites or Lijing,which some scholars believe was the original title before it was changed by Dai Sheng.
To the Confucians,marriage is of important significance both in the family and in society. The Confucian classic Book of Rites described marriage as "the union of two surnames,in friendship and in love". In the perspective of family,marriage can bring families of different surnames together,and continue the family life of the concerned clans. Therefore,only the benefits and demerits of the clans,instead of the individual couples,are concerned in a marriage. Socially,a married couple is the basic unit of the population;sometimes marriages can affect the country's political stability and international relations;thus marriage can be related to politics.
The Rites of Zhou,originally known as "Officers of Zhou",is a Chinese work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the Book of History by the same name. To replace a lost work,it was included along with the Book of Rites and the Etiquette and Ceremonial –becoming one of three ancient ritual texts listed among the classics of Confucianism.
In Chinese philology,the Ancient Script Classics refer to some versions of the Five Classics discovered during the Han dynasty,written in a script that predated the one in use during the Han dynasty,and produced before the burning of the books. The term became used in contrast with "Current Script Classics" (今文經),which indicated a group of texts written in the orthography currently in use during the Han dynasty.
The Old History of the Five Dynasties was an official history mainly focusing on Five Dynasties era (907–960),which controlled much of northern China. And it also includes some history of other south states during the era. It was compiled by the Song dynasty official-scholar Xue Juzheng in the first two decades of the Song dynasty,which was founded in 960. It is one of the Twenty-Four Histories recognized through Chinese history.
The Kaicheng Stone Classics (開成石經) or Tang Stone Classics are a group of twelve early Chinese classic works carved on the orders of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty in 833–837 as a reference document for scholars. The works recorded are:
A jue is a type of ancient Chinese vessel used to serve warm wine during ancestor-worship ceremonies. It takes the form of an ovoid body supported by three splayed triangular legs,with a long curved spout on one side and a counterbalancing flange on the other. Many examples have one or two loop handles on the side and two column-shaped protuberances on the top of the vessel,which were probably used to enable the vessel to be lifted using leather straps. They are often ornately decorated with taotie decorations representing mythical beasts. They are in effect a small Chinese equivalent of the ewer. The name jue is not original,but derives from the Shuowen Jiezi,a dictionary of the 2nd century AD.
The shi was a ceremonial "personator" who represented a dead relative during ancient Chinese ancestral sacrifices. In a shi ceremony,the ancestral spirit supposedly would enter the descendant "corpse" personator,who would eat and drink sacrificial offerings and convey messages from the spirit. James Legge,an early translator of the Chinese classics,described shi personation ceremonies as "grand family reunions where the dead and the living met,eating and drinking together,where the living worshipped the dead,and the dead blessed the living." In modern terms,this ancient Chinese shi practice would be described as necromancy,mediumship,or spirit possession.
The Thirteen Classics is a term for the group of thirteen classics of Confucian tradition that became the basis for the Imperial Examinations during the Song dynasty and have shaped much of East Asian culture and thought. It includes all of the Four Books and Five Classics but organizes them differently and includes the Classic of Filial Piety and Erya.
The I Ching or Yijing,usually translated Book of Changes or Classic of Changes,is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The I Ching was originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou period (1000–750 BC). Over the course of the Warring States and early imperial periods (500–200 BC),it transformed into a cosmological text with a series of philosophical commentaries known as the Ten Wings. After becoming part of the Chinese Five Classics in the 2nd century BC,the I Ching was the basis for divination practice for centuries across the Far East and was the subject of scholarly commentary. Between the 18th and 20th centuries,it took on an influential role in Western understanding of East Asian philosophical thought.
Dai De,also known as Da Dai,,birth and death unknown,was a Confucian scholar of the western Han dynasty. He was active during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han and then Emperor Yuan of Han.
The Three Obediences and Four Virtues is a set of moral principles and social code of behavior for maiden and married women in East Asian Confucianism,especially in ancient and imperial China. Women were to obey their fathers,husbands,and sons,and to be modest and moral in their actions and speech. Some imperial eunuchs both observed these principles themselves and enforced them in imperial harems,aristocratic households,and society at large.
The Cangjiepian,also known as the Three Chapters,was a c. 220 BCE Chinese primer and a prototype for Chinese dictionaries. Li Si,Chancellor of the Qin dynasty,compiled it for the purpose of reforming written Chinese into the new orthographic standard Small Seal Script. Beginning in the Han dynasty,many scholars and lexicographers expanded and annotated the Cangjiepian. By the end of the Tang dynasty (618–907),it had become a lost work,but in 1977,archeologists discovered a cache of texts written on bamboo strips,including fragments of the Cangjiepian.
Li Zhuan,courtesy name Qinzhong,was a Chinese politician and of the state of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period of China.
Shenshu or Shentu and Yulü or Yulei are a pair of deities in Chinese mythology who punished evil spirits by binding them in reed ropes and feeding them to tigers. Their images together with reed rope seasonally adorned the doors or gates to ward off evil,and are considered the earliest examples of Menshen venerated under such practice. Later traditions identified other gods or deified people as gate deities.
The Three Books of Rites,is a collective name for three Confucian books the Etiquette and Ceremonial,the Rites of Zhou,and the Book of Rites. The name was coined by Zheng Xuan in the Eastern Han.
Yayan is a theorized ancient form of the Chinese language used as a standard dialect by intellectuals during the Zhou dynasty.
