You can't even call a person who speaks Cantonese a Cantonese. Cantonese has two meanings. 1. It is a dialect spoken by the natives of Canton. 2. It is a term used to call those people who are natives of Canton.

Vikie, you can't call a person speaking Mandarin a Mandarin!
A speaker of the Chinese language Cantonese is a member of that southern Chinese people living in that area or province called Canton or Kuang-chow (Guangzhou) ¼s¦{. People speaking Mandarin or Putonghua are/were not necessarily mandarins (mandarins don't exist no more since the revolution in 1911/12).
The term 'mandarin' is the Western expression for the former emperial officials of state in traditional China, forming the social and political elite. They derived from the leading local families and used to be selected running very sophisticated state (civil service) examinations - with calligraphy and poetry as main subjects. Because the capital at those days being Beijing/Peking/¥_¨Ê ('Northern Capital'), the officials used to speak that area's local dialect. Later in modern times, this dialect was to be the official language of whole China (encluding Taiwan, because the members of the government etc. to a great extent came from the mainland).
BTW, the term 'mandarin' comes from Sanskrit/Hindi 'mantri(n)' and Malayan 'mantari' (advisor/minister), where from the old Portuguese brought the expression to Europe, calling it in their own language 'mandarim' which had some similarity to port. 'mandar' (to order).

Alfred

"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª

As you pointed out, there are samples under each master. But my comment is it is not as nearly enough. If we can see the entire work, ( perhaps the more famous ones ), similiar to the Ode to Mulan in this site, we will be more happy.

Jaranson,

I try to find a better transliteration for your name, but I can't. S.L. did a fantastic job. It is poetically and phonetically beautiful. I am sure you like it.

As you pointed out, there are samples under each master. But my comment is it is not as nearly enough. If we can see the entire work, ( perhaps the more famous ones ), similiar to the Ode to Mulan in this site, we will be more happy.

Jaranson,

Carla, the transliteration suggested by Dr. Lee are excellent - because

1. Chieh (jie2) ±¶ being a real Chinese surname,
2. Giving the initial sound of your own surname,
3. having the meaning of "alert, nimble; prompt; clever,smart" (hence, used for transliterating 'Czech' ±¶§J ??) and the flavor of 'victorious', 'to win a victory', 'successful',
4. Lang3 ®Ô having the beautiful meaning of "clear, bright, distinct" (of the moon, sky etc.), and also giving a soft and pleasant sound (with its 3rd tone) and
5. sheng1 ¥Í meaning "life, being born, fresh etc.", so very often also used in proper names like "Fusheng ´I¥Í (Born rich), Dongsheng ªF¥Í (Born East)", or in Xiansheng ¥ý¥Í (Born first/gentleman).

As for having this name in 'lesser seal style' you ought to go to a Chinese steal carver and having it cut into a stamp (this is rather 'art stuff').

Douglas, your 'forgotten' poet seems to be the one and only ancient Chinese poet widely known also by Western people: At the first moment thinking of Li Ho §õ¶P, I guess now, that it must be Li Bai/Li T'ai Po §õ¥Õ/§õ¤Ó¥Õ . You can find examples on 'China the Beautiful' and also some well-known translations on my poetry site.

Alfred

"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª

The site you recommended is indeed very good in narrative. There is one area the site needs great improvement and that is the actual samples of the calligraphy work itself. For calligraphy lovers, we want to admire the works by the great masters and that is here that we can't get enough satisfaction from this site. I hope the webmaster can improve on this.

Can you suggest a source for an NTSC videotape of the opera "Journey to the West or Monkey King?"

We have a PAL copy purchased in China, but would like to get an NTSC version for use here in the US.

Thank you for your help.

There is a long, long page right here about how to read Chinese. Please read it

When you use the computer, you use many computer programs. To read Chinese (or English), you use 3 programs: (1) Windows, (2) Browser, and (3) Email reader.

You must tell these 3 programs to read Chinese.

On the other hand, to write with computers, you use (4) notepad, (5) wordpad, and (6) optionally chinesestar (or others). Programs 4,5,6 have nothing to do with Internet.

Windows (1) can read Chinese after you download the Chiense font from Microsoft. It is free. You do not have to buy anything. You do not need programs 4,5,6

After you read the instructions, if you need more assistance, tell me (a) Version number of Windows, and (b) version number and Name of Browser and Email (whether they are from Microsoft or from Netscape.

Michael, you need a software to read Chinese online and without being forced to paste & copy the Chinese text first. I'd propose going to the following site where you can find different systems for reading and input of Chinese characters. It's Chinese computing (on various platforms, including the Mac).

Good luck!

Dear Siu-Leung (and everybody interested),

in the meantime I have read the book of Hartwig Hausdorf 'Die weisse Pyramide' (The White Pyramid), published in 1994 in Munich/Bavaria. The book is just containing that black & white photograph said to be taken by a US army pilot in WW II. Hence, I guess, all the other colored pictures included in the web page referred to in my earlier postings don't show the 'White Pyramid' - Qin ling shan ¯³À­ located in Xi'an area.
Hausdorf is not doing researches on the so-called 'Weisse Pyramide', but just using it as the title of his booklet.

The book's content is more than questionable but nevertheless highly interesting to read - because dealing with aliens from outer space (!) it raises very interesting (not at all unintelligent) questions. The foreword is written by Erich von Daeniken, the well-known author of stuff like that, e.g. "Erinnerungen an die Zukunft" (Memories of the future) dealing with old Central American cultures.
With regard to the 'White Pyramid' in the Qin ling shan ¯³À­¤s mountains ("about 60 km south-west of Xi'an") Hausdorf refers to the source "Crowley, Brian: 'The Face on Mars', South Melbourne 1986". He (Hausdorf) tells of reports given by traveling business men (Fred Meyer Schroder, Oscar Maman), who in 1912 would have discovered that (and some more) gigantic pyramidal monument. A former New Zealand airline captain, Bruce Cathie, is said to have found those documents, doing researches on those giant pyramids - and on the UFO phenomena ! - (Cathie, Bruce: 'The Bridge to Infinity', Boulder 1989). Hausdorf refers to that US Airforce pilot as James Gaussmann, giving his eye-witness account from the source "Hain, Walter: 'Pyramiden in China' In: 'Ancient Skies' 6/1991". According to Hausdorf, the photograph was first published by the Australian Crowley (in his book mentioned above). Going what Hausdorf says, he got the picture from Peter Krassa and Walter Hain. (The Austrian engineer ;) Krassa is author of '... und kamen auf feurigen Drachen.'/ '... and came on dragons of fire.', Munich 1990).
Hausdorf's profession is tourist manager/guide mainly travelling through the Far East but also Central America. His highly speculative deductions and conjectures (e.g. also with regard to Ainu culture, Amaterasu etc. etc. and with really astounding associations between the contents of ancient Japanese folktales and modern-time Einstein's theory of relativity) are intelligent, interesting and worth reading. There are lots of facts in his booklet that, in my opinian, proved to be right - so, the 'White Pyramid' indeed might exist too!

Have a good day!

A.W.T.

http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

BTW, ever heard about the stone disks of Bayan Kara Ula ¤ÚÃC³Ø³â¤s and Prof. Tsum Um-Nui and his team at the Beijing Acadamy of Prehistory?

Have you seen the Chines Dynasty page in this website? It is at http://www.chinapage.org/dyna1.html

There are a lot of materials there including comparisons.

Ed, the problem for you might be, that your computer is not capable in displaying Chinese characters, right? Most of the online dictionaries don't have output with graphic display.
But I'm quite sure I can help you. If you send an e-mail to me (in html mode!) containing the words and expressions to be translated into Chinese characters, I'd translate them and also do the graphics for you. Please choose the western font's name and size in the e-mail to match with the characters' size (and perhaps the color and background color, if not black on white).

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Marcel, you can find lots of sites with lots of 'Chinese flavor' going e.g. to my China links page - and naturally strolling through 'China the Beautiful'. I'm sure your friend will find all kinds of Chinese stuff from classical to modern newspaper - almost everything ...

Good luck surfing!

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

If you go to the homepage of this website, you will find a "Buy Book" icon. Click on it and you will find a number of internet bookstores. If you make a search of "Chinese Emperors", you will find books written on this topic and they have protraits in them.

Literal translation ttc

I have a friend in L.A. who has a lady friend from China. He knows nothing about computers, but she is learning. I hope to find other sites, with a Chinese flavor, or perhaps even a Chinese newspaper on-line. Can you recommend any?

Thank you,

I have a page on the 8 Immortals, which has a short description of the individual immotals, as well as some classic paintings. From the homepage, go to the table of contents and then look under history.

When you finish your work, I hope that you will let me know, so that other people may benefit from your efforts.

By the way, you found a reference to my website from BigChina; This is not a part of BigChina.

You can reach me at www.chinapage.org or www.chinapage.com

I can't direct you to a website that has the above story. However, if you want to know more of the story, you can order this book ( same title ) from dragonsource.com site. Price US$6.4 Ref # ISBN 7-80006-974-5.

I was searching through the internet for a Chinese Myth when I came across the BigChina page. I am very impressed by the contents of it. Especially the collection of Chinese classic reading materials. However, I could not find what I was looking for, the story of "Ba Xian Guo Hai". I would be very very thankful if you could point me to a site that might have the story or some related illustrations.

I'm presently 19 years old studying Electrical Engineering in University of Waterloo in Canada. This is a co-op program, and this term I'm on my work term working for Corel Corp. I came to Canada from ChangChun, JiLin, PR China 4 years ago. I'm still very much interested in Chinese literature. It would mean very much to me to find this story. So please help me. Thank you very much. Oh, Almost forgot, my name is Yang Liu, (the willow tree)

Sincerely

They are many pre-historical pyramids in Mexico and other parts of South America, but none in North America. But I don't recall any suggestions that these are related to the Egyptian pyramids.

This area is very rich in archaeology finds. It is also an area of military importance in the San Guo ¤T°êera, the corridor for Liu Bei ¼B³Æ to recover Han.

Through the links, I also found an interesting discussion on the link between Shang dynasty and the Olmecs in central America:
http://hawk.hama-med.ac.jp/dbk/605006e1.html
and a very interesting discussion of Chinese-Mayan relationship:
http://hawk.hama-med.ac.jp/dbk/kelley.html

Dear Siu-Leung,
as for the 'White Pyramid' (Qin ling shan ¯³À­¤s), I found the book at amazon.de and already ordered it, so hoping to be able to soon giving you further informations on this mysterious monument.

A.W.T.
P.S. The old Americans had the skills to produce perfect circular objects, but oviously never used this knowledge for wheels (archeologists have digged out a lot of items until the present time, but never would have found something like wheels - perhaps those weren't regarded as useful to them?).
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

I wish some day this mystery has a better answer.

You mentioned that wheels were not used in south native American culture. That is also puzzling. I just saw a TV program showing a bunch of perfectly carved spherical stone balls about 5-6 feet in diameter (see a webpage at http://www.geocities.com/Paris/9111/pegasus.html). They were scattered in Costa Rica, apparently work by ancient native cultures! The technology is amazingly precise.
The Mayans have earings, cuffs that are perfectly circular. And they have a world-famous game of hitting a rubber ball through a ring on the wall. With these technologies, I would be surprised that wheels were not existing (may be not found yet). The mathematical calculation/symbols for Mayans using "o" for one , and "_" for five is strikingly similar to the principle of Chinese abacus.

I have to correct my posting: 'The White Pyramid' is said to be about 100 km or "... 40 miles southwest of Xian. According to Childress (Lost Cities of China..., Adventures Unlimited 1991), China's Great Pyramid is said to be at least 4,000 years old, and likely much older. It is said that its sides were originally painted black on the North, blue-gray (or faded green) on the East, red on the South, white on the West, and yellow on the top Center

A.W.T.
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Dear Siu-Leung,
I perhaps have to clear up some misunderstanding (due to my poor English):
I mentioned the blue birthmark (in German: 'Mongolenfleck') in order to point out that the old Americans are more likely Asian people than e.g. coming from Egypt or elsewhere (as Hayerdal is claiming).
Also my reference to their outer appearance is to proof this statement. When saying that the American natives look rather Siberian, Mongolian etc. than 'Chinese', I wanted to distiguish them from the 'Han' people and not from other minorities living within the borders of nowadays' People's Republic. Some of those are quite different from the Hans - I myself, when in Xi'an, once was falsely considered to be a member of the Uighur minority.
You're totally right with your opinion saying, that it is most strikingly interesting that Peruvian Inca descendents look like Tibetans, Amazon natives look like southern Chinese, while many native Americans (Cheyenne, Cherokee) look like Manchurians or northern Chinese minorities. (While writing my posting, I had the northern Americans - Inuit, Aleuts, Haida, Tlingit, Lakota etc. - in front of my inner eye; but you're absolutely right - and I'm since long aware of it - that the Amazon natives' appearence is quite similar to southern Chinese minorities - or even southern Han). It's a real mystery of mankind, how/when these people(s) got separated from each other (think e.g. also of the fact that the old Americans - even the advanced civilizations in the south - didn't know to use wheeled carts!).

As for the 'White Pyramid' (better: Qin ling shan ¯³À­¤s, it is not the tomb of Ch'in Shih Huang-ti (it ought to be about 50 km in south-west direction in Xi'an area - have a look at the site mentioned. I still wonder not having heard about this astonishing monument when I was to China guiding a group of tourists in Xi'an).

A.W.T.
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

It is most strikingly interesting that Peruvian Inca descendents look like Tibetans. Amazon natives look like southern Chinese. While many native Americans (Cheyanne, Cherokee) look like Manchurians or northern Chinese. So north-nort, south-south resemblance almost seem like the separation was before the continental plates were separated(!). However, obviously the cultural history association could not have been that ancient. I have no explanation on this.

The pyramid you mentioned in Xian, isn't it the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi? The exposed portion is an earth structure rather than stone structure (as in Egypt or Mayan cultures). Because of weather erosion, its square base is not so obvious. But it was square.

I am not equipped to comment on the posting in hakka forum about Turkish and Balkan cultures. I agree that some of these postings are quite emotional. But it seems that the fellow had done some homework at least.

Reading the German folktale of 'The Man in the Moon' in Chinese version, I encountered the expression mosheng ren ­¯¥Í¤H (stranger; also ­¯¸ô¤H). Since mo4 is the expression for 'a raised path going from east and west between fields), mo4sheng1(strange) might have the meaning of 'born at the roadside', 'born on the way'. Is there anybody able to tell me something about the etymologic background of this expression?

--------------------------------------

The word mo ­¯ has more than one usage.

(1) Used alone, mo means the raised path in the field (not necessarily going from east to west).
(2) Used as ­¯¥Í , it meas unfamiliar.
(3) Add ren to it as ­¯¥Í¤H , it means stranger, or a stranger.
(4) Used as mosheng tou, it means a headkerchief. A small cloth wrapped on the head.
I don't think "born on the road side" is correct. The term ­¯¥Í as an adjective to mean unfamiliar is used more often than the word mo used alone as the narrow dividing path in the rice field.

Siu-Leung raised the interesting question if there's a connection of 'ancient(?)' China and the discovery of America. In addition to other arguments (e.g. linguistic similarities are very delicate, and carefully to deal with) he pointed out that there are many (burial) mounds (North America) and also pyramids (Mexico and South America) to be found in the 'new world'. As for the burial mounds, those are found almost everwhere in the world (also in Germany, deriving from the Celts). But the pyramids are very special: There were parallels drawn between ancient Egypt (e.g. Gizeh) and Middle or South America - just to remember Thor Hayerdal and his reed float, impressingly demonstrating with that there is indeed a possibility for communication between these two cultures though far away from one another. Hayerdal's hypothesis infact doesn't go together very well with the assumption, that the old Americans once came from the Asiatic continent. The once existing land-bridge in the Bering street is also just a possibility like Hayerdal's float, but the outer appearence of the old Americans has much more significance. (In my opinion, the native Americans are very similar to Mongolians, Sibirians - or even Tibetans etc. rather than to Chinese, Koreans Japanese etc.). It's the fact that they also have the so-called 'Mongolian mark' on their backs like those Asiatic people - I am a witness for this ;) - hence, there is a proven genetic relationship.)
But, I just wanted to point out that there are (real and high!) pyramids also on the territory of China! Please visit this interesting site with a couple of good photographs. One pyramid with about 300 m of height is in the SW of Xi'an ¦è¦w called Qin ling shan ¯³À­¤s. Hartwig Hausdorf, a German author, wrote a book published in 1994 in Munich/Bavaria with the title 'Die weisse Pyramide' (The White Pyramide). Other pyramides are located in the area of the Tibetan and Inner Mongolian border at Bayan Kala ¤ÚÃC³Ø³â¤s.
Was this custom and knowledge/skill imported from Asia to the new world?
Yet, must/could those importers have been Han people? Or, are those pyramides (maybe only some of them) going back to other Asiatic cultures?
BTW, dear Siu-Leung, there is a (very long!) posting on your Hakka discussion board ("Hungarian Crap revisited"), whose writer's pleading those monuments (etc. etc.) going back to another culture (the so-called 'White Huns', i.e. the 'Hephthalites', chin.: 'Hua' or 'Yeda'/'Yeptat'). I wouldn't call this article 'bullshit' as someone else did, although its deductions are not at all free from emotional 'wishful thinking'. As far as my own knowledges reach, those lots of facts posted in this historical puzzle proofed to be correct - it's just the deductions that are more than questionable, but interesting anyway and worthwhile reading as a synoptical historic view beginning with world's creation and the 'Epic of Gilgamesh'.

Have a good day

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Reading the German folktale of 'The Man in the Moon' in Chinese version, I encountered the expression mosheng ren ­¯¥Í¤H (stranger; also ­¯¸ô¤H). Since mo4 is the expression for 'a raised path going from east and west between fields), mo4sheng1(strange) might have the meaning of 'born at the roadside', 'born on the way'.
Is there anybody able to tell me something about the etymologic background of this expression?

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

To be able to read the Chinese words, you can download Unionway from www.unionway.com

To learn Ming Dynasty, you can read ©ú ¥v , or buy this book ¦¶ ¤¸ ¼ý ¶Ç

For pronounciation of Chinese words, both official and Cantonese, there is a site on the Internet

http://www.webcom.com/ocrat/reaf/

Works remarkably well. Give it a try.

The simple answer is that I have neither the expertise nor time to cover these topics - and not because that these are less important. I only hope that others will undertake to write about them. I shall be glad to help.

Samuel also raised the question about fake paintings. There are fakes in Chinese paintings, as there are fakes in European arts. In this site, where I have only a small number of paintings reproduced, it is not a very serious problem. Nearly all are from museums and other well known sources. By not having works from comtemporary artists, I also do not have the problem of deciding between good and poor paintings.

What you see are what I happen to be able to find for this site. It is neither complete, balanced or even sensible. It is just an accidental grouping without comments or notations.

Hopefully, some scholars will publish a book on the Internet.

Ms. Rogers, the swastica is an old symbol for the 'wheel of fire'/the sun; it's also a mystic Buddhist emblem. In Chinese it stands for wan ÉE/¸U 'ten thousand', said to have been given this sound because all good fortune and virtue was embodied in it. Later (in modern times!) it turned in the opposite (=counterclock) direction to the Nazi swastica (German: 'Hakenkreuz')

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Dragon page click here.

Do you want to know more about dragon's claws?

Dragon page

Do you want to know more about dragon's claws?

Do you want to know more about dragon's claws?

When I first migrated to Canada, I met many native Indians in China town. They do look like us. In fact, a friend of mine is often mistaken as a native when he shops in China town. What I find interesting is their names, such as little cow, pretty flower etc. Don't our parents call us by those names as well ?

I am also a lover of Maya civilization and I am often amazed by their symbolic writings and drawings. They are very similar to the symbols on the ®ï °Ó objects.

Julian,
wow - 't was for the very first time that I read German folktales in Chinese! Thank you for the hint. Only when reading it, I remembered the fairytale of the man gathering brushwood (rather than cutting fireplace wood - since poor people were not allowed to hack off wood in the forest) on a sunday. A stranger - maybe God himself - condemned him to carry his bundle up to the moon and further live there for not having obeyed his will by violating the commandment to go to the sunday service and not to work. I think everybody in Germany knows the 'man in the moon', but only few people still know this folktale. There also are other versions of it, yet they always tell of people (man, husband and wife or even two children) having done something wrong (outrage, cursing, theft or hard-heartedness) and getting punished for it. (I'm not sure, if the tale belongs to those collected by the famous Grimm brothers long time ago.)
There are certain similarities with the story of Wu Kang §d­è who - also did wrong cutting the Kassia tree ®Û, but this might be mere coincidence. But in my opinion it cannot be entirely excluded that in times of great migrations those ancient folktales had spread out (maybe with the Huns) on whole Asia/Europe/Germany (I don't know, but there might be similar tales also in other European countries e.g. France, Russia etc.).

All around the world, people were wondering about the dark spots they saw looking up to the full moon, trying to give themselves an explanation for this phenomenon: e.g. the Inuit take it that the sun had thrown ashes into the face of her brother, the moon, when he tried to embrace her; in India people regard them as a hare (rabbit?) that had fled to the moon when hunted by a dog. From the depths of mankind and everywhere on earth the moon had a mythical/religious meaning to people, was regarded as a (mostly female) deity and thought having influence on man. So e.g. there was 'Isis' in old Egypt and 'Selene' in ancient Greece - later even christian Madonna standing on the crescent of the moon! In many languages the expression for 'moon' is feminine, whereas that for 'sun' masculine - except e.g. in German or (maybe) Inuit. But also in Germany the moon is regarded as 'yin' (female, watery, cold, dark etc.). BTW, in Hungarian language 'month' is called 'honap' which means 'Snow sun'.

A pleasant Mid-autumn festival to all of you!

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

You asked for the Chinese symbol for immortality. I suggest the following. The first one is more in relationship to everlasting life as applied in religion. The second translation is often used to mean forever as applied to ones' good deeds, fame and work ( literature, art, architecture etc. )

¥Ã ¥Í

The best, and expensive, is called Xuan Zi ÐûÖ½ , which is for calligraphy and painting.

As S.L. pointed out, the paper is made in a certain region. In the 1950-60s when Taiwan was at war with the Mainland, they embargoed all imports from the Mainland. But there was an exemption for the importation of Xuan paper.

I don't think ducks are treated with much kindness in the Chinese literatures.

But you have the last word.

Julian, thank you for your hint - but sorry, I couldn't find the URL to the article mentioned by you. Would you please give me the exact address of the page?

Going through the several articles, I found different versions of the legend:
One tells that the Jade Emperor ¥É¬Ó ordered the great archer Hou Yi to shoot nine of the ten suns (sons?) and gave him his daughter Chang-o for having accomplished his will. Then, seeing that Chang-o didn't love his husband, the emperor gave Hou herbs of immortality - that Chang-o ate all by herself, thus flying to the moon and and hence being forced to live there alone ...
The other one is quite different:
" Long ago, the earth was in a state of havoc because there were 10 suns in the sky, and these were the sons of the Jade Emperor. Rivers dried up, the land became barren, and many people died. Seeing the death and destruction caused by his sons, the Jade Emperor took this matter to the god Hou Yi . The Emperor asked Hou Yi to persuade his sons to rise up away from the earth to end the catastrophe. When Hou asked the suns to leave the sky, they refused. Made angry by their defiance, Hou Yi, a great archer, launched arrows at the suns, shooting them down one until his wife Chang O pleaded with him to save one sun to keep the earth warm and bright. Knowing that the Jade Emperor was furious at the slaying of his sons, Hou Yi and Chang O were forced to stay on earth. Chang O was unhappy, so her husband tried to win back her favor by gathering herbs that would give them once again the power to ascend to heaven. Chang O remained angry, however, and ate all the herbs herself. She flew up to the moon, where she remains alone, living in the Moon Palace."

As I'm most probably the only ªø»ó ;) in this circle, I'd like to know what picture you "see" looking up to the moon. Is it Chang-o? Is it the hare? As for myself, it's quite interesting: since my childhood I always used to see "the man of the moon's" smiling face. Now since about ten years (when in Canada I first met with native legends and arts dealing with the moon) I keep seeing the "raven" (with his head in about 2 o'clock-position). If anybody is interested in this picture, I perhaps could do and post a gif file with a beautiful articraft for demonstration.

Alfred

BTW, dear Ming, there might be a typo on your "Moon Festival - Mid-Autumn Festival" page's title line: "Story about the uprising that ended Yuan Dynasty and began Song Dynasty. I think, it should rather read "Ming" Dynasty.

http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Elaine, I'd suggest to search for Wolfram Eberhard, typing in something like "lexicon of Chinese symbols".
Eberhard is/was a great German sinologist and social scientist, who at last taught at Berkley/California. I have his really great lexicon with lots of also colored graphics - but it's in German. I think, it must be published also in an English edition.
Perhaps this might help you, here is the German edition's details:

• Wolfram Eberhard, Lexikon chinesischer Symbole, geheime Sinnbilder in Kunst und Literatur, Leben und Denken der Chinesen, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Koeln 1983, 1. Aufl. - ISBN 3-424-00750-

Good luck
Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Dr. Pei put up a special feature on "Mid Autumn Festival " this month. Under Mid-Autumn Festival, subsection Prose on Mid-Autumn, there is an article by Xiao Ming in which he related a German folklore to us. I find it very intersting and wonder if you can add more for our readers' sake.

If you go to Yahoo and type in "Chinese Mythology", you will find the above topics.

Another way of trying to learn more of this subject is to go to the internet bookstore sites and search the book titles under " Chinese mythology ". Or if you can read Chinese, make a search under " ¤¤ °ê ¯« ¸Ü "

Thank you.

The Chinese name each year after one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac : rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. And they must be in that order.

The Chinese further believe that you will have the characteristics of the animal whose sign you were born under. Find the year you were born and see if you agree. I agree with all the good things and disagree with the bad ones. : )

Year of the Rat - 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984 ...

You are popular, artistic and like to invent things.

Year of the Ox - 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985

You are dependable, calm, a good listener and have many ideas.

Year of the Tiger - 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986

You are brave and are respected for you courage and thoughts.

Year of the Rabbit - 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987

You are nice, like to talk and are trusted.

Year of the Dragon - 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988

You are healthy, have lots of energy and listen to your friends.

Year of the Snake - 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989

You love good books, food, music and are lucky with money.

Year of the Horse - 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990

You are cheerful and work hard.

Year of the Sheep - 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991

You are a good artist, like nice things and are very smart.

Year of the Monkey - 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992

You are funny and are good at solving problems

Year of the Rooster - 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993

You are a hard worker with many talents and thoughts

Year of the Dog - 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994

You are loyal and can keep a secret but sometimes you worry too much.

Year of the Pig - 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1955

You are a good student, honest and brave.

Dear Ming, I had to smile reading your lines, as they reveal your personal association hearing the word "duck": you seem to imagine yourself sitting in front of your plate with a delicious Peking duck on it ... I have to admit this is a convincing and really enticing picture ... ;) My personal imagination goes to a "wild duck" creating the same effect as the word "wild goose" (There's a German song we used to sing in our scout days: "Wildgaense rauschen durch die Nacht mit schrillem Schrei nach Norden ..." - "Wild geese are 'rustling' through the night, you hear their shrill call as they fly northward ..."). Wild ducks are indeed migratory birds like wild geese - with a similar capacity to long-distance flights. So in Chinese thinking and poetry the wild duck as well as the wild goose is associative with separation, going apart, farewell etc. or sending/getting messages to/from the distant partner far away in the north. But, I too, have to admit that the 'picture' of the 'wild goose' (crossing the wide sky) has somewhat more associative strength than the duck's.

As for the translation, I do not think that 'yu2' (»P) here is used in the sense of 'with' (the clouds). I'd rather prefer a simple 'and'. This character, in my opinion, is used here in the same trifle and neglectable way as the character kung/'gong4' (¦@) in the couplet's 2nd part - simply meaning 'together with' (the distant horizon). As already ancient critics had mentioned, the author Wang Po (Wong Biu) ¤ý«k could easily have dropped these two characters without any loss.
I was wondering what was the meaning of ch'i/qi2 (»ô): I first thought it was (flying) in perfect order/formation, but the bird's flying lonely, separated from the companions.
Then I thought of the ancient state ("... flying to Ch'i ..."). But the state was Shantung/Chihli area. Those birds fly 'north', Shantung being north-east.
Finally, I tend toward this interpretation: The wildgoose(!) is an ancient symbol of constancy and steadiness, never missing the appropriate, as the "Small Calendar of the Hsia-dynasty" said, with regard to the first lunar month: "The wild goose flies to northern regions", with regard to the nineth month: "The wild geese are roving". Hence the line (on decorating items): "May the wild goose prolong your years!" So, I'd translate this part of the sentence: "... the lone 'wu4' is flying (regularly) to its (scheduled) time ..."

What do you think about it?

Alfred
http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

There is short page about it in China the Beautiful
if you click here, you will see a synopsis as well as some colorful illustrations.

Since you are interested to know more on this story, I suggest that you visit your local bookstores and try to find books on this subject. I searched www.dragonsource.com for you and I find one book titled " ¥Õ ³D ¶Ç - ¹p ®p ¶ð ¤U ªº ¶Ç ©_ " Serial # ( ISBN ) 7-108-00551-4 Price - US$ 4.98

All Summer long there was the davstating flood in China. Finally, the flood
water receded, and the Autumn arrives.  I wanted to cheer up a bit. So
I posted the famous couplet by Wang Bo on the opening page.




To my chargin, I carelessly copied the fifth word incorrectly. Fortunately,
Julian spotted the error and alerted me to it. So I corrected it as follows:



 
But not before it sparked much interesting discussions!

Bigfoot of Duckplace commented about what she "sees" in the poem.  Indeed,
there is a famous saying: "There is a painting in the poetry."  This surely
illustrated the truth of the statement.  We, each of us, can conjure up a
mental picture of the scene without much effort. But we may or may not see
the same picture.

For this discussion, here is my rough translation of the couplet:

      A lone goose flies with the evening red clouds,
      The color of Autumn river water blends into the distant sky.

As Julian pointed out, geese normally fly in a flock. But we see only a
lone goose in the sky. Is it worried? No. It is flying high with the 
beautiful clouds colored by the evening sun. So it is not lonely in spirit.
Note the poet did not say "flying in the cloud," but "flying with the cloud."
So the goose is not dis-spirited or flying aimlessly. Rather, it is flying 
high wide, handsome and purposefully to catch up with its companion flock.

There were discussions about just what kind of bird is it?

What I see is a migrating bird flying high and fast across the sky.  Not
a Beijing duck on the dinner table.  Or even a flying wild duck. Because
the second sentence paints a canvas of wide open space extending as far
as the eyes can see, and the river merges into the sky.  So this would be
a long-distance flying bird.

Just as there are Canadian gees migrating south each Autumn, there have 
always been migrating bird in China, including the famous red-crowned
cranes.  I of it as a migrating goose.

Alfred is quite right about the dictionary definition of the word as a duck.
I still prefer to think that our poet is taking a bit of "poetic licence"
when he need to.

Bigfoot is willing to imagine a flying horse in the sky.  
But, there is no point in bringing a mystical flying horse here. The poet
is given us a real life painting of a pastoral scene as vividly as a
classical European painting of old.

Again, a great poem brings up instant response from its readers, as it
was written, and continues to this date.  Julian has given a short 
description about the banquet where this prose was composed.

The poet was Wang Bo (ac. 647-675) 

Ming

Since you are interested to know more on this story, I suggest that you visit your local bookstores and try to find books on this subject. I searched www.dragonsource.com for you and I find one book titled " ¥Õ ³D ¶Ç - ¹p ®p ¶ð ®L ªº ¶Ç ©_ " Serial # ( ISBN ) 7-108-00551-4 Price - US$ 4.98

This brief note is just to thank you for your beautiful and informative web page "China the Beautiful".

It is wonderful to be able to access all this information in the English section. I only wish I could read the Chinese section!! I have been interested in Chinese art for many years. My main interests are Chinese painting and calligraphy. I think Chinese calligraphy is one of the most beautiful forms of art in the world. Because I take lessons in Chinese painting at Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California it is with great interest and enjoyment that I browse through your web site and look at all the beautiful paintings and calligraphy. Again thank you for "China the Beautiful" and all its contents!!