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DOUBLE-NINTH FESTIVAL

The Double ninth festival is one of the well-known traditional Chinese folk festivals. The Double Ninth Festival began in the ancient times, took shape in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was widespread in the Western Han Dynasty. It began to flourish in the Tang Dynasty and has been established as an official folk festival in the Tang Dynasty. This festival takes place in early September nine of the Chinese lunar calendar. It is one of the four major traditional Chinese ancestor worship festivals to appreciate God and ancestors for their blessings.

According to "Yi Jing", the ancients classified everything in the world into two categories: 'yin' and 'yang', with 'yin' representing darkness and 'yang' representing light and energy. Odd numbers are yang, whereas even numbers are yin. Nine is an odd number, so it belongs to the 'yang'. The sun and moon come upon Nine during early September nine of the Chinese lunar calendar, there are two repeated 'yang', hence it is called 'chongyang' which is also known as 'double-ninth festival'.

Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival, which takes place on the August fifteen of the lunar calendar every year. It is a festival in which the full moon signifies the reunion of people, and pray for someone that missed their home or their love one.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, every family will reunite, and enjoying the moon while eating mooncakes. Children who have left their home will also go back to home to reunite with their parents and families.

Ghost Festival

'Zhongyuan' Festival, also known as half of July, July 14, July 15 and in Buddhism, it is called the Ullambana Festival. In English, it is known as 'Ghost Festival'. On this day, people will burn paper money and make offerings to the souls of their demise relatives.

Many Chinese people think that the seventh month of the lunar calendar is an unlucky month because the gate of hell is open. However, in fact, July is the month of auspiciousness and filial piety, because a variety of crops are ripe in this month, and the ancients would use new paddy and other crops to pray their ancestors in order to report the autumn harvest to their ancestors. The significance of this festival is not to advocate feudal superstition, but is a festival to cherish and reminisce our ancestors.

QingMing Festival

Qingming Festival is one of the four major traditional festivals in China. Qingming Festival is originated from ancestral beliefs and spring ritual customs in ancient times. Both ancestor worship and outing during the early spring are the two major customs of Qingming Festival. The festival of worshipping ancestors during the Qingming Festival is quite long. There are two versions: 10 days before, 8 days after and 10 days before, 10 days after. During these times , people will go to cemetery in order to worship their ancestors.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, commonly known as Lunar New Year, 'Chun Jie', and the spring festival. Chinese New Year has a long history and was inherited till now.

The origin of Chinese New Year contains profound cultural connotations, and carries a rich historical and cultural heritage in its development. During Chinese New Year, various activities are held all over the country, with strong regional characteristics. The main content of these activities is removing the old and bad stuffs, in order to welcome new things. Besides that, these activities are also aim to exorcising evil spirits, and worship gods, as well as ancestors.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms

‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’， written by Luo Guanzhong, is the first long-length novel in ancient China. ‘The Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ describes the battle between Wei, Shu, and Wu headed by Chao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan. This book has demonstrated the wisdom of ancient people, at the same time proved the truth “This world will separate after a long time united. However, the world will also unite after a long time of splitting.”

The Water Margin

‘The Water Margin’ is one of the earliest chapter novels written in vernacular Chinese. ‘The Water Margin’ is written by Shi Nai An, it takes the development of the peasant revolt as the main line, the different experiences of each hero being forced to Liangshan as the subline to depict that the civilians will resist to the government when they are being repressed excessively. This novel also reflects the late Northern Song Dynasty’s political situation and social conflicts. The author stands on the side of the oppressed and praises the righteous actions of the leaders to rob the rich to help the poor, as well as the justice action of eliminating crimes.

The Dream of the Red Chamber

‘The Dream of the Red Chamber’ is one of the four most famous novels in China. There are a total of 120 chapters in the book, written by Cao Xueqin and continued by someone anonymous, with Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E in charge of organising and formatting the chapters. It tells the love tragedy of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, as well as the rise and fall of the four major families which are "Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue". The novel aims to expose the cruelty and cold-bloodedness of the feudal social system, meanwhile implying that the feudal society is inevitable to perish.

Journey to the West

‘Journey to the West '’ is the first romantic chapter novel attributed to Wu Cheng’en in the Ming Dynasty. The whole book mainly revolves around the story of Monkey King, Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, together with a dragon prince who acts as Tang Sanzang’s steed ,a white horse went westward to get the Buddhist scriptures. The novel is based on the historical event of "Tang Seng takes the scriptures" as a blueprint and reflects the people's resistance and the spirit of overcoming obstacles in the ancient feudal society.

Zhongruan

Zhongruan is a Chinese plucked string instrument, is a tenor-range instrument in the family of ruan (阮). In ancient China, the ruan was called Qin pipa (Qin [Dynasty] pipa, 秦琵琶) or Ruan xian (阮咸).

Sanxian

Sanxian is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute, which may have its origin in the Middle East, and older forms of spike lute were also found in ancient Egypt.

Lute

Lute is a plucked string instrument, with more than 2000 years of history. Lute has a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body.

Morin Khuur

Morin khuur is called “Chao'er” in Mongolian. Morin khuur is a two-stringed musical instrument, named after the head of the qin carved with a horse's head, and is considered a symbol of the nation of Mongolia.

Erhu

Erhu is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, which is a part of the huqin family. Erhu only became developed and standardised during the early part of the 1900s.

Sihu

Sihu is a two-stringed bowed lute (huqin) introduced to China by nomadic Mongols during the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368). Sihu is an ancient bowed and stringed musical instrument commonly used by northern peoples.

Dizi

Dizi is a Chinese transverse flute. It is also sometimes known as the di (笛) or héngdi (橫笛), and is widely used in many genres of Chinese folk music, Chinese opera, as well as the modern Chinese orchestra. Dizi is a well-known instrument.

Suona

Suona is a traditional Chinese musical instrument with a double-reed horn. Suona, also known as dida, appeared in China around the 3rd Century. It had a distinctively loud and high-pitched sound and was used frequently in Chinese traditional music ensembles.

Sheng

Sheng is a Chinese mouth-blown polyphonic free reed instrument. It is one of the oldest Chinese instruments and was the first instrument that used a free-reed aerophone. It has made a huge impact on the development of Western instruments.

Gang Gu

Gang Gu is a traditional Chinese drum, and belongs to one of the Han nationality's percussion instruments. Gang Gu is also called a flowerpot drum. This type of drum is widely used in folk instrumental ensembles or opera accompaniment, and sometimes in solo.

YunLuo

YunLuo is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. YunLuo consists of ten tuned bronze gongs of varying thicknesses, which provide different pitches when struck with a small mallet.

Yangqin

Yangqin is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, likely derived from the Iranian santur or the European dulcimer. Yangqin plays the role of piano in Chinese traditional music ensembles because it has a unique feature in its tone. It is widely used in many genres of Chinese opera and Chinese traditional music ensembles.

Papermaking

Before the papermaking technology was invented, people carved or wrote Chinese characters on tortoise shells, animal bones, bamboo slices, wooden plates, and thin tough silksa. Around the early period of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD), people made paper from hemp and ramie. Initially, this was very rough and not suitable for writing. During the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), an official named Cai Lun improved the technique, using many plant fibres such as bark, rags, and torn fishing nets as raw materials, steaming and cooking them with water, then pounding them into pulp, and then spread the pulp evenly on a fine screen and dried it into a kind of thin paper. The paper was suitable for writing and also very cheap so it became very popular.

Printing

China is the first country in the world to invent printing. Early printing was to engrave pictures and texts on wooden boards and print them with ink. During the Tang Dynasty in China, people combined the two methods of carving seals and rubbing characters from carved stones, and invented the forehead block printing technique. In the Song Dynasty, the printing industry was more developed, as the use of woodblock printing was not only complicated but also time-consuming and labour-intensive, so Bi Sheng invented movable-type printing.

Gunpowder

The formula of the gunpowder was first discovered by Taoist alchemists of ancient China when trying to make pills of immortality. Later, people made up black gunpowder with nitre, sulfur and charcoal of certain proportions on the basis of the formula. Books of the middle Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) recorded the method of producing this kind of gunpowder. It was first used to make firecrackers and fireworks and then used in military affairs in the late Tang Dynasty. In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), gunpowder-based weapons such as rockets and cannons were widely used.

Compass

The predecessor of the compass has Sinan and the compass. The main component of Sinan is a magnetic needle mounted on a shaft that can be rotated freely, which began in the Warring States Period and ended in the Tang Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, people combined the artificially magnetized compass and azimuth plate to make a compass, so that people could identify the direction more accurately. In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD), the compass was used for navigation at sea. In the Southern Song Dynasty, its use was spread to Europe via Arabia, and Arabs called it affectionately "the Eye of Sailors". It was also introduced to Arabia and Europe in the early 13th century. Therefore, Admiral Zheng He made seven voyages across seas to Southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, and Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the world.

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