Chinasage : All about China
China sage's information will be of use to anyone keen to learn more about the world's upcoming nation. We cover all aspects of China in hundreds of detailed pages which include all sorts of cultural traditions , descriptions of every Chinese province and all the dynasties . We hope you find ChinaSage the home for your study of China.
You can also check out your knowledge of China with our Quiz section .
Traditions
About Chinasage
We're building an extensive set of information all about China. We found other sites too detailed (such as Wikipedia) or just too old-fashioned. What we thought was needed was a carefully constructed site with strict editorial control so that everything is consistent and easy to navigate without clutter.
The name “Chinasage” came about because it can be read as either “China sage” (中 国 英 明 zhōng guó yīng míng ) or “China’s age” (中 国 时 代 zhōng guó shí dài ) , which promotes our new knowledge resource at a time when China has come of age in the world.
Fire symbolism
Although fire is chiefly seen as one of the five elements of nature it also has a symbolic meaning. It is one of the parts of the Imperial insignia where it represents the Emperor's burning zeal to govern the people wisely. Fierce and active Buddhist deities are shown surrounded by flames.
Traditionally Chinese homes in the north did not have an open fire but a ‘kang’ as a form of heated seat and bed. All fires for winter heating were put out before the Qing Ming spring festival. The active meaning of fire may come from its closeness in sound to 活 New Year festival attract the good gods and scare away the bad ones. The ritual burning of ghost money and other offerings sends them to the spirit world. Some consider Fuxi was the deity who brought fire to mankind, but others say it was the Yellow Emperor .
Getting by in China There are many customs and traditions that you should know before traveling to China. Our customs page covers such things as giving gifts, banquets, sealing business deals and how to behave in public. A respect for age old traditions will impress your hosts who will appreciate your efforts to embrace the culture. Read more…
Spirit Ways to Imperial Tombs For 2,000 years illustrious people had an elaborate underground burial tomb. Although many tombs have been looted over the ages, the spirit way or sacred way with rows of stone sculptures have often survived. Read more…
The standing of women in China Attitudes to women have changed greatly in China over the centuries. The traditional subservient position of women in society was removed in only the last sixty years but there yet to be a woman appointed to the top rung of government. Our section describes the role of women down the centuries including the role of concubines and how some Imperial women bucked the trend. Read more…
Proverb
空 中 楼 阁
A pavilion in the air
A fanciful and impossible scheme. An impractical idea with a streak of vanity.
Roughly equivalent to: A flight of fancy.
All about Chinese proverbs
Hares and Rabbits Hares and rabbits are put together in Chinese. Hares are associated with the moon as the Chinese saw a 'hare' rather than a 'man' in the moon. The Chinese moon rovers are called the 'Jade Rabbits'. Read more…
Traditional and Simplified When you start learning Chinese you soon across the fact that there are two written forms still in use, the simplified form used in China and the old, traditional form still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other overseas Chinese communities. With 4,000 years of use the written Chinese language has many archaic features. On the formation of the Peoples' Republic an ambitious reform of the script was instigated which has made the learning of the characters far easier. Read more…
Quintessence of the Nation Traditional Chinese Opera was the entertainment of all Chinese over many centuries. A long evening performance contains elements of drama, music, comedy, acrobatics and martial arts. Each region has its own distinctive form. Over time complex body movements represent specific meanings as a very sparse set is used. The art form has inspired many Western composers and playwrights to emulate the style. Read more…
Imperial officials The prized job in dynastic China was as an Imperial official. As well as prosperity and a life of relative leisure an official received respect from the community. As anyone who passed the Imperial examinations could hope for such an appointment the posts were potentially open to all men. Read more…
Cracking China book
Your A-Z key to understanding China
We are proud to announce a printed book all about China based loosely on this web site. It is a set of sixty topics in A-Z order covering everything from hair to kiwifruit, clapping to rhubarb, eunuchs to dragons. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now available as a Kindle eBook for just $3.90.
Details... ➚
Fire symbolism
Although fire is chiefly seen as one of the five elements of nature it also has a symbolic meaning. It is one of the parts of the Imperial insignia where it represents the Emperor's burning zeal to govern the people wisely. Fierce and active Buddhist deities are shown surrounded by flames.
Traditionally Chinese homes in the north did not have an open fire but a ‘kang’ as a form of heated seat and bed. All fires for winter heating were put out before the Qing Ming spring festival. The active meaning of fire may come from its closeness in sound to 活 New Year festival attract the good gods and scare away the bad ones. The ritual burning of ghost money and other offerings sends them to the spirit world. Some consider Fuxi was the deity who brought fire to mankind, but others say it was the Yellow Emperor .
History
Dip into history Our history section has a page for each major dynasty, for the whole period from the time of myths and legends 5,000 years ago all the way through the Han, Tang, Song, Ming dynasties to the last great dynasty the Qing Read more…
Foreigners in China China was exploited by foreign powers from the end of the Qing dynasty to the foundation of the PRC in 1949. The establishment of foreign enclaves within most Chinese cities one hundred years ago led to many frictions with the foreign powers, particularly Britain. The treaty port system forcibly opened up cities to foreign trade in late Qing dynasty China. Read more…
The Great Mongol Empire The conquest of China by the Mongols took over 50 years. The north was taken in 1215 and the south held out until 1279. The horde of brutal horsemen from Mongolia swept all before them. The Mongols took to Chinese ways, using existing administration and traditions rather than imposing their own. It was China's most cosmopolitan era. Read more…
The Great Wall of China The iconic vision of the Great Wall snaking its way up mountainsides is known the world over. One of China's great accomplishments is the awe-inspiring Great Wall. Although it stands for China's enterprise and indomitable spirit, it in the end proved an expensive waste of effort. Read more…
Proverb
一 龙 生 九 种 ,种 种 不 同
Yī lóng shēng jiǔ zhǒng, zhǒng zhǒng bù tóng The dragon has nine sons, each different from the others
Brothers and sisters may not resemble each other.
All about Chinese proverbs
China today You can find information not only about China's long history but its present and future too. We cover the years since 1912, the space program, the current leadership and system of government as well as some lengthy musing on China's future direction. Read more…
Geography
China's diverse geography China has deserts, mountains, lakes, rain forests and almost every other type of geographical feature you can think of. Our geography section has pages for each individual province as well as the great Yangzi and Yellow rivers. There are also pages on climate, cities, population, ethnic people, airports and universities. Read more…
Yellow River The valley of the mighty Yellow River was the cradle of Chinese civilization. The heavy load of silt that turns the waters 'yellow' creates rich farming land in the lower stretches. It is the second longest river in China after the Yangzi River . Read more…
Mountainous Tibet The mountainous province of Tibet forms the highest possible land border between India and China. On the border with Nepal is the world's highest mountain: Mount Everest (or Qomolangma). Tibet's unique culture is a key attraction to visitors. Read more…
Ancient province of Shandong The eastern province of Shandong sticks out into the Yellow Sea and has many historic attractions. It boasts the birthplace of Confucius and also the manufacture of Qingdao beer. The most sacred mountain in China - Taishan - has many ancient temples and memorials. Read more…
Chinese Cities Statistics on all the major cities in China. Gives Population, Chinese name and shows map of location within China as well as calculating distances to any other Chinese city. Read more…
The Long March The epic tale of the struggle of thousands of soldiers over thousands of miles of challenging terrain has been held up as the chief heroic episode in the early days of the Communist party. It was during the Long March that Mao Zedong emerged as leader with his own vision for the future of China. Read more…
Language
The Chinese Language The Chinese language is rightly treasured as the country's greatest accomplishment. Our language section introduces the language. The section includes some introductory lessons and a guide to writing the characters. Read more…
Chinese numbers Learning the numbers in Chinese is easier than in many other languages. In our complete guide to the numbers we include the traditions associated them. Do you know why 4 is unlucky but 8 lucky? Read more…
China's Ancient Script The discovery of a huge number of 'oracle bones' has greatly added to the knowledge of the origins of China's written script. It pushes back the written language to at least 3,500 years ago. Careful study of the inscriptions is still revealing information about life in Shang dynasty times. Read more…
How to write Chinese characters Many Chinese spend a great deal of time studying calligraphy. To be able to write (or more accurately draw) Chinese characters requires lots of practice as well as knowing both the brush strokes and the order in which to make them. Read more…
The Chinese Emperor The institution of Emperor , as head of the Chinese family of people, lasted for thousands of years and to some extent lives on with the Presidency. In China there has been great respect for the Emperor/President who in turn is expected to rule wisely with the best interests of his subjects in mind. To early European visitors to China the structure was considered close to the ideal form of society. Read more…
Toad Frogs and toads are valued in China because they keep down insect pests on crops. In some regions their name is similar to qián 'money, coin' and this has given them an association with good fortune and luck. Read more…
Bits and Pieces
We need your help to keep the Chinasage web site growing. We'd love to keep this web site completely free of advertisements like Wikipedia. Please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber for however little or much you can afford. We have been running this campaign for two months and have so far raised only 10% of our target. So please help… or else advertisements will make a comeback!
To read more and take out a subscription simply click on the Patreon Patreon
Many thanks, much appreciated.
Tue 20th Sep 2022Patreon pictures Thanks to the generous donations from Chinasage's Patreon ➚ sponsors we've just added quality photographs to many of our pages.
Although you can get images of all sorts of thing for free you do still have to pay for quality, particularly for specialist subjects. This time we have used 123rf for the new images who claim to have 200 million images to choose from. It takes a long time to make a choice and then they all need editing for usage, tagging and finally putting on the appropriate place on our hundreds of pages. We hope you will agree that they make a significant improvement.
New Year dragon, Shanghai Read more…
Fire symbolism
Although fire is chiefly seen as one of the five elements of nature it also has a symbolic meaning. It is one of the parts of the Imperial insignia where it represents the Emperor's burning zeal to govern the people wisely. Fierce and active Buddhist deities are shown surrounded by flames.
Traditionally Chinese homes in the north did not have an open fire but a ‘kang’ as a form of heated seat and bed. All fires for winter heating were put out before the Qing Ming spring festival. The active meaning of fire may come from its closeness in sound to 活 New Year festival attract the good gods and scare away the bad ones. The ritual burning of ghost money and other offerings sends them to the spirit world. Some consider Fuxi was the deity who brought fire to mankind, but others say it was the Yellow Emperor .
Japan and China History of the often difficult relations between China and Japan. The Japanese occupation of China 1937-45 and continued U.S. support for Japan has led to continuing frictions between governments and peoples. Read more…
Air travel in China Here we list all China's main airports , giving information on location, facilities and easy to use distance calculator so you can plan a complex itinerary around China. We also give useful visitor information about air transport in China. Read more…
Chinese characters Some Chinese characters have their origin 10,000 years ago. The very old forms are simplified pictures of objects and animals. Later more abstract notions were represented in a simple way. Now there are a total of 200,000 distinct characters but fortunately only 2,000 for everyday life. Read more…
Han Dynasty After the trauma of the Qin dynasty it was the succeeding Han dynasty that established China as a stable nation. Many Imperial institutions inaugurated at this time lasted for the next two thousand years. Together with the Tang and Ming it is considered one of the great periods of Chinese history. Read more…
Chinese Sudoku Play the Sudoku puzzle with Chinese numbers and characters. Our partner site SudokuDragon offers a puzzle generator and solver that can use Chinese, a new angle on the puzzle and a useful way to learn some Chinese. Read more…
The Nanpu bridge at Shanghai
Conventions
We use a consistent style for links within Chinasage. An internal link taking you to another page within our site is shown like this while a link to a page on any other web site is shown like this ➚ .
We use Chinese characters wherever appropriate. Most browsers should display both the characters and the pinyin correctly. We highlight any use of the older Wade Giles system for 'spelling' characters. Except where stated all characters are the modern simplified form used in the People's Republic rather than the traditional ones (pre-1970s). To help you learn Chinese characters many of the very common characters are highlighted thus: 中
Dates are given using the BCE/CE ➚ (Before Common Era and in Common Era) year convention rather than BC/AD. If a date is not followed by BCE or CE it should be taken as CE.
Authorship
All the text on the Chinasage web site is my own, I do not copy and paste from other web sites. I research each topic from a number of authoritative sources (mainly books ). The only exception to this are quotations and image credits. All text is our copyright and can not be used/copied without my permission. I am independent of any other company or government, the opinions expressed are my own. I do not receive funding or backing from any agency or organization .
Teacup Media (China History Podcast)
I am delighted to be able to promote links to Laszlo Montgomery's excellent Teacup Media ➚ series created over the last 14 years. Laszlo Montgomery ➚ has in depth knowledge of building commercial contacts with China over 30 years. The set of 290 podcasts totals 150 hours of audio commentary which covers every conceivable topic in Chinese history. Highly recommended.
Acknowledgments
I am extremely grateful to the many people who have put their photographs online for anyone to adapt and use. Without them this site would be very drab. If I am not using the image license correctly please let me know. I am grateful to Kim Dramer ➚ for permission to use her short videos all about Chinese culture and traditions. Patreon subscribers have supported the web site and allowed us to amongst other things purchase some quality images of China for use here. Some pages use Javascript ➚ to create special effects such as our airport table and calendar . I am grateful to the original authors for providing their code to be used and adapted by anyone else. The online Chinese dictionary uses the definition from the CC-CEDICT project ➚ for which I am grateful for a generous free license. Sound files kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License.
Feel free to contact Chinasage to point out any errors, omissions or suggestions on how to improve this web site.
If you would like to support my work and keep us independent become a Patreon or make a Donation via Paypal.
