And now these are something INTERESTING abt CHINA and its past...

Hi,

  I wont enter into the history or geography (coz people like me always likes to stay away from these), but would definitely like to bring into your notice some interesting points which I came across, on my reference to some books on the Culture and Traditions of China.  

   I have tried to compress the whole into easygo fashion for the better but easy understanding of all my like minded mates.

   and those are,

In ancient China, Whiskers were never worn, and moustaches and beards only after forty, before which very rare persons used to grow the hair.
 

Nails were worn long by members of the literary and leisured classes.
 

In ancient China wholly white, or rather undyed material, was considered as the colour of mourning.

Chu I also known as Mr. Redcoat is considered as  the God of Good Luck for those who present themselves at the examinations with a somewhat light equipment of literary knowledge.

"bai lian " or the "white face" is pseudonym for the  person with his/her face painted in white in Beijing opera, traditionally for the Villain.

Clapping of hands in China (i.e. non-Europeanized China) is used to drive away the shach’i, or deathly influence of evil spirits.

The dancing and chanting exorcists called "Wu" were the first Chinese priests.

Worship of Heaven could only be performed by the king or emperor.

Worship took place in the ‘Hall of Light,’ which was also a palace and audience and council chamber. Sacrifices were offered to Heaven, the hills and rivers, ancestors, and all the spirits.  

Dancing held a conspicuous place in worship.

The emperor, as high priest, took the responsibility for calamities, etc., making confession to Heaven and praying that as a punishment the evil be diverted from the people to his own person

The tombs of the last two lines of emperors, the Ming and the Manchu, are magnificent structures, spread over enormous areas, and always artistically situated on hillsides facing natural or artificial lakes or seas.

 

Annual festivals, such as ‘All Souls Day’ for wandering and hungry ghosts was practised in ancient times.

The fifteenth day of the eighth moon is the Mid-autumn Festival, known by foreigners as "All Souls Day".

"Li chi", the great classic of ceremonial usages, was "the greatest of all things by which men live.”
 

The huang kou, or ‘yellow dog,’ were guards of houses and street scavengers.

On New Year’s Eve (Tuan Nien or Chu Hsi) the Kitchen-god ascends to Heaven to make his annual report, the wise feasting him with honey and other sticky food before his departure, so that his lips may be sealed and he be unable to ‘let on’ too much to the powers that be in the regions above! 

Chief festivals, are about eight in number (not counting the festivals of the four seasons)

Four festivals are specially concerned with the propitiation of the spirits—namely, the Earlier Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of second moon), the Festival of the Tombs (about the third day of the third moon), when graves are put in order and special offerings made to the dead, the Middle Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of seventh moon), and the Later Spirit Festival (fifteenth day of tenth moon).

The Dragon-boat Festival (fifth day of fifth moon) is said to have originated as a commemoration of the death of the poet Ch’ü Yüan, who drowned himself in disgust at the official intrigue and corruption of which he was the victim, but the object is the procuring of sufficient rain to ensure a good harvest.

 

The State religion, which was Confucianism, was ancestor-worship.

Taoism, originally a philosophy, became a worship of spirits—of the souls of dead men supposed to have taken up their abode in animals, reptiles, insects, trees, stones, etc..

Taoism borrowed the cloak of religion from Buddhism, which eventually outshone it.

Fêng-shui, is  “the art of adapting the residence of the living and the dead so as to co-operate and harmonize with the local currents of the cosmic breath”
The Five Elements or Forces (wu hsing)—which, according to the Chinese, are metal, air, fire, water, and wood—are first mentioned in Chinese literature in a chapter of the classic Book of History.

In the Sung dynasty,philosophers placed behind the yang  and the yin a First Cause—the Grand Origin, Grand Extreme, Grand Terminus, or Ultimate Ground of Existence. They gave to it the name t’ai chi, and represented it by a concrete sign, the symbol of a circle.

Chou Tun-i is apotheosized as ‘Prince in the Empire of Reason.’

Confucianist means ‘a gentleman and a scholar’; he may worship only once a year, yet he belongs to the Church. Unlike its two sisters, it has no priesthood, and fundamentally is not a religion at all; yet with the many rites grafted on the original tree it becomes a religion, and the one most difficult to deal with. Considered as a Church, the classics are its scriptures, the schools its churches, the teachers its priests, ethics its theology, and the written character, so sacred, its symbol.”

In the classical "Li chi", Book of Ceremonial, the emperor worshipped Heaven and earth, the feudal princes the mountains and rivers, the officials the hearth, and the literati their ancestors.
 

Heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, and hearth were called shên (gods), and ancestors kuei (demons).

 

First regular legal code was King Mu’s Punishments in 950 B.C. further revised in 650 B.C..

Among the great legal codes the exemplar was the Law Classic drawn up by Li K’uei (Li K’uei fa ching), a statesman in the service of the first ruler of the Wei State, in the fourth century B.C.

In 1912, on the overthrow of the Manchu monarchy, China became a republic, with an elected President, and a Parliament consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Candles with dragon and phoenix patterns known as Huazhu are used in the bridal chamber on the wedding night.

An organisation named as Little Red Guards  was formed during the Cultural Revolution which comprised school children.

Hongdan or Red Eggs (i.e. eggs dyed red) are given as gifts to friends and relatives on the happy occasion of the birth of a child.

During the War of Resistance against Japan, the Red Army was redesignated as the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.

The Hunan province is known as the Land of Hibiscus (poetically) i.e. Furong guo.

There is a festival known as Hanshi or Cold food festival which is the day before Qing ming when people takes only cold foods.

The Sichuan province is also known as the Land of Plenty.

In the old chinese society when the people where affected by famine they used to eat a kind of white clay to appease their hunger which was known as Guanyintu (Guanyinfen).

Dingxi was the annual fixed rate of interest paid by the State to National burgeoisie on the money value of their assets for a given period of time, after the 1956 conversion of Capitalistic Industry and Commerce into Joint State Private enterprises. 

Didongyi was the Seismograph invented by the chinese scientist Zhang Heng in A.D 132.

The four large rivers of China are (i) Chang jiang (ii) Huanghe 

(iii)Heilong jiang and (iv) Zhu jiang

Fabi was the paper currency issued by the KMT government from the year 1935.

A high topped hat and a broad waist band was the attire of an official or an intellectual in ancient times.

There existed a punishment known as Cisi which was to commit suicide by imperial order ( as the mark of imperial favour, so as to be spared the indignity of execution)

The news paper Renmin Ribao started its publication from June 15th of 1948.

Long March (chang zheng) was a major strategic movement of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army which succeeded in reaching the Revolutionary base in Northern Shaanxi after traversing 11 provinces and covering 25000 Li, or 12500 Kms.

Long term Co-existence and mutual supervision is one of the principle held by the Chinese Communist party in its relations with China's other democratic parties.

Reference :  Myths and Legends of China, by E. T. C. Werner

  

Again, dont forget to post ur comments on these....

Will meet u soooooon.....