there is something SPECIAL about No.8 in China... and THAT IS......

hi,

    this time I am back, with another surprise, which took me into its arms , when i was referring to one of the Chinese Dictionaries casually;

  and that's the usage of the word "Ba"  (character of no. eight in Chinese) and its importance among the daily usage of an average ancient chinese.

  on referring to little bit of history and occassions of China, i came to know that the no. 8 is very much dearing to them because most of  the special festivals are in one or another way connected to the number 8.   Some of the important usages among them are as follows;- 
      
    The Chinese word    its meaning and speciality   
     

1. Ba-yi Nanchang Qiyi  = August 1 (1927)  Nanchange uprising, which fired the first shot against the KMT reactionaries and marked the begining of Chinese communist party's independent leadership of revolutionary war.
2. Ba yue                   = August, eighth month of lunar year, eighth moon.
3. Ba yue Jie             = Mid autumn festival ( 15th day of 8th lunar month)
4. in ancient chinese astronomy, celestial sphere was consisting of Eight stars( six in hyades and two in taurus).
5. ba zi                      = eight characters (in four pairs, indicating the year, month, day and hour of a persons birth , each pair consisting of one heavenly system and one earthly branch formerly used in fortune telling)
6. ba zihu                 = mustache, shaped like character, "ba"
7. ba ji gong           = eight grade worker ( heighest in the eight grade wage scale) top grade worker.
8. bai gong zizhi    =  eight grade wage scale
9. ba lu jun             = eight route army (led by the chinese communist party during the war of resistance against Japan.
10. Ba qi                   = the eight banners (military - administrative organisation of the "Man" nationality in the Qing dynasty.
11. ba xian               = "Eight immortals"  (in Taoist mythology, identified as Han Zhongli).
12. ba xian zhuo      = "Eight immortals table "- an old fashioned square table for eight people.
13. Ba-Yin Jianjunjie=  August 1 -the 8th month -Anniversary of Chinese People Liberation Army.
    
14. ba bao                  = eight treasures (choice ingredients of certain special dishes)
15. ba bao cai            = eight treasures pickles, assorted soy-sauce pickles
16. ba bao fan           = eight treasures rice pudding (steamed glutinous rice with bean paste, lotus seeds, preserved fruits etc.
17. ba bei zi               = eight life times  - a long time
18. ba fang                = eight points of the compass
19. ba fang hu ying     = responses from every direction, co-operation from all
20. ba gu                   = eight part essay ( a literary composition proscribed for imperial civil service examination, known for its rigidity of form and poverty of ideas) stereotyped writing.
21. ba gua                 = the eight trigrams (eight combination of three lines- all solid,all broken, or a combination o solid and broken lines - joined in pairsto form 64 hexagrams, formerly used in divination.
22. The term ‘Eight Immortals’ is figuratively used for happiness. The number eight has become lucky in association with this tradition, and persons or things eight in number are graced accordingly. Thus we read of reverence shown to the ‘Eight Genii Table’ (Pa Hsien Cho), the ‘Eight Genii Bridge’ (Pa Hsien Ch’iao), ‘Eight Genii Vermicelli’ (Pa Hsien Mien), the ‘Eight Genii of the Wine-cup’ (Tin Chung Pa Hsien)
23. The olympic games was begun at eight minutes past 8 on the evening of the eighth day of the eighth month of the year 2008.