It is a traditional art made from purple sand earth in high temperature. In DaYong Purple Sand Pottery Factory, there are dozens series product, such as pot, cup, bottle and oven. With flower carving, poem and picture on pottery, the pottery is popular souvenir.
Hai Rui (1514 – 1587), born in Hainan Province, was an official in the Ming Dynasty. He is famed as a statesman for his honesty and performance of his duty as well as his clean life. After his death, people chose the location in obedience to his spirit from heaven. One typical story illustrates his honesty. After seeing the emperor wink at the corruption of court officials, he prepared a coffin for his death and said farewell to his wife. Then he went to the emperor, expressing his criticism and advice. His words were not accepted but cost him his court position and he was jailed. After his release, he returned to his hometown and helped with irrigation projects. At the age of 72, he was employed again by the court to work in Nanjing, and passed away in the third year of his service.
His integrity also gained peoples recognition. When he worked for the court, he was needy and could not pay for servants. He wrote articles or inscriptions for others in order to earn money. This was quite uncommon because in Chinese feudal society, most officials had servants and lived a rich life. After his death when people helped clear up his mementoes, they were surprised to find only eight taels of silver and a few clothes.
On the day they buried Hai Rui, their admired official, all the people ceased their own matters to attend the funeral, crying and grieving. When the coffin was carried to the very spot where the present tomb is situated, the rope of the coffin broke and people believed this was the place that Hai Rui chose for himself. Thus the tomb was built on that spot.
This is a featured cloth handmade by the Li people using cotton inside the capsule of kapok. Particularly renowned during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC – 476 BC), the Li Brocade is Chinas oldest cotton textile. The Li Brocade includes a column skirt, headband, bed sheet, quilt and so on. Designs of flowers, grass, animals and human beings are exquisitely made.
Once upon a time, a white snake and a green snake who had magical power in the Emei Mountain and had transformed into two beautiful young ladies. They came to found a man named Xu Xian who saved the white snake´s life on previous generation at the West Lake of Hangzhou city. The white snake fell in love with Xu Xian at first sight. They got married soon after.
The Lady White helped her husband to open an herbal medicine store by writing the prescriptions. Patients unable to pay were given free treatment and medicine. The store quickly became well known and popular. One day a monk called Fa Hai saw the couples and warned Xu Xian that his wife was a white snake.
It was during the Dragon Boat Festival, when Chinese families like to decorate with calamus and Chinese mugwort around the house and drink wine to drive away spirits. This was dangerous to Lady White and Lady Green, since they were spirits after all. Lady White was pregnant at that time and her magical power had weakened a lot. She tried to drink wine to please her husband. Unfortunately, she couldn´t control herself and turned into her snake body in her bedroom. Xu Xian saw the white snake and was literally scared to death.
In order to save her husband´s life, Lady White went to steal the resurrection plant on the Kunlun Mountain. She failed. But her true love won the resurrection plant and the life of Xu Xian was restored.
Xu Xian remembered Fa Hai and went to the Jinshan Temple to see him. Fa Hai suggested Xu Xian become a monk to forget his wife. Fa Hai could take care the spirits. Lady White asked a great army of underwater creatures for help and brought forth a flood over the Jinshan Temple to fight with Fa Hai. Fa Hai had the magical power too and asked the heavenly soldiers to save his temple. Since the Lady White was pregnant, she was too weak to fight harder, She gave up the battle and waited for the time after giving birth.
Xu Xian went to see his son and carried a magical hat from Fa Hai for his son. The magical hat captured the White Snake. Fa Hai imprisoned the White Snake inside the Leifeng Pagoda.
The Green Snake was unable to fight Fa Hai alone, escaped and practiced in her magical power even harder. After the son of Lady White grew up. She took revenge by destroying the Leifeng Pagoda and rescued White Snake. White Snake reunited with her husband and her son.
Women like to wear accessories like earrings, bracelets and necklaces. In the past, girls arranged their hair into many small plaits; the longer the hair, the more beautiful. After marriage, they plaited their hair into two plaits, and decorated it with a crescent-shaped comb; some arranged the two plaits into a bun.
Uygur men usually wear a long gown with a tilted front and a waistband but no buttons.
The Battle of Red Cliffs also known as the Battle of Chibi (simplified Chinese: 赤壁之战; traditional Chinese: 赤壁之戰; Pinyin: chì bì zhī zhàn) was a decisive battle in 208 A.D. the end of Han Dynasty. It was fought between the allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and the northern warlord, Cao Cao. Liu and Sun successfully frustrated Cao Cao’s effort to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River and reunite the territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
After Cao Cao unified the North of China, he led the troop of 800,000 soldiers to south aiming to eliminate his main southern rivals and unify China. However, Liu Bei and Sun Quan joined up to resist Cao Army. There were altogether 50,000 soldiers, including 30,000 trained naval soldiers led by Zhou Yu, the general of Wu and others led by Liu Bei.
Because the exhausting expedition and inexperience in water battle, Cao Army got seasickness, then Cao Cao had moored his ships from stem to stem, possibly aiming to reduce seasickness in his army. Observing this, divisional commander Huang Gai sent a letter to Cao Cao, feigning surrender and handing over the provisions. Cao Cao simply assumed that superiority in number would eventually defeat Sun and Liu and believed Huang Gai. Huang Gai led his ships which filled with bundles of kindling, dry reeds, and fatty oil. When the ships approached the midpoint of the river, the sailors applied fire to the ships before taking to small boats. The unmanned fire ships, carried by the southeastern wind, sped towards Cao´s fleet and set it ablaze. Within a short time smoke and flames stretched across the sky, and a large number of men and horses either burned to death or drowned. Cao Cao had to flee with the remaining troops. The ally then chased to enlarge their victory.
The battle laid the foundation for the confrontation of the latter three kingdoms, Wei, Shu and Wu. It is also a classic battle in Chinese history famous for the fewer and weaker defeating the more and stronger.
Li people are good at weaving brocade. Exquisite Li brocade has a long history. Men usually wear collarless jackets with buttons down the front, along with aprons and trousers. They wear their hair in a bun, while earrings are worn in some areas.
Women wear jackets with buttonless opening down the front or "Guantouyi" pullovers and tight skirts. They gather their long hair on the back of their head with bone hairpins and embroidered head kerchiefs, and wear various ornaments.
Cailun(?-121), he was from Leiyang, Hunan province. He invented paper. The paper were made from bark, old cloth and fishnet. The raw materials were more cheaper than bamboo which people in that timen wrote on. Then this paper became popular, and called "Paper of Duck Cai".
Facial makeup is used for actors in traditional Chinese operas, mainly in the painted-face roles and the comic roles. It had regular patterns in forms, colors and styles, which revealed the actors character by means of exaggeration and transmutation of figures. An expert spectator can tell the different roles from the makeup: is he or she a hero or a villain, clever or stupid, respectable.The attractive make-up of Beijing opera took a special position in various make-up styles in Chinese operas and was famous for its symbolization and exaggeration.
There are various patterns of makeup for the forehead, eyebrows, around the eyes, nose, mouth, and chin, which follow certain rules but were not changeless. The eyes, forehead and the cheeks were sometimes drawn as the wings of a bat, butterfly or swallow. The mouth and the nose were exaggerated. The facial makeup of Beijing Opera stressed symbolic colors. The colorful makeup was not for improving ones looks, but to demonstrate the characteristics of the different roles. For example, a white crescent on the black forehead of Bao Zheng implies honestly and uprightness.
The shadow show or leather silhouette play is a type of drama which has its roots in China.
Legend has it that Emperor Wudi (156-87 B.C.) of the Western Han was depressed with the death of his favourite concubine Lady Li. To help him get over the sadness, an occultist sculptured a wooden figure in the likeness of the lady and projected its shadow on a curtain for the emperor to see, bringing him consolation with the belief that the shadow was her spirit. This has been thought to be the beginning of the shadow show.
Todays shadow puppets are made of leather instead of wood for the simple reason that leather is much lighter, easier to manipulate and carry round. The process for making the puppets is as follows: Sheep or donkey skin with hair removed is cleaned and treated chemically to become thin enough to be translucent. Coated with tung oil and dried, it is carved into various parts of dramatic figures. The trunk, head and limbs of a puppet are separately carved but joined together by thread so that each part may. be manipulated by the operator to simulate human movements. The leather puppets are painted with various colours to show their different qualities– kind or wicked, beautiful or ugly. During the performance, the "actors" are held close to a white curtain with their coloured shadows cast on it by a strong light from behind. Moved by guiding sticks, they play the roles, accompanied by music, with their parts or singing done by the operators. The plays can be quite dramatic and, when it comes to fairy tales or kungfu stories, the "actors" may be made to ride on clouds or perform unusual feats, to the great enjoyment of the audience, especially children.
The shadow show became quite popular as early as the Song Dynasty (960-1279) when holidays were marked by the presentation of many shadow plays. During the Ming (1368 1644), there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone.
In the 13th century the shadow show became a regular recreation in the barracks of the Mongolian troops. It was spread by the conquering Mongols to distant countries like Persia, Arabia and Turkey. Later, it was introduced to Southeastern Asian countries, too.
The show began to spread to Europe in the mid-18th century, when French missionaries to China took it back to France in 1767 and put on performances in Paris and Marseilles , causing quite a stir. In time, the ombres chinoises, with local modification and embellishment, became the ombres francaises and struck root in the country.
As present, more than 20 countries are known to have shadow show troupes.
Some people may have gone too far in alleging that the Chinese shadow show heralded the cinematic industry, but it certainly has contributed its bit towards enriching the worlds amusement business. Today, when the motion picture and television have become wide spread throughout the world, foreign tourists in China are still keen to see a performance of this ancient dramatic art.
Shadow puppets are also available from certain shops as art souvenirs of the country.