Simple Chinese Ideograms or Ideographs were the second type of character that were developed after pictographs. Pictographs are characters that look very similar to the word they describe, such as 口 ‘mouth’ and 手 ‘hand’. Ideograms, on the other hand are known as 指事 (zhǐ shì) or ‘indirect characters’ and are often symbolic characters depicting abstract concepts…. Read More
The Chinese farmer story is one of many tao parables that can be interpreted in many ways. These stories are part of Taoism, or Daoism, as it is more commonly known in the west. Taoism is a long-standing religion in China known for its philosophies and promotion of a harmonious lifestyle. The religion concentrates on… Read More
When we first start handwriting Chinese characters, we’re often unprepared and lack the knowledge to know how to begin. It’s difficult to comprehend if English or other Germanic language is your native tongue, the subtle nuances of strokes in a Chinese character. When we learn to write English, there are only 26 letters to learn,… Read More
Image Source The introduction of dance into Chinese opera at the beginning of the last century massively changed how the Chinese people experienced opera. Previously, it was only listened to, but now strong aesthetic standards were being established and allowed people to express and experience the beauty of Opera in a different way. The person… Read More
What is ‘Chinese civilization’ 华夏文明 (huá xià wén míng)? Chinese civilization 华夏文明 (huá xià wén míng) begins, according to records, with the creation of the Xia dynasty 夏朝 (xià cháo) in 2070 BC. Although the Xia dynasty was the first ‘civilization’ in China, there were people who lived on the land well before Yu the Great… Read More
If you don’t have time to study this now, just and read it later! We recently posted an article about the 6 types of Chinese characters and how they came to exist. This follow up post, takes a look at 20 pictograph or pictogram characters found in written Chinese. Although there is a slight explanation… Read More