At a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride is often seen with a red veil on her head. It covers the bride’s face. Chinese people call the veil, made of a laced silk square, red head cover.

This practice dates back to the Qi Period (479-502) of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The head cover was used by women farmers to protect their heads against cold wind and hot sunshine while working in the fields. It could be a cloth of any color and was big enough to cover the head top. For its practical use and ornamental function, the head cover was widespread.

By the beginning of Tang Dynasty (618-907), the cover had become a long veil down to the shoulder. And it was no longer exclusive to working women. Later, Emperor Li Longji made a decision. He demanded that all maids-in-waiting in the palace add a piece of gauze to the head covers to cover their faces. It soon became a fashion among the commons. But the commons made a difference of the cover’s function. In those days, women’s faces were thought of as a lure to men. A husband did not want his beautiful wife to be an attraction to other men. He wanted her to behave bashfully and shyly in front of men. A veil could realize his wish. And the wife readily accepted the veil to show her loyalty to her husband. Gradually the veil became popular among both married and unmarried women who were eager to demonstrate their virtues. Veils are not unique in China. Even today veils can still be seen in some other places in the world.

This custom lasted about a thousand years. From Later Jin Dynasty (936 – 946), a veil became a must for a bride at the wedding. But the color of the bride’s veil is always red as it is the symbolic color of happiness.

Chinese creation myth is so unique in that heaven, earth, gods and man are an undifferentiated whole. That is the origin of the Chinese world view of harmony of man and nature.

The most popular myth in this respect is Pangu the Creator. It is popular among most peoples in China. There are almost ten versions, oral and written. Let us look at this most well-known one and work out some most basic motifs of Chinese culture.

At first the universe was in chaos. In the shape of an egg, it was an undifferentiated, indivisible whole. Pangu the Creator was born into this entity. He was an almighty giant. He kept growing every day until he separated the universe into heaven and earth with his sheer muscular strength. When this was done, the sky and the earth were still connected at various points. So he stuck to his work with a chisel and an axe until the great feat was accomplished. After this, he continued growing and so was the world, with the sky and the earth farther and farther apart. He lived for thousands of years till he died of exhaustion.

Upon his death, his body changed into various things. His breath became winds and clouds, with the clearer breath going up to heaven, the coarser part sinking down to earth. His left eye turned into the sun and his right eye became the moon. His arms and legs were transformed into the four corners of the earth and parts of his body turned into the various mountains. His blood formed the rivers and his veins the roads. His flesh became the soil and his skin and body hair were transformed into the trees and plants. His teeth and bones turned into rocks and metals, his marrow changed into pearls and jade. His hair and mustache were transformed into stars. His sweat fell as rain, nourishing all things. The insects on his body took the shape of men and women. Hence the world finally became what it looks like today.

The allusion comes from The Biography of Mencius’ Mother Biographies of Outstanding Women by Liu Xiang, one of the greatest letters in the Han Dynasty.

When Meng Ke, known later on as Mencius, was still a child, his mother and him lived near a graveyard. As Meng Ke played in the yard, what he imitated were all the rites of funerals. So his mother said:” This is not the right place for me and my son to live.” She moved to a house near a market. Then her son took pleasure in imitating the peddlers’ hawking and salesmen’s bargaining. Again the mother said:” This is not the place me and my son to live.” And she made another migration and housed themselves near a school. There her son behaved in the same polite manner as the teachers and students. The mother said:” Here we should live!” So they settled there. In the following years, Meng Ke acquired a wide range of knowledge, such as etiquette, music, archery, charioteer, reading, writing and arithmetic. When he grew up, he became one of the most famous scholars and representatives of Confucianism.

Later, the phrase was used to sing praises of mothers who teach their children by means of selecting good environment.

Three Treasures of Fuzhou refer to the three traditional art crafts spread in the Fuzhou area – lacquer, cork pictures, and ox horn comb.

Lacquer – These products are well known by their beauty and anticorrosive traits, including decorative screens, vases, tea services, smoking sets and stationery etc. Fuzhou lacquer is made from either clay-embryo or wood- embryo. The making approach of a normal lacquer counts up to 45 procedures, and some delicate ones even need over 100 procedures.

Cork Pictures – Cork is used to make hanging screens, folding screens and decorative articles depicting landscapes, characters, animals and birds. Handcrafters use traditional Chinese garden “box view” approach to create novel and unique composition. Most of the content reflects the sights, monuments and flowers, insects, fish, with more than 200 specifications.

Ox Horn Comb – Comb carved from horn. Horn combs are made of keratin which is very good for the scalp and which is the same protein that hair is made of. So it eliminates static and helps keep the natural oils retained in the hair. Never will two combs have the same pattern or coloring, even though they are available in most of the usual craft shops.

Yu the Great, a Chinese prehistoric king, is still remembered and respected as the ruler who got the Yellow River back under control.

Yu lived about four thousand years ago. At that time, people suffered from a big flood of the Yellow River. King Shun, the ruler before Yu, initially assigned Yu’s father Gun to handle the problem. Gun tried out a method that consisted of blocking up the water wherever the flooding occurred. Nine years later, the situation has become even worse with the river overflowing everywhere. King Shun was very angry with what Gun had done, and ended up dismissing Gun and appointing Yu. Yu learned techniques from his father and adopted a new way of dredging water channels and conducting the river to the sea. He went into this project of water control with his entire endeavor, and it was said that during this period of time, he passed by his house three times but never went inside. In total it took him 13 years to tame the river. The story of Yu’s battle against the flood speaks of the fearless spirit of ancient people faced with natural disaster.

King Shun was impressed by Yu’s effort and passed his throne to Yu later on. Yu the Great was the last legendary leader of the primitive society, in which the election of the leader followed the merit system. It was Qi, the son of Yu, who violated this practice. He killed the person Yu the Great had appointed and succeeded his father‘s power. Qi founded the Xia Dynasty (21th-16^th century BC) and initiated the hereditary system of monarchy.

Huangdi is considered to be the founder of Chinese civilization as well as its first ancestor. He lived about 4 thousand years ago, during the time of patriarchal clan community, and was the mystical chief of one of the strongest tribes in the middle valley of the Yellow River. During the period many tribes came to settle around the reach of Yellow River engaging in farming. The different tribes clashed with each other over land disputes as each tribe sought to have more farmland. Since the constant warring caused much suffering to the people, Huangdi decided to put an end to this chaotic situation. He worked out a moral code and trained his army. With his army, after warring 56 battles against other tribes, Huangdi conquered a wide area along the Yellow River and was made chief of the tribe union. Because his tribe honored the virtue of earth, he was given the title Yellow Emperor, after the yellow color the earth, the symbol of farming.

As the Yellow Emperor he is remembered as having done many great things. He coined bronze money, practiced medicine, invented boats, raised silk-worms and divided his realm into provinces. The story goes that when Huangdi was 110 years old, a yellow dragon appears in the sky, summoning the emperor to heaven on behalf of the king of heaven. When the emperor riding on the back of the dragon is about to leave, his subjects who were reluctant to let him go, drag him back by his clothes. However, all that was left were only part of the emperor’s clothes and hat.

In commemoration of Huangdi, his descendents buried his remains at Mount Qiaoshan, where they built a mausoleum in honor of him, in present day Shaanxi Province, Tradition passes down from then that every year on the fifth day of the fourth lunar month (the Qingming Festival, also known as the Festival of Pure Brightness) Chinese people of Huangdi’s origin will remember him by coming to visit his mausoleum, which has become the symbol of the Chinese nation.

Shehuo is now one of the traditional shows for rural people of northern west of China to celebrate Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). The show consists of Gao Qiao (stilts- walking), Pao Han Chuan (boat rowing on the ground), dragon and lion dancing etc. The string players make up as local opera figures and move forward in the main street and hundreds of people gather together to watch the performance. The celebration will culminate on fifth of the lunar year (Festival of Lanterns).

Coming from the sacrifices of primitive society, Shehuo has a history of more than 5000 years. During the Dynasty of Shan and Zhou, specific ceremony was held by the royal court for driving away devils. Gradually, this ceremony was introduced to civilians and shade (Xu, I’m not sure what verb did you want to use here, I would like you to look at this again. Shade is like – shadow, darkness…) into performance at temple fair to celebrate Chinese New Year, to pray for rain, and to fete the god. The players made up like wearing a mask on the face. Audiences identified every individual mask to recognize what role the player acted. Afterward, people used the woody ladle painted with Shehuo Mask to feed horses and cattle to prevent murrain, or hung the ladle-shape mask on the wall in their house to impetrate safety, harmony, and happiness.

In recent years, with the improvement of people’s living condition and the increase of international economic and cultural exchange, Shehuo, as a special flavor of Chinese culture, tend to be more popular. Combined with advanced light and sound effect technology, Shehuo is more varied in content and spectacular in scene. Shehuo not only displays traditional Chinese culture but also flavor to people’s happy life.

Xun Zi (313-238 BC), whose given name was Kuang and courtesy name Qing, was born in the State of Zhao and was a key figure in the Confucius school. When studying in the State of Qi, he became one of the celebrated scholars at the Jixia Academy. In his later years, he dedicated himself to teaching disciples and writing books, one of which is Xun Zi, an epitome of his thoughts. Politically, he inherited the Confucian thought of li (rites) and considers li as not merely a moral standard but a necessity of governing the country. He also called upon the practice of the “royal regulations” which emphasizes li and fa (standards): the purpose of li is to educate and of fa is to rule. The practice of them combined means to restrain the evil in human nature.

Xun Zi epitomized the academic thoughts of the Pre-Qin period. The Book of Xun Zi was the crystallization of his thoughts. As for his political thought, he chiefly inherited Confucian thought of rites and etiquette, which he considers as a sort of basic social system that may regulate social relations. As for the theory of human nature, Xun Zi thinks the nature of man is evil, which should be normalized and restricted by “rites and morality”, so he values moralization and study after a man’s birth. The first article in The Book of Xun Zi is “Encouraging Learning”. Xun Zi’s epistemology is a theory of reflection of materialism; he puts forward a proposition of “achieving calmness by modesty and concentration”. By “modesty” he means freedom from prejudice in the process of getting insight into the objective world. “Concentration” means focusing on what you are doing with full attention. “Calmness” means observing calmly and maintaining an objective attitude. His epistemology has some rationality.

The four methods of diagnosis are general term used by the doctors of the traditional Chinese medicine for the basic methods of diagnosing illness, including diagnosis through observation, diagnosis through auscultation and olfaction, diagnosis through inquiry and diagnosis through pulse feeling and palpation, namely “Wang Wen Wen Qie”.

The first method of diagnosis, observation, means that the doctors observe the physical conditions of the patients, the complexion and tongue coating included. Auscultation and olfaction refers to the situation, in which the doctors listen to the words, coughing and breathing of a patient, and sniff whether his mouth or body smells. The third method of diagnosis involves the inquiry into the patient’s symptoms, medical history and so on. When it comes to the last method of diagnosis, it means that the doctors diagnose whether there is something wrong with a patient by feeling his pulse or palpating his abdomen. Through the four methods of diagnosis, the symptoms and physical signs of the illnesses manifested in various facets are diagnosed with a view to understanding the causes or nature of the illnesses as well as their connections with the internal organs, which provide a solid basis for the treatment of the illnesses.

The four methods of diagnosis, each being of special significance, are interconnected and complementary; they cannot replace one another. In the clinical medicine, only with a combined application of the four diagnostic methods can a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the physical condition of a patient be gained; this is called “the combined use of the four methods of diagnosis”.

“Grand Gifts” is a set of elaborate gifts to be presented to the bride’s family by the groom’s family. All gifts should come in even numbers, meaning “good things double”… Some gifts on the list are seasonal, or not readily available in some parts of the world. As long as you present some of the gifts on the list in even numbers, it is a wonderful gesture that shows respect to the bride’s family.

1. Li Shi Money. The amount is determined by the groom’s family, usually contains the number 9, such as 99, 999, etc.

2. Jewelries, such as gold dragon-phoenix bangle. Two families discuss the design and cost before purchase.

3. Two pairs of dragon-phoenix cakes, and certain amount of Chinese and western cakes.

4. Dried seafood and mushroom and Fa Cai. Fa Cai is a must as it symbolize fortune and prosperity. Seafood to be presented in four, six or eight items, which include sea cucumber, clam, shrimp, squid, shark fins, etc.

5. Three poultries. Two pair of raw chicken, two males and two females; 2 to 4 kilograms of pork, shoulder-cut, meaning “double fly”.

6. Fish. Two pair of fish to bring “fish smell”, same pronunciation as “lively air.”

7. Coconut. Two pair of coconut, which pronounced as “ye zi”, same as “grandfather and son”.

8. Wine or liquor, four bottles together.

9. Four Peking Dried Fruits, dragon eyes, lychee, chestnuts, shelled peanuts, contained in a red, wooden decorated box named Tie Box. Other items in the Tie Box include lotus seeds, lily, cypress leaf, sesame, red beans, green beans, red dates, an red string, Li Shi money, dragon phoenix candles a pair, and red banners one set.

10. Raw fruit, certain amount, to indicate “sheng”, a word to express liveliness.

11. Bin Lang, two pairs.

12. Tea, two cans. Tea is planted with seeds. Tea as a gift implies that the family will have more seeds after the wedding.