Chinese Cultural Potpourri

1. In accordance to tradition, from the age of sixty, a person begins to acquire status and dignity. At sixty, he is entitled to carry a staff in his village and at seventy, in the country. At eighty, he is entitled to carry a staff before the throne and need not need to kneel before the emperor, and at ninety, entitled to advise the emperor. This reverence to the elderly also extends to crime and punishments. No one who reached the age of seventy, should not suffer corporal punishment and at eighty, should not be scolded.

2. The Strata of the Society:
a. The Scholars
b. The Farmers
c. The Artisans
d. The Merchants

3. There were six traditional marriage rites:
a. Nia chia, Acceptance of marriage proposal from a man’s family to a female’s family via an intermediate, with the acceptance of a token i.e. goose.
b. Wen Ming, The giving of the name and the particulars (birthdates etc) of the girl to the man’s family.
c. Na Ji, Betrothal. Both sides have now entered into a marriage agreement with both parties holding the particulars of the others.
d. Na Cheng, “Acceptance of evidence” involving exchange of gifts between both sides.
e. Qing Qi, “Asking for the date”, a suitable time and date was fixed for the wedding with the help of a professional and consent from the bride’s family.
f. Ying Qi, “Receiving the bride”.

4. The position of the wife (tai-tai) is quite strong in a household. Concubines’ sons are the sons of the wife (the mistress of the house). They cannot be raised to a level of a wife nor can wife be demoted to level of a concubine so long as the wife is living. Moreover, although a man can take a concubine, he needs to have her consent if she’s barren. Otherwise he will be punished by law. This also occurs if the wife have sons and the husband attempts to have concubines.

5. There are seven grounds for divorce:
a. Inability to bear a son
b. Wanton Conduct
c. Not filial towards the husband’s parents
d. Talkative
e. Theft
f. Jealousy
g. Suffering from incurable disease

6. A wife cannot divorce a husband. She could only remarry with the permission of a magistrate on the grounds of desertion for 3 years or more.

7. There are 3 grounds in which a wife cannot be divorced:
a. If the husband was once poor and became rich after marriage
b. If the wife has kept the 3 years mourning for the husband’s parents
c. If she has no home to go back to.

8. Three reasons for compulsory divorce:
a. Adultery
b. Beating of the husband’s parents
c. Elopement

9. The social stratification of the Chinese society does not end in life; it even extends to the funeral arrangements. For example, the longevity clothes worn of the deceased layered in a hundred suits for the emperor, fifty for a great official, and thirty for a scholar. Other examples include the emperor’s coffin which consists of 3 coffins of pine wood 8 inches for the outside, 6 inches for the inner and 4 inches for the innermost. For high officials, the coffin was of cypress, 8 inches thick on the outside and 6 inches for the inside coffin. For the scholar, a coffin could be of any wood and only 6 inches thick, while it is only 4 inches thick for the common people.

10. The ancestral tablets originated in the fourth century B.C. during the Warring States, commissioned by the king of Jin, Jin Wen Kong, to commemorate his friend, Jie Zi-zhui who died in a fire set by the king in an attempt to drive him out of the mountain and back into officialdom.

11. The three devotions and four virtues are considered ideal for a traditional Chinese woman. The three devotions are:
a. Devotion to father before marriage
b. Devotion to husband after marriage
c. Devotion to son during widowhood

12. The Four virtues are:

a. Morality
b. Speech
c. Appearance
d. Achievement

13. There are six stages that a Confucian man aims for:

a. At fifteen, the ambition is to study and acquire knowledge
b. To be establish by thirty
c. At forty, there should be no doubts
d. At fifty, one understands the will of Heaven
e. At sixty, the ear is ready to listen to the truth
f. At seventy, one should be able to do anything at one’s will without transgressing propriety.

14. Confucian saying: “There are three unfilial acts, the greatest is to be without heirs.”

15. The fifteen achievements of a learned gentleman:
a. Qin, to play the lute
b. Chess
c. Calligraphy
d. Painting
e. Martial Arts
f. Poetry
g. Ci, poetry
h. Ge, song
i. Fu, musical prose
j. Wen, prose
k. Shan, geomancy
l. Yi, medicine
m. Ming, casting horoscopes
n. Bo, fortune telling by divination
o. Rih, choosing a day by divination

16. Traditional medicine is classified into “cooling”, “heating”, “mild” and “ordinary”. It is also classed into different categories like “herbal”, “
mineral”, “Plants”, “Human”, “Birds and animals”, “Fish and worms”, “Fruits”. “Grains”, and “Vegetables”.

17. Five elements in astrological calculations:

a. Metal
b. Wood
c. Water
d. Fire
e. Earth
18. Five colors with associations to the elements:
a. Azure = Wood
b. Red = Fire
c. Yellow = Earth
d. White = Metal
e. Black = Water

19. There are a vast Chinese study of physiognomy and phrenology. For example, a conical raising head indicates great intelligence, and two connected bumps lower down at the back of the head denotes a martial temperance. (ala DY in DGSD?)

20. The Five Poisons are:

a. Centipede
b. Scorpion
c. Snake
d. Lizard
e. Toad

21. The Ming monetary and weight system

1 liang or 1 tael = 10 qian
1 qian = 10 fen
1 fen = 10 li. (Li is the smallest denomination)

22. The Chinese musical notation was introduced by the Mongolians. The full scale is bo, ssu, yi, shang, chih, kung, fan, liu, wu. This corresponds to the western system of C,D, E,F,G,A, B with liu and wu being octaves of bo and ssu.

23. The famous thirty-six stratagems are:

a. Besiege the state of Wei to rescue the state of Chao
b. Keep still and wait for others to move
c. Secretly pass the time in the granary
d. Stir the tiger to leave the mountain
e. Make noise in the East and attack the West
f. Instead of catching, you release
g. Deliver when far, attack when near
h. Destroy the sign when passing
i. Throw a brick to attract a jdae
j. Deceive Heaven to cross the ocean
k. Borrow a knife to kill a person
l. Take advantage of a fire to loot
m. Create something out of nothing
n. Keep a knife behind your smile
o. Chang’s cap is worn by Lee
p. Conveniently pull away the goat
q. Beat the grass and scare the snake
r. Borrow a corpse to bring back life
s. To catch thieves, you catch the chief
t. Pull out the firewood from under the frying pan
u. Fish in troubled water
v. Golden cicada getting rid of its shell
w. Kill one to solicit a hundred
x. Steal the dragon and turn in phoenix
y. Pint at the mulberry and talk about the Japonica tree
z. Pretend to be mad and crazy
aa. Pull the plank after crossing the bridge
bb. Bloom at the top of the tree
cc. Make the guest the host
dd. Use women
ee. Empty your city
ff. Create mutual suspicion
gg. Create sufferings
hh. Build alliance
ii. Run, this is the superior plan.

23. A Brief compilation of the Chinese dynasties

Title Period

Five Legendary Rulers BC 2953- BC 2205 (748 years)
Xia Dynasty BC 2205- BC 1766 (439 years)
Shang Dynasty BC 1766- BC 1122 (644 years)
Zhou Dynasty BC 1766- BC 255 (867 years)
Qin Dynasty BC 255 – BC 206 (49 years)
Han Dynasty BC 206- AD 25 (231 years)
Later Han Dynasty AD 25-221 (196 years)

Three Kingdoms:

1) Zhuhan 221-263 (44 years)
2) Wei 220-264 (45 years)
3) Wu 222-277 (36 years)
Western Jin Dynasty 265-317 (52 years)
Eastern Jin Dynasty 317-419 (52 years)

Six Dynasties:

1) Song 420-479 (59 years)
2) Qi 479-502 (23 years)
3) Liang 502-557 (55 years)
4) Chen 557-589 (32 years)
5) Northern Wei (Toba) 386-535 (149 years)
Western Wei 535-557 (22 years)
Eastern Wei 534-550 (16 years)
6) Northern Qi 550-589 (39 years)
Northern Zhou 557-589 (32 years)
Sui Dynasty 589-618 (29 years)
Tang Dynasty 618-907 (289 years)

Five Dynasties:

1) Late Liang 907-923 (16 years)
2) Late Tang 923-936 (13 years)
3) Late Jin 936-947 (11 years)
4) Late Han 947-951 (4 years)
5) Late Zhou 951-960 (9 years)

The Tartar Dynasties:

1) Liao (Khitan) 907-1125 (218 years)
2) Western Liao 1125-1168 (43 years)
3) Jin (Nu-Zhen) 1115-1260 (145 years)

Song Dynasty 960-1127 (167 years)
Southern Song Dynasty 1127-1280 (153 years)
Yuan Dynasty 1206-1341 (88 years)
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644 (276 years)
Qing Dynasty 1644-1911 (268 years)