On January 22 and 23, 2025, which falls on the 23rd and 24th of the twelfth lunar month, Chinese traditional customs celebrate the Kitchen God (灶神), a practice referred to as "sending off the Kitchen God," or "Xie Zao (謝灶)."
In the nineteenth poem of his sequel Twenty Poems written after drinking (飲酒二十首‧十九), Tao Yuanming (陶淵明, 365-427) said, “Stars and the solar terms circulate slowly, and the cycle of twelve years has long gone (冉冉星氣流，亭亭復一紀).”
The chapter of “Nine Palaces and Eight Winds" in the "The Yellow Emperor’s Nei Jing - Ling shu” describes in detail the relationship between the twenty-four solar terms and the nine palaces and eight winds, and explains the characteristics of each solar term in different directions.
Scholar Cai Bojie (蔡伯喈) wanted to enjoy the life with his wife Zhao Wuniang (趙五娘) after the marriage, but his father, The Elder Cai (蔡公), did not agree.
What is the essence of Suzhou pingtan that has been formed over the course of 400 years? Or what is pingtan in essence? The biggest difference between pingtan and traditional opera lies in the fact that the former is a way of expressing mainly through speaking while the latter is a way of expressing via acting.
The Yin-Yang and Five-Element Theory, a wisdom of traditional culture, still has its wide influence on today’s society.
Obtaining one hundred thousand arrows from the enemy with straw-covered warships (草船借箭) and burning the enemy’s interconnected vessels by the Red Cliff with fire set on magical East wind (火燒赤壁) are the extremely popular scenarios of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義)
Speaking of quyi (曲藝), we may think that it is a vulgar culture and belongs to the grassroots. Pingtan, as one of the forms of quyi, however, is regarded as the orchid of it. The difference between pingtan and other forms of quyi is that it caters for both refined and general tastes.
“Zhongyong” (中庸, the golden mean, or the doctrine of the mean) represents one of the core values of traditional Chinese culture, and is a way of living practiced by many Chinese as well.
The solar term that immediately follows Greater Snow is the Winter Solstice. Every year, when it comes to Winter Solstice, memories of my hometown will pop up again and again.
Speaking of quyi (literally melody and art曲艺) in Jiangnan area, south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, I would like to talk about its top representative
《老子‧十三章》說：「何謂貴大患若身？吾所以有大患者，為吾有身，及吾無身，吾有何患？」老子這樣說，很明顯就是自己的一切合理行為，將會受到身體的覺受，或意識欲望所限制。往往「合理」與「道德」敵不過欲望，而作出違背「天理」的行為。故老子得出的結論是「沒有了身體，就沒有甚麼好可怕！」
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