Leizu: Empress of the Silkworm (15-Minute Books Book 610)

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The first page from the printed edition of the Guideways through Mountains and Seas 19 4. Wu Rujun, A Kind of Xingtian 27 6. The Luo River diagram 31 7. The Five Dependencies of Yu the Great 32 8. The world according to the Guideways through Mountains chapters 35 Modern map of mountains in the Guideways through Mountains chapters 37 Reconstructed version of the garrison map from Mawangdui 38 The world according to the Guideways through Seas chapters 40 Detail from Illustrated Scroll of Tributary Peoples 56 15a. Reconstructed side view of the inner coffin of Marquis Yi of Zeng 59 15b.

Detail of a guardian figure on the side of the inner coffin of Marquis Yi of Zeng 59 16a. Reconstructed version of the Chu Silk Manuscript 66 16b. Individual gods from the reconstructed version of the Chu Silk Manuscript 61 ly. Drawing of a flying tiger 63 Reconstruction of ominous strange creatures engraved in the Wu Liang Shrine 64 Illustrations of strange creatures from Approaching Refinement 68 The Ba-Snake Swallowing an Elephant 69 25a. Lithographic reproduction of painted illustrations from A Preserved Edition of the Guideways through Mountains and Seas 74 An encyclopedic cosmography mostly compiled from the Warring States period to the West- ern Han dynasty c.

Since the nineteenth century, it has also attracted the attention of foreign scholars and in recent years has been trans- lated into at least five di erent languages. The early Guideways may well have been il- lustrated, but if so, these images have all been lost, as have those known to have existed during the Six Dynasties, Tang, and Song periods.

The earliest surviving set of wood- block illustrations is from a rare edition dated , during the late Ming dynasty, and this set is reproduced here for the first time in its entirety. The modern reader can now survey representations of some gods, heroes, demons, foreign peoples, and other strange creatures from among the more than that the book records. Today, only a small number of these creatures are familiar to the Chinese, although the animistic and demonological worldview they represent survived throughout the country well into the twentieth cen- tury and is still embraced by some. Strictly speaking, the Guideways di ers from the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe in that these strange creatures were almost never allegorically construed as vehicles of theological virtues or evils.

Rather, they were regarded as actual entities found throughout the land- scape. A part of the ecology within the cosmos of heaven and earth, they dwelled elu- sively alongside humankind, which was obliged to learn how to recognize them and to employ the appropriate strategies for coexisting with them. Preserving and transmit- ting such knowledge was undoubtedly one of the original purposes of the anonymous XIII compilers of the Guideways.

It is my hope that this way of presenting a selection of its content in conjunction with these images can enable the modern English-language reader to gain a broader understanding of an important worldview in ancient China. These panoramic images, like dioramas in a Wunderkammer or natural history museum, are unique windows opening onto vistas that simulate a sacred geography filled with strikingly unusual denizens.

In contrast to the better-known philosophical and histor- ical texts that have survived from early China and mostly propound the ideological con- cerns of intellectuals, officials, and rulers, the Guideways preserves a perspective more characteristic of the beliefs of most traditional Chinese, regardless of social level. This particular set of illustrations was designed by the artisan Jiang Yinghao fl. Jiang, who remains otherwise unknown, clearly had his imagination sparked by read- ing the text, with the aid of the accumulated commentaries of scholars.

Despite a few anacronisms and errors of interpretation, on its own his work represents an aesthetic achievement and is a worthy representative of the art of popular book illustration in late traditional China. This volume brings together versions of this edition from two great libraries. Most of the seventy-six plates are taken from the one preserved in the National Library of China in Beijing.

May the restoration of these images, like the joining of two halves of a tally, serve as a symbol of the continuing process of cultural collaboration between China and the United States. In addition to many colleagues who generously shared their knowledge with me, I would like to particularly thank all those who aided me in obtaining the illustrations and helped make possible their reproduction, especially Ms.

Chi Wang and Mr. Daisy Hu and Mr. I should also like to thank professors Cyril Birch and Suzanne Cahill for their helpful comments on the manuscript as well as, at the University of California Press, Sheila Levine, executive editor; Sue Heinemann, project editor; Mimi Kusch, copy editor; Caralyn Bialo, editorial assistant; and Barbara Jellow, designer.

Undoubtedly, as the Guideways continues to be read in an increasingly global cul- ture, there will emerge a greater appreciation of its uniqueness, a deeper understand- X I V PREFACE ing of its content, and new solutions to its many textual problems. Some day, archae- ologists may even unearth an early edition from the Warring States period that will ei- ther confirm our present knowledge or thoroughly surprise us.

Until then, it is hoped that readers will experience the same degree of fascination with these strange creatures and their world that I have felt in the process of assembling this volume. Another English version by Hsiao-Chieh Cheng et al. Specialist readers will probably prefer the more reliable Italian version by Riccardo Fracasso or the one in French by Remi Mathieu The latter two are sinological in style, however, with all names romanized instead according to the phonology of modern standard Mandarin. While this approach is sufficient for the scholar, it presents two problems for non- specialists.

First, almost all Chinese graphs possess one or more meanings, and the nat- ural tendency when reading is to register their significant references as much as possi- ble in addition to recognizing their sounds. The names of places and things in the Guideways can be seen to fall into three categories: Romanizing the names con- veniently avoids the many problems that arise with translation, but, for the English- language reader, it obscures the native experience of the text by suppressing much of its imagery. Second, it is certain that the original readers and most later ones before the rise of modern standard Mandarin never pronounced these names exactly as they are ro- manized today due to di erences in historical phonology and dialect variations.

The earliest commentator, Guo Pu, already noticed these problems in the early fourth cen- tury c. Although the tradition of reading the text takes note of these suggestions in the absence of other aids, it has not yet been possible to locate a single origin of the text in time or place. Thus, at present there is no reliable means to recover the authentic early pronuncia- XVII tions as they might have been spoken by an ancient Chinese during the period when the text was first compiled.

Since the focus of this book is on presenting the strange creatures for English-lan- guage readers, certain compromises have been inevitable. Regarding pronunciation, I have followed contemporary Western scholarly practice by providing romanizations of all names using the pinyin system. Most are in accord with modern standard Man- darin, but in certain cases as noted, I have, like Fracasso and Mathieu, followed the sug- gestions of Guo Pu and later Chinese commentators. Though these are probably anachronistic, for the most part, they remain the closest indications we have.

In addi- tion, I have undertaken the risky venture of providing translations whenever possible of the names of creatures, places, and things. In a few cases, I have decided to follow existing translations of names in Birell , and other previously published works in the hope of contributing to a common nomenclature for Chinese mythology.

Neverthe- less, I have refrained altogether from translating when the meaning is genuinely unde- cidable or nonsensical or where the graphs appear to have been solely a transliteration. To give a more concrete idea of the problems, there is a bird whose name, Qiezhi [no. Some creatures are said to be named after the sound they make, and these can be signified either by meaningful graphs or by onomatopoetic ones. Here, I must admit that my choice may appear subjective in the absence of supporting evidence, and I o er such preferences only as hypotheses awaiting further confirmation.

Classical Chinese does not always indicate whether a noun is singular or plural. In the Guideways, it is sometimes stated that many creatures of a type can be found in a place or that such a creature can be found in a number of places. In many cases, it is not certain from the text whether the creature is a type or whether it exists only as an individual.

Thus, I have tended to present each creature in the singular, reserving the plural for when the text specifically indicates or clearly implies it. This book presents translations of sections of the original text relevant to the illus- trations of the strange creatures in bold type. Following the translations is additional information that I have gathered and that I hope can shed further light on these strange creatures. Considerable later material about early Chinese mythology has been preserved, though its historicity is often difficult to assess.

I have tried to present the Guideways as both an early text and one that has continued to be read through two millennia under chang- ing conditions of reception. Regrettably, considerations of time and space have pre- vented me from adding as much later material as I would have liked. Measures The following measures appear in the Guideways. There was considerable local varia- tion throughout China during the premodern period as well as di erent official stan- dards through the centuries.

Those listed below are approximate equivalences based on data from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century. The reader is advised, though, that these are not to be taken as accurate. Nivison has pointed out that many of the later dates are often a year late Loewe [] , The earlier dates are not based on firm historical evidence but are provided sim- ply to suggest how these periods and events were chronologically arranged according to one example of traditional Chinese historiography.

For Chinese commentators such as Guo Pu and others up until the modern period, this chronology was sometimes rel- evant to their understanding of the text. Dates for the Zhou dynasty kings follow Shaugh- nessy in Loewe , A Manual Cambridge, Mass. Cambridge University Press, , The following are generally accepted dates for the more important dynasties and feudal states. However, the historical existence of the Xia dy- nasty is still a matter of scholarly debate, as are the exact dates of the Shang, the found- ing of the Zhou, and the origins of many of the feudal states of the Zhou.

Suddenly, he noticed that a tiger lying in ambush had set its sights on him, but inexplicably the tiger refrained from attacking. Duke Huan, who had become legendary as the first of the five great hegemons of the Zhou dynasty, is shown displaying his control over the wild periphery. The original readers of this anecdote were mostly mem- bers of the literate elite with political ambitions as officials or advisors in the courts of the feudal states.

The graph guai was later glossed in Explanations and Analyses of Graphs Shuowen jiezi, too c. The cast of Numbers in brackets refer to the creatures in the illustrations see plates. Many of the latter objects were often personified as gods and spirits. It is a characteristic of the traditional Chi- nese worldview that such creatures were regarded as an intimate part of the natural en- vironment rather than as supernatural or otherworldly.

Though elusive and often mo- bile, they might manifest themselves to people if they desired — for better or worse. In this mechanistic universe, the higher gods, like government officials, were assumed to be responsive to sacrifices and entreaties, provided they were o ered under the correct ritual conditions, while demons might be exorcised with the help of charms, spells, and shamanistic mediums. Some beneficial creatures were enlisted by the culture to aid in conveying departed souls to the next world or in transporting those on spirit-journeys to heaven. Others were of medicinal value if consumed or worn as a talisman.

It is pos- sible that some ancient rulers engaged in collecting strange creatures and displayed them as a sign of royal power over the natural world. One legend in the philosophical text Master Shi Shizi , 4th cent, b. He was said to have person- ally captured strange fish by diving underwater and to have obtained strange animals by venturing into deep mountains.

He then displayed these beasts in the hall of his res- idence in what must have been an ancient Chinese example of the later Wunderkam- mer of the European Renaissance. They could be found on weapons, ritual bronze vessels, musical instruments, jewelry, textiles, household objects, coffins, and the walls of tombs and as tomb figurines. They were depicted as well in folk art and on murals found in temples, gov- ernment buildings, and private residences.

Despite such attempts to appropriate their power through visual representations, the predominant view of them was that in ac- tuality they were largely indi erent to human concerns. If encountered, especially by travelers through the mountains, they could be unpredictable, threatening, andbeyond the limits of rational understanding or control.

Thus, strange phenomena were among the subjects that Confucius b. Nor were the many local deities of ancient Chinese religion fully organized into a stable, universal pantheon. Official cults, ancestral worship, and the propitiation of nature gods and lo- cal spirits overlapped, while beliefs periodically underwent metamorphoses because of a variety of changing social and political circumstances.

Official religion was limited in its focus and practiced only by those of appropriate lineage, rank, or profession, while the majority of people regardless of their status were motivated by private concerns of personal welfare in their relations with spiritual beings. Most early Chinese beliefs about particular strange crea- tures remained localized and were not widely understood.

Thus, people were generally dependent on a variety of figures who might happen to possess such information. In its present form, it records more than animate crea- tures in addition to some mountains, rivers, 95 foreign lands and tribes, kinds of pharmaceuticals to prevent some 70 illnesses , plants, 90 metals and min- erals, as well as specific forms of ritual sacrifice to various mountain gods, all organ- ized within a geographical framework.

It is actually composed of several books that were later stitched together by bibliographers and scholars, while each of these sections is it- self an aggregate of various strata of information. So diverse is its content that readers for two millennia in China and the West have characterized it in many fashions.

Traditionally regarded as divinely transmitted, the obvious combination of fact, unverifiable data, the fantastic, and the fabricated has fascinated, puzzled, and repelled readers for centuries. How, when, where, and by whom the Guideways was first created is obscured by leg- end and remains the subject of much debate among textual scholars.

Though some of its content can also be found in other early texts, the loss of a great deal of the literature and oral traditions of this period over the centuries makes it difficult to identify its prototypes or to compare it to other works of its genre known to have existed. Nevertheless, it is possible to consider its origins by reflecting on the common beliefs of early China, the kinds of governmental activity that required such informa- tion, and the intellectual milieu that gave rise to this and other encyclopedic visions of the world.

He was also credited with establishing a national order by dividing the land into nine provinces and five dependencies as well as facilitating the circulation of local products and tribute to the court. Yu was thus regarded as the divine fountainhead of knowledge about the geography of the natural world as well as a model ruler who brought it and its denizens under control. In a myth dated b. In the past when the Xia dynasty still possessed virtue, the distant lands presented images of their strange creatures and the heads of the nine provinces contributed bronze so that vessels were cast which illustrated these creatures.

Every kind of strange creature was completely depicted in order that the common people would know the gods and the demons. Thus, when people went to the rivers, lakes, mountains, and forests, they did not encounter these adverse beings nor did the Chimei- Hobgoblins [see no. As a result, harmony was maintained between those above and those dwelling on Earth below while everywhere, the people received the protection of Heaven.

Although the ves- sels have remained an enduring artistic motif fig. And it seems unlikely to, judging from the simplicity of the bronze vessels uncovered from the Erlitou pe- riod, which some scholars consider the Xia. The stories of their later disappearance, moreover, imply that humankind in general reverted to greater ignorance about strange creatures than they did during the golden age of Yu. Such a genealogy must have also signified the primary professional community that served as a source of much of its earliest information just as the i?

H-Confucian school traced the origins of many canonical works to Confucius himself or the yi-physicians credited Divine Farmer Shennong and the Yellow Thearch Huangdi, both trad. A design for an ink cake from a catalogue by the late Ming dynasty ar- tisan Fang Yulu fl. From Fang, Fangshi mopu Some of its content can be traced back to Shang-dynasty beliefs, and some may even predate this period.

Moreover, the Guideways appears closely related in some of its religious con- cerns to the genre of daybooks only recently discovered by archaeologists. These early guides and almanacs addressed popular concerns such as choosing auspicious days for travel and avoiding danger from gods and demons. In some of the more than , oracle-bone inscriptions from the late Shang dynasty c. This is generally believed to have denoted people with special vision who possessed various techniques of com- municating with spiritual beings. The names of a few individuals such as Shaman Xian [see no.

Hence, the portrait of them that can be constructed is often a fragmented one with largely negative overtones. Further confusion is created by the lack of an inclusive name for the many other varieties of occult practitioners in ancient China and by the anachro- nistic application of such designations by writers of later times. It is not even clear what these people looked like, although some modern scholars believe that painted figures on a zither excavated from a Warring States tomb in the state of Chu maybe depictions of wM-shamans engaged in various ritual activities fig.

The most detailed description of their official religious functions emerged in the course of a purported conversation between King Zhao of Chu r. In antiquity, humans and gods did not maintain direct contact. Those among the people whose essential spirit was capable of absolute concentration and who were, moreover, reverential and serious, whose awareness could correctly distinguish the signs of the realms above and below, whose divine sagacity enabled them to penetrate that which is distant, whose luminous discernment was capable of com- prehending this, and whose perception was able to achieve a deep understanding of it — into such people did the gods descend.

They also knew the names and locations of the important mountains and rivers, the ancestors of the ruling house, the management of the a airs of its ancestral temple, as well as the family lineage generation by generation. Thus, the gods bestowed benefits while the people o ered up sacrifices for them to enjoy. Disasters were averted and there was nothing that the people were in want of. Painted image of a wu shaman. Detail of decorative images on a zither excavated from a Warring States-period tomb in Chu modern Changtaiguan, Xinyang, Henan in Guan went on to note the various government positions occupied by ww-shamans, indicating that some of them not only played a role in official cults but were also in- corporated into the political structure.

There was undoubtedly much diversity in the styles of their magical practices and beliefs, reflecting not only hierarchical di erences among them but also the considerable variations of local cultures. Little is known of their social organization, however. Their roles may have been largely, though not ex- clusively, hereditary, while only the names and myths about a few individuals have been preserved. Although images, charms, demonological texts, and almanacs have recently begun to be excavated from tombs, suggesting an abundant pragmatic literature at the time, no theological texts have survived that can be directly connected with them.

Perhaps the wn-shamans and other oc- cult practitioners are best defined by the range of their cultural functions. Among the things they were skilled in were herbal medicine, divination, dream interpretation, ex- orcism, omenology, genealogy, mythology, geography, calendrical and astronomical cal- culation, sacrifices, sacred performance, rainmaking, as well as certain rites of resur- rection.

The reader will find that practically all these elements appear in the Guide-ways. In a cen- turies-long process that ultimately undermined the political authority of shamanistic culture, the power of the central Zhou court unraveled as new aristocrats and local clans assumed control in the feudal states and competed with one another for dominance. To aid the most ambitious of these rulers seeking to reunify China under their hege- mony, groups of literate intellectuals arose and sought to gain patronage by advocat- ing various schools of text-based knowledge.

Both are imprecise designations, but collec- tively these literate thinkers did represent a new, highly mobile class proferring a range of ideas throughout the feudal states in response to the challenges of the times. The role of the elite wu-shamans in official cults may have been tied to earlier aristocratic social structures, for they appear to have become increasingly subordinated to bureacratic rit- ual officials and priests connected to the newly dominant families, who often arose from among the ministerial or gentry class.

The latter groups sometimes adopted the gods and divine ancestors of those they displaced and usurped the exclusive rights of previ- ous rulers to sacrifice to the important nature gods on behalf of the state, activities which the wu sometimes resisted. The Mohists notably con- tinued to champion demonological theology, but others selectively abandoned these older beliefs as new dualistic formulations such as the ethereal and earthly souls gained cre- dence.

The early Daoists of the Master Zhuang. Zhuangzi , late 3rd-ist cent, b. Later scholars of the Rw-Confucian school not only followed Confucius in distancing themselves from discussing strange phenomena, but, as in the case of Xun Qing c. Mythology and deity imagery contin- ued to be adapted to their systems, and many of the texts transmitted by these schools actually became repositories that preserved certain shamanistic traditions.

However, the e ect of committing hitherto esoteric orally transmitted knowledge to writing en- abled nonspecialists among the literate elite to practice many of these techniques as well as to freely develop them in new directions. Inevitably, the prestige of elite ww-shamans eroded. By the end of the second century c. In the face of relentless political hostility from officials, the wu were finally legally proscribed from becoming officials themselves, and henceforth the government sought to confine them, though not always successfully, to a substratum of the popular culture.

Finally, the new, more universalistic religions of Daoism and Buddhism, with their superior magical techniques, organized priesthoods, and sacred texts, were beginning to spread among all classes. In particular, the Celestial Masters School of Daoism absorbed many of the occult practices and directly challenged the local authority of the wu and th efang- shi, who appeared increasingly unsophisticated and less efficacious by comparison.

Earlier works such as the Book of Changes Yijing , c. Lii Liishi chunqiu, c. They tended to bring together both existing texts and oral traditions, often organizing their data for handy reference by using cosmological frameworks such as numerical systems, the lunar calendar and the four seasons, and spatial structures. As found in various forms in many premodern cultures, cosmographies typically blend empirical fact, hearsay, and fantasy within a geographical framework, purport- ing to be accurate descriptions of the world. Cosmographies project the possibilities of a totalizing perspective by seamlessly mapping the near and the distant, the known and the unknown, the visible and the hidden, the verifiable and the imagi- nary.

The reader willingly consumed an illusion that all the important objects of real- ity had been collected and ordered according to a fundamental taxonomy and that these things were now manageable and available for exploitation. Both official and private libraries during the Warring States period possessed vari- ous kinds of cosmographies that utilized words and probably images as well. Although historical events and genealogical sequences may be included, this kind of ordering is essentially beyond linear temporality and is subordinated to the repetitive rhythms of natural processes, myth, and ritual.

These books were continually evolving as new intelligence about the world was gathered. Those used in the major feudal states must have particularly grown in scope, detail, and or- ganization, creating totalizing visions that mirrored their political aspirations to achieve hegemony and national reunification. Certain government activities related to the necessities of statecraft also resulted in the production of written data, some of which found its way into the Guideways.

Metal, especially copper, was increasingly necessary for the weapons needed by the massive armies of the Warring States. The Master Guan urged rulers to survey mountains, take note of those that yielded valuable metals, and even proscribe the common people from trespassing — on pain of death. Wei Yan was made marshal of Chu, and Zimu [the chief minister] commissioned him to regulate the government levies and count the number of cuirasses and weapons each fief had to contribute. He determined the levies due, fixing the number of chariots and horses to be contributed, and assess- ing the numbers of chariot drivers, foot soldiers, and armored soldiers with shields that had to be mustered.

He presented the results to Zimu. They were all proper. The pres- ence of metals including copper is noted in over two hundred places, while a few moun- tains are specifically prohibited from being climbed. As geographical knowledge expanded through increased travel, military campaigns, and government-sponsored expeditions, heightened diplomatic relations led to greater contacts with neighboring as well as more distant foreign peoples.

Last, the Guideways can be related to an important group of texts that lie somewhat outside the mainstream of those mentioned above. Chu was the major feudal state in what is now central and southern China and a strong contender during the Warring States. Its cul- ture was regarded by the other Chinese states, especially those of the Central Plains and to the northeast, as only partially civilized and was characterized by its strong faith in shamanistic religion.

After losing his influence at court, he goes into exile, visiting mythical realms, and meets gods, goddesses, and strange creatures as well as shamans. Most of its pieces celebrate eroticized encounters with a range of high gods and nature deities who are invoked to appear. After the Guideways, this song is the second greatest repository of ancient mythology and often confirms its content. It is worth noting that the earliest com- mentator, Wang Yi c. This suggests that the Guide- ways may have been similarly committed to writing not by ww-shamans themselves but by others.

It is not impossible that certain strata of the Guideways could have been tran- scribed by literate ww-shamans who, in the era of competing, text-based schools, wished to preserve their knowledge or reinforce their oral authority with a written work of their own. Scribes in pri- vate aristocratic or feudal court libraries could have also contributed to piecing the book together from these and other sources both written and oral. Gradually, it was expanded for purely pragmatic purposes related to government administration as well as to fulfill the needs of patrons to know more about the world and its strange creatures.

What does seem clear is that the Guideways took form over some time and that its diverse content served a variety of purposes. Largely because of the unique light that the Songs of Cliu shines on the spiritual be- liefs of late Chu, and based on certain linguistic traces in the text, some scholars in re- cent years have argued that the Guideways itself is largely a product of Chu writers and reflects a worldview that is more characteristic of this feudal state than any other.

It ultimately absorbed more than sixty states and numerous tribal groups. There is still some debate over the origins of the Chu people and their early history. According to some scholars, the core ethnicities may have migrated from the north and eventually by the Eastern Zhou period established themselves in central China along the Han and middle reaches of the Long Yangtze River in modern Hubei, then re- garded as the South.

Among the ancestors claimed by its royal house were the Yellow Thearch, Zhuanxu, Old-Child Laotong , and Zhurong, all of whom are mentioned in the Guideways. It was one of the first states to break away from the ritual authority of the central Zhou court and, over the course of more than five centuries, became a ma- jor contender to reunify the Chinese world. By the time it was defeated by Qin in b.

This area covered each of the five di- rections, and its government would have had particular need for a cosmography con- sistent with the framework of the Guideways. Although Chu maintained certain common cultural features with other Chinese states and the central Zhou court, it nev- ertheless also increasingly became di erentiated from them. During its greatest ex- pansion in the Spring and Autumn period, it was highly successful in absorbing the be- liefs and artistic styles of the many non-Chinese states on its periphery that it gradually engulfed so that others particularly associated it with shamanistic and demonological practices, the worship of nature gods, and the early Daoist philosophy expressed in such texts as the Old Master Laozi , late 3rd cent, b.

Even dur- ing its gradual decline in the Warring States period, it still expanded eastward. After its military defeat, Chu continued to be a major cultural and political force well into the Han dynasty, whose imperial family also originated from this region.

Thus, though con- clusive proof is still lacking, there is some reason to regard Chu as the place where a critical shaping of the Guideways may have occurred, even though its content could also reflect the worldview of a more northern or western state such as Qin. Unfortu- nately, there is so far no clear indication of what precise form the text took during the Zhou dynasty, and there are no direct references to it among the other early surviving texts, despite instances of similar content. Sima Qian wrote that he considered the Guideways and a similar cos- mography, the now-lost Basic Annals of Yu Yu benji, n.

Such a distinction would grow in Chinese literature and lead some scholars in later centuries to also challenge the Guideways as an accurate description of the world. During the reign of Emperor Xuan r. Since then, many court scholars have particularly esteemed the Guideways through Mountains and Seas and the Rw-Confucian erudites have all studied it.

They consider it a unique work, a means of investigating auspicious and strange phenomenon as well as of observing the customs of foreign peoples in distant lands. He also recorded an earlier incident involving Dongfang Shuo b. One day, a strange bird was presented to the palace and refused to eat anything until Dongfang Shuo identified it and described its eating habits, claiming to have obtained the information from the Guideways.

Many of the Warring States texts that we have today passed through his hands and were substantially edited by him. This power struggle contributed to the collapse of the Western Han dynasty in 8 c. When Liu presented his edited version of the Guideways to the Western Han imperial court in 6 b. He may have stitched together several separate cosmographies into one book, noted variant versions of these texts, reorganized the chapters, and per- haps interpolated additional material. In addition, he probably translated the ancient graphs from their archaic styles into the simpler, more standardized calligraphic forms that had evolved during the Han dynasty.

But to preserve the mythical authority of the text, he typically refrained from revealing too much about his role. Like Sima Qian, he disparaged shamanistic culture, though he shared the general belief in the existence of dragons and other strange crea- tures. When Em- peror Ming r. Hequshu and the now-lost Maps to the Tributes of Yu Yugongtu, n. Yiwenzhi, late 1st cent. The Guideway s was now considered an occult text that had been espoused by members of an eclectic philosophical school called Techniques and Calculations Shushujia.

The works in this category were distinguished from the more orthodox, canonical texts of the. Ru-Confucian tradition, for the members of this school had by now been relegated to the lesser ranks of specialist practitioners. The Guideways was listed in this last group, which includes six works on geomancy and phys- iognomy. In the four centuries until reunification under the Sui, Confucianism managed to survive in a less energetic form as an official ideology with limited intellectual appeal. New literary genres spread during this period such as accounts of anomalies and local geographies, religious scriptures, as well as a wide range of manu- als of the occult, many of which transmitted ancient mythology and other information related to the content of the Guideways.

The latter pur- portedly documents the extensive tour of a Western Zhou dynasty king of the mid- tenth century b. This movement culminated in the May Fourth Movement of and lasted to the s. They built this new culture mainly by exploring the values of native folk culture and learning from Western and Japanese culture and scientific technology.

Therefore, there arose an enthusiasm among intellectuals for studying Chinese folklore as well as foreign scholarship. Folk songs and stories were widely collected and researched, and Western concepts such as democracy, equality, and liberty and various social and philosophical thoughts and theories then current in the Western world and Japan such as Marxism, realism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, and individualism were introduced to China.

In this circumstance, myth received much academic attention. In fact, Chinese mythology as a subject in a modern sense is commonly thought to formally have begun in , when the word shenhua myth was translated from Japanese into Chinese for the first time. Later, during the New Culture Movement, with 43 44 Handbook of Chinese Mythology opened eyes and much knowledge about Western and Japanese scholarship, many scholars began to study Chinese myths and compare them with myths of India, Greece, and northern Europe.

The most popular foreign theory they applied was from the English Anthropological School, mainly from E. Tylor — , J. Frazer — , and especially Andrew Lang — At that time he read some English books about the myths and legends of Greece, Rome, India, and Egypt, and some theoretical books about the Anthropological School.

From to he utilized its theory to discuss myths with regard to meaning, classification, origin, and preservation. He also compared Chinese myths to those of Greece and northern Europe. However, he is the first Chinese mythologist to systematically study ancient Chinese myths by using Western mythological theory. In the Japanese army invaded China, and the War of Resistance against Japan — broke out. To avoid the war, the central government and many institutes and universities in northern China were compelled to move to the south. The formerly isolated border area now became the cultural center.

Scholars and students from different disciplines swarmed there. Because of the absence of reference books in the border area, many scholars had to pay attention The cover of the anniversary issue of Geyao [Folk Songs to rich ethnic cultures and living Weekly], a journal first published in It promoted oral tradition.

This produced a new the enthusiasm of collecting and researching folk songs stage of Chinese myth study. Many in China, and thus played an important role in the hisscholars of literature, sociology, antory of Chinese folkloristics. Courtesy of authors Introduction thropology, linguistics, and history investigated living myths, rituals, and beliefs of the ethnic minorities and then compared them to the versions recorded in ancient Chinese writings. Myth was thus probed by putting it into living social and cultural contexts. Functions and social roles of myths were emphasized.

Additionally, many scholars in this period studied myth from multiple points of view of different disciplines. A representative scholar of this period is Wen Yiduo — , a professor at Qinghua University. His study of myth began in the middle of the s and flourished during the War of Resistance against Japan. When examining the Fuxi myth, he analyzed various sources not only from classical written documents but also from orally told myths from Miao, Yao, and other ethnic peoples and from archeological relics.

He examined the intrinsic relationship between myth and social life from multiple points of view. Therefore, the gourd, according to his research, was actually the common ancestor of humans in primitive thought. These considerable social and political changes have also deeply influenced myth. Corresponding to these changes, myths in the PRC have gone through two stages. The first stage is from to , when myths were deeply impacted by 45 46 Handbook of Chinese Mythology political ideology, especially in the period of the Cultural Revolution. The second stage is from through the present, when myths have been comparatively released from strong political influences and have been revived and reconstructed.

On one hand, myths were perceived to be created by common laborers, showing the positive efforts of human beings to try to explain and control the world. Mao Zedong, for example, often cited and rewrote myths in his articles or poems. He especially enjoyed using myths related to rebel gods or demigods, such as the myth of Gonggong fighting against Zhuanxu to be the Supreme Divinity and butting Mount Buzhou in his failure. On the other hand, however, myths were also thought to be negative and passive. This is mainly because myths were usually connected with folk belief, which was considered superstitious and harmful since it encouraged people to obey nature and gods.

In a short period of time, temples, statues of gods, and stories about gods were all considered to be old superstition and thus were destroyed. The temple fair was banned. People were prevented from openly telling myths and visiting the temple for worship, though some of them occasionally went in secret. The central government has focused its attention on developing the national economy, and it has become more tolerant of folk tradition.

Folk beliefs and myths that had been suppressed as feudal superstition have received more space to exist in society. Since the s, especially since the mids, many local governments have used folk traditions including myth as cultural resources to build local identity and to develop the local economy through the marketing of these ideas to locals and tourists.

The process of revival has involved many interplaying factors. It is supported by the local government, which hopes to propagate and develop the local economy by promoting a unique local culture. The temple was designed by local folk intellectuals who hope to restore the old tradition. They also use myths to create a local identity. All in all, they utilize myths to serve their modern life. Courtesy of Xu Fang with other social and cultural phenomena, such as belief, politics, economy, ethnic identity, morals, and science. Which myths are chosen to be written down, why myths are retold or reconstructed, how myths are evaluated and studied, and whether myths are praised or oppressed are often related to certain social, historical, and cultural contexts.

From the relationships among myth, history, and society one can get an idea of how Chinese society and culture have continually changed and developed, and how these changes and developments deeply influence the transmission and transformation of living myths within these contexts. Influence of Myth on Belief Myths tell stories about gods. In China, those gods who play the main roles in myths are also usually the ones worshiped as the central part of belief systems. One legend states that a daughter-in-law had great filial piety toward her father-in-law.

She was so considerate of him that every night in the winter she warmed the quilt for him to sleep with. Rumors about a sexual relationship spread in the community. Thus, her innocence was confirmed for everyone to see. The fog helped hide him, and he escaped from his pursuers. Myths often form the basic parts of beliefs.

For example, among Naxi people in Yongning County, Yunnan Province, a great goddess named Heidi Ganmu is an important presence in myths as well as in beliefs. She is believed to be the goddess who takes charge of population growth and decline, controls the growth of crops, and rules the health and production of livestock. Every lunar July 25, people offer sacrifices to this goddess.

Another goddess, Zihong Jiemei, is popularly said to be a goddess in heaven who later married a man surviving a great flood, so she is considered to be the ancestress of humans and is given sacrifices every October. Courtesy of Yang Lihui Province, a myth mentions that a brother and sister married and created the sky and heaven, and then produced humans.

For this reason, they are worshiped as two great gods and as the ancestors of the Achang people. Influence of Myth on Literature and Art Chinese myths have long been thought to be the root of Chinese literature and art. Myths have had a great impact on writers. Some of them directly took myths as their writing material, and some further absorbed from myths stylistic techniques such as exaggeration, fantasy, and fiction. By doing this, these literary figures developed a strong romantic writing style in Chinese literature, which is thought to originate from myths.

Introduction Myths were not fixed when they were woven into literature and art. Instead, they were always rewritten and reconstructed by different writers for different goals and needs. This revives old myths with new meanings in new contexts. These programs charmed numerous Chinese children and made them much addicted to these cartoons.

Adults in China began to worry about this and to call for Chinesemade animated movies and TV programs. In The Legend of Nezha was produced and achieved great success. Produced by CCTV China Central Television , this program aims to make a high-quality show full of Chinese tradition and values while using the modern animation styles that children love to watch. The producers hope to make a nationally recognized art form to give Chinese children an education about traditional Chinese stories and morals. The series combines Kuafu Chased the Sun.

Ancient Illustrations with Annotations, Shandong Huabao Chubanshe, 51 52 Handbook of Chinese Mythology the traditional stories about Nezha with many other myths or legends. The myth that Kuafu pursued the sun is widely known and is used in the Nezha series. In ancient records, the reason Kuafu pursued the sun is not very clear.

Sometimes it is said that he wanted to compete with the sun in a race to see who could run the fastest. Before Kuafu reaches the sun, he dies of thirst. However, in the Nezha series, Kuafu is said to be a leader of a Titan group and the representative of justice and self-devotion. The evil goddess Shiji Niangniang tied up the crow of the sun, the spirit of the sun, to a huge mountain so that the bird could not sit down and the normal order of the universe was disturbed.

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To save people from the disaster, Nezha asked for help from Kuafu, who at last defeated the wicked spirit of the mountain. After this, in despair because of the evil power, the sun bird wanted to fly to the far northern pole to sink itself into the dead sea, never to rise again. To stop it from doing so and to rescue humans from eternal darkness, Kuafu chased the sun.

He finally stopped the crow but was so tired that he died. He was metamorphosed into a forest and continued to help people. Thus the classical Kuafu myth has been rewritten for this TV series, retold in the context of speedy globalization in contemporary China, for the current purpose of instructing children about Chinese heritage and spirit.

In addition to its entertainment function, the Kuafu myth serves to help children to build values of justice and the belief that justice will overcome evil in the end. In some ethnic Chinese groups dog meat is thought to be a delicious and nutritious food. However, the Yao and She people usually are forbidden to eat it. The origin of this custom is traced back to the Panhu myth. Panhu was a dog of the divine sovereign, Di Ku. The dog then carried the princess to the mountains of southern China, where they had many children. Therefore, Panhu is worshiped as the ancestor of the Yao Introduction 53 and She ethnic groups.

According to an ethnography written in — about the Yao people of a village on Yao Mountain, Guangxi Province, Yao people worship Panhu as their first ancestor and their protector. One of the ethnographers mentions a story that has spread among villagers: A Tibetan myth collected in Sichuan Province states that in remote antiquity, grain grew tall and produced plentiful seeds. Humans lived easily and were rich. But they did not treasure grain; instead, some of them even used cakes as toilet Panhu married a princess and gave birth to three paper. The God of Heaven was very ansons and one daughter, who later became the ancesnoyed at learning this, so he went down tors of She ethnic people.

Part of a long cloth paintto the earth to get back all the grain. Originally painted While doing so, a dog ran to him. An Investigation into and cried. The god was touched. He left Folk Belief in Remote Antiquity, Xueyuan Chubana small portion of seeds from each of she, 54 Handbook of Chinese Mythology the different grains for the dog. Since the grains we have today were left on the earth because of the dog, humans today should give part of their food to dogs. A Miao myth states that in the ancient past, dogs had nine tails.

When a dog went to heaven to steal grain seeds, it was discovered by the divine guards. In the process of escaping from the guards and running back to the earth, eight of its tails were cut off. Fortunately, the dog brought back some grain seeds that were stuck to its surviving tail. Because of this, when Miao people celebrate the harvest festival, they feed their dogs first. In the Gelao and Zhuang ethnicities, this type of myth also serves as an etiological myth to describe the shape of a ripe grain plant.

Flood is a worldwide mythical theme. In Chinese mythology it also appears quite often and shapes many types of stories. Among the flood myths, the Gun-Yu myth is one of the most popular. The culture hero Gun stole Xirang, the growing-soil, from the Supreme Divinity in order to stop the flood. But he failed in his mission and was killed. His son Yu was miraculously born from the belly of his corpse and continued to fight the flood until he succeeded. The Gun-Yu myth stresses how the flood is eventually controlled by great efforts from two generations. Compared to the flood story in the Bible or other Western flood myths, the Chinese flood myth is distinctive in some ways.

The basic difference, as some scholars have suggested, is that in the Chinese version what is emphasized is the Introduction 55 conquest of the flood and the origin of civilization, rather than the flood that occurred to punish human sin. Instead, the human spirit is praised for counting on its own ability and vigorously making every effort to conquer the natural disaster.

Eventually the demigod Yu stopped the flood and changed the dejected world into a livable place for humankind. He then became the founder of the first civilized state, the Xia. His achievements won him a high reputation in literature, art, and beliefs. Today, he still is frequently used as an exemplary model to encourage people to actively handle difficult situations and to strive for a better life. Courtesy of Yang Lihui trait of the human spirit that is strongly emphasized in many stories is toughness or unyieldingness.

Some stories stress that one should strive bravely and persistently, no matter how hard a task seems, even if it is impossible to succeed. Myths related to this theme include the small bird Jingwei trying to fill up the sea, the hero Kuafu chasing the sun, and Xingtian unflaggingly fighting against the Supreme God after he was beheaded, by using his breasts as his eyes and his navel as his mouth. She metamorphosed into a bird called Jingwei. Jingwei was determined to fill the sea, and day after day it carried a pebble or a twig in its mouth and dropped it into the Eastern Sea.

It never questioned whether it was possible to fill up the vast sea with its tiny efforts. This myth has appeared in many poems, novels, and operas, combining the diverse themes of pathos, courage, and the refusal to accept defeat. It usually functions as a positive metaphor of human courage, toughness, and persistence. Tao Yuanming, a renowned Jin poet, praised Kuafu in one of his poems: Kuafu cherished a great ambition, He then competed with the sun in a race.

At the same time they reached Yu Valley, where the sun set down, It seemed neither of them won. Because Kuafu possessed such divine power, How could the water in the rivers be enough for him to drink, even if they were drunk up? His remains metamorphosed into the forest of peach trees, And his merit was achieved after his death. Kuafu is usually praised as a tragic but great hero who bravely challenges the difficult and impossible and intrepidly acts in order to realize his dream and ambition.

Shehui Kexue Zhanxian 4 Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe, , 25— In History of Chinese Folk Literature, eds. Qi Lianxiu and Cheng Qiang. Hebei Jiaoyu Chubanshe, , 3. Examples of this kind of argument can be found in many articles collected in the book Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth, ed.

Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, Readings in the Theory of Myth, See also his Myth: Cambridge University Press, , — A New Symposium, eds. Gregory Schrempp and William Hansen. Indiana University Press, , 19— Myths and Beliefs in China in Chinese. Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, , — Beijing Shifan Daxue Chubanshe, , — In his often-cited article, William Bascom adopted prose narrative as a comprehensive term for a major category of folklore, and took myth, legend, and folktale as its three main subdivisions. He further created two tables to show the main differences among these three forms of prose narrative.

Readings in the Theory of Myth, 5— Guizhou Minzu Chubanshe, Ma Changyi, a prolific modern Chinese mythologist, also put forward this point in her preface to Myths and Mythic Stories in Contemporary China in Chinese. Several examples are provided in this book. Myths and Mythic Stories in Contemporary China. Zhongguo Guangbo Dianshi Chubanshe, Zhongguo Lishi Wenwu 6 There are more than twenty hypotheses about the author or authors and dates of this work.

The Cultural Explanation of Shanhaijing: Hubei Renmin Chubanshe, , vol. There are still disagreements about the time each chapter was written. Recently, a Chinese linguist named Wang Jianjun reexamined the question about the time of writing of this work, especially the time of writing of each chapter. Basing his research on pragmatics, he concludes that the Classic of the Great Wilderness, of Regions within the Seas, and the Classic of Regions beyond the Seas were written perhaps in the Warring States era. He suggests that the Classic of Mountains was mostly written in the Warring States era but that most of it was supplemented by people in the Qin and Han dynasties.

He argues that the last chapter of Regions within the Seas was written in the Qin and Han dynasties. Nanjing Shifan Daxue Xuebao 2 Zhongguo Minjian Wenyi Chubanshe, A culture hero is a deity to whom are attributed the early achievements of civilization, such as the discovery of fire; the invention of tools or writing; the origin of agriculture, fishing, and hunting; the domestication of animals; the development of medicine; 57 58 Handbook of Chinese Mythology and the founding of ceremonies, rituals, and customs.

He also acts as the mythic hero who dispels and eliminates the evil gods and monsters, clears up the chaos, and establishes the general order of social life on earth. Examples of such argument can be found in Andrew H. Yue Daiyun and Zhang Wending. Beijing Daxue Chubanshe, , 40— Myths of Ancient China: An Anthology with an Annotation in Chinese. Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe, [] , — Foreword to Chinese Mythology: An Introduction, by Anne Birrell. Johns Hopkins University Press, , xi—xii. Zhong, Jingwen, and Yang Lihui. Li Yiyuan and Wang Qiugui. Center for Chinese Studies Research, , vol.

For example, Chang Jincang argues that the mythological heroes, such as Gun, Yu, and Yi, were heroes in ancient Chinese history. They were mythologized into demigods during the Warring States era. The Historicizing of Myth or the Mythologizing of History? Shaanxi Shifan Daxue Xuebao 29, 3 Another scholar, Liu Zongdi, insists that the myth about ten suns living on a tree named Fusang in the eastern sea and being carried by the three-legged crows is actually a historical fact in ancient China.

The Fusang tree was a sundial, and the ten suns around it were actually the motion of the sun. So, he thinks, the myth was produced later by misinterpreting the real fact of the ancient calendar system. In his article, Bodde points out the problems that existed in ancient records of Chinese myth, and he criticizes the textual-analysis approach Chinese scholars adopted. Since myths were recorded in fragments, and the texts were full of homophones and characters easily confused with one another, Chinese scholars have committed themselves to seeking new identifications.

The identification was based on these arguments: Quadrangle Books, , Yang Lihui also discuss the shortcoming of the tex- Introduction tual research, and she further suggests the advantages of utilizing orally transmitted myths as the data. Myths and Beliefs in China, — As early as the s, the eminent folklorist Zhong Jingwen gathered myths, legends, and folktales and edited them into volumes. In the s Zhong wrote several articles about the living myths, the myths orally transmitted in modern China.

He pointed out that except for those myths that are recorded in ancient documents, most Chinese myths are preserved in later literature and in living folk traditions through oral tellings of myths in various contexts. Studying these living myths will greatly benefit the study of sociology, folklore, religion, ethnic studies, and cultural anthropology. Instead of relying on data from ancient written documents, Zhong used the living myths he collected or that others collected from the oral tradition to study Panhu myths, flood myths, and the myths of origins of plants.

Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, The investigation of ethnic groups was widely carried out throughout the country, with researchers collecting and compiling a large amount of data about the cultures and histories of Chinese minorities. These data include population, language, economy, social organization, political system, folk custom, trade, communication, and many others. Among them were living myths collected from the oral traditions of these people. Unfortunately, these rich collections have seldom been seriously used to study Chinese myth until recently.

Zhejiang Wenyi Chubanshe, Hou, Guang, and He Xianglu, comps. Selected Myths from Sichuan Province in Chinese. Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe, Shoudu Shifan Daxue Chubanshe, , — Zhang Zhenli, a professor at Henan University, sponsored a research team in and investigated the living myths in oral tradition and relevant customs in the Central Plain region of China mainly Henan Province.

Zhang Zhenli and Cheng Jianjun, comps. In this book are more than living myths. Myths and Beliefs in China, 82— Indiana University Press, , — Updated in July Minjian Wenxue Luntan 3 See her Flood Myth: Liren Shuju, , 16— Nankai Daxue Chubanshe, , — It seems that here, Munau Jaiwa should be Labau Jaiwa. Labau Jaiwa is a well-known creation epic among the Jingpo ethnic people, while Munau Jaiwa is a big sacrificial ritual in which the creation epic Labau Jaiwa is often chanted. Minzu Chubanshe, , 1— Yunnan Minzu Xueyuan Xuebao 4 Mythological Stories of the Manchu People in Chinese.

Beifang Wenyi Chubanshe, , — Zhang, Qizhuo, and Dong Ming, comps. Chunfeng Wenyi Chubanshe, , — Zhang and Dong, Rosenkilde and Bagger, , —, passim. In History of Chinese Folk Literature, 7—8. The sun is also interpreted as the bodies of the two birds. See his Myth and National Spirit in Chinese. Shandong Jiaoyu Chubanshe, , , In History of Chinese Folk Literature, 49— Zhou was originally one of the tribal states under the Shang suzerainty, but it finally replaced the Shang in BC or BC. In Critiques of Ancient Chinese History, eds.

Kaiming Shudian, , 17— Tradition and Transformation, rev. Houghton Mifflin Company, , 70— For a general introduction to Chinese history, please see John K. Fairbank and Edwin O. Tradition and Transformation; Ray Huang, China: A Macro History New York: The History of Chinese Myth in Chinese. Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, , Shanghai Wenyi Chubanshe, , — Shehui Kexue Wenxian Chubanshe, , 77— Myths and Beliefs in China, Hu, Qiwang, and Fan Honggui. Yao Ethnic People in Pan Village: Minzu Chubanshe, , — Shijie Zhishi Chubanshe, , But with the great changes in society and culture, now this taboo is less strict.

Young people sometimes do not hesitate to eat dog. Zhongyang Minzu Xueyuan, , 3. Rather, myths come from different cultural traditions and appear at different times, and these myths are scattered throughout diverse sources. Additionally, the relationships between mythological events and particular gods are usually unfixed and sometimes random. However, if we ignore for a moment these confusing facts and look at the mythological events that happen in these narratives, we can construct a linear timeline of the mythological world according to the content of the myths.

In myths recorded and told in Chinese, there are numerous gods and spirits who take charge of various duties, such as arranging all the parts of heaven and earth, creating water and fire, ordering the directions and seasons, and arranging the underworld. During the Tang or Song dynasty, the disorderly pantheon became systemized and Yu Di, the Jade Emperor who came into being when Taoism and beliefs of the Supreme God were merged together, turned out to be the supreme ruler of the comparatively ordered pantheon of gods.

Some Chinese myths including myths in Han and other ethnic groups do not explain where the gods and culture heroes come from and how they come into being: But some myths do explain their origins, which are rather diverse. Pangu Was Born from the Cosmic Egg Pangu often appears as the creator of the world, the first god who was born from the cosmic egg. He grew up in the egg while shaping heaven and earth. Each day heaven rose ten feet higher, the earth grew ten feet thicker, and Pangu grew ten feet taller.

This situation lasted for 18, years. By then heaven was extremely high, the earth was extremely deep, and Pangu was extremely tall. The Gansheng Myths In Chinese mythology, considerable gods, demigods, and heroes are described as having been born after their mothers experienced a miraculous phenomenon: In myths in the Chinese language, many important gods, heroes, and divine ancestors boast such Gansheng myths. But sometimes a Chinese myth may start without mentioning the creation of the universe.

Many myths begin with the universe already in existence. Among the various myths in Chinese about the emergence of the universe, the following types and motifs are the most well-known. Pangu was born within this chaos. After 18, years, the egg somehow opened and unfolded. The limpid and light part of it rose and became heaven, and the turbid and heavy part of it sank down and became the earth. In some other versions orally transmitted in contemporary China, the description of the cosmos emerging from an egg is shown more clearly. A myth version collected in Zhejiang Province maintains that Pangu could not bear to be confined to the darkness and stuffiness in the cosmic egg, so he shattered the egg into pieces.

The egg white was light so it became heaven whereas the yolk was heavy so it became the earth. The broken shell of it was mixed into the white and the yolk. Two bigger pieces of the shell became the sun and the moon, and the numerous smaller pieces mixed into the white to become the stars. In contrast, those pieces mixed into the yolk became stones. In myths in Chinese, the most famous one also connects to Pangu. According to many versions 65 66 Handbook of Chinese Mythology of the Pangu myth, when Pangu was dying, his body began to transform.

Parents of the Suns and the Moons In myths in the Chinese language, it is well-known that the sun s and the moon s are born by their parents. The divine father is commonly said to be Di Jun, or Emperor Jun, one of the supreme gods in ancient time. Xihe gives birth to ten suns. The suns live on the Fusang tree. When one sun finishes its work and comes back home, another sun will go out in its place.

Xihe often bathed the suns in the Gan Gulf beyond the East Sea. Changxi is the mother of the twelve moons. The Separation of Heaven and the Earth The motif of separating heaven from the earth is quite popular in Chinese mythology. A cluster of myths affirms that at the very beginning of time, heaven and the earth were tightly linked with each other, or there was only a narrow crack between them.

Then, by some means they were separated from each other and remained apart through today. Among these various myths, a prominent one in ancient Chinese writings is the myth that Zhong and Li broke off the connection between heaven and the earth. Chiyou started a revolt and brought disaster to the common people. Influenced by him, people on the earth gradually became corrupt.

They began to cheat, steal, disobey their faith, and violate the oath between them and the Supreme Divinity. The Supreme Divinity thus ordered two of his subordinates, the deities Zhong and Li, to cut off the link between heaven and the earth. From then on, people could never ascend to heaven again, and, correspondingly, the deities could never descend to the earth either.

Drawn by Yang Lihui 67 68 Handbook of Chinese Mythology animals or plants; that they were born after a man married a goddess, or after a man married an animal; that they were created by the sun; and that they were made from the corpse of a divine creature see the Introduction to this book for more detail.

Among these myths, the most celebrated in the Chinese language are as follows. It holds that when heaven and the earth had been created, no humans yet existed. The work drained her strength and took a lot of time, so after she had molded many humans she took a cord and pulled it through the mud, then lifted the cord and shook it.

Guilin, formerly romanized as Kweilin, is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The guqin is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. The strings of the guqin Chinese zither are either made of silk, nylon or metal-nylon. The guzheng, also known as the Chinese zither, is a Chinese plucked string instrument with a more than 2,year history.

Haarlem predecessor of Harlem in the English language is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. Habutai or habotai from the Japanese, literally "feather-two-layer" is one of the most basic plain weaves of silk fabric. Hadagi is a type of Japanese shirt attire employed by the samurai class mainly during the Sengoku period 16th century of Japan. Hairstyling tools may include hair irons including flat and curling irons , hair dryers, hairbrushes both flat and round , hair rollers, diffusers and various types of scissors.

Spanning over four centuries, the Han period is considered a golden age in Chinese history. To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to themselves as the "Han Chinese" and the Chinese script is referred to as "Han characters". This interregnum separates the Han dynasty into two periods: The emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government using an innovation inherited from the Qin known as commanderies, and a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms.

These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States. From the reign of Emperor Wu r. This policy endured until the fall of the Qing dynasty in AD. The Han dynasty saw an age of economic prosperity and witnessed a significant growth of the money economy first established during the Zhou dynasty c. The coinage issued by the central government mint in BC remained the standard coinage of China until the Tang dynasty — AD.

The period saw a number of limited institutional innovations. To finance its military campaigns and the settlement of newly conquered frontier territories, the Han government nationalized the private salt and iron industries in BC, but these government monopolies were repealed during the Eastern Han dynasty. Science and technology during the Han period saw significant advances, including the process of papermaking, the nautical steering ship rudder, the use of negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief map, the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere for astronomy, and a seismometer for measuring earthquakes employing an inverted pendulum.

The Xiongnu, a nomadic steppe confederation, defeated the Han in BC and forced the Han to submit as a de facto inferior partner, but continued their raids on the Han borders. Emperor Wu launched several military campaigns against them. The ultimate Han victory in these wars eventually forced the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries. These campaigns expanded Han sovereignty into the Tarim Basin of Central Asia, divided the Xiongnu into two separate confederations, and helped establish the vast trade network known as the Silk Road, which reached as far as the Mediterranean world.

The territories north of Han's borders were quickly overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. After 92 AD, the palace eunuchs increasingly involved themselves in court politics, engaging in violent power struggles between the various consort clans of the empresses and empresses dowager, causing the Han's ultimate downfall. Imperial authority was also seriously challenged by large Daoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion.

Following the death of Emperor Ling r. A handheld fan is an implement used to induce an airflow for the purpose of cooling or refreshing oneself. A handkerchief also called a hankie or, historically, a handkercher is a form of a kerchief or bandanna, typically a hemmed square of thin fabric or paper which can be carried in the pocket or handbag, and which is intended for personal hygiene purposes such as wiping one's hands or face, or blowing one's nose. The handscroll is a long narrow scroll for displaying a series of scenes in East Asian painting and calligraphy.

In the textile industry, a hank is a coiled or wrapped unit of yarn or twine as opposed to both other objects like thread or rope as well as other forms such as in a ball, cone, bobbin, spool, etc.

The Harmony Society was a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in Army Air Force officer who held 26 flying records. Silk and Harold R. Harpactea is a genus of spiders from the family Dysderidae, with more than described species. His birth date is debated, with various sources giving dates from to His time was marked by scientific, cultural, and religious prosperity. Islamic art and music also flourished significantly during his reign. He established the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma "House of Wisdom" in Baghdad in present-day Iraq, and during his rule Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.

During his rule, the family of Barmakids, which played a deciding role in establishing the Abbasid Caliphate, declined gradually. In , he moved his court and government to Raqqa in present-day Syria. A Frankish mission came to offer Harun friendship in Harun sent various presents with the emissaries on their return to Charlemagne's court, including a clock that Charlemagne and his retinue deemed to be a conjuration because of the sounds it emanated and the tricks it displayed every time an hour ticked.

Harun's life and court have been the subject of many other tales, both factual and fictitious. The was an immigrant clan active in Japan since the Kofun period — , according to the history of Japan laid out in Nihon Shoki. Helicoverpa zea, commonly known as the corn earworm, is a species formerly in the genus Heliothis in the family Noctuidae. The Henokiens is an association of companies who have been continuously operating and remain family-owned for years or more, and whose descendants still operate at management level. Henri Dobler was a Swiss art collector, painter, poet and art critic.

Henry Bertrand was a French silk weaver of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from Villeurbanne near Lyon. Dimock March 28, — April 10, was a lawyer in New York City who was closely associated with the Whitney family business interests. Silk and Henry F. Hereke carpets used to be only produced in Hereke, a coastal town in Turkey, 60 km from Istanbul.

Hermann Hammesfahr February 20, — November 23, was a Prussian-American inventor who invented a type of fiberglass cloth in which glass was interwoven with silk. The word hijab refers to both the head-covering traditionally worn by some Muslim women and Islamic styles of dress in general. Himroo is a fabric made of silk and cotton, which is grown locally in Aurangabad. The two Hindenburg-class airships were hydrogen-filled, passenger-carrying rigid airships built in Germany in the s and named in honor of Paul von Hindenburg.

They were the last such aircraft ever built, and in terms of their length and volume, the largest Zeppelins ever to fly. During the s, airships like the Hindenburg class were widely considered the future of air travel, and the lead ship of the class, LZ ''Hindenburg'', established a regular transatlantic service.

The destruction of this same ship in a highly publicized accident was to prove the death knell for these expectations. Hispano-Moresque ware is a style of initially Islamic pottery created in Al Andalus or Muslim Spain, which continued to be produced under Christian rule in styles blending Islamic and European elements.

The use of historical money in Tibet started in ancient times, when Tibet had no coined currency of its own. The question of the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon has long been a source of contention between most members of the Latter Day Saint movement and non-members. The history of aerial warfare began in ancient times, with the use of kites in China.

The history of Asia can be seen as the collective history of several distinct peripheral coastal regions such as, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East linked by the interior mass of the Eurasian steppe. Modern Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation in after breaking away and achieving independence from Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War. The history of Bengal includes modern-day Bangladesh and West Bengal in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta.

The history of books starts with the development of writing, and various other inventions such as paper and printing, and continues through to the modern day business of book printing. The history of bras is inextricably intertwined with the social history of the status of women, including the evolution of fashion and changing views of the female body. Cartography, or mapmaking, has been an integral part of the human history for thousands of years. The history of Central Asia concerns the history of the various peoples that have inhabited Central Asia.

The history of Cheshire can be traced back to the Hoxnian Interglacial, between , and , years BP. China and Japan are geographically separated only by a relatively narrow stretch of ocean. The study of the history of clothing and textiles traces the availability and use of textiles and other materials. Dhaka, formerly spelled as Dacca in English, is the capital and one of the oldest cities of Bangladesh. The history of economic thought deals with different thinkers and theories in the subject that became political economy and economics, from the ancient world to the present day in the 21st Century.

Electrochemistry, a branch of chemistry, went through several changes during its evolution from early principles related to magnets in the early 16th and 17th centuries, to complex theories involving conductivity, electric charge and mathematical methods.

The region now known as Gloucestershire was originally inhabited by Brythonic peoples ancestors of the Welsh and other British Celtic peoples in the Iron Age and Roman periods. The history of Italian fashion is a chronological record of the events and characters that marked the Italian fashion through time and impacted the way it evolved into what it is today. Knitting is the process of using two or more needles to loop yarn into a series of interconnected loops in order to create a finished garment or some other type of fabric.

The history of Kumamoto Prefecture has been documented from paleolithic times to the present. The history of Lebanon covers the history of the modern Republic of Lebanon and the earlier emergence of Greater Lebanon under the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, as well as the previous history of the region, covered by the modern state.

The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts from pre-historic humans, and spans all cultures. Paper, a thin unwoven material made from milled plant fibers, is primarily used for writing, artwork, and packaging; it is commonly white. The history of printing goes back to the duplication of images by means of stamps in very early times.

The History of Pulicat revolves around the early role of Pulicat as a seaport in one of the few natural harbours on the Coromandel Coast of South India. The early history of radio is the history of technology that produces and uses radio instruments that use radio waves. The History of Shanghai expo began when numerous scholars and government officials envisioned China would one day join the world community in hosting an international global expos. The early history of Siberia is greatly influenced by the sophisticated nomadic civilizations of the Scythians Pazyryk on the west of the Ural Mountains and Xiongnu Noin-Ula on the east of the Urals, both flourishing before the Christian era.

History of swimwear traces the changes in the styles of men's and women's swimwear over time and between cultures, and touches on the social, religious and legal attitudes to swimming and swimwear. The history of Tallahassee, like the history of Leon County, begins with the Native American population and its interaction with British and Spanish colonists as well as colonial Americans and fugitive slaves, as the Florida Territory moved toward statehood.

Evidence of bikini-style women's clothing has been found as early as BC, and the history of the bikini can be traced back to that era. Towns and cities have a long history, although opinions vary on which ancient settlement are truly cities. The Han dynasty BCE — CE , founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu ,From the Shang to the Sui dynasties, Chinese rulers were referred to in later records by their posthumous names, while emperors of the Tang to Yuan dynasties were referred to by their temple names, and emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties were referred to by single era names for their rule.

The Jewish people originated in the land of Israel, and have maintained physical, cultural, and religious ties to it ever since. The history of the Jews in Tunisia extends over nearly two thousand years and goes back to the Punic era. The history of the Philippines from to , also known as the Spanish colonial period, a period that spans during the Captaincy General of the Philippines located in the collection of Islands in Southeast Asia that was colonized by Spain known as 'Las Islas Filipinas', once under New Spain until Mexican independence which gave Madrid direct control over the area.

Uyghur nationalist historians in the People's Republic of China posit that the Uyghur people is millennia-old, and can be divided into four distinct phases: The human history of the west coast of North America is believed to stretch back to the arrival of the earliest people over the Bering Strait, or alternately along a now-submerged coastal plain, through the development of significant pre-Columbian cultures and population densities, to the arrival of the European explorers and colonizers.

The history of underwater diving starts with freediving as a widespread means of hunting and gathering, both for food and other valuable resources such as pearls and coral, By classical Greek and Roman times commercial applications such as sponge diving and marine salvage were established, Military diving also has a long history, going back at least as far as the Peloponnesian War, with recreational and sporting applications being a recent development. In the first millennium BC, Iranian nomads established irrigation systems along the rivers of Central Asia and built towns at Bukhara and Samarqand.

A is a kind of soft-bodied doll given to young women of age and especially to pregnant women in Japan to protect both mother and unborn child. Hotan, also transliterated from Chinese as Hetian, is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in western China.

Huang Dao po — rose from poverty to become one of the most famous women in the early Chinese textile industry. The humeral veil is one of the liturgical vestments of the Roman Rite, also used in some Anglican and Lutheran churches. Ruxley previously Rokesley, and in the Domesday Book Helmestrei was an ancient hundred, a land division in the north west of the county of Kent, England. Hyposmocoma is a large and diverse genus of moths with known species that have adapted to nearly every ecological niche on the Hawaiian Islands.

Hyposmocoma molluscivora is a Hawaiian moth whose larvae are predators, capturing snails in their silk, much like a hunting spider's web, and then crawling inside the snail's shell to eat it alive. Ibanez JEM is an electric guitar manufactured by Ibanez and first produced in Ikat, or ikkat, is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. The Incense trade route comprised a network of major ancient land and sea trading routes linking the Mediterranean world with Eastern and Southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, stretching from Mediterranean ports across the Levant and Egypt through Northeastern Africa and Arabia to India and beyond.

This collection of lists of law topics collects the names of topics related to law. Diplomatic relations between India and Ukraine were established in January Indian Ocean Trade has been a key factor in East—West exchanges throughout history. Indo-Roman trade relations see also the spice trade and incense road was trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Roman Empire in Europe and the Mediterranean. Indonesian martial arts refers to the variety of fighting systems native to or developed in the archipelago of Indonesia, both the age-old traditional arts, and the more recently developed hybrid combatives.

During the Sangam age, industrial activity was considered ancillary to agriculture and was mostly domestic, not factory-based. Brazilian industry has its earliest origin in workshops dating from the beginning of the 19th century. Inglewhite is a small village in the parish of Goosnargh in Lancashire, England.

Insects or Insecta from Latin insectum are hexapod invertebrates and the largest group within the arthropod phylum. The roles of insects in culture span different aspects of human life, whether analysed academically or more generally. The electrical insulation system for wires used in generators, electric motors, transformers, and other wire-wound electrical components is divided into different classes by temperature and temperature rise.

Irene Gilbert 19 July —7 August pronounced "Irini". Iris bostrensis is a species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus of Iris and in the Oncocyclus section. Irkutsk p is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, and one of the largest cities in Siberia. During the high medieval period, the Islamic world was at its cultural peak, supplying information and ideas to Europe, via Andalusia, Sicily and the Crusader kingdoms in the Levant. Isoberlinia doka is a hardwood tree native to African tropical savannas and Guinean forest-savanna mosaic dry forests where it can form single species stands.

Jacques de Vaucanson February 24, — November 21, was a French inventor and artist who was responsible for the creation of impressive and innovative automata. A jade burial suit is a ceremonial suit made of pieces of jade in which royal members in Han dynasty China were buried. Silk and Jade Cocoon: The Jagiellonian tapestries are a collection of tapestries woven in the Netherlands and Flanders, which originally consisted of pieces assembled by the Jagiellons to decorate the interiors of the royal residence Wawel Castle.

James Burton — was born in Clitheroe in and owned several cotton mills in Tyldesley and Hindsford in the middle of the 19th century. James Deacon Hume — was an English official, an economic writer and advocate of free trade. The Jatene procedure, arterial switch operation or arterial switch, is an open heart surgical procedure used to correct dextro-transposition of the great arteries d-TGA ; its development was pioneered by Canadian cardiac surgeon William Mustard and it was named for Brazilian cardiac surgeon Adib Jatene, who was the first to use it successfully.

The is an extremely elegant and highly complex kimono that was only worn by court-ladies in Japan. Bureau, or simply P. Jeanette Kuvin Oren is a Jewish American contemporary artist specializing in Judaic art, fiber art, mosaics, stained glass, calligraphy, papercutting and painting. The Jerusalem Pilgrim's Cross Latin: Signum Sacri Itineris Hierosolymitani is an honour awarded in the name of the Pope as a recognition of merit to pilgrims to the Holy Land.

Jiangnan or Jiang Nan sometimes spelled Kiang-nan, literally "South of the river" is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta. Jiangnan sizhu is a style of traditional Chinese instrumental music from the Jiangnan region of China. Jiangsu, formerly romanized as Kiangsu, is an eastern-central coastal province of the People's Republic of China.

James Harrison Wilson Thompson born 21 March — disappeared 26 March was an American businessman who helped revitalise the Thai silk industry in the s and s. The jing erhu is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument in the huqin family of instruments, similar to the erhu. Joan Geelvinck 7 July — 21 May was a Dutch merchant and politician who followed his father Cornelis and younger brother Albert on the city council of Amsterdam. A jobawi is a type of traditional Korean winter cap with earflaps which was worn by women and was made of silk. Jodhpur is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state.

Johann Heinrich Scheibler 11 November — 20 January was a silk manufacturer from Crefeld, Prussia, without a scientific background, who went on to make contributions to the science of acoustics as a self taught musicologist. Silk and John J. John O'Meally — 19 November was an Australian bushranger and criminal. Johnsons Cleaners UK Ltd. A jokduri is a type of Korean traditional coronet worn by women for special occasions such as weddings. Hombres ilustres del Estado de Mexico.

Joseph Lemuel Chester — was a 19th century American genealogist, poet and editor. Junko Yoshioka is a New York City based fashion designer known primarily for her bridal wear. Juviles is a village and municipality in the central Alpujarras, in the province of Granada in Spain. K'o-ssu or kesi is a technique in Chinese silk tapestry, admired for its lightness and clarity of pattern. Kaitag textiles are an unusual embroidered textile art form from the Kaytagsky District of southeast Dagestan, Russia, inhabited mainly by Dargins and Kumyks. A, more commonly referred to as a, is a Japanese scroll painting or calligraphy mounted usually with silk fabric edges on a flexible backing, so that it can be rolled for storage.

Kanakapura is a city and the headquarters of Kanakapura Taluk in the Ramanagara district in the state of Karnataka, India. A kanzu is a white or cream coloured robe worn by men in the African Great Lakes region. Karl Henry Buesgen, Sr. December 25, — December 14, was an American landscape painter and Pennsylvania impressionist typically associated with the Baum Circle, a group of artists either taught by, associated with, or directly influenced by Pennsylvania impressionist painter Walter Emerson Baum.

Katarina Vilioni died was one of the first Europeans known to have resided in China. Katya Katya Shehurina is a fashion brand that specializes in evening gowns, wedding dresses and fashion accessories. Kazakh clothing, worn by the Kazakh people, is often made of materials suited to the region's extreme climate and the people's nomadic lifestyle. A kebaya is a traditional blouse-dress combination that originated from the court of the Javanese Majapahit Kingdom, and is traditionally worn by women in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand, Cambodia and the southern part of the Philippines.

Kegworth is a large village population of approximately 3, and civil parish in Leicestershire, England. Kermes is a red dye derived from the dried bodies of the females of a scale insect in the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermilio. Kevlar is a heat-resistant and strong synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Khmer clothing refers to the styles of dress worn by the Khmer people from ancient times to the present.

The Kingdom of Kandy was an independent monarchy of the island of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. A kite is a tethered heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag. Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile or fabric for use in many types of garments. Kolar district is a district in the state of Karnataka, India.

Kolar is the district headquarters. Located in southern Karnataka, it is the state's easternmost district. The district is surrounded by the Bangalore Rural district on the west, Chikballapur district on the north, the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh on the east and the Krishnagiri and Vellore districts of Tamil Nadu on the south.

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On 10 September , it was bifurcated to form the new district of Chikballapur. Kollegala is one of the major taluks in the Chamrajnagar District of Karnataka State in the south of India.

References

Kommaly Chanthavong is awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for her fearless, indomitable spirit to revive and develop the ancient Laotian art of silk weaving, creating livelihoods for thousands of poor, war-displaced Laotians. Kongu Nadu is a region and aspirant state of India comprising the western part of the Tamil Nadu. The Great Korean Empire was proclaimed in October by Emperor Gojong of the Joseon dynasty, under pressure after the Donghak Peasant Revolution of to and the Gabo Reforms that swept the country from to Kotpad Handloom is a vegetable-dyed fabric woven by the tribal weavers of the Mirgan community of Kotpad village in Koraput district, Odisha, India.

Kozhikode District or Calicut district is a district of Kerala state, on the southwest coast of India. Kugur is a cultural heritage village in the Anekal taluk of Bangalore district in the Indian state of Karnataka. Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. A lamba is the traditional garment worn by men and women that live in Madagascar. A lampshade is a fixture that covers the lightbulb on a lamp to diffuse the light it emits. Land sailing, also known as 'sand yachting' or 'land yachting', is the act of moving across land in a wheeled vehicle powered by wind through the use of a sail.

A lanyard is a cord or strap worn around the neck, shoulder, or wrist to carry such items as keys or identification cards. Lao silk is produced in Laos with ancient weaving techniques that produce high quality silk made from mulberry leaves. The large tortoiseshell or blackleg tortoiseshell Nymphalis polychloros is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Lawsonia inermis, also known as hina, the henna tree, the mignonette tree, and the Egyptian privet, is a flowering plant and the sole species of the genus Lawsonia.

Layered clothing is a term describing a way of dressing using many garments that are worn on top of each other. A '''light-emitting diode tattoo''' is a type of body modification similar to a tattoo, but specifically involves implantation of technologically based materials versus traditional ink injection into the layers of the skin.

Leeds is a village in the western portion of the city of Northampton, Massachusetts, United States, bordering Williamsburg—along the Mill River—and Florence. Leek is a market town and civil parish in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. The legal history of cannabis in the United States pertains to the regulation of cannabis legal term marijuana or marihuana for medical, recreational, and industrial purposes in the United States.

Legal professions in England and Wales are divided between two distinct branches under the legal system, those of solicitors and barristers. A lehenga-style saree is a modern garment introduced in India that blends of the traditional saree and lehenga choli. Leheria or leheriya is a traditional style of tie dye practiced in Rajasthan, India that results in brightly colored cloth with distinctive patterns. Lena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin March - September 26, was an American clothing designer and retailer who founded the plus-size clothing chain Lane Bryant.

Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths both are called lepidopterans. The lesser wax moth Achroia grisella is a small moth of the snout moth family Pyralidae that belongs to the subfamily Galleriinae. A library is a collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing.

Limbo was a boutique which was opened in by Martin Marty Freedman, originally at 24 St. Lingerie is a category of women's clothing including at least undergarments, sleepwear and lightweight robes. A lingerie dress was a popular type of dress in the North America and Europe throughout the decade of the s to the s. Linnanen is a high fashion company based in Helsinki, Finland, specialised in the design and manufacture of reversible fur coats. Linping is an ancient town with a history of 1, years and it is the location of the main Yuhang local government.

Linping contains three main Street Offices: Linping has a total area of 7. Linping has a very facilitative transportation system and has a significant local position, since it is the eastern gate of Hangzhou and the main military position. There are 23 towns or cities connecting with Linping using buses every day. This article is for musical acts that performed on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That.

Silk is produced by a variety of animals, for different purposes, with various types being produced. The List of Atlantic hurricanes in the 17th century encompasses all known and suspected Atlantic tropical cyclones from to This article is about the American ''Billboard'' Hot chart held during the s. There are a great many brassiere designs that are suitable for a wide variety of business and social settings and suitable to wear with a variety of outer clothing.

Below is the list of Buddhist temples in Hanoi, arranged in alphabetically order by the temple's name. China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions. Delicate fabrics are distinguished from sturdier fabrics by being lighter in weight-per-unit-of-surface-area, often more flexible and pliable, and often more liable to damage by wear and tear and by choices as to mode of laundering.

The BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs invites castaways to choose eight pieces of music, a book in addition to the Bible - or a religious text appropriate to that person's beliefs - and the Complete Works of Shakespeare and a luxury item that they would take to an imaginary desert island, where they will be marooned indefinitely. The following English words have been acquired either directly from Arabic or else indirectly by passing from Arabic into other languages and then into English.

Convergent evolution — the repeated evolution of similar traits in multiple lineages which all ancestrally lack the trait — is rife in nature, as illustrated by the examples below. This is a list of examples of lengths, in metres in order to give an understanding of lengths. This list of Indonesian inventions and discoveries details the indigenous arts and techniques, cultural inventions, scientific discoveries and contributions of the people of Indonesian archipelago — both ancient and modern state of Indonesia.

Production and consumption of agricultural plant commodities has a diverse geographical distribution. The following is a list of notable Old Martinians, former pupils and masters of the three schools established by Claude Martin. This is a list of mechanical engineers, noted for their contribution to the field of mechanical engineering. This is a list of characters from Middlesex, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in This is an incomplete list of species of Lepidoptera that are commonly known as moths.

This list of museums in Cheshire, England contains museums which are defined for this context as institutions including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. The list of organisms by chromosome count describes ploidy or numbers of chromosomes in the cells of various plants, animals, protists, and other living organisms.

This list of sequenced animal genomes contains animal species for which complete genome sequences have been assembled, annotated and published. The list of shipwrecks in includes any ships sunk, foundered, grounded, or otherwise lost during Soul Train is an American musical variety television program, which aired in syndication from until Textile fibres can be created from many natural sources animal hair or fur, insect cocoons as with silk worm cocoons , as well as semisynthetic methods that use naturally occurring polymers, and synthetic methods that use polymer-based materials, and even minerals such as metals to make foils and wires.

This is a list of The Belgariad locations including natural features, such as deserts and islands, as well as man-made features, such as roads and cities.

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