Imperial Kilns of the Song Dynasty

IN 1135, the northern part of the Song Empire was occupied by Jin armies. Eight years earlier in 1127, Bianliang (present-day Kaifeng), capital of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) had been captured, and Emperor Huizong, named Zhao Ji, was taken prisoner and incarcerated in the small city of Wuguo (in present-day Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province) on the frozen wastes of China's northern frontier. After eight years of humiliation and torture, Emperor Huizong was barely alive. Clad only in a goatskin, he spent     

Stewed Chicken with Three Cups of Sauce

正Stewed Chicken with Three Cups of Sauce,literally"three-cup chicken,"is a popular dish in Jiangxi Province in southern China.It is a specialty known for crispy texture and rich f lavor.Its story dates back to the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty(1127-1279),when Wen Tianxiang,a Jiangxi native scholar-general,was     

The Classic Mirror of Wise Rule

THE Tang Dynasty (618-907) is a glorious chapter in Chinese history. It was when Emperor Taizong (named Li Shimin) (597-649) led China into a period of unprecedented political and social harmony, as well as economic and cultural prosperity. Scholar and court official Fan Zuyu (1041-1098) of the succeeding Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), commented on and summarized the successes and failures of each Tang Dynasty emperor in his book Tang Jian (The Mirror of the Tang Dynasty). He presented the volume to the Northern Song emperor in the hope that the lessons it con-     

Photo News

January 11, 2013 Dancers from Hong Kong and Guangdong Province perform Qingming Riverside, a grand dance poem that depicts the lives of Bianjing residents in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Based on the painting by Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145), Along the River during the Qingming Festival, the work is directed and choreographed by Leung     

Cultural Restructuring:Commercialization of Performing Arts

DURING the week-long Spring Festival holiday in January 2012, instead of traveling outside of the capital to enjoy her time, Mrs. Wu chose to watch performances in Beijing, and she was not alone.     

Wisdom of an Ancient City

The famous painting,Along the River During Qingming Festival,impresses visitors at the China Pavilion not iust because of the animated figures in the electronic version of the painting but because it shows a prosperous view of Kaifeng,capital of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).It also showcases the wisdom of city planning in ancient China.     

Stewed Dongpo Pork

Dongpo is the pen name of Su Shi (1037-1101), a prominent writer of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). His father Su Xun was also a highly regarded writer and personally tutored him from an early age. Su Shi took part in the imperial exam at 19, and achieved     

Talented Women of Ancient China

IN feudal times, imperial exams were the main channel for men of letters to enter officialdom.Unfortunately only men were eligible to take these examinations. Su Xun, a great scholar of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), had two sons, both of whom passed the highest imperial examination and went on to become     

The World’s Largest Healthcare Umbrella

EARLIER last summer, 65-year-old farmer Song Guicai of Xinwan Village, Punan Town, Lianyungang City in coastal Jiangsu Province, made the 10-kilometer journey from her village to the town’s central hospital. At the end of diagnosis and checkup in the air-conditioned facility she headed toward the counter with a bill showing RMB 119.37.     

A Tale of Two Cities

正Before Beijing became the capital of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it had faced ups and downs in its status as the first city. In the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the honor fell to Jinling, today’s Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, east China. However, Emperor Yongle (1360-1424) proclaimed Beijing the     

Commercial Success and Sustained Regional Culture

CHAOZHOU is the starting point of the ceramics sea trading route that flows through the old Chinese ports of Guangzhou (Guangdong Province), Yangzhou (Jiangsu Province), Wenzhou (Zhejiang Province) and Quanzhou (Fujian Province) to Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe. Chaozhou people first began to appear in Southeast Asia during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Today,     

SOCIETY

正Building Links Workers lay the track for the Shangqiu-Hefei-Hangzhou high-speed railway in Bozhou, east China’s Anhui Province,on February 26. The railway will link Shangqiu in central China’s Henan Province, Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province, and Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province.Procuratorial Advice China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) released revised regulation on February 26 regarding the work of procuratorial proposals in a bid to increase work quality and efficiency.     

CONTINUING EXCHANGES

正Xi-Hung meeting helps to promote peace and development across the Taiwan Straits By Yuan Yuan The mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen in Nanjing welcomed a new guest on October 31,as Hung Hsiu-chu,Chairperson of the Kuomintang(KMT),chose the capital city of Jiangsu Province as the first stop of her first visit to the Chinese mainland as the KMT leader.     

College Education for Students From Needy Families

Thousands of youngsters in China feel overjoyed when admitted to an institution of higher learning, after years of painstaking studies and highly competitive entrance examinations. But Lin Xue from Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province wept for days upon admission from the China Medical University in Shenyang, the provincial capital, in 2000. Although she longed to enter the university renowned in the field of medical science education, Lin decided, painfully, to hide the admission letter from her parents and give up the rare opportunity to change her destiny. "I was fully aware that my parents could by no means afford my tuition and living expenses in college," Lin recalls. Both of her farmer parents were in poor health: her     

Mozi: No Aggression,But Universal Love

MOZI (ca.475-395 BC) was one of many philosophers in the volatile Pre-Qin Period (before BC 221 when the State of Qin annexed other six kingdoms and unified China) who were committed to restoring and overhauling the social order.Mozi was a commoner born in the State of Lü (in today’s Shandong Province),but spent most of his life in the State of Song (in present day Henan Province).He studied Confucian theory in his early years,and later established his own school of thought Mohism,which challenges Confucianism on many fronts.Mozi traveled around the states to sell his political ideas to the rulers,who gave him the cold shoulder however.This great thinker never held any high official position in his lifetime.     

One Dream Takes You Back to Over One Thousand Years Ago and Makes You Moved and Inspired

If we say that the picture of the Upper River at Pure Brightness Festival (a festival to memorize the dead) reflects the common folk culture in the Northern Song Dynasty, then the prefecture of Kaifeng shows the culture of official offices and the culture of the honest and upright officials represented by Bao Zheng in the Northern Song Dynasty.     

Geography of the Heart

Editor's Note: Mrs. Barbara Singleton, a high school principal at Halton District School Board in Milton, Ontario, Canada, and her husband, Dr. Paul Singleton, adopted two Chinese daughters, now 9 and 10 years old, from Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province in 1993 and 1994. From September 17 to December 10, 2001, the daughters, Mrs. Singleton's 11-year-old son Jamie, and her 19-year-old niece Kristen returned to China to live for two and a half months. The purpose of their trip was     

THIS WEEK

正ALIVE AND KICKINGGiant panda Juxiao cuddles one of her newborn triplets at the Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou,capital of south China’s Guangdong Province,on August 10.Born to their 12-year-old mother on July 29,the cubs are the world’s only known panda triplets to survive birth to date.     

Zhenjiang Calls One City’s History the Microcosm of a Nation

FOR Chinese people, "South China" is synonymous with grace and romance. Depictions of the South in many grand poems of the Tang and Song dynasties - the golden period of classical Chinese poetry and prose - ensure successive generations of young Chinese continue to read and dream about the region’s easy charm. The South’s starlets are Hangzhou and Suzhou, whose myriad lakes and gardens embody the region’s delicate beauty. But Zhenjiang City, sitting at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal in Jiangsu Province,     

THIS WEEK

正A WAlK FoR PEACE ANd REMEMBRANCEQueen Margrethe II of Denmark walks across Peace Square during her visit to the Memorial Hall for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Forces in Nanjing,capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province,on April 27.