Preface
My love for Taijiquan never wane for a moment ever since I discovered the art in my teens around the time when Bruce Lee burst onto the silver screen in the early 1970's. It is in fact very hard to tell which came first; Taijiquan or the Dao, because they both grew on me naturally without any effort. These two subjects go hand in hand and they soon became my life-long passion no matter what real drama unfolded before me on the world stage. They in fact became the source of inspiration that led to the creation of this website. I would often alternate between the two subjects as I wrote and realised how inextricably intertwined they are.
My interest in Chinese tea started when I began studying Taijiquan under my Shifu, Fu Shengyuan 傅聲遠 (1931 - 2017) in the mid-1990’s. I really appreciated what he taught me about the etiquette of Chinese tea drinking, besides Taijiquan. Later, I went on to meet or was introduced to a few Chinese tea connoisseurs across China, and to a lesser extent, South East Asia. It was only then that I realised how prevalent Chinese tea drinking culture is, not just in the country of origin but also all round the world.
I can still recall very vividly the three very early morning “redeye” trips I made to Fu Zhongwen's home, eager for his instructions and to enquire about Taijiquan, in the depth of winter in 1990, when temperatures regularly dropped below zero degrees. A series of lunch and dinner engagements soon followed as I was invited to follow him around to the many Taijiquan exhibitions and conventions that were often held in his honour. He was a very busy man indeed! Hence, I was ecstatic when my grandmaster Fu Zhongwen 傅鍾文 (1903 - 1994) who already had a very busy schedule, still found the time to accept me as his only private student from New Zealand in1990. I was well aware that he had previously turned down several similar requests upon reaching his eightieth birthday. This became one of the single most momentous events of my life. It spun the “great journey north”, back to my ancestral roots in China, only to find it being disrupted by the current hiatus (2020 - 2022) due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic engulfing the globe, grinding international travel to a virtual halt. I have made over 40 trips to China in the past three decades and I learnt a lot about the country and the people with each trip. In the beginning, I felt ashamed, as a Chinese by descent, due to how little I know of Chinese history, culture, and tradition. It made me become determined to learn as much as I could from then on.
As a young adult growing up in the west, I became acutely aware about how little westerners, including the Chinese diaspora living in western countries, whether in Europe or North America, including the Antipodes namely, Australia and New Zealand, know about Chinese history, culture, and tradition. For example, how many westerners actually know how Chinese surnames originated? This leads onto the next question, do they have any idea as to how Chinese personal and birth names are derived based on the many factors like the newborn's personal attributes, place of birth, year, month, day, or even the hour? Do you not find it unusual that unlike western names like John or Mary, it is uncommon for Chinese names to be shared. For many Chinese, the middle name, if there is one, has very special significance. Not only does it tell us to which generation the person belongs to within the family tree, but also his ancestry dating back perhaps, several centuries. Interspersed within the family's long history would usually be some notable figures who played a part in fomenting China's rich history and culture. Furthermore, there will usually be a poem associated with his middle name which can be traced back to the origin of the family's generation name. I hope this helps give you a better appreciation and understanding of the level of complexity involved in arriving at a baby's name within a traditional Chinese household. Sadly, much of the Chinese tradition of naming a newborn is now lost.
Some Chinese to this day still maintain a family ancestry book known as Zupu 族谱 or Jiapu 家谱 which is a list of names arranged by generation within the family tree, going back through the centuries or even millennia. It often also recorded meritorious deeds or significant events in the family’s history. According to Guinness World Records, the oldest complete Zupu or genealogy book goes to the family of Confucius 孔子 (551 BCE – 479 BCE), which spans over 2,500 years! However, the oldest known Zupu that I heard of goes back 3,500 years, dating back to the Shang dynasty (circa.1600 BCE – 1046 BCE)! My surname is Zhao 趙 (or 赵 in simplified script), so I will in time, present an article about the origin of my surname and unfortunately to date, only a partial history about my genealogy. My research into my own family history is still very much a work in progress and is ongoing. Not being able to travel to China to continue with my research due to the COVID pandemic has not helped.
A typical Chinese Zupu
I am sure most of you would have heard or read about George Washington, or Julius Caesar, or Napoleon Bonaparte, right? Now, how many people in the west would have heard of one of China’s most brilliant military strategist, Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 (181 AD – 234 AD) or to me, China’s greatest national military hero, General Yue Fei 岳飛 (1103 AD - 1142 AD)? Sadly, I doubt many of you have. The west has dominated world events, and therefore news of the world, for the past 300 years and I doubt that things are going to change overnight. This means what we have heard and read pertains only to the west and nowhere else. This "myopic" view certainly leads to misunderstanding and animosity between nations across the world. But I hope that as communication links between east and west multiply and improve in conjunction with high-speed, space-age technology, we can expect to learn more and more about one another, irrespective of which corner of the globe we come from. But then, how would we learn unless we put the information out there? Hence, the main objective of the “Best of China” forum is to introduce articles about the best aspect of Chinese history, culture, and tradition to the whole world. It is a daunting task because there is so much to like about China, as a country; this also means there is so much to write about as well!
Language is always considered to be one of the biggest barriers to communication. For this reason, I have endeavoured where possible, to provide the Hanyu Pinyin 汉语拼音 (or simply known as Pinyin) transliteration of Chinese names or words in this forum, with the hope that the English reader will be inspired to pick up at least a few Chinese words here and there. Many people may not be aware that before Pinyin became universal, there were other systems for transliterating Chinese words into English. Unfortunately, all of them were invented by people whose native tongue was not Chinese, which proves to be the biggest drawback. Pinyin is the only system invented exclusively by the Chinese in the 1970's, of whom the primary "architect" was a Chinese economist by the name of Zhou Youguang 周有光 (1906 - 2017) who lived to the ripe old age of one hundred and eleven years! Later, you will understand how Pinyin, being a completely Chinese invention, has led to its rapid acceptance by the Chinese masses, which has in turn enabled them to make the great leap forward into the computer age, despite the computer being a western invention which uses the English alphabet as the "language" by default for the computer. In other words, Pinyin has become the linchpin between any languages that use the English alphabet and Chinese.
Before Pinyin was invented, the most common system of Chinese transliteration used was the Wade-Giles system, which is still prevalent in Taiwan and USA today. From my perspective where my mother tongue is Chinese and not English, I find the system to be diabolical and almost impossible to learn! It simply makes no sense to anyone whose mother tongue is not English. I am sure this is the main reason why even the Taiwanese, whose native tongue is Chinese, wanted to find an alternative to the Wade-Giles system. Unfortunately, they resisted adopting the Hanyu Pinyin system for political reasons. It is incredible how rivalry between two different ideologies; namely, communism versus democracy, can lead to a nation not being able to accept what is for the common good of the people. Instead, a different political ideology dominates all else through propaganda, which can potentially lead us down the path of a world war! Taiwan did eventually invented an alternative system for transliterating Chinese words in 2002, known as Tongyong Pinyin 通用拼音, but it did not work out. It was not until 2009 that Taiwan officially but reluctantly accepted Hanyu Pinyin as the official system for Chinese transliteration into English.
Hong Kong and Macau shared a similar fate to Taiwan; being former colonies of Great Britain and Portugal respectively. The pathway towards adopting Pinyin as the standard is made much easier with the return of both of these former Chinese territories to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the late 1990's. Prior to that time, it was really difficult for me to read names of people or places based on the Chinese transliteration which were haphazard; being a blend of the Wade-Giles system and the local Cantonese dialect. For example, the Chinese transliteration for Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon is a complete botch-up! It is neither a Wade-Giles transliteration nor Pinyin! It probably came about because an Englishman was trying to make sense of place or people's names based on what he had heard from a Chinese speaking in the local Cantonese dialect. To make matters worse, there are many variants and sub-variants within the Cantonese dialect, just like any other Chinese dialect! To put the record straight, the correct Chinese transliteration for Hong Kong is Xianggang 香港; for Tsim Sha Tsui, it should be Jian Sha Zui 尖沙咀; and for Kowloon, it should be Jiulong 九龙 which literarily means, "nine dragons". The beauty with Pinyin is that I can work out what the Chinese characters are most of the time, just from the Pinyin transliteration (in English). Prior to Pinyin, it would have been nigh on impossible!
I am certain that not many people realise how important Pinyin has become for the Chinese in this era of the computer age. It has enabled Chinese characters to be entered directly into the computer through this medium, bearing in mind that the computer is originally a western invention based on the alphabet. Scientists are now discovering that Chinese characters have a huge competitive advantage over western alphabets because not only is it quicker to type in Chinese characters on a keyboard using Pinyin, but also, each character is much more compact and therefore, takes up much less storage space inside a computer than a word made up of a string of alphabets. The ubiquitous QR code is essentially a pictogram similar to a Chinese character in structure. If you really think about it, it would be impossible to create a QR code using alphabets. For starters, you will have to string many alphabets together just to make up one word. But if we use Chinese scripts instead, then I believe the sky is the limit!
A painting of Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮
A statue of Yue Fei 岳飛 at his tomb in Hangzhou.
Sadly, it is not possible to write everything there is about China because it is such a vast country. It is similar in size to the whole of Europe, but with a much bigger population and very long history. I can therefore only pick on topics that I have a personal interest in like for example, scenic places of interest for the intrepid traveller, famous cuisines because food is one of my passions, Chinese tea, Taijiquan, Penjing 盆景 (or the art of Bonsai in Japanese), poetry, calligraphy, notable stories, famous proverbs and sayings, and major historical events of course, just to name a few! They will eventually be put to print right here, in this forum. All I ask is for your patience while the "artist" works at his own natural pace!
Man Jiang Hong 滿江紅. Original patriotic poem and calligraphy by General Yue Fei 岳飛將軍. Do you know of any chief military general today who is also a calligrapher and poet?
The art of Bonsai originated in China where it is known as Penjing 盆景 or Penzai 盆栽. Penjing depicts the Dao as a manifestation of the natural world in miniature form. Penjing therefore creates the real world in its natural form, by taking into account the entire landscape. Bonsai on the other hand, focuses mainly on just one tree.
The eight culinary traditions of China are made up of the eight regions of Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hunan, Sichuan, Fujian, & Guangdong. Then there is the Kejia (Hakka) cuisine that does not belong to any one region.
Danxia 丹霞 (Rainbow Mountains) is in Zhangye National Geopark 张掖国家地质公园, Gansu Province 甘肃省. A remarkable landscape which you can marvel at when you travel along the old Silk Road 丝绸之路 Si Chou Zhi Lu.
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This is a famous saying from Confucius about governance which is just as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago:
"In a country well governed poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country poorly governed wealth is something to be ashamed of."