Chongyang Festival 重阳节

The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival, or Double Ninth Festival. It usually falls in October. This year, the Chongyang Festival was on 26 Oct.

The Chongyang Festival is also a time when chrysanthemum blooms. So enjoying the flourishing chrysanthemum also becomes a key activity on this festival. Also, people will drink chrysanthemum wine. Women used to stick such a flower into their hair or hang its branches on windows or doors to avoid bad luck.

In 1989, the Chinese government declared the Double Ninth Festival as the Seniors' Day. A scholar in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) described how the Festival is celebrated:

On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, people take wine glasses, teapots and food boxes and go up the mountains. All the mountains in the Xiangshan range are high. In these mountains are Fazang Temple with all a tall pagoda; Xianling Temple and Baoguo Temple, both elevated structures. Monks do not go up the mountains, but common people rent mountain gardens and pavilions or go to the pleasure haunts in the mountains to have fun.

The pastry shops sell cakes sprinkled with dates and chestnuts as thick as stars in a night sky. These cakes are called huagao – flower cakes. Pastry shop owners usually put colourful paper flags on their cakes. The flags are called ‘flower cake flags’. On that day, parents expect their married daughters to return home to eat flower cakes. If the daughter cannot come, the mother will complain, the daughter will be filled with sadness, and the younger sister will weep because she really wants to enjoy this rare chance to see her sister. Thus, this day is also called Daughter’s Day.

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九月九日是传统的重阳节，也叫双九节。通常是在阳历十月。今年的重阳节在十月二十六日。

重阳节正是菊花盛开的时刻。所以欣赏茂盛的菊花是这个节日主要的活动。人们也和菊花酒。妇人常爱把菊花插在头上，或把它的枝叶插在窗口或门上以避恶运。

1989年，中国政府宣布双九节为老人节。明朝 (1368 – 1644) 学者如此记载庆祝重阳节的情景：

明刘侗、于奕正《帝京景物略•春场》：

“九月九日，载酒具、茶炉、食榼，曰登高。香山诸山，高山也；法藏寺，高塔也；显灵宫、报国寺，高阁也，释不登。凭园亭，闯坊曲为娱耳。

面饼种枣栗其面，星星然，曰花糕。糕肆标彩旗，曰花糕旗。父母家必迎女来食花糕，或不得迎，母则垢，女则怨诧，小妹则泣，望其姐姨，亦曰女儿节。”

Smart When Young 小时了了

Kong Rong (Kong Wenju 153 – 208) was a bureaucrat, poet, and minor warlord during the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era of China. A well-known story commonly used to educate children even nowadays on the values of courtesy and fraternal love involves the four-year-old Kong Rong giving up the larger pears to his elder and younger brothers. This story is also mentioned in the Three Character Classic, a text used for elementary education since the Song Dynasty.

Kong Rong showed his quick wits since his young age. Here is a story recorded about him in ‘A New Account of Tales of the World’ (Shi Shuo Xin Yu).

Kong Wenju came to Luoyang with his father when he was ten.

At that time Li Yuanli (110-169) enjoyed great prestige in Luoyang as the Attorney-General. Only prominent figures or his close relatives were allowed to visit him.

Wenju approached his gate and said to the door man, ‘I’m a relative of Mr Li.’

After he was allowed in and sat down, Li asked him, ‘How is it that you are my relative?’

Wenju replied, ‘Long ago, my ancestor Confucius called your ancestor Laozi (note: Laozi’s surname is said to be Li) by the title of Master, therefore you and I have a relationship spanning many generations.’

Li and his guests were impressed by his reply. A while later, Chen Wei, an adviser of the Emperor, came and other told him the words of the boy. He uttered, ‘Being smart at a young age doesn’t mean he’ll be somebody when he grows up.’

Wenju answered, ‘I’m sure you must be smart when you were young.’

Chen was choked up.

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孔融(孔文举153-208) 是东汉三国时期的官僚、诗人、小军阀。他四岁时让梨给兄弟的故事至今还是教育儿童礼让与友爱的有名教材。三字经就有提到这个故事。

他从小就显示才智过人。这里是《世说新语》里记录有关他的一个故事。

孔文举年十岁，随父到洛阳。

时李元礼（110-169）有盛名，为司隶校尉。诣门者，皆俊才清称及中表亲戚乃通。

文举至门，谓吏曰：“我是李府君亲。”

既通，前坐。元礼问曰：“君与仆有何亲?”

对曰：“昔先君仲尼与君先人伯阳有师资之尊，是仆与君奕世为通好也。”

元礼及宾客莫不奇之。太中大夫陈韪后至，人以其语语之，韪曰：“小时了了，大未必佳。”文举曰：“想君小时必当了了。”

韪大踧踖。

Drawing Animals Without Eyes 画动物不画眼

The story of painting animals without eyes was first told in the book Taiping Guangji (Tai Ping Anthologies).

‘During the first year of the Qin dynasty, a man named Yi, who was good in carving and painting, was presented to the First Emperor.

By spurting out vermilion and green stone from his mouth onto the ground, he can transform them immediately into many funny faces and various things. When he carved stone into various types of animals, the animals were extremely lifelike that even their hairs appeared to be real thing.

He also marked the carving time on the chest of the animals.

By laying a cloth on the ground, he could paint rivers, maintains and maps of all states within the small piece of cloth.

The dragon and phoenix drawn by him were so lifelike that it appeared that they were ever ready to fly away into the sky. But no eyes would be drawn. If the eyes were drawn, the animals would really fly away. The First Emperor sighed and said, ‘These are not real things, how can they fly away?’ He allowed the painters to draw an eye on each of two jade tigers on a painting. In ten days, both jade tigers disappeared and nobody knew where to look for them.

Residents lived near mountains and rivers reported that they saw two tigers, each had only one eye. They always moved together and were inseparable as body and shadow. They looked the same, even the hair and colour looked exactly the same. They also looked different from the normal tigers.

In the following year, the Western people presented two tigers to the First Emperor, each had only one eye. The First Emperor inspected them and suspected they were from the painting. The tigers were killed and the marks on their chests shown that they were indeed painted in the first year of his reign.’

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有关画动物不画眼睛的故事最先记载于《太平广记》。

秦始皇元年，骞霄国献刻玉善画工名裔。

使含丹青以漱地，即成魑魅及鬼怪群物之象；刻石为百兽之形，毛发宛若真矣。

皆铭其臆前，记以年月。

工人以绢画地。方寸之内，写四渎五岳列国之图。

又为龙凤，骞翥若飞。皆不得作目，作必飞走也。始皇嗟曰：“刻画之形，何能飞走。”使以淳漆各点两玉虎一眼睛，旬日则失之，不知何所在。

山泽人云：“见二白虎，各无一眼，相随而行，毛色形相，异于常见者。”

至明年，西方献两白虎，皆无一眼。始皇发槛视之，疑是先所失者，乃刺杀之，检其臆前，果是元年所刻玉虎也。

Putting the Finishing Touch to the Picture of a Dragon 画龙点晴

The Chinese proverb ‘Hualong Dianjing’ (literally painting the dragon and adding the eyes) refers to the finishing touch, or is used to describe how, when writing or speaking, one or two key sentences could enhance the contents.

The proverb was made famous by a story about the famous painter Zhang Sengyou who lived in the Southern and Northern Dynasties Period (420-589).

“Once Zhang Sengyou visited the Jinan temple in Jin Ling (Nanjing) and painted on the wall four dragons, but gave none of them eyes.

He explained, 'With the eyes painted on, the dragons would fly away.'

Nobody believed this, so Zhang took up his brush and added eyes to one of the dragons. No sooner had he finished than the dragon flew into the sky amid a thunderstorm. The other dragons without eyes stayed painted on the wall.”

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成语“画龙点睛”常用来比喻作文或说话时在关键地方加一两句重要的话，使内容变得更加生动有力。

这句成语却因为南北朝时期(420-589)的画家张僧繇的一个历史故事而成名。

唐•张彦远《历代名画记•张僧繇》：

张僧繇于金陵安乐寺，画四龙于壁，不点睛。

每曰：“点之即飞去。”

人以为诞，因点其一。须臾，雷电破壁，一龙乘云上天。未点睛者皆在。

Zodiac Animal: Mouse 十二生肖：鼠

In China, people came up with a simple and amusing way to count the years. They use 12 animals, namely rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig, to represent years and make up the Chinese zodiac.

Do you know how they picked those animals? Do you know why the little rat is the first? The following interesting story will answer your questions.

Once upon a time, the cat and the rat were good friends, every day they would play together, everyday they would eat together, and life was very happy. One day, the Lord of Heaven told the God of Earth, "I feel that the way we calculate the years is really uncomfortable, so I think I’ll hold a competition for crossing the river between the animals, the first animals to arrive at the finish line will make up the new 12 calendar-years."

The God of Earth released the news to all the animals on earth. All the animals were happy to hear the news and they all wanted to participate.

As both cat and rate could not swim, on the day of competition, they rode on the ox to cross the river. When the ox arrived half way, the cat pointed at the other side of the river and said, "Look! The other animals still haven’t crossed the river, I’m sure we’ll be the firsts in the competition." The cat didn’t even get to finish his sentence, when the rat walked from behind and pushed him off, and the cat fell into the water. The rat laughed and said, "Oh, so sorry, my brother the cat. You can continue swimming slowly… now I’m definitely the first!"

The ox didn’t pay attention and continued to swim, and arrived at the end point. The little rat jumped of the ox to the shore and ran happily towards the finish line, seeing that the others still aren’t there.

The ox ran and arrived second. Next was the tiger, the little rabbit quickly followed, the dragon came from within the clouds and announced, "I’ve arrived". As the horse arrived at the finish line, a snake suddenly appeared from the grass, making the horse and the sheep jump in horror. The monkey, the chicken, and the dog quickly ran to the finish line. The competition was about to end.

The Lord of Heaven said, "Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken and the dog are the 11, who’s going to be the last one?” At that moment, a very fat pig came running in and announced, "I’m starving!"

The Lord of Heaven was about to announce the 12 winning animals, when the cat arrived, asking, "What number am I?" The Lord of Heaven replied, "I’m sorry, you got here too late, and you can’t be part of the Zodiac". The cat replied angerily, "That’s all the rat’s fault, I will never forgive him."

From that day forward, the cat wants to bite the rat, and so the rat fears the cat. The rat hides from the cat all day, and comes out only in the evening.
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在中国，人们想出一个简单而奇趣的方法来计算年代。他们以十二种动物，鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗、猪，来代表年岁，组成十二生肖。

你知道十二生肖是如何选出来的吗？为什么小老鼠会排在第一呢？以下有趣的传说可以解答你的问题。

从前猫与鼠是好朋友，它们每天一起游玩，一起吃饭，日子过得好开心。一天，玉帝对土地公说：‘我觉得目前计算年岁的方法，很不方便，所以我想举办一次动物过河比赛，最先抵达终点的十二种动物组成十二周年。’

土地公于是把比赛的消息公布给所有地上的动物。动物们都很高兴，他们都想参加比赛。

由于猫与鼠都不会游泳，比赛那天，它们就坐在牛的背上出发。牛游到河中间的时候，猫就指着岸边说，‘你看，它们都还没过河呢。过河比赛我们一定领先。’猫还没说完，鼠却从毛背后用力地推，猫就掉下水了。鼠笑着说：‘对不起，猫大哥，你继续慢慢游吧。现在我肯定第一名了。’

牛根本就没有注意，继续往前游而抵达了终点。鼠从牛背上跳上岸，快乐地奔往终点，还没有动物抵达呢。

牛第二个抵达。下一个是虎，兔紧跟在后头，龙从云里出来，宣告说：‘我到了。’吗快要到终点时，蛇突然从草丛里转出来，把马与羊吓了一跳。猴、鸡与狗也快速跑到终点。比赛就快要结束了。

玉帝说：‘鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗，共十一个，谁会是最后一个呢？’就在这时，一个很肥的猪跑来说，‘饿死我了。’

就在玉帝要宣布十二名优胜的动物时，猫抵达了，它问：‘我得到第几名？’玉帝说：‘很抱歉，你来迟了，不能成为十二生肖。’猫很生气地说；‘都是可恶的老鼠的错，我永远不会原谅它。’

从此以后，猫一见老鼠就像咬，以致老鼠怕猫，白天只好躲在洞里，夜晚才敢出来。