In 114 BC, Chinese Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty decided to send Zhang Qian as his envoy to the foreign states on a diplomatic mission. Zhang Qian and his royal entourage and military guards began their journey from the capital city Chang’an (Xi’an), travelling through today’s Gansu, Xinjiang provinces, via Afghanistan, Iran, Russa, Greek to Rome in today’s Italy, […]
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Oracle Turtle Scripts This is Oracle Turtle Script, the early Chinese written language carved on a turtle shell during Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1046 BC) – an era ruled by merchants with a social system chiefly based on written business contacts. This script used to be considered as the earliest form of Chinese characters by archaeologists. But the evidence […]
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This more than 3,000-year-old bronze vessel was recovered by a Beijing museum researcher in 2002 from an antique market in Hong Kong. On the bottom of the container, there are 98 Chinese characters with the opening lines praising the legendary Great Yu’s hydraulic projects nearly 5,000 years ago to control the flood from the Yellow River. An Ancient Reference to […]
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Chinese archaeologists have discovered from a cave in Hunan Province 47 human teeth fossils, almost identical to our own. The breakthrough archaeological discovery suggests modern humans lived in China more than 80,000, probably 120,000, years ago, according to a research paper by Liu Wu (刘武) and Wu Xiujie (吴秀杰) published on Nature. The new finding once again challenges the “Out […]
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Sitting on a hilltop 1214 metres above sea level, this is an ancient pyramid in Fuzhou, Jiangxi province, in the south of Yangtze River. The massive structure has a base floor area over 5,000 sqm, with 4 levels in total, each of which is about 1.5m in height and has a 1.2m setback from the front of the lower level. […]
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More than 3,000 mysterious signs discovered in Mt Juci (具茨山), of Henan Province, China, are believed to be carved in the rocks by ancient Chinese more than 5,000 years ago, according to researchers from Geophysics and Planetary Science Institute of China’s Science Academy. But so far no one can decode their meaning. Some experts suggest they might be the earlier […]
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A 1000-year-old Chinese divorce settlement agreement was unearthed in 1900 from Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in Gansu Province. The following is a rough translation of this Tang Dynasty divorce settlement paper penned by a man named Zhao Zongmin: We all know when a man and a woman become a couple, they love each other. The cause for a man and a […]
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In 2014, a group of 1,500-year-old state-owned huge grain storages were unearthed in Luoyang, Henan province. The 700 storages were found to be built during the Sui Dynasty (581-619), by then Luoyang was Chinese capital and Henan. The grains stored in the warehouses would be released during the times of crises, such as feminine due to natural disaster or social […]
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Mt. Wudang, the Biggest Taoist Hub in China Taoist temples began to appear in Mt Wudang since Lao Tzu and Confucius time 2,500 years ago. But Mt. Wudang was developed into a Daoist hub hundreds years later during the Weijin South North Dynasties (魏晋南北朝) around the 3rd and the 4th centuries, the time when the story of Nirvana in Fire, […]
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This is a giant village house supported by 1,322 timber columns, located in the outskirts of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. Shaoxing is an ancient city with a rich cultural tradition and the homeland to some prominent figures in Chinese history, including the greatest hydraulic engineer and last ruler of Xia Dynasty Yu the Great (大禹, 4,000 BC), China’s greatest calligrapher […]
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Majiabang Culture (马家浜文化) existed during the so-called Neolithic Age at the mouth of the Yangtze River, primarily around Lake Tai, in the area between Changzhou in southern Jiangsu and Hangzhou in northern Zhejiang, centred with Jiaxing, 100 km from Shanghai. Its existence was previously unknown until 1959 during a government-organised archaeological study at village Majiabang in Jiaxing. The unearthed items from […]
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In China’s Sichuan Province there are two rocky hills hosting a temple accommodating both Daoist and Buddhist faiths. In this multi-faith temple, built in 874 during Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), there are two groups of buildings. Those in the west following the way of Daoism and the ones in the east pursue Buddhist path. The main hall in a […]
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