CHINA: LAO TZE STATUE UNVEILED IN CENTRAL CHINA
Mandarin/Nat
The world's biggest statue of Lao Tze, the father of the Taoist religion was unveiled this weekend in central China in a colourful ceremony attended by Chinese delegations from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
In a country where 50 years of atheist communist leadership has restricted religious practices, this is a sign that times are changing.
Taoism, China's oldest indigenous religion is today being embraced by the people and facing a revival
The unveiling of the religious statue was a colourful ceremony - a scarcely seen sight in China where religious worship has been effectively quashed for the last half century.
This Taoist grand priest who conducted this weekend's traditional rite of `kai guang', literally `opening the light', in the Maoshan temple in central China said it was the first time it had been witnessed by so many people.
The huge statue which measures 33 meters high and cost 840-thousand U-S dollars, is the world's tallest existing statue of the holy man.
Made out of copper, it was assembled on site and weighs more than 100 tonnes.
Lao Tze was a wise man who lived two thousand five hundred years ago whose doctrine was based on the observation of nature.
He also drew his teachings from his extensive travel throughout China's vast land.
Lao Tze reported his teachings in a book called the Tao-Zi-Jing which quickly became the `Bible' of the religion.
It stresses the fact that human beings should not harm nature but follow its example and try to fit harmoniously into it.
It also advocates the cult of the ancestors.
Taoism became officially a religion at the end of the East Han dynasty, one thousand eight hundred years ago.
Although increasingly popular Taoism relied heavily on local popular beliefs and superstition and was consequently described as the `peasants religion'.
Mainly practised by the Han Chinese majority, Taoism today has several (m) million followers and about 25-thousand priests and nuns.
There are more than one thousand five hundred temples, mainly in the eastern part of China.
Taoism and Confucianism - which is more of a moral ethic than a religion - are both indigenous to China and are often mixed together.
Both theories preach the cult of the ancestors and the respect of the elderly.
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
The people are required to do good things to serve the society. Therefore, the Taoist theories fit the people's psychologies and serve the society by making contributions to the spiritual civilisation.
SUPERCAPTION: Yan Zihua, Vice director of the Taoist Association of Maoshan temple
China's communist leadership, officially atheist, claims to allow freedom of religion as required by the country's constitution and by various international covenants on human rights.
But many believers, Taoist or otherwise have been persecuted for practising their religion and for many years temples stayed empty out of fear.
During the Mao Tse Tung era, especially during the Cultural revolution many temples and relics were destroyed.
People were only allowed to pray in government approved temples.
Taoism was regarded by the Communist government as a `dangerous, feudal and superstitious' threat to public stability.
The practice of burying the dead was regarded as a waste of land which could be used for crops.
But today, with China's growing openness and economic reforms, religious worship, and especially Taoism, is making a comeback.
Crowds are again appearing at temples and children are being taught how to pray and worship their ancestor's gods.
Because Taoism was restricted for many years by the communist government on the mainland, it has kept a very pure form.
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin)
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Mao Zedong | Wikipedia audio article
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Mao Zedong
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who became the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism.
Mao was the son of a wealthy farmer in Shaoshan, Hunan. He had a Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist outlook early in his life, and was particularly influenced by the events of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. He later adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University, and became a founding member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927. During the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CPC, Mao helped to found the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, led the Jiangxi Soviet's radical land policies, and ultimately became head of the CPC during the Long March. Although the CPC temporarily allied with the KMT under the United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), China's civil war resumed after Japan's surrender and in 1949 Mao's forces defeated the Nationalist government, which withdrew to Taiwan.
On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a single-party state controlled by the CPC. In the following years he solidified his control through land reforms and through a psychological victory in the Korean War, as well as through campaigns against landlords, people he termed counter-revolutionaries, and other perceived enemies of the state. In 1957 he launched a campaign known as the Great Leap Forward that aimed to rapidly transform China's economy from agrarian to industrial. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in history and the deaths of an estimated minimum of 45 million people between 1958 and 1962. In 1966, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution, a program to remove counter-revolutionary elements in Chinese society which lasted 10 years and was marked by violent class struggle, widespread destruction of cultural artifacts, and an unprecedented elevation of Mao's cult of personality. The program is now officially regarded as a severe setback for the PRC. In 1972, Mao welcomed American President Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling the start of a policy of opening China to the world. After years of ill health, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976 and died at the age of 82. He was succeeded as paramount leader by Premier Hua Guofeng, who was quickly sidelined and replaced by Deng Xiaoping.
A controversial figure, Mao is regarded as one of the most important and influential individuals in modern world history. He is also known as a political intellect, theorist, military strategist, poet, and visionary. Supporters credit him with driving imperialism out of China, modernising the nation and building it into a world power, promoting the status of women, improving education and health care, as well as increasing life expectancy as China's population grew from around 550 million to over 900 million under his leadership. Conversely, his regime has been called autocratic and totalitarian, and condemned for bringing about mass repression and destroying religious and cultural artifacts and sites. It was additionally responsible for vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 30 to 70 million victims.
Embargo on Communist China of mad dog Mao Zedong / Mao Tse Tung 's followers
Embargo on Communist China of mad dog Mao Zedong / Mao Tse Tung 's followers
Chen Duxiu
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Chen Duxiu was a Chinese revolutionary socialist, educator, philosopher, and author, who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, serving from 1921 to 1927 as its first General Secretary.Chen was a leading figure in the anti-imperial Xinhai Revolution and the May Fourth Movement for Science and Democracy.Politically, he advocated the Trotskyist theory of Marxism.Chen's ancestral home was in Anqing, Anhui, where he established the influential vernacular Chinese periodical New Youth .
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Hunan | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:01:56 1 History
00:06:34 2 Geography
00:09:40 3 Administrative divisions
00:10:36 3.1 Urban areas
00:10:45 4 Politics
00:11:23 5 Economy
00:12:51 5.1 Economic and technological development zones
00:15:28 6 Demographics
00:16:53 6.1 Hunanese Uyghurs
00:17:32 6.2 Religion
00:18:19 7 Culture
00:18:48 7.1 Language
00:19:23 7.2 Cuisine
00:19:51 7.3 Music
00:20:07 8 Tourism
00:21:50 9 Education
00:22:03 10 Sports
00:22:23 11 See also
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I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Hunan (湖南) is a landlocked province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, Guizhou to the west, and Chongqing to the northwest. Its capital and largest city is Changsha, which also abuts the Xiang River. With a population of just over 67 million as of 2014 residing in an area of approximately 210,000 km2 (81,000 sq mi), it is China's 7th most populous province by population and the 10th most extensive province by area.
The name Hunan literally means south of the lake. The lake that is referred to is Dongting Lake, a lake in the northeast of the province; Vehicle license plates from Hunan are marked Xiāng (Chinese: 湘), after the Xiang River, which runs from south to north through Hunan and forms part of the largest drainage system for the province.
The area of Hunan first came under Chinese rule around 350 BC, when the province became part of the State of Chu. Hunan was the birthplace of Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong, who became the founding father of the People's Republic of China. Hunan today is home to some ethnic minorities, including the Tujia and Miao, along with the Han Chinese, who make up a majority of the population. Varieties of Chinese spoken include Xiang, Gan, and Southwestern Mandarin.
Hunan is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River. The site of Wulingyuan was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. Changsha, the capital, is located in the eastern part of the province; it is now an important commercial, manufacturing and transportation centre.
Chinese folk religion | Wikipedia audio article
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Chinese folk religion
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Chinese folk religion (Chinese popular religion) or Han folk religion is the religious tradition of the Han Chinese, including veneration of forces of nature and ancestors, exorcism of harmful forces, and a belief in the rational order of nature which can be influenced by human beings and their rulers as well as spirits and gods. Worship is devoted to a multiplicity of gods and immortals (神 shén), who can be deities of phenomena, of human behaviour, or progenitors of lineages. Stories regarding some of these gods are collected into the body of Chinese mythology. By the 11th century (Song period), these practices had been blended with Buddhist ideas of karma (one's own doing) and rebirth, and Taoist teachings about hierarchies of gods, to form the popular religious system which has lasted in many ways until the present day.Chinese religions have a variety of sources, local forms, founder backgrounds, and ritual and philosophical traditions. Despite this diversity, there is a common core that can be summarised as four theological, cosmological, and moral concepts: Tian (天), Heaven, the transcendent source of moral meaning; qi (氣), the breath or energy that animates the universe; jingzu (敬祖), the veneration of ancestors; and bao ying (報應), moral reciprocity; together with two traditional concepts of fate and meaning: ming yun (命運), the personal destiny or burgeoning; and yuan fen (緣分), fateful coincidence, good and bad chances and potential relationships.Yin and yang (陰陽) is the polarity that describes the order of the universe, held in balance by the interaction of principles of growth (shen) and principles of waning (gui), with yang (act) usually preferred over yin (receptiveness) in common religion. Ling (靈), numen or sacred, is the medium of the two states and the inchoate order of creation.Both the present day government of China and the imperial dynasties of the Ming and Qing tolerated village popular religious cults if they bolstered social stability but suppressed or persecuted those that they feared would undermine it. After the fall of the empire in 1911, governments and elites opposed or attempted to eradicate folk religion in order to promote modern values, and many condemned feudal superstition. These conceptions of folk religion began to change in Taiwan in the late 20th century and in mainland China in the 21st. Many scholars now view folk religion in a positive light. In recent times Chinese folk religions are experiencing a revival in both mainland China and Taiwan. Some forms have received official understanding or recognition as a preservation of traditional Chinese culture, such as Mazuism and the Sanyi teaching in Fujian, Huangdi worship, and other forms of local worship, for example the Longwang, Pangu or Caishen worship.
Hunan | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Hunan
00:01:00 1 History
00:05:13 2 Geography
00:08:04 3 Administrative divisions
00:08:50 3.1 Urban areas
00:08:59 4 Politics
00:09:34 5 Economy
00:10:55 5.1 Economic and technological development zones
00:13:18 6 Demographics
00:14:36 6.1 Hunanese Uyghurs
00:15:13 6.2 Religion
00:15:57 7 Language and Culture
00:17:15 8 Tourism
00:18:14 9 Education
00:18:26 10 Sports
00:18:45 11 See also
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
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Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
Hunan (湖南) is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed in South Central China; it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, Guizhou to the west, and Chongqing to the northwest. With a population of just over 67 million as of 2014 residing in an area of approximately 210,000 km2 (81,000 sq mi), it is China's 7th most populous and the 10th most extensive province-level by area.
The name Hunan means south of Lake Dongting, a lake in the northeast of the province; Hu means lake while nan means south. Vehicle license plates from Hunan are marked Xiāng (Chinese: 湘), after the Xiang River, which runs from south to north through Hunan and forms part of the largest drainage system for the province. Its capital and largest city is Changsha, which also abuts the Xiang River.