Apologies for my hiatus, but now I'm back! Just to give you a heads-up, I'll be finished with my summer program in Beijing next Saturday, August 10th. Then I'll have a two week vacation to explore Beijing and engage in independent study before I head off to Harbin in late August for my next program. What this means is that between August 10th-24th feel free to contact me if you wanna Skype/catch up! I would love to re-connect with you in the future when I will have some time off!
Okay, so this post will be about An'Yang 安阳.
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| Wang Xiangyan --> Average altitude: 800m - 1739m. This is the place where the Shang prince Wu Ding lived in his young age. He met and played with his slave Fu Yue and admired his talents. When Wu Ding got into power, he appointed Fu Yue as Premier despite Fu Yue's slave status and other objections from officials. |
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| Always wanted to cross one of these rope bridges. That's one thing crossed off of my bucket list! |
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| Two things to note: 1. No, that is not me waving in the pink raincoat! lol 2. Yes, we did in fact ascend this spiral staircase all the way to the top! |
On another part of our trip, we visited a museum that explained all about the Shang Dynasty. In a nutshell, the Shang Dynasty is known for advancing bronze working and for its oracle bones which display the early Chinese writing system.
Below are some pics of my favorite Ancient Chinese Characters:
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| GUESS WHAT IT MEANS! Answer: 鱼, (Yú), Fish |
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| GUESS WHAT IT MEANS! Answer: 门, (Mén), Door |
ALL RIGHT GUYS: TIME FOR A QUICK CHINESE LESSON:
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| If this means... 女, (Nǚ), Woman/Female |
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| And this means... 子, (Zi), Child |
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| Thus, if a child is with woman/female (aka in this context presumably his mother) what would this mean then? ... ... ... MEANING: 好, (Hǎo), GOOD Do you see how it all comes together? Indeed a child with his mommy is a GOOD thing! |
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| Meaning: 大, (Dà), Big Do you see the person with his arms spread out? I hope you guys use this next time you play charades! hahaha |
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| 休, (Xiū), Rest The person is resting against the tree (aka wood: 木) |
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| 水, (Shuǐ), Water |
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| 雨, (Yǔ), Rain |
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| 火, (Huǒ), Fire |
Thus concludes the writing system pics. I hope you enjoyed the above pics and can understand a little
bit how Chinese characters came to be!
Moving on, the Shang believed in sacrifices, so here is a poor soul who was sacrificed in a burial pit:
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| FYI: These are REAL remains! Here's a brief description: "The chariots discovered at Yinxu present us with the earliest animal-drawn carts in Chinese history. Though the wooden components of the chariots decayed into the Earth, their structure can be well traced." |
FU HAO's TOMB:
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| This is a picture of Fu Hao's tomb. Fu Hao was the earliest woman general in China. |
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| Here is a statue of Fu Hao! |
THE FAMOUS ORACLE BONES:
PERFORMANCES:
BUDDHA:
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| Can you spot the difference among the three Buddhas? HINT: Look at Hands... |
NIGHT OUT:
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| Excellent Night Market! |
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| ...And I thought I needed a haircut...or...body cut?? Whattt??? |
and I ask for your patience as I steadily give more updates of what else I was up to these past several weeks. Thank you, and see you next time!
Best,
-Samuel Kim
金钟明
Seems like your trip turned out to well! Those oracle bones are some of the oldest written "documents" in the world. For closer looks, I recommend visiting the Shanghai Museum in Huangpu District. Good luck with the last week of your program!
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