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Zhaozhou Bridge, an ancient Chinese Miracle
Zhaozhou Bridge which is located in the famous historical and cultural county of Zhao, Hebei Province, it is the world’s oldest single-arch stone bridge still in use today, it has a history of over 1400 years and won...
Zhaozhou Bridge which is located in the famous historical and cultural county of Zhao, Hebei Province, it is the world’s oldest single-arch stone bridge still in use today, it has a history of over 1400 years and won the reputation of “ One of the Four Treasures in northern China”. It’s the oldest and best preserved ancient stone arch bridge in the world. It was included as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council in 1964. In 1991, it was elected by the American society of civil engineers as “the 12th international civil engineering historical monuments ", and give it a memorial brand. It was designated by the state as provincial education base for patriotism in 1999.
It was designed and built by Li Chun in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), has stood the tests of earthquake, floods, and traffic for nearly 1400 years, to protect this monument, a parallel bridge was constructed in 1980’s.
For thousands of years, it was linked with a traditional Chinese legendary story of the Eight Immortals, whenever you setting your feet on the bridge you could find out some trails of the immortals. After the founding of new
Five Elements, profounding ancient Chinese philosophy
About the Five Elements - hope this is helpful to you.
...About the Five Elements - hope this is helpful to you.
Hi everyone, today I would like to give you some introduction about the five elements. Many Chinese believe that our world is surrounded by five elements, which include wood, fire, earth, metal and water. These five elements are constantly moving and changing around and affect our lives greatly.
Ancient Chinese associated everything in the universe with these five elements. For instance, earth is connected with growth and nourishment; sun is associated with fire; and trees are associated with wood.
The fundamental principle in this five element theory is the balance between all of them. For example, when a plant (wood) grows, it helps in keeping and generating water. Meanwhile, it is also believed that the imbalance of these five elements will cause destructive consequence. Here is an example: when wood is burned, the wood gives birth to fire, which in turn destroys the land (earth).
Now, I want to tell you something about the changes that five elements bring us. Many of you might have heard about Taichi, which is an exercise practiced by many people in different parts of the world. As you might have known, Taichi is designed based on the balance of Ying and Yang, which is part of the five elements that we just discussed. One reason that Chinese are so keen on practicing Taichi is that people believed that a series of movements will act like a self-massage which in turn helps internal organs moving in harmonious manner with one another, hence keep our bodies fit.
So much for the introduction about five element theory. I wish you find them interesting for you!