Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture

Dui (Marsh)

Dui (marsh) is one of the eight trigrams, bundled together in the shape of ☱. It is also one of the 64 hexagrams, composed of two trigrams like this. In the eight-trigram system, it symbolizes the marsh or lake. The marsh fosters all forms of life, therefore making everything pleasant. The term is composed of one broken line and two unbroken lines…

People Are the Foundation of the State

This term means that the people are the essence of the state or the foundation upon which it stands. Only when people live and work in peace and contentment can the state be peaceful and stable. This saying, which first appeared in the “Old Text” version of The Book of History as an instruction by Yu the Great, can be traced to Mencius’ (372?-28…

The Imperial Civil Examination System

This is the system in which officials were selected through different levels of examinations. After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty（541-604）reunified China in 581, he abolished the system of selecting officials on the basis of family background or moral character. In 605, the first year of the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty（569-618）, t…

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: The purposes of the Project are to select the concepts in Chinese culture and thought that reflect the characteristics of the country's traditional culture and the Chinese people's way of thinking, and that embody the core values of China.
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