The Hook Swords or Seung Ngau 双鈎 are an exclusively Chinese weapon, unparalleled anywhere else in the world. With a very peculiar shape, it is a weapon as devastating as it is difficult to master. Its unique design makes them a versatile and very effective weapon.
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Within calligraphy and ink painting, there are four tools that are known in China as the Four Treasures of the Study (文房四寶 wén fáng sì bǎo), as they had to be present on every scholar’s desk. These four treasures are: ink (墨 mò), brush (毛笔 máobǐ), paper (纸 zhǐ) and inkstone (砚台 yàntái).
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The Three Sage Kings are semi-legendary characters who are credited with creating Chinese civilization. They are regarded as exemplary sovereigns, who held high moral values and under whose mandate people lived in harmony. These three emperors are Yáo 堯, Shùn 舜 and Yǔ 禹.
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The Lántíngjí Xù 蘭亭集序 (“Preface to the Collection of Poems of the Orchid Pavilion”) is a short text considered one of the masterpieces of Chinese calligraphy. It is a preface written as an introduction to a collection of poems, with a unique story behind it.
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The “Tigers of War” were an infantry contingent that existed during the Qīng 清 dynasty. It was a téngpáiyíng 藤牌營 battalion, this is, soldiers trained in the use of the rattan shield (téng pái 藤牌) and sabre (dāo 刀), who wore furs or uniforms that mimicked the appearance of the tiger.
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The Cáodòng 曹洞 school is one of the Five Schools of Chán 禪 Buddhism, which during the Sòng 宋 dynasty was characterized by teaching a form of meditation known as “Silent Illumination” (默照 mòzhào).
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Lóulán 樓蘭 was an ancient kingdom that flourished in the 2nd century BC on the margins of the Silk Road. It was an independent city-state until the Hàn dynasty 漢朝 took control of the region, and proliferated for some more centuries until it was mysteriously abandoned in the 3rd century of our era, leaving only ruins that remained buried in the desert sands for nearly two millennia.
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The triads, criminal organizations, had their origins in a split of the Hung Mun 洪門 Society, or Society of Heaven and Earth (天地會 Tiāndìhuì), a secret organization that fought to overthrow the Qīng 清 dynasty in the later years of the Chinese imperial era.
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Chán 禪 differs from other Buddhist schools by attaching greater importance to meditation and intuition than to ritual, intellectual understanding, or study of sacred texts. In China emerged the idea of a “separate transmission” of the Buddhist dharma, external to the scriptures, which transcended language and only took place directly from master to disciple.
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Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 (625-705) is the only woman in Chinese history to have held the imperial throne. Although other women held the position of regent as empress dowager (皇太后 húangtàihòu), none of them truly took up the throne of the Son of Heaven (天子 Tiānzǐ).
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