106 entries · 9 categories
Thought, place, time, lived life. What the language is used to say.
The hundred schools and what they argued about.
孔子ConfuciusHis life, the Analects 论语, and the civilization he shaped.
孟子MenciusHuman nature as inherently good — the sprouts of virtue.
庄子ZhuangziThe butterfly dream, Cook Ding, and Daoist freedom from convention.
心学Wang YangmingInnate knowing 良知 and the unity of knowledge and action.
易经The Book of ChangesThe oldest and most cryptic of the Chinese classics — a manual of divination, a philosophy of change, and a map of the universe encoded in 64 hexagrams.
法家LegalismHan Feizi, statecraft, and the realpolitik that unified China.
理学Neo-ConfucianismZhu Xi, the Great Ultimate 太极, and the Song-Ming synthesis.
老子Laozi & the DaodejingThe 81 chapters, wu wei 无为, and the paradox at the heart of Daoist thought.
荀子XunziHuman nature as bad — ritual and education as correction.
阴阳五行Yin-Yang and the Five PhasesThe cosmological engine of classical thought — correspondence, resonance, and transformation.
墨家MohismUniversal love, anti-war, and the utilitarian logic China nearly chose.
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宗教
zōngjiào
Religion
10 entries
Buddhism, Daoism, folk practice, ancestor rites.
伊斯兰教Islam in ChinaHui Muslims, Uyghur traditions, and 1400 years of Islamic presence.
佛教Buddhism in ChinaTwo thousand years of transmission, transformation, and sinicization.
儒家ConfucianismThe school of the ru — ritual, hierarchy, and moral cultivation as state religion.
净土宗Pure LandFaith, Amitabha, and the Western Paradise: the most widely practiced Buddhism in China.
妈祖the Sea GoddessCoastal goddess of sailors, fishermen, and the overseas Chinese diaspora.
民间信仰Folk ReligionKitchen gods, city gods, and the living popular religion beneath Buddhism and Daoism.
祖先崇拜Ancestor VenerationTablets, offerings, and the living debt to the dead: the deep continuity of Chinese ancestor veneration.
禅宗Chán BuddhismThe meditative school that became Japanese Zen — sudden enlightenment and the patriarchs.
萨满教ShamanismManchu, Mongol, and northern indigenous shamanic traditions.
道教DaoismDaoism as organized religion — distinct from Daoist philosophy.
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历史
lìshǐ
History
15 entries
Dynasties, ruptures, and the long arc.
元朝The Yuan DynastyKublai Khan, Mongol rule, and China as the center of a world empire.
唐朝The Tang DynastyThe cosmopolitan golden age — poetry, Buddhism, and the Silk Road.
夏商周The Three DynastiesThe legendary and early historical origins of Chinese civilization.
太平天国The Taiping Heavenly KingdomThe millenarian rebellion that killed 20–30 million people and nearly toppled the Qing dynasty — the deadliest civil war in human history.
宋朝The Song DynastyEconomic revolution, printing, compass — the dynasty modernity missed.
战国时期Warring States PeriodThe most chaotic political era in Chinese history was also the condition that produced every major Chinese philosophical tradition. Political fragmentation and intellectual diversity are not separate stories.
改革开放Reform and Opening UpDeng Xiaoping's 1978 pivot that transformed China from a closed command economy into the world's second largest economy in four decades.
文化大革命The Cultural Revolution1966–76: Red Guards, struggle sessions, and the destruction of the past.
明朝The Ming DynastyThe Great Wall rebuilt, Zheng He's voyages, and the inward turn.
春秋时期Spring and Autumn PeriodThe age when China named itself through the text that documented it, and a philosopher who failed every audience built the tradition that outlasted every state.
汉朝The Han DynastyWhy Chinese call themselves 汉人 — the dynasty that defined the civilization.
清朝The Qing DynastyManchu rule, the long peace, and the slow unraveling before 1911.
科举The Imperial Examination SystemThe exam that governed Chinese civilization for 1,300 years — selecting officials by merit, enshrining the Confucian canon, and shaping every dynasty from the Sui through the Qing.
秦始皇The First EmperorUnification, standardization, and the terror that made China.
辛亥革命The 1911 RevolutionThe end of empire, Sun Yat-sen, and the birth of the Republic.
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地理
dìlǐ
Geography
10 entries
Places, dialects, and the shape of the land.
上海ShanghaiFrom fishing village to the most cosmopolitan city in Asia — a port that absorbed empires, reinvented itself three times, and has never quite decided whether it belongs to China or the world.
八大菜系Cuisines as GeographyRead the Eight Great Cuisines as a geographic document — what the land, climate, and trade routes of each region produced at the table, and what the table tells you about the land.
北京BeijingCapital geography: the hutong grid, the Forbidden City, and the northern axis that has organized Chinese power for seven centuries.
台湾TaiwanAn island with multiple names, multiple claims, and the most consequential unresolved question in East Asian geopolitics.
新疆XinjiangChina's largest province. A vast desert interior crossed by the Silk Road, home to Uyghur civilization, bounded by the Tianshan mountains, and at the center of contested questions about identity and governance.
方言The Dialect MapChinese is not one language but a family — seven major dialect groups whose speakers cannot understand one another, united by a shared written script and divided by a history of geography and migration.
西藏TibetThe Roof of the World: a plateau so high it generates its own weather, a civilization shaped by altitude, and a Buddhism that grew from the landscape as much as from doctrine.
长江The Yangtze RiverThe longest river in Asia: the southern spine of Chinese civilization, the Three Gorges, and the river that divides north from south.
香港Hong KongThe entrepôt that became a world city — a harbor geography that made it the gateway between East and West, and a Cantonese identity that survived colonial rule and asks harder questions under reunification.
黄河Yellow RiverThe cradle of Chinese civilization — a river that floods, destroys, and nourishes in equal measure, its loess-yellow waters shaping every dynasty that tried to master it.
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文化
wénhuà
Culture
9 entries
What people make and how they live with it.
中秋节Mid-Autumn FestivalThe moon at its fullest, the family reunited: the festival that turns a celestial event into a meditation on longing and belonging.
京剧Peking OperaChina's national theatrical art: acrobatics, painted faces, falsetto voices, and two centuries of stylized storytelling.
太极Tai ChiThe slow-motion practice in the park at dawn. Its philosophy is older than the movements, and the movements carry the whole philosophy.
春节Spring FestivalLunar New Year. The largest annual human migration and the most important date on the Chinese calendar.
汉服Traditional Han DressAncient silhouettes worn in modern streets: the revival of Han dynasty clothing and the identity politics it carries.
清明节Tomb-Sweeping DayThe day the living visit the dead: a spring festival of grief, gratitude, and continuity across generations.
生肖Chinese ZodiacThe twelve animals, what they mean, and why your birth year still shapes how people see you.
红包Red EnvelopesMoney wrapped in red: the gift that is never just money, and the ritual that binds generations, occasions, and now hundreds of millions of WeChat users.
茶文化Tea CultureTea as civilization: the way a leaf became a philosophical practice, a diplomatic currency, and the shape of daily life across two millennia.
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日常
rìcháng
Everyday Life
12 entries
Names, numbers, gifts, gestures, taboos.
姓名NamesFamily name first, given name second — the structure, meaning-making, and social logic of Chinese personal names.
家庭Family StructureChinese kinship terminology is a precision instrument — each relative has one specific term, and that precision maps an obligation network, not just a family tree.
敬酒Toasting CultureThe Chinese toast is a social instrument with its own grammar, hierarchy, and rules of engagement — not a punctuation mark at the end of a speech.
数字Lucky & Unlucky NumbersIn China, numbers carry sound, sound carries meaning, and meaning can determine whether you close the deal or jinx the wedding.
称呼Forms of AddressIn Chinese, how you address someone is not a formality — it is a precise statement of how you understand the relationship between you.
筷子ChopsticksThe rules, the taboos, and what not to do — the etiquette that marks insider from outsider at the Chinese table.
红白喜事Weddings & FuneralsThe phrase tells the story: red and white, marriage and death, both require the whole community to show up.
请客吃饭Treating to a MealThe Chinese banquet is a social institution that happens to involve food.
迷信SuperstitionsSuperstition in China is a living system that coexists comfortably with education, modernity, and pragmatism — not a holdover from ignorance.
送礼Gift-GivingGift-giving in China is less about generosity than about maintenance — a technology for building and sustaining the relationships that make life work.
面子实践Face in PracticeFace in Chinese social life is a recurring set of transactions with specific mechanics: how face is given, taken, lost, and preserved in concrete situations.
颜色Colors and LuckRed for joy, white for death, green hats and yellow emperors — the symbolic weight of color in Chinese daily life.
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饮食
yǐnshí
Culinary
17 entries
What is cooked, drunk, and shared at the table.
乌龙茶Oolong TeaThe most complex and technically demanding tea category — partially oxidized, spanning a full spectrum from near-green to near-black, with a vocabulary of flavor unmatched in tea.
八大菜系Eight Great CuisinesHow geography, climate, and dynasty shaped eight distinct schools of Chinese cooking.
川菜Sichuan CuisineThe mala kitchen — how a landlocked basin built the most complex spice vocabulary in the world.
火锅HotpotThe communal pot at the center of the table: a social institution disguised as a meal.
白茶White TeaThe most minimal of all tea categories: plucked, withered, and dried, with no firing and no rolling, yielding a tea of extraordinary delicacy.
白酒BaijiuChina's fiery grain spirit — the most consumed distilled liquor in the world by volume, and what it means to drink together.
粤菜Cantonese CuisineFreshness as philosophy: the cooking tradition that traveled the world and stayed true to itself.
红茶Red Tea (Black Tea)Fully oxidized — what the world calls black tea, China calls red, named for the color of the liquor. From Keemun to Dianhong, China's contribution to global tea culture.
绿茶Green TeaThe oldest and most-consumed tea category — unoxidized, fixed by heat, and expressing the full range from grassy Longjing to umami-rich Biluochun.
花草茶Tisanes & Herbal InfusionsNot tea — but often called tea. The world of Chinese herbal infusions, floral teas, and medicinal brews that share the cup but not the leaf of Camellia sinensis.
茶TeaSix tea categories, production, and the cup that connects China to the world.
豆腐TofuTwo thousand years of soybeans and water: the food that fed a civilization without meat.
面条NoodlesFour thousand years of wheat in water — noodle cultures from Lanzhou to Suzhou.
饺子DumplingsFolded, boiled, and shared: the dumpling as ritual food, family labor, and cultural marker.
鲁菜Shandong CuisineThe oldest school — how the home province of Confucius fed the imperial court for two thousand years.
黄茶Yellow TeaThe rarest of the six categories: like green tea, but mellowed by a slow smothering step that removes the raw edge and creates a silky, sweet cup.
黑茶Dark Tea & Pu-erhPost-fermented, microbially aged — the only tea category that genuinely improves with decades of storage, and the trade commodity that crossed the Tea-Horse Road to Tibet.
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艺文
yìwén
Arts & Literature
11 entries
Poetry, painting, calligraphy, opera.
书法CalligraphyThe art of the brush — where writing becomes the most personal expression of character.
唐诗Tang PoetryLi Bai, Du Fu, and the golden age of regulated verse.
四大名著Four Great Classical NovelsThe four novels every educated Chinese person has read — the canonical stories of war, outlaws, pilgrims, and dreams.
宋词Song Dynasty LyricThe poem that sings — fixed tune patterns, named meters, and three masters who defined what the Chinese lyric could feel.
文房四宝Four Treasures of the StudyThe four instruments through which a scholar thought, wrote, painted, and demonstrated who he was: brush, ink, inkstone, and paper.
昆曲Kun OperaThe oldest surviving form of Chinese opera — refined to such perfection over four centuries that it nearly disappeared from its own beauty.
楚辞Songs of ChuThe shamanistic southern voice that gave Chinese literature its second pole — visionary, romantic, and inconsolably exiled.
水墨画Ink-Wash PaintingWhere the brush meets philosophy — five tones of ink, the art of leaving space, and landscapes that are not about landscape at all.
篆刻Seal CarvingThe art of the name — bronze to stone, dynasty to dynasty, two schools of carvers, and the small red square that authenticates everything.
诗经Book of SongsChina oldest poetry anthology — three hundred poems that Confucius said no educated person could afford to ignore.
鲁迅Lu XunThe writer who looked at traditional Chinese society and saw cannibalism — and the complicated, unresolvable legacy he left behind.
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科技
kējì
Science & Medicine
11 entries
Astronomy, medicine, and technology before modernity.
丝绸SilkThe thread that built the first global trade network — Chinese silk, the secret of sericulture, and the road that carried it west.
中医Traditional Chinese MedicineQi, yin-yang, the five phases, and a medical system that has treated a fifth of humanity for two thousand years.
二十四节气24 Solar TermsThe sun moves 15 degrees and the world changes — a precision agricultural calendar that doubled as a medical manual and is now UNESCO heritage.
五行The Five PhasesThe five dynamic processes — wood, fire, earth, metal, water — that classical Chinese science used to map medicine, cosmology, music, politics, and time.
历法The Lunisolar CalendarNeither purely solar nor purely lunar, the Chinese calendar has kept farmers, physicians, and dynasties synchronized with the cosmos for three thousand years.
四大发明Four Great InventionsCompass, gunpowder, paper, and printing — the Chinese technologies that remade the medieval world.
星宿Chinese ConstellationsChina mapped the entire sky independently of Greece — 1,464 stars, 28 lunar mansions, and four mythological guardians that divided the cosmos long before Ptolemy.
本草纲目The Great PharmacopeiaLi Shizhen spent 27 years cataloguing 1,892 drugs — and produced one of the greatest works of natural science in any civilization.
算盘The AbacusBefore the electronic calculator, a bead frame and trained fingers could outrun early computers on everyday arithmetic.
针灸AcupunctureNeedles, meridians, and the ancient practice that resists simple verdicts from modern science.
风水Geomancy as Proto-ScienceBefore the terms ecology, hydrology, and orientation science existed, the fengshui master was reading the same landscape — just with a different vocabulary.
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