But a tossing of coins, with perhaps the added safeguard of reference to the oracles of the I Ching, the Chinese Book Of Changes, dictates the handling of the chosen materials.

However, some sources point out that this is a modern saying used by the Chinese from other regions in reference to Cantonese culinary habits.

Another name for the Chinese calendar is the " yin calendar " ( 陰曆 / 阴历 ) in reference to the lunar aspect of the calendar, whereas the Gregorian calendar is the " yang calendar " ( 陽曆 / 阳历 ) in reference to its solar properties.

Zizhi Tongjian, literally " Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government ", was a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography.

Languages that do not have grammatical tense, such as Chinese, express time reference through adverbials, time phrases, and so on.

From 1405 to 1433, Admiral Zheng He led large fleets of the Ming Dynasty on several voyages to the Western Ocean ( Chinese name for the Indian Ocean ) and reached the coastal country of East Africa ( see Zheng He for reference ).

Early reference to the Chinese export of ivory is recorded after the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian ventured to the west to form alliances to enable for the eventual free movement of Chinese goods to the west ; as early as the first century BC, ivory was moved along the Northern Silk Road for consumption by western nations.

* 1088: the renowned polymath Chinese scientist and official Shen Kuo made the world's first reference to the magnetic compass in his book Dream Pool Essays, along with encyclopedic documentation and inquiry into scientific discoveries.

* In 589 AD, the Chinese scholar-official Yan Zhitui makes the first reference to the use of toilet paper in history.

* The Chinese Ji Jiu Pian dictionary published in 40 BC during the Han Dynasty is the earliest known reference to the hydraulic-powered trip hammer device.

* The Chinese scholar-official Yan Zhitui makes the first reference to the use of toilet paper in human history.

The first known mention of the term Turk ( Old Turkic: 10px10px10px10px Türük or 10px10px10px10px 10px10px10px Kök Türük or 10px10px10px10px Türük,, Pinyin: Tūjué, Wade-Giles: T ' u-chüeh, Middle Chinese ( Guangyun ): ) applied to a Turkic group was in reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century.

The first recorded use of " Turk " as a political name is a 6th-century reference to the word pronounced in Modern Chinese as Tujue.

* The earliest historically verified reference to tea is recorded, although the Chinese have been drinking the beverage for centuries.

It should be noted that this term is commonly used by the Cantonese, Hakka and Hokkien as a colloquial reference to the Chinese people, and has little relevance to the ancient dynasty.

During the war the valley surrounding the western end of the river also became the focal point of a series of dogfights for air superiority over North Korea, earning the nickname " MiG Alley " in reference to the MiG-15 fighters flown by the combined North Korean, Chinese and Soviet forces.

He also quotes a " Chinese General " on the subject of weakening the enemy's resolve, a reference to Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

The Chinese-based Korean word for Saturday is 토요일 ( To-Yo-Il Earth-day ) from the Chinese character 土 meaning Earth, or Ground but more significantly makes reference to 토성 ( To-Sung 土星 ) which means Saturn.

Its reference as " Western Xia " came from the Chinese record of " Xi-Xia " ( 西夏 ), literally " Western Xia ", and thus that name is often used in sinological literature.

The English reference of " Tangut " comes from the Mongolian name for the country, Tangghut (), believed to reflect the same word as " Dangxiang " ( 党項 ) found in Chinese literature.

The first clear reference to smallpox inoculation was made by the Chinese author Wan Quan ( 1499 – 1582 ) in his Douzhen xinfa ( 痘疹心法 ) published in 1549.

The earliest reliable reference ( circa 100 BCE ) to Laozi is found in the Records of the Grand Historian ( Shiji ) by Chinese historian Sima Qian ( ca.

And one cannot but wonder whether Marshal Malinovsky, who was blowing hot and cold, exalting peace but also almost openly considering the possibility of preventive war against the West, wasn't trying to keep the Chinese quiet.

The ledger was full of most precise information: date of laying, length of incubation period, number of chick reaching the first week, second week, fifth week, weight of hen, size of rooster's wattles and so on, all scrawled out in a hand that looked more Chinese than English, the most jagged and sprawling Alex had ever seen.

Bursting from the lips of a charging cavalry trooper was the last sound heard on this earth by untold numbers of Cheyennes, Sioux and Apaches, Mexican banditos under Pancho Villa, Japanese in the South Pacific, and Chinese and North Korean Communists in Korea.

The concept of the Middle Kingdom at peace, strong and united under a forceful ruler, which had been only a longed-for ideal in the time of the Warring States, was finally realized by the establishment of a Chinese Empire under the Ch'in dynasty ( 221-207 B.C. ).

Although modern scholars have expressed surprise that `` the simple magic square of three '', a mere `` mathematical puzzle '', was able to exert a considerable influence on the minds and imaginations of the cultured Chinese for so many centuries, they could have found most of the answers right within the square itself.

Such an analysis speedily reveals why the middle number of the Lo Shu, 5, was so vitally significant for the Chinese ever since the earliest hints that they had a knowledge of this diagram.

Although the primary mathematical properties of the middle number at the center of the Lo Shu, and the interrelation of all the other numbers to it, might seem enough to account for the deep fascination which the Lo Shu held for the Old Chinese philosophers, this was actually only a beginning of wonders.

The Chinese world view during the Han dynasty, when the Lo Shu seems to have been at the height of its popularity, was based in large part on the teachings of the Yin-Yang and Five-Elements School, which was traditionally founded by Tsou Yen.

but in this respect it was merely following the accepted Chinese convention for all maps.

In its monastic form, Mahayana was merely an organization of magic-practicing monks ( bonzes ), who catered to the Chinese faith in the supernatural.

But in the Chinese mind, there was little difference between the two -- the bonzes were no more metaphysical than a magician has to be.

Early Chinese anchoritism was theoretically aimed at a mystic pantheist union with the divine, personal salvation being achieved when the mystical recluse united with divine essence.

In the popular Chinese mind, Ch'an ( Zen ) was no exception to the ideas of coarse magic that dominated.

The zero was probably introduced to the Chinese in the Tang Dynasty ( 618-907 AD ) when travel in the Indian Ocean and the Middle East would have provided direct contact with India, allowing them to acquire the concept of zero and the decimal point from Indian merchants and mathematicians.

); its design was planned by the government of the day ; and it places individual letters in syllable clusters with equal dimensions, in the same way as Chinese characters, to allow for mixed-script writing ( one syllable always takes up one type-space no matter how many letters get stacked into building that one sound-block ).

In Chinese astronomy, the stream of water flowing from the Water Jar was depicted as the " Army of Yu-Lin " ( Yu-lin-kiun ).

Even though this period-known in its earlier part as the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period-in its latter part was fraught with chaos and bloody battles, it is also known as the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy because a broad range of thoughts and ideas were developed and discussed freely.

The Agrarians believed that Chinese society should be modeled around that of the early sage king Shen Nong, a folk hero which was portrayed in Chinese literature as " working in the fields, along with everyone else, and consulting with everyone else when any decision had to be reached.

The main question of this school was whether Being came before Not-Being ( in Chinese, ming and wuming ).

Mahayana Buddhism was far more successful in China than its rival Hinayana, and both Indian schools and local Chinese sects arose from the 5th century.

The Chinese School of Agrarianism was a philosophy that advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism.

It was also widely used by the Chinese for its healing chemicals, curing illnesses such as infections, rashes, and migraines.

First catering to miners and railroad workers, they established eateries in towns where Chinese food was completely unknown.