156-467: Du Fu ( Chinese : 杜 甫 ; Wade–Giles : Tu Fu ; 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty . Together with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai , Du is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets . His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant , but Du proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like all of China,
312-469: A nucleus that has a vowel (which can be a monophthong , diphthong , or even a triphthong in certain varieties), preceded by an onset (a single consonant , or consonant + glide ; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone . There are some instances where a vowel is not used as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where
468-457: A subject–verb–object word order , and like many other languages of East Asia, makes frequent use of the topic–comment construction to form sentences. Chinese also has an extensive system of classifiers and measure words , another trait shared with neighboring languages such as Japanese and Korean. Other notable grammatical features common to all the spoken varieties of Chinese include the use of serial verb construction , pronoun dropping , and
624-510: A Chinese character is the morpheme, as characters represent the smallest grammatical units with individual meanings in the Chinese language. Estimates of the total number of Chinese words and lexicalized phrases vary greatly. The Hanyu Da Zidian , a compendium of Chinese characters, includes 54,678 head entries for characters, including oracle bone versions. The Zhonghua Zihai (1994) contains 85,568 head entries for character definitions and
780-599: A Shanghai resident may speak both Standard Chinese and Shanghainese ; if they grew up elsewhere, they are also likely fluent in the dialect of their home region. In addition to Standard Chinese, a majority of Taiwanese people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien (also called 台語 ; 'Taiwanese' ), Hakka , or an Austronesian language . A speaker in Taiwan may mix pronunciations and vocabulary from Standard Chinese and other languages of Taiwan in everyday speech. In part due to traditional cultural ties with Guangdong , Cantonese
936-462: A central variety (i.e. prestige variety, such as Standard Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity. The Chinese government's official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is 方言 ; fāngyán ; 'regional speech', whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called 地点方言 ; 地點方言 ; dìdiǎn fāngyán ; 'local speech'. Because of
1092-470: A comprehensive re-evaluation of earlier poets took place, in which Wang Wei , Li Bai and Du Fu came to be regarded as representing respectively the Buddhist , Daoist and Confucian strands of Chinese culture. At the same time, the development of Neo-Confucianism ensured that Du Fu, as its poetic exemplar, occupied the paramount position. Su Shi famously expressed this reasoning when he wrote that Du Fu
1248-615: A compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné language known as Guanhua , based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin. Standard Chinese is an official language of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore , and one of
1404-714: A corresponding increase in the number of homophones . As an example, the small Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary lists six words that are commonly pronounced as shí in Standard Chinese: In modern spoken Mandarin, however, tremendous ambiguity would result if all of these words could be used as-is. The 20th century Yuen Ren Chao poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den exploits this, consisting of 92 characters all pronounced shi . As such, most of these words have been replaced in speech, if not in writing, with less ambiguous disyllabic compounds. Only
1560-464: A grave inscription for the poet from Yuan Zhen in 813. Hung summarises his life by concluding that, "He appeared to be a filial son, an affectionate father, a generous brother, a faithful husband, a loyal friend, a dutiful official, and a patriotic subject." Below is an example of one of Du Fu's later works. Like many other poems in the Tang it featured the theme of a long parting between friends, which
1716-418: A largely itinerant life unsettled by wars, associated famines and imperial displeasure. This period of unhappiness was the making of Du Fu as a poet: Eva Shan Chou has written that, "What he saw around him—the lives of his family, neighbors, and strangers– what he heard, and what he hoped for or feared from the progress of various campaigns—these became the enduring themes of his poetry". Even when he learned of
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#17327723444161872-576: A millennium. The Four Commanderies of Han were established in northern Korea in the 1st century BCE but disintegrated in the following centuries. Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, and with it the study of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese. Later, strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, with Literary Chinese serving as
2028-401: A paragon of poetic or moral ideals. Du Fu is also poorly represented in contemporary anthologies of poetry. However, as Hung notes, he "is the only Chinese poet whose influence grew with time", and his works began to increase in popularity in the ninth century. Early positive comments came from Bai Juyi , who praised the moral sentiments of some of Du Fu's works (although he found these in only
2184-445: A period of political instability and economic hardship beginning in the late 19th century, Shandong has experienced rapid growth in recent decades. Home to over 100 million inhabitants, Shandong is the world's sixth-most populous subnational entity , and China's second-most populous province . The economy of Shandong is China's third-largest provincial economy with a GDP of CN¥8.3 trillion (US$ 1.3 trillion) in 2021, equivalent to
2340-485: A post as Commissioner of Education in Huazhou. The position was not to his taste: in one poem, he wrote: I am about to scream madly in the office, Especially when they bring more papers to pile higher on my desk. 束帶發狂欲大叫， 簿書何急來相仍。 —from "Early Autumn, Miserable Heat, Papers Piling Up" ( Chinese : 早秋苦熱堆案相仍 ; pinyin : Zǎoqiū kǔrè duī'àn xiāngréng ); translation by William Hung. He moved on in
2496-525: A rocky coastline with cliffs, bays, and islands; Laizhou Bay , the southernmost of the 3 bays of the Bohai Sea , is bordering the northern coast between Dongying and Penglai ; Jiaozhou Bay , which is much smaller, is surrounded by Qingdao . The Miaodao Islands extends northwards from the northernmost coast of the peninsula, separating the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea . With Jinan serving as
2652-480: A row Are very kind to their father's old friend. They ask me where I have been on my journey; And then, when we have talked awhile, They bring and show me wines and dishes, Spring chives cut in the night-rain And brown rice cooked freshly a special way. My host proclaims it a festival, He urges me to drink ten cups— But what ten cups could make me as drunk As I always am with your love in my heart? Tomorrow
2808-542: A secure reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the higher-level structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty . As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate
2964-508: A similar way to the use of Latin and Ancient Greek roots in European languages. Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin
3120-678: A single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a family . Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese , of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin with 66%, or around 800 million speakers, followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min ), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shanghainese ), and Yue (68 million, e.g. Cantonese ). These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible with
3276-577: A small fraction of the poems), and from Han Yu , who wrote a piece defending Du Fu and Li Bai on aesthetic grounds from attacks made against them. Both these writers showed the influence of Du Fu in their own poetic work. By the beginning of the 10th century, Wei Zhuang constructed the first replica of his thatched cottage in Sichuan. It was in the 11th century, during the Northern Song era that Du Fu's reputation reached its peak. In this period
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#17327723444163432-631: A unified standard. The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones dated to c. 1250 BCE , during the Late Shang . The next attested stage came from inscriptions on bronze artifacts dating to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), the Classic of Poetry and portions of the Book of Documents and I Ching . Scholars have attempted to reconstruct
3588-575: A variety of Yue from a small coastal area around Taishan, Guangdong . In parts of South China, the dialect of a major city may be only marginally intelligible to its neighbors. For example, Wuzhou and Taishan are located approximately 260 km (160 mi) and 190 km (120 mi) away from Guangzhou respectively, but the Yue variety spoken in Wuzhou is more similar to the Guangzhou dialect than
3744-643: Is 550 to 950 mm (22 to 37 in), the vast majority of which occurs during summer, due to monsoonal influences. Shandong is part of the Eastern Block of the North China craton . Beginning in the Mesozoic , Shandong has undergone a crustal thinning that is unusual for a craton and that has reduced the thickness of the crust from 200 km (120 mi) to as little as 80 km (50 mi). Shandong has hence experienced extensive volcanism in
3900-602: Is Taishanese. Wuzhou is located directly upstream from Guangzhou on the Pearl River , whereas Taishan is to Guangzhou's southwest, with the two cities separated by several river valleys. In parts of Fujian , the speech of some neighbouring counties or villages is mutually unintelligible. Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely based on the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials: Proportions of first-language speakers The classification of Li Rong , which
4056-610: Is a coastal province in East China . Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River . It has served as a pivotal cultural and religious center for Taoism , Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism . Shandong's Mount Tai is the most revered mountain of Taoism and a site with one of the longest histories of continuous religious worship in
4212-655: Is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China , as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora . Approximately 1.35 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language . Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of
4368-467: Is also close to Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal . At present, more than 40 foreign-invested enterprises have moved in, and 2000 projects have been approved. It is one of the special economic areas which enjoys the most favorable investment policies on customs, foreign exchange, foreign trade, and taxation in China. The State Council approved Qingdao High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in 1992. The zone
4524-490: Is called either 华语 ; 華語 ; Huáyǔ or 汉语 ; 漢語 ; Hànyǔ ). Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. The governments of both China and Taiwan intend for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore, it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools. Diglossia is common among Chinese speakers. For example,
4680-487: Is generally considered to be its leading exponent. His best lǜshi use the parallelisms required by the form to add expressive content rather than as mere technical restrictions. Hawkes comments that "it is amazing that Tu Fu is able to use so immensely stylized a form in so natural a manner". According to the Encyclopædia Britannica , Du Fu's writings are considered by many literary critics to be among
4836-489: Is located close to Qingdao Liuting Airport and Qingdao Harbor. Encouraged industries include electronic information, biotechnology, medicine, new materials, new energy, advanced equipment manufacturing, marine science & technology, national defense technology. Established in August 1995, Weifang Binhai Economic & Technological Development Area (BEDA) is a national economic and technological development area approved by
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4992-600: Is now modern Shandong: Qingzhou ( 青州 ) in the north and Yanzhou ( 兗州 ) in the south. During the Three Kingdoms period, Shandong was part of the northern kingdom of Cao Wei , which ruled over northern China. After the Three Kingdoms period, a brief period of unity under the Western Jin dynasty gave way to invasions by nomadic peoples from the north. Northern China, including Shandong, was overrun. Over
5148-603: Is often described as a 'monosyllabic' language. However, this is only partially correct. It is largely accurate when describing Old and Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, around 90% of words consist of a single character that corresponds one-to-one with a morpheme , the smallest unit of meaning in a language. In modern varieties, it usually remains the case that morphemes are monosyllabic—in contrast, English has many multi-syllable morphemes, both bound and free , such as 'seven', 'elephant', 'para-' and '-able'. Some of
5304-445: Is only about an eighth as many as English. All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words. A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a two-toned pitch accent system much like modern Japanese. A very common example used to illustrate
5460-413: Is particularly important. Another reason, identified by the Chinese historian William Hung , is that Chinese poems are typically concise, omitting context that might be relevant, but which an informed contemporary could be assumed to know. For modern Western readers, "The less accurately we know the time, the place and the circumstances in the background, the more liable we are to imagine it incorrectly, and
5616-506: Is poetry", Du wrote extensively on subjects such as domestic life, calligraphy, paintings, animals, and other poems. Du Fu's work is notable above all for its range. Chinese critics traditionally used the term 集大成 ( jídàchéng , "complete symphony"), a reference to Mencius ' description of Confucius . Yuan Zhen was the first to note the breadth of Du Fu's achievement, writing in 813 that his predecessor "united in his work traits which previous men had displayed only singly". He mastered all
5772-668: Is specifically meant. However, when one of the above words forms part of a compound, the disambiguating syllable is generally dropped and the resulting word is still disyllabic. For example, 石 ; shí alone, and not 石头 ; 石頭 ; shítou , appears in compounds as meaning 'stone' such as 石膏 ; shígāo ; 'plaster', 石灰 ; shíhuī ; 'lime', 石窟 ; shíkū ; 'grotto', 石英 ; 'quartz', and 石油 ; shíyóu ; 'petroleum'. Although many single-syllable morphemes ( 字 ; zì ) can stand alone as individual words, they more often than not form multi-syllable compounds known as 词 ; 詞 ; cí , which more closely resembles
5928-564: Is that of "poet sage" ( 詩聖 , shī shèng ), a counterpart to the philosophical sage, Confucius . One of the earliest surviving works, The Song of the Wagons (from around 750), gives voice to the sufferings of a conscript soldier in the imperial army and a clear-sighted consciousness of suffering. These concerns are continuously articulated in poems on the lives of both soldiers and civilians produced by Du Fu throughout his life. Although Du Fu's frequent references to his own difficulties can give
6084-608: Is the biggest industrial producer and one of the top manufacturing provinces in China. Shandong has also benefited from South Korean and Japanese investment and tourism, due to its geographical proximity to those countries. The richest part of the province is the Shandong Peninsula , where the city of Qingdao is home to three of the most well-known brand names of China: Tsingtao Beer , Haier and Hisense . Besides, Dongying 's oil fields and petroleum industries form an important component of Shandong's economy. Despite
6240-515: Is the first person in the historical record identified as a diabetic patient. In his later years, he suffered from diabetes and pulmonary tuberculosis , and died on board a ship on the Yangtze River , aged 58 years old. Criticism of Du Fu's works has focused on his strong sense of history, his moral engagement, and his technical excellence. Since the Song dynasty , critics have called Du Fu
6396-675: Is the highest organ of state power in Shandong province and Shandong's provincial legislature. Its standing committee exercises the majority of the power of The Shandong Provincial People's Congress. The current chairman of the standing committee is Li Ganjie . The Shandong Provincial People's Government is the State Administration in Shandong province. Its main officials are elected and appointed by The Shandong Provincial People's Congress. The provincial government reports to Shandong Provincial People's Congress and State Council of
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6552-503: Is the hilly Shandong Peninsula extending into the sea; Miaodao Archipaelago to the north of Shandong Peninsula is the border of Bohai Sea (west) and Yellow Sea (east). The highest peak of Shandong is Jade Emperor Peak , with a height of 1,545 metres (5,069 ft), which is also the highest peak in the Mount Tai Ranges. The Yellow River passes through Shandong's western areas, since 1855, it has always been entering
6708-489: Is the largest reference work based purely on character and its literary variants. The CC-CEDICT project (2010) contains 97,404 contemporary entries including idioms, technology terms, and names of political figures, businesses, and products. The 2009 version of the Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary (WDCD), based on CC-CEDICT, contains over 84,000 entries. The most comprehensive pure linguistic Chinese-language dictionary,
6864-501: Is used as an everyday language in Hong Kong and Macau . The designation of various Chinese branches remains controversial. Some linguists and most ordinary Chinese people consider all the spoken varieties as one single language, as speakers share a common national identity and a common written form. Others instead argue that it is inappropriate to refer to major branches of Chinese such as Mandarin, Wu, and so on as "dialects" because
7020-500: Is used in education, media, formal speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's growing influence. Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was incorporated into the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) in 111 BCE, marking the beginning of a period of Chinese control that ran almost continuously for
7176-552: Is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes three further groups: Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect on Hainan , Waxianghua spoken in western Hunan , and Shaozhou Tuhua spoken in northern Guangdong . Standard Chinese is the standard language of China (where it is called 普通话 ; pǔtōnghuà ) and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore (where it
7332-428: Is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect. Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics. The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of diglossia : as spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while
7488-494: Is ¥60.6 billion, which increased by 31%. There have been 48 projects invested by companies listed among the Global Fortune 500 in the zone. With the fast development of reform and opening-up, Haier , Hisense , Aucma, Sinopec , CSIC , CNOOC , CIMC etc. are all located in the zone. The State Council established Qingdao Free Trade Zone in 1992. The zone is 60 km (37 mi) away from Qingdao Liuting Airport. It
7644-753: The Qieyun rime dictionary (601 CE), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what sounds they represent. Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese , borrowed Chinese words in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and transcription evidence. The resulting system
7800-639: The Columbia University Press commented that Du Fu "has been called China's greatest poet, and some call him the greatest nonepic, nondramatic poet whose writings survive in any language." Du Fu's poetry has made a profound impact on Japanese literature , especially on the literature from the Muromachi period and on scholars and poets in the Edo period , including Matsuo Bashō , the very greatest of all haiku poets. Even in modern Japanese ,
7956-610: The Great Chinese Famine . In recent years, Shandong, especially eastern Shandong, has enjoyed significant economic development, becoming one of the People's Republic of China's richest provinces. Shandong is on the eastern edge of the North China Plain and in the lower reaches of the Yellow River , and extends out to sea as the Shandong Peninsula . Shandong borders the Bohai Sea to the north, Hebei to
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#17327723444168112-533: The Korean , Japanese and Vietnamese languages, and today comprise over half of their vocabularies. This massive influx led to changes in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of moraic structure in Japanese and the disruption of vowel harmony in Korean. Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts, in
8268-581: The May Fourth Movement beginning in 1919. After the fall of the Northern Song dynasty and subsequent reign of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called Old Mandarin ) developed based on the dialects of the North China Plain around the capital. The 1324 Zhongyuan Yinyun was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of new sanqu verse form in this language. Together with
8424-595: The National Language Unification Commission finally settled on the Beijing dialect in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it 普通话 ; 普通話 ; pǔtōnghuà ; 'common speech'. The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan. In Hong Kong and Macau , Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and
8580-565: The Nature Index ranked Jinan ranked 32nd and Qingdao 43rd in the top 50 cities in the world by scientific research output. Shandong's name literally means 'east of the mountains', from 'mountain' ( 山 ) and 'east' ( 东 ). The name refers to the province's location to the east of the Taihang Mountains . A common nickname for Shandong is Qilu ( 齐鲁 ; 齊魯 ), from the states of Qi and Lu that existed in
8736-455: The Tertiary . Some geological formations in Shandong are rich in fossils. For example, Zhucheng in southeastern Shandong has been the site of discovering many dinosaur fossils. In 2008, about 7,600 dinosaur bones from Tyrannosaurus , Ankylosaurus , and other genera were found, likely the largest collection ever discovered at one location. The Shandong Provincial People's Congress
8892-582: The circuits (a political division). Later on, China splintered into warlord factions, resulting in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Shandong was part of the Five Dynasties, all based in the north. The Song dynasty reunified China in the late tenth century. The classic novel Water Margin was based on folk tales of outlaw bands active in Shandong during the Song dynasty. In 1996,
9048-478: The oracle bone inscriptions created during the Shang dynasty c. 1250 BCE . The phonetic categories of Old Chinese can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During the Northern and Southern period , Middle Chinese went through several sound changes and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation. The Qieyun , a rime dictionary , recorded
9204-596: The phonology of Old Chinese by comparing later varieties of Chinese with the rhyming practice of the Classic of Poetry and the phonetic elements found in the majority of Chinese characters. Although many of the finer details remain unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial consonant clusters of some sort, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids. Most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at
9360-619: The root systems. Presently, there are more than 140 wineries in the region, mainly distributed in the Nanwang Grape Valley and the Yan-Peng Sightseeing Highway(both are in Yantai ). The region produced more than 40% of China's grape wine production. Main varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon , Cabernet Gernischt , Merlot , Riesling and Chardonnay are all at 20 years of age, considered to be
9516-588: The state of Lu based in Qufu . Lu is famous for being the home of Confucius ; however, it was comparatively small, eventually being annexed by the neighboring state of Chu to its south. Meanwhile, Qi was a significant power throughout the entire period, and ruled cities including Linzi , Jimo (near modern Qingdao ) and Ju . The Qin dynasty conquered Qi and founded the first centralized Chinese state in 221 BC. The Han dynasty that followed created several commanderies supervised by two regions ( 刺史部 ) in what
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#17327723444169672-561: The "Dogmeat General", as military governor of Shandong Province. Time dubbed him China's "basest warlord". He ruled over the province until 1928 when he was ousted in the wake of the Northern Expedition . He was succeeded by Han Fuju , who was loyal to the warlord Feng Yuxiang but later switched his allegiance to the Nanjing government headed by Chiang Kai-shek . Han Fuju also ousted the warlord Liu Zhennian , nicknamed
9828-777: The "King of Shandong East", who ruled eastern Shandong Province, hence unifying the province under his rule. In 1937 Japan began its invasion of China proper in the Second Sino-Japanese War , which would eventually become part of the Pacific theater of the Second World War. Han Fuju was made Deputy Commander in Chief of the 5th War Area and put in charge of defending the lower Yellow River valley. However, he abandoned his base in Jinan when Japanese troops crossed
9984-414: The "poet for history" ( 詩史 , shī shǐ ). The most directly historical of his poems are those commenting on military tactics or the successes and failures of the government, or the poems of advice which he wrote to the emperor. Indirectly, he wrote about the effect of the times in which he lived on himself, and on the ordinary people of China. As Watson notes, this is information "of a kind seldom found in
10140-628: The 12-volume Hanyu Da Cidian , records more than 23,000 head Chinese characters and gives over 370,000 definitions. The 1999 revised Cihai , a multi-volume encyclopedic dictionary reference work, gives 122,836 vocabulary entry definitions under 19,485 Chinese characters, including proper names, phrases, and common zoological, geographical, sociological, scientific, and technical terms. The 2016 edition of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian , an authoritative one-volume dictionary on modern standard Chinese language as used in mainland China, has 13,000 head characters and defines 70,000 words. Shandong Shandong
10296-547: The 19th century, China became increasingly exposed to Western influence; Shandong, a coastal province under the dukedom of Xiong, was significantly affected. Qingdao was leased to Germany in 1897 and Weihai to Britain in 1898. As a result of foreign pressure from the Russian Empire , which had annexed Outer Manchuria by 1860, the Qing encouraged settlement of Shandong people to what remained of Manchuria . Shandong
10452-487: The Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian landed at Laoshan , on the southern edge of the Shandong peninsula, and proceeded to Qingzhou to edit and translate the scriptures he had brought back from India . The Sui dynasty reestablished unity in 589, and the Tang dynasty (618–907) presided over the next golden age of China. For the earlier part of this period, Shandong was ruled as part of Henan Circuit , one of
10608-568: The Court and Ashikaga Shogunate and propagated Du Fu's poetry in the mundane world; one day Nijō Yoshimoto , the Kampaku regent of the Court and the highest authority of renga poetry, asked Gidō, "Should I learn the poetry of Du Fu and Li Bai?" Gidō dared to reply, "Yes if you do have enough capability. No if do not." Since then, there had been many seminars on Du Fu's poetry both in Zen temples and in
10764-471: The GDP of Mexico. If considered among sovereign states, Shandong would rank as the 15th-largest economy and the 15th-most populous as of 2021 . Its GDP per capita is around the national average. Shandong is one of China's leading provinces in education and research. It has 153 higher education institutions , ranking second in East China after Jiangsu and fourth among all Chinese first-level divisions after Jiangsu, Guangdong and Henan . As of 2023 ,
10920-419: The GDP of Mexico. Its GDP per capita is around the national average . Compared to a country, it would be the 15th-largest economy and the 15th most populous as of 2021. Shandong ranks first among the provinces in the production of a variety of products, including cotton , wheat , and garlic as well as precious metals such as gold and diamonds . It also has one of the biggest sapphire deposits in
11076-471: The Germans: over 200 million marks were invested in world-class harbor facilities including berths , heavy machinery, rail yards, and a floating dry dock. Private enterprises worked across the Shandong Province, opening mines, banks, factories, and rail lines. As a consequence of the First World War, Japan seized German holdings in Qingdao and Shandong. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles transferred ownership to Japan instead of restoring Chinese sovereignty over
11232-543: The Jinan High-tech Industrial Development Zone has attracted enterprises as LG, Panasonic, Volvo, and Sanyo. In 2000, it joined the world science and technology association and set up a China-Ukraine High-tech Cooperation Park. The Qilu Software Park became the sister park of Bangalore park of India. The export processing zone is located in the eastern suburbs of Jinan, east of the Jinan High-tech Industrial Development Zone, and to
11388-565: The Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet . English words of Chinese origin include tea from Hokkien 茶 ( tê ), dim sum from Cantonese 點心 ( dim2 sam1 ), and kumquat from Cantonese 金橘 ( gam1 gwat1 ). The sinologist Jerry Norman has estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum , in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though
11544-411: The People's Republic of China . The current Governor of Shandong is Zhou Naixiang . As of 1832, Shandong was exporting fruits, vegetables, wine, drugs, and deerskin, often heading to Guangzhou to exchange clothing and fabrics. The economy of Shandong is China's third largest provincial economy with a GDP of CNY ¥8.3 trillion in 2021 or USD $ 1.3 trillion in (nominal), which is equivalent to
11700-624: The Sea by Science and Technology, National Innovation Base for Rejuvenating Trade through Science and Technology and National Demonstration Eco-Industry Park. Weihai Economic and Technological Development Zone is a state-level development zone approved by the State Council on Oct 21, 1992. The administrative area has an area of 194 km (75 sq mi), including the programmed area of 36 km (14 sq mi) and an initial area of 11.88 km (4.59 sq mi). Its nearest port
11856-466: The State Council. Covering an area of 677 km (261 sq mi), BEDA has a population of 100,000. BEDA possesses a large state-owned industrial land for use with an area of 400 km (150 sq mi). The land can be transacted conveniently, guaranteeing the demand of any project construction and providing broad development space for the enterprises in the area. Continuously, BEDA has been accredited as National Demonstration Zone invigorating
12012-867: The United States' mediation during the Washington Naval Conference . Weihai followed in 1930. Shandong's return of control fell into the Warlord Era of the Republic of China. Shandong was handed over to the Zhili clique of warlords, but after the Second Zhili–Fengtian War of 1924, the northeast China-based Fengtian clique took over. In April 1925, the Fengtian clique installed the warlord Zhang Zongchang , nicknamed
12168-586: The Yellow River. He was executed for not following orders shortly thereafter. During the Japanese occupation, with resistance continuing in the countryside, Shandong was one of the provinces where the scorched-earth Three Alls policy ("kill all", "burn all", and "loot all") was implemented by Japanese general Yasuji Okamura . This lasted until Japan's surrender in 1945, killing millions of people in Shandong and Northern China. By 1945, communist Chinese Red Army forces already held some parts of Shandong. Over
12324-463: The area during the Spring and Autumn period . Whereas Qi was a major political power, Lu played only a minor political role but became renowned as the home of Confucius , and its cultural influence came to eclipse that of Qi. The cultural legacy of Lu is reflected in the province's official abbreviation of Lǔ ( 鲁 ; 魯 ). With its location on the eastern edge of the North China Plain , Shandong
12480-610: The area. Popular dissatisfaction with this outcome, referred to as the Shandong Problem , led to the vehement student protests in the May Fourth Movement . Among the reservations to the Treaty that the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved was "to give Shantung to China", the treaty with reservations was not approved. Finally, Shandong reverted to Chinese control in 1922 after
12636-519: The aristocratic society, and as a result his poetry was often cited in Japanese literature in the Muromachi period, e.g., Taiheiki , a historical epic in the late 14th century, and some noh plays such as Hyakuman , Bashō , and Shunkan . Chinese language Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; lit. ' Han language' or 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing')
12792-573: The city to escape a rebellion, but he returned in summer 764 when he was appointed an advisor to Yan, who was involved in campaigns against the Tibetan Empire . Luoyang, the region of his birthplace, was recovered by government forces in the winter of 762, and in the spring of 765 Du Fu and his family sailed down the Yangtze , apparently with the intention of making their way there. They travelled slowly, held up by his ill-health (by this time he
12948-418: The civil service exam. The relationship was somewhat one-sided, however. Du Fu was by some years the younger, while Li Bai was already a poetic star. We have twelve poems to or about Li Bai from the younger poet, but only one in the other direction. They met again only once, in 745. In 746, he moved to the capital in an attempt to resurrect his official career. He took the civil service exam a second time during
13104-562: The court of the new emperor ( Suzong ), but he was captured by the rebels and taken to Chang'an. In the autumn, his youngest son, Du Zongwu (Baby Bear), was born. Around this time Du Fu is thought to have contracted malaria. He escaped from Chang'an the following year, and was appointed Reminder when he rejoined the court in May 757. This post gave access to the emperor but was largely ceremonial. Du Fu's conscientiousness compelled him to try to make use of it: he caused trouble for himself by protesting
13260-438: The death of his youngest child, he turned to the suffering of others in his poetry instead of dwelling upon his own misfortunes. Du Fu wrote: Brooding on what I have lived through, if even I know such suffering, the common man must surely be rattled by the winds. In 756, Emperor Xuanzong was forced to flee the capital and abdicate. Du Fu, who had been away from the city, took his family to a place of safety and attempted to join
13416-399: The different spoken dialects varies, but in general, there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a thousand, including tonal variation, which
13572-484: The difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect, other terms have been proposed. These include topolect , lect , vernacular , regional , and variety . Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique characteristics. They are tightly related to the morphology and also to the characters of the writing system, and phonologically they are structured according to fixed rules. The structure of each syllable consists of
13728-525: The discovery of over two hundred buried Buddhist statues at Qingzhou was hailed as a major archaeological find. The statues included early examples of painted figures and are thought to have been buried due to Emperor Huizong 's repression of Buddhism (he favored Taoism ). The Song dynasty was forced to cede northern China to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in 1142. Shandong was administered by Jin as Shandong East Circuit and Shandong West Circuit –
13884-560: The early 730s, he travelled in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang area; his earliest surviving poem, describing a poetry contest, is thought to date from the end of this period, around 735. In that year, he took the Imperial examination , likely in Chang'an . He failed, to his surprise and that of centuries of later critics. Hung concludes that he probably failed because his prose style at the time
14040-576: The end of the syllable, developing into tone distinctions in Middle Chinese. Several derivational affixes have also been identified, but the language lacks inflection , and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and grammatical particles . Middle Chinese was the language used during Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui , Tang , and Song dynasties (6th–10th centuries CE). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by
14196-494: The establishment of the People's Republic of China , Du Fu's loyalty to the state and concern for the poor have been interpreted as embryonic nationalism and socialism, and he has been praised for his use of simple, " people's language ". Du Fu's popularity grew to such an extent that it is as hard to measure his influence as that of Shakespeare in England: it was hard for any Chinese poet not to be influenced by him. While there
14352-532: The first of a series of ailments which dogged him for the rest of his life. It was in that year that Du Fu was forced to move his family due to the turmoil of a famine brought about by massive floods in the region. In 755, he received an appointment as Registrar of the Right Commandant's office of the Crown Prince's Palace. Although this was a minor post, in normal times it would have been at least
14508-413: The first one, 十 , normally appears in monosyllabic form in spoken Mandarin; the rest are normally used in the polysyllabic forms of respectively. In each, the homophone was disambiguated by the addition of another morpheme, typically either a near-synonym or some sort of generic word (e.g. 'head', 'thing'), the purpose of which is to indicate which of the possible meanings of the other, homophonic syllable
14664-612: The first use of its current name. The modern province of Shandong was created by the Ming dynasty , where it had a more expansive territory, including the agricultural part of Liaoning . After the Ming–Qing Transition in 1644, Shandong acquired (more or less) its current borders. On 25 July 1668, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 and an epicenter just northeast of Linyi devastated Shandong, and killed between 43,000 and 50,000 people. During
14820-469: The following year, but all the candidates were failed by the prime minister (apparently in order to prevent the emergence of possible rivals). He never again attempted the examinations, instead petitioning the emperor directly in 751, 754 and probably again in 755. He married around 752, and by 757 the couple had had five children—three sons and two daughters—but one of the sons died in infancy in 755. From 754 he began to have lung problems (probably asthma ),
14976-491: The form of a word), to indicate a word's function within a sentence. In other words, Chinese has very few grammatical inflections —it possesses no tenses , no voices , no grammatical number , and only a few articles . They make heavy use of grammatical particles to indicate aspect and mood . In Mandarin, this involves the use of particles such as 了 ; le ; ' PFV ', 还 ; 還 ; hái ; 'still', and 已经 ; 已經 ; yǐjīng ; 'already'. Chinese has
15132-410: The forms of Chinese poetry : Chou says that in every form he "either made outstanding advances or contributed outstanding examples". Furthermore, his poems use a wide range of registers , from the direct and colloquial to the allusive and self-consciously literary. This variety is manifested even within individual works: Owen identifies the, "rapid stylistic and thematic shifts" in poems which enable
15288-754: The golden stage for these grapes. Most of them maintain an average saccharinity of above 20%. Major producers Founded in 1991, the Jinan High-tech Industrial Development zone was one of the first of its kind approved by the State Council . The zone is located to the east of the city and covers a total planning area of 83 km (32 sq mi) that is divided into a central area covering 33 km (13 sq mi), an export processing district of 10 km (3.9 sq mi), and an eastern extension area of 40 km (15 sq mi). Since its foundation,
15444-565: The government of the People's Republic of China, with Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and among Chinese-speaking communities overseas . Linguists classify all varieties of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family , together with Burmese , Tibetan and many other languages spoken in the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian Massif . Although
15600-622: The greatest of all time, and it states "his dense, compressed language makes use of all the connotative overtones of a phrase and of all the intonational potentials of the individual word, qualities that no translation can ever reveal." In his lifetime and immediately following his death, Du Fu was not greatly appreciated. In part this can be attributed to his stylistic and formal innovations, some of which are still "considered extremely daring and bizarre by Chinese critics." There are few contemporary references to him—only eleven poems from six writers—and these describe him in terms of affection, but not as
15756-550: The impression of an all-consuming solipsism , Hawkes argues that his "famous compassion in fact includes himself, viewed quite objectively and almost as an afterthought". He therefore "lends grandeur" to the wider picture by comparing it to "his own slightly comical triviality". Du Fu's compassion, for himself and for others, was part of his general broadening of the scope of poetry: he devoted many works to topics which had previously been considered unsuitable for poetic treatment. Zhang Jie wrote that for Du Fu, "everything in this world
15912-586: The language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam. Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary Chinese. Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud using what are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations . Chinese words with these pronunciations were also extensively imported into
16068-528: The late 19th century. Today Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called kanji , and kana. Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the supplementary Chinese characters called hanja is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses
16224-455: The more conservative modern varieties, usually found in the south, have largely monosyllabic words , especially with basic vocabulary. However, most nouns, adjectives, and verbs in modern Mandarin are disyllabic. A significant cause of this is phonetic erosion : sound changes over time have steadily reduced the number of possible syllables in the language's inventory. In modern Mandarin, there are only around 1,200 possible syllables, including
16380-429: The mountains will separate us; After tomorrow—who can say? 人生不相見， 動如參與商。 今夕復何夕， 共此燈燭光。 少壯能幾時， 鬢髮各已蒼。 訪舊半為鬼， 驚呼熱中腸。 焉知二十載， 重上君子堂。 昔別君未婚， 兒女忽成行。 怡然敬父執， 問我來何方。 問答乃未已， 兒女羅酒漿。 夜雨翦春韭， 新炊間黃粱。 主稱會面難， 一舉累十觴。 十觴亦不醉， 感子故意長。 明日隔山嶽， 世事兩茫茫。 —"To My Retired Friend Wei" ( Zēng Wèi Bā Chǔshì 贈衛八處士 ) Du Fu
16536-425: The mutual unintelligibility between them is too great. However, calling major Chinese branches "languages" would also be wrong under the same criterion, since a branch such as Wu, itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, and could not be properly called a single language. There are also viewpoints pointing out that linguists often ignore mutual intelligibility when varieties share intelligibility with
16692-583: The nasal sonorant consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable. In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ , and voiceless stops /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , or /ʔ/ . Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/ , /ŋ/ , and /ɻ/ . The number of sounds in
16848-640: The next century or so, Shandong changed hands several times, falling to the Later Zhao , then Former Yan , then Former Qin , then Later Yan , then Southern Yan , then the Liu Song dynasty , and finally the Northern Wei dynasty , the first of the Northern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. Shandong stayed with the Northern dynasties for the rest of this period. In 412 AD,
17004-451: The next five years. By the autumn of that year he was in financial trouble, and sent poems begging help to various acquaintances. He was relieved by Yan Wu, a friend and former colleague who was appointed governor general at Chengdu. Despite his financial problems, this was one of the happiest and most peaceful periods of his life. Many of Du's poems from this period are peaceful depictions of his life at Du Fu Thatched Cottage . In 762, he left
17160-526: The next four years living in the Luoyang area, fulfilling his duties in domestic affairs. In the autumn of 744, he met Li Bai (Li Po) for the first time, and the two poets formed a friendship. David Young describes this as "the most significant formative element in Du Fu's artistic development" because it gave him a living example of the reclusive poet-scholar life to which he was attracted after his failure in
17316-629: The next four years of the Chinese Civil War , they expanded their holdings, eventually driving the Kuomintang (government of the Republic of China ) out of Shandong to the island of Taiwan by June 1949, including a noble of the Xiong ( 熊 ) family who held the governorship, previously a dukedom during the imperial era, and an ancient viscountcy originating in Chu. The People's Republic of China
17472-635: The north of the Jiwang highway. The distances to the Jiqing Highway and the Jinan Airport are 9 and 18 km (5.6 and 11.2 mi) respectively. Approved by the State Council in October 1984, Qingdao Economic and Technical Development Zone has a plan of 12.5 km (4.8 sq mi). In 2004 the local GDP was ¥27.51 billion, which increased by 28.9%; the total industrial output value
17628-408: The northwest, Henan to the west, Jiangsu to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the northeast, east and southeast. It shares a short border with Anhui between Henan and Jiangsu. The northwestern, western, and southwestern parts of the province are all part of the vast North China Plain . The province's center is more mountainous, with Mount Tai being the most prominent. The east of the province
17784-444: The officially compiled histories of the era". Du Fu's political comments are based on emotion rather than calculation: his prescriptions have been paraphrased as, "Let us all be less selfish, let us all do what we are supposed to do". Since his views were impossible to disagree with, his forcefully expressed truisms enabled his installation as the central figure of Chinese poetic history. A second favourite epithet of Chinese critics
17940-538: The other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Southern Min). There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including New Xiang with Southwestern Mandarin , Xuanzhou Wu Chinese with Lower Yangtze Mandarin , Jin with Central Plains Mandarin and certain divergent dialects of Hakka with Gan . All varieties of Chinese are tonal at least to some degree, and are largely analytic . The earliest attested written Chinese consists of
18096-673: The poems from the late Kuizhou period have a "density and power of vision". Although he wrote in all poetic forms, Du Fu is best known for his lüshi , a type of poem with strict constraints on form and content, for example: Leaving the Audience by the quiet corridors, Stately and beautiful, we pass through the Palace gates, Turning in different directions: you go to the West With the Ministers of State. I, otherwise. On my side,
18252-434: The poet to represent different facets of a situation, while Chou uses the term "juxtaposition" as the major analytical tool in her work. Du Fu is noted for having written more on poetics and painting than any other writer of his time. He wrote eighteen poems on painting alone, more than any other Tang poet. Du Fu's seemingly negative commentary on the prized horse paintings of Han Gan ignited a controversy that has persisted to
18408-498: The present day. The tenor of his work changed as he developed his style and adapted to his surroundings (" chameleon -like" according to Watson): his earliest works are in a relatively derivative, courtly style, but he came into his own in the years of the rebellion. Owen comments on the "grim simplicity" of the Qinzhou poems, which mirrors the desert landscape; the works from his Chengdu period are "light, often finely observed"; while
18564-532: The primacy of Shandong's energy sector, the province has also been plagued with problems of inefficiency and ranks as the largest consumer of fossil fuels in all of China. The production of wine is the second largest industry in the Shandong Province, second only to agriculture. Geographically, the coastal areas remain relatively flat. Most of the soil is loose, well-ventilated, and rich in minerals and organic matter that enable full development of
18720-857: The province's economic and cultural center, the province's economic prowess has led to the development of modern coastal cities located at Qingdao , Weihai , and Yantai . Shandong has a temperate climate : humid continental (Köppen Dwa ); it is bordering humid subtropical (C wa under the Köppen climate classification ) in the south. Generally, summers are hot (typical max 35 °C) and rainy (except for eastern parts of Jiaodong Peninsula (typical max 28 °C) and Mount Tai (typical max 20 °C)), while winters are cold and dry. Average temperatures are −9 to 1 °C (16 to 34 °F) in January and 18 to 28 °C (64 to 82 °F) in July. Annual precipitation
18876-651: The range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil , Horace , Ovid , Shakespeare , Milton , Burns , Wordsworth , Béranger , Hugo or Baudelaire ". Traditional Chinese literary criticism emphasised the life of the author when interpreting a work, a practice which the American scholar Burton Watson attributed to "the close links that traditional Chinese thought posits between art and morality". Since many of Du Fu's poems feature morality and history, this practice
19032-404: The rate of change varies immensely. Generally, mountainous South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North China Plain . Until the late 20th century, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia and North America came from southeast coastal areas, where Min, Hakka, and Yue dialects were spoken. Specifically, most Chinese immigrants to North America until the mid-20th century spoke Taishanese ,
19188-510: The region: he supported Du Fu financially and employed him as his unofficial secretary. In March 768, he resumed his journey and got as far as Hunan province, where he died in Tanzhou (now Changsha ) in November or December 770, in his 58th year. He was survived by his wife and two sons, who remained in the area for some years at least. His last known descendant is a grandson who requested
19344-552: The related subject dropping . Although the grammars of the spoken varieties share many traits, they do possess differences. The entire Chinese character corpus since antiquity comprises well over 50,000 characters, of which only roughly 10,000 are in use and only about 3,000 are frequently used in Chinese media and newspapers. However, Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words. Because most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters, there are many more Chinese words than characters. A more accurate equivalent for
19500-509: The relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic . Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach and are often also sensitive border zones. Without
19656-509: The removal of his friend and patron Fang Guan on a petty charge. He was arrested but was pardoned in June. He was granted leave to visit his family in September, but he soon rejoined the court and on 8 December 757, he returned to Chang'an with the emperor following its recapture by government forces. However, his advice continued to be unappreciated, and in the summer of 758 he was demoted to
19812-400: The result will be that we either misunderstand the poem or fail to understand it altogether". Stephen Owen suggests a third factor particular to Du Fu, arguing that the variety of the poet's work required consideration of his whole life, rather than the "reductive" categorisations used for more limited poets. Most of what is known of Du Fu's life comes from his poems. His paternal grandfather
19968-564: The sea to Shandong's northern coast; in Shandong, it flows on a levee , higher than the surrounding land, and dividing western Shandong into the Hai He watershed in the north and the Huai River watershed in the south. The Grand Canal of China enters Shandong from the northwest and leaves on the southwest. Weishan Lake is the largest lake in the province. Shandong's coastline is 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) long. Shandong Peninsula has
20124-517: The six official languages of the United Nations . Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s. The language is written primarily using a logography of Chinese characters , largely shared by readers who may otherwise speak mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of simplified characters has been promoted by
20280-511: The slightly later Menggu Ziyun , this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects. Up to the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local variety. Thus, as a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties , known as 官话 ; 官話 ; Guānhuà ; 'language of officials'. For most of this period, this language
20436-518: The start of an official career. Even before he had begun work, however, the position was swept away by events. The An Lushan Rebellion began in December 755, and was not completely suppressed for almost eight years. It caused enormous disruption to Chinese society: the census of 754 recorded 52.9 million people, but ten years later, the census counted just 16.9 million, the remainder having been displaced or killed. During this time, Du Fu led
20592-535: The summer of 759; this has traditionally been ascribed to famine, but Hung believes that frustration is a more likely reason. He next spent around six weeks in Qinzhou (now Tianshui , Gansu province), where he wrote more than sixty poems. In December 759, he briefly stayed in Tonggu (modern Gansu). He departed on 24 December for Chengdu ( Sichuan province), where he was hosted by local Prefect and fellow poet Pei Di . Du subsequently based himself in Sichuan for most of
20748-410: The term Saint of Poetry ( 詩聖 , shisei ) is mostly synonymous with Du Fu. Until the 13th century, the Japanese preferred Bai Juyi above all poets and there were few references to Du Fu, although his influence can be seen in some kanshi ("Chinese poetry made by Japanese poets") anthologies such as Bunka Shūreishū in the 9th century. The first notable Japanese appreciator of Du Fu's poetry
20904-623: The tonal distinctions, compared with about 5,000 in Vietnamese (still a largely monosyllabic language), and over 8,000 in English. Most modern varieties tend to form new words through polysyllabic compounds . In some cases, monosyllabic words have become disyllabic formed from different characters without the use of compounding, as in 窟窿 ; kūlong from 孔 ; kǒng ; this is especially common in Jin varieties. This phonological collapse has led to
21060-547: The traditional Western notion of a word. A Chinese cí can consist of more than one character–morpheme, usually two, but there can be three or more. Examples of Chinese words of more than two syllables include 汉堡包 ; 漢堡包 ; hànbǎobāo ; 'hamburger', 守门员 ; 守門員 ; shǒuményuán ; 'goalkeeper', and 电子邮件 ; 電子郵件 ; diànzǐyóujiàn ; 'e-mail'. All varieties of modern Chinese are analytic languages : they depend on syntax (word order and sentence structure), rather than inflectional morphology (changes in
21216-512: The use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable ma . The tones are exemplified by the following five Chinese words: In contrast, Standard Cantonese has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a stop consonant were considered to be " checked tones " and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such: Chinese
21372-452: The willow-twigs are fragile, greening. You are struck by scarlet flowers over there. Our separate ways! You write so well, so kindly, To caution, in vain, a garrulous old man. 窈窕清禁闥， 罷朝歸不同。 君隨丞相後， 我往日華東。 冉冉柳枝碧， 娟娟花蕊紅。 故人得佳句， 獨贈白頭翁。 —"Memorial in Reply to a Friend's Advice" ( 奉答岑參補闕見贈) . About two-thirds of Du Fu's 1500 extant works are in this form, and he
21528-452: The words in newspapers, and 60% of the words in science magazines. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based on Chinese characters , but later replaced with the hangul alphabet for Korean and supplemented with kana syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex chữ Nôm script. However, these were limited to popular literature until
21684-628: The world. Other important crops include sorghum and maize . Shandong has extensive petroleum deposits as well, especially the Shengli Oil Field (lit. Victory Oilfield) in the Dongying area in the Yellow River delta. Shandong also produces bromine from underground wells and salt from seawater. It is the largest agricultural exporter in China. Shandong is one of China's richest provinces, and its economic development focuses on large enterprises with well-known brand names. Shandong
21840-407: The world. The Buddhist temples in the mountains south of the provincial capital of Jinan were once among the foremost Buddhist sites in China. The city of Qufu was the birthplace of Confucius , and later became the center of Confucianism. Shandong's location at the intersection of ancient and modern north–south and east–west trading routes has helped establish it as an economic center. After
21996-465: The written language used throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as Classical or Literary Chinese . Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during the Spring and Autumn period . Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th century, culminating with the widespread adoption of written vernacular Chinese with
22152-453: Was Du Shenyan , a noted politician and poet during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690–705). Du Fu was born in 712; the exact birthplace is unknown, except that it was near Luoyang , Henan province ( Gong county is a favourite candidate). In later life, he considered himself to belong to the capital city of Chang'an , ancestral hometown of the Du family. Du Fu's mother died shortly after he
22308-565: Was Kokan Shiren (1278–1346), a Rinzai Zen patriarch and one of the most prominent authors of the literature of the Five Mountains ; he highly praised Du Fu and made a commentary on some poems of Du Fu from the perspective of a Zen priest in Vol. 11 of Saihokushū . His student Chūgan Engetsu composed many kanshi which were clearly stated to be "influenced by Du Fu" in their prefaces. Chūgan's student Gidō Shūshin had close connection with
22464-464: Was "preeminent ... because ... through all his vicissitudes, he never for the space of a meal forgot his sovereign". His influence was helped by his ability to reconcile apparent opposites: political conservatives were attracted by his loyalty to the established order, while political radicals embraced his concern for the poor. Literary conservatives could look to his technical mastery, while literary radicals were inspired by his innovations. Since
22620-453: Was a koiné based on dialects spoken in the Nanjing area, though not identical to any single dialect. By the middle of the 19th century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the imperial court. In the 1930s, a standard national language ( 国语 ; 國語 ; Guóyǔ ), was adopted. After much dispute between proponents of northern and southern dialects and an abortive attempt at an artificial pronunciation,
22776-592: Was born, and he was partially raised by his aunt. He had an elder brother, who died young. He also had three half brothers and one half sister , to whom he frequently refers in his poems, although he never mentions his stepmother. The son of a minor scholar-official, his youth was spent on the standard education of a future civil servant: study and memorisation of the Confucian classics of philosophy , history and poetry. He later claimed to have produced creditable poems by his early teens, but these have been lost. In
22932-506: Was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest. Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture . Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while
23088-485: Was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed between countries. The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half
23244-485: Was home to a succession of Neolithic cultures for millennia, including the Houli ( c. 6500–5500 BC ), Beixin ( c. 5300–4100 BC ), Dawenkou ( c. 4100–2600 BC ), Longshan ( c. 3000–2000 BC ), and Yueshi cultures ( c. 1900–1500 BC ). The Shang and Zhou dynasties exerted varying degrees of control over western Shandong, while eastern Shandong
23400-572: Was inhabited by Dongyi peoples, who were considered barbarians by the inhabitants of the Central Plain . Following the annexation of Lai [ zh ] by the state of Qi in 567 BC, the Dongyi gradually became sinicized . During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods , power was accumulated by regional states; Shandong was home to the state of Qi based in Linzi , and
23556-478: Was never another Du Fu, individual poets followed in the traditions of specific aspects of his work: Bai Juyi 's concern for the poor, Lu You 's patriotism, and Mei Yaochen 's reflections on the quotidian are a few examples. More broadly, Du Fu's work in transforming the lǜshi from mere word play into "a vehicle for serious poetic utterance" set the stage for every subsequent writer in the genre. In its publishing of Burton Watson 's translation of Du Fu's poems,
23712-590: Was often due to officials being frequently transferred to the provinces: It is almost as hard for friends to meet As for the Orion and Scorpius . Tonight then is a rare event, Joining, in the candlelight, Two men who were young not long ago But now are turning grey at the temples. To find that half our friends are dead Shocks us, burns our hearts with grief. We little guessed it would be twenty years Before I could visit you again. When I went away, you were still unmarried; But now these boys and girls in
23868-468: Was one of the first places where the Boxer Rebellion broke out, and became one of the centers of the uprising. In 1899, Qing general Yuan Shikai was appointed governor of the province to suppress the uprising. He held the post for three years. Germany took control of the peninsula in 1898, leasing Jiaozhou Bay and its port of Qingdao under threat of force. Development was a high priority for
24024-480: Was proclaimed in October of that year. Under the new government, parts of western Shandong were initially given to the short-lived Pingyuan Province , but this did not last. Shandong also acquired the Xuzhou and Lianyungang areas from Jiangsu province, but this did not last either. For the most part, Shandong has kept the same borders that it has today. About six million people starved to death in Shandong during
24180-513: Was suffering from poor eyesight, deafness and general old age in addition to his previous ailments). They stayed in Kuizhou (in what is now Baidicheng , Chongqing) at the entrance to the Three Gorges for almost two years from late spring 766. This period was Du Fu's last great poetic flowering, and here he wrote 400 poems in his dense, late style. In autumn 766, Bo Maolin became governor of
24336-425: Was too dense and obscure, while Chou suggests his failure to cultivate connections in the capital may have been to blame. After this failure, he went back to travelling, this time around Shandong and Hebei . His father died around 740. Du Fu would have been allowed to enter the civil service because of his father's rank, but he is thought to have given up the privilege in favour of one of his half brothers. He spent
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