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74-723: Jiahu ( Chinese : 賈湖 ) was the site of a Neolithic settlement based in the central plain of ancient China, near the Yellow River . It is located between the floodplains of the Ni River to the north, and the Sha River to the south, 22 km (14 mi) north of modern Wuyang in Henan. Most archaeologists consider the site to be one of the earliest examples of the Peiligang culture . Settled c.  7000 BC ,

148-588: A retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to

222-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from

296-447: A communal workspace. These indicate a fairly advanced settlement for the early Neolithic period. To date, 45 residences have been excavated at Jiahu, with most measuring between four and ten meters. Most of these were partially dug into the earth and featured a single room, though some were later expanded to have multiple rooms. Garbage pits and storage cellars have also been excavated. Discovered by Zhu Zhi in 1962, extensive excavation of

370-484: A new village that has not been discovered, emigrated to the Peiligang villages, or scattered. Zhang Juzhong imagines that they were led by their tribal priest to build a new village nearby on higher ground, so that they could send salvage parties to the old village site. The new village site has never been found. The demolishing of older structures to salvage materials for the construction of new ones may have eradicated

444-704: A policy to end the method in the state. Some American civilizations, like the Maya, have used slash-and-burn cultivation since ancient times. American Indians in the United States also used fire in agriculture and hunting . In the Amazon, many peoples such as the Yanomami Indians also live off the slash and burn method due to the Amazon's poor soil quality . Slash-and-burn techniques were used in northeastern Sweden in agricultural systems. In Sweden,

518-468: A problem. Hole bone lesions from disease and parasitic infections were rare, although fecal evidence indicated the occasional presence of hookworm parasites, possibly from poorly cooked pork. The burials at Jiahu were usually accompanied by burial offerings, with increasing frequency as the second and third phases progressed. Burial objects range from pottery to tortoise shells . Burial offerings varied between individuals, and are believed to be linked to

592-508: A relationship due to the strongly representational style of each. Based on the archaeological evidence, a severe flood from the nearby rivers submerged most or all of the Jiahu settlement under a few feet of water sometime around 5700 BC. The inhabitants evacuated, but it is not known where they went. The absence of tools and weapons in most of the residences indicates that they were able to salvage most of their belongings. They may have built

666-414: A ring of bark completely around the trunk of coniferous trees like pine or spruce or felling them, allowing them to dry, setting fire to the dried forest and growing crops on the fertile ash-covered soil. The resulting ash was highly fertile, but only for a short period. The clearing was initially planted to rye as soon as the ash had fully settled and sufficiently cooled. When the rain came, it packed

740-500: A variety of stone implements, including arrowheads, barbed harpoons, spades, axes, awls, and chisels. Stone spearheads have also been found, and evidence of what may have been a wooden stockade fence along at least a portion of the interior shore of the moat. These improved weapons, and the moat surrounding the settlement, provided an ideal defense for such an early culture. The area is known to have been frequented by nomadic hunting and gathering tribes for several thousand years prior to

814-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;

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888-439: Is common in the Peiligang culture, rice cultivation at Jiahu is unique, and tends to support the theory that Jiahu was a separate culture from the Peiligang grouping. On the other hand, difference in local climate, moisture and soil conditions may have made cultivating rice in the Peiligang area more difficult. Jiahu rice cultivation is one of the earliest found, and the most northerly found at such an early stage in history. The rice

962-765: Is in present times. Clearings created by the fire were made for many reasons, such as to provide new growth for game animals and to promote certain kinds of edible plants. During the Neolithic Revolution , groups of hunter-gatherers domesticated various plants and animals, permitting them to settle down and practice agriculture, which provided more nutrition per hectare than hunting and gathering. Some groups could easily plant their crops in open fields along river valleys, but others had forests covering their land. Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn agriculture has been widely used to clear land to make it suitable for crops and livestock. Large groups wandering in

1036-446: Is most unsuitable for the production of cash crops . A huge amount of land, or a low density of people, is required for slash-and-burn. When slash-and-burn is practiced in the same area too often, because the human population density has increased to an unsustainable level, the forest will eventually be destroyed. Tribal groups in the northeastern Indian states of Tripura , Arunachal Pradesh , Meghalaya , Mizoram and Nagaland and

1110-427: Is very sustainable but the technique is not scalable for large human populations. A similar term is assarting , which is the clearing of forests, usually (but not always) for the purpose of agriculture. Assarting does not include burning. Historically, slash-and-burn cultivation has been practiced throughout much of the world. Fire was already used by hunter-gatherers before the invention of agriculture, and still

1184-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to

1258-481: The Bangladeshi districts of Rangamati , Khagrachari , Bandarban and Sylhet refer to slash-and-burn agriculture as podu , jhum or jhoom cultivation. The system involves clearing land, by fire or clear-felling, for economically important crops such as upland rice , vegetables or fruits. After a few cycles, the land's fertility declines and a new area is chosen. Jhum cultivation is most often practiced on

1332-500: The Kensiu language . Slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn is a type of shifting cultivation , an agricultural system in which farmers routinely move from one cultivable area to another. A rough estimate is that 250 million people worldwide use slash-and-burn. Slash-and-burn causes temporary deforestation . Ashes from the burnt trees help farmers by providing nutrients for the soil. In low density of human population this approach

1406-708: The Old Norse word sviða , which means "to burn". This practice originated in Russia in the region of Novgorod and was widespread in Finland and Eastern Sweden during the Medieval period. It spread to western Sweden in the 16th century when Finnish settlers were encouraged to migrate there by King Gustav Vasa to help clear the dense forests. Later, when the Finns were persecuted by the local Swedes, svedjebruk farming

1480-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝   'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for

1554-489: The University of Science and Technology of China , have carried out archaeological research around the site for decades. Zhang's team conducted excavation of portions of the site in seven stages; each stage took two to three years. A large portion of the Jiahu site was excavated in the first two phases of the project, between 1983 and 1987. Zhang and his assistants published the findings of the first two phases in detail in

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1628-417: The Amazon, are nutritionally extremely poor, slash-and-burn is one of the only types of agriculture which can be practiced in these areas. Slash-and-burn farmers typically plant a variety of crops, instead of a monoculture, and contribute to a higher biodiversity due to creating mosaic habitats. The general ecosystem is not harmed in traditional slash-and-burn, aside from a small temporary patch. This technique

1702-422: The Jiahu culture gathered wild pears and apricots , and foraged for acorns, chestnuts , broad beans, edible roots and tubers in the surrounding countryside. There is evidence of domesticated pigs, dogs, poultry, and small numbers of cattle. The Jiahu people used manure from their pigs and cattle as fertilizer, substantially increasing the yield of their rice crops. The livestock produced meat, milk and eggs. There

1776-432: The Jiahu settlement, and these may have been potential enemies, as well as the genetic forebears of Jiahu. The Jiahu people are not believed to have been warlike in nature, but capable of defending themselves if the need arose. Examination of the site has revealed no evidence of armed conflict. Unearthed human remains showing signs of violent death are very rare, and scattered along the known timeline—rather than occurring at

1850-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China

1924-524: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,

1998-422: The ash around the rye. The rye germinated and grew prolifically, with anywhere from 25 to 100 stalks (or straws), each with multiple grains. Only two tools were required, the axe and the sickle. The axe cut the trees to start the cycle. When the rye had ripened, it was harvested with a sickle , which could reach among the rocks and stumps where a scythe would have been ineffective. In the second and third year

2072-504: The bones and teeth were in significantly better condition. A stone sickle blade has been recovered. This was secured to a wooden handle to harvest grain. Evidence of baskets woven from wild grass has been uncovered. These were used to carry grain from the harvests. Remnants of a spinning loom have been found, indicating the production of cloth , probably from hemp fibers. Among the many tools and utensils unearthed at Jiahu are three-legged earthenware cooking pots with tight-fitting lids, and

2146-516: The border area, but did not do so because it was judged they were too poor to survive if evicted. This type of agriculture is discouraged by many developmental or environmentalist organisations, with the main alternatives being promoted are switching to more intensive , permanent farming methods, or promoting a shift from farming to working in different, higher-paying industries altogether. Other organisations promote helping farmers achieve higher productivity by introducing new techniques. Not allowing

2220-577: The cool, dry north and the warm, moist south. In another sign of advancement, Jiahu's farmers had moved on from the usual slash-and-burn techniques of Neolithic farmers, and were using intensive cultivation in permanent fields. Jiahu is also the site of the earliest find of wild soybean seeds in China; a large quantity of soybean remains were discovered at Jiahu. Food was plentiful, from farming as well as hunting and foraging, and contributed to considerable population growth for such an early settlement. Women of

2294-687: The course of the past 30 years illustrates that the Jiahu ethnic group was a part of the Northern Mongoloid group, and identified closely with the Miaodigou and Xiawanggang sub-groups which were also descendants of hunter-gatherers in modern Henan, and the Dawenkou , Xixiahou and Yedian sub-groups that were later found in Shandong Province. The inhabitants of Jiahu cultivated foxtail millet and rice . While millet cultivation

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2368-420: The field would be sown with turnips or cabbages . It then might be grazed for several years before being allowed to return to woodland. Svedjebruk required felling new forest and burning a new area every year. It was necessary to allow the former fields to regrow with forest for 10–30 years before repeating the cycle. As a result, the dwellings were often many kilometers from the fields. Furthermore, since

2442-566: The flute has a scale indicates that its original players played music rather than just single notes. The flutes were probably used in some kind of ceremonial capacity, but may have been played for entertainment. Jiahu yielded some of the oldest Chinese pottery yet found in Neolithic China. Patrick McGovern , of the University of Pennsylvania Museum , led a team of scientists who applied biomarker chemical analysis to pottery jars from Jiahu. They found signature molecules proving alcohol

2516-451: The former field. After a few decades, another family or clan may then use the land and claim usufructuary rights . In such a system there is typically no market in farmland, so land is not bought or sold on the open market and land rights are traditional. In slash-and-burn agriculture, forests are typically cut months before a dry season. The "slash" is permitted to dry and then burned in the following dry season. The resulting ash fertilizes

2590-437: The general health, and in many cases the cause of death. The three phases of Jiahu history correspond to steadily increasing numbers of middle-aged and older people, suggesting an increase in survival and life expectancy , and fewer remains of children and infants, suggesting a reduction in child and infant mortality . By the third phase, the average height of an adult had increased by two centimetres ( 3 ⁄ 4  in) and

2664-418: The health and longevity of the Jiahu people gradually improved. This has been documented through comparison of the archaeological evidence. Over 400 burials have been unearthed at Jiahu, and many hundreds more are believed to await excavation. Skeletons have been measured and carefully examined, revealing the height, weight, gender, and approximate age of each of the deceased Jiahu at the time of death, as well as

2738-406: The hybrid beverages, the researchers found. These aromatic additions, as well as the honey, indicate that fermented beverages with a pleasing aroma and sweet taste were important to the Jiahu people. Substantial quantities of rice and millet were stored in pottery jars, enabling the specialization of labor. Jiahu society is believed to have been fairly egalitarian, with several hundred residents of

2812-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from

2886-614: The journal Antiquity . Some archaeologists point to cultural distinctions between Jiahu and Peiligang, as well as the distance: Jiahu is isolated, many kilometers south of the larger Peiligang grouping of over 100 archaeological sites in a fairly compact area. The distance would have represented a journey on foot of several days in the Neolithic era. This school of thought suggests that Jiahu and Peiligang represented separate, neighboring cultures that interacted and shared many characteristics. Other early Neolithic settlements in this part of

2960-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as

3034-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In

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3108-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often

3182-452: The middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is

3256-467: The most significant burial offerings discovered were playable tonal flutes made from red-crowned crane wing bones. This crane is 1.5 metres (5 ft) tall with a wingspan of 2.4 m (8 ft), yielding large bones for this purpose. The first of the flutes were found in the late 1980s, but were not described in the West until 1999. In total, 33 flutes have been found at Jiahu—around 20 are intact, with

3330-478: The northwest. Cut marks made when the bones were fresh indicates the heads were cut off shortly after the person died. A few burial offerings included turquoise carvings, and represented a significant level of material wealth, suggesting some differences in social status. Burial offerings in women's graves were more sparse, indicating lower social status, and indicated that their roles were limited to childbearing and child care, cooking, and foraging for food. Some of

3404-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as

3478-400: The oldest playable musical instruments in the world, comprising 33 pieces carved from the wing bones of cranes. There is also evidence of alcohol production through the fermentation of rice, honey, and hawthorn leaves. Diverse artifacts are attested at the site, including residences, burial sites, pottery kilns, assorted stone and earthen implements, and a large central structure believed to be

3552-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as

3626-524: The pitch of the first. Innovations in the last phase include the use of heptatonic flutes. The flutes were cut, smoothed at the ends, polished and finally drilled with a row of holes on one side. One of the broken flutes was repaired by drilling fourteen tiny holes along the breakage lines and then tying the sections together with hemp string. The flutes play in the so-called pentatonic scale, in which octaves are divided into five notes—the basis of many kinds of music, including Chinese folk music. The fact that

3700-585: The practice is known as svedjebruk . Telkkämäki Nature Reserve in Kaavi , Finland, is an open-air museum where slash-and-burn agriculture is demonstrated. Farm visitors can see how people farmed when slash-and-burn was the norm in the Northern Savonian region of eastern Finland beginning in the 15th century. Areas of the reserve are burnt each year. Svedjebruk is a Swedish and Norwegian term for slash-and-burn agriculture derived from

3774-481: The process was man-power intensive, extended families tended to work together and live in compact communities. The svedjebruk farming approach required a large area. When forest was plentiful, the Finns were very prosperous. As population grew and restrictions were placed on the forest which could be burned, it became increasingly difficult. By 1710, during the conflict with Sweden, because of their suspect loyalties Norwegian authorities considered expelling them from

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3848-403: The residential areas, although many grave sites overlapped, so they were probably not marked. A few burials were multiple, while most burial pits contained single individuals. These did not follow any discernible pattern, although it is possible that in some cases, man–woman couples of roughly the same age were buried together. In some graves the heads were severed from the body and pointed toward

3922-454: The rest being broken, fragmentary, and unfinished. All are between 18 and 25 cm (7 and 10 in) in length. The oldest phase at Jiahu only contains two flutes, which are tetratonic and pentatonic ; the middle phase at Jiahu contains several flutes, including an interesting pair of hexatonic flutes. One of the flutes was broken, and the other flute seems to be a replica of the first flute, as it shows evidence of adjustments made to match

3996-404: The same time which would indicate a battle. It is possible that the large size of the settlement, its substantial defenses, and the improved weapons of the Jiahu people may have caused potential enemies of that time to keep their distance. Such a scenario is consistent with the substantial growth in population and longevity exhibited by the Jiahu site. Without war, and with plenty of nutritious food,

4070-488: The site did not occur until the 1980s. Most of the site still has not been excavated, although work is slowly progressing. The excavation of Jiahu burial sites and rubbish pits has been productive, yielding abundant evidence about the lives of the Jiahu people. Chinese researchers from the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, led for many years by Zhang Juzhong, a professor from

4144-528: The site of the new village if it existed. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until

4218-572: The site was later flooded and abandoned around 5700 BC. The settlement was surrounded by a moat and covered a relatively large area of 55,000 square metres (5.5 ha). At one time, it was "a complex, highly organized Chinese Neolithic society", with a population of between 250 and 800 people. The important discoveries of the Jiahu archaeological site include the Jiahu symbols , possibly an early example of proto-writing , carved into tortoise shells and bones. The Jiahu flutes are believed to be among

4292-492: The site, with nine carved into tortoise shells, and two carved into bone. These have been taken by some as possible evidence for the use of proto-writing . Correspondences between the Jiahu symbols and the characters attested much later in the oracle bone script of the Late Shang ( c.  1250  – c.  1050 BC ) have been noted; however, such correspondences are generally not considered strong evidence of

4366-424: The skills they displayed in life, providing evidence of an early specialization of labor. The types of labor specialization, from most common to most rare, included farmers, herdsmen, fishermen, hunters, potters, musicians, and a tribal priest. Most of the burials were earthen pits; infants were buried in earthenware jars. As is common with Neolithic communities, the burials were in cemeteries which were separate from

4440-436: The slashed vegetation to burn completely and ploughing the resultant charcoal into the soil ( slash-and-char ) has been proposed as way to boost yields. Promoters of a project from the early 2000s claimed that slash-and-burn cultivation could be reduced if farmers grew black pepper crops, turmeric, beans, corn, cacao, rambutan and citrus between Inga trees, which they termed ' Inga alley cropping '. A method of improving

4514-427: The slopes of thickly-forested hills. Cultivators cut the treetops to allow sunlight to reach the land, burning the trees and grasses for fresh soil. Although it is believed that this helps fertilize the land, it can leave it vulnerable to erosion . Holes are made for the seeds of crops such as sticky rice , maize, eggplant and cucumber. After considering jhum ' s effects, the government of Mizoram has introduced

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4588-440: The soil and the burned field is then planted at the beginning of the next rainy season with crops such as rice, maize, cassava, or other staples. This work was once done using simple tools such as machetes , axes , hoes and shovels . This system of agriculture provides millions of people with food and income. It has been ecologically sustainable for thousands of years. Because the leached soil in many tropical regions, such as

4662-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with

4736-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write

4810-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being

4884-417: The village at the height of its development. Comparative DNA evidence from remains in the Jiahu settlement itself, as well as other evidence gathered, leads to speculation among researchers that there were one or more other ancient villages nearby, with peaceful interaction with the Jiahu in some form; but the sites of other villages nearby have not been located. Eleven pictographic symbols were discovered at

4958-403: The village flourished. After a thorough study of 238 skeletal remains, Harvard University forensic archaeologist Barbara Li Smith published findings that the Jiahu villagers enjoyed fairly good health. The average age of death by the third phase was around 40, representing a very good life expectancy for Neolithic people. Sponge lesions on the skulls indicate that anemia and iron deficiency were

5032-479: The woodlands was once a common form of society in European prehistory . The extended family burned and cultivated their swidden plots, sowed one or more crops, and then proceeded on to the next plot. Slash-and-burn fields are typically used and owned by a family until the soil is exhausted. At this point the ownership rights are abandoned, the family clears a new field, and trees and shrubs are permitted to grow on

5106-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c.  200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c.  the 5th century . Although

5180-499: The world were much farther south and east. Archaeologists have divided Jiahu into three distinct phases. The earliest phase spans from 7000 to 6600 BC, the middle phase spans from 6600 to 6200 BC; and the latest phase spans from 6200 to 5700 BC. The last two phases correspond to the Peiligang culture , while the earliest phase is unique to Jiahu. Careful examination of the skeletons of over 400 individuals, removed from more than 300 graves, by several scientific teams over

5254-548: Was a kind of short-grained japonica rice. Scholars had previously thought the earliest domesticated rice belonged to the long-grain indica subspecies. There is abundant proof of millet farming in cool, dry high latitudes of the Yellow River Valley, and rice farming dominated in warm, moist low latitudes of the Yangtze River Valley. The early Neolithic site of Jiahu lies near the boundary between

5328-421: Was also evidence of deer , wild boar and rabbit hunting, and fishing in the nearby rivers to the north and south, with nets made of hemp fibers. The earliest evidence of Common carp aquaculture was also found at Jiahu. The red-crowned crane , a large bird indigenous to the region, was hunted for meat; its bones and feathers were also used for other purposes. Due to this steadily improving and varied diet,

5402-517: Was fermented from rice, honey, grapes, and hawthorn . Researchers hypothesize that this hybrid beverage (a beer, wine, and mead combination) was fermented by the process of mold saccharification , a uniquely Chinese contribution to the art of beverage-making in which several mold species are used to break down the carbohydrates of rice and other grains into simple, fermentable sugars. Specific aromatic herbs and flowers such as chrysanthemum , in addition to tree resins such as China fir , had been added to

5476-573: Was spread by refugees to eastern Norway , more specifically in the eastern part of Solør , in the area bordering Sweden known as Finnskogen ("the Finnish woods"). The practice also spread to New Sweden in North America. Reinforced by the use of fire in agriculture and hunting by American Indians , it became an important part of pioneering in America. Svedjebruk involved stripping

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