1. The mythology in China begins with the splitting in two of a cosmic egg and Pan-gu is the creator of the universe.2. The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan-gu inside itself before Pan-gu created the heavens and earth.3. Fearing that the sky and the earth would come together and form the chaotic darkness again, Pan-gu stood in the middle, his head touching the sky, his feet planted on the earth, until the world became permanently separate.4. As Pan-gu died, the parts of his body became the elements of nature.5. Nuwa, the half-dragon goddess, who formed figures out of clay, was revered as the mother of all humans.6. Nuwa was not just the creator of humans, but the great protector of people.7. Nuwa’s deeds benefited the heavens aotabvlee earth below since she mended the cracks in the sky and tamed the flood.1. According to Confucius, each person should act with virtue in all social matters to ensure order and unity, bring good to family, state and the whole world.2. Confucius ceremonies contained many rituals based on the Five Classics, especially the I Ching, or Book of Changes.3. Among all the Chinese thinkers, Zhuangzi is fond of using fables to explain his ideas. His writing style is beautifully unique, with vivid imagination and profound thoughts that are not clearly demonstrated in plain words.4. Travel in Boundless Freed one of the fables from which people may cultivate different meanings.5. The two most influential spiritual leaders native to China areLao-tzu and Confucius, whose ethics and moral teachings were written down by his students to become the Lun-yu, orAnalects.6. Confucianism deals with social matters, while Taoism concerns itself with the search for meaning of existence.7. According to Taoism, the entire universe and everything in it flows with a mysterious, unknowable force called the Tao.古代文化常识（三）1. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong in the Ming Dynasty, is a historical novel set during the turbulent years, starting in 169 A.D. and ending with the reunification of the land in 280 A.D.2. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is regarded as one of the “Four Great Classical” of Chinese literature.3. The novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is among the most beloved works of literature in East Asia, and its literary influence in the region has been compared to that of the works of Shakespeare had on English literature.4. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is characterized by the extreme complexity of its plot structure and hundreds of vividly-depicted characters in it.5. One great literary achievement of The Tang Dynasty is poetry, which contains a wide range of themes.6. Besides themes, the form of Tang poetry is also diversified. The verse is divided into two categories: four-lined and eight-lined, both of which can be further divided into five-character and seven-character ones.7. Tang poetry is not only one of the excellent literature heritages of China, but also regarded as a bright pearl of literature treasure of the world.古代文化常识(四)1. In the Shang Dynasty, formal schools emerged. Teachers then were all government officials and students were all children of the nobility, so that was the earliest “Guan Xue” (Government School/Education).2. Confucius had been regarded as the pioneer founder of family education and “Private Education”，often known as “Si Xue” (private institution). Most of the famous philosophers and scientists were originated from private schools.3. All the teaching materials and educational training were geared towards the preparation for Imperial examination.4. Apart from schooling, “Family education” began to play an important role. Many of the famous historical figure grew up under the education and strict “teaching” by their parents or other senior family members.5. It was well documented that Mencius’s mother had moved three times with her son before she eventually found a proper neighborhood for the son’s education.6. In ancient Chinese education, “Xue Shu Jiao Yu” (学塾教育) which belong to neither an institute education nor a family education, is generally “primary school for the folks”.7. In ancient Chinese education, whether they were government or private school, they all placed a great emphasis on humanities and cultural education, which focused on the teaching of morality and the development of wisdom.8. Confucius broke the rule of “Xue Zai Guan Fu” （学在官府） （learning at the government hall）, and encouraged “learning for all hierarchical levels and for all ages” （“有教无类” ）,opening the door of education to the commoners.9. Other than placing a strong emphasis on morality education, Chinese education also emphasized greatly on learning/teaching method and principles.10. Confucius,s main educational thoughts were to teach students according to their aptitude, to treat students equally and to inspire thinking.11. The French philosopher Voltaire was also influenced by Confucius, 。