Maijishang Grottos

The Maijishan Grottos are situated in the Maiji Mountain, southeast of Tianshui County in Gansu Province. The mountain, which is shaped like a haystack, gets its name from the Chinese for haystack, mai Construction of the Maijishan Grottos went on from the Northern Wei till the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

But because of earthquakes and erosion by wind and water, about one-third of the grottos have crumbled in ruins. only 194 grottos with about 7800 clay and stone statues and some 1300 square meters of murals are preserved. Clay statues in the Maijishan Grottos include round carvings, deep reliefs, paste carvings, and wall carvings. The round carvings are very vivid and full of interest; they range from the 16-meter big Buddha to a small 10cm sculpture. The Buddha statues in the Maijishan Grottos are humanized, making viewers feel familiar with them.

The longmen grottoes

The Longmen Grottoes are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, they are located 12 kilometres south of present day Luòyáng in Hénán province. The images, many once painted, were carved into caves excavated from the limestone cliffs of the Xiangshan and Longmenshan mountains, running east and west. The Yi River flows northward between them and the area used to be called Yique ("The Gate of the Yi River").The alternative name of "Dragon's Gate Grottoes" derives from the resemblance of the two hills that check the flow of the Yi River to the typical "Chinese gate towers" that once marked the entrance to Luoyang from the south.

There are as many as 100,000 statues within the 1,400 caves, ranging from an 1 inch (25 mm) to 57 feet (17 m) in height. The area also contains nearly 2,500 stelae and inscriptions, whence the name “Forest of Ancient Stelae", as well as over sixty Buddhist pagodas. Situated in a scenic natural environment, the caves were dug from a 1 kilometre stretch of cliff running along both banks of the river. 30% date from the Northern Wei Dynasty and 60% from the Tang, caves from other periods accounting for less than 10% of the total. Starting with the Northern Wei Dynasty in 493 AD, patrons and donors included emperors, Wu Zetian of the Tang dynasty, members of the royal family, other rich families, generals, and religious groups.

In 2000 the site was inscribed upon the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity,” for its perfection of an art form, and for its encapsulation of the cultural sophistication of Tang China.

How do I encourage cooperative learning activities?

6~12 grade learners are not strangers to cooperative learning. In English, they do peer-editing, and in social studies they have group projects, etc. It can be argued that foreign language classes need interpersonal communication more than other subject areas. Cooperative learning activities are beneficial to language learning. However, a cooperative learning activity must include the following rules to guarantee its effectiveness.

1.      Work with a purpose:

The cooperative learning activity needs to have a purpose, such as performing some real-life tasks to make it meaningful.

2.      Provide clear instructions:

The activity needs to have a schedule, a time limit, a defined procedure, and step-by –step instructions.

3.      Work with individual roles and shared responsibilities:

The group has to be small.

Each learner must have an indispensable role in the group.

Each member of the group must be given a share of the work that contributes to group success.

  

4.      Work with pressure or competition:

There has to be a built-in mechanism to stimulate competition between groups as motivation for high quality performances.

Mulan木兰从军

Mulan

During the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534), there lived a young girl named Mulan. She was the daughter of a general. Although these were not skills girls normally learned, her father had taught her to use a sword and ride a horse. 

Life was very good in the village, until one day, warriors came. They posted scrolls with a list of names. Faced with the threat of war, each family in the village had to send one man to strengthen the army.  In Mulan’s family, the man chosen to go was her father. The warriors were there to take the men listed away to fight.

Mulan’s father was a retired general. He was too old to fight, but too honorable not to go. Mulan had no elder brother to send in his place. Her younger brother was a wonderful boy, brave and strong, but he was much too young to be selected. 

If only she were a boy, Mulan thought to herself, it would be simple. But girls did not fight in wars. why had she not been born a boy, Mulan thought angrily to herself. An idea grew in Mulan’s mind. Could she do it? She had to. Mulan knew her father would die if he went to war again. That day, she bought a horse.The next morning, Mulan stole her father’s armor and crept silently from home, disguised as a man. She reported for duty to the military leader. The leader had never met her father. Besides, he had his hands full, marching the men from all the villages to the camp.

Mulan fought for many years, some say as many as ten years. In all that time, no one knew she was not a man. When the war ended, Mulan was called before the emperor to receive a special award for her incredible courage. The emperor offered Mulan a job that would make her rich beyond her dreams. But Mulan wished to return home to her family. She asked for a good horse instead which was immediately granted.

Her family was so happy to see her. Her father was frail, but alive. Her brother had grown into a wonderful young man. Without regret, Mulan gave her warrior’s clothes to her little brother, and dressed in the clothes of a woman. She wrapped her hair in the style of the day. She added rouge to her cheeks. When she joined her family to watch the sun set, the warrior Mulan had transformed into a beautiful young woman.

Not long after, friends who had served with Mulan came to visit. Their eyes grew large when they saw the beautiful woman before them. 

"Who are you?" they demanded to know. They could hardly believe their eyes when Mulan answered. 

Her story spread across China, to inspire young girls everywhere. If you love enough and have courage enough, you can accomplish anything, no matter how impossible it might seem to others.

Mount Heng- one of the Five Sacred Mountains

Mount Heng (Chinese: 衡山; pinyin: Héng Shān), also known as Nan Yue (南岳; Nányuè), is located in Hunan Province, People's Republic of China .Mount Heng is one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism in China. It is southern Chinese religious culture center.

Heng Shan is a mountain range 150 kilometres (93 mi) long with 72 peaks and lies at 27.254798°N and 112.655743°E. The Huiyan Peak is the south end of the peaks, Yuelu Mountain in Changsha City is the north end, and the Zhurong Peak is the highest at 1,300.2 metres (4,266 ft) above sea level.

At the foot of the mountain stands the largest temple in southern China, the Grand Temple of Mount Heng (Nanyue Damiao), which is the largest group of ancient buildings in Hunan Province.

Notable sites in the area include the Zhusheng Si Temple, an 8th century Buddhist monastery and Zhurong Gong, a small stone temple.

one of the "Five Sacred Mountains"- Mount Hua

Mount Hua or Hua Shan in Chinese (simplified Chinese: 华山; traditional Chinese: 華山; pinyin: Huà Shān) is a mountain of historical and  chinese culture significance located in Shaanxi Province, about 120 kilometres east of the city of Xi'an, near the city Huayin in China. Also known as Xiyuè, Western Great Mountain, it is one of China's Five Sacred Taoist Mountains, and has a long history of religious significance. Originally classified as having three peaks, in modern times the mountain is classified as five main peaks, of which the highest is the South Peak at 2154.9m.

Huashan is located near the southeast corner of the Ordos Loop section of the Yellow River basin, south of the Wei River valley, at the eastern end of the Qin Mountains, in southern Shaanxi province. It is part of the Qin Ling Mountain Range that divides not only northern and southern Shaanxi, but also China.

Huashan has a variety of temples and other religious structures on its slopes and peaks. At the foot of the mountain is the Cloister of the Jade Spring (玉泉院), which is dedicated to Chen Tuan.

one of the "Five Sacred Mountains"- Mount Tai

Mount Tai (Chinese: 泰山; pinyin: Tài Shān) is a mountain of historical and  chinese culture significance located north of the city of Tai'an, in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the Jade Emperor Peak (simplified Chinese: 玉皇顶; pinyin: Yùhuáng Dǐng), which is commonly reported as 1,545 metres (5,069 ft) tall, but is described by the PRC government as 1,532.7 metres (5,029 ft).

Mount Tai is one of the "Five Sacred Mountains". It is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal, and is often regarded the foremost of the five. Mount Tai has been a place of worship for at least 3,000 years and served as one of the most important ceremonial centers of China during large portions of this period.

According to historical records, Mount Tai became a sacred place haunted by emperors to offer sacrifices and meditate in the Zhou Dynasty over 1,000 years before the Christian era. A total of 72 emperors were recorded as visiting it. Men of letters also came to acquire inspiration, to compose poems, write essays, paint and take pictures. Hence, a great many cultural relics were left on the mountain.