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[kaiselin]

Featured art for front page done by Newxia

LETTER FROM THE CHIEF EDITOR

總編輯語

Kaiselin

千里之行始于足下
qiān li zhī xíng shi yú zú xià
A journey of a thousand li begins where your feet stand

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rat 鼠 ( or Mouse, as some would prefer, LOL ) to all here at the forum.
May the coming year be auspicious, full of health, wealth, and happiness.

I was recently approached by General Zhaoyun offering me the position as Chief Editor, in charge of a new branch of the China History Forum. He has created an Editorial forum, and its main function is to publish the CHF Newsletter. We will now be a bimonthly publication. This will hopefully allow members more time to write articles to submit and make it less hectic for both my wonderful staff and myself in finding time to devote to bringing you a superior newsletter.

It is my pleasure to be given a chance to breathe life back into the CHF newsletter. My goal is to make the newsletter informative and entertaining.

The old CHF newsletter has been inactive for a few months as my predecessors, Publius and Mok, found that they had too many other responsibilities preventing them to continue volunteering their time to the newsletter. They did a wonderful job with the old CHF newsletter and left a good framework of which to work. I would like to thank them both for the time and effort they put in to the CHF newsletter while it was their job. We wish them both well.

You will find most of the old columns as well as many new additions. One of the first changes I am sure you noticed is pictures, starting off with a new title banner designed to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Rat as well as the rebirth of the newsletter. The banner was kindly done by Newxia. I hope to see a lot more of her art. I would also like to encourage other artists to submit their art… But more on that later.

Let me first introduce myself and my staff. I am Kaiselin, I have only been on the forum for a year. I knew little about Chinese history when I joined, but I was impressed with the level of posts, the general feel of academia, and the overall friendliness of the members. I am just an old lady (but still very young at heart) with too much time on my hands and a strong desire for the acquisition of knowledge. I have a love for everything Chinese. In particular, I am interested in Chinese folklore and mythology, but I also have varying degrees of interest in most other aspects of Chinese culture and history. I am learning to read Chinese and enjoy the etymology of the characters. When this position was offered to me, I hesitated at first because I have no experience in running a newsletter. I like a good challenge, and this is so different from anything I have ever done, so I thought I might as well give it a try. I felt it was a way I could give back to the forum for all the pleasure and knowledge it has given me.

I have two editors. Moon has been with this Newsletter for quite a while, doing the culture column. She graciously agreed to assist me as my Editor… ( I had to twist her arm a tiny bit in the beginning, as this was a daunting task and neither one of us really knew what we were going to do.) But in the past month since we started, she has been quite a help in starting up the paper. Her good advice and readiness to tackle the problems we ran into must be remarked on. I would not have been able to do this without her ever friendly and willing assistance. All the while, she has been preparing for the new year celebrations and never complained. This is quite commendable. In future issues, Moon will be editor in charge of the Chinese Culture columns, but, for this rebirth of the CHF newsletter, she has helped with all facets. My sincere thanks go out to her.

After three hard weeks of work, our ideas started to blossom, but we still needed more help.

Fireball had already submitted two articles and had been helping me on the side, so she was a natural to ask to be my other editor. From the start, I had instantly thought of asking her to be on my staff, but she had just won the title of Grand Historian Award, and it seemed a shame to make her give it up even before she had a chance to enjoy it. My heartfelt thanks to fireball for being so willing to give up displaying her well deserved honor of the GHA title and replace it with a title of Editor, that requires work to keep. Fireball jumped right in and has really been wonderful, filling in the areas Moon and I did not have the time or expertise to deal with.

At this time we have three columnists:
William O'Chee wrote on the contributions of Chinese Australians who fought in the Australian army in WWI.
Rong Qin Wang and Anita Mui are working on an article each for our next issue which will be coming out in April.

I am very pleased with the staff I have, and as the newsletter grows, I plan on adding more columnists.

There were many applications from many of our new members who answered my want ad. I think this is a wonderful way to get to know the new members. From those who contacted me, you will see some of their contributions in the newsletter.

I want to thank each and every person who has helped me get this newsletter off the ground. Not just the people who sent in the articles but also many friends who offered congratulations, advice, shoulders to cry on, and in one case, condolences. I am attempting to dissolve difficulty as that friend sagely advised.

Since this has been an exciting, but also daunting task to set up within such a short time to be published by the Chinese New Year, you will find some of the columns still under construction. By the April edition, they will hopefully be ready to have articles to move in. I put titles to the empty columns so that hopefully members will be inspired to submit articles to fill the empty spots. If I missed a topic that interests you, please let me know.

THE CHF HAN LIN ACADEMY

On September 9, 2007 General Zhaoyun created the Han Lin Academy of the CHF. Its members are considered to be Scholar Elite in the CHF. The Han Lin Scholars are responsible for setting the CHF Imperial Exam. This exam will require a much higher level of knowledge then the entry level exam. GZ picked the finest minds from our membership to become the Han Lin Scholars. The criteria for becoming a Han Lin Scholar is to have a degree in a field of Chinese history, literature, or other fields relating to China or to be an autodidact with significant enough knowledge to be considered an expert.

CHF Han Lin Academy and Exam Administration Staff:
http://www.chinahist...showtopic=14697

The Hàn Lín Yuàn, aka Han Lin Academy, 翰林院:
http://www.chinahist...showtopic=11280

Earlier, I said daunting task when referring to my new position because, as well as reviving the CHF Newsletter, I have also been given the great honor of starting the Han Lin Scholar Journal. This will be published semi-annually. Featuring the articles written by the Han Lin Scholars. In the beginning we will publish this as a special edition attached to the CHF Newsletter. This will allow us to build a strong foundation and have everything in place for the eventual separation into its own Scholastic Journal or Quarterly.

The Han Lin Scholars include 5 staff members and 11 non-staff members. They are as follow:

Staff Members:

General Zhaoyun -- Specialisation/Expertise: Chinese culture, Chinese language and literature, Confucianism, Buddhism, Chinese strategy.
Yun -- Specialisation/Expertise: Ancient Chinese history, Chinese military history, Age of Fragmentation, 3 Kingdoms, Chinese ethnicities, religion, philosophy and material culture.
Fcharton -- Specialisation/Expertise: Pre-Qin era, classical Chinese.
Bao Pu -- Specialisation/Expertise: Pre-Han philosophy, religion, language and history, especially early Daoism.
Non_han Nan Ban -- Specialisation/Expertise: History of Chinese science and technology.

Non-Staff Han Lin Scholars:

Snowybeagle -- Specialisation/Expertise: ""Jack of all trades, generalist personified".
Master Ghost Valley -- Specialisation/Expertise: Persuasion, disputation, and rhetorical practice of Kuei Ku Tzu (鬼谷子 Guiguzi -- Master Ghost Valley) & Han Fei Tzu (韓非子).
Kenneth -- Specialisation/Expertise: Ancient weapons. Artifact studies.
Thomas Chen -- Specialisation/Expertise: Chinese swords, ancient Chinese military, Chinese Art of War.
Liang Jieming -- Specialisation/Expertise: Ancient siege weaponry.
Lin Duanwen -- Specialisation/Expertise: Chinese folks and religious culture, Fengshui.
LYY -- Specialisation/Expertise: I-Ching (Yijing 易经).
Qrasy -- Specialisation/Expertise: Chinese linguistics.
Wang Yun -- Specialisation/Expertise: No Information.
Warhead -- Specialisation/Expertise: Chinese history, Chinese military history, Qing dynasty history.
Xng -- Specialisation/Expertise: Chinese linguistics, Buddhism.

This month has been a flurry of conversations about "Understanding the 'Knowledge-based Economy'" of CHF, "How much 'knowledge-income'", as well as discussions on what direction the forum is going towards. There have been many discussions comparing the forum to a university. If the entry level exam is letting us in at a high school or undergraduate level, then Han Lin Scholars are the Grad students and the masters.

CHF CORE VALUES

We are also having discussions about how we rectify the problems of immature and irrelevant and irresponsible posting while still keeping a friendly and welcome environment for all levels of members. In January, General Zhaoyun made an announcement of a set of core values that are to form the basis of all our posts.

These core values are "Friendliness", "Politeness", and "Humbleness".

I want to remind all the members to try and remember these three simple virtues when posting on the forum. Even in the most heated of situations, it should be possible to display these excellent qualities. Even if we are not scholars ourselves, we are amongst them. When visitors come to the forum, we want them to take away an impression of having been in a place of learned and wise masters rather than a bunch of wiseacres. ( A person regarded as being disagreeably egotistical and self-assured. )

http://www.chinahist...p...ic=20597 =

ASIAN ANTHROPOLOGY FORUM

General Zhaoyun opened a new Asian Anthropology forum on Jan 19 2008. As being an Anthropologist was one of the things I dreamed of doing when I grew up, I am excited by the addition of this new forum. Please take the time to check it out.

http://www.chinahist...hp?showforum=94

GRAND HISTORIAN AWARD

As well as fireball being the winner of the Grand Historian Award in January, we have another new winner to announce. Since the newsletter was not published in November, I want to wish Boleslaw I a belated congratulations for becoming a Grand Historian. The honor is well deserved. You both wear the title well.

ART CONTEST

One last item I want to announce. As an artist myself, I want to encourage artwork here on CHF.

While there is a forum dedicated to members' art, the CHF Newsletter is the perfect place to highlight artists. I would like to announce an Art contest. We need banners for the front page and for the 7 other main sections of the newsletter. We also need a banner for the Han Lin Journal. Please submit your art work to me by posting it on my PM. We will be taking all entries until March 21st. We will then post them in the April issue with a poll. The artist with the most votes will win a featured section in the June issue, as well as win the CHF Artist award.
-The style should be a Chinese theme.
-The medium is whatever you want to use, as long as the picture can be posted.
-The banners to stretch across the full width of the page, and not be less than 2 inches in height, and not more than 3 or 4 inches.
- Be sure to leave an area for lettering to be added.
- Any Chinese characters used should be traditional.
- Lettering may be any font or style you wish and should be no smaller than what our lettering is shown in this issue.

Sorry this has to be such a long opening. There was a lot of major news to give you. I hope you enjoy the newsletter and the Han Lin Journal.

You will note that we have set up the newsletter more like a regular thread and posted each section as a new post. I am anxiously awaiting everyone's reaction and encourage you to feel free to add your ideas and complaints after you have read the newsletter at the Dragons Gate Inn :

Mail box for Letters to the Editor, Please post comments, ideas and complaints
http://www.chinahist...p...c=21509&hl=


I would like to once again thank General Zhaoyun for giving me a chance to repay the forum for all the hours of enjoyment I have received from being a member this past year.

I close as I opened, wishing you all a Happy New Year,

Kaiselin
Chief Editor
CHF Newsletter
CHF Han Lin Journal

OTHER NEWS FROM AROUND THE FORUM

Compiled by fireball and Moon

September, 2007:

1. On 4 Sept., 2007, the organization of forums in CHF was modified in order to make it leaner, easier to navigate. It is also to prevent CHF from looking too big on the outside, which will make many members lost. The modifications are as followed:

(1) Name of "CHF Community Center" changed to "CHF Community Heaven" and moved to "Imperial Capital".

(2) Chinese Entertainment Culture" and "Chinese Food and Beverages" become subforums and moved to "General Chinese Culture".

2. On 16 Sept., 2007, Fcharton has decided to resign from staff duties because he was very busy with his work/career and family duties and is finding less time for CHF.

3. On 18 Sept., 2007, Wang Enlai has been re-instated as the Super Moderator. He once resigned due to personal reasons, but now he has decided to come back to help CHF.

4. On 19 Sept., 2007, this is to inform you that Shaolin has joined the staff moderator team. He will be the moderator for Dragon Gate Inn and the subforum within.

October, 2007:

1. On 16 Oct., 2007, we are pleased to inform you that Yarovit has joined the CHF staff team and will be the moderator for our world history forum.

2. On 20 Oct., 2007, we are pleased to announce that bayonet has been promoted to Super Moderator due to his maturity, helpfulness, and diligence.

December, 2007:

1. On 4th Dec., 2007, General Zhaoyun reconfigured the top and bottom layout (used for putting the google adsense banner). The google adsense now blends in with the colour of the site. Also, he has added a New "Visitor location" (Clustrmap) at the bottom of the forum. If you're interested in knowing where our visitors come from, you can simply click the visitor location. As you may see, CHF has an average of 3,500 visitors for 3rd December. Our visitors spanned across the world, with majority coming from US, Asia and Europe. There is also a counter of total visitors since June of 2004 at the bottom of every page right above the clustrmap along with the image shack toolbar for everyones convenience.

2. On 17 Dec., 2007, General Zhaoyun have added Nciku search box to the bottom of CHF. nciku is a free Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionary. You can input either English words or Chinese characters/pinyin into the search box and it will output the translation. It's a good tool for you to use if you encounter any Chinese words or English words that you do not know. Note: nciku stands for "network - vocabulary database" (N = Network, Ciku = 词库 or Vocab database）.

3. On 20th Dec., 2007, Chris Weimer Joined the staff team as the Moderator (together with yarovit) of the World History & Culture subforum.

January, 2008:

1. Editorial Team

On 2nd Jan., 2008, the CHF Editorial board is now made an official part of CHF staff and will be in charge of writing for CHF instead of moderating the entire forum. There are 3 post ranks associated with volunteers in the Editorial board:

Chief Editor - Kaiselin
Editor - Moon
Editor -fireball
Columnists - Rong Qin Qang, William O'Chee, Anita Mui


In addition, 3 novice scholars were promoted to Xiucai Scholars due to their active contribution to CHF, and they are:

Memeo
Yongwoni_God
JB_Xyooj

Edited by kaiselin, 21 March 2008 - 07:21 AM.

[kaiselin]

SOCIETY PAGE

花邊新聞

page 1

HIGHLIGHTED MEMBERS AND EVENTS

Our society reporter is on assignment hobnobbing with the jet set in exotic (summery) places.
His communiqué was sadly not received in time for this issue, ( perhaps a bit to much bubbly eh?)
I did however receive promise that he will have the report in the April edition and that it will be well worth the wait.

WELCOME NEW XIUCAI MEMBERS

歡迎新秀才成員

Writen by fireball

In the time of imperial China and a few years after its fall, when people passed the Imperial Exam at the level of Xiucai (秀才) or higher, certain governmental process and societal customs had to be performed and followed in order to honor these new imperial elites.

The regional test centers (for Xiucai 秀才 and Juren 舉人) and the central government test center (for Jinshi 進士) would post the names of those who had passed on an official announcement board for people to check the names. The candidates would go there to check for their own names or send their servants if they were impatient for the government clerks to notify them at their registered local residences (homes or hotels). Many other commoners would also gather around to see who passed and who failed since such events were generally the most important events in peace time China. This would be the few very rare times that one could find the normally dignified Chinese scholars to be wildly excited and happy or totally distraught and sad. There were a few cases where people went mad right after finding out their test results, and they could either be passed or failed. Some of the candidates would attempt to show their superior control of their own emotions and wait at the places where they lived. Such dignities would soon be disturbed when the government clerks showed up to announce their successful passing of the test or, even worse, when the government clerks showed up for everyone else but them – It would mean that they failed the test!!!

It was customary to give nice red envelopes (tips) to the announcing clerks and to treat friends with nice celebrating banquets or parties. For some of the poorer new elites at the Juren’s or Jinshi’s level and sometimes Xiucai’s, there would be plenty of people who would be quite willing to provide money to pay for their banquets or parties in order to make connections with these new imperial elites.

The names of the passing candidates were also passed through the government agencies to the persons' home regions. The local government officials (like mayors or county magistrates 縣官) would send out their clerk(s) (差役) to the persons' home villages to announce this great news because these people brought honors not only to themselves, to their families, to their ancestors, as well as to their home regions in general.

When the clerks wearing red sashes around their waists got to the outer skirt of the person’s home village, they would start banging on the gongs they carried to attract everyone’s attention. Then, they would walk to the person’s home while being followed by a long line of villagers. At the door, the person’s family would have already heard the news and come out at the front door all prepared to receive such honor. At the door, one of the clerks would loudly announce to the head of the family as well as to all the neighbors and villagers, “Congratulations to your honorable family! Your eldest (or whichever number) young master has passed the Imperial Exam at the level of xxxx with the xxxth highest score!"

The clerk(s) would have the official announcement from the government with the nice big red letters written on the envelope. The head clerk, then, formally presented the formal announcement to the candidate’s head of the family. The head of the family (usually the father) of the candidate would give the clerk(s) a nice big red envelope and treat the clerk(s) as well as all the relatives and neighbors with at least one celebration banquet – most likely, banquets for 3 days!!! People would start calling the father (or grandfather) of the new imperial elite, old master (老太爺) in honor of his having such a worthy son (or grandson).

When my father passed the Central Government’s Bar Exam in the mid 1930’s, he was treated with the full honor like a Jinshi 進士. Actually, his status would be like a Jinshi because he would have an official government position after his passing of the Bar Exam. My grandfather was very happy and had treated our whole village and all the relatives for 3 days of banquets like streams (流水席 – meaning that people just needed to come in and to sit down at one of the many tables set up at our family or the village's courtyard and the food would be served at any time of those 3 days. The guests didn't even need to be acquaintances of the family at all!) This was a way for my family to thank the Heaven and the Earth and, especially, our fellow human beings (天地人) for being in such a good balance and harmony that a son of the family had become a government official!

With such spirit and the glorious tradition of more than 1300 years of the Imperial Exam, we would like to welcome our new Xiucai members.

This painting has a rich and dense composition. The family members filled up the big house and in its spacious courtyard are burning firecrackers, lion or dragon-dancing, riding and shooting on horses. These scenes create an ardent and joyful atmosphere. On the bridge in the courtyard there is a person waiting to receive a decree from the Emperor, while outside the gate there is a procession bearing the plaques of learning achievement with the accompaniment of gongs and drums, indicating that someone in the family has passed an imperial examination.
http://www.khookongs...ur_murals2.html

Compiled by fireball

With special thanks to Mok for all her help!

There were 100 people who had passed the Xiucai exams from August 5th, 2007 to January 23rd, 2008. We wish to congratulate them for their accomplishment, and they are (in alphabetical order):

大泽升龙, 8 Banners Bootboy, akira_touya, aredhel_mel, aristonicus, asiaticus, babydog322, bbing168, Buddhababy, cauchy, Cedric, chen06, chipchip,
cleomene, dagvadorj, danny wu, Danny.T, daodaodao, darlliu, Douglas Lam, dunhuang, Dusto, dutchman, EricT, Evangeline, Feng Xiaomin, FengHuang,
fireball, GladiatorSwim08, Guangtou Xiansheng, guolan, gurubesar, gwgradman, hadaward, herman_deng, historyfreak, hiterliu, hiterliu1, Iovah, jdiddyesquire, jebusrocks, jhuang, johnmarron, jullian_bei, Jurchen_Fuca, KevinX94, korman 643, Kscnoko, kuduzam, kyeider, laska, liberalwan, lichen1989, light, Liu, LongMa, Lu Su, magna1993, magna93, MichaelCHang, Miguel Garcia, MingHua, Mongol zaluu, ndt7485, Panurge, pizzaman, pm01, polar_zen, Qestio, quange86, redstick426, Ron Qin Wang, ryukyurhymer, Sanbao, Shao Ping, Shuyadragon, Silu, sinkpoint, sojung, sparhawk, sunliu, sunwukon, SunZi, sylvester, taiji in motion, Tang Wei Chong, tealeaf, Tianshan Zi, tujue, tung2sai, well, werple, wf.tong, xiangr, Xiao Xian Nu, Yap Giok Nio, yuchen_116, yvonnesnow, Zhenyuan, ZhouTai50.

Since we got this list from the Xiucai Exam site (with tremendous help from Mok), the names might not be exactly matching the names on the CHF forum -- We apologize for that. In addition, we might have missed some names in the rush, sorry about that. If you have been promoted to Xiucai during the above period and we missed your name in this announcement, please let our Editorial Team know and we will add your name in our next issue of the Newsletter. Thanks!

Edited by kaiselin, 21 March 2008 - 07:32 AM.

[kaiselin]

SOCIETY PAGE

花邊新聞

page 2

FEATURED NEW MEMBERS

Introducing sylvester

I am a Chinese living in Hong Kong, and I got interested in Chinese culture just 3~4 years ago.

I am now working in middle school as a teaching assistant, for subject of Chinese language, Chinese history and liberal studies. I am also taking classes at night at Open University of Hong Kong to get a BA in Chinese humanities. I should graduate in 2010.

I’ve had two other jobs before I got into school. One as a project assistant in a Chinese cultural center. The other was as a heritage guide for the Radio Television of Hong Kong (RTHK). Here are two film clips I was in.
Film for 龍躍頭 heritage trail and Film for 天后廟
Who knows it may prove that I may be good enough to work in that field.
Sadly, I speak Cantonese in those videos, so it may be not understandable to you.

Years ago when I were still in school, I got a project that have to find evidence in Chinese classic, that proves Chinese is environmentally friendly, it started my interest Chinese culture. A few years after I left school, I came across a calligraphy professor, who introduced me to Chinese etymology world. That's how I get interested in Chinese culture.

Besides calligraphy and etymology, I am also interested in most aspects of Chinese culture, especially Chinese wooden buildings and Chinese literature.
I am also interested in western classical music, astronomy, geography and philosophy. For Chinese philosophy, 孔子Kong Zi is a must to study for humanities students, but actually 莊子Zhuang-zi is more comfortable for me. 莊子's Zhuang-zi’s philosophy is just too difficult for me to express in English, so I seldom speak about it here...

I love to travel around China, but I have only been to Beijing, 甘肅 Gansu, 麗江 Lijiang, 香格里拉 Shangrila so far. I plan to travel much more before my graduation in 2010.

萬卷書不如萬里路
Wan chuan shu bu ru wan li lu
Chinese said” 10,000 volumes of books are not as good as 10,000 paths walked"
Which means to learn and feel on the world around you, is better than to only learn from books.

I found this forum few months ago when I searching for the pictures of Forbidden City's rooftop, after I see that post, I can’t resist to talk here... "happy to know you guys have interest in Chinese culture!" I said.
Though I am not a university graduate yet, and I am not a scholar level for sure, but I got the heart to promote Chinese culture to everyone, and I find it is a good place to force myself to use more English... ha-ha..

Introducing deadsparrow

I am a History teacher currently living in France. I taught in a Special Education high school in the Bronx after taking early retirement from a business career four years ago in order to take up teaching. In September, my wife and I left the United States and moved to Europe. I studied Chinese history as an undergrad at UC, Berkeley where my history professor was the great Fred Wakeman ("Fall of Imperial China" and many other works) who hobbled into the classroom during a riot one time, rubbing his backside and claiming the Red Guards had peppered him wooden bullets. Here, obviously I am dating myself, but the Professor had been exaggerating. The Cultural Revolution had been over several years by then. It was the Blue Meanies (Alameda Sheriff's Department, who deployed in blue jump suits) who had mistakenly targeted him. Fred sparked in everyone an interest in Chinese culture and history that has stayed with me since. I am now finishing a thesis on the role of People's War in Chinese culture for an MA degree and find myself still referring to notes I took then. I have two current ambitions: To visit Macchu Picchu and to be alive and compos mentis when China's archaeologists open the First Emperor's tomb at Xian (Chang'an). Based on the preliminary evidence of the terracotta army, what waits to be discovered in the tomb itself must dwarf what was found in Tutankhamen’s

FEATURED OLDIE

Wen Chou

Wow, it seems like only yesterday when Mok asked me to write notice from a newbie. I've been here now for 2 years and a bit now, so I don't consider myself "old", though my body is saying otherwise. Throughout the time that I have been here though, I've mostly lurked with a few posts and topics here and there. I've seen members come and go, I've made friends, and I've seen topics get heated and have the 3S rule implemented. I've been a part of the generation which was originally required to take the Xiucai exam (even though I joined before it was implemented.) Now it's still required, but there's an exemption plan. I find that this has made things more streamlined in the forum, and has cut down on some members who are rather unruly.

I also witnessed the essay contest, however that was never implemented because of a lack of participation, and while I never got around to submitting my entry, I still remember what fun it was to write it. Unfortunately it's met with the sands of time, and needed to be removed from my computer to free up some disc space. Throughout my time here the forum has grown quite well and I believe that it will continue to get better. So I guess this is simply some of my musings, comming from an "oldie" who's not quite so old, or even well known on the forum for that matter. But I guess now after writing a Newbie Note and the Oration of an Oldie, I'd be classified as an oldie.

I'd like to thank the Chief Editor of the CHF Newsletter Kaiselin for asking me to write this as well as General Zhao Yun for creating the forum, and last but certainly not least the members of the forum. Without you, the place wouldn't thrive as much as it does.

I'd also like to say something to all the members who are no longer visiting the forum. Come back and check it out again, there are quite a few new and interesting things popping up. Also don't forget to vote for the CHF Staff of the Year. It's important, and I believe something all members should do. Even though all of the staff members deserve the award for all of the hard work they do.

Edited by kaiselin, 21 March 2008 - 05:34 PM.

[kaiselin]

ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS

娛樂 與 藝術

page 1

COMICS

漫畫

MUSIC

音樂

Courtesy of Mok

Here are some traditional songs played at Chinese New Year for everyone to enjoy.
http://www.youtube.c...feature=related



http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

http://www.youtube.c...feature=related

Edited by kaiselin, 21 March 2008 - 07:33 AM.

[kaiselin]

ENTERTAINMENT AND THE ARTS

娛樂 與 藝術

Page 2

MOVIES and TV

電影 與 電視節目

Submitted by Moon

TV Series Title: Da Song Ti Xing Guan 大宋提刑官

Language: Mandarin
Subtitle: Simplified Chinese

Description:

The first TV series in China that blends the suspense and costume genres!

The story of Da Song Ti Xing Guan 大宋提刑官 is based on the life of a real historical figure
Sung Ci 宋慈, who may be regarded as the first forensic scientist in Chinese history.

In the TV drama series, Sung Ci, a Chinese official in the Sung Dynasty, will solve 11 mysterious cases with his logical reasoning and forensic knowledge - something that rarely exist in Chinese legends, even for those on the famous Judge Bao.

Award-winning drama actor Ho Ping stars as Song Ci who unfolds one mystery after another to uphold justice. He even has the ability to turn dead people into witnesses of crimes!

The first series:



The second series:

Ancient Chinese Forensic Medicine

Song Ci (1186 - 1249), a forensic medical expert in the Song Dynasty wrote a book titled Xi Yuan Ji Lu (Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified through Forensic Science).

In the book, Song Ci said, "A forensic medical doctor must be serious, conscientious, and highly responsible, and must also personally examine each dead body or that of a wounded person. The particulars of each case must be recorded in the doctor's own handwriting. No one else is allow to write his autopsy report.

A coroner must not avoid performing an autopsy because he detests the stench of corpses. A coroner must refrain from sitting comfortably behind a curtain of incense that mask the stench, let his subordinates do the autopsy unsupervised, or allow a petty official to write his autopsy report, leaving all the inaccuracies unchecked and uncorrected."

He also said, "Should there be any inaccuracy in an autopsy report, injustice would remain with the deceased as well as the living. A wrongful death sentence without justice may claim one or more additional lives, which would in turn result in feuds and revenges, prolonging the tragedy. In order to avoid any miscarriage of justice, the coroner must immediately examine the case personally." In summary, Song Ci maintained that a coroner must always personally perform each autopsy himself.

Song Ci served as a presiding judge in the Chinese high courts for many terms. During his post at a criminal court in Hunan Province, Song Ci would personally examine the crime scene each time he encountered a difficult case of homicide or physical assault. Song Ci combined many historical cases of forensic science with his own experiences and wrote the book Xi Yuan Ji Lu with an eye to avoiding miscarriages of justice. The book was esteemed by generations of forensic scientists. Eventually it was translated into English, German, Japanese, French and other languages.

Song Ci's serious attitude toward autopsy had a tremendous influence on later generations. A judge in the Qing Dynasty, under Song Ci's influence, insisted on examining the crime scene, and successfully solved a very difficult case of murder. Here is a summary of the story:

A man was murdered with dozens of slash wounds from a sickle." The case could not be solved due to lack of evidence. The certain judge who performed the autopsy personally visited the crime scene and learnt that the victim had argued with a person about a loan that he was trying to collect from that person. He secretly investigated the whereabouts of the suspect. When he had obtained sufficient evidence, he suddenly confiscated all sickles in that area, and made it clear to all that failing to comply with the order [to hand over all sickles] will result in a charge of obstruction of justice upon the owner of the sickle. All the sickles were handed in. There were seventy or eighty sickles. "It was the middle of a summer. One of the submitted sickles attracted many flies. The prosecutor asked for the owner of that sickle. One person claimed to be the owner, and he was the man who refused to repay the overdue loan. He was detained for interrogation but he refused to admit to the crime. The judge told him to look at his sickle. None of the other sickles were able to attract any flies while his sickle attracted all the flies. The judge told him that it was because that sickle still had the scent blood on it and the flies were lured by the scent of blood. "How can you deny Xi Yuan Ji Lu, "Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified Through Forensic Science II.")

The moral of the story is that autopsies and investigations must be conducted conscientiously and meticulously. Only with irrefutable evidence will there be justice for the false will be accused. Only with concrete evidence will the murderers admit their crimes.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian...2/22/20520.html

Members discussion on Song Ci from CHF Forum:

http://www.chinahist...showtopic=18210

Edited by kaiselin, 21 March 2008 - 07:28 AM.

[kaiselin]

WANT ADS

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Wanted : Artists. There are nine main sections to the newsletter with many sub sections. Due to the creation of this new branch of CHF, these are all under construction. Each section needs a title banner.
- Need creative banners to reflect the nature of each section. Should have a Chinese feel about it. May be computer generated or hand done. All entries will be accepted.
- Art work must be submitted by March 28, 2008.
- Poll will be then taken and winners will be published in June issue.
- Winner will get CHF Artist award. Top runners up will get their works featured in the up coming issues on an as needed basis. Headers should span the page.
- Any questions please contact editorial staff. Please send entries to PM Kaiselin.


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Wanted : Interested members to vote now on current poll Favorite Staff Member for 2007. This is a new award and the low amount of voter turn out is not representative of the forums large and active membership. The low persentage of voters is a slap in the face to the candidates, showing a lack of care for the hard work and time these staff members have given up to help make CHF the fine forum we have today. It is not right to take their dedication for granted. The least you can do is take a moment to cast your vote. Why not take the time right now and do it? Here's the link..How much easier does it have to be?
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Wanted : Openings in many sections for the newsletter. Construction almost completed, will need occupants very soon. Please see below for details.

BIRTHS and FAREWELLS

誕生 與 告別

I am sorry to report that due to lack of response the column Highlighted threads of the Month is no longer active.
For the time being we will say farewell to this column and perhaps in the future there will be a reincarnation.

UNDER CONSTRUCITON

OPENING IN APRIL

SPOTS IN EACH AVAILBLE

EACH SECTION MUST BE COMPLETED BY MARCH 21ST

Travel

旅遊

Sports and games

體育 與 遊戲

Literature

文學

This section has been moved to the Han Lin Journal
deadline April 21st

Philosophy

哲學

This section has been moved to the Han Lin Journal
deadline April 21st

ART

藝術

This section has been moved to the Han Lin Journal
deadline April 21st

Edited by kaiselin, 16 February 2008 - 05:12 PM.

[kaiselin]

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST

A timely snow that promises a good harvest.
Let us hope that all families affected by the terrible blizzard that that hit China will be safe and warm with their loved ones and have lots to eat in over the holidays.
May this snow bode well for the harvest as this picture suggests.

[EDIT FEB. 17, 2008]

ZhaoZi ( GZ) has split the CHF Newsletter and the CHF Han Lin Journal into two seperate entities, due to the wonderful response we have relieved since publication.
I want to thank everyone for your enthusiastic support and apologize if this separation is confusing.
We are very excited by this development and wish to thank GZ for creating the new sub forums. You will now find all the academic articles that were originally published here in the CHF Newsletter have been moved to the Han Lin Journal. The HLJ will come out in two threads.

CHF Han Lin Journal
http://www.chinahist...hp?showforum=95

It will now be published on a quarterly basis. The next issue will be coming out on May 7th. the dead line for all article submissions for the H L J will be April 21st to allow the staff enough time to bring you a quality publication. Sorry for the inconvenience.



CHF Newsletter Han Lin Journal Staff

Kaiselin, Chief Editor
Moon Cultural Editor Newsletter
fireball, Editor
William O'Chee, Columnist
Rong Qin Wang, Columnist
Anita Mui, Columnist

Special Thanks to the CHF Community

If you are interested in joining the CHF Newsletter Editorial Team as a member or contributor, have ideas on how to improve the Newsletter / HLJ, or have comments, please contact either Kaisilin, Moon or fireball.

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Edited by kaiselin, 25 February 2008 - 11:48 PM.