Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Ancient Chinese Medicine

Cupping therapy is a form of alternative medicine in which cups are placed on the skin to create
suction. The cups can be made of a variety of materials, including:

  • Glass
  • Bamboo
  • Earthenware


Supporters of cupping therapy believe the suction of the cups mobilizes blood flow to promote the healing of a broad range of medical ailments.


Cupping therapy dates back to ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern cultures. One of the oldest medical textbooks in the world, the Ebers Papyrus, describes how the ancient Egyptians were using cupping therapy in 1,550 B.C.

This video to the left demonstrates how cupping is mastered an the techniques and method behind it.

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Skype with Somerset College

Recently we just had a Skype meeting with 6th graders from Somerset Academy, Nevada, Las Vegas.
The connection was unfortunately not very good but we had some really good questions and answers along with some great conversations. Because of the time of year being Christmas lots of our conversation was on celebrations. It was very confronting how similar our Christmases are to their's. In all the Hollywood movies we believe and deceive all American Christmas's to have white snow and lots of decorations on there big trees. We had lots of good laughs and very interesting topics raised. We talked about many cultural things as well such as food choices, sports played and climate. Many interest were shown by either culture about others interests. I found it to be a very funny and interesting talk that i found out na lot about America and their lifestyle and culture.

Monday, 9 November 2015

The Great Wall of China

What's the purpose of the Great Wall of China?

What is the Great Wall of China?
The Great Wall of China is a wall that covers the northern border of China. If you take the length of the entire wall, plus various parts, it is around 5,500 miles (8851.392 km) long! No wonder they call it the Great Wall! Rather than being one long continuous wall, the Great Wall of China is made up of a number of different sections. These sections were built by various dynasties over a long period of time from stone and other materials.

Main characteristics of the Great Wall
The Great Wall of China is known for many thing. But one of its main purposes or characteristics it to block off fighters and intrudes from the north.The Great Wall of China is the longest structure ever built by humans.The widest section of the wall is around 9 metres. The highest point of the wall is around 8 metres. The first parts of the wall were built over 2000 years ago. A large number of workers have lost their lives while building the wall.

Why was it built?
The wall was built to help keep out northern invaders like the Mongols. Smaller walls had been built over the years, but the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, decided that he wanted a single giant wall to protect his northern borders. He ordered that a single strong wall be built with thousands of lookout towers where soldiers could guard and protect his empire.

Why is it considered one of the greatest attractions in the world?
The fact that it is the biggest and longest wall in the entire world is just astonishing. Earlier sections of the wall were made from stone, wood and compacted earth.Some of the well maintained areas of the wall, such as those near Beijing, are popular tourist destinations.While some parts of the wall have been preserved or renovated, other parts have been vandalised or destroyed to make way for construction. Rumours that astronauts can see the Great Wall of China from the Moon with the naked eye are untrue. I believe it serves great purpose protecting the great land of China.

Philosophies of Ancient China

What's the meaning of each Qin Dynasty Philosophies?

Legalism
1. Legalist philosophy was developed during the warring states period when there was always war and destruction terrorising the land.
2. The only way legalist philosophers believed there would be peace was to have strict laws and harsh punishments. That was the only way to have a peaceful society in their minds.
3. Families and the public were considered lower in rights than government personal.
4. They created the concept of if everyone works together then there will be the most success more peace and everyone would benefit.
5. If the emperor followed the laws than the empire would run smoothly with peace and benefit.
Confucianism
1. Confucianism was the most influential philosophy from the Han Dynasty to the communist era now in Ancient China which began in 1949 AD.
2. Confucius was a scholar who lived in China from 551-479 BC, this is what this philosophy in named after.
3. Confucius believed the best type of person was someone who acted honourably towards others.
4. Confucius believed that only a good government and a worthy emperor could create a good society.
5. Confucius also believed that relations within families needed to be strong and harmonious in order for society to thrive.
Daoism
1. The first and most important of the Daoist philosophers was Laozi.
2. Laozi focused on the individual person and aimed to teach him or her to achieve a happy and peaceful life.
3. Lived at the same time as Confucius but was older.
4. Creation of the Yin Yang.
5. Laozi believed the only way to achieve a happy life you had to Laozi the Dao. The Dao means “the way”. It influenced the fate of all things.

What are the roles of yin and yang and what purpose do they serve in life?

This video shows how yin and yang are portrayed and showed in our everyday life and what they mean. It is a very powerful video that is educational with fun examples.

Monday, 2 November 2015

Shang Dynasty

Hey Adventurers! The Shang Dynasty ruled China from around 1500 B.C. until 1100 B.C. During this 400 years of history, Chinese tradition states that 30 separate kings ruled from a succession of 7 different capitals. Only a few of these capitals have been located and excavated by archaeologists. The last capital which this dynasty ruled was located in 1899, and was the first Shang Dynasty capital to be found and studied.One of the most important contributions made during the period that the Shang Dynasty ruled China was the invention of writing. The earliest written records found in China come from this time period. That means that the Shang dynasty have a great part in history not only for being a great dynasty but for basically creating writing. This video shows the effect and all the information about how the dynasty came to be and other interesting facts. Give it a watch! I found that the Shang dynasty has had one of the biggest impacts on China today. Hopefully you have learnt something from this blog! See you soon Adventurers! :)

Ancient China Social Hierarchy

The social hierarchy of ancient china is very similar to the other modern cities and cultures today. Hierarchy is the ladder of social importance or royalty. Ancient china has a very rich culture of the standings of each person in their ranks. Every society has a hierarchy some are enforced more than others. China have much pride around this area and the social standings each person has. The first person on the ladder is the Emperor and then social standing is very high. They are the most well-known people in the land. The emperor was a king basically in ancient china they controlled the land.
Emperor
The next social rank are the government officials. Officials were another group that held high social status in ancient China. Boys whose families could afford to send them to school began their education at an early age so as to become officials and were required to pass a difficult exam. If they did not pass, however, they were usually still able find jobs as they were considered well educated. I see officials as a very important group of people in the social hierarchy of Ancient China.
Government officials
Nobles
The next class are the nobles. These people were super important in the social structure of Ancient China.The noble class in ancient China was very privileged. Nobles were typically the extended family of the emperor and empress and those people that excelled in their fields, particularly in the military. The status of nobles, however, changed frequently depending on who gained or fell out of favour with the emperor.The next social rank were the merchants. I believe these were the most important if not the most important people in all of Ancient China.The merchant class included traders, animal breeders and money lenders. Merchants were considered the lowest social class in ancient China. People believed that they did not contribute to the good of the whole society but only worked for their own gain.
Merchants
The last or lowest ranked class in the Ancient China ladder social status were the slaves. Slaves is a word that is thought of to describe very poor people. In ancient China that is true. But slaves are sometimes made out to be bad people but they were important and extremely helpful to the Chinese society.Slaves did exist in ancient China but they made up a very small percentage of the population. Some slaves were the relatives of criminals while other people sold themselves or their children as slaves if they were very poor. That's it for this blog. Hopefully you Adventurers have learnt something! See you soon!
Slaves

Skype meeting with Harry

Hey guys! Recently we had a meeting with Harry, a student from China. Harry was born in Australia but was born into a travelling family as his parents were both international teachers. Harry has just finished year 12 in China and will now be studying in China at a university. We proceeded in asking Harry some questions about how he compares China to where he has previously lived and compared education and other restrictions in China. Harry was very open to all the questions and answered them very well. He was a very good person and i am hoping to one day meet him in person. He was very enthusiastic and was willing to answer any questions no matter the size or hardness of the question. I believe it was a very successful Skype call and I learnt a lot from the answers and questions. See you soon Adventurers!