荆州英文介绍

荆州英文介绍

Abstract

Jingzhou, with a history of more than 2,600 years, is the cradle of Chu Culture and one of primary places of Three Kingdoms culture. Jingzhou was the native place of Qu Yuan, the great patriotic poet in China and a town of military importance in the periods of dozens of kingdoms and dynasties. To the east of Jingzhou is Wuhan , a hub city of traffic; to the west is the world-known project of Three Gorges; to the south is the vast lake of Dong Ting ; to the north is the imposing beautiful mountain of Wu Dang . Having peaceful, picturesque campuses dotted with relaxing and scenic spaces.

Key words：Ancient City Jingzhou Ancient City Wall The Jingzhou Museum Relics of Three Kingdoms

摘要

荆州有着2600多年的历史，是楚文化的发祥地，是三大文化的主要发祥地之一。荆州是屈原故里，在中国伟大的爱国诗人，在王国和王朝时期军事重镇几十个。荆州以东是一个枢纽城市的交通；西方是世界著名的项目三峡；南部是广阔的湖泊董婷；北是雄伟美丽的山区武当。拥有宁静、如画的校园，点缀着放松和风景优美的空间。

关键词：古城荆州古城墙荆州文物博物馆三国文化

History of Jingzhou

Jingzhou is an ancient city with a very long history and brilliant culture, and it is the cradle of the Chu Empire. A legend says that the Great Yu planned nine districts in the territory of China, and Jingzhou was one of them. In ancient times, the area was called both Jing and Chu. The names refer to a certain tree species. During the Shang dynasty, Chu was a region under the jurisdiction of the Shang. Later on, the Emperor of Zhou conferred the territory of Jingzhou to the King of Chu named Xiongyi. The capital was in Danyang.

A lot of famous or outstanding people have come from this area. It is said: "Only Chu has real talents." Qu Yuan held a post here in Jingzhou for more than 20 years during the Warring States Period. Other famous people from Jingzhou include, the "Tea Sage," Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng who was called the "most excellent prime minister in China" in the Ming Dynasty, the contemporary writer Cao Yu, and Ouyang Shan.

Jingzhou has always been an area of strategic military importance. During the Three Kingdoms period, Jingzhou was a strategic point where the Wei, Shu, and Wu competed. That period of time has not only engendered lots of wonderful sayings like "Liu Bei borrowed Jingzhou but never gave it back," and "Guan Yu lost Jingzhou due to negligence," but has also left behind plenty of historic sites.

built during Ming and Qing dynasties is complete and solid, and the wall is constructed of special black bricks with lime and glutinous rice paste. Each black brick has an approximate weight of 4kg, some of which were even fired with letters.

After two major repairs in 1789 and 1792, Jingzhou Ancient City Wall preserved six main city gates, which were named according to local geography, history and customs. The gates in the east, south, west, north, northeast and southeast were respectively called Yinbin Gate, Nanji Gate, Anlan Gate, Gongji Gate, Yuan’an Gate and Gong’an G ate (Water Gate), forming the main scenery of the ancient city wall.

Yinbin Gate tower is grand and the enclosure for defense outside the city gate is the largest.

The Jingzhou Museum

Jingzhou Museum was founded in 1958. There are more than 130,000 relics in the museum. They include bronze, pottery, lacquer, silk fabrics, jade, bamboo slips, china and so on. The exhibitions are “The Exhibition of Relics in Prehistory”, “The Exhibition of Bronze in Jianghan Plain”, “The Exhibition of Bamboo Slips Excavated i n Jingzhou”, “The Exhibition of Jade Excavated in Xiongjiazhong Tomb”, and “The Treasure House”. The whole museum covers an area of 50,000 m2, which include display building, treasure house, office building, relic store and an old temple. There are 105 workers in the museum, and 20 of them are professors. Especially the relic protection professors are very famous in the whole China, for the skill of lacquer.

Exhibits

The Jingzhou Museum also has ancient weapons and lacquer ware, an ancient math book, the Jian Du of "Precepts of Two Years" of the early Han Dynasty, and a well preserved male mummy, also of the Early Han Dynasty. There are also various sorts of precious prehistoric jade ornaments and rare silk articles of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).These rare treasures attract a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists year by year.

Relics are displayed in two exhibition zones:

The front hall exhibition has a display of representative artifacts from various eras. The hall instructs on the history of the development of civilization in Jingzhou from the Paleolithic era to the Qin and Han dynasties. Two thematic exhibitions have been set up. One having been named as the Top Ten Antiques Exhibition in China in 1999.

The back hall has three exhibitions of unearthed treasures. One is called "Han Tomb 168 of Jingzhou Phoenix Hill".

Han Tomb 168

It displays the male body, the coffin, and buried possessions of the Western Han Dynasty (206–9 BC). These were excavated by the Jingzhou Museum in Jinan, the former ancient capital city of the Chu, in 1975.

According to written records unearthed from the tomb, the deceased man was named "Sui". He held the governmental post as "Wu Da Fu", and he was buried in the thirteenth year of Emperor Han Wen Di (167 BC). This was before a female body was unearthed from a Changsha Mawangdui Han Tomb. The male body has been buried in the ground for 2,000 years with unusually little decay.

Researchers think that the preservation was caused by the deeply buried and well sealed tomb that kept out the air and water and a stable temperature. The coffin had fluid, 100,000 milliliters of mercury, that had an anti-bactericidal effect.

The coffin holding the male body is also well preserved. The large outer coffin room show the noble status of the owner. The buried possessions on display have two "best in the world" relics which are a hemp skirt and hemp shoes. They are of distinctive design, and these shoes and shirts are among the best preserved articles of their kind and age in the world. They are priceless national treasures.

Relics of Three Kingdoms

The Three Kingdoms Period played an important part in Chinese history, when many great heroes were born and the famous military strategy '36 Tricks' were used perfectly. One of the four Chinese ancient classic works, Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Lo Kuan-Chung, was created just based on this period of history. Jingzhou, as the focus of quarrels then, has left many cultural relics that are related to the stories of Three Kingdoms. For example, Guandi Miao is a temple for the memorial of Guanyu, a general defending Jingzhou for one of the three kingdoms - Shu. Many legends and myths were also produced in this spiritual city. Here is a legend where the 'Jiunv Zhuo' (Nine Girls Mound) beside the city gate originates from. It was said that when Guan Yu guarded the city, he met nine fairies flying down to the earth, who said that they were commanded by the Empress of Heaven to take the city back because there were

too many quarrels. Not willing to lose the city, Guan thought hard and then an idea occurred to him. He suggested the fairies compete to build a city from the dark to the crowing in the next morning and the winner could manage the city. The fairies agreed. Then they began to build the city with the earth brought by their skirts while Guan used the reeds. Guan quickly finished first but the time was not up. Then Guan shook the reed roosts of the roosters, which made them crow. So the fairies had to fly up to heaven shyly. It was also said Zhang Fei, the sworn little brother of Guan, also came to help but was late, so he dropped the earth outside the gate, hence the Mound is also called 'Zhang Fei's load of

Earth'.

Temple of Jingzhou

There are so many temples such as Kaiyuan temple ，Taihui temple，Xunmiao temple，Zhanghua temple，and so on in Jingzhou. But the best known is Guan Yu Temple Temple.

Guan Yu Temple，in the first month of the lunar year and on May 13th of the lunar calendar, a grand temple fair is held at the Temple of Guan Yu. The temple becomes crowded and people of the Jingzhou, Hubei province play dragon lanterns, paddle lotus gathering boats, ride horses to shoot arrows, wind trumpets and lift sedan chairs.

It has been an invariable custom of Jingzhou over the past thousand years to worship Guan Yu. In the days when Guan Yu led troops into battles against Kingdom Wu and returned in triumph, soldiers and civilians of Jingzhou lined the street outside the North Gate to welcome him. They beat their drums and gongs and set off firecrackers. The street remains known as Victory Street. On New Year's Day and other festivals, the young men of Jingzhou who play dragon lanterns would first pay respect for Guan Gong at the temple.

Tourism souvenirs of Jingzhou mainly centre on the Guan Gong culture. They are represented by silk handkerchiefs embroidered with Guan Yu's image, exquisite packsacks printed with Guan Yu's portrait, picture postcards of Guan Yu and small statues of Guan Yu. The people of Jingzhou largely enshrine and worship Guan Yu in the halls of hotels, shops and residences. Some people offer sacrifices to Guan Yu every day.

Almost all Jingzhou people, young or old, can tell stories of Guan Yu guarding this important city. As communications across the Taiwan Strait

become increasingly frequent and China keeps closer ties with overseas areas, more and more people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao areas and other countries have visited Jingzhou to pay respect for Guan Yu. They often come offering incenses and wish to fulfill their promises.

Food and Restaurants

Food that may be regarded as Jingzhou specialties are kamaboko and rice pudding. In addition, there are other special dishes in Jingzhou, such as Thousand Paper Braised Pork, hickory, green soybeans, mountain vegetables, Sweet and Sour Garlic, and Zhu Oranges.

Kamaboko is a Japanese word for fish that is filleted, combined with other ingredients and pounded to make a paste that maybe colored and molded and cooked in various shapes. The meaty loaf may be eaten dipped in sauce or added to noodles or rice dishes. Kamaboko is sold in various kinds of restaurants in Jingzhou.

According to a legend, rice pudding was created by Xiao Dai who cooked in the Royal Kitchen in the late Qing Dynasty when Cixi was in administration of the whole country. At that time, when Xiao Dai was stranded in Jingzhou city, he was employed by the boss of Ju Zhen Yuan restaurant. And then, he taught his cooking skills to his boss. From then on, rice pudding that is a famous dish of Jingzhou City has been eaten all over China. Rice pudding has bright colors, a little oil, and is a little sweet. It is eaten from small shallow cups and has a pleasant smell.

Jingsha Soft Shelled Turtle is said to contain a variety of exceptional longevity factors and active immune substances which have the therapeutic effect of enhancing human immunity, helping to prevent cancer, treating Yin deficiency and tonifying Yang. Thus, it is known as a good nutritious food.

Paper-pot crispy rice originated in the Ming and Qing period. It tastes crisp and chewy.

Thousand Paper Braised Pork is made from fatty pork that is streaked with both fat meat and lean meat. After boiling in water and frying in deep oil, it is then covered with brown sugar and cut into thin slices in order to steam the meat.

Other Cultural Relics

Wanshou Baota

There are also many other ancient towers and temples in the city. The most famous ones are the Wanshou Baota (the Longevity Pagoda), Kaiyuan Guan, Taihui Guan, Xuanmiao Guan and two temples - Tienv Si and Zhanghua Si. Also in Jinan Town, 5. km. (3.11 miles) away from the Small Northern Gate of

Jingzhou, lies the capital of Chu State-Jinan Ancient City. And in the Balingshan National Forest Park, 20 km. (12.43 miles) northwest of Jingzhou, you can find the Balingshan Tumulus Group. Almost all of these relics have been listed as the Cultural Relics of National Importance under the Protection of the State.