中国文化-中英文对照.docx

中国龙
对龙图腾的崇拜在中国大约已绵延了八千多年。中国龙是古人将鱼，蛇，马，牛等动物与云雾，雷电等自然天象集合而成的一种神物。中国龙的形成与中华民族的多元融合过程同步。在中国人的心目中，龙具有振奋腾飞，开拓变化的寓意和团结凝聚的精神。
Chinese Dragon
Dragon totem worship in China has been around for the last 8,000 years. The ancients in China considered the dragon (or Loong) a fetish that combines animals including the fish, snake, horse and ox with cloud, thunder, lightning and other natural celestial phenomena. The Chinese dragon was formed in accordance with the multicultural fusion process of the Chinese nation. To the Chinese, the dragon signifies innovation and cohesion.
饺子
饺子是深受中国人民喜爱的传统特色食品。相传为古代医圣张仲景发明。饺子的制作是包括：1）擀皮、2）备馅、3）包馅水煮三个步骤。其特点是皮薄馅嫩，味道鲜美，形状独特，百食不厌。民间有“好吃不过饺子”的俗语。中国人接亲待友。逢年过节都有包饺子吃的习俗，寓意吉利。对崇尚亲情的中国人来说，“更岁交子”吃饺子，更是欢度除夕、辞旧迎新必不可少的内容。
Dumplings
Dumplings are one of the Chinese people’s favorite traditional dishes. According to an ancient Chinese legend, dumplings were first made by the medical saint—Zhang Zhongjing. There are three steps involved in making dumplings: 1) make dumpling wrappers out of dumpling flour; 2) prepare the dumpling stuffing; 3) make dumplings and boil them. With thin and elastic dough skin, freshen and tender stuffing, delicious taste, and unique shapes, dumplings are worth eating hundreds of times. There’s an old saying that claims, “Nothing could be more delicious than dumplings.” During the Spring Festival and other holidays or when treating relatives and friends, Chinese people like to follow the auspicious custom of eating dumplings. To Chinese people who show high reverence for family love, having dumplings at the moment the old year is replaced by the new is an essential part of bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the New Year.
针灸
针灸是中医学的重要组成部分。按照中医的经络理论，针灸疗法主要是通过疏通经络、调和气血，来达到阴阳归于平衡，使脏腑趋于调和之目的。其特点是“内病外治”。主要疗法是用针刺入病人身体的一定穴位，或用艾火的温热刺激烧灼病人的穴位。以达到刺激经络，治疗病痛的目的。针灸以其独特的优势，流传至今病传播到了世界，与中餐、功夫、中药一起被海外赞誉为中国的“新四大国粹”。
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an important part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In accordance with the “main and collateral channels” theory in TCM, the purpose of acupuncture is to dredge the channel and regulate qi and blood, so as to keep the body’s yin and yang balanced and achieve reconciliation between the internal organs. It features in traditional Chinese medicine that “internal diseases are to b e treated with external therapy”/ the main therapy of acupuncture involves using needles to pierce certain acupoints of the patient’s body, or adopting moxibustion to stimulate the patient’s acupoints so as to stimulate the channels and relieve pain. With its unique advantages, acupuncture has been handed down generation after generation and has now spread all over the world. Nowadays, acupuncture, along with Chinese food, kungfu (otherwise known as Chinese martial arts), and traditional Chinese medicine, has been internationally hailed as one of the “four new national treasures”.
中国汉字汉字是从原始人用以记事的简单图画，经过不断演变发展最终成为一种兼具音、形、意、韵的独特文字。现存中国古代最早成熟的文字是甲骨文，被认为是现代汉字的初形。此后，汉字又经历了金文、隶书、楷书、草书、行书等不同的阶段。汉字结构“内圆外方”，源于古人“天圆地方”的观念。汉字有五种基本笔画，即：横、竖、撇、捺、折。
Chinese characters
Chinese characters were initially meant to be simple pictures use to help people remember things. After a long period of development, it finally became a unique character system that embodies phonetic sound, image, idea, and rhyme at the same time. The writing system, which was extremely advanced in ancient times, began with inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells, and these are regarded as the original forms of Chinese characters. Afterwards, Chinese characters went through numerous calligraphic styles: bronze inscriptions, official script, regular script, cursive script, running script, etc. Chinese characters are usually round outside and square inside, which is rooted in ancient Chinese beliefs of an orbicular sky and a rectangular Earth. The five basic strokes of Chinese characters are “ 一” (the horizontal stroke), “ 丨” (the vertical stroke), “丿” (the left-falling stroke), “ 捺” (the right-falling stroke), and “乙” (the turning stroke).
中国筷子
中国人使用筷子就餐的方式在世界独树一帜。有史记载用筷的历史已有三千多年。筷子古时称为箸，它看似简单，但却同时具有夹、拨、挑、扒、拌、撮、戳、撕等多种功能。中国民间视筷子为吉祥之物，如婚俗中将筷子隐喻为快生贵子的祝福等。与使用刀叉以及手抓的方式不同， 成双结对的筷子含有“和为贵”的意蕴。西方人赞誉筷子是古老的东方文明。
Chinese chopsticks
The Chinese way of eating with chopsticks is unique in the world. The recorded history of chopsticks started more than three thousand years ago. Chopsticks were named zhu in ancient Chinese. They look deceptively simple to use, but possess multi-various functions, such as clamping, turning over, lifting up, raking, stirring, scooping, poking, tearing, and so on. Chopsticks were taken as an auspicious mascot by ordinary people in ancient China. For example, the partial tone of chopsticks is often used by people as a metaphor at weddings to indicate a blessing or benediction for the couple to have a baby soon. Unlike using a knife and fork or one’s own hands, a pair of chopsticks also implies the meaning of “Harmony is what matters”. Chopsticks are highly praised by westerners as a hallmark of ancient oriental civilization.
中国印章
印章就是图章。中国历代官、私所用的印章有印信、朱记、合同、符、契等等不同的称谓，而帝王所用的印章古时称玺、印、宝、章等。据史料记载，印章在战国时代（前475-前221）已普遍使用。 印章的制作时将篆隶等字体、图像用阴、阳的形式雕刻而成，形状以圆、方为主。印章用朱色钤章，除日常应用外，又多用于书画题识，逐渐成为中国特有的艺术形式之一。
Chinese seal
A seal can also be defined as a stamp. Both the Chinese official and private seal of various dynasties have different titles, such as stamp, zhu not, contract, fu, lease and others. The seals used by the emperors of ancient China were called xi, yin, bao, etc.. According to historical records, seals were widely used during the Warring States period (475 BC ---221 BC). The making of a seal is to engrave fonts, such as seal characters and official script and so on; or images in the form of intaglio and embossment into the seal, basically shaped as round or square. Covered with a vermilion overlay, the Chinese seal is not only used in daily life, but it is also used to represent signatures on paintings and calligraphies. It is gradually becoming one of China’s unique artworks.
天干地支
天干地支是中国历法中用以记录和命名年岁的方法。十天干为：甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸；十二天干为：子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥。古人观测朔望月，发现月亮圆缺12次大体上是一年的天数，而两个朔望月约是60天。古人以十天干与十二地支的顺序依次相配，记录不同年份，60年为一个轮回。干支纪年法从古沿用至今。按干支纪年法，2011年便是辛卯年。
Chinese era
The Chinese era is the symbol that the Chinese calendar uses for recording and naming years. The ten Heavenly Stems are: jia, yi, bing, ding, wu, ji, geng, xin, ren, gui. The twelve Earthly Branches are: zi, chou, yin, mou, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu, hai. After observing the lunar month, the ancients found that the moon always waxes and wanes roughly 12 times a year, and two lunar months account for about 60 days. So the order of the ten Heavenly Stems and the order of the twelve Earthly Branches are properly matched in turn. In terms of recording date, 60 years is considered to be a full time cycle. The Chinese ear chronology was first invented in ancient times and is still in use now. According to the chronology of the “ten Heavenly Stems”, 2011 is the year of “the seventh of the ten Heavenly Stems” and “the fifth of the twelve Earthly Branches”.
饺子是深受中国人民喜爱的传统特色食品。相传为古代医圣 张仲景发明。饺子的制作是包括：1)擀皮、2)备焰、3)包馅 水煮三个步骤。其特点是皮薄馅嫩，味道鲜美，形状独特，百食 不厌。民间有“好吃不过饺子”的俗语。中国人接亲待友、逢年 过节都有包铰子吃的习俗，寓意吉利。对崇尚亲情的中国人来讲， “更岁交子”吃饺子，更是欢度除夕、辞旧迎新必不可少的内容。
Dumplings
Dumplings are one of the Chinese people’s favorite traditional dishes. According to an ancient Chinese legend, dumplings were first made by the medical saint— Zhang Zhongjing. There are three steps involved in making dumplings: 1) make dumpling wrappers out of dumpling flour; 2) prepare the dumpling stuffing; 3) make dumplings and boil them. With thin and elastic dough skin, fresh and tender stuffing, delicious taste, and unique shapes, dumplings are worth eating hundreds of times. There’s an old saying that claims, “Nothing could be more delicious than dumplings.” During the Spring Festival and other holidays, or when treating relatives and friends, Chinese people Like to follow the auspicious custom of eating dumplings. To Chinese people who show high reverence for family love, having dumplings at the moment the old year is replaced by the new is an essential part of bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the New Year.
中国功夫
中国功夫即中国武术，是将技击寓于搏斗和套路运动之中的 中国传统体育项目，承载着丰富的中国民族传统文化。其核心思 想是儒家的中和养气之说，同时兼容了道家、释家的思想。中国 武术源远流长、流派林立、拳种繁多，讲究刚柔并济、内外兼修， 蕴含着先哲们对生命和宇宙的参悟。后世所称十八般武艺，主要 指：徒手拳艺，如太极拳、形意拳、八卦掌等；器械功夫，如刀 枪剑戟、斧钺钩叉等。
Chinese Kung Fu
Chinese Kung fu, or Chinese martial arts, carries traditional Chinese culture in abundance. It is a traditional Chinese sport which applies the art of attack and defense in combat and the motions engaged with a series of skill and tricks. The core idea of Chinese Kung fu is derived from the Confucian theory of both “the mean and harmony” and “cultivating qi” (otherwise known as nourishing one’s spirit). Meanwhile, it also includes thoughts of Taoism and Buddhism. Chinese kung fu has a long history, with multi-various sects and many different boxing styles, and emphasizes coupling hardness with softness and internal and external training. It contains the ancient great thinkers’ pondering of life and the universe. The skills in wielding the 18 kinds of weapons named by the later generations mainly involve the skills of bare-handed boxing, such as shadow boxing (Taijiquan), form and will boxing (Xingyiquan), eight trigram palm (Baguazhang), and the skills of kung fu weaponry, such as the skill of using swords, spears, two-edged swords and halberds, axes, tomahawks, hooks, prongs and so on.
剪纸（paper cutting）是中国最为流行的传统民间艺术形式之一。中国剪纸有一千五百多年的历史，在明朝和清朝时期（the Ming and Qing Dynasties）特别流行。人们常用剪纸美化居家环境。特别是在春节和婚庆期间，剪纸被用来装饰门窗和房间，以增加喜庆的气氛。剪纸最常用的颜色是红色，象征健康和兴旺。中国剪纸在世界各地很受欢迎，经常被用作馈赠外国友人的礼物。
Paper cutting is one of China’s most popular traditional folk arts. Chinese paper cutting has a history of more than 1,500 years. It was widespread particularly during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. People often beautify their homes with paper cuttings. During the Spring Festival and wedding celebrations, in particular, paper cutting are used to decorate doors, windows and rooms in order to enhance the joyous atmosphere. The color most frequently used in paper cutting is red, which symbolizes health and prosperity. Chinese paper cutting is very popular around the world and it is often given as a present to foreign friends.
酒是中国人生活中的重要饮料之一。中国制酒源远流长，享誉中外。在中国最具有代表性的酒莫过于白酒了，从某种角度上来说，中国的酒文化就是白酒文化。酒在中国人眼里更多的是一种交际的工具。酒渗透于整个中华五千年的文明史中，从文学创作、文化娱乐到饮食烹饪、养生保健等各方面在中国人生活中都占有重要的位置。
Alcohol is one of the important drinks in Chinese people’s life. Chinese alcohol-making has a long history and has been renowned at home and abroad. In China, no alcohol is more representative than Chinese liquor and at some point, Chinese alcohol culture is Chinese liquor culture. Alcohol is more of a communication tool in Chinese people’s eyes. Alcohol has permeated 5000 years’ civilization of the whole Chinese history, which plays an important role in every aspect of Chinese people’s life, from literary and artistic creation and entertainment to food and cooking and health preservation.

中国武术（Chinese martial arts）是中国民族体育的主要内容之一，是几千年来中国人民用以锻炼身体和自卫的一种方法。中国武术主要内容包括搏击技巧，格斗手法，攻防策略和武器使用等技术，是以自立、自强、健体养生为目标的体育活动。它体现出中国人对攻防技术及策略的理解。中国武术对生命真理探索的人文哲学的特色对现今中国的大众文化有着深远的影响。
Chinese martial arts is one of the main contents of China’s national sports. It is one means by which Chinese people have been building up their bodies and defending themselves. Chinese martial arts mainly includes skills like fighting skills, wrestling techniques, attacking and defending strategies and weapon applications. It is a kind of sport that aims at independence, self-reliance and health fitness. It reflects Chinese people’s understanding of attacking and defending skills and strategies. The humanistic philosophy of Chinese martial arts, which features the exploration of the truth of the life, has profound influence on Chinese mass culture nowadays.
瓷器是中国最为重要的手工艺之一。中国瓷器有3500多年的历史，明清时期尤其繁荣。瓷器不仅可以用作日常餐具（dinnerware)、花瓶等，精美的瓷器更是常常被人们用来装饰家居。作为高档艺术品的象征，真品瓷器常常具有极高的艺术价值和经济价值，因此，长被很多人视为珍藏品。中国瓷器受到各国人民的欢迎，经常被用作表达中外友谊的礼物。
Porcelain is one of China’s most important handicrafts. Chinese porcelain has a history of more than 3,500 years, its most prosperous period being Ming and Qing Dynasties. Porcelains can be used as daily dinnerware and vases, and delicate porcelains are even commonly used for home decoration by people. As symbols of high-end works of art, authentic porcelains are often of extremely high artistic and economic value and therefore they are often regarded as precious collections by many people. Chinese porcelains are popular with people around the world, and they are often used as presents for expressing friendship between Chinese and foreign people.
每年4月4日、5日或6日是清明节（the Qingming Festival)。清明节后气温升高，雨水增多。清明节既是中国的传统节日，也是最重要的祭祀（commemoration）节日。在这一天，汉族和少数民族都会供奉祖先，为逝去的人扫墓。清明节也是阳光明媚、草木吐绿的时节。自古以来，人们就有清明踏青(Spring outings)的习俗。人们还会在清明节放风筝。这时植树树苗存活率高，之后也长的快，因此清明节也是植树的好时候。
The Qingming Festival falls on April 4,5,or 6 each year. After the festival, the temperature rises up and rainfall increases. The Qingming festival is not only a traditional festival in China, but also the most important festival of commemoration. Both the Han nationality and minority nationality offer sacrifices to their ancestors and sweep the tombs of the deceased at this time. The Qingming Festival is a time when the sun shines brightly, the trees and grass become green. Since ancient times, people have followed the custom of Spring outings. People love to fly kits during the Qingming Festival. The Qingming Festival is also a good time to plant trees, for the survival rate of saplings is high and trees grow fast later.
风筝是中国传统的民间艺术之一。中国风筝在春秋时期（Spring and Autumn Period）就已出现，距今有两千多年的历史了。最初的风筝常用作军事用途，如测量距离、测试风向和通讯。后来它逐渐与神话故事、花鸟瑞兽、吉祥寓意(auspicious meanings)等结合，从而形成了独具特色的风筝文化。阳光明媚的春日里，人们常常结伴去放风筝。中国风筝也受到世界各国人们的喜爱，很早以前就传到了世界各地。
The kite is one of the Chinese traditional folk arts. The Chinese kite came into being in the Spring and Autumn Period and since then it has had a history of over two thousand years. Kites were used for military purpose initially, like measuring distances, testing wind directions, and communications. Later, it is integrated with fairy tales, luck characters such as flowers, birds and beasts and auspicious meanings and thus a unique kite culture with characteristics has been formed. In sunny spring days, people usually go for company outings to fly kites. The Chinese kite has also been loved by people from all over the world, for it was introduced into the globe a long time ago.
中国结（Chinese knot）是中国古老文明的一个缩影， 是中国特有的民间手工艺术。中国结有着悠久的历史，在明清时期尤为盛行。在现代，它通常被用作室内装饰、亲友间的馈赠礼物及个人的随身饰物。因其外观对称（symmetrical）精致，符合中国传统装饰的习俗和审美观念，故被命名为中国结。在北京申办2008年奥运会的过程中，中国结作为中国传统文化的象征，深受各国朋友的喜爱。
Chinese Knot is a miniature of the ancient Chinese civilization, and it is unique to Chinese traditional manual art. Chinese Knot has a long history, and is especially prevalent in the Ming and Qing Dyn