You may think you cannot live through summer without air conditioning (空调). But in ancient China, hand fans were almost the only way to drive the heat away.

Chinese people started to use hand fans over 2,000 years ago. The fans came in different shapes and were made from all kinds of materials. Palm leaf fans were cheap and easy to make. Feather fans marked the owner’s high status. Sandalwood fans could send out a sweet smell. Later, hand fans became far more than just something that could cool you down. They developed into art works, in which Tuanshan — round fans and Zheshan — folded fans, were the most common. In the shape of a full moon, Tuanshan were usually made of silk. They had beautiful birds and flowers on them. Women especially those in the royal palace, liked to use them.

Meanwhile, men, especially the literati (文人), used Zheshan. The literati liked them because Zheshan were usually made of paper and they could paint and write poems on them. It was a way for them to show off their ability in literature, painting and calligraphy. Many things were painted on Zheshan, but the most popular choice was usually beautiful scenery.

Today, Chinese people still use these fans, though not many people write or paint on them any more.

The history of writing instruments, with which humans have recorded and conveyed thoughts and feelings, is the history of civilization itself. This is how we know about our ancestors and their life.

The handy sharpened-stone was adapted into the first writing instrument. Around 24, 000 BC, cavemen started drawing pictures with the stone onto the walls of their caves. 【小题1】 Walls at the Apollo site in Namibia are believed to be the oldest rock paintings to date.

Before paper came along, people used clay or wax tablets on which they wrote with sharp objects such as metal sticks or bones. Around 6000 years ago, the Egyptians invented the first paper-like material called papyrus (纸莎草纸). The word “paper” actually comes from the word “papyrus.”

【小题2】 Bones or metal sticks were no longer useful as the papyrus could not be scratched. So the Egyptians created a reed(芦苇)-pen for the papyrus. 【小题3】 And thus, ancient Egyptians transformed bamboo stems (茎) into an early form of fountain pen.

Another writing instrument that remained active in history for long period was the quill (鹅毛) pen. Introduced around 700 AD, the quill was a pen made from a bird feather. Goose feathers were most common. 【小题4】 For making fine line drawings, crow feathers were the best.

When writers had better inks and paper and handwriting had developed into both an art form and an everyday occurrence, man’s inventive nature once again turned to improving the writing instrument. 【小题5】

Tang Dynasty poets sang for about three centuries in different tones. There were many famous poets living in the Tang period such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin. Quan Tangshi edited in the Qing Dynasty is a collection of about 48, 900 poems that were written by over 2, 200 poets. But it doesn't cover all the poems of the Tang Dynasty.

During the Tang Dynasty, poems were recited when lovers walked under the moonlight. Poems were also recited when soldiers fought on the battlefield. People recited them in the open air or at temple fairs.

In the Tang Dynasty scholars（学者）had to be poets. Their readers were not only people of high social position but also common people. Poets recited poems；women singers sang poems and other ranks of people, including old women and children, read Tang poems. This atmosphere affected foreigners who visited the country at that time. As a result, Tang poetry was introduced to some adjacent countries, like Japan and Vietnam.

Tang poetry is a most brilliant page in the history of ancient Chinese literature. It's a miracle（奇迹）in the cultural history of mankind. The Tang Dynasty was a powerful empire with a vast territory. It inherited（继承）Chinese civilization that went back to ancient times, and was combined with the best of other cultures and adopted the benefits of other nations in the world. Tang poetry wasn’t the only spiritual wealth created by people of the Tang Dynasty. Philosophy, handwriting, painting, music and dance all gained new peaks of development. Tang poetry, however, was the jewel in the crown and the greatest achievement in the Tang Dynasty.