①Nobody likes to be sick. Nowadays many children go to the doctor to get medicine when they are sick. In ancient China, they also had doctors. But instead of treating a person after they were already sick, the Chinese believed that preventing an illness before it started was the key to one’s health.

②Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a long history of more than 5,000 years. It is a summary of the experience of the working people over many centuries of struggle against diseases. TCM considers human body as a whole of QI, XING and SHEN. The ideas of YIN-YANG and WU XING are important for TCM. WU XING refers to five basic things in the nature, that is, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

③One important part of TCM is Yin-Yang. The Yin-Yang symbol means balance. Hold your hand out with your palm (手掌) up. This side of your hand is the Yin side. The back of your hand is the Yang side. They are opposites, but need each other to be complete. Yin is connected with night while Yang stands for day. The symbol of Yin-Yang shows how balance is important in life and in the body.

④Another important part of TCM is chi. It is life force energy. In ancient Chinese medicine, it is believed that chi flows through the body. If chi is unbalanced or blocked, a person may become sick.

⑤How does Traditional Chinese Medicine work? How is Yin-Yang and chi balances? One way is through acupuncture (针灸), which is the way to unblock chi with the use of thin needles (针). The needles are put into the skin along points on the body where chi is blocked.

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①The tradition of keeping singing and fighting crickets (蟋蟀) was from ancient (古代) time and ancient people handed it down to the present day.

②Cricket Culture in China has a 2000-year history. Before Tang Dynasty, people only liked the crickets’ wonderful singing. During Tang Dynasty, the Emperor’s (皇帝) family took crickets to bed to hear their singing during the night. Other people thought it was a wonderful hobby and followed. In Song Dynasty, cricket fighting became a popular sport. People in the city and village all collected crickets with great interest every summer.

③Although some simply enjoyed crickets’ beautiful singing, for most cricket keepers in the past, fighting was the final goal.

④“Cricket fighting in ancient time was really exciting!” said Zhou Jisheng, a historian on cricket culture. “Before putting the crickets in one box, people would weigh them and match them up according to size, weight, and color. ”

⑤Usually, the fight could finish in a few minutes. But for some strong crickets, it might last half an hour or even 45 minutes.

⑥“The two crickets bit each other with their jaws (颌). Sometimes, they might lose their legs in the fight, but they still jumped and bit until death,” Zhou said. “They were real warriors (勇士).”

⑦A cricket fight in China was just like a bullfight in Spain, but why did this small animal become a big success with ancient Chinese people?

⑧Some history experts think that ancient Chinese took the singing crickets as good luck, and the coming of crickets meant wealth would come to the family. As crickets fighting got more popular in Song Dynasty, people began sending thousands of their best crickets to the emperor as gifts. Then painters, poets, musicians, and politicians all followed the emperor’s lead and began to keep crickets as pets.

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Many Chinese words have directions in them and there is lots of history hidden behind.

East and West

When going shopping, Chinese people say “maidongxi”. One theory (说法) says that in the Tang Dynasty, there were two popular markets, the East Market and the West Market, in Chang’an. When shopping, people usually went to the East Market first, and then went to the West Market. As time went by, people started to describe (描述) shopping as “maidongxi”.

Left or right

In Chinese, we say “yijianxiangzuo” (意见相左) when we have different opinions. Why is it not “yijianxiangyou”?

Most people are right-handed. They feel uncomfortable if they use their left hand to write. So in ancient Chinese, “left” means being different. If people don’t accept (接受) common beliefs, we say they are following “pangmenzuodao” (旁门左道).

“Left” and “right” also have something to do with people’s social status (地位). In ancient China, “right” can mean higher status than “left”. For example, the character “佑” means a person in a higher status would protect (保护) someone in a lower status.

Up or down

We use “shangcesuo” to mean “go to the bathroom” and “xiachufang” to mean go to the kitchen. Why?

In ancient times, the gate of the house would face south, with the bathroom in the northeastern part of the house and the kitchen in the southeastern part. On maps, north is usually at the top. So we talk about the north as “shang” and the south as “xia”. People would say they were going up to the bathroom and down to the kitchen.

“Shang” and “xia” also show social status. For example, “huangshang” (皇上) means the emperor and “dianxia” (殿下) means the princes who had a lower status than the emperor.

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