A monthly quiz of general history, traditions, geography questions for May
1. Which country other than Britain took part in the Opium Wars with China?
France
Spain
Russia
For the second Opium War (1856-60) it was a strange alliance of UK and France considering it was just over 40 years after the battle of Waterloo. France was starting to build up its Indo-Chinese interests (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos).
The East India Company iron steam ship Nemesis, commanded by Lieutenant W. H. Hall, with boats from the Sulphur, Calliope, Larne and Starling, destroying the Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay, on 7 January 1841. Image by Edward Duncan ➚ available under a Creative Commons License ➚
2. Which of these is NOT part of the Buddhist eightfold path to enlightenment
abstain from sex
act sensitively
reject evil
The eight steps to Buddhist Enlightenment do not include celibacy nor does it advocate living as a monk.
A luóhàn (arhat), found at Yixian, Hebei province, Liao dynasty (907-1125). British Museum, London. Image by David Castor ➚ available under a Creative Commons License ➚
3. An auspicious arrangement of hills is sometimes called?
sleeping phoenix
magic lotus
hidden dragon
A sleeping dragon was thought to form a range of hills. In consequence it was very bad luck to quarry or mine into such formations. A 'hidden dragon' can also be a person who hides his true powers.
Zhejiang scenery near Hangzhou including a tea plantation
4. Why is rice planted in water?
suppress weeds
provide nutrients
suppress insect pests
Rice does need huge amounts of water to grow, the flooding is principally to suppress weeds - it just happens that rice is more tolerant to growing in water than most other plants.
The first four Qing Emperors Shunzhi; Kangxi; Yongzheng and Qianlong ruled long and skillfully, their reigns covered 150 years of relative prosperity for all in China. Emperor Qianlong ruled for sixty years (1735 to 1796).
An Elegant Party (detail), an outdoor painting of a small Chinese banquet hosted by the emperor for scholar-officials from the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Although painted in the Song period, it is most likely a reproduction of an earlier Tang Dynasty (618-907) work of art. The painting is attributed to Emperor Huizong of Song (r. 1100-1125 AD).
Image by PericlesofAthens ➚ available under a Creative Commons license ➚.
6. The 'Peony Pavilion' is a famous what?
novel
painting
opera
The 'Peony Pavilion' is the most famous Kunqu Opera and dates back to the Ming dynasty.
Wuhan spring scene
7. The noon day gun is fired every day where?
Lhasa
Hong Kong
Xiamen
Since 1864 each day the noon day gun is fired at Hong Kong. The tradition started because the British trading company of Jardines had had the habit of firing a gun salute whenever a senior executive arrived, while this privilege should have been reserved for only military commanders. As punishment the company was ordered to fire a noon day gun for ever after.
8. When did the first known Chinese person visit Britain?
1798
1280
1685
In 1685 the Jesuits had brought back to Europe a Chinese convert: Shen Fuzong. He made a tour of European cities including London and was greatly feted by King James II.
9. How would you say 'next month' in Chinese?
下个月 xià gè yuè
明年 míng nián
上个月 shàng gè yuè
Next is often expressed as 下 xià which also means below, down and later.
Photo by Anonymous, Chinese plate, Ming dynasty, Yongle period 1403-1424, porcelain with under-glaze blue, 23 inches [58 cms] diameter, Honolulu Academy of Arts. Available under a Creative Commons license ➚.
10. The Uyghur people number over 8 million in which province do they mainly live?
Inner Mongolia
Gansu
Xinjiang
The (Uighur, Uygur, and Uigur) people live in north-western China primarily in the ?Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region?. or simply Xinjiang. Uyghurs are a Turkic people with closer affinity to Central Asian people than to Han Chinese. Significant numbers also live in neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
Beijing street. September 2019. Image by Paul Kerswill
11. In which Chinese province was the 14th Dalai Lama (present leader) born?
Qinghai
Shanxi
Sichuan
Tibetan Buddhism is strong in several western provinces not just in Tibet. Once the Tibetan kingdom spread much further east.
12. Under which British sovereign was the first official embassy sent off to China?
King Edward VI
King Charles II
Queen Elizabeth I
The first attempted British contact was in about 1553 when King Edward VI sought to open up the wool trade to a new market. This scarcely known embassy set off overland but only reached as far as the Caspian Sea.
William Alexander's drawing of the reception of the Macartney embassy to China. Young Thomas Staunton ➚ (kneeling not kowtowing) receives a gift from the Emperor. Image by William Alexander available under a Creative Commons License ➚
13. Which European scientist considered the Yi Jing as proof of ancient knowledge of binary arithmetic?
Isaac Newton
Leibniz
Francis Bacon
The complete sequence of yin-yang (solid or broken) lines in the Yi Jing is a set of six binary choices that led Leibniz to believe that the Chinese had discovered binary arithmetic at a very early date. The binary arithmetic system led to the development of all modern computers.
14. A meeting at Lushan in 1959 brought an end to the career of which revolutionary leader
Peng Dehuai
Zhou Enlai
Lin Biao
General Peng Dehuai openly criticized the leadership over the failings of the Great Leap Forward at the Lushan conference. Mao Zedong took exception and Peng Dehuai was demoted and held under house arrest.
The Wade-Giles system was a British system used in the early twentieth century for spelling Chinese in the English alphabet and so it is found in most of English books from this period (1890-1970). The Wade-Giles system is sometimes still seen today in the spelling of such names as Mao Tse-tung, Peking , Szechuan and Yangtse Kiang (Yangzi River).
A monthly quiz of general history, traditions, geography questions for May
