Origin of Chinese N
the chinese new year is now popularly known as the spring festival because it starts from the begining of spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of nature). its origin is too old to be traced. several explanations are hanging around. all agree, however, that the word nian, which in modern chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.
one legend goes that the beast nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. people were very scared. one day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue nian. to nian he said, "i hear say that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?" so, it did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harrassed people and their domestic animals from time to r that, the old man disappeared riding the beast nian. he turned out to be an immortal god. now that nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests, people begin to enjoy their peaceful life. before the old man left, he had told people to put up red pa-pe-r decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away nian in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.
from then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of nian is carried on from generation to generation. the term "guo nian", which may mean "survive the nian" becomes today "celebrate the (new) year" as the word "guo" in chinese having both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe". the custom of putting up red pa-pe-r and firing fire-crackers to scare away nian should it have a chance to run loose is still around. however, people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the color and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration.
e Is No End to Mank
it is human nature to seek morc and to want something different. there are many instances in our daily life that can verify this.
we can take some human's basic needs as an example we do not want to wear the same clothes all the time and we want better and better cars. we wish to live in a more spacious flat. of course not all human beings are the same. for instance, some people try to climb up socially or politically all the time, while others never stop trying to make more money. children long for new toys while the old hope to live longer. scientists want to make new discoveries while writers desire to produce more works.
good or had, this human nature has been the impetus to the de velopment of human society. markets flourish because we want more and better goods. the development of science and technology has never stopped because of our desire to discover more and more. if man has been easily satisfied, the human society would still be at its primitive stage.
学识谷
