Brotherhood Forged in the Peach Garden

Toward the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty(25-220) China was war-stricken. After a royal edict to recruit soldiers in Zhuozhou, three heroes surfaced. One was Liu Bei, a descendent of Liu Sheng, Prince Jin of Zhongshan during the Han Dynasty. Liu Bei was sighing while reading the posted edict when he heard an impatient voice behind, " What use is just sighing, without a man's devotion to his country?"
Then the man introduced himself: "I'm Zhang Fei and my livelihood is selling wine and slaughtering hogs."
"I do want to devote myself to the country," Liu explained after telling Zhang his name. "But how can I help if I'm empty handed?"
"You needn't worry," said Zhang. "I'm willing to give up my fortune to build an army and embark on this new career with you."
While the two talked merrily over cups in a small restaurant, in came a martial looking, handsome man with a huge build and a red complexion. Liu and Zhang invited him to join them. They learned that the man was named Guan Yu. As he had upheld justice by killing a local tyrant, he had fled home and wandered about for many years. During an amiable conversation the three found that they shared a common ambition and the next day in a peach garden they swore brotherhood to heaven and earth before lit candles and joss sticks, Liu Bei the eldest, Guan Yu the second-oldest and Zhang Fei the youngest. They vowed devotion to China. Later, the three sworn brothers had successful career. Liu Bei ascended to the throne of the State of Shu in 221A.D in present-day Sichuan.

Culturally, due to the popularity of the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, Liu Bei is widely known as the ideal benevolent, humane ruler who cared for his people and selected good advisors for his government. His fictional character was a salutary example of a ruler who adhered to the Confucian set of moral values, such as loyalty and compassion. Historically, Liu Bei was a brilliant politician and leader whose skill was a remarkable demonstration of a Legalist. His political philosophy can best be described by the Chinese idiom "Confucian in appearance but Legalist in substance," a style of governing which had become the norm after the founding of the Han Dynasty.

Zhang Fei was described to be an alcoholic, and his obsession with wine caused his judgement to be affected from time to time. Throughout the novel Three Kingdoms, Zhang Fei was shown as an exceedingly loyal and formidable warrior, but also a short-tempered man, who often got into trouble more often when he was not on the battlefield. Zhang Fei's impulsive and reckless nature was demonstrated in one incident at Gucheng.

Guan Yu (died 220)was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He played a significant role in the civil war that led to the collapse of the Han Dynasty and the establishment of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, of which Liu Bei was the first emperor.

Battle of Red Cliffs - Three Kingdoms

The Battle of Red Cliffs, otherwise known as the Battle of Chibi, was one of the novel Three Kindoms' secondery stories. During the confrontation of the Three Kingdoms in China, The Battle of Red Cliffs was a decisive battle at the end of the Han Dynasty, immediately prior to the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. It was fought in the winter of 208/9 AD[1] between the allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan and the numerically superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao. 
After the Duke of Wei, Cao Cao had controlled all of the North China Plain, he led the troop of 800.000 soldiers to south aiming to eliminate his main southern rivals swiftly and unify China. Meanwhile, Zhou Yu and Lu Su, the generals of Wu and Zhuge Liang of Shu accurately analyzed the situation and disadvantages of Cao army, including its unstable rear supply despite of the claimed 800 thousand soldiers, exhausting expedition and inexperience in water battle, and developed their strategy of confronting the army.
There were altogether 50,000 soldiers, including 30,000 trained naval soldiers led by Zhou Yu, the general of Wu and others led by Liu Bei of Shu organized to confront the Cao army. Since Cao Cao's troop was already decimated by seasickness and lack of water experience, it lost control in battle effectiveness and had to camp northern of the Yangtze River with the Wu and Shu troops in the south. Later Cao Cao ordered to chain his entire fleet together with strong iron chains to drill the navy. Zhou Yu then adopted Huang Gai’s plan of an attack that he pretended to surrender to Cao Cao and got the chance to get close to Cao’s fleet and attacked Cao Cao with fire ships. Cao Cao simply assumed that superiority in number would eventually defeat the Wu and Shu navy and gave Huang Gai the chance to approach his fleet. This eventually brought the debacle of his fleets, which were intruded by Huang Gai’s boats with all firewood ignited at the same time. The Cao army became a sea of fire immediately, which extended to the camps on bank and caused decisive damage of the army. Zhou Yu and others seized the opportunity and chased the Cao force along the way and successfully beat it. Cao Cao had to flee with the remaining troops. The ally then chased to enlarge their victory.
The decisive battle of red cliffs was brought to an end under the background that Cao Cao held the favorable position but underestimated his enemy and made the wrong decision that led to his defeat. During the battle, Sun and Liu allied to repel the strong enemy, leveraged their advantage in water battle and adopted the fire attack to finally defeat the stronger with the weaker. The battle laid the foundation for the confrontation of the latter three kingdoms, Wei, Shu and Wu.
A combination of Cao Cao's strategic errors and the effectiveness of Huang Gai's ruse had resulted in the allied victory at the Battle of Red Cliffs. Zhou Yu had previously observed that Cao Cao's generals and soldiers comprised mostly cavalry and infantry, and few had any experience in naval warfare. Cao Cao also had little support among the people of Jing Province, and thus lacked a secure forward base of operations. Despite the strategic acumen Cao Cao had displayed in earlier campaigns and battles, in this case he had simply assumed that numerical superiority would eventually defeat the Sun and Liu navy. Cao's first tactical mistake was converting his massive army of infantry and cavalry into a marine corps and navy: with only a few days of drills before the battle, Cao Cao's troops were ravaged by sea-sickness and lack of experience on water. Tropical diseases, to which the southerners had long been immune, also plagued the soldiers of the north with the debilitating effects of sickness rampant in Cao Cao's camps. Although numerous, Cao Cao's men were already exhausted by the unfamiliar environment and the extended southern campaign, as Zhuge Liang observed: "Even a powerful arrow at the end of its flight cannot penetrate a silk cloth"

How to prepare for HSK test

As a standardized test of general language proficiency, HSK is not based on any particular textbook or course of study. Therefore candidates may refer to any textbook in preparing for the test. Nevertheless, it is important that all candidates read HSK Test Syllabus carefully, a guide for the pre-test preparation. It contains an introduction to HSK, a sample HSK test paper and the key, HSK glossary and a CD of the sample listening questions.

    To be admitted to the test room, every examinee will be required to present his or her admission ticket and a photo-bearing ID certificate (ID card, passport or a residence permit). No candidates will be allowed to enter the test room without the afore-mentioned two evidences. The candidates whose admission ticket is missing can only be admitted to the test room till the ticket is reissued (with handling charges). Tape recorders, cameras, dictionaries, notebooks, textbooks and other unnecessary objects mustn’t be taken into the room. Mobile phones and MP3 shall be switch off and put inside bags, which shall be placed at an area designated by the invigilators.

    Candidates arriving five minutes late (since the start of listening comprehension test) may be admitted to the testing room and start the test right away. If examinees are 5 to 35 minutes late for the test, they may not start until the next section begins and no extra test time is to be offset for the late arrivals. Thirty-five minutes after the beginning of the exam, no candidates will be admitted to the test room.

Things to note during the test
（1）Once in the test room, candidates shall put the admission ticket and the ID certificate on the upper right corner of the desk for the inspection of invigilators. All the activities of the candidates are subject to the instructions of the supervisor.

（2）Duration for HSK (Basic) is about 135 minutes; HSK (Elementary-Intermediate) about 145 minutes without break; and HSK (Advanced) about 180 minutes with a break after the written test. In principle candidates shall not leave the test room during the course of the test. If so under some exceptional circumstances, the candidate shall gain the permission from the supervisor.

（3）HSK test has a strict control of the time limits for each section of the test and candidates shall answer the corresponding test questions within a given time period and avoid jumping to the later sections or turning back to the previous ones during the test.

（4）Candidates shall not take the test papers or answer sheets out of the room, or tear apart, replace or copy the contents of the test.

（5）Candidates shall abide by the test instructions and rules and those who violate the rules will be warned and not even allowed to continue the test by the organizer.

（6）Before answering the test questions, candidates shall fill in their names (Chinese and English), the test paper code, nationality code, the test center code and the candidate’s number according to the admission ticket. Candidates should also draw a bar like this [■] to indicate their sex. The test paper code is on the upper right corner. The nationality code is a fixed number created by the test center for each country and nationality for all HSK tests. For example, the code for Japan is 525, France 610, etc. The candidate’s number is a serial number of registration. The test center code is the number for the place where the test is held. For example, the admission ticket of a Japanese student called Kimula Yuko is like this.
While filling in the information, candidates should write the numbers first in the blanks on the left and then draw a bar on the corresponding numbers on the right like this [■].

（7）Answers should be made by drawing a bar like this: [■].

Please note that the bar should be drawn thick and bold to make sure that the card-reading machine can recognize the answers. The candidate should bear the consequences due to his or her failure in following the instructions about how to answer the questions.

A Dream of Red Mansions, also known as Dream of the Red Chamber. The Story of the Stone, or Chronicles of the Stone is one of the masterpieces of Chinese fiction. It was composed sometime in the middle of the eighteenth century during the Qing Dynasty. Its authorship is attributed to Cáo Xuěqín (Cao Zhan), though the last forty chapters of the work were apparently created later by another author. The novel is usually grouped with three other pre-modern Chinese works of fiction, collectively known as the Four Great Classical Novels. Of these, A Dream of Red Mansions is often taken to be the zenith of Chinese classical fiction.

It is believed that the novel is semi-autobiographical, mirroring the fortunes of Cao Xueqin's own family, and was intended to be a memorial to the women Cao knew in his youth: friends, relatives, and servants.

The novel provides a detailed, episodic record of the two branches of the wealthy and aristocratic Jia clan — the Rongguo House and the Ningguo House — who reside in two large, adjacent family compounds in the capital Beijing. Their ancestors were made dukes, and as the novel begins the two houses are among the most illustrious families in the capital. One of the clan's offspring was made an Imperial Consort, and a gigantic landscaped garden is built to receive her visit. The novel describes the Jias' wealth and influence in great naturalistic detail, and charts the Jias' fall from the height of their prestige, following some thirty main characters and over four hundred minor ones. Eventually the Jia clan falls into disfavor with the Emperor, and their mansions are raided and confiscated.

In the story's frame story, a sentient Stone, abandoned by the goddess Nüwa when she mended the heavens aeons ago, begs a Taoist priest and Buddhist monk to bring it with him to see the world. The Stone and Divine Attendant-in-Waiting are separate beings (while in Cheng-Gao versions they are merged into the same character).

The main character, Jia Baoyu (whose name means "precious jade"), is the adolescent heir of the family, a reincarnation of the Divine Attendant-in-Waiting. The Crimson Pearl Fairy is incarnated as Baoyu's sickly cousin, the emotional Lin Daiyu, who loves Baoyu. Baoyu, however, is predestined in this life to marry another cousin, Xue Baochai. This love triangle against the backdrop of the family's declining fortunes forms the main story in the novel. When the young Jia Baoyu, finally grows up, the paradise-like home of his childhood is destroyed and his friends are scattered to the four winds. 

Summary of Journey to the West

Journey to the West is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty, its authorship has been ascribed to the scholar Wu Cheng'en since the 20th century. In English-speaking countries, the tale is also often known simply as Monkey.

Monkey King (or Sunwukong) was born from a stone. He wanted to be like the immortals and be free from death. He was extremely smart and capable, and learned all the magic tricks from a master Taoist. He could transform himself into seventy-two different images such as a tree, a bird, a beast of prey, or a bug as small as a mosquito so as to sneak into an enemy's belly to fight him or her inside out. Using clouds as a vehicle, he can travel 180,000 miles a single somersault.

He claimed to be king in defiance of the Great Emperor of Jade—the only authority over heaven, the seas, the earth, and the subterranean world. That act of high treason invited the relentless scourge of the Heavenly army. After many showdowns, the dove faction of the heavenly court persuaded the emperor to offer the monkey an official title to appease him. The monkey accepted this offer on a trial basis. However, he learned a few days later that he was cheated and being jeered all over the heavenly court: the position he held was nothing but a stable keeper. Enraged, he revolted, fighting his way back to earth to resume his own claim as a king.

Eventually, the heavenly army subdued him, only after many a battle, with the help of all the god warriors. However, all methods of execution failed. One attempt to kill him actually gave him a pair of fiery golden crystal eyes that can see through what people normally cannot.

At last, the emperor asked Buddha for help. The Buddha moved a great mountain known as the Mount of Five Fingers to fall upon him. Still, the tenacious monkey survived the enormous weight and pressure, except he could not move! Five hundred years later, there came to his rescue the monk Tripitaka. To insure that Tripitaka could make the journey to the West to get the Buddhist scriptures, Buddha had arranged for the Monkey King to become his disciple and escort him, along with two other disciples they later came across. There the four started their stormy journey west which was packed with actions and adventures.

Monkey, the monk, Pigsy, and Sandy work their way to the Western Paradise and the Buddhist sutras. Tall mountains, deep rushing rivers, and evil demons lie ahead. But Monkey is brave and smart, and he even learns to behave. They know this is an important mission. As many years pass, they learn to face challenges by working together. When a task is too hard, the goddess Guan Yin helps out. After traveling for 14 years and 108,000 miles, Monkey and his friends reach the Western Paradise. Buddha gives them the sacred sutras to take back to China. Buddha knows that the travelers suffered on the journey, but they also learned something new about themselves. Plus, they each earned merit for doing good deeds. Buddha rewards them for their loyalty and hard work—with immortal life and happiness.