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Culture Documents
How The Thing Works-Movable Printing
How The Thing Works-Movable Printing
How The Thing Works-Movable Printing
Education is only for the rich. A statement we can now slightly deny due to free tuition but in the past, it
was taken as common sense. Before printing was invented, books were essentially a luxury. Not only it
because of tuition and cost of material but also due to books being written by hands. Though ancient
printing made it a little easier the cost of making printing blocks/boards is still high. That is why we need
a better and cheaper method. Movable Printing can be said to be an important invention that push the
dissemination of knowledge to a new level. Characters are carved into small clay blocks and can be
rearranged. Instead of carving page by page, the character block can be just pick off and arrange into
what you need. Each block will be assembled into sentence8s and glued to an iron plate. After that ink is
applied over the blocks and paper is pressed against the blocks. In case of mistake the carving didn’t
need to be re-carved. With cost and mistakes less expensive, it reduce the price of book into a more
affordable one.
Machines from 30 years ago were not as easy to use and set-up as the one we have in our generation.
Computers have lots of different types of sockets, one or two serial ports, a parallel port, mouse and
keyboard ports, and, in some cases, a joystick port. If you make a mistake, the PC wouldn't know that
the wrong device had been plugged. In fact, you need to restart and manually install the right drivers.
Imagine having 5 sockets and you need to guess the right devices for it. One wrong move and you need
to start from scratch. Connecting peripherals devices used to be a torturing experience, thanks to the
limitations of our technology.
To tackle such frustrating experience, a demand was born for universality of sockets. Thus, USB or
Universal Serial Bus was invented. This technology connects computers with peripheral devices.
Allowing us to plug a lot of devices in just one socket such as keyboards, mouse, chargers, and etc. As
easy as that, this invention like its inspiration has no complicated use. Easy but extremely useful. That is
USB.
Society
Chinese society during the Song dynasty (960–1279) was marked by political and legal reforms, a
philosophical revival of Confucianism, and the development of cities beyond administrative purposes
into centers of industry and of maritime and river commerce.
The rural population were mostly farmers, with some hunters, fishermen, and workers in the imperial
mines and salt marshes. Conversely, shopkeepers, artisans, city guards, entertainers, laborers, and
wealthy merchants lived in the county and provincial centers along with the Chinese gentry—a small,
elite community of educated scholars and scholar-officials.
Women Rights
Women in Song society were expected to perform strict domestic and family tasks, but they also had
access to a number of social and legal privileges in an essentially patriarchal society. As the value of
dowries provided by brides' families increased, so did the status of women as owners of property.
Women of the Song period are typically seen as well educated and interested in expressing themselves
through poetry,[160] yet more reserved, respectful, "slender, petite and dainty," according to Gernet.
[159][161] Evidence of foot binding as a new trend in the Southern Song period certainly reinforces this
notion.[162] This trend had roots in Neo-Confucian beliefs according to Blake.[163] "However, the
greater number of documents due to more widespread printing reveal a much more complex and rich
reality about family life and Song women.[160] Through written stories, legal cases, and other
documents, many different sources show that Song women held considerable clout in family decision-
making, and some were quite economically savvy.[164][165] Men dominated the public sphere, while
affluent wives spent most of their time indoors enjoying leisure activities and managing the household.
[165] However, women of the lower and middle classes were not solely bound to the domestic sphere.
[160][165] It was common for women to manage town inns, some to manage restaurants, farmers'
daughters to weave mats and sell them on their own behalf, midwives to deliver babies, Buddhist nuns
to study religious texts and sutras, female nurses to assist physicians, and women to keep a close eye on
their own financial affairs.[165][166] In the case of the latter, legal case documents describe childless
widows who accused their nephews of stealing their property.[166] There are also numerous mentions
of women drawing upon their dowries to help their husband's sisters marry into other prominent
families.[1
Religion
Daoism and Buddhism were the dominant religions of China in the Song era. Despite dominance, older
beliefs in ancient Chinese mythology, folk religion, and ancestor worship still played a large part in their
daily life, with widespread belief in deities and ghosts of the spiritual realm acting among the living.
Leisure
A wide variety of social clubs for affluent Chinese became popular during the Song period. A text dated
1235 mentions that in Hangzhou City alone there was the West Lake Poetry Club, the Buddhist Tea
Society, the Physical Fitness Club, the Anglers' Club, the Occult Club, the Young Girls' Chorus, the Exotic
Foods Club, the Plants and Fruits Club, the Antique Collectors' Club, the Horse-Lovers' Club, and the
Refined Music Society.[5] No formal event or festival was complete without banquets, which
necessitated catering companies.[5]
The entertainment quarters of Kaifeng, Hangzhou, and other cities featured amusements including
snake charmers, sword swallowers, fortunetellers, acrobats, puppeteers, actors, storytellers, tea houses
and restaurants, and brokers offering young women who could serve as hired maids, concubines, singing
girls, or prostitutes.[5][24][25] These entertainment quarters, covered bazaars known as pleasure
grounds, were places where strict social morals and formalities could be largely ignored.[26] The
pleasure grounds were located within the city, outside the ramparts near the gates, and in the suburbs;
each was regulated by a state-appointed official.[27] Games and entertainments were an all-day affair,
while the taverns and singing girl houses were open until two o'clock in the morning.
In many ways, life for peasants in the countryside during the Song dynasty was similar to those living in
previous dynasties. The people spent their days ploughing and planting in the fields, tending to their
families, selling crops and goods at local markets, visiting local temples, and arranging ceremonies such
as marriages.[35] Cases of banditry, which local officials were forced to combat, occurred constantly in
the countryside.[35]
There were varying types of land ownership and tenure depending on the topography and climate of
one's locality. In hilly, peripheral areas far from trade routes, most peasant farmers owned and
cultivated their own fields.[35] In frontier regions such as Hunan and Sichuan, owners of wealthy estates
gathered serfs to till their lands.[35] The most advanced areas had few estates with serfs tilling the
fields; these regions had long fostered wet-rice cultivation, which did not require centralized
management of farming.[35] Landlords set fixed rents for tenant farmers in these regions, while
independent small farming families also owned their own lots.[35]
The Song government provided tax incentives to farmers who tilled lands along the edges of lakes,
marshes, seas, and terraced mountain slopes.[36] Farming was made possible in these difficult terrains
due to improvements in damming techniques and using chain pumps to elevate water to higher
irrigation planes.[37] The 10th century introduction of early-ripening rice that could grow in varied
climatic zones and topographic conditions allowed for a significantly large migration from the most
productive lands that had been farmed for centuries into previously uninhabited areas in the
surrounding hinterland of the Yangzi Valley and Southeast China, which experienced rapid development.
[38] The widespread cultivation of rice in China necessitated new trends of labor and agricultural
techniques. An effective yield from rice paddies required careful transplanting of rows of rice seedlings,
sufficient weeding, maintenance of water levels, and draining of fields for harvest.[39] Planting and
weeding often required a dirty day of work, since the farmers had to wade through the muddy water of
the rice paddies on bare feet.[39] For other crops, water buffalos were used as draft animals for
ploughing and harrowing the fields, while properly aged and mixed compost and manure was constantly
spread.[39]
Life of wealthy
The wealthy families living on the estates of these scholar-officials – as well as rich merchants, princes,
and nobles—often maintained a massive entourage of employed servants, technical staffs, and personal
favorites.[55] They hired personal artisans such as jewellers, sculptors, and embroiderers, while servants
cleaned house, shopped for goods, attended to kitchen duties, and prepared furnishings for banquets,
weddings, and funerals.[55] Rich families also hosted literary men such as secretaries, copyists, and
hired tutors to educate their sons.[56] They were also the patrons of musicians, painters, poets, chess
players, and storytellers
1996 usb
Military
During the Song dynasty, for those without formal education, the quickest way to power and the upper
echelons of society was to join the military.[211] If a man had a successful career in the military and
could boast of victorious battles, he had a sure path to success in politics. scholar-officials and the gentry
nonetheless viewed military pursuits as uncultivated. Song military command were heavily corrupt. At
the beginning of the 12th century, Song generals collected funds based on the number of troops they
recorded; instead of using the funds to benefit troops, they used this money to bolster their own
salaries.[216] Troops of the standing army, meanwhile, were given very small salaries while assigned
tasks of menial labor.[73] The scholar-officials running the government often paid little attention to the
plight of soldiers and even to the demands of officers, since they were seen as being on a lower tier in
society.[72] Fairbank writes that the "civilian domination of the military was part of the ruling elite's
control of the state, but it left the state military weak."[212]
USB 1996
https://youtu.be/06u0csd5E9c
darlings untouchable
better one
the landowner
food prices
January – A corruption scandal erupts that alleged many senior politicians and civil servants to have
received bribes from prominent businessman Surendra Jain.
January – Tensions with Pakistan rise sharply and there is an exchange of mortar and machine-gun fire
across the Line of Control in Kashmir.
29 January – S. R. Bommai resigns as president of the Janata Dal party and is replaced by Laloo Prasad
Yadav.
27 April, 2 May and 7 May – In general elections the ruling Congress Party is defeated and Bharatiya
Janata Party becomes the largest single party in parliament. Phoolan Devi, former bandit queen is
elected to Parliament from the Samajwadi Party.
17 to 28 May – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is elected the new Prime
Minister of India, replacing P. V. Narasimha Rao of the Indian National Congress. However, the party
does not receive an overall majority and Vajpayee resigns thirteen days later rather than face a no
confidence vote, and is replaced by the United Front, led by Deve Gowda.
1 June – Deve Gowda is sworn in as the head of the United Front, a coalition of 13 parties which
Congress supported but did not join. Gowda's new cabinet brings in powerful regional figures, mixing
low-caste and Muslim leaders with veterans of the socialist movement.
28 June – Communists join the government for the first time since independence.[citation needed]
11 July – A Delhi court summons Congress president P.V. Narasimha Rao to testify as the co-accused in a
cheating case.
28 August – At least 194 pilgrims are reported to have frozen to death in northern Kashmir after being
stranded by violent rain and snow storms in the Amarnath Yatra tragedy.
19 September – The government of Gujarat under Chief Minister Suresh Mehta is sacked on
recommendation of Prime Minister Gowda, and federal rule is imposed over the state. The move comes
a day after the BJP government in Gujarat won a controversial vote of confidence in the state legislature.
Mehta won the vote after the acting assembly speaker (a BJP member) suspended all opposition
legislators. Fighting broke out on the floor of the assembly after marshals tried to force the suspended
legislators to leave. Witnesses said lawmakers hurled pin cushions and microphones at each other.
Several lawmakers and journalists were reportedly injured in the scuffles.[citation needed]
11 October – An Uttar Pradesh state election returns a hung assembly; the local power struggle
sharpens conflicts between Congress and coalition parties at national level.
30 October – Michael Jackson arrived in Mumbai as a part of his History World Tour and he performed
for the first time ever in India in front of 66,000 fans on 1 November 1996 at Andheri Sports Complex.[1]
7 November – A devastating Category 4 Cyclone strikes Andhra Pradesh, India. The storm surge sweeps
fishing villages out to sea, over 2,000 people die. 95% of the crops are completely destroyed.
12 November – A Saudi Arabian Boeing 747 jumbo jet and a Kazakhstan Ilyushin cargo plane collide near
Charkhi Dadri, killing 349 people in the world's deadliest mid-air collision.
28 November – Chinese President Jiang Zemin begins his three-day visit, the first visit by a Chinese head
of state to India.
19 December – Rao resigns as Congress parliamentary leader, his last official party position.
30 December – In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
India is a hierarchical society. Whether in north India or south India, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village,
virtually all things, people, and social groups are ranked according to various essential qualities.
Although India is a political democracy, notions of complete equality are seldom evident in daily life.
Societal hierarchy is evident in caste groups, amongst individuals, and in family and kinship groups.
Castes are primarily associated with Hinduism, but caste-like groups also exist among Muslims, Indian,
Christians, and other religious communities. Within most villages or towns, everyone knows the relative
rankings of each locally represented caste, and behavior is constantly shaped by this knowledge.
Individuals are also ranked according to their wealth and power. For example, some powerful people, or
“big men,” sit confidently on chairs, while “little men” come before them to make requests, either
standing or squatting not presuming to sit beside a man of high status as an equal.
Hierarchy plays an important role within families and kinship groupings also, where men outrank
women of similar age, and senior relatives outrank junior relatives. Formal respect is accorded family
members—for example, in northern India, a daughter-in-law shows deference to her husband, to all
senior in-laws, and to all daughters of the household. Siblings, too, recognize age differences, with
younger siblings addressing older siblings by respectful terms rather than by name.