Behind a thick cocoon of cold gas, scientists have discovered what might be a new class of astronomical objects in our galaxy. Made up of a very massive star and a compact object such as a neutron star or a black hole, the binary system is unique because it remained hidden behind a cloud of obscuring material for so long.

Princess Taihua was the daughter of Emperor Gaozong in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that she was the Queen of Emperor Gaozong in a previous life. The queen was murdered by one of Emperor Gaozong’s concubines, Madam Wu. After the queen died, Madam Wu gave birth to Princess Taihua. Princess Taihua never smiled. Even though Madam Wu was her mother, every time Princess Taihua saw Madam Wu she would become very angry.

Liu Yanzhuang asked him, “I’ve never seen you speaking to any of my friends and guests, whether they are virtuous or not. Qiao Lin, on the other hand, is a nobody. Why are you exceptionally courteous towards him?” Shen Tusheng replied, “This man isn’t an ordinary person! He’ll one day become your superior. You should treat him kindly, and in later years he’ll reward you for your courtesy today. I’m being friendly towards him on your account. Unfortunately, judging from his facial features, there are signs that he’ll rebel one day. If he were to be a high-level government official, he wouldn’t be able to keep the position for more than a hundred days. Furthermore, he would certainly be killed after seventy years of age. Please remember what I’ve said today.”

There certainly cannot be any tiger downtown. A rumour that a tiger was spotted downtown is an obvious falsehood, but a rumour, if repeated often enough, can be accepted as truth. This spawned the Chinese idiom “three people can turn a rumour of a tiger downtown into an accepted truth,” which is used to express this meaning. For example, one might say, “To tell between truth and falsehood, one must carefully examine all facts and think thoroughly, and should not easily believe in rumours, or one is allowing ‘three people to turn a rumour of a tiger downtown into an accepted truth.’”

Very early the next morning Wei Gu eagerly rushed to the temple. The moon was still in the sky when he arrived. There was an old man sitting on the steps, leaning on a bag and reading a book under the moonlight. Wei Gu glanced at the book, but could not read its words. So he asked the old man, “What kind of book are you reading? Ever since youth I’ve studied many different languages, even Indian Sanskrit. Yet, I must admit I’ve never come across the language written in this book. What can you tell me about it?”

Some years back, King Mu of the Qin State lost a few prized horses. The three hundred residents at the foot of Mount Qi found and captured those fine horses, and consumed the meat. The law enforcement officers of the Qin State discovered their crime, arrested all of them, and were ready to administer the most severe punishments for eating the King’s horses. But King Mu announced, “A true gentleman would never punish people on the account of a few animals. By the way, I heard that eating the meat of good horses without wine is harmful to one’s body.”

According to The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Script, an ancient Chinese medical reference book, all illnesses arise from dryness, humidity, cold, heat, wind, rain, imbalances between Yin and Yang, happiness, anger, dietary imbalances and an inauspicious residence location. The ill person frequently feels better at dawn and during the daytime, but may feel worse at dusk and at night. In other words, the symptoms of an illness may intensify at dusk and get even worse at night.

I was sent to the detention centre because of my belief and my conscience. A prisoner who had been sentenced to death asked me, "If you are right and kind, why were you sent here? Don't you talk about retribution?" I then wrote the following poem.

The stone rubbing calligraphy of Yan Qin Li Bei was written by Yan Zhenqing in 779 AD and excavated in October 1922 in Chang’an City known today as Xi’an. Yan Zhenqing (709-785 AD) was an expert calligrapher during the Tang Dynasty and built the stone for his great-grandfather. The stone remains in good condition after being buried underground for many years.

After Zhang heard the scholar’s words, he immediately rose to meet the scholar. The scholar said, “The cure of your illness does not lie in medical herbs. Tomorrow you will hire ten laborers to build a well for you. The well will be your cure.” The next day Zhang Shiping fulfilled the scholar’s request and had ten laborers ready for the scholar’s command. After the scholar picked a spot for the well, the laborers began to dig until morning arrived.

There is an old Chinese saying, “Who could have guessed it was a blessing in disguise when the old man on the frontier lost his mare?” It means a loss may turn out to be a gain, or misfortune may be a blessing in disguise. It is now a common adage. This saying originally comes from a story in “Lessons from the Human World” of Hua Nan Zi compiled by Liu An in the West Han Dynasty. The story is as follows.

Rays of light filter soft through ancient trees,
Deep forest whispers many secrets to me;
Vibrant green fern plants cleansed by the rain,
Woodland voices echo faint on the breeze.

Currently, there is a sense that modern science will continue to advance indefinitely and will eventually discover a complete and consistent theory of the universe. However, as much as modern science has been making great advances, it has also been discovering its limitations. As others have also realized, some of the greatest discoveries of modern science are the discoveries of its own limitations.

Some figures in Dunhuang murals appear unpolished and unclear in the background while others in the forefront are intensely detailed. The character’s bodies are vivid and accurate. Males are dressed in costumes with long strips and appear natural and fluid. Full figured females are extremely beautiful and elegant.

Li Zonghui was a highly talented Chinese scholar who lived in ancient China. One day, he embarked on a journey to the imperial capital with another man to take the national civil service examination. During the trip, the man revealed a secret to Li Zonghui, “I can predict the exact menu for each man for each meal, and I am never wrong.”

"Upon lake’s still flatness, shines celestial light,
Within calm’s deep silence, words of Gods can sound;
Without man’s dark notions, thinking’s realm is bright,
Beyond man’s base clamour, Heaven’s voice is found."

Sublime, all encompassing,
A time when awakening
Summons every heart,
A stretch of consciousness
Further than the widest eye.

"In crashing waves of loss and gain, man casts his empty nets,
Drowning in his twisted ropes of hopes and past regrets..."

Ever since the pre-Qin period, through the successive dynasties, Chinese thinkers have searched tirelessly for the eternal Great Tao that Confucius and Lao Zi praised so highly. Where did the Great Tao come from and why and when did it decline? Is there any force that can rectify and renew the origin, and bring about a radical change in the universe? When people have tried all means to seek the Great Tao, they have had to face a question that no one can escape: where does humanity come from?

Among the Buddha portraits of the Dunhuang caves, the posture and facial expression of the Bodhisattva is the most striking. Each of these types of paintings have a variety of Bodhisattva's; in some of the caves the walls are filled with small Bodhisattva's, while other caves have large portraits of just one Bodhisattva. There are over a thousand of these paintings based on scriptures or sayings, and on just the scripture paintings alone, there are over ten thousand Bodhisattva images, making it the largest preserved collection of these images in the world.

Cui Yanwei, the head of Zhenyuan County, and Bozhou gathered officers and laborers and they dug thousands of feet until reaching a dragon temple. When they first opened the temple, they thought it was an ancient grave. But it looked newly built and was very clean inside. When they looked around, they saw a dragon with scales of five colors lying in the hole. The dragon was more than 1 zhang (1 zhang = 12 ft.) long, and five or six carps were swimming around it.

When one is neither enticed in poverty nor conceited in wealth, there is good fortune awaiting him or her. On the fifth day of the fifth month, when Furen departed in sitting meditation, in the house of a royal family in Lanling while Zhang (the wife of Xiao Shun-zhi) was in labour. Shun-zhi was a cousin of Emperor Qi Gao. While he was sleeping, Zhang dreamed of a golden man, over 10-feet tall, wearing official attire and a hat for heavenly descendants. A group of people in red attire surrounded Zhang in a coach to come into Xiao’s hall for a break. This golden man entered Zhang’s room and bowed to Zhang as a sign of respect. In astonishment Zhang was about to ask what was happening, however, she woke up from the dream and gave birth to a son.

Astronomers from Case Western Reserve University say they have discovered a new galaxy, a collection of stars hovering undetected just outside the huge Andromeda spiral.
Researchers said the newest known resident of the celestial neighbourhood, dubbed Andromeda VIII, was unmasked when they realised that some stars thought to be part of the big spiral galaxy were moving at a different velocity.

Theoretically, at the atomic level, energy currents form when electrons move between atoms. An atom contains protons with a positive charge, neutrons with a neutral charge and electrons with a negative charge. All three form an uncharged atom. Many things in nature tend to reach a neutral state. Equilibrium within an atom is very similar to the balance between “Yin” and “Yang,” a theory already known in ancient China. An electron carries a negative Yin charge.