Zhang Ziyi biography, quotes, song (Beauty Song/Jia Ren Qu 佳人曲）

Posted on 09/11/2011 by Chinesetolearn

Movie collection of Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi (also known as Ziyi Zhang) is China’s most famous and talented actress, you have seen her in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Rush Hour 2, Hero, and Memoirs of a Geisha. She has dazzled audiences with her powerful acting, martial arts grace, and stunning beauty. Her most recent action film to be released in the US was House of Flying Daggers. But Zhang Ziyi is not just an action star, she has won praise for her performance in the romantic drama 2046, and she won China’s most prestigious acting award for her role in Jasmine Women. In 2005 Ziyi made Memoirs of a Geisha, her first major Hollywood role. Her latest released film is The Banquet, a Chinese historical drama. Upcoming are The Horsemen and Mei Lanfang. For information on all her movies, check out the filmography.

In addition to being an actress, she is a natural model and is basically the most beautiful woman on earth, so be sure to see the pictures.

We have a large collection of video clips, head over there for highlights from her movies, commercials, and TV appearances. Make sure you see her awesome Matrix-insired Visa commercial “Dining Out” if you haven’t already.

About her name
You might wonder why she is called both Ziyi Zhang and Zhang Ziyi in the press. Chinese names differ from Western names in that the family name (Zhang) comes first before the personal name (Ziyi), hence in China she is named Zhang Ziyi. That is how she has been known for most of her career. But when a Chinese comes to the west, they usually reverse their names to match the western convention, in which case her name becomes Ziyi Zhang. She has asked the Western media to refer to her as Ziyi Zhang from now on, but half the time she is still called Zhang Ziyi. Her friends just call her Z.

Sections:

Biography – Promotions – Awards

Biography

Zhang Ziyi was born the 9th of February 1979, in Beijing, China. Her father worked as an economist and her mother was a kindergarden teacher. After some friends were expressed concerned she that was too frail, her parents encouraged her to take up dance and gymnastics to build up her strength.

So before Zhang Ziyi became an actress, she spent years training in traditional Chinese folk dance, first in elementary school at the Xuanwu District Children’s Palace, and later at the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy. Ziyi eventually won the Performance Prize at the 1994 Taoli Cup National Youth Dance Competition.

In each video below, the dance she performs is representative of the traditional style of one of China’s ethnic minorities. I believe the first two videos are from early rounds of the 1994 Taoli Cup competition or possibly 1993, although I am not certain of it. The Peacock dance video is from the finals of the 1994 competition.

See the videos and continue reading the whole article at: http://www.helloziyi.us/Biography.htm

Quotes of Zhang Ziyi

Absolutely not, because in acting I’ve found a domain that suits me perfectly. And that is so utterly rare.
Zhang Ziyi

Actually I ran away from school when I was 13. No one could find me, and the police were called. I was just hiding in a little thicket of grass at my school, and went to sleep.
Zhang Ziyi

After I learn more English, I’ll work hard and make more films.
Zhang Ziyi

From beginning to end I worried that Ang Lee wouldn’t be satisfied with my work. So I worked as hard as I could to earn his trust, because you only get a chance like this once.
Zhang Ziyi

I wanted to escape so badly. But of course I knew I couldn’t just give up and leave school. It was only when I heard my mom’s voice that I came out of my hiding place.
Zhang Ziyi

I’m not really interested in politics, because I think it’s just too removed from my own life. If there’s a war, though, or a disaster, I want to know what’s happening.
Zhang Ziyi

Men are different. When they are in love they may also have other girlfriends.
Zhang Ziyi

Most people spend their whole lives looking for the right job. There are others who never get an opportunity to do work that fulfils them.
Zhang Ziyi

Obviously I’d love to work with any of these great directors because every time I’ve worked with them I’ve gained a tremendous amount as an actor. Each director has his own way of pushing you towards improving yourself.
Zhang Ziyi

Ordinarily if an actor gets chosen for the lead in a film, he or she has already built up a repertoire, and everyone knows what he or she is capable of.
Zhang Ziyi

That whole environment was just incompatible with my beliefs and my personality. It was a dark time for me.
Zhang Ziyi

The atmosphere at my school was very competitive. Young girls were competing with each other every day for status, for leadership, for the affection of the teachers. I hated it.
Zhang Ziyi

There are actors who spend 20 years working and still don’t achieve what I’ve achieved so quickly. So I think my only course of action is to work as hard as I can, not just for the sake of the film, but also to prove to these people that I do have talent.
Zhang Ziyi

There are films you see that only reach your eyes. Then there are films that you can watch… that reach down to your throat, or reach your heart. “In the Mood for Love,” though, reached all the way to my belly.
Zhang Ziyi

See more quotes of Zhang Ziyi at

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/z/zhang_ziyi.html

Zhang Ziyi Beauty Song and photo video

To listen to the Beauty Song (十面埋伏 – 佳人歌) , click the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3UtcAzCOYA

In the movie 十面埋伏 (House of Flying Daggers) , there’s is this song 佳人歌 (The Beauty Song), which is a poem written around 80 BCE, and is used as the main theme of the film. Here’s the lyrics.
Merchant Circle

Title: 佳人歌 (Jia Ren Qu)
Singer: 章子怡 (Zhang Ziyi)
Lyrics：李延年 (Li Yannian)
Translation: 李杀 (Xah Lee)

北方有佳人,
絕世而獨立。
一顧傾人城,
再顧傾人国。
寧不知倾城与倾国。
佳人難再得。

bei3 fang1 you3 jia1 ren2
jue2 shi4 er2 du2 li4
yi1 gu4 qing1 ren2 cheng2
zai4 gu4 qing1 ren2 guo2
ning2 bu4 zhi1
qing1 cheng2 yu3 qing1 guo2
jia1 ren2 nan2 zai4 de2

In the North there’s a lady,
stunning and singular.
One look confounds a city;
a touch dooms an empire.
Rather not wishing to know, the ruination that may follow.
Rare beauty is here and now.

See more information about this song and the movie House of Flying Daggers’ screenshots, please see: http://xahlee.org/music/melbi_ninmu_berti.html

One of Zhang Ziyi’s movie (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) soundtract

Posted in Chinese songs, Important Chinese people | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The Art of War 孙子兵法(Sun zi bing fa/Sun tzu bing fa) Chinese warring strategy / Chinese way of dealing conflict and war

Posted on 09/09/2011 by Chinesetolearn

The Art of War

The Art of War (孙子兵法，Sun Zi Bing Fa) is a Chinese military treatise that was written by Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC, during the Spring and Autumn period. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time, and one of the basic texts on the subject.

The Art of War is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. It has had a huge influence on Eastern military thinking, business tactics, and beyond. Sun Tzu recognized the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He taught that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through a to-do list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a competitive environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.

Continue reading the article at: http://history.cultural-china.com/en/171History5429.html

 

The Martial Arts and Sun Tzu
Unlike other sports and exercise programs, the martial arts train the whole person—body, spirit, and mind. Down through the millennia, the knowledge on which the martial arts are based—known in China as the Bing-fa—was suppressed. Today, most of those who practice martial arts are unfamiliar with these principles except in how they have become embodied in martial arts practice.

Martial arts are different because they are designed for self-defense and self-development. They exploit a loophole in the natural law. Nature says that the strong dominate the weak and the quick beat the slow. The martial arts teach that through the use of knowledge and training, a warrior can transform a stronger opponent into a weaker one.
This loophole was first discovered and explained in a text written 2,500 years ago. Today, we know this work as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. The Chinese title is Sunzi Bing-fa, which literally means “Master Sun’s Martial Arts.” The stateless warrior named Sun Wu of Qi grew up in a family of mercenaries, learning from birth all the challenges of battle. His work explained for the first time that what people thought of as power—size, strength, and wealth—were not real power but only the illusion of power. Those who understood the true nature of power could easily defeat these larger foes by leveraging their supposed strengths against them.

Sun Wu proved his philosophy as a commander. He was hired by a poor, semibarbaric kingdom called Wu. Training the world’s first civilian army, Sun Wu led his forces to conquer all the larger, richer, and more technologically advanced kingdoms of the Yang-tze river valley.
Sun Tzu’s success led to the emulation of his methods throughout the states of China after his death. The use of citizen armies created wide access to weapons and martial arts training. Professional mercenary families gave rise to history’s first professional martial artists. The first such martial artists are introduced in the Spring and Summer Annals of Wu and Yue when the old man Yuan Gong meets the young swordswoman Yue Nu in battle. These early martial artists eventually became demigods in the Chinese pantheon.

Around 298 BC, the historian Zhuang Zi recorded that life in the state of Zhoa had become prosperous because of the practice of martial arts using the sword. King Wen of Zhoa invited more than 3,000 sword martial artists to practice against one another in his court. Zhuang Zi said that Sun Tzu’s theory had been incorporated into the martial arts techniques of both offense and defense and of both armed and unarmed combat. Sun Tzu’s ideas were the fundamental principles in the Book of Sword Fighting and Internal Boxing (Nei kia Quan), both published late in the Warring States period.

Sun Tzu’s methods, originally taught in the context of larger wars, were now seen as the key to individual contests. In armed contests, Sun Tzu’s lessons on positioning are echoed in Zhuang Zi’s description of the key methods used. “The best sword fighters,” he wrote, “pretended to be without preparation as if offering an opening to the enemy. They then gained mastery by striking only after the enemy has struck.”

Continue reading the article at: http://www.scienceofstrategy.com/main/content/martial-arts-and-sun-tzu

 

Quotes of Sun Zi (Sun TZu)

All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
Sun Tzu

All war is based on deception.
Sun Tzu

All war is deception.
Sun Tzu

All warfare is based on deception.
Sun Tzu

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.
Sun Tzu

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?
Sun Tzu

Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.
Sun Tzu

For them to perceive the advantage of defeating the enemy, they must also have their rewards.
Sun Tzu

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
Sun Tzu

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.
Sun Tzu

He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.
Sun Tzu

Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
Sun Tzu

If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.
Sun Tzu

If our soldiers are not overburdened with money, it is not because they have a distaste for riches; if their lives are not unduly long, it is not because they are disinclined to longevity.
Sun Tzu

If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.
Sun Tzu

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
Sun Tzu

In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.
Sun Tzu

Read more Sun Zi’s quotes at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/sun_tzu.html

Read the Art of War online and download information: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7349

Lost History_Sun TZu& The Art of War

The Art of War Modern Interpretation

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