Two Qiaos

The Two Qiaos of Jiangdong (traditional Chinese: 江東二喬; simplified Chinese: 江东二乔; pinyin: Jiāngdōng èr Qiáo) were two sisters of the Qiao family who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. Their names were not recorded in history, so in later times they are simply referred to as Da Qiao (lit. "older Qiao") and Xiao Qiao (lit. "younger Qiao"). They were from Huan County (皖縣), Lujiang Commandery (廬江郡), which is in present-day Anqing, Anhui. Da Qiao married the warlord Sun Ce, who established the foundation of the state of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period; Xiao Qiao was married to the general Zhou Yu, who served Sun Ce and his successor Sun Quan.

In fiction

The Qiao sisters are featured as characters in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi) by Luo Guanzhong, which romanticises the historical events before and during the Three Kingdoms period. In the novel, the Chinese character for "Qiao" in their names, '橋', is replaced with '喬'.

In the novel, the Qiao sisters were the daughters of Qiao Xuan. Zhou Yu's biography in the historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi) did not state the name of the Qiao sisters' father, who was simply referred to as "Qiao Gong" (橋公; lit. "Elder Qiao"). Historically, Qiao Xuan died in 183, while the Qiao sisters married Sun Ce and Zhou Yu in 200, so it was not possible that Qiao Xuan was still living when the marriages took place. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that Qiao Xuan was the "Qiao Gong" mentioned in Zhou Yu's biography.

Xiao

Xiao may refer to:

People

Other

Xiao (rank)

Xiao (校) (Wade–Giles: Hsiao) is the rank held by field officers in the military of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. The People's Liberation Army uses four grades while the Republic of China uses only three, with the rank equivalent to the fourth being treated as a general officer rank. This difference is found in other militaries as well. For example. in the British Army a brigadier is considered a field officer, while the equivalent rank in the United States Army, brigadier general, is considered a general officer. The PLA use the same rank names for all services, prefixed by Hai Jun (海军) (Naval Force) or Kong Jun (空军) (Air Force). While the ROC does the same for enlisted ranks and company-grade officers, it has distinct names for the higher naval ranks.

See also

Xiao (flute)

The xiao (simplified Chinese: 箫; traditional Chinese: 簫; pinyin: xiāo; Wade–Giles: hsiao, pronounced [ɕi̯ɑ́ʊ̯]) is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of bamboo. It is also sometimes called dòngxiāo (simplified Chinese: 洞箫; traditional Chinese: 洞簫), dòng meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is shùzhúdí (豎竹笛, lit. "vertical bamboo flute", [ʂûtʂutǐ]) but the name xiāo in ancient times also included the side-blown bamboo flute, dizi.

The xiāo is a very ancient Chinese instrument usually thought to have developed from a simple end-blown flute used by the Qiang people of Southwest China in ancient period.

Organology

Xiao are almost always made of bamboo, the best being 'purple bamboo' or 紫竹 (pinyin：“zizhu"). Sometimes, the xiao is made of solid wood that has been carved and hollowed out. They can either be made plain, or have a horn inlay at the end and/or various inscriptions along the shaft. Usually, nylon wire bindings along the shaft are wrapped on which attempts to stabilize the bamboo and prevent cracking. Some players tie a tassel to dangle from one of the lower sound holes, purely for decorative purposes.

Qiao

Qiao may refer to:

Qiao (surname)

Qiao (simplified Chinese: 乔 traditional Chinese character: 喬) is the 96th most common last name in China. This name was named after a mountain. The Qiaos are descendants of the Ji family. According to the legend, the ancient king Huang Di was buried in mountain of Qiao Shan (Huangling in Shaanxi). Some of Huang Di's descendants were responsible for taking care of his grave, and they eventually adopted Qiao as their last name. Many people with this South of Shangqiu in Henan Province.

During the Three Kingdoms, there were two famous Qiao sisters who were known for their beauty. The big sister, Daqiao, was married to Sun Ce, the brother of the king of Wu kingdom. The younger sister, Xiaoqiao, was married to the famous general Zhou Yu.

Alternate spellings

See also

References

Bozhou

Bozhou (Chinese: 亳州; pinyin: Bózhōu) is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Anhui, China. It borders Huaibei to the northeast, Bengbu to the southeast, Huainan to the south, Fuyang to the southwest, and Henan to the north. Its population was 4,850,657 at the 2010 census, of whom 1,409,436 lived in the built-up area made of Qiaocheng urban district, even though the county remains largely rural.

Administration

The prefecture-level city of Bozhou administers 4 county-level divisions, including 1 district and 3 counties.

Geography

Bozhou features a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cwa) with four distinct seasons. With an annual mean temperature of 14.66 °C (58.4 °F), the monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 0.6 °C (33.1 °F) in January to 27.3 °C (81.1 °F) in August. Winters are damp and cold (yet the precipitation is low) while summers are hot and humid. Rainfall is heavily concentrated in the warmer months, as more than half of the annual total occurs from June to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 46% in January and March to 54% in May, the city receives 2,242 hours of bright sunshine annually.