by78
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Could the number be photoshopped?
J-20 5th Gen Fighter Thread IV (Closed to posting)
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Could the number be photoshopped?
wtlh
Junior Member
Nah! prolly not, but the Brat has to have a little fun now and again???? So if it is real, and it well may be, 2015 may have jumped ahead in the Que, because 2014 may be slated for a certain type of testing to be conducted later? it does happen and always for a very good reason. I have stated before that this is a very smart but complex aircraft, the FCS alone is mind boggling, it takes time and patience to get everything "tweaked" to function the way it must, just look at the F-35... but I do think 2015 would be rushing IOC???
no ... !
vesicles
Colonel
I do agree with most of your statement. However, 九鼎 and 九洲 are not some abstract terms used to describe divinity. Ancient China used to have 9 provinces, or 洲. These 9 provinces were 冀州、兖州、青州、徐州、扬州、荆州、梁州、雍州、豫州. Some of these names are still in use today. So "九洲" (9 provinces) is NOT an abstract term and not named because of the significance of number 9. The nice provinces actually existed. Additionally, 九洲 has been used as a term equivalent to the entire China, NOT all land under heaven. Da Yu, an ancient ruler, used metals (most likely bronze) and built 9 caldrons (九鼎), each representing a province. In fact, the caldrons differed in size considerably because the 9 provinces were not of the same size. Each caldron also was engraved with the detailed info of the state that it represented, such as the detailed map and tax amount, etc. So as you can see, the 9 caldrons were not simply something symbolic, but something very concrete used by the King to keep track of each province. Then in the Zhou dynasty, 九鼎 became the symbol of the power to command ALL China because once you have all 9 caldrons, you obtain all the info needed to rule China. In the Zhou dynasty, all 9 caldrons were placed in the courtyard of the King's palace, to indicate that the King of Zhou dynasty had the command of all 9 provinces of China although China at that time was distributed into hundreds of quasi-independent states.
All in all, the terms such as 九洲 and 九鼎, are now symbolic. However, they did not come up with these names because of the divine significance of the number 9. There were actually 9 provinces, each having a caldron.
wtlh
Junior Member
Sorry I was not being clear. I was referring to number 9 as significant to abstract concepts. And yes, you are right that the 9 caldrons and the 9 regions initially existed as physical entities. But the reason for having exact "9" of them (as supposed to 7 or 10 instead) came from abstract philosophical concepts---if I have explained myself clearly.
In Zhou, the art of ritual was very much formalised and institutionalised---this started what is referred to as the Chinese Classical culture, which defined the notion of "being a Chinese" (which incidentally had never ever been about race, but cultural practices). Everything from the number of regions, the height of city walls, the number of steps to the number of peal strings on the formal head gears followed specific hierarchy rules with numbers (in many cases) reflecting to the contemporary philosophical beliefs on nature. The King was not called the "Son of Heaven" for mere propaganda values. People really thought men and Heaven and Earth are inter-linked and that the King's rituals and customs must reflect the rule of nature.
In other words, 9 regions (I reframed from using the word "province" because this had a very specific bureaucratic meaning to me, which is quite different to the situation in Zhou, before the Qin--Han Imperial system---note the difference between 洲 and 州) did not come out from the fact that natural boundaries happened to divide the initial Zhou land into 9 regions, but rather it was DETERMINED that the land WILL have 9 regions, with 9 being the special number corresponding to "maxima".
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OK, so 2015 is real as far as we know, and no apparent changes???
Hmmm ... regardless of how much I would like to take this bird as real, I'm very much skeptical ! First of all - again regardless all progress we've seen in recent years - the timing seems off, it's too soon (says my stomach) and even more this out-of sequence number '2015' !? I do not believe in these superstitious things as discussed - why omitting the number "14" but using "04" even to renumber '2002' ?? It makes no sense IMO.
Therefore this is either a ps-job done my an overambitious fan ... or indeed a mayor surprise and then there's most likely also a '2014' somewhere out there ...
Deino
my thoughts exactly, but it is possible, and some test articles are much more detailed in specific equipement to perform certain tests, for example the F-35 high alpha testing required the addition of a spin-chute, and supporting structure???
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