I increased my fascination with China when I travelled there in 1984, so I have added here a sample of my favourite historic people and places. China is a land of history, invention, deserts and rivers and as it holds a quarter of the world's peoples its treasures, arts and culture must be said to belong to the world.

The Ming Tombs and two of the dozens of stunning statues that guard the way.

The approach is magnificent and as you walk inspired into the earth to the tombs themselves one can be disappointed. It was a pity that most of the actual ornamentation had been removed from inside the tombs and replaced with imitation pieces that look  cheap and so inappropriate for instilling a feel of the presumed richness of the times. However the long avenue of giant statues stretching through the valley was so impressive that we photographed every one of them as we walked the long straight avenue to the major tomb.

The Jade Budda from Shanghai. We were invited by the monks to place some incense at the shrine in the old temple. In those days I was not sure if this was appropriate for a Christian to do. However I have since developed a respect for and confidence in all the great religions that have stemmed from man's desire to understand himself and his surroundings.

Xian of the First Emperor - Qin Shihuang

Qin Shihuang was born Cheng Zhaoin 259 BC to King Zhuang Xiang and a concubine of Lu Buwei. He ascended the throne of Qin in 246 BC at thirteen as King Cheng, but the state was governed by the Regent /  Prime Minister Lu Buwei, previously a rich merchant. After the Prime Minister fell and suicided as a result of one of the many sexual scandals involving the Queen Dowager (once his concubine), Li Si became chief Justice and was the new influence on the now 21 year old King. Together they unified the Empire in 221 BC founding the Qin Dynasty and a change in name. He had a fear of death and sought immortality, doing such things as sending a thousand boys and girls to sea in search of immortals, seeking magic fungus and employing 300 scared astrologers. With 700,000 men he built the great Apang Palace (below) which held 10,000 on the terraces. He also constructed his tomb at Mt Li with its accompanying warrior trenches and 700 other palaces, but his most impressive was the rebuilding and expanding of the Great Wall into a continuous 3,000km structure. He died in 210 BC. The name China was taken from his dynastic name for the new unified country. Later the Han Dynasty almost doubled the area of control to a size which is roughly equivalent to the modern China.

Xian had just been opened to the west when we arrived and turned out to be the bleakest, rather unwelcoming but most fascinating city of the visit. In general I found China in 1984 the most interesting, honest and  friendly country I have been lucky enough to experience. Being able to visit the site of the ancient capital was truly appreciated and another insight into the lives of the great Emperors of China. The eight thousand Warriors of this excavation are just one of many sites that surround the as yet unexcavated central burial mound of Emperor Qin Shihuang who died around 2,200 years ago..

My entombed warrior and the kiln in which it was made.

Empress Wu.

  This Budda is said to have the face of Empress Wu Zetian. 

Qianling  (centre above) is the joint tomb of Gaozong (Li Zhi, 628-683 A.D.), the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty and his Empress Consort, Wu Zetian (624-705 A.D.). Wu Zetian was the only Empress in Chinese history. The tomb lies on Liangshan Hill, 6 kilometres north of Qianxian County, and about 80 k. from Xian. 

Born Wu Chao, she is one of the most infamous of Chinese leaders. She led Tang dynasty for fifty years of the most brutal and ruthless as any period in Chinese history.  At the age of 13 or 14, she was  taken into  palace  as a concubine of Emperor Tai Zong and later his son Gao Zong. Within thirty years,  she would kill all opposition that could stand in her way. In  652, she bore a son. Empress Wang saw her as a threat to her position.  She framed Wang  by smothering her daughter, accusing the Empress of the crime.  Wu became principal consort. In 665, Wang was accused of attempting to poison the emperor,  was stripped of her title of empress, and banished. Wu became empress. Her first goal  was to kill those who stopped her rise to the throne.  Wang was dismembered and left in wine vats to die. She then rid herself of all the chief ministers who did not support her. In 660, the Emperor  had a stroke, and  she was  in control of China.  She sat next to Kao at court sessions, making the decisions. On the 4th day of the twelfth month, of 683 the emperor  died. She declared herself Emperor in 690 and made Buddhism the state religion.  She Ruled until 705. She temporarily ended the Tang Dynasty, but it returned soon after her removal. During her life she had the usual royal affairs with her soldiers and even established her own male Harem   including twin wrestlers. I dislike soap operas for assorted reasons but I discovered this woman when I became addicted to a cheaply made Chinese Soap Opera, - all 37 episodes - twice. I was also given a biography by an old Dame I used to know; a remarkable woman herself. It was part of my preparation for a trip to China in 84. One can not admire the carnage caused by this first female ruler of China, but the story of the rise of a woman  from low beginnings to become supreme ruler is certainly interesting. No fiction could be as intriguing as the life of Wu Hou.  (a separate site)

Pu Yi

The last and most unfortunate Emperor. From playboy to peasant.

Pu Yi the Emperor                               The Empress Dowager                                  Mr Pu Yi the gardener

Pu Yi, Henry (1906-1967), Xuantong - the last emperor of the Qing dynasty and of China. He was the nephew of the previous emperor and was chosen to succeed to the throne in 1908 by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The  Revolution of 1911 ended imperial power and  he was forced to abdicate in 1912. The Republican government allowed him to remain as a virtual prisoner in the Imperial Palace. When forced from the palace in 1924, he moved Tianjin, an area  under Japanese control. In 1932 he accepted a Japanese offer to become chief executive of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and in 1934  was crowned emperor K'ang Te. In 1945,  a Soviet army unit captured  transferred him to a prison in Communist China, where he was interned until 1959. He spent the last eight years of his life as a gardener in Beijing.

Six foot Fortune Teller's banner from my wall      

Speak the right for the sake of the light of Buddha

Some Mythology

China also had its mythology and in the Buddist / Taoist society of China the great writers developed stories of ghosts and Gods.

CH'ENG-HUANG:

God of moats and walls. Usually local important person who had died whose divine status was revealed in dreams, protected the community and ensured that the King of the Dead did not take any without proper authority..

CHU JUNG:

God of fire. Chu Jung punished those who break heavens laws.

KUAN TI:

God of war. Protected people from injustice and evil spirits.  He was a general of the Han dynasty and had more than 1600 temples

KWAN YIN:

Goddess of mercy and compassion. Murdered by her father, she recited the holy books in Hell, so no one suffered. She was returned to the living and given immortality by the Buddha

LEI KUN:

God of thunder. Lei Kung had a chariot is drawn by six boys creating thunder with his hammer. His wife made lightning with mirrors.

PA HSIEN:

The Eight Immortals of the Taoist tradition. Mortals whose good works were rewarded with peaches of everlasting life by the Queen Mother Wang :-

TIEH-KUAI Li - of the Iron Crutch. Dressed as a beggar he sells drugs which can revive the dead.

CHUNG-LI CH'UAN - A smiling old men rewarded for his ascetic life in the mountains.

LAN TS'AI-HO - A young flute-player whose songs caused a stork to snatch him away to the heavens.

LU TUNG-PIN - Renouncing riches and the world, he punished the wicked and rewarded the good, and slew dragons with a magic sword.

CHANG-KUO LAO - An aged hermit who personified the primordial vapour that is the source of all life.

HAN HSIANG-TZU - A scholar who chose to study magic and materialized two flowers with poems written on the leaves.

TS'AO KUO-CHIU - Ts'ao Kuo-Chiu tried to reform his brother, a corrupt emperor, by reminding him that the laws of heaven are inescapable.

HO HSIEN-KU - Immortal Maiden - She dreamed that she could become immortal by eating a powder made of mother-of-pearl. She appears only to the virtuous

P'AN-CHIN-LIEN:

Goddess of prostitutes. A widow who offered herself around and was killed by her father-in-law killed her. In death she became the goddess of  whores.

SHI-TIEN YEN-WANG:

The ten Lords of Death, who each preside over one court of law. In the first court YENG-WANG-YEH judges a soul and sends him first to one of the eight courts of punishment or directly to the tenth where the souls are released to be reincarnated.

TI-TSANG WANG:

God of mercy. Wandering in Hell he will do all he can to help the soul escape or put an end to the cycle of reincarnation. Once a priest of Brahma, he converted to Buddhism and became a Buddha with authority over the souls of the dead.

T'SHAI-SHEN:

God of wealth and even atheists worship him.

TSAO WANG:

God of the hearth. Every household has its own and he reports on the family to the Jade Emperor. Incense is burned to them daily to ensure good luck

TU-TI:

Local gods of towns, villages and even streets and households. Usually portrayed as kindly old men, who ensured things ran smoothly.

YU-HUANG-SHANG-TI:

Father Heaven, August Supreme Emperor of Jade, who made men from clay. His heavenly court resembles the earthly court in all ways, having an army, a bureaucracy, a royal family and courtiers, but all was in balance. Even the softest whisper is as loud as thunder to the Jade Emperor.

Images I experienced in China

Neanderthal village

Some of My Books

Summer Palace compiled by the Summer Palace Admin Office & University of Qinghua

Qin Shihuang (Terracotta Warriors and Horses) Edmond Capon

Imperial Chinese Art Lin Yutang

China Gildo Fossati  forward by Anthony Burgess

The Palace Museum Peking (Treasures of The Forbidden City) Wan-go Weng / Yang Boda

Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors Ann Paludan

Poetry and Prose of the Ming and Quing

 Updated April 23, 2007