In the Spring-Autum Chronical of Zuo Qiuming 左传 an obscure entry dated around 640BC says: Lord Zang of Zheng liked to collect snipe feather hats; Duke Wen was offended, and ordered to have him assassinated. 郑子臧好聚鹬冠，郑文公恶之，使盗杀之 Why should a mere sartorial preference produce such a drastic outcome? We have to go back  another 3000 years to find the answer.

Archaeologists found in China two neolithical centres of jade worship: the Hongshan sites in northern china yielded a relatively small number of objects, but with highly imaginative designs and polished execution (considering the primitive tools available at the time) that challenged our modern, patronizing view about the ancient state of mind; the southern Liangzhu sites are even more impressive: there are great numbers of them spread over much of middle eastern china seaboard, and they are of a large scale, with each tomb situated on a soil platform that would have required thousands of people to pile up, and many yielding hundreds of jade items per tomb. While the majority of these lacked the artistic refinement of Hongshan jade, the more complex objects pose their own challenges to our understanding of the ancient people.

The picture of a two-faced demon, with numerous variations, appears frequently on Liangzhu jade objects, mostly on the ritual “cong”,

but occasionally also on axes and discs. A cong usually have the demon face on each corner, but one large cong has demon faces in the corners as well as in the middle of each side, with a pair of bird signs separating the frontal and corner faces.

Judging by the Liangzhu tombs and the complex ritualistic thinking presented by the variety and elaboration of jade objects, the Liangzhu people had a highly organized social system, which somehow left no trace in historical records. We have no idea what happened to the Liangzhu people, other than that around 2000BC they disappeared from their original locations, but some subsequent sites showing Liangzhu influence were found in the surrounding regions such as Shandong, Guangdong and Taiwan.  In any case, it appears that one thousand years after the Liangzhu people’s disappearance, when writing was invented, the Chinese world had already lost all knowledge of them. No signs of them were found in any historical records or legends, and when archaeologists discovered the tombs, the jade objects caused astonishment and incomprehension all around.

The orignal design of the Liangzhu monster face has a demon wearing a large feather hat, with a second face on his chest, the eyes being the breasts and the mouth being the navel (which links to the ancent legend of 刑天, whose head was chopped off by Yellow Emperor but he continued fighting using breasts as eyes – the legend probably arose from a burial ritual for headless warriors killed in battle) – the upper face is the main one and the lower one subsidiary

Obviously, the large feathered hat is of considerable ritualistic significance. In various later folk tales, there were divinities descending from heaven wearing a feather crown, which reminds us of the “descent of the phoenix” ceromony of the Shun (pre-Shang) era: after the playing of the nine divine tunes, the leader of the Shun tribe would appear on stage to receive the submission of his subjects, and presumably his phoenix costume would include a feather crown.

This explains why Duke Wen took offence at Lord Zang’s collection of feather hats: it signified interest in the royalty status associaed with the objects- though the Liangzhu traditions were unknown in Spring-Autumn times, certain vague ideas lingered.

In any case, post-Liangzhu, when the symbol spread to other tribes, its meaning did not always get correctly understood, such that the lower face was thought to be the main one and the upper face was part of the feather hat, producing new designs

then human faces got replaces by other animals, e.g., bird above/human head below, a natural move for a bird worshipping trible

and man wearing tall hat changed to bird wearing high hat

man wearing high hat leading to blade like jade designs

next came bird with two human heads, expanding to a circular structure that will become the toothed disc

a Xia dynasty plate with turquoise pieces fitted on copper plate also has the double face – by the age of metal, the orginal two faced Liangzhu demon has gone “abstract”

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European cultures have just a vague notion of the phoenix, being a mythological bird that is reborn in the fire. West Asia has a more specific notion: the phoenix is a bird associated with fire, but has its rebirth on the tree of life, which happens to be a palm – the tree of life design frequently appears in Persian rugs – while not always looking like a palm, the branch-leaf structure is clearly closer to palms than trees.

But you have to go to Chinese mythology to get a self-contained story that has apparently the same mythological origin: the daughter of Emperor Yan the fire god died early (for various different reasons in different versions of the story) but returned to life on the mulberry, the Chinese tree of life, in the form of a bird. However, this bird, in some stories called Jingwei, in others supposed to be a stork, is never called phoenix.

We therefore have three fragments of legends derived from ancient orally transmitted tales whose original version could no longer be recovered, and in China, an altogether separate set of traditions arose relating to this magical bird called phoenix, divine but unrelated to fire or tree of life.

In fact, the specific name “phoenix” seldom appears in Chinese mythological tales, whereas the dragon appeared early in totemic and shamanistic worship,  while specific birds like the swallow were totemic and the sun was believed to be a golden crow, the phoenix legend had a later appearance, in the age of Shun and Shang, i.e., around 2000BC, as the divine animal associated with wind (whereas the dragon was associated with water/thunder) and the messenger from heaven. ”Descent of the Phoenix” was part of a ceremony in which, after the playing of the nine divine tunes, the Shun tribe’s chief, wearing a feather headress, would appear on stage to receive the acknowledgement and submission of his subjects. It thus had a different status to the tribe that worshiped it compared to the status of the dragon in tribes that considered themselves to be its descendants, an expression that is occasionally used even today, while it is almost unheard of for a Chinese to call himself  “descendant of the phoenix”. The Yellow Emperor or some other ruler was said to have the phoenix descend on him as reward for sage rule or divine devotion, but these were more moral tales rather than historical event descriptions.

To find the origin of the concept of phoenix, it is necessary to go back to its earliest representation in ancient artifacts left behind by our ancesters from whom we have no written records. Instead, we have to rely on objects made from long lasting material such as pottery or stone. The following are jade representations of the phoenix from the neolithic era, with some later adaptations:

.

The first was from a 5000 year old Manchurian tomb, while the second was from a Shang tomb though it could have been made earlier. The third was from a Spring-Autumn era site, but despite its different shape and decoration, the overall idea remains: a crowned bird with elaborate long tail feathers but comparatively simple wings in a side profile. The look of the phoenix would seem to be based on the pheasant, not on predator birds like the eagle or owl, for which the jade representations tend to be frontal emphasizing the open wingspan

Unfortunately, no additional information, e.g., cave paintings, pottery symbols, were left behind to help us understand the specific meanings of these objects.

While current Chinese literary references to phoenix has a female connotation, in contrast to the male connotation of dragon, this is a relatively recent custom, perhaps from Tang dynasty onward. In Han times, dragon/phoenix were both used to denote an outstanding man, with perhaps a slight bias towards power for dragon and phoenix for subtlety. In the novel Three Kingdoms, for example, the expressions respectively refer to Liu Bei’s two advisors Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, the former known as Crouching Dragon for supposedly being a hermit before joining Liu Bei’s team, the latter as Phoenix Chick for being the younger son in his family.

The Spring-Autum/Warring States Chu region has perhaps the largest collection of artistic representations of the phoenix, a tradition that appears to have been inherited from the Shangs. We see many such expressions in figures weaved or printed on silk, or drawn on/sculptured into lacquer; in particular, there are figures showing the dragon and the phoenix guiding the spirit of a dead person to heaven, and a phoenix fighting with and defeating dragons and tigers. The following diagrams provide a sample of objects discovered in tombs of the era:

the phoenix of later generations is little changed, merely more decorative

but also more often appearing in dragon-phoenix combination

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The Northern Warlords and the May 4th Movement

China’s largest online news portal sina.com published its bestsellers’ list of May, showing that the Chinese readers were most interested in the following books:

1. 1Q84, Murakamiharuki(Japan), Nanhai Publishing House (南海出版社)

Sold 1.2 million copies in China and “almost took up the entire month” (in the words of list editor Xie Xizhang, 解玺璋), this book was lauded as “finally attempting to expose the social origin of the depressive and melancholy mood of Murakamiharuki” (in the words of book critic, Liang Wendao, 梁文道).

 
2. Thirty Years by the East Side of the River: A Survey of China’s Economic Reform (三十年河东), Yang Jisheng (杨继绳), Wuhan Publishing House (武汉出版社)

A quite honest (if not so academic) and empirical (with ample explanation of basic principles of economics for the general public) study of China’s economic and political structural change and challenges in the last 30 years, stressing the importance of higher democracy, more rational capital flow and better social policies (while exposing many pitfalls and backlashes).  The title stems from the Chinese proverb: thirty years by the east side of the river, thirty years by the west side of the river, or, put simply, time changes.

 
3. Soccer in Sun and Shadow Eduardo Galeano (Uraguay), Guangxi Normal University Press (广西师大出版社)

Thanks to the world cup fad, many readers pick up this book to go through the memorable history of Uraguay soccer, along with the critical perception of the writer.
4. Mutluluk / Bliss, Zulfu Livaneli (Turkey), Beijing Yanshan Publishing House (北京燕山出版社)

In a very good publicity campaign, the famous writer himself gave lectures in Shanghai and Beijing and attracted a lot of fans. 

5. Send You A Bullet（送你一颗子弹）, Liu Yu (刘瑜，alias Drunk Piano), Shanghai Sanlian Publishing House (上海三联书店）

A Ph.D candidate in the Columbia University who became famous via internet, Liu Yu’s essays best portray an “intellectual woman” musing on the cultural differences of the world, while demystifying the western academics from a “common people” point of view. Liu Yu’s  blog is at: http://www.drunkpiano-liuyu.net/

6. Here Comes the Inflation Economy（通胀经济来了）, Zhao Xiao and Chen Guanglei （赵晓，陈光磊）, Phoenix Press （凤凰出版社）

Zhao Xiao is a devout Christian who wrote Market Economies with or without Churches (《有教堂的市场经济和无教堂的市场经济》), and a quite controversial economist for saying “buying property now equals loving the country” in 2008. This time his main points are: governments across the world are now having greater intervention in economy and consumption is what China definitely encourages for better economic performance, it’s therefore advisable for people to not save money in the bank but spend it or make investments, otherwise, they may have to suffer inflation as a penalty.
7. Old Stories, Newly Told (旧事与新说), Zong Pu (宗璞), New Star Press (新星出版社)

Zong Pu, a noted writer in her own right, is the daughter of one of the most erudite and pioneering modern philosphy professors Feng Youlan (冯友兰) who got his Ph. D. from Columbia and wrote the first history of Chinese philosphy from a western philosophical point of view. During the Japanese invaders’ bombing of China in 1930s and 1940s, Feng kept teaching western philosphy in the Southwest Associated University in Kunming and fostered a large number of students who became pillars of philosophical studies in modern China. This book, an account of professor Feng’s daily life, can be read together with Feng’s own oral recollection Three Pine House Preface (三松堂自序) which had an honest reflection on Feng’s experience in the Cultural Revolution.

  
8. The Northern Warlords and the May 4th Movement(北洋裂变)，Zhang Ming (张鸣), Guangxi Normal University Press (广西师范大学出版社)

So many words have been said about the May 4th Movement that when Zhang Ming,  a famously sharp-minded and outspoken historian of politics with Renmin University, wrote this resolutely refreshing book to explore the extremely intricate political scenario at its time, it caused quite a stir nationwide. Without sleeping on the textbook conclusion that the students’ movement on May 4th heralded in a new cultural era of China seeking democracy and science in 1919, prof. Zhang analyzed the different positions of warlords and other political players at that time so as to explain how this movement gained such big support from the general public.     
9. Anecdotes of the Old Dorm 8 (老八舍往事), 1978 alumni of the Department of Chinese Literature, Wuhan University, Yangtze River Culture and Arts Publishing House (长江文艺出版社)

College students of 1978 were treasures of Chinese history. It is they who first gained approval to pursue higher education after the end of the ideologically fanatic and scientifically ignorant Cultural Revolution. And it is they who, burning with a desparate sense of urgency for “catching up”, laid the premises for the economic boom of contemporary China through self-effacing hard work and intellectual open-mindedness. Now at their 60s or so, they have turned to internet communities and alumni parties to share their memories and anecdotes. One can still smell that extraordinary era from their recollections.   
10. I Love Running Bookstores (我爱做书店), Xu Zhiming and Gao Zhihong (徐智明 高志宏), CITIC Press (中信出版社).

Based on his rich experiences of running small and medium-sized bookstores even in a time of mega-markets and online shops, Xu Zhiming provides many useful good survival guides for his peers. For those who happen to notice the emergence of many foreign bookstores in 798, or bookbooths at the exit of subway leading to the blonde-studded Silk Market in Beijing, the popularity of this book could be a good sign.

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Retired professor Zhang Huicheng (张惠诚) recently published a book named “History of Chinese Court Coups” (中国历代宫廷政变), which recorded many mishaps and conspiracies that accidentally led to the demise of a certain kingdom or dynasty. One story goes like this:

In the year 605 BC of the Spring and Autumn Period (54 years before birth of Confucius), the newly enthroned king Zheng Linggong (郑灵公) ruled the Kingdom of Zheng (small part of today’s Henan province) . He had two ministers respectively named Zigong (子公) and Zijia （子家）, both blessed with royal bonds and prominent positions in the court.

One day on their way to the court, Zigong’s finger suddenly started moving by itself. ”This is a sign that I’m going to eat something really delicious today! It never fails! ” explained Zigong to the surprised Zijia. Right enough, news soon came that Zheng Linggong was hosting a banquet to treat all his ministers a good soup of giant tortoise from the Kingdom of Chu. Zigong was extremly proud of his prophet finger, and exchanged loud giggles with Zijia in the court.

“What? You think your finger is always true?” after learning why Zijia and Zigong giggled, Zheng Linggong jested, he then made up his mind to show this boastful minister some lessons. So when the soup was served, he ordered it to be distributed to every official from high to low, only deliberately omitting Zigong. “See?” he laughed merrily, “in the final analysis it is your king who decides your chance of a good feast, not your finger!”

Feeling humiliated by the king’s untimely joke and losing face in front of all his peers, Zigong turned red, and then suddenly jumped up towards the soup pot (a huge one, of course, those that we see in museums as giant bronzeware of holy and mysterious patterns). Overseeing all the obligations of ceremonies and regulations, Zigong dipped his finger in the soup, licked at it (some say he even got a piece of meat to chew in his mouth). He then turned to the audience and declared, “well, I think my finger still rules here!” Then without even looking at the king, he flew out of the court.

Now it was the king’s turn to handle the embarrassing situation, and he handled it with no less dignity and royal outrage. “How dare he act like this in front of all the officials of my kingdom? Is this kingdom so small that we couldn’t even afford a knife to behead such an impudent bastard?”

All the officials knelt down to beg for the king’s leniency, with no vail. Zijia also tried to appease the king by bringing Zigong to apologize, only ended up in greater tense. In the meantime, Zigong, who understood himself as a threatened exile, briskly moved on to form a small team of assassins, persuaded Zijia not to take side with the “rotten” king, bribed the servants of Zheng Linggong and then killed him on a good night when the king was staying in a fasting palace during a royal ceremony.  The king was then reported to have died from disease, and the throne was immediately passed down to Zheng Xianggong (郑襄公)  after another legitimate heir Prince Quji (公子去疾) refused to take it for fear of public scold. A very quick coup indeed.   

This story was recorded by Zuo Qiuming in  Tso Chuan （左传·宣公四年）, and by Sima Qian in Historical Records （史记·郑世家）. It gives rise to the Chinese term 染指，or  ”dipping one’s fingers in”, meaning interfering with other’s affairs for the purpose of getting a lion’s share.

The model Chinese philosopher Confucius, however, blamed this assassination on Zijia who failed to protect his master even when he knew his peer was conspiring against him, thus he even changed the text of his compiled history Annals of the Spring and Autumn Period to tell this same story. It was Zijia who killed the king, wrote he.

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The tomb of Tian Yi, a eunuch who defied the emperor for the people

Studded with China’s most prestigious universities and sizzling digital products markets, Zhongguangcun is often compared with Silicon Valley of the United States. But for centuries, it was known for a retirement home for the eunuchs in this area.

The emasculated domestic servants of the royal families were called Taijian (太监) or Zhonggong (中官 ), which supposedly gave the area its name. As the nationalist revolution put an end to Manchu dynastic rule of China in 1911, the tradition of castrating men to be eunuchs became a badge of shame that was associated with inhumanity of the past rulers. But even in the 20s, the abdicated Machu emperor Puyi still hired a castrated man as servant. In 1996, Sun Yaoting, the man known as China’s last eunuch passed away at an advanced age of 94.

After the communist party took over in 1949, the new government replaced the character Guan (官 ) with another character (关 ) of the same pronunciation. This could be a tactful attempt to conceal the embarrassing origin of the place.

In general, history doesn’t look kindly on the eunuchs, who were usually depicted as greedy, scheming and cruel crooks and sexual perverts. That might owe to the fact that history was mostly written by the mandarins who were well versed in Confucian doctrines and despised the bunch of illiterate and incomplete men. That said, there were a few exceptions who were looked upon favorably by the historians, among whom, Tian Yi (1534 – 1605), a Ming eunuch was known for his integrity and courage. According to history, Tian ran the risk of offending the Wanli emperor, insisting the emperor should make true of his previous promise to abolish a unpopular tax. The emperor was so infuriated that he pulled out his sword and threatened to kill Tian. Despite the episode, on Tian death, the emperor held a four day mourning and ordered to build a big mausoleum for him in the west of Beijing. The mausoleum has developed into a Buddhist temple for the elderly eunuchs who had nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Ming dynasty was the golden age of eunuchs. Not only some elite eunuchs endeared themselves to the emperors, they also played significant political role and wielded considerable political clout. Instead of being refined to domestic duties in the palace, they were sent to the front as military supervisors and emperors’ deputies, they acted as spies and gathered evidence of conspiracies against emperors, they were sent on sail to explore the uncharted territory. These important posts gave the eunuchs great power that often went unchecked, which naturally lead to corruption, abuse as well as notoriety.

Still there were eunuchs of extraordinary accomplishment. Cai Lun, an eunuch living in Han dynasty is believed to be the inventor of paper. An even better-known example is Zheng He, who is arguably China’s greatest navigator. According to be book 1421, Zheng lead a fleet and discovered many places unknown to the so-called civilized world.

“[...] On the 8th of March, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, huge junks nearly five hundred feet long and built from the finest teak, were under the command of Emperor Zhu Di’s loyal eunuch admirals. Their mission was ‘to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas’ and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. The journey would last over two years and circle the globe.

When they returned Zhu Di lost control and China was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently embraced. The great ships rotted at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. They had also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude three hundred years before the Europeans…”

However, when Ming’s successor, the Manchurian reflected on Ming’s downfall, they attributed it largely to the power-grabbing eunuch clique. More strict rules were institutionalized to give tighter control on the eunuchs. They were banned from giving opinion on even the most trivial political affairs and would never be allowed to step out of the Forbidden City before retirement.

Over thousands of years of continuous tradition, eunuchs had developed their own collective identity. For example, they had their own semi-god patron of trade, who is a Ming eunuch. According to the mythology, Gang Bing (刚秉 ) was a soldier who castrated himself to prove his loyalty to the emperor. A temple, located in the area now known as Babaoshan, was originally built to commemorate the man of extraordinary courage.

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A portrait of a Qing Dynasty aristocratic woman

If you take Beijing’s line one subway often enough, you probably have heard of a station called Gong Zhu Fen, or Princess’ tomb. When I first heard it four years ago, my curiosity was hooked immediately. I started asking around for information about the purported princess. The quest turned out to be unfruitful: None of those I approached had a clue; some made fun of my sentimental effort, which made me a little sad. Not for myself, but for the princess which I believed there must be. She once had it all and perhaps as well-known in her days as any big star in ours. Now as immaterial as the long-gone dynasty, anonymous like dirt, nothing about her left except a hollow name for a mundane area. Was the princess pretty and nice or ugly and mean? Who did she fall in love with and got married to? These questions flashed through my mind before they were overtaken by more urgent issues.

The other day, I came across a book about old Beijing and to my pleasure, there was a fairytale-like account of the princess tomb. Well, according to the book, the princess buried in the tomb was not a princess per se. Surprise surprise.

Qianlong, the fourth emperor of Qing Dynasty, was a figure well-known for his whimsy and infinite ability to improvise. An avid traveler too, according to the folklore. Once in a while, the emperor would find some brilliant excuses to give himself a break from his royally routine. However, according to the Chinese orthodoxy, good emperors don’t take vacation, they work, work and work. Like their modern counterparts, they liked to boast their nobility of sacrificing their lives for the well-being of the people; according to some holy rules: slack is a symptom of a weak ruler, whom no good emperor should want to be. But Qianlong is on no account a conventional emperor anyway, and he wanted to have fun. So he made a minor mistake to lead his ministers on. The ministers just walked into his trap unwitting of the scheme. They made protests as any responsible minister was supposed to do. “It is all my fault”, the emperor said with unusual sincerity, “To punish myself, I am going to impose myself to an exile to the south.” Hooray vacation!

So the emperor traveled incognito to the south. The trip was a top confidential mission because the national security was at stake, so nobody were allowed to reveal the emperor’s identity, not even himself. One day, Qianlong and his entourage, a good hunchback called Liu Yong and a greedy courtier named He Shen, were caught in a sudden spell of rain. They found refuge in a farmers’ cottage and were treated a generous feast. The farmer’s daughter was a pretty teenage girl who soon endeared herself with his majesty. The emperor offered to be her god father and the girl’s father pleasantly agreed. Qianlong gave the girl a handkerchief as a present. “In the future, if you have any trouble, go to Beijing and I, your god father, would like to help you out.” the emperor said. The girl knelt down to show her gratitude and voiced her question on where to find the god father. “Don’t you worry, dear. When you are in Beijing, just ask for the Huang…”"Huang Jia Da Yuan” (黄家大院) the hunchback chimed in, which prevented the emperor from giving out his real identity. A little explanation should be pertinent here: In Chinese, the word emperor consist two characters Huang 皇 and Di 帝, and another character 黄 sharing the same pronunciation with 皇, and it is a popular Chinese family name. Huang Jia Da Yuan means Mr. Huang’s mansion. The girl bowed to Qianlong whom she believed to be Mr. Huang.

Years later, a severe drought struck the area where the girl and her father lived and a big famine was imminent. Father decided that he should take her daughter to go to Beijing to find the Mr. Huang. Needless to say, they could find no mansion called Huang Jia Da Yuan and no Mr. Huang that even look like the girl’s god father. The father fell ill and died. After the last penny was spent, the girl had to beg for food.

One day, the girl were begging on the side of a road, a man threw her a coin. When the girl looked up and said thank you, the man who gave her the coin looked rather surprised. “Princess!” he yelled out. Turned out the man was the good guy Liu Yong. Liu reported to the emperor who had totally forgotten the episode by now. “Wouldn’t people laugh at me once they learned that?” “No, they would only respect you more as an emperor who is as good as his words, your majesty.” “Then, Ok, I guess.”

So the country girl became the princess and lived in the Forbidden City. A happy life ever after? Hardly. The palace was staffed with a snobbish crew of eunuchs and old maids whose jealousy of the girl’s luck could barely be concealed in their contempt of her rural background. The emperor, who was always busy and no longer in the same mood when he first met the girl, neglected her. The civilian princess, lonely and unhappy, died soon. She was buried in the area that is now known as Gong Zhu Fen. What started as a comedy turns out so tragic in the end.

But this is not the only version of the story. [to be continued]

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 1909 Age 29  1932 Age 52    1965 Age 84

With permission of Mr. Tong Bingxue, source from http://tongbingxue.blshe.com/post/6673/291216

A 62-Year Photobiography of A Chinese
 
 Ye Jinglu was descended from Zhu Yujian, who in turn was descended from the twenty-third son of Zhu Yuanzhang,  the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. In 1645, Zhu Yujian established a regime in Foochow to resist the Qing expansion across northern China. But he was defeated the following year by the Qing forces. Zhu committed suicide in prison, but not before he had ordered his children to change their surname from Zhu to Ye to avoid reprisals by the Qing forces.

Ye Jinglu was born in Foochow on October 6, 1881, to a family of minor entrepreneurs. His mother came from the family of Luo Fenglu. Luo was an important Mandarin official during the late Qing Dynasty who, in 1896, was appointed Chinese Ambassador to the UK, Belgium and Italy. Ye Jinglu accompanied his relative to the UK, serving in the capacity of assistant. For five years, he worked at the Chinese embassy in London.

Ye Jinglu sat for his first photographic portrait in a studio in London in 1901. Later that year he returned to Foochow, accompanying Luo Fenglu. Luo Fenglu died in 1903, His widow appointed Ye Jinglu manger of the family business, consisting of a pawnshop and a teashop. Both were located in Foochow, which had been established as one of five open cities in China after the first Opium War of 1840.

Ye Jinglu sat for a second studio portrait in 1907, a year after his marriage. Thus began the process of chronicling his life through annual portraits. 

Ye lived in relative comfort in Foochow as manager of the Luo Family business, until 1937.

We do not know the reason for Ye’s passion for photography. There is, however, an indication in the photographs that the time he spent in the UK had an influence.

In 1912, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and the Republic of China was established. Ye Jinglu’s long braid, seen in previous portraits, disappeared. His father died in 1914. By that time Ye was himself the father of a 6-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. From 1915 to 1940, Ye’s photographs alternated between sitting and standing portraits. Prior to the 1940s, the portraits are typically cabinet photograph taken full length. 

Ye Jinglu’s second son was born in 1919. During the Republic of China Period, Ye became a member of the Christian Association of Foochow. He often visited the association’s headquarters, accompanied by his daughter. Together they attended social events, and saw films in the building’s cinema.

Ye Jinglu became a collector during this period. Stamp collecting became one of his passions. He often wrote to friends, asking them to send stamps back to him on return envelopes. His love of collecting didn’t end with stamps. He collected coins, ink-stones and jade. He kept
detailed records of his collections, including the purchase price of each item.

Beginning in the early Republican period, Ye Jinglu also began to keep a diary. His eldest grandson, Ye Yi, says that his grandfather recorded events that happened in the family, in the city, in the country and around the world. Evidently, Ye Jinglu was intent on creating a personal history of his life. Sadly, those diaries did not survive. They were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976.

Before the 1960s,Ye Jinglu lived in wood-built houses on Xianta Street, in central Foochow. He designed much of the furniture in the family homes, and the Luo’s family businesses prospered under his management, in part thanks to the long-term international relations he had established in the tea export business.

Ye evidently found happiness and satisfaction in his family life. His daughter and sons completed middle school in the city, then attended a missionary university in Hangzhou.

On April 21, 1941, the Japanese army entered Foochow. The city remained under occupation for more than four months. His portraits show a significant change in Ye Jinglu’s life during the occupation. The portrait from 1941 was taken after the Chinese army had recovered Foochow in September. The head and shoulders perspective marks the first deviation in 34 years from the full length portrait. He persisted with these closer portraits for five years, until 1945.

After Foochow was finally liberated from the Japanese in 1945, Ye Jinglu returned to his earlier practice of having full-length portraits taken. On the day when the People’s Republic of China was founded Ye Jinglu had another portrait taken. The beginning of the new era in China coincided with a major change in his life, as he entered retirement.

In 1960, Ye moved back to the “Three Lanes and Seven Alleys”. He became well known among his neigbours in the alley. He gave freely of his expertise as a collector and connoisseur of antiques, offering free valuations of pieces his neighbours brought to him. Whenever Chinese Lunar
New Year approached, he prepared gifts of food for expectant mothers. And in the heat of summer, he greeted neighbours with a warm smile, and a hand offering a cup of herbal tea.

On June 28, 1968, after a long battle with diabetes, Ye Jinglu died from a heart attack. Ye Jinglv’s daughter Ye Guiying (叶圭英), now 101, is dwelling in Hangzhou, another daughter Ye Deshu (叶德澍), now 91, is dwelling in Taiwan. His two grandsons and a granddaughter are living in Fuchou.

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Picture of Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mey-ling, former President and First Lady of China.

The National Library of China, the world’s largest archive of Chinese books and manuscripts, is now soliciting old pictures about the life and history of global Chinese descendents.  Donars of pictures eligible to be permanently collected by NLC will be conferred with an official certificate. Please contact nlcoldphoto@yahoo.cn for details.

originally posted on NLC official website:

http://www.nlc.gov.cn/en/news/nlcnews_2009110902.htm 

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This article presents 11 short stories that explain various ideas of Chinese mythology and philosophy.

Shenlong（the divine dragons) 神龙
1
when Nuwa woke up, the sun was already high in the sky; though she covered her face with some leaves and branches, the bright light still shone though

she turned her body towards the forest side; as she moved the mesh hammock she was lying in swayed, relaxing the stiff joints one tended to get after sleeping there all night; it felt rather comfortable

it was the idea of her brother Fuxi to make mesh hammocks to sleep in: tie a few ropes between two trees, then criss-cross them with a long rope knitting a mesh, cover it with some leaves, and your bed was ready; a hammock was not only more comfortable to sleep in than on branches; one need not worry so much about snakes;

you had to make the height right however; if too low, during you sleep you might get bitten by those monitor lizards that came out at night from the reeds next to the river – which also had those even more scary creatures, the crocodiles – too high and it was difficult to climb into them; Fuxi was very agile and could do it by hopping while pulling on the hammock ropes, but it was harder for Nuwa; however, she could play up her younger sister part, and get Fuxi to carry her into her hammock

as the oldest daughter of the clan chief, it was her job to light the clan’s fire of life each night, with Fuxi helping to collect enough dry logs so that the fire would last all night, so that it would keep the man-eating beasts hiding in the forest from coming to the campsite; he would then carry her up to the hammock; as he lifted her up, her body touching his strong chest, she felt secure and comforted

the night before, as he was lifting up her, his hand somehow slipped and she might have fallen, but he immediately caught her and for a moment held her close to him. Nuwa felt her whole body hotting up just then; she so much wanted Fuxi to keep holding her like this; but the moment passed and he gently set her down into the hammock, then, as usual, rocked it to help her fall asleep before going off to his own hammock; he did not know that this time Nuwa was not actually asleep; in fact she was unable to sleep till very late…

Fuxi and Nuwa were actually not born of the same mother; their mothers were clan sisters of the same age; when they were both 14, they took part in the fertility bathe in the clan’s Yao Pool, when boys from the neighbouring clan would come and peep at them, taking the clothes of the girls they fancied; if the girl also liked the boy, then she would lead him into the woods and let him lie on top of her; late a baby would start to grow in her stomach; however, Fuxi’s mother died while giving birth, and he survived only because he was suckled by Nuwa’s mother, who later became the clan chief; as her oldest daughter, Nuwa would be the next chief, and from young childhood Fuxi had followed her around, answering her every beck and call.

However, soon it would be time for him to leave the clan and find a companion in the neighbouring clan during their annual bathe.

Fuxi would not be short of companions; their mother’s brother, who joined the other clan and became its hunt commander, after he axed and killed a crocodile that had grabbed the old commander, and saved his life – because of this, he was chosen as the companion of the commander’s three daughters and was later made the commander’s successor – brought presents from the other clan not long ago; during the visit he told her mother that Fuxi, such a bright boy, would be the most welcome new member of their clan and his uncle had already selected two girls who would be at the coming fertility bathe and told them to accept Fuxi as their companion. Nuwa was upset by the news; soon Fuxi would not be there to keep her company as she lit the fire and to carry her up into the hammock…

Nuwa climbed down from her hammock; no one was around; the clan seemed to have gone for their morning fishing; she went towards the seashore to look for them, but was surprised to find tha the sea had disappeared: the water had receded far far away, and the rocks, seaweed, abalony beds, … that normally were covered by water were all exposed; then something else surprised her: part of the beach was covered by red shell crabs, that used to come out just once a year, always at night, to crawl towards the forest, where, Fuxi said, they would do the same kind of things boys-girls do there; and on the side of the beach towards the river, bigger creatures: crocodiles, snakes, turtles.. were all rushing, some of those very dangerous things that Nuwa were warned to keep away from; however, they were so intent on their rush towards the river that they took no notice of her at all.

“Sis..” she heard Fuxi call her; turning around, she saw him coming from the forest side, with a colourful bird in his hand “for you..” she took the bird from her but not with much interest “Look at what happened to the sea”

“The sea has gone missing?” he frowned and looked out; they could see at a far distance a low surf coming slowly towards the shore; suddenly his face turned pale: “this is a very big wave”

“Really? it looks so small, and so slow”

“That’s because it is very far away; oh no; we’d better go and tell them…” taking her hand, he tried to run towards the seashore, but then saw the rushing snakes and crocodiles blocking the way and hesitated; he turned and rushed up a little sand dune, from which they could see their kinsmen on the shore next to where the river entered the sea. With the receded sea leaving behind many puddles from which fish could be readily scooped up, they were busily occupied.

“We can go there by boat” Nuwa pointed at a canoe next to the river. Running down the dune to where the canoe was, it took them some time to push the canoe into the river because the level of water dropped and the canoe was some distance from it. They then rowed it downstream using their hands as paddles. Turning the corner of the sand dune, the could see the people in front, as well as the surf coming up, now clearly one very big wave, charging up with a faint rumbling sound.

“Go up the hill; go up the hill” Fuxi shouted, but he was too far away to be heard, and the rumbling sound was growing louder and would have muffled his voice. Even the busily fishing folks were beginning to take notice, and were looking up at the incoming surf, pointing and discussing. Suddenly their mother threw down the fish basket she was carrying and pointed at the sand dune, and the whole crowd began to run towards it.

Fuxi and Nuwa turned in the canoe and began to row it upstream; behind them, a high wall of water was starting to rush through the mouth of the river, pushing in front of it a strong wind and a thunderous roar. Suddenly Fuxi pressed Nuwa down in the canoe “hold on to the boat tightly; dont let go!”; he then laid on top of her, embracing her waist tightly along with the log canoe with his arms. A wave cam from behind, pushing up first the rear end of the canoe, then the middle, then the front, but causing only a small shake up to them; then another wave, and another, each bigger, thrusting them higher and higher; as the canoe turned and rolled, they were sometimes above water, more often under water; fortunately, having grown up in a fishing clan, they knew how to swing with the waves, holding breath when under water, breathing in when above it; as the wave pushed them up the hill into the woods, it grew weaker, then receded, leaving them and their canoe among the trees

Fuxi and Nuwa had survived the tsunami

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The Eastern Miscellany (东方杂志), launched in Shanghai by the Commerical Press (商务印书馆) on March 11, 1904, is one of the earliest and most comprehensive Chinese magazines in the 20th century. After being suspended in 1948 and relaunched in 1999, it is now providing full access to its half-century digital database of a rich wealth of texts, pictures and resources for historical studies. Many of the articles within the archive of the Eastern Miscellnay are concerned with China’s relationship with other parts of the world, including diplomacy, education, commerce, fashion, movies and advertisement. The Chinese-language database is now accessible on a payed subscription basis at  http://em.refbook.com.cn/. 

The Eastern Miscellany is a literary hub for such groundbreaking thinkers such as Liang Qichao (梁启超 one of the forerunners of modern Chinese journalism and leading advocate of constitutional monarchy), Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培 educationist and chancellor of Peking University), Yan Fu (严复 scholar and translator who first introduced Darwin to China), Lu Xun (leading Chinese writer and critic and one of the founders of modern Chinese literature) and Chen Duxiu (co-founder and first chairman of the Communist Party of China). Having witnessed the demise of the Qing Dynasty, the founding of the Republic of China, the end of the first World War, rise of the Communist Party of China, the Japanese invasion of China and the Second World War and the Civil War of China, it is valued by historians as an “ultimate resource and archive center” for modern Chinese history, and lauded as “magazine of magazines”. 

Columns of Eastern Miscellany first started from digests and then developed into a wide range of topics including editorial, social comment, royal decree, domestic and civil affairs, diplomacy, military, education, finance, industry, communications, commerce, religion, records, documents, research, translations and fiction.  The digitized database now contains the entire collection of this magazine with altogether 819 editions in 44 volumes, covering a total of 30,000 articles, 12,000 pictures and 14,000 advertisements.   

A glimpse of some of the titles of this significant magazine gives us a sense of how the Chinese people, or the literari, looked at their world of that time:

In commemoration of the 600th anniversary of Danti, Albert Einstern and His Theory of Relativity, History of British Labour Movement, Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, New Educational Systems in Hamburg, On the Necessity of Establishing Meteorological Observatories, Special Edition on Agriculture and Farmers in China, Paintings of Houhan Dynasty, Poems in Ancient Meters, Women and the Profession of Dentists, and the Annual Amount of Heroin Consumed by Hollywood Stars.

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