Seems like a for-fun piece. The one I referenced is actually more serious.
Mahakhitan: A Chinese Buddhist Civilization in India
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Seems like a for-fun piece. The one I referenced is actually more serious.
I think the problem with many of these novels was that they weren’t even willing to entertain the idea that Chinese history could have had another “way out”, other than the communist one.
The most notorious one is “Dawn at Lingao”临高启明, which had a colonial attitude against their fellow Chinese people. (although the technological details were quite good. Which brave man can translate it into English?)
But then, anti-communist authors who wanted to pre-empt communism often fell victim to this site’s “pull a Meiji” plague. They assume China had the same social conditions as Japan had.
Recently,most of the novels set during the late Qing Dynasty and ROC have been entirely purged by qidian's administration,probably at the instigation of the CCP,so few people's writing about that subject anymore.
But I do understand what you meant by colonial attitude. In some of the crappier novels, time travelers treated down-timers as nothing more than downtrodden who needed to be 'guided'.
So far,I’ve read two novels set in the Jin Dynasty that avoids the land reforms and the colonial attitude.In two of those novels,the protagonists actually try and compromise with the native nobles(which is essentially what down timers are called in China).
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Recently? I thought the great book ban on Qidian was around 2015?
Actually 临高启明 has a pretty smart de-centralized writing protocol, and its depiction of the uptimer group (referred to as "500 good-for-nothings" or "d*cks/A-holes/粗胚") show a rather self-teasing tendency of writing.
When I first started to read on Qidian in 2015,there were still plenty of novels set in the period,they are now mostly gone.A lot of novels were purged for interfering with cultural harmony(being anti-Manchu) or for preventing the rise of the CCP.
Sometimes this affects even novels set in the Song or Ming Dynasty. 银狐, which was about a guy setting up his own Chinese state in the Tarim Basin during the Song Dynasty was forced to end prematurely because the authorities doesn’t want him to write about fighting Muslims any more in Central Asia while 漢兒不為奴,which was definitely written by a Huanghan was prematurely ended before banned altogether because of how gruesome it was(the Manchu race was more or less wiped out at the end,but the author just wrote that in the epilogue because he was forced to end quickly).
I think one of the most ironic things about the people in Qidian is that they praise Mao Zedong and see his actions as necessary,even though the current prosperity in China was brought along by Deng bringing in capitalism. KMT was just thoroughly demonised despite the CCP being highly similar to it.
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I've been on Qidian for 10 years now and I think there was a large-scale ban around 2014 or 2015.
There is a time and place for everything. Saving people's a*ses from a hell of wars and getting them rich require different skillsets. Unfortunately the KMT's skillset seems to only work fine in the second stage (why eat the first bun if you are full on the third?), on a limited scale, and also required an elimination of conflict of interests (land reform was carried out in Taiwan but barely on the Mainland).
That's still an oversimplification as the difference between capitalism and capitalism can be larger than capitalism and socialism. The capitalisms of Chiang I and Chiang II for example showed stark disparities.
Also it would not be very ironic if you received the same education as they did. The Mao-Deng conflicts are rarely known (but not censored), and basically the official narrative since Deng has been to uphold of Mao's (earlier) achievements, yet emphasize the need to adapt (so again, there's a time and place for everything). It's not strange at all for a Chinese to praise both Mao and Deng.
What would be ironic is the love of some for Nazi Germany (or German/other European jingoism) but strong distaste for Fascist Japan. Ironic as it is though, I've also found Americans/British/etc. to similarly denounce Nazis while sharing the Japanese "net right-wing" view on the evil Chinese and ungrateful Koreans. So ultimately it comes down to where one's butt sits.
I still think that the KMT under Chiang Kai Shek,while corrupt,was still a far nicer place than Mao Zedong’s ‘new China’. One could say that the current China is just as corrupt,it's just that circumstances in Chiang's time(WWII) prevented ROC from reaching its' full potential.I guess most people in China don’t actually know about the massive starvations under Mao Zedong? I honestly don't know if most people honestly don't know,or if the Mao supporters were just the vocal minority(with the vast majority of people not willing to speak out).It’s almost as though people saw him as a flawless man incapable of making any wrong decisions.Even Chinese people well versed in history seems to idolize him.
Fully agree. One of the worst novels I've read had China create a full fledged Japanese-style colonial empire of their own while constantly fighting the Japanese and allied to Nazi Germany for quite some time before fighting them for global supremacy.
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I'm not sure how you got the idea because you seem to be able to read Chinese. People know about the Great Famine, but they generally don't believe the numbers widely accepted in foreign countries (you get almost none believing in anything bigger than 30 million - and only very serious anti-CPC people would go by 30 million - my personal take is ~10 or 15 million).
My idea is two-fold:
1. The population was basically the same from late Qing to the early 1950s. So it shows more died under Chiang's watch (or you could argue he didn't get to rule all of them which could in turn interpreted by Mao-loyalists as incompetence) than Mao's.
2. Industrialization is a painful process. If a country pushes for it demanding rather timely output without sufficient foreign aid (in the case of South Korea and Taiwan), the agriculture sector has to be sacrificed and you get people starved to death. The catch is again to get certain things from the outside world and colonies (or shared market, etc.) would come in handy in this scenario. When you try to (or are forced to) go fully independent, there's the price.
My late grandma was one of the many that fled a province that was probably hit the hardest by 1959. She was illiterate and I don't think she was in any significant way anti-Mao despite losing a son she brought with her on the way (likely abducted). For all she cared (as it seemed to me) famines were usual, and running away from famines was also usual. It wasn't the first time that she fled where she lived (it's called 跑反).
Also there are a lot who are vehemently against Mao. I suspect there are more than at least 10 million just by the amount of their comments I see online.
Thing is that Chiang and KMT,as you mentioned,hardly ruled the majority of China,and in less than ten years after unifying large parts of China,the Japanese invaded. I don't think Chiang or the KMT really had sufficient time to fully pacify the warlords and bring economic prosperity.A lot of Chinese rulers(e.g. Cao Cao) took far longer and never did unify China to the extent the KMT did.It's hardly Chiang's fault that there were a lot of dead people between the late Qing Dynasty and the early 1950s.I did a good number of searches on the web on this subject in Chinese,and a lot of that turned out in Taiwanese or HK websites only. Numbers were most certainly up for debate,but Mao's tenure shows that he was not very astute as an administrator,and most of his grandiose projects ended up backfiring badly.Say what you may about Chiang,but I honestly don't think that Mao would have done a better job handling WWII if he was in Chiang's shoes.
That is most certainly a fair point,but I don't think purging the capitalists in the country or forcing(sometimes killing) intellectuals to flee is a pretty good idea for industrialization. At any rate,this is the reason why industrialisation shouldn’t be quick.
My grandparents had a similar experience,and after the experience,they were thoroughly anti-Mao. This experience only intensified after they went to HK.They were so terrified by the news that HK was returning China that they fled here to Australia.
What should I actually type to search for these comments?Quite often,the only ones I see are the ones that quickly get downvoted. People generally had to use euphemisms like 太祖 when actually refering to Mao Zedong.I get the impression that people don‘t want to get in trouble.
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To be frank:
Hate-mongerrors who advocate for genocide against a law-abiding ethnic group who did wrong a few centuries ago just to gain a few more clicks deserve much more than a ban.
I don’t advocate for the genocide of Manchus,but to be fair,in the context of the novels,I don’t think it would have been plausible for that not to happen.In a lot of the novels,the Manchus have already overrun a large part of China and would have already killed a vast number of Chinese people.Even if the protagonist of such novels tried to prevent a genocide of the Manchus,I don’t think their subordinates would have listened in the event that the Manchus were totally defeated,given the mindset of the 17th century Chinese.This is especially since most of the Manchu male population would have been warriors who participated in the war. Their defeat would have been so severe that a lot of the male population would have been completely killed even if Ming forces didn‘t finish them off.I most certainly think that it’s possible for the Manchu population to survive in novels set pre-1644 however.The problem with post 1644 novels was that a lot of Manchus and their families moved into China,and would have been highly vulnerable should their armies be defeated.
It’s like writing a Roman timeline here in this website.If the WRE was somehow resurgent and reconquered North Africa,do you think it’s plausible not for the vast majority of Vandals to be killed and the remaining members absorbed into Roman society? I guess the only real difference is that it involves an ethnicity still extent and that the protagonist is actually someone from modern day society.
Nonetheless,I don’t think that the authors of these novels want to exterminate the modern Manchu population(though I may be wrong).
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Germany wasn’t (much) involved in the scramble for China, which was part of the reason for their sympathy.
But then, the nature of Nazism was to carry common colonialist tactics to Europe.
Isn't the thread nearly turned into a discussion forum for Chinese novels. Not like it's bad and all, isn't this kinda straying away from the topic?
Sorry if I sound bit of a nuisance. I just can't helped myself noticed the trend.
As for the matter regarding time-travelling novels, Chinese politics and ethnicity, I've come across some nasty comments on the internet by people in regards to Manchus and other nomadic dynasties. Let's just say the comments goes along the vein of 'Han nationalism' and 'Han supremacism', believe it or not. :x
Sorry if I sound bit of a nuisance. I just can't helped myself noticed the trend.
As for the matter regarding time-travelling novels, Chinese politics and ethnicity, I've come across some nasty comments on the internet by people in regards to Manchus and other nomadic dynasties. Let's just say the comments goes along the vein of 'Han nationalism' and 'Han supremacism', believe it or not. :x
Yes,I think we should open up another threat in non-politics if we want to discuss any further.
But yes,it’s all true. People do have nasty comments about nomadic dynasties.Some are well deserved,some not so. For example,I think that the Ming Dynasty deserved just as much blame for the technological stagnation of China as much as the Yuan and Qing Dynasty.
Made a thread here to discuss Chinese webnovels.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...e-chinese-webnovels-discussion-thread.449546/
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...e-chinese-webnovels-discussion-thread.449546/
Chapter 20 Flourishing Households*: Stories of the Mahakhitan Southern Capital
Chapter 20 Flourishing Households*: Stories of the Mahakhitan Southern Capital
020 - 室家溱溱：摩訶契丹南京城的故事
*Originally written in Chinese as 室家溱溱, the line here is from No Lamb, Lesser Court Hymns, Classics of Poetry (詩經・小雅・無羊). It was meant to describe the scene when families and households flourish in prosperity, leading to population growth, but can also be used to depict the increase of buildings and houses (?).
(This will be a long update as it was originally made of two pieces.)
Before it took three chapters (006 – 008) to talk about how the Central Capital looked like around 1400, and then four Grand Theatre pieces (009 - 012) on the experience of a group of Ming people that came into contact with this grand city in detail. This time, facing the Liao Southern Capital in 1560 that is way more bizzare and gaudy than the Central Capital, I can no longer unfold similarly long writings with my limited energy and timetable. I tend to convey the overall image of this city in this chapter, and focus on the palaces in the next one.
The Liao Southern Capital shall have a lot of opportunities to make more appearances in the future, so if I fail to adequately describe it in some aspect, please point out what you’d like to see to be elaborated, and I will write about it someday if I have the chance.
Now back to topic.
Like in the case of the Central Capital, the story needs to be taken back to the beginning of Mahakhitan. It was 1160, the 5th Year of Anshang during the reign of the Liao Shizu emperor.
During the first expedition towards the Indus valley, a Yelu Dashi beyond his seventies led his army southward along the right (west) bank of the Indus River. One day in October, scouts reported back to the exhausted main forces of Liao that limitless ocean was lying beyond the last range of barren mountains in front of them, and mangrove forests extended further towards the south in the Indus Delta between the sea and the mountains.
However, a lonely port and an army of lateens were spotted where the northernmost branch of the Indus flew into the sea, between the forests.
Back then, the ocean was a magical thing in the eyes of the young Liao people. They were born in the wind and snow in the city of Kedun (可敦城), learnt to ride horses, read and write, dance and fall in love by the Hot Sea (Issyk-Kul) and Talas River, were confident that the grand snow mountains and river valleys they saw during the southward expedition were the most magnificent scenes in the world. But they were still a bit lost upon seeing the boundless azure extending in silence.
The Bhambore relic of the old city of Debu, to the east of today’s Karachi,
is also where the Arab Empire set food on South Asia.
The Shizu emperor became terribly sick that winter, and was only able to slowly recover thanks to the care of the local Arab doctors in Debu.
While forced to stay near the city of Debu, the abundant tax available here surprised Dashi, and the lush, rich pastures nearby allowed the Liao forces of more than ten thousand men to safely spend the winter. Therefore the tent city set up that winter became the reliable base in the heart of the Gur Khan. Under the scheme of Han and Uyghur officials, the supply of food from southern Sind and the tax revenue from the harbour city were easily sufficient to sustain the continued war waged by the Liao army.
As a result the several southward expeditions of the Khitan emperors in late 12th Century also followed the example of the the Shizu emperor’s arrangements. The Debu city in turn became the de-facto Southern Capital of Mahakhitan and was destined to play an even more important role after the Liao migrated to the south.
*Map too big; link to the translated version:
https://mega.nz/#!opYBhIIJ!sL-hsYLd3-Jxa1e9UG4liVPBflYOTdio7gxuCoVic-s
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Unlike back when the entire country was desperately trying to prove something during the construction of the Central Capital, and also due to the excessive cost of that project inflicted upon Liao, in the new Southern Capital city, only some important locations were marked, squares to host the residents of the old city were carved out, and some basic work on roads and ditches were completed. Then the imperial court let go of the place and left it aside.
Still too big; link to the translated map:
https://mega.nz/#!pkgFAAgL!bLmqs2Ik-1c7QKegmVpkqJqOn6kzQYWsX3X0h0txvQQ
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Now we are at the 16th Century, which is one of the most prosperous periods of the Nanjing Prefecture.
The bigger picture is, the Nanjing Prefecture in 1560 is a mixed, diverse city, although the descendants of Han people are the majority overall. Among 900,000 registered residents in the city, approximately 600,000 are qualified to refer to themselves as Han descendants.
The court does not encourage the people to distinguish between Khitans, Han, Hui, Sindhi and so on, so the imperial subjects that can speak the Liao language generally all call themselves “the Liao”.
Among the Han descendants, there are in turn several major groups with completely different cultures and languages. The term “Han” was predominantly used to narrowly refer to the descendants of the servicemen and officials that followed Dashi on the westward expedition. Their ancestors all came from the old Liao territories such as Liaodong, Hebei and Shanxi, among whom there were also many from Bohai and Goryeo. They were conferred the land in the lower Indus Valley region, and developed into many Han clans with lordship in Sindhu. These clans usually possess both positions in the imperial court and large pieces of estates, and have enjoyed prosperity for centuries.
(For example, one of them was our shadow protagonist in the Grand Theatre series, Shi Cunjing [courtesy name Arjuna, 1377-1445, ended up as the Liao Gold-Purple Distinguished Lord/金紫榮祿大夫, Minister of Rites, Baron of Zhandi County/瞻諦縣伯 <Jati, Sindh, Pakistan IOTL>]. Lord Shi came from the collateral bloodline of the Shi clan descending from His Excellency the Duke of Shangde Prefecture of Tianzhu Circuit. His far ancestor was a Liao serviceman in the old Western Capital – today’s Datong, Shanxi – during the era of Tianzuo/天祚, followed the Shizu emperor Yelu Dashi to Kedun, and was promoted to Xiangwen/詳穩 - general - of some unit during after gaining the appreciation of Dashi in the battle attacking the Qırğızs/轄戛斯人. This clan, despite somewhat in political decline by the mid 16th Century, soon managed to enter the trade with Jinzhou and Ming thanks to the wealth and overseas connections accumulated during the last five hundred years.)
The Gaochang Uyghurs that followed His Majesty to the south, whether related to the Han from the northwest, have been mixed with the Khitans and Han in terms of lifestyle. Therefore years later although they can be referred to as the Hui (回人), there is barely any difference between them, the Han and the Khitans.
The aforementioned dignitaries (or those who have gone down) among the Liao people usually concentratively reside in the western part of the city near the palaces, known as “Linzhi Square” (麟趾坊, lit. “Kylin Toe Square”). It is also the only remaining neighbourhood shaped like a square that follows the original planning of the Nanjing Prefecture.
Diamond throne pagoda, Imperial Yuanzhao Temple (敕建圓照寺, where 圓照 means “showing and reflecting everything in the world”), Linzhi Square; built in 1495, with the typical “empress” style.
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More than one hundred years later the “Song” came. They were the merchants that sailed from Zhejiang and Fujian during the Southern Song Dynasty and descendants of the exiled Song forces after the Mongol take-over. Their language was rather different from that of the Yan-Yun (approximately today’s northern Shanxi and Hebei) Han people, but the daily habits between them still showed some similarity, and conversing by writing was not a problem. Therefore quite some Song people quickly clang onto the powerful and wealthy aristocratic clans. By the end of Yuan when the east was in total chaos, many Han people from Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu also joined the Southern Capital Song community.
The distinction between “Yan people” and “Song people” has been preserved nevertheless. In this large city, 250,000 to 300,000 “Song people” customarily gather to form communities according to their origins in neighbourhoods such as the Bazaar, Western Harbour and Sanbao Hill, or in other corners of the city.
(A bit more elaboration on the Sanbao Hill area: it is close to the coast, together with today’s Yongding Guard City [永定衛城, where Yongding or 永定 literally means “eternal pacification” and 衛城 in Chinese is often used to refer to “acropolis”], was where the Ming armada docked every time they arrived during the early 15th Century. Zheng He was later buried nearby. Merchants and sailors from Ming as a result settled down here around the verdant Zheng Wood and the supposedly efficacious [靈驗, an adjective in Chinese that describes wish-granting or -fulfilling deities or other venerated figures, animals, objects or rituals] Shrine of Lord Zheng.)
It is not hard at all to locate the Song communities: as long as one gets atop some pagoda and glance towards the city from a distance, the gathered small yards built with dark green and red tiles are the households of the Song.
Mazu Temple of the Western Harbour, built in 1421.
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The Iraqi merchants also often gather to live on a slope north to the Western Harbour and close to the Big Bazaar. The 300-year-long alliance between their country and the Liao imperial court allowed these merchants to occupy this fine piece of land. Together with the Liao sea traders, they take control of the trade route from Malacca to the east to Persian Gulf or Suez to the west, and have been enjoying more stable control since the anti-Tianfang campaign during the late years of Duanning when the Tianfang navy was decisively defeated.
In contrast, their competitor, the Arabs and Persians are only able to reside in a crowded neighbourhood in east city. Since the 14th Century, they have been struggling to maintain their presence here in the biggest port on the Indian Ocean, but unfortunately for them, every time their countries were at war with Liao, the mobs hired by their competitors would soon show up, chant the slogan of “repel the barbarians and wage war on the defiant” (“攘夷討逆”), and rob all of their stock even before the Bureau for Foreign Shipping seize their storehouses. Soon, these Arabs and Persians fortified their communities and hired a horde of Balochi “barbarians” as guards. They had to bribe the Nanjing mayor (南京尹) very heavily in order to stop the officers of the Nanjing Prefecture from tearing down their low, thick cob wall.
The Jumu’ah in the Northern Pass Grand Mosque to the north of the Bazaar on every Friday seems to be the only time the two groups can be at peace with each other.
Friday Mosque (星期五清真寺, "Friday Halal Temple"), North 2nd Road of Bazaar North, built in 1381.
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The Fulin merchants gather on the narrow piece of land to the south of the Big Bazaar between the two harbours to the east and west. Perhaps the view of the bay reminds them of the Golden Horn back home. They were granted the chartered land from the imperial family since the establishment of the new city of the Southern Capital Debu Prefecture, making the history of their community more than two hundred years.
The centre of the “Fulin Town” (福林里, where the characters used are different from 拂林 or 拂菻, which are the more common names for Rome) is the Moji Hall (摩濟堂; probably some sort of transliteration of the phrase “big church”, Megale Ekklesia). Under the 60-chi-tall golden dome, the ceremonies held here where these “Fulin monks” burn incense and sing out their holy book(s) always draw a large group of ethnically diverse toddlers to follow them around. To the five thousand Greeks that reside here, this Saint Thomas Church as the headquarter of the Orthodox Church of India under Ecumenical Patriarch probably provides the strongest link to their homeland as the Greek community here has been gradually assimilated into the local customs and culture by this point in mid 16th Century.
Saint Thomas (Thomas the Apostle) Basilica,
headquarter of the Khitan Orthodox Church
under Ecumenical Patriarch, Fulin Town, built in 1452.
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The Jews, known as “the blue-hat Hui”, gather to live to the east of Fulin Town on several streets near the Bazaar. They can be said to be the “foreigners” that have been living for the longest time in the Indus Delta region. According to their own tales, their ancestors were merchants from the era of King Solomon – while the Greeks reveal that they are merely the descendants of the Jewish merchants in Babylon from a few hundred years ago, so their history is actually not more ancient than the local Greeks in the region.
Regardless, when the emperor moved the city he treated them equally as the Greeks were, and this long-time dwelling, Sindhi-speaking Jewish community from the old Debu city also obtained their own land, which the Liao people call the “Zhuhe Town” (竹鶴里, lit. “Bamboo Crane Town”; probably from 術忽 Shu4 Hu4, or Yahud).
Immanuel Synagogue, Zhuhe Town, built in 1430.
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To the west of Sanbao hill are another group that uphold the cross. These Frangos (佛郎機人) missed out on the foundation of the Southern Capital city so can only live outside the city. They also have their own internal strives. It is said that among this group, they are actually from many different states. The central administrative agencies of the imperial court only managed to tell them apart very recently: the English, French, Italians, Andalusians, Castilians, Hollanders, all these tongue-twisting names that cause serious headaches. A few year ago, missions from the King of England and King of Andalusia respectively requested to send permanent envoys to the Khitan court. Rumour from the Courst of State Ceremonials is, as such requests are unprecedented, the central court is still having a debate (read: procrastination) over this.
After the head of the Southern Capital Bureau for Foreign Shipping managed to get to these facts, they have all referred as the “Six Frangos” (as usual, the numbers in this kind of phrases in ancient Asia are known as 約數, lit. “approximate numbers”) in order to cut the unnecessary redundancy in governmental documents. As these Frangos fight with each other constantly and sometimes even behaving defiantly, the little port the government assigned to them is none other than the one sandwiched between the Yongding Guard and the naval base/camp (水師營, lit. “water army’s camp”), under gunpoint. However in the eyes of the Southern Capital residents, their community, due to the flags of various colours representing all their countries and families that wave as the monsoon blows, is known as the Jinfan Town (錦幡里, lit. “Colourful Streamer Town”).
The biggest attraction in Jinfan Town, other than the large ships with high freeboards and square sails, can only be the grand cross temple. This renaissance-style basilica is where the Catholic Church’s Archbishop of India is. The Liao people do not known nor care much about this, but they do know that every December and march, grand festivities are held in this cross temple, which are not to be missed.
Saint Bartholomew Basilica, cathedral of the Catholic Church’s Archbishop of India, Jinfan Town, 1551. Fundraising for the construction of the clock-tower is still underway.
Near the Eastern Harbour area gather the Tamil merchants from Chola, who, for years controlled the sea route to Jinzhou, have built a cloud-capped temple here. In recent years due to the worsening relationship between Liao and Chola, they have been gradually giving way to the Malabari and Gujrati merchants who live in nearby neighbourhoods.
Brihadisvara Shrine, Beibai (“North White”) Street, originally built in 1319, slightly in disrepair recently.
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Away from the flashy and bright shops, mansions and governmental agencies, everywhere there are crowded small neighbourhoods extending unlimitedly. Apart from the distinct communities of other ethnic groups, tens of thousands of local Liao people also reside in the city of Southern Capital. Layers of mud-brick houses and shacks are decorated in all kinds of colours, while people from all over the empire and speaking various different languages from distinct language families live within them.
The Bengal peddlers from more than ten thousand li away almost completely control the supply of all kinds of food in the Nanjing Prefecture other than that of fresh meat; the Liao people from nearby Sindhi regions and Punjab as migrant workers form the backbone of the first batch of textile mills in the city; Malabari merchants, in turn, are rising as a new power on the West Sea trade routes, and will probably form a whole new social class due to their gradually rising status eventually.
Of course in the end, all the liveliness and prosperity here drew the richest, most powerful individual in the entire empire.
The preference for the Southern Capital city of the Yizong empress (Yelü Yunhui/耶律雲慧, or Madame/Queen Yelü Mayanalladevi, ruled from 1467 to 1509), her tiny (temporary) court (行在朝廷, where 行在 is a term used to refer to wherever the emperor/empress is temporarily living in) in the Southern Capital, her private life and her short-lived “New Policy” (新政, which is also the Chinese translation for Franklin Roosevelts’ “New Deal” IOTL) have all become the hot topics future historians and amateurs (歷史發明家, a modern Chinese term that literally means “history inventors”) are attached to…
However as a series about the history of the material civilisation, we are still going to focus on her Southern Capital palaces.
This building complex overlooking the whole city and the ocean was once believed to be excessively influenced by “barbaric” styles, a rebellion against orthodoxy, and thus deserted for half a century after the empress passed away. Years later it was in turn regarded as pioneering, repeatedly imitated by official buildings and tycoons since 1560, and also coined as one of the representatives of early-modern Mahakhitan architecture by architectural historians from both the east and west.
In the next chapter we will talk about it in detail. Please stay tuned.
020 - 室家溱溱：摩訶契丹南京城的故事
(This will be a long update as it was originally made of two pieces.)
Before it took three chapters (006 – 008) to talk about how the Central Capital looked like around 1400, and then four Grand Theatre pieces (009 - 012) on the experience of a group of Ming people that came into contact with this grand city in detail. This time, facing the Liao Southern Capital in 1560 that is way more bizzare and gaudy than the Central Capital, I can no longer unfold similarly long writings with my limited energy and timetable. I tend to convey the overall image of this city in this chapter, and focus on the palaces in the next one.
The Liao Southern Capital shall have a lot of opportunities to make more appearances in the future, so if I fail to adequately describe it in some aspect, please point out what you’d like to see to be elaborated, and I will write about it someday if I have the chance.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Now back to topic.
Like in the case of the Central Capital, the story needs to be taken back to the beginning of Mahakhitan. It was 1160, the 5th Year of Anshang during the reign of the Liao Shizu emperor.
During the first expedition towards the Indus valley, a Yelu Dashi beyond his seventies led his army southward along the right (west) bank of the Indus River. One day in October, scouts reported back to the exhausted main forces of Liao that limitless ocean was lying beyond the last range of barren mountains in front of them, and mangrove forests extended further towards the south in the Indus Delta between the sea and the mountains.
However, a lonely port and an army of lateens were spotted where the northernmost branch of the Indus flew into the sea, between the forests.
The Bhambore relic of the old city of Debu, to the east of today’s Karachi,
is also where the Arab Empire set food on South Asia.
The Shizu emperor became terribly sick that winter, and was only able to slowly recover thanks to the care of the local Arab doctors in Debu.
While forced to stay near the city of Debu, the abundant tax available here surprised Dashi, and the lush, rich pastures nearby allowed the Liao forces of more than ten thousand men to safely spend the winter. Therefore the tent city set up that winter became the reliable base in the heart of the Gur Khan. Under the scheme of Han and Uyghur officials, the supply of food from southern Sind and the tax revenue from the harbour city were easily sufficient to sustain the continued war waged by the Liao army.
As a result the several southward expeditions of the Khitan emperors in late 12th Century also followed the example of the the Shizu emperor’s arrangements. The Debu city in turn became the de-facto Southern Capital of Mahakhitan and was destined to play an even more important role after the Liao migrated to the south.
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By the early 14th Century, the old harbour city of the Southern Capital, Debu Prefecture that had been put into use since the 7th Century, was already too crowded. What was even worse was that as a branch of the Indus, Zheluo River (遮羅河, Gharo River IOTL), had been bringing mud and sand to the river course where the flow was placid, the waterbody facing the harbour was also becoming too congested.
Therefore during the reign of Yongtai (永泰, early 14th Century), the plan of the new Southern Capital city was proposed by the Liao Ministry of Works just as they had finished the construction of the Central Capital city. After several field investigations, the site of the new city was determined to be located on the land between the Indus Delta downstream and Moli River (摩利川)*. Between the two good harbours to the east and west respectively was the axis of the new city. The layout of the city was similar to that of the Central Capital but slightly smaller, and the future palaces were to be located in the middle of the Mandala-shaped city that was ten Tang-era li in circumference.
*Moli River is likely the name of Malir River near Karachi ITTL.
Therefore during the reign of Yongtai (永泰, early 14th Century), the plan of the new Southern Capital city was proposed by the Liao Ministry of Works just as they had finished the construction of the Central Capital city. After several field investigations, the site of the new city was determined to be located on the land between the Indus Delta downstream and Moli River (摩利川)*. Between the two good harbours to the east and west respectively was the axis of the new city. The layout of the city was similar to that of the Central Capital but slightly smaller, and the future palaces were to be located in the middle of the Mandala-shaped city that was ten Tang-era li in circumference.
*Moli River is likely the name of Malir River near Karachi ITTL.
*Map too big; link to the translated version:
https://mega.nz/#!opYBhIIJ!sL-hsYLd3-Jxa1e9UG4liVPBflYOTdio7gxuCoVic-s
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And the uncontrolled growth of the new city of the Liao Southern Capital began on the first day of her life.
The southern avenue between the two harbours on the east and west soon became stores and markets that span for as long as eight li. The Jiuzhou Pavillion (九洲閣, “Nine Continents Pavillion”) that was designed to become two palaces in the southern city instead was turned into the office from which the Bureau for Foreign Shipping (市舶司) monitored and taxed the arriving and leaving ships (and also the predecessor of office buildings in all of Mahakhitan…). Around this long, stretched Big Bazaar, countless sideways extended towards the south and north, and became markets for various businesses, workshops that were origins of noise and strange smells and so on. Also taking up large pieces of land were the warehouses of the merchants, as well as the endless docks and shipways by the sea fulfilling the boosting need of the merchant ships.
Within about two generations, these buildings sprawled all over the southern city, and then extended beyond the city walls towards the coast in the following one hundred years. As the northern city was too far from the sea, it is till now mostly farmlands and wastelands. The imperial city in the original plan, as no emperor in a century has shown any interest to make a visit, has naturally been ignored and is still a piece of grassland with no entry allowed.
The Southern Capital Bureau for Foreign Shipping as an institution responsible for the treasury of the imperial family has built three 175-chi-tall light-towers in case the merchants get lost out on the sea lanes. The technology of light-towers were unheard of for the Khitans, but the ancient designs brought by craftsmen from Tianfang (Arabia) and Misuer (Mosul) allowed this grand harbour to enjoy the benefit for the future hundreds of years.
The Agency of Works (工事司) of Southern Capital as the institution in charge of the construction of the infrastructure in this wildly growing mega city has had to repeatedly expand the main canal built for carrying water from the Moli River to the north. In order to tackle droughts, many huge reservoirs have also been built in the sluggish northern city and the imperial city perimeter.
Overall, the crude growth and expansion led to the disappearance of the designed Mandala-shaped city, and a mega-harbour city that extends from east to west for almost twenty li came into shape instead.
Still too big; link to the translated map:
https://mega.nz/#!pkgFAAgL!bLmqs2Ik-1c7QKegmVpkqJqOn6kzQYWsX3X0h0txvQQ
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Now we are at the 16th Century, which is one of the most prosperous periods of the Nanjing Prefecture.
The bigger picture is, the Nanjing Prefecture in 1560 is a mixed, diverse city, although the descendants of Han people are the majority overall. Among 900,000 registered residents in the city, approximately 600,000 are qualified to refer to themselves as Han descendants.
The court does not encourage the people to distinguish between Khitans, Han, Hui, Sindhi and so on, so the imperial subjects that can speak the Liao language generally all call themselves “the Liao”.
Among the Han descendants, there are in turn several major groups with completely different cultures and languages. The term “Han” was predominantly used to narrowly refer to the descendants of the servicemen and officials that followed Dashi on the westward expedition. Their ancestors all came from the old Liao territories such as Liaodong, Hebei and Shanxi, among whom there were also many from Bohai and Goryeo. They were conferred the land in the lower Indus Valley region, and developed into many Han clans with lordship in Sindhu. These clans usually possess both positions in the imperial court and large pieces of estates, and have enjoyed prosperity for centuries.
(For example, one of them was our shadow protagonist in the Grand Theatre series, Shi Cunjing [courtesy name Arjuna, 1377-1445, ended up as the Liao Gold-Purple Distinguished Lord/金紫榮祿大夫, Minister of Rites, Baron of Zhandi County/瞻諦縣伯 <Jati, Sindh, Pakistan IOTL>]. Lord Shi came from the collateral bloodline of the Shi clan descending from His Excellency the Duke of Shangde Prefecture of Tianzhu Circuit. His far ancestor was a Liao serviceman in the old Western Capital – today’s Datong, Shanxi – during the era of Tianzuo/天祚, followed the Shizu emperor Yelu Dashi to Kedun, and was promoted to Xiangwen/詳穩 - general - of some unit during after gaining the appreciation of Dashi in the battle attacking the Qırğızs/轄戛斯人. This clan, despite somewhat in political decline by the mid 16th Century, soon managed to enter the trade with Jinzhou and Ming thanks to the wealth and overseas connections accumulated during the last five hundred years.)
The Gaochang Uyghurs that followed His Majesty to the south, whether related to the Han from the northwest, have been mixed with the Khitans and Han in terms of lifestyle. Therefore years later although they can be referred to as the Hui (回人), there is barely any difference between them, the Han and the Khitans.
The aforementioned dignitaries (or those who have gone down) among the Liao people usually concentratively reside in the western part of the city near the palaces, known as “Linzhi Square” (麟趾坊, lit. “Kylin Toe Square”). It is also the only remaining neighbourhood shaped like a square that follows the original planning of the Nanjing Prefecture.
Diamond throne pagoda, Imperial Yuanzhao Temple (敕建圓照寺, where 圓照 means “showing and reflecting everything in the world”), Linzhi Square; built in 1495, with the typical “empress” style.
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More than one hundred years later the “Song” came. They were the merchants that sailed from Zhejiang and Fujian during the Southern Song Dynasty and descendants of the exiled Song forces after the Mongol take-over. Their language was rather different from that of the Yan-Yun (approximately today’s northern Shanxi and Hebei) Han people, but the daily habits between them still showed some similarity, and conversing by writing was not a problem. Therefore quite some Song people quickly clang onto the powerful and wealthy aristocratic clans. By the end of Yuan when the east was in total chaos, many Han people from Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu also joined the Southern Capital Song community.
The distinction between “Yan people” and “Song people” has been preserved nevertheless. In this large city, 250,000 to 300,000 “Song people” customarily gather to form communities according to their origins in neighbourhoods such as the Bazaar, Western Harbour and Sanbao Hill, or in other corners of the city.
(A bit more elaboration on the Sanbao Hill area: it is close to the coast, together with today’s Yongding Guard City [永定衛城, where Yongding or 永定 literally means “eternal pacification” and 衛城 in Chinese is often used to refer to “acropolis”], was where the Ming armada docked every time they arrived during the early 15th Century. Zheng He was later buried nearby. Merchants and sailors from Ming as a result settled down here around the verdant Zheng Wood and the supposedly efficacious [靈驗, an adjective in Chinese that describes wish-granting or -fulfilling deities or other venerated figures, animals, objects or rituals] Shrine of Lord Zheng.)
It is not hard at all to locate the Song communities: as long as one gets atop some pagoda and glance towards the city from a distance, the gathered small yards built with dark green and red tiles are the households of the Song.
Mazu Temple of the Western Harbour, built in 1421.
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The Iraqi merchants also often gather to live on a slope north to the Western Harbour and close to the Big Bazaar. The 300-year-long alliance between their country and the Liao imperial court allowed these merchants to occupy this fine piece of land. Together with the Liao sea traders, they take control of the trade route from Malacca to the east to Persian Gulf or Suez to the west, and have been enjoying more stable control since the anti-Tianfang campaign during the late years of Duanning when the Tianfang navy was decisively defeated.
In contrast, their competitor, the Arabs and Persians are only able to reside in a crowded neighbourhood in east city. Since the 14th Century, they have been struggling to maintain their presence here in the biggest port on the Indian Ocean, but unfortunately for them, every time their countries were at war with Liao, the mobs hired by their competitors would soon show up, chant the slogan of “repel the barbarians and wage war on the defiant” (“攘夷討逆”), and rob all of their stock even before the Bureau for Foreign Shipping seize their storehouses. Soon, these Arabs and Persians fortified their communities and hired a horde of Balochi “barbarians” as guards. They had to bribe the Nanjing mayor (南京尹) very heavily in order to stop the officers of the Nanjing Prefecture from tearing down their low, thick cob wall.
The Jumu’ah in the Northern Pass Grand Mosque to the north of the Bazaar on every Friday seems to be the only time the two groups can be at peace with each other.
Friday Mosque (星期五清真寺, "Friday Halal Temple"), North 2nd Road of Bazaar North, built in 1381.
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The Fulin merchants gather on the narrow piece of land to the south of the Big Bazaar between the two harbours to the east and west. Perhaps the view of the bay reminds them of the Golden Horn back home. They were granted the chartered land from the imperial family since the establishment of the new city of the Southern Capital Debu Prefecture, making the history of their community more than two hundred years.
The centre of the “Fulin Town” (福林里, where the characters used are different from 拂林 or 拂菻, which are the more common names for Rome) is the Moji Hall (摩濟堂; probably some sort of transliteration of the phrase “big church”, Megale Ekklesia). Under the 60-chi-tall golden dome, the ceremonies held here where these “Fulin monks” burn incense and sing out their holy book(s) always draw a large group of ethnically diverse toddlers to follow them around. To the five thousand Greeks that reside here, this Saint Thomas Church as the headquarter of the Orthodox Church of India under Ecumenical Patriarch probably provides the strongest link to their homeland as the Greek community here has been gradually assimilated into the local customs and culture by this point in mid 16th Century.
Saint Thomas (Thomas the Apostle) Basilica,
headquarter of the Khitan Orthodox Church
under Ecumenical Patriarch, Fulin Town, built in 1452.
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The Jews, known as “the blue-hat Hui”, gather to live to the east of Fulin Town on several streets near the Bazaar. They can be said to be the “foreigners” that have been living for the longest time in the Indus Delta region. According to their own tales, their ancestors were merchants from the era of King Solomon – while the Greeks reveal that they are merely the descendants of the Jewish merchants in Babylon from a few hundred years ago, so their history is actually not more ancient than the local Greeks in the region.
Regardless, when the emperor moved the city he treated them equally as the Greeks were, and this long-time dwelling, Sindhi-speaking Jewish community from the old Debu city also obtained their own land, which the Liao people call the “Zhuhe Town” (竹鶴里, lit. “Bamboo Crane Town”; probably from 術忽 Shu4 Hu4, or Yahud).
Immanuel Synagogue, Zhuhe Town, built in 1430.
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To the west of Sanbao hill are another group that uphold the cross. These Frangos (佛郎機人) missed out on the foundation of the Southern Capital city so can only live outside the city. They also have their own internal strives. It is said that among this group, they are actually from many different states. The central administrative agencies of the imperial court only managed to tell them apart very recently: the English, French, Italians, Andalusians, Castilians, Hollanders, all these tongue-twisting names that cause serious headaches. A few year ago, missions from the King of England and King of Andalusia respectively requested to send permanent envoys to the Khitan court. Rumour from the Courst of State Ceremonials is, as such requests are unprecedented, the central court is still having a debate (read: procrastination) over this.
After the head of the Southern Capital Bureau for Foreign Shipping managed to get to these facts, they have all referred as the “Six Frangos” (as usual, the numbers in this kind of phrases in ancient Asia are known as 約數, lit. “approximate numbers”) in order to cut the unnecessary redundancy in governmental documents. As these Frangos fight with each other constantly and sometimes even behaving defiantly, the little port the government assigned to them is none other than the one sandwiched between the Yongding Guard and the naval base/camp (水師營, lit. “water army’s camp”), under gunpoint. However in the eyes of the Southern Capital residents, their community, due to the flags of various colours representing all their countries and families that wave as the monsoon blows, is known as the Jinfan Town (錦幡里, lit. “Colourful Streamer Town”).
The biggest attraction in Jinfan Town, other than the large ships with high freeboards and square sails, can only be the grand cross temple. This renaissance-style basilica is where the Catholic Church’s Archbishop of India is. The Liao people do not known nor care much about this, but they do know that every December and march, grand festivities are held in this cross temple, which are not to be missed.
Saint Bartholomew Basilica, cathedral of the Catholic Church’s Archbishop of India, Jinfan Town, 1551. Fundraising for the construction of the clock-tower is still underway.
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Near the Eastern Harbour area gather the Tamil merchants from Chola, who, for years controlled the sea route to Jinzhou, have built a cloud-capped temple here. In recent years due to the worsening relationship between Liao and Chola, they have been gradually giving way to the Malabari and Gujrati merchants who live in nearby neighbourhoods.
Brihadisvara Shrine, Beibai (“North White”) Street, originally built in 1319, slightly in disrepair recently.
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Away from the flashy and bright shops, mansions and governmental agencies, everywhere there are crowded small neighbourhoods extending unlimitedly. Apart from the distinct communities of other ethnic groups, tens of thousands of local Liao people also reside in the city of Southern Capital. Layers of mud-brick houses and shacks are decorated in all kinds of colours, while people from all over the empire and speaking various different languages from distinct language families live within them.
The Bengal peddlers from more than ten thousand li away almost completely control the supply of all kinds of food in the Nanjing Prefecture other than that of fresh meat; the Liao people from nearby Sindhi regions and Punjab as migrant workers form the backbone of the first batch of textile mills in the city; Malabari merchants, in turn, are rising as a new power on the West Sea trade routes, and will probably form a whole new social class due to their gradually rising status eventually.
Various major buildings in the Southern Capital city.
Original pic too big; link:
https://mega.nz/#!dlwjAK7T!DEOBnUzjQFUwANJ81FtKMErmNJanFJCDqlzgcq3kC48
Same map as given above.
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Original pic too big; link:
https://mega.nz/#!dlwjAK7T!DEOBnUzjQFUwANJ81FtKMErmNJanFJCDqlzgcq3kC48
Same map as given above.
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Of course in the end, all the liveliness and prosperity here drew the richest, most powerful individual in the entire empire.
The preference for the Southern Capital city of the Yizong empress (Yelü Yunhui/耶律雲慧, or Madame/Queen Yelü Mayanalladevi, ruled from 1467 to 1509), her tiny (temporary) court (行在朝廷, where 行在 is a term used to refer to wherever the emperor/empress is temporarily living in) in the Southern Capital, her private life and her short-lived “New Policy” (新政, which is also the Chinese translation for Franklin Roosevelts’ “New Deal” IOTL) have all become the hot topics future historians and amateurs (歷史發明家, a modern Chinese term that literally means “history inventors”) are attached to…
However as a series about the history of the material civilisation, we are still going to focus on her Southern Capital palaces.
This building complex overlooking the whole city and the ocean was once believed to be excessively influenced by “barbaric” styles, a rebellion against orthodoxy, and thus deserted for half a century after the empress passed away. Years later it was in turn regarded as pioneering, repeatedly imitated by official buildings and tycoons since 1560, and also coined as one of the representatives of early-modern Mahakhitan architecture by architectural historians from both the east and west.
In the next chapter we will talk about it in detail. Please stay tuned.
Last edited:
Chapter 0 Catalog, Yearbooks, and One More Thing.
Chapter 0 Catalog, Yearbooks, and One More Thing.
000 - 目录，年表，and one more thing.
*[Translator's Note:] This chapter is now "topped" in the original Zhihu column, but it was first published between Chapter 20 and Chapter 21, so I am choosing to update it now.
Chapters:
The catalog will be updated any time (and will be updated here as well).
Two introductory chapters that were intended to let people get familiar with the concept:
The rough geographical and cultural outlook, to pave way for the future:
Series of early Mahakhitan architectural history and planning history, also showing the country's early history:
Zheng He visits the Liao Central Capital, the four-piece Grand Theatre series:
sight-seeing geography series:
Middle Mahakhitan architectural history series:
Series of Mahakhitan's foreign relations and trade:
Series of Mahakhitan's modern transition:
Series of Mahakhitan in the age of industrialisation:
Extras:
More fun than the proper chapters
Chronicle/Yearbook of the Latter Liao (後遼) emperors:
Shizu Wu Emperor Yelü Dashi - 世祖武皇帝 耶律大石
Baoda/保大 (1130-1134)
Yanqing/延慶 (1135-1142)
Kangguo/康國 (1143-1155)
Anshang/安上 (1156-1164)
Xuanzong Emperor Yelü Guangyuan - 宣宗皇帝 耶律光遠
Zhaohe/兆和 (1165-1174)
Zhuque/朱雀 (1174-1188)
Mingyi/明義 (1189-1199)
Guangzong Emperor Yelü Hongtai - 光宗皇帝 耶律洪泰
Yanhe/延和 (1200-1204)
Zhaozong Emperor Yelü Yanfu - 昭宗皇帝 耶律延福
Tianying/天應 (1205-1245)
Wuzong Emperor Yelü Chunxi - 武宗皇帝 耶律淳熙
Deyou/德佑 (1246-1260)
Yingzong Emperor Yelü Dexu - 英宗皇帝 耶律德續
Qianhe/乾和 (1261-1270)
Weizong Emperor Yelü Tianhe - 威宗皇帝 耶律天賀
Kangle/康樂 (1271-1292)
Baoying/寶應 (1293-1300)
Suzong Emperor Yelü Wenchang - 肅宗皇帝 耶律文長
Yongtai/永泰 (1301-1331)
Renzong Emperor Yelü Youren - 仁宗皇帝 耶律佑仁
Baoli/寶曆 (1332-1336)
Qianyou/乾佑 (1337-1365)
Xiuzong Emperor Yelü Siyi - 修宗皇帝 耶律思義
Yuanfu/元福 (1366-1368)
Zhezong Emperor Yelü Mingshi - 哲宗皇帝 耶律明誓
Chunhe/淳和 (1369-1414)
Anzong Emperor Yelü Kuanle - 安宗皇帝 耶律寬樂
Jingyun/景雲 (1415-1454)
Xizong Emperor Yelü Kangting - 熙宗皇帝 耶律康廷
Baoyong/寶永 (1455-1466)
Yizong Empress Yelü Yunhui (Madame Mahamaya) - 懿宗皇帝 耶律雲慧（摩訶摩耶夫人）
Jianchang/建昌 (1467-1470)
Duanning/端寧 (1471-1509)
Minzong Emperor Yelü Dun - 愍宗皇帝 耶律敦
Jiazhi/嘉祉 (1510-1529)
Pingzong Emperor Yelü Jing - 平宗皇帝 耶律敬
Chongguang/重光 (1530-1545)
Changtai/長泰 (1546-1560)
Yizong Emperor Yelü Zhen - 毅宗皇帝 耶律震
Pingdeng/平等 (1561-1581)
Wuding/武定 (1582-1601)
Kangzong Emperor Yelü Ding - 康宗皇帝 耶律定
Zhengping/政平 (1602-1647)
Liezong Emperor Yelü Hongdu - 烈宗皇帝 耶律洪篤
Mingshao/明紹 (1648-1665)
Chengzong Emperor (Chongtian Empress) Yelü Mingxu - 成宗皇帝（崇天女皇）耶律鳴緒
Yiqing/儀慶 (1666-1706)
Chunzong Emperor Yelü Song - 純宗皇帝 耶律嵩
Huide/會德 (1707-1740)
Zhuangzong Emperor Yelü Jing - 莊宗皇帝 耶律競
Chuhe/儲和 (1741-1789)
Xiaozong Emperor Yelü Yan - 孝宗皇帝 耶律儼
Changde/昌德 (1790-1798)
Wenzong Emperor Yelü Chuo - 文宗皇帝 耶律綽
Fukang/阜康 (1799-1804)
Changning/長寧 (1805-1821)
Kaishan/開善 (1827-1835)
Xianzong Emperor Yelü Shu - 憲宗皇帝 耶律澍
Guangshun/廣順 (1836-1852)
Guanghua/光化 (1852-1862)
Zhangzong Emperor Yelü Yong - 章宗皇帝 耶律雍
Jiaying/嘉應 (1863-1881)
Current Emperor His Majesty Yelü Yu - 今上 耶律豫
Xianhe/咸和 (1882-1883)
Huitong/會同 (1883-)
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Speaking of the title image*.
*Title image has been updated, but the original one is shown below.
The picture here (shown below) is actually older than this column.
It was a color study I drew last September in order to better grasp the visual image of Mahakhitan. Recently I have taken it out again for some refinement.
Although I have added many settings since, and many things have happened in my life,
the image of Mahakhitan in my head is alway like this.
Zhaode Gate of the Central Capital, scene of a princess' wedding, ~1350
Link to the original pic that is too big to be uploaded:
https://mega.nz/#!s5BkCaID!cWqio2idVP_SU5THljDwcv86BNROznox_wIrSOOsltA
Hope to have the chance to write more, and draw more. Thank you for your lasting support.
000 - 目录，年表，and one more thing.
*[Translator's Note:] This chapter is now "topped" in the original Zhihu column, but it was first published between Chapter 20 and Chapter 21, so I am choosing to update it now.
Chapters:
The catalog will be updated any time (and will be updated here as well).
Two introductory chapters that were intended to let people get familiar with the concept:
Chapter 1：An Overlook on Mahakhitan
001 - 摩訶契丹概論
Chapter 2: A Short History of the Liao Enterprise in India
002 - 遼國經營印度簡史, 1150-1300s
The rough geographical and cultural outlook, to pave way for the future:
Chapter 3: A Sketch of Geography and Culture of the Empire
003 - 帝國地理文化概貌, till 1444
Series of early Mahakhitan architectural history and planning history, also showing the country's early history:
Chapter 4: Shangjing, a Dream of Splendour, the Story of the Old Upper Capital, Balasagun
004 - 上京煙雲: 故上京八剌沙袞的故事, 1127-1246
Chapter 5: When Snow Stops in the Cold Mountains, or Mahakhitan Architectural arts in Afghanistan, between the Upper and Central Capitals
005 - 寒山雪霽：上京中都之間的摩訶契丹建築藝術, 1160s-1250s
Chapter 6: City of a Thousand Cities, or Stories about the Planning and Construction of Central Capital (Part 1)
006 - 千城之城：摩訶契丹中都城的故事（上）, 1170s-1260s
Chapter 7: Celestial Rain Of Mandârava: or Stories about the Mahakhitan Central Capital (Part 2)
007 - 天雨曼華：摩訶契丹中都城的故事（中）, 1261-1276
Chapter 8: High Hills and Lofty Heights, or Stories about the Mahakhitan Central Capital (Part 3)
008 - 景山與京：摩訶契丹中都城的故事（下）, 1276-1526, no specific time
Zheng He visits the Liao Central Capital, the four-piece Grand Theatre series:
Chapter 9: Grand Theatre: Zheng He Embassy’s Mahakhitan Accounts (Part One)
009 - 大劇場：鄭和使團摩訶契丹見聞錄（一）, 6:00 - 9:00, Dec. 26, 1409
Chapter 10 Grand Theatre: Zheng He Embassy’s Mahakhitan Accounts (Part Two)
010 - 大劇場：鄭和使團摩訶契丹見聞錄（之二）, 9:00 - 12:00, Dec. 26, 1409
Chapter 11 Grand Theatre: Zheng He Embassy’s Mahakhitan Accounts (Part Three)
011 - 大劇場：鄭和使團摩訶契丹見聞錄（之三）, 12:00 - 16:00, Dec. 26, 1409
I put the most effort in this piece.
Chapter 12 Grand Theatre: Zheng He Embassy’s Mahakhitan Accounts (Fin)
012 - 大劇場：鄭和使團摩訶契丹見聞錄（完結）, 16:00, Dec. 26, 1409 - 02:00, Dec. 27, 1409
The imperial Chapter 13 True · Mahakhitan National Geographics – Capital Areas
013 - 真・摩訶契丹國家地理-京畿篇, till 1510
Chapter 14 True · Mahakhitan National Geographics – the Western Parts
014 - 真・摩訶契丹國家地理-西國篇, till 1510
Chapter 15 True · Mahakhitan National Geographics – the Eastern Parts
015 - 真・摩訶契丹國家地理-東國篇, till 1510
Chapter 16 World View of the Mahakhitan People
016 - 摩訶契丹人的世界觀, till 1510
Three loosely set pieces before or after the Guiwei Rebellion:Chapter 17 Three Ghost Stories
017 - “三個鬼故事”, told in 1529, having taken place in 1480-1510
Chapter 18 Khitan Armies during Troubled Times, 1529
018 - 亂世裡的契丹軍隊，1529年, 1529
Chapter 19 New Tune from the Old Liangzhou Rhythm, A Song about the Swan Escaping the Gyrfalcon
019 - 新腔翻得涼州曲，彈出天鵝避海青, 1530-1555
Middle Mahakhitan architectural history series:
Chapter 20 Flourishing Households: Stories of the Mahakhitan Southern Capital
020 - 室家溱溱：摩訶契丹南京城的故事, 1160-1560
Chapter 21 Her Majesty’s Nine Layers of Palace Gates: The Empress and Her Mahakhitan Southern Capital Palaces (Part 1)
021 - 君門九重：女皇和她的摩訶契丹南京宮闕（上）, looking back to the history of 1470-1510 from 1560
Chapter 22 Wild Vines Entangling on the Desolate Tomb: The Empress and Her Mahakhitan Southern Capital Palaces (Part 2)
022 – 蘞蔓於野：女皇和她的摩訶契丹南京宮闕（下）, looking back to the history of 1470-1510 from 1560
Series of Mahakhitan's foreign relations and trade:
Chapter 23 Mahakhitan Armies during the Expedition in Southern China, 1630
023 – 華南遠征中的摩訶契丹軍隊，1630, 1628-1631
Chapter 24 The Boiling Ocean: Introduction to the 17th Century Indian Ocean Trade, with Many Maps
024 – 沸騰的海洋：17世紀的印度洋貿易概述，附大量地圖, 1630-1660
Chapter 25 Small Theatre: from Cathay to Ireland (Part One)
025 – 小劇場：從契丹到愛爾蘭（上）, 1659-1661
Chapter 26 Small Theatre: from Cathay to Ireland (Part Two)
026 – 小劇場：從契丹到愛爾蘭（下）, 1659-1661
The Mahakhitan Kaleidoscope series:Chapter 27 Mahakhitan Kaleidoscope (1): A Brief Introduction to the Empire’s Administrative Branch in 18th Century
027 – 摩訶契丹萬花筒（1）：18世紀帝國的行政機構簡述, around 1700
Chapter 28 Mahakhitan Kaleidoscope (2): Mahakhitan Vexillology, and Brief Introduction to the Country’s Army and Navy
028 – 摩訶契丹旗幟學，兼該國陸海軍簡介, around 1700
Chapter 29 Stories of Mahakhitan Porcelain Art (Part One)
029 – 摩訶契丹瓷器藝術的故事（上）, looking back to the history of 1130-1360 modern times
Chapter 30 Stories of Mahakhitan Porcelain Art (Part Two)
030 – 摩訶契丹瓷器藝術的故事（下）, looking back to the history of 1360-1770 from likely modern times
Chapter 32 On Modern Liao-Sindhu Names
032 –近世遼竺辽名姓考, post-1500
Chapter 33 Life of Master Jiuhai, Liao Language Literature of Mahakhitan, and Liao’s Social Ecology in late 18th Century
033 – 《久海大師傳》和摩訶契丹遼語文學，以及18世紀末遼國社會生態, looking back to 1200-1780 from modern times
Chapter 34 New Year Special: Mahakhitan History of Architecture for the Average Joe (Not!)
034 – 新年特集：吃瓜群眾的摩訶契丹建築史（大霧, 1130-1650
Chapter 35 Clothing of Mahakhitan Aristocratic Girls
035 – 摩訶契丹貴族女孩子的衣飾, 1750
Series of Mahakhitan's modern transition:
Chapter 31 Gloaming Bells of Treasured Clouds: A Lousy Show-Around Trip with Me, and the 18th Century Major Political Event of Mahakhitan Reflected by a Grand Temple
031 – 寳雲晚锺：一次被我牽著走的劣質旅行，和一座大寺折射的摩訶契丹18世紀政治大事件, 1769
Chapter 36 Revisiting the Old Capital
036 – 舊都行, 1820-1830
Series of Mahakhitan in the age of industrialisation:
Chapter 39 Lanes That Support Heaven: A Few Stories about early Mahakhitan Railways
039 – 何天之衢：摩訶契丹早期鐵路的幾個故事, 1840s-1870s
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Extras:
Little Extra of the Mahakhitan National Geographics*
摩訶契丹國家地理小號外
*This is the immediate update @Green Painting made after Chapter 2, but he didn't include the title and some of Kara's personal forewords.
Bonus: Exploring the Possibilities of Mahakhitan Art
贈頁：摩訶契丹建築藝術的一點腦洞
Happy New Year! A Minor Update: Flag, FAQ, and Recent Plans
新年快樂！一點微小的更新：旗幟、FAQ、以及近期計劃
Bonus 002: Grand Theatre - Background Information
增刊002：大劇場知識向
Bonus 003: The Wheel of History Starts Cracking & Rolling Again~
增刊003：歷史的車輪又咕吱咕吱轉動起來了
Bonus 004: Possible Look of the Mahakhitan Written Language
增刊004：摩訶契丹文字可能的樣子
Bonus 005: I’ve Got Two Good News Yo Which One Y’all Wanna Hear First
增刊005：我有兩個好消息你想先聽哪個
Bonus 006: Dimensions of the South Asian Subcontinent, Among Other Things
增刊006：南亞次大陸的尺度，以及其它
Bonus 007: Such Are the Southern Realms - History of Relations of Mahakhitan with Southern Indian States
增刊007： 式是南邦：摩訶契丹與南印度諸國關係史
Bonus 008: Preview of the Mahakhitan mod For Victoria II
增刊008：摩訶契丹國《維多利亞II》mod預覽
Bonus 009: Twin Lotus Flowers on the Same Stalk - Story between Mahakhitan and Hezhong Khitans, 1250-1800
增刊 009： 並蒂蓮華：摩訶契丹國與河中契丹人的故事
Bonus 010 Happy Breakup: 600 Years of Entanglement between Mahakhitan and Mesopotamia, 1300-1870
增刊010，分手快乐：摩诃契丹与两河流域政权的600年恩怨史，1300-1870
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Mahakhitan Chronicles (more on political and military history):
Original Historical Material: The Mahakhitan Chronicle (1130-1246)
原始史料：摩訶契丹年表（1130-1246）
Original Historical Material: The Mahakhitan Chronicle (1246-1414)
原始史料：摩訶契丹年表（1246-1414）
Original Historical Material: The Mahakhitan Chronicle (1414-1631)
原始史料：摩訶契丹年表（1414-1631）
Original Historical Material: The Mahakhitan Chronicle (1632-1760)
原始史料：摩訶契丹年表（1632-1760）
Original Historical Material: The Mahakhitan Chronicle (1761-1821)
原始史料：摩訶契丹年表（1761-1821）
Original Historical Material: The Mahakhitan Chronicle (1821-1855), and a Few Other Words
原始史料：摩訶契丹年表（1821-1855），和一點兒其他的話。
Original Historical Material: The Mahakhitan Chronicle (1856-1881)
原始史料：摩訶契丹年表（1856-1881）
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Chronicle/Yearbook of the Latter Liao (後遼) emperors:
Shizu Wu Emperor Yelü Dashi - 世祖武皇帝 耶律大石
Baoda/保大 (1130-1134)
Yanqing/延慶 (1135-1142)
Kangguo/康國 (1143-1155)
Anshang/安上 (1156-1164)
Xuanzong Emperor Yelü Guangyuan - 宣宗皇帝 耶律光遠
Zhaohe/兆和 (1165-1174)
Zhuque/朱雀 (1174-1188)
Mingyi/明義 (1189-1199)
Guangzong Emperor Yelü Hongtai - 光宗皇帝 耶律洪泰
Yanhe/延和 (1200-1204)
Zhaozong Emperor Yelü Yanfu - 昭宗皇帝 耶律延福
Tianying/天應 (1205-1245)
Wuzong Emperor Yelü Chunxi - 武宗皇帝 耶律淳熙
Deyou/德佑 (1246-1260)
Yingzong Emperor Yelü Dexu - 英宗皇帝 耶律德續
Qianhe/乾和 (1261-1270)
Weizong Emperor Yelü Tianhe - 威宗皇帝 耶律天賀
Kangle/康樂 (1271-1292)
Baoying/寶應 (1293-1300)
Suzong Emperor Yelü Wenchang - 肅宗皇帝 耶律文長
Yongtai/永泰 (1301-1331)
Renzong Emperor Yelü Youren - 仁宗皇帝 耶律佑仁
Baoli/寶曆 (1332-1336)
Qianyou/乾佑 (1337-1365)
Xiuzong Emperor Yelü Siyi - 修宗皇帝 耶律思義
Yuanfu/元福 (1366-1368)
Zhezong Emperor Yelü Mingshi - 哲宗皇帝 耶律明誓
Chunhe/淳和 (1369-1414)
Anzong Emperor Yelü Kuanle - 安宗皇帝 耶律寬樂
Jingyun/景雲 (1415-1454)
Xizong Emperor Yelü Kangting - 熙宗皇帝 耶律康廷
Baoyong/寶永 (1455-1466)
Yizong Empress Yelü Yunhui (Madame Mahamaya) - 懿宗皇帝 耶律雲慧（摩訶摩耶夫人）
Jianchang/建昌 (1467-1470)
Duanning/端寧 (1471-1509)
Minzong Emperor Yelü Dun - 愍宗皇帝 耶律敦
Jiazhi/嘉祉 (1510-1529)
Pingzong Emperor Yelü Jing - 平宗皇帝 耶律敬
Chongguang/重光 (1530-1545)
Changtai/長泰 (1546-1560)
Yizong Emperor Yelü Zhen - 毅宗皇帝 耶律震
Pingdeng/平等 (1561-1581)
Wuding/武定 (1582-1601)
Kangzong Emperor Yelü Ding - 康宗皇帝 耶律定
Zhengping/政平 (1602-1647)
Liezong Emperor Yelü Hongdu - 烈宗皇帝 耶律洪篤
Mingshao/明紹 (1648-1665)
Chengzong Emperor (Chongtian Empress) Yelü Mingxu - 成宗皇帝（崇天女皇）耶律鳴緒
Yiqing/儀慶 (1666-1706)
Chunzong Emperor Yelü Song - 純宗皇帝 耶律嵩
Huide/會德 (1707-1740)
Zhuangzong Emperor Yelü Jing - 莊宗皇帝 耶律競
Chuhe/儲和 (1741-1789)
Xiaozong Emperor Yelü Yan - 孝宗皇帝 耶律儼
Changde/昌德 (1790-1798)
Wenzong Emperor Yelü Chuo - 文宗皇帝 耶律綽
Fukang/阜康 (1799-1804)
Changning/長寧 (1805-1821)
Kaishan/開善 (1827-1835)
Xianzong Emperor Yelü Shu - 憲宗皇帝 耶律澍
Guangshun/廣順 (1836-1852)
Guanghua/光化 (1852-1862)
Zhangzong Emperor Yelü Yong - 章宗皇帝 耶律雍
Jiaying/嘉應 (1863-1881)
Current Emperor His Majesty Yelü Yu - 今上 耶律豫
Xianhe/咸和 (1882-1883)
Huitong/會同 (1883-)
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*Title image has been updated, but the original one is shown below.
The picture here (shown below) is actually older than this column.
It was a color study I drew last September in order to better grasp the visual image of Mahakhitan. Recently I have taken it out again for some refinement.
Although I have added many settings since, and many things have happened in my life,
the image of Mahakhitan in my head is alway like this.
Zhaode Gate of the Central Capital, scene of a princess' wedding, ~1350
Link to the original pic that is too big to be uploaded:
https://mega.nz/#!s5BkCaID!cWqio2idVP_SU5THljDwcv86BNROznox_wIrSOOsltA
Attachments
Last edited:
Compare this Zhaode Gate
To its namesake, the Zhaode Gate of Balasagun
How how time flies.
Zhaode Gate of the Central Capital, scene of a princess' wedding, ~1350
To its namesake, the Zhaode Gate of Balasagun
How how time flies.
Chapter 21 Her Majesty’s Nine Layers of Palace Gates*: The Empress and Her Mahakhitan Southern Capital Palaces (Part 1)
Chapter 21 Her Majesty’s Nine Layers of Palace Gates*: The Empress and Her Mahakhitan Southern Capital Palaces (Part 1)
021 - 君門九重：女皇和她的摩訶契丹宮闕（上）
*Originally written in Chinese as 君門九重, the line here is from Second, Two Pieces on the Rain on Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival (寒食雨二首・其二) by Su Shi (蘇軾), Song Dynasty. It was meant to describe the heavily guarded imperial palaces (that the author had been banished from), where “nine layers” of gates does not necessarily mean there were indeed so many gates (again, typical ancient Chinese use of 虛數/約數).
Wanted to finish this in one go, but found even the most succinct description would be too long… so it will come as two parts.
I’ve drawn with maximal effort so far this time!
…
(This chapter is about the stories from 1470 to 1510, told from the point in 1563… after the era of the empress there would be the Guiwei Rebellion [1526-1545] mentioned in Chapter 18, followed by the National Rites Restoration Movement introduced in Chapter 19. It’s roughly like this. In future chapters I will probably stick to the chronological order.)
Fall, the 3rd Year of Liao’s Pingdeng (平等, lit. “equal” in modern Chinese but …) era (1563), the new emperor now plans to take a tour to the south, and as one of the many preparations that need to be done, the Ministry of Works have dispatched more than a hundred craftsmen to renovate the local palace in the Southern Capital.
The palace here was completely more than ninety years ago by this time, long unfrequented since the decease of its owner, pillaged and ravaged in the two incidents of turmoil that took place in the Southern Capital – once in the 14th Year and once in the 20th Year of Jiazhi respectively (1523 and 1529), and also deprived of its gold decorations and bronze tiles for mintage and cannon casting by His Late Majesty who was eager to replenish the imperial reserve during the civil war.
The palace now is but a dull sketch of shadow, overlooking the Western Harbour of Nanjing, with no word coming from it through the sails and masts. But I*, self-confident to be well-versed of all the original documents and blueprints in the Building and Renovation Department, know it still has many stories to tell.
*Ladies and gentlemen, our author Kara here~
Around a dozen young lads from the Southern Capital Rear Agency (南都留守司) push open the rusted Yunhe Gate (雲和門, lit. “Cloud Peace Gate”) and begin to clean out the Fragrant Ocean covered by camel thorns, when the fragments of stories I have read and seen instantly backflow and drown me under.
More than ninety years ago,
April, the 13th Year of Baoyong (1467), the Xizong emperor of Liao was hunting in the Northern Imperial Park when he suddenly died of angina after an all-night-long feast. It was one day later when Princess Yelü Yunhui, then eleven years old, heard about the disastrous news. The two younger brothers of the emperor had already died before him, and the only son of his died young soon after being born.
It was unknown how the accompanying lords argued and made deals, or how the Three Guards of the Central Capital were constantly being moved around, but at the end of the day, the returned aristocrats, no matter how they loathed each other before, and no matter how horrendous rumours were being circulated in the capital, made the same unanimous move at the Zichen Hall (紫宸殿, lit. "Purple Polaris Hall"; mentioned in Chapter 8 but wrongly transliterated as “Zicheng Hall”):
Kneeling down and requesting the princess to ascend the throne.
Therefore, an eleven-year-old little girl suddenly became the first ever empress in the history of Mahakhitan. Those who could not stop nagging about the ancestral rules were soon silenced. The empress dowager were recommended by general acclaim to act as regent for Her Majesty, a nominal responsibility she had to shoulder how grieving she was. A think, weak Tamil woman in excessive sorrow and a little girl were simply the easiest combination to manipulate.
But as it turned out, neither of these two was easily manipulatable. March, spring, 2nd Year of Jianchang (1468; 建昌, lit. “Building Prosperity”), on a court assembly, the empress dowager announced in an indisputable tone that the little empress was engaged – just as those feudal lords were discussing and recommending candidates to propose a marriage to Her Majesty, the empress dowager moved first, showed an “only I have a say on my only daughter’s main life affair (in Chinese this expression is almost always used to refer to marriage)” attitude and rebutted all exhortations.
To the lords’ further surprise who were thinking to make trouble, the match for Her Majesty’s engagement was the Shanyang crown prince. The Shanyang royal family, descended from the ancient Pala Dynasty, had been the top powerful clan in the empire, possessed supreme authority in the eastern realm, and was in fact the target for appeasement to ambitious lords.
It was not until the little empress began to take over the reign herself a few years later did the Khitan aristocrats begin to realise the trouble they stomached back then. A shrewed young man, a protective Chola lioness of no scruples, plus a horde of loyal civilian officials of humble origins - the combination urged these lords to start secretly discussing the potential for a staged abdication – she still had a few male paternal cousins after all, and inviting the Hanshan King to the capital would be a possible last resort, but by this point everyone already knew it might have become too late.
January 15th, 4th Year of Duanning (1474), the day of the wedding of the empress and the Shanyang crown prince. The collective cheers of “long live” from the Pinshi Jun (皮室軍, lit. “Pishi Army”, the Chinese transliteration of the name of the Khitan imperial guard army whose name 皮室/Pishi had an original meaning of Vajra guardians) and the scene of the seven hundred war elephants of the Shanyang Army that accompanied the crown prince to the capital lining up on Qianbu Lang (千步廊, lit. “Thousand Step Gallery”, a wide lane to the front of the main palace that is practically a square) made the Khitan lords dropped their secretive ideas once and for all.
This is roughly how the last attempt to make the imperial family a figurehead of these inland feudal lords failed.
Since the 14th Century, the consistent goal of Mahakhitan emperors had always been to change the situation where the imperial power was weak. The enfeoffment scheme, as a measure of expediency after the defeat by the hands of the Mongols, had caused side-effects lasting for centuries. The local Khitan and Han lords had been fighting with each other constantly since they had independent armies and economic powers. The previous emperors had already strengthened the secret services, measured the land of the entire country, slowly retracted some military power, and rebuilt a powerful imperial guard army – the Black Falcon Pishi Army under the flag of gyrfalcon on the black field.
Now, our young Yelü Yunhui, or Mayanalladevi I as her Sanskrit name went, decided to prove she was no lesser than her grandfather and father. She was determined to finish the last step of rebuilding this middle empire.
Moving the court to a place with fresh air and away from these mutually-interwinding traditional aristocrats was one of the important issues she was considering at the age of eighteen.
The Nanjing Debu Prefecture was such a place “filled with fresh air”. It had the knowledge about the whole world brought by the merchants from everywhere, the beautiful and nice imports from Great Ming and the Grand West (泰西, a name used to collectively refer to “the West” in pre-contemporary Chinese), as well as the steady flow of revenue from the Southern Capital and Suluo Bureaus for Foreign Shipping that could be harnessed by the central government directly. The empress was fascinated by this place upon her first southward visit here.
May, 5th Year of Duanning, after returning from the Southern Capital, the empress ordered to build the palaces there. She considered the previously reserved land for the Southern Capital palaces to be wide yet pointless, and specifically chose a piece of highland by the Western Harbour at the southwestern corner of the city, overlooking the Indus Delta as well as the ocean afar, to be the base of the palaces. It was originally the location for the southwestern turret tower of the Southern Capital and the fortress of the garrison.
Here (refer to the previous chapter for the translated map).
Before making the decision to build the palaces, just as how she did not trust the craftsmen working for the Ministry of Works, she first hired a huge bunch of Sindhi, Persian and Gujrati craftsmena and painters to the Eastern Capital, and brought back many sample designs of buildings near the Southern Capital Area. After handling the job to the deeply humiliated Ministry of Works, she also kept concerning herself with the specific design of the palaces once every few days.
And she did not even summon the craftsmen to the court to have discussions; instead, she would barge into the Ministry of Works at noon after the court assembly was over, when we were boiling lamb as lunch in the ministry, and would also frequently draw some designs herself – for which she was obviously not responsible. Sometimes the imperial kitchen could not send Her Majesty’s meal to her, so she would take some of our lamb tortilla soup (湯餅, lit. “soup pancake”, the earlier form of soup noodles) from our shaking hands, and incidentally issue a verbal instruction to make some sarcastic remarks on the imperial kitchen, saying the work meals in the Ministry of Works were simply way better and so on.
Ahem… I digress, but such is how I used to see her in person.
The completion of the palaces was five years later, in December. The empress had already became a mother when she saw the golden top and azure skyline of the Southern Capital palaces. She was no longer the way she was – smart and deliberately causing embarrassment to others - in front of her subjects, but instead always glued to her husband, His Majesty the Shanyang King that newly succeeded to the throne.
The Shanyang King was five years older than the empress. At the very beginning, Her Majesty was completely unenthusiastic about this political marriage, and very indifferent to this distant cousin of hers that she only first met at the wedding day; but as time flied, one day, they suddenly realised they could no longer bear separation from each other.
(There are so many stories when it comes to this part, emm… until now they are still an inexhaustible room of treasure for our country’s romantic literature, and will even become rather clichéd at the hands of the film industry of the empire due to all the romantic musicals made from them.)
One thing came up when the Yunhe Hall, the main hall of the new palaces, was being designed. The empress insisted to place a wide throne in the middle, on which she and His Majesty the Shanyang King shall sit together. The idea, however, was met with opposition from everyone else including the empress dowager and the chancellor(s), for the reason, naturally, that it was not in accordance with the code of conduct between the ruler and the subjects. The emperor (empress) shall precisely occupy the centre of this hall of Mount Sumeru, whereas sitting together with His Majesty would not only cause a deviance from the centre position, but also be indeed inappropriate considering His Majesty’s status as a prince (親王, lit. “related king”, meaning a direct, same-generation male relative of the emperor/empress in Chinese). Despite adhering to her own idea for some time, the empress still listened to the suggestion of the empress dowager in the end. Finally, the throne of the Wheel-Turning Sagely King following the style of the Bodh Gaya Vajrāsana (Diamond Throne) was still placed in front of the Garuda floor screen on the dais at the centre of the hall, while the Shanyang King’s throne was placed on one side with slightly lower specifications, but with the gilt Sumeru dais, brocade mattress and royal/imperial curtain all included.
Even so, when the empress was unable to constantly attend court assemblies when pregnant, she still made the Shanyang King sit on the imperial throne in the middle. At such times, there would be a small pillow on His Majesty’s knees with the empress’ neckwear (頸飾) on it. “The neckwear (纓絡) represents my very presence,” (or, “See the neckwear as if I am present,”) she would say.
Section view of the Yunhe Hall, Western Inner, Southern Capital. Please expand to view the pic…
On the other hand, when the empress was present herself, the throne in Yunhe Hall used to be where the series of storms that swept the empire originated. The edict that ordered the imperial post route system to be opened for everyone, the edict that ordered the imperial examination to everyone as well as allowing the exam to be answered in Sanskrit characters, the edict that withdrew the power of personnel administration from the zhou and circuit levels, the edict that ordered Kangzhou and Hanshan to turn in the tariff collected, the edict that ordered the foundation of the first firearm army made up by peasants… were all announced under this canopy-shaped caisson symbolising the deificated imperial power, dropping the jaws of those both in and out of the hall, and significantly influenced the fate of many generations in the future whether or not having reached the empress’ expectations in the end.
The Yunhe Hall was also where the empress would greet her envoys that returned with the naval fleets from afar. The news of the first visit to Constantinople, the details of the return visit paid to the two capitals of the Great Ming, the story of the Liao navy finding the Jurchens and Khorchin Mongols while exploring the coast of the old Khitan homeland, and the report of discovering the mythical Videha (today’s western Australia) to the southeast were all published here on this very hall, more and more stimulating the desire of the Liao people for the wealth from other places in the world. During Her Majesty’s time, the old aristocrats gradually started to engage in overseas trade that they used to despise, the sanghas (Buddhist groups) from Puti Circuit tried to begin primitive financial services, the once incompatible classes seemed to be slowly merging, fusing, assimilating…
Back to the scene we have in front of us.
The courtyard here leading to the main hall of the outer court (referring to the imperial court/government) is now overgrown with weeds. The cross-shaped pool in the middle – the “Fragrant Ocean” of Persian style with flowing loongs (eastern “dragons”) carved on the bottom has long dried up, with fifty years of accumulated yellow dust covering the loong head that stretches all the way to the jade stairs (玉階, the traditional way of calling the stairs/steps of the imperial palaces in ancient China, not necessarily meaning the stairs/steps were made of jade) in front of the hall. The base of dais in the shape of Mount Sumeru, which is approximately twice the height of a person, still has its carved patterns on the sandstone surface intact. Walking up to the hall, the dust that elevated from the floor tiles with lotus patterns makes us coughing non-stop.
Craftsmen and guard soldiers spends close to half a day here, removing the spider webs on the stone pillars and sweeping clean the fallen leaves and wood scraps. The imperial throne of Yunhe Hall is nowhere to be found. Probably deprived of the gold leaves from it and thrown into some warehouse somewhere. The curtains were likely all looted away during the turmoil. The back screen with the Garuda carved on it is in turn indestructibly intact. The sharp eyes of the golden-winged roc seem to be pushing the coiling loongs on the stone pillars aside, and venting its suppressed anger on the court officials from back then.
The loongs fear the golden-winged roc the most,” says someone, “why on earth did the empress carve them together here.”
Only she dared to ignore the old taboos, and only she had the boldness to make mutually hostile sides to coexist peacefully.
I lean on the coiling loong pillar, looking at the guard soldiers as they push open the Changqing Gate (長慶門, lit. “Lasting Celebration Gate”) painted in vermillion to the back of the hall. More dust then falls from ceiling with the rumbling sound of gate-opening.
Translated floorplan is too big to be uploaded; link:
https://mega.nz/#!Z9QCWKIL!_heyG3P2pqLmg7VVJtYOsQ8D3iRh2gVseJLx-JA_e2E
(To be continued…)
Appendix – the buildings for reference: Guess which architecture I referred to for which part… They are without factual errors whatsoever, and all possible to be what can be found in Mahakhitan in a parallel world.
*The following were originally listed in English by Kara:
I could have, in fact, listed how exactly I referred to these one by one, but … I still need to continue writing with maximal efficiency, don’t I …
021 - 君門九重：女皇和她的摩訶契丹宮闕（上）
Wanted to finish this in one go, but found even the most succinct description would be too long… so it will come as two parts.
I’ve drawn with maximal effort so far this time!
…
(This chapter is about the stories from 1470 to 1510, told from the point in 1563… after the era of the empress there would be the Guiwei Rebellion [1526-1545] mentioned in Chapter 18, followed by the National Rites Restoration Movement introduced in Chapter 19. It’s roughly like this. In future chapters I will probably stick to the chronological order.)
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Fall, the 3rd Year of Liao’s Pingdeng (平等, lit. “equal” in modern Chinese but …) era (1563), the new emperor now plans to take a tour to the south, and as one of the many preparations that need to be done, the Ministry of Works have dispatched more than a hundred craftsmen to renovate the local palace in the Southern Capital.
The palace here was completely more than ninety years ago by this time, long unfrequented since the decease of its owner, pillaged and ravaged in the two incidents of turmoil that took place in the Southern Capital – once in the 14th Year and once in the 20th Year of Jiazhi respectively (1523 and 1529), and also deprived of its gold decorations and bronze tiles for mintage and cannon casting by His Late Majesty who was eager to replenish the imperial reserve during the civil war.
The palace now is but a dull sketch of shadow, overlooking the Western Harbour of Nanjing, with no word coming from it through the sails and masts. But I*, self-confident to be well-versed of all the original documents and blueprints in the Building and Renovation Department, know it still has many stories to tell.
*Ladies and gentlemen, our author Kara here~
Around a dozen young lads from the Southern Capital Rear Agency (南都留守司) push open the rusted Yunhe Gate (雲和門, lit. “Cloud Peace Gate”) and begin to clean out the Fragrant Ocean covered by camel thorns, when the fragments of stories I have read and seen instantly backflow and drown me under.
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More than ninety years ago,
April, the 13th Year of Baoyong (1467), the Xizong emperor of Liao was hunting in the Northern Imperial Park when he suddenly died of angina after an all-night-long feast. It was one day later when Princess Yelü Yunhui, then eleven years old, heard about the disastrous news. The two younger brothers of the emperor had already died before him, and the only son of his died young soon after being born.
It was unknown how the accompanying lords argued and made deals, or how the Three Guards of the Central Capital were constantly being moved around, but at the end of the day, the returned aristocrats, no matter how they loathed each other before, and no matter how horrendous rumours were being circulated in the capital, made the same unanimous move at the Zichen Hall (紫宸殿, lit. "Purple Polaris Hall"; mentioned in Chapter 8 but wrongly transliterated as “Zicheng Hall”):
Kneeling down and requesting the princess to ascend the throne.
Therefore, an eleven-year-old little girl suddenly became the first ever empress in the history of Mahakhitan. Those who could not stop nagging about the ancestral rules were soon silenced. The empress dowager were recommended by general acclaim to act as regent for Her Majesty, a nominal responsibility she had to shoulder how grieving she was. A think, weak Tamil woman in excessive sorrow and a little girl were simply the easiest combination to manipulate.
But as it turned out, neither of these two was easily manipulatable. March, spring, 2nd Year of Jianchang (1468; 建昌, lit. “Building Prosperity”), on a court assembly, the empress dowager announced in an indisputable tone that the little empress was engaged – just as those feudal lords were discussing and recommending candidates to propose a marriage to Her Majesty, the empress dowager moved first, showed an “only I have a say on my only daughter’s main life affair (in Chinese this expression is almost always used to refer to marriage)” attitude and rebutted all exhortations.
To the lords’ further surprise who were thinking to make trouble, the match for Her Majesty’s engagement was the Shanyang crown prince. The Shanyang royal family, descended from the ancient Pala Dynasty, had been the top powerful clan in the empire, possessed supreme authority in the eastern realm, and was in fact the target for appeasement to ambitious lords.
It was not until the little empress began to take over the reign herself a few years later did the Khitan aristocrats begin to realise the trouble they stomached back then. A shrewed young man, a protective Chola lioness of no scruples, plus a horde of loyal civilian officials of humble origins - the combination urged these lords to start secretly discussing the potential for a staged abdication – she still had a few male paternal cousins after all, and inviting the Hanshan King to the capital would be a possible last resort, but by this point everyone already knew it might have become too late.
January 15th, 4th Year of Duanning (1474), the day of the wedding of the empress and the Shanyang crown prince. The collective cheers of “long live” from the Pinshi Jun (皮室軍, lit. “Pishi Army”, the Chinese transliteration of the name of the Khitan imperial guard army whose name 皮室/Pishi had an original meaning of Vajra guardians) and the scene of the seven hundred war elephants of the Shanyang Army that accompanied the crown prince to the capital lining up on Qianbu Lang (千步廊, lit. “Thousand Step Gallery”, a wide lane to the front of the main palace that is practically a square) made the Khitan lords dropped their secretive ideas once and for all.
This is roughly how the last attempt to make the imperial family a figurehead of these inland feudal lords failed.
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Since the 14th Century, the consistent goal of Mahakhitan emperors had always been to change the situation where the imperial power was weak. The enfeoffment scheme, as a measure of expediency after the defeat by the hands of the Mongols, had caused side-effects lasting for centuries. The local Khitan and Han lords had been fighting with each other constantly since they had independent armies and economic powers. The previous emperors had already strengthened the secret services, measured the land of the entire country, slowly retracted some military power, and rebuilt a powerful imperial guard army – the Black Falcon Pishi Army under the flag of gyrfalcon on the black field.
Now, our young Yelü Yunhui, or Mayanalladevi I as her Sanskrit name went, decided to prove she was no lesser than her grandfather and father. She was determined to finish the last step of rebuilding this middle empire.
Moving the court to a place with fresh air and away from these mutually-interwinding traditional aristocrats was one of the important issues she was considering at the age of eighteen.
The Nanjing Debu Prefecture was such a place “filled with fresh air”. It had the knowledge about the whole world brought by the merchants from everywhere, the beautiful and nice imports from Great Ming and the Grand West (泰西, a name used to collectively refer to “the West” in pre-contemporary Chinese), as well as the steady flow of revenue from the Southern Capital and Suluo Bureaus for Foreign Shipping that could be harnessed by the central government directly. The empress was fascinated by this place upon her first southward visit here.
May, 5th Year of Duanning, after returning from the Southern Capital, the empress ordered to build the palaces there. She considered the previously reserved land for the Southern Capital palaces to be wide yet pointless, and specifically chose a piece of highland by the Western Harbour at the southwestern corner of the city, overlooking the Indus Delta as well as the ocean afar, to be the base of the palaces. It was originally the location for the southwestern turret tower of the Southern Capital and the fortress of the garrison.
Here (refer to the previous chapter for the translated map).
Before making the decision to build the palaces, just as how she did not trust the craftsmen working for the Ministry of Works, she first hired a huge bunch of Sindhi, Persian and Gujrati craftsmena and painters to the Eastern Capital, and brought back many sample designs of buildings near the Southern Capital Area. After handling the job to the deeply humiliated Ministry of Works, she also kept concerning herself with the specific design of the palaces once every few days.
And she did not even summon the craftsmen to the court to have discussions; instead, she would barge into the Ministry of Works at noon after the court assembly was over, when we were boiling lamb as lunch in the ministry, and would also frequently draw some designs herself – for which she was obviously not responsible. Sometimes the imperial kitchen could not send Her Majesty’s meal to her, so she would take some of our lamb tortilla soup (湯餅, lit. “soup pancake”, the earlier form of soup noodles) from our shaking hands, and incidentally issue a verbal instruction to make some sarcastic remarks on the imperial kitchen, saying the work meals in the Ministry of Works were simply way better and so on.
Ahem… I digress, but such is how I used to see her in person.
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Original pic too big to be uploaded; link: https://mega.nz/#!Q5JCAKaD!gKzMH8DgAXgC0bY_JjoWYOi24WnBabmM1MhHNM_68kw
Original pic too big to be uploaded; link: https://mega.nz/#!Q5JCAKaD!gKzMH8DgAXgC0bY_JjoWYOi24WnBabmM1MhHNM_68kw
The completion of the palaces was five years later, in December. The empress had already became a mother when she saw the golden top and azure skyline of the Southern Capital palaces. She was no longer the way she was – smart and deliberately causing embarrassment to others - in front of her subjects, but instead always glued to her husband, His Majesty the Shanyang King that newly succeeded to the throne.
The Shanyang King was five years older than the empress. At the very beginning, Her Majesty was completely unenthusiastic about this political marriage, and very indifferent to this distant cousin of hers that she only first met at the wedding day; but as time flied, one day, they suddenly realised they could no longer bear separation from each other.
(There are so many stories when it comes to this part, emm… until now they are still an inexhaustible room of treasure for our country’s romantic literature, and will even become rather clichéd at the hands of the film industry of the empire due to all the romantic musicals made from them.)
One thing came up when the Yunhe Hall, the main hall of the new palaces, was being designed. The empress insisted to place a wide throne in the middle, on which she and His Majesty the Shanyang King shall sit together. The idea, however, was met with opposition from everyone else including the empress dowager and the chancellor(s), for the reason, naturally, that it was not in accordance with the code of conduct between the ruler and the subjects. The emperor (empress) shall precisely occupy the centre of this hall of Mount Sumeru, whereas sitting together with His Majesty would not only cause a deviance from the centre position, but also be indeed inappropriate considering His Majesty’s status as a prince (親王, lit. “related king”, meaning a direct, same-generation male relative of the emperor/empress in Chinese). Despite adhering to her own idea for some time, the empress still listened to the suggestion of the empress dowager in the end. Finally, the throne of the Wheel-Turning Sagely King following the style of the Bodh Gaya Vajrāsana (Diamond Throne) was still placed in front of the Garuda floor screen on the dais at the centre of the hall, while the Shanyang King’s throne was placed on one side with slightly lower specifications, but with the gilt Sumeru dais, brocade mattress and royal/imperial curtain all included.
Even so, when the empress was unable to constantly attend court assemblies when pregnant, she still made the Shanyang King sit on the imperial throne in the middle. At such times, there would be a small pillow on His Majesty’s knees with the empress’ neckwear (頸飾) on it. “The neckwear (纓絡) represents my very presence,” (or, “See the neckwear as if I am present,”) she would say.
Section view of the Yunhe Hall, Western Inner, Southern Capital. Please expand to view the pic…
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On the other hand, when the empress was present herself, the throne in Yunhe Hall used to be where the series of storms that swept the empire originated. The edict that ordered the imperial post route system to be opened for everyone, the edict that ordered the imperial examination to everyone as well as allowing the exam to be answered in Sanskrit characters, the edict that withdrew the power of personnel administration from the zhou and circuit levels, the edict that ordered Kangzhou and Hanshan to turn in the tariff collected, the edict that ordered the foundation of the first firearm army made up by peasants… were all announced under this canopy-shaped caisson symbolising the deificated imperial power, dropping the jaws of those both in and out of the hall, and significantly influenced the fate of many generations in the future whether or not having reached the empress’ expectations in the end.
The Yunhe Hall was also where the empress would greet her envoys that returned with the naval fleets from afar. The news of the first visit to Constantinople, the details of the return visit paid to the two capitals of the Great Ming, the story of the Liao navy finding the Jurchens and Khorchin Mongols while exploring the coast of the old Khitan homeland, and the report of discovering the mythical Videha (today’s western Australia) to the southeast were all published here on this very hall, more and more stimulating the desire of the Liao people for the wealth from other places in the world. During Her Majesty’s time, the old aristocrats gradually started to engage in overseas trade that they used to despise, the sanghas (Buddhist groups) from Puti Circuit tried to begin primitive financial services, the once incompatible classes seemed to be slowly merging, fusing, assimilating…
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Back to the scene we have in front of us.
The courtyard here leading to the main hall of the outer court (referring to the imperial court/government) is now overgrown with weeds. The cross-shaped pool in the middle – the “Fragrant Ocean” of Persian style with flowing loongs (eastern “dragons”) carved on the bottom has long dried up, with fifty years of accumulated yellow dust covering the loong head that stretches all the way to the jade stairs (玉階, the traditional way of calling the stairs/steps of the imperial palaces in ancient China, not necessarily meaning the stairs/steps were made of jade) in front of the hall. The base of dais in the shape of Mount Sumeru, which is approximately twice the height of a person, still has its carved patterns on the sandstone surface intact. Walking up to the hall, the dust that elevated from the floor tiles with lotus patterns makes us coughing non-stop.
Craftsmen and guard soldiers spends close to half a day here, removing the spider webs on the stone pillars and sweeping clean the fallen leaves and wood scraps. The imperial throne of Yunhe Hall is nowhere to be found. Probably deprived of the gold leaves from it and thrown into some warehouse somewhere. The curtains were likely all looted away during the turmoil. The back screen with the Garuda carved on it is in turn indestructibly intact. The sharp eyes of the golden-winged roc seem to be pushing the coiling loongs on the stone pillars aside, and venting its suppressed anger on the court officials from back then.
The loongs fear the golden-winged roc the most,” says someone, “why on earth did the empress carve them together here.”
Only she dared to ignore the old taboos, and only she had the boldness to make mutually hostile sides to coexist peacefully.
I lean on the coiling loong pillar, looking at the guard soldiers as they push open the Changqing Gate (長慶門, lit. “Lasting Celebration Gate”) painted in vermillion to the back of the hall. More dust then falls from ceiling with the rumbling sound of gate-opening.
Translated floorplan is too big to be uploaded; link:
https://mega.nz/#!Z9QCWKIL!_heyG3P2pqLmg7VVJtYOsQ8D3iRh2gVseJLx-JA_e2E
(To be continued…)
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Appendix – the buildings for reference: Guess which architecture I referred to for which part… They are without factual errors whatsoever, and all possible to be what can be found in Mahakhitan in a parallel world.
Great Buddha’s Hall (大雄寶殿) of the Lower Huayan Temple (下華嚴寺; where the name 華嚴 Huayan came from the Huayan Sutra, originally known as mahā-vaipulya-buddhâvataṃsaka-sūtra), Datong.
Guanyin/Avalokiteśvara Pavillion (觀音閣) of the Dule Temple (獨樂寺, lit. “Temple of Solitary Joy”, Tianjin).
Temple Gate of the Dule Temple, Tianjin.
Underground palace (tomb/mausoleum palace) of the Liao Qing Ling (慶陵, Mausoleum of Qing), Inner Mongolia.
Chehel Sotoun of Isfahan.
Bayt al-mal of Damascus.
Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya.
Eastern Big Hall (Main Hall) of Foguang Temple, Wutai.
Shishinden (Japanese transliteration from the Kanji 紫宸殿/Zichen Hall) of the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
Central Buddha Hall of Jokhang Monastery (Dazhao Temple), Lhasa.
Shalu Lakhang of Shalu Monastery, Shigatse.
Guanyin/Avalokiteśvara Pavillion (觀音閣) of the Dule Temple (獨樂寺, lit. “Temple of Solitary Joy”, Tianjin).
Temple Gate of the Dule Temple, Tianjin.
Underground palace (tomb/mausoleum palace) of the Liao Qing Ling (慶陵, Mausoleum of Qing), Inner Mongolia.
Chehel Sotoun of Isfahan.
Bayt al-mal of Damascus.
Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya.
Eastern Big Hall (Main Hall) of Foguang Temple, Wutai.
Shishinden (Japanese transliteration from the Kanji 紫宸殿/Zichen Hall) of the Kyoto Imperial Palace.
Central Buddha Hall of Jokhang Monastery (Dazhao Temple), Lhasa.
Shalu Lakhang of Shalu Monastery, Shigatse.
*The following were originally listed in English by Kara:
Tarakeshvara Temple, Hangal.
Hoyaleshvara Temple, Halabid.
Siddharameshvara Templpe, Niralgi.
Khandariya-Mahadevi, Khajurajo.
… And other western India temples whose name I cannot recall.
Takht-i-Sulaiman, Iran.
Fondaco del Turchi, Venice.
…… As well as South Asian Buddhist sculpture collections from various museums in northern US.
Hoyaleshvara Temple, Halabid.
Siddharameshvara Templpe, Niralgi.
Khandariya-Mahadevi, Khajurajo.
… And other western India temples whose name I cannot recall.
Takht-i-Sulaiman, Iran.
Fondaco del Turchi, Venice.
…… As well as South Asian Buddhist sculpture collections from various museums in northern US.
I could have, in fact, listed how exactly I referred to these one by one, but … I still need to continue writing with maximal efficiency, don’t I …
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