Yang Hong is a professor with China's Institute of Archaeology. He studied archaeology at Peking University and graduated from the school in 1958. His career has been spent covering the periods from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. This work has involved researching weapons and artwork from these periods. Yang was chosen to help organize an exhibition on China's Three Kingdoms period (184 to 280 AD). His work included selecting which artifacts would be featured in the exhibit.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Thu, 11/05/2009 - 12:52
404 years ago a group of Catholic rebels were caught trying to blow up Parliament. Their failure, subsequent torture and gruesome deaths, have become the focus for one of the year's highlights, when millions of Brits will venture outside to light bonfires, burn effigies and set off around 30,000 tons of gunpowder in firework displays great and small.
Yet while most of those marvelling at rockets, firecrackers and Catherine Wheels will know about Guy Fawkes and his ill-advised plotters, not many will know fireworks go back thousands of years before, in ancient China.
Founded in 1941, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art has grown to become one of the top ten regional museums in the United States. It's collections span over 4,000 years and include works from Greco-Roman antiquity, Asia (China, Japan, India and Tibet), 19th and early 20th century England and France and 19th and early 20th century America. It also has galleries featuring International Modernism, Works on Paper, Photography, and Contemporary Art. In addition, it is home to the Alice Schott Doll Collection, which includes dolls from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Many of the pieces in it's collection of Greco-Roman figural works, as well as Luristan bronzes and architectural fragments, were donated by Wright S. Ludington. Of particular note is a monumental Hermes, formerly in the Lansdowne Collection.
Work is ongoing in China on a major project to restore Daming Palace – the 1,100 year-old ruling centre of the Tang Dynasty in modern Xi’an (formerly the Tang capital, Chang’an) – and around it build an expansive National Relics Park. The project was officially launched in October of last year, and is hoped to be completed by October 2010.
Da Xing Shan Temple is located in Xi'an, China and has been considered a birthplace for Buddhism in the country.
The temple has a history that spans more than 1,600 years, dating back to its construction in the Western Jin Dynasty. Later, during the Tang Dynasty, many Buddhist texts from India were translated at the temple and then promulgated throughout the country.
Much of the temple was desecrated during the later Tang Dynasty when Buddhism was persecuted by the emperor Wuzong. But repairs and expansions have been made since then.
Many of the buildings currently on the site were constructed during the Qing Dynasty. There are numerous statues devoted to Buddhism on the site, with figures of giant elephants and Bodhisattvas scattered throughout. Believers can pay their respects at the various temple buildings.
The Temple of the Eight Immortals is the largest Taoist temple in Xi'an, China. Also known as Ba Xian An 八仙庵, the temple is located near the eastern side of Xi'an's ancient city wall.
The temple features an array of Taoism artwork. Statues of the Eight Immortals can be found in the different monastery buildings. The place also serves as an example of Taoist architecture, with many of the current buildings at the site constructed during the Qing dynasty. Taoist celebrations are held at the temple and monks continue to work there.
Qianling Museum is a Chinese museum of mausoleums. Built in 1978, the museum is situated around the site of Qianling. It is the joint tomb of Tang Emperor Gaozong (Li Zhi) and his consort, Empress Wu Zetian, the only Empress in Chinese history.
The mausoleum is large in scale with 17 satellite tombs of princes, kings and high ministers. In the mausoleum there are some exquisite carvings of the Tang dynasty. From south to north, there first come two ornamental columns, two winged horses galloping and then two red birds. Five pairs of saddled horses come next, each with a groom. The most noteworthy are ten pairs of guardian generals, with very large heads, wearing long-sleeved robes and hold the hilts of long swords.
Since 1960, five satellite tombs including the Tomb of Crown Prince Zhanghuai, the Tomb of Crown Prince Yide and the Tomb of Princess Yongtai have been unearthed from these tombs. These unearthed cultural relics reflect the production and life styles as well as the economic, political, military and cultural development of the Tang dynasty.
City Wall of Xian is an extension of the old Tang Dynasty structure, as a result the wall-building campaign ordered by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty (from 1370 A.D.- 1375 A.D). After the enlargement, the city wall stands 12 meters, 12-14 meters across the top, 15-18 meters thick at bottom and 13.7 kilometres in length with deep moats surrounding it.
It boasts the most complete city wall to have survived through China's long history. The wall was built of earth, rammed layer upon layer during the early time. The base layer was made of earth, quick lime, and glutinous rice extract, tempered together. This made the wall extremely strong and firm and later, the wall was totally enclosed with bricks. Located at the four corners of the wall were watchtowers. The one at the south-western corner is round, probably after the imperial city wall of the Tang Dynasty, but the other three are square-shaped. On top of the watchtowers, the corner rampart, higher and larger than the ordinary ramparts, shows the strategic importance of corners of the city wall.
The sheer amount of information crammed into this book is mind-boggling, as is the timeframe it covers. Imperial China spanned 2,200 years, and the ‘Middle Kingdom’, as it was known by its people, survived some extraordinary challenges during those two millennia. These included domestic turmoil, environmental catastrophes, fluctuations in belief systems and a 100-year Mongol occupation. A combination of factors saw the centralised Imperial system crumble in the early 20th century.
Ann Paludan is the book’s Oxford-educated author, whose career has included time in the British Foreign Service, the BBC and Treasury. She presents a reign-by-reign account of the 157 emperors who ruled China. She describes them as an “unusual collection of individuals” ranging from the First Emperor, who was buried with his vast Terracotta Army, to the four-year-old Puyi, who was the empire’s last leader.
