Tag: Han dynasty

China’s Inner Mongolia: Han Dynasty ruins discovered and Great Wall under threat

Ruinsfrom a Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) cityhave been discovered in Wuyuan County, Hetao Plain, Chinas Inner Mongolia. Its said that the scale of the city ruins is rarely seen in Hetao Plain. In a mean while, the gold mining company is been investigated over irreparable damage done to 100 metersof theGreat Wall in their quest for the precious metal.

A new Han City discovered in Wuyuan County

Thenewly discovered city ruins are located in Taal Town of Wuyuan County, Bayannaoer City in Chinas Inner Mongolia and were once covered with grassland.

The city wall was about 2 km long and 1 km wide and is made up of compressed earth. The east wall is 2 meters high and remarkably preserved, while, the south wall has already collapsed and is now a road base 80 centimetres high above ground level. Pottery shards with exquisite patterns are scattered nearby.

People.com.cn also reports an archaeologist saying a large number of tombs including more than 300 graves were previously found 2 kilometres away from the newly-found city ruins.This may implythat there was a whole city here during theHan Dynasty, with the living area in the southern part and burial grounds in the northern part.

Mining Company digs for gold under Great Wall

The Police of Hohhot City – Inner Mongolia’s capital – and China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage are jointly investigating allegations that the Hohhot Kekao gold mining firmwhilst prospecting in Inner Mongoliaseverely damaged 100 meters of what is probably China’s most famous ancient monument.

The constructionon theGreat Wall of China started in the 5th century BC by Emperor Qin Shi Huang– better kown as the First Emperor -tostop invading northern tribes.The exact length of the part build in the Ming Dynasty8,851.8 km was announced in 2008. The Great Wall was built in different historic periods and probably the total lenght wasabout 50,000 kilometres. After research to measure the length of the Great Wall of the Qin and Han dynasties, this year another 11 kilometres was added to the ancient monument’s length when Qin and Han period ruins ofthe wall and a fort were found in Tonghua County, shifting ‘the end of the wall’ away from Xinbin. About 15,000 kilometres of the wall finds itself in Inner Mongolia.

The mining firm under investigation ignored five orders to stop operations and continued to dig the two holes in the wall, forcing the cultural relics office to take action. The holes, covering a total area of 300 square meters and five meters deep, were dug through the a Qin Dynasty part of theGreat Wall on a mountain in the city’s Pogendi Village. Wang Dafang, director of the region’s cultural relics department, told Xinhua that”The damage is irreparable.”

One-third of the Great Wall has over time been destroyed by erosion as well as ‘vandalism’; miners, road construction workers and villagers collecting building materials. Damaging the state key cultural relic site is punishable by a fine of up to 500,000 yuan or a jail term of up to 10 years, but only 5 miners have been punished up to date.

Woo’s Wish: East/West Unison

The worlds third largest economy may command respect for its military might and new superpower status.But director John Woo wants to use the universal stories of ancient China to build a more culturally respected worldview of the great nation.

His new film Red Cliff (read the review here) is one hes been trying to make for almost two decades to that end.The story of Red Cliff took place a thousand and eight hundred years ago in China, says the godfather of action-films. It was a battle bearing significant historical importance. Through the widely told tales of the battle, we learned of the great intelligence and bravery of the ancient people of China, who, though gravely outnumbered, managed to defeat their enemies.

With all this talk of Battles, and the Chinese cultural heritage of martial arts, one might expect Red Cliff to be nothing but a close-quarters fighting fest. But Woo’s ambitions for the film are much higher. He claims, My goal is for this film to rise above cultural and historical barriers, so that the Western audience feels as if they are watching an Asian Troy, while the Eastern audience can discover new perspectives on a familiar story.

Woo took a brave step in his dedication to historical accuracy. For me, the most attractive aspects of Romance of the Three Kingdoms [the novel many believe the film to be based on] are not the supernatural characters idealized by the novel, but true Heroism that the characters show.The world has many kinds of heroes, he continues but I like heroes that are real and human.

A Philosophical Woo

In 2008,China demonstrated their desire to forge closer links with the West through their hosting of the Olympic Games.It’s a sentiment shared by Woo, who says, I genuinely believe that human emotion is universal and not bound by culture. The same values of virtue, morality and friendship are praised in the West just as they are in the East. Though these feelings are expressed in different ways, deep inside, we all essentially share the same emotions. With this in mind, I disregarded a great deal of the details in the book when I made Red Cliff. We have a large production crew assembled from all over the world: China, America, Japan and Korea. During the course of our collaboration, talented people from both East and West were able to learn from working together.

While Woos comments are admirable, one cant help feel hes stretching his ambitions a little too far.For one, making a film that is supposedly closely linked to the history books about a culture existing 1,800 years ago, and then attempting to apply universal beliefs to the other side of the world is a little off-kilter.Secondly, if Woo really wanted a connection to be made with the West, why did we end up with the paltry 2hr 30mins version when the four-hour long Asian two-part release contained all the nuances and ancient subplots?

Maybe he wanted to do too much in making a realisticancient world film that was also accessible to the masses, provingChina can do Hollywood’ after all. In the words of Mr Woo, While audiences in the East love many great movies from the West, Western audiences also appreciate our splendid culture of the East. Therefore, I genuinely hope that when you watch Red Cliff, you do not look at it as a Chinese film or a Hollywood film, but as a global film.

Image by Markus Vandriel