prime target of the dumb
Chinese history has seen families rise and dynasties fall, it has seen aristocrats and barbarians wrestle for power, and it has seen many different Emperors from all over the country seeking to rule the land. But only one woman has ever made it to the Imperial throne: that woman was Wu Zetian 武则天 from the Tang-dynasty, and her grave is just behind this little village:
Well, it’s not only her own grave, but also that of her sweetheart, the former Emperor Tang Gaozong 唐高宗. And let me tell you this burial mound of theirs is so massive I found it simply impossible to believe that it was man-made, that there wasn’t just a small mountain here in the first place:
It took me a while to climb up there, and I found it by far larger than the other grave mounds I had seen before (old friends better than merry warriors, walk).
The whole area is scattered with beautiful historical relics:
Then somewhere near the top, there is Wu Zetian’s Imperial stele:
No words – and nobody really seems to know why there are none. I was going to give you a brief introduction about the historical person Wu Zetian at first, but then I checked on some of the sources and found them somewhat unclear and confusing to me; it almost seems as though the empty spaces on the stele have been inviting people to fill them up with their own conceptions ever since.
So I guess historians will always argue whether Wu Zetian was an aristocrat or just a countryside girl; some might call her power-hungry and ruthless while others might praise her political visions and ideas – but hey, you can just look it up and get your own opinion, I’m not going to do that for you.
Or else we would be back to “ignorance prevailing over everything” again:
Looks pitiful, doesn’t it? I found this on the way to the top – miserable master and miserable beast, united in decapitation.
People here blame this on the so-called “Cultural Revolution” during the 1960s and 70s:
Well, the head is always going to remain the prime target of the dumb.
What a disgrace:
The rest of the day I stumbled through my first encounter with water falling in drops:
Rain. Not heavy rain though, but I received many a black shower from the trucks going by.
Once I stopped and wondered about this:
But I couldn’t figure it out. Too dumb.
When I made it to my destination, it wasn’t quite as metropolitan as the one the night before:
But hey: a bed is a bed, and I needed a bed.
In my head, I was still thinking about the decapitation thing.
And I needed a shower!
Birgit
Hi Christoph the "thingis" in the trees might be weights to open up the brances – that is what you do with fruit bearing trees anyway…
but apart from that :your walk looked really very sureal today ..
brgds from Stuttgart airport
Wolfgang Robens
Hi Christoph.
Die besten Grüße aus Langenhagen sendet Dir ein eifriger Leser von Deiner Reise in China.Wünsche Dir ein schönes Osterfest und weiterhin gute Füße +gute Schuhe.
Christoph
Birgit: Yes, I think you are right about the weights, I think I've heard that before.
Wolfgang Robens: Frohe Ostern auch nach Langenhagen!
Rindy
这个地方我去过!
皇帝是背靠山,脚揣河!
Christoph
你什么地方都去过是不是?
nameless
One day you may find the heads in the British Museum. 🙂
Vasco Carto
As an Archaeologist by heart and formation one could only wish to be able to dig and preserve at the same time such a place… Like the Amphipolis Tomb in Greece.
Stay safe!