From Xian, China

Terracotta warriors stand in a pit in Xian, capital of northwest China’s Shanxi Province in this file photo taken in 2006. The pit is located near the gravesite of Qin Shi Huang, who ruled ancient China more than 2,000 years ago.

By Choi Yearn-hong

I have made many trips to Beijing, Shanghai and cities along the Yangtze River, but I had never been to Xian, historically known Changan, the oldest capital of China, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties and the current capital of Shannxi Province. Xian means Western Peace in Chinese characters.

In April 2009, I finally landed in the oldest city in Chinese history. My Chinese friend from Xian predicted my trip to his hometown would be disappointing, because it has become another modern and industrial city.

But I still enjoyed my trip there. Qin Shi Huang's gravesite, which so far is unexcavated, is unforgettable in terms of its mountain-size. His Terracotta Army, partially excavated near his gravesite, features some amazing fine artwork.

Most importantly, I rediscovered his great leadership, which saw him unite China, which was then ruled under warring lords.

Making ``one China'' was possible under his powerful dictatorial rule: he promulgated one law, one language, one measurement standardization, and one monetary system for one China more than 2,000 years ago. Qin or Chin became later known as China to the outside world by a simple mistake.

Other tourists could write about his political and military leadership and his Terracotta Army but many have already written so much about them.

So, I will disclose my happiness to rediscover Yang Guifei and her love with Tang Emperor Xuan Zong, who brought the Tang Dynasty to its height dring a golden age of Chinese arts and culture. I visited the hot spring in which she bathed.

Huaqing Hot Spring (huaqing chi) is situated 30 kilometers east of Xian at the foot of the Lishan Hills. The springs were a popular retreat with emperors more than 2,500 years ago, many of whom enjoyed bathing in the perfectly clear mineral water.

It must have been a great resort. The springs were renamed the Huaqing or ``The Fair" springs, in honor of Yang Guifei's beauty. Chinese people restored her name here, because she hanged herself to save the country and her lover's name, the emperor.

Her tomb is situated in the outskirts of Xian, which attracted many tourists, including young high school girls who aspire to be beautiful women.

She must be one of the four most beautiful women in Chinese history, as even the great emperor courted her by all means. Many beautiful flowers envied her beauty. When the emperor took Yang Guifei into the gardens, beautiful flowers would shy away as they felt inferior in comparison to her beauty.

Tang's great poet Li Bai expressed her beauty as the full blossomed peony. Is peony the most beautiful flower among the flowers? I guess so.

Another of the Tang Dynasty's great poets, Bai Juyi, composed a 120-line long poem for her beauty and dedicated it to her tragic love story. As long as China exists on Earth, Yang Guifei will remain as a living beauty with Bai's great poem.

I am honored to introduce his long poem, but pardon me, I cannot quite reproduce the entire 120-line poem in this given space. So I will quote the last stanza below.

You will find why the Tang poets are most respected and admired in Chinese literature. A reason that can be discovered by reading a part of ``A Song of Unending Sorrow:"

``On the seventh day of the seventh month, in the Palace of Long Life,

We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight world

That we wished to fly in sky, two birds with the wings of one,

And to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree."

Earth endures, heaven endures; some time both shall end,

While this unending sorrow goes on and on forever.

An Lushan's rebellion shortened Yang's life. She was only 37 (719-756) when the emperor's soldiers forced Yang to kill herself as a scapegoat or as a sacrifice, as they attempted to silence the anger of the discontented under the war situation.

The rebellion lasted eight years. After the emperor returned to his old palace in Xian, he was looking for his lover, but she was not available. He was seeking a Taoist priest's help to find and meet her, but failed. His life was meaningless without her. He lived with the memories of her for the rest of his life.

Yang sacrificed her life to save her lover, the emperor, because she was blamed for corrupting him and that erupted An Lushan's rebellion.

But it was an excuse. The beauty of a woman could not cause the emperor's mismanagement and an army general's rebellion. Old dynasties were replaced by new rebellions throughout 2,000 years of human history.

History repeated itself as many new dynasties rose and fell in the East and the West before modern democratic political system emerged. In old times, the soldiers who could command a fort or a region had an ambition to rule the country.

Men tend to blame a beautiful woman for the emperor's corruptions, but that is not fair at all. The emperor's mismanagement should be blamed for him, not her. The old emperor should be killed instead of the young beautiful woman he loved. I am sympathetic to Yang Guifei.

The two lovers can be two birds with the wings of one, Biikjo, when they fly in the sky. They can be the two trees named Yonliji that connect to each other on Earth. Even when China or the Earth disappears from the universe, their unending sorrow goes on and on forever.

We all wish and hope we are engaged in such a love song as a great Tang poet sang.

One night in Xian, I went to a dinner theater to appreciate the Tang opera in which the emperor and the empress were singers, not spectators as in the old dynasty. Such an opera was performed in more than one place in Xian.

Discovering and reading Bai Juyi's long poem is worthwhile for any visit to Xian. Xian is Yang Gufei's town. It is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road. I hope to start my new journey to that Silk Road from there someday.

Dr. Choi is a poet and writer. He can be reached at yearnhchoi@gmail.com.

[출처 : 코리아타임스]