Queen Du Gu (獨孤), wife of Emperor Sui Wen Di (隋文帝 581-601 AD), was of noble origin. Even as a queen, she did not abuse her power or yearn for and seek vanity. Rather, she worked hard and attached importance to the state. When the Turks (突厥) traded with Sui Dynasty, they had a suitcase […]
In this issue, we share with you two stories about Ming patriots who fought against the Manchurian army in the mid-17th century. The Manchurians overran China in 1644, signaling the ascent of the Qing Dynasty. One of their most detested orders was requiring all male Chinese to wear pigtail. The order prompted the people of […]
Zheng Zi Long (鄭子龍), a famous pirate and marine merchant during the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), was awarded amnesty and served as Ming general. He would later resist the Manchurian or Qing conquest. In the autumn of 1646, however, Zheng Zi Long decided to surrender to the Qing court over the objections of his eldest son, […]
The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1363-1644), Zhu Yuan Zhang (朱元璋), followed the tradition of previous dynasties to set up the deng wen drum (登聞鼓) at the capital. The drum was for common people, government officials and employees to beat when they needed to bring to the imperial court’s attention grievances that had not […]
Liu Ting Shi (劉庭式) passed the imperial examination jinshi (進士) during the reign of Song Ren Zong (宋仁宗, 1022-1063) and joined the state bureaucracy. Before all this, he had agreed to marry a lady of his hometown. Unlike most other couples at the time, though, they did not get formally engaged. However, when Liu obtained his […]
Sometime in August 1517, Ming Emperor Wu Zong (武宗) wanted to go out of Ju Yong Guan (居庸關), a strategic pass of the Great Wall, to inspect Xuan Fu (宣府). Upon learning of this, Zhang Qin (張欽), the minister in charge of the gates of the passes, wrote the emperor a letter to plead with […]
In the winter of 1452, Wang Ao (王翱) was designated by Ming Emperor Zhu Qi Yu (朱祁鈺) as imperial envoy to the Huai River (淮河) region of Anhui (安徽) and Jiangsu (江蘇) provinces, as well as the prefecture of Yangzhou (楊州) in Jiangsu. At the time, the prefectures of Feng Yang (鳳陽), Huai’an (淮安) and […]
Zhu Zi Qing (朱自清) was a well-known prose writer of modern China. His famous works, “Moonlight at Lotus Pond (荷塘月色)” and “Image of the Back (背影),” were included in the Chinese literature textbook used by the Chinese schools in the Philippines in the 1960s. One day in June 1948, Wu Han (吳晗), a famous scholar, […]
Opium was never totally banned in China even after China’s national hero Lin Ze Xu (林則徐) burned and destroyed in 1839 all the opium to be shipped to Britain at Hu Men (虎門), Canton (Guangzhou). The first Opium War (1840-1842) that followed led to the signing of the Nanking Treaty between China and Britain. But […]
During the Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD), Xin Gong Yi (辛公義) was appointed as the governor of Mou Zhou (牟州) prefecture. Upon assuming his post, despite being worn out during travel, he went straight to the prison. He looked for a spot at an open air vacant lot and started interrogating the prisoners by himself. Continuing the […]