The Death of the Emperor

Author: Bei Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-01-01
Features: Under the banner of politics, Chinese historical texts have become a breeding ground for verbal deception. When encountering the emperors and their ilk groaning and collapsing, they always resort to "concealment." Either they are vague or become mute, infuriating people to the point of vomiting blood. Alas, for China to modernize successfully, the thing that should be done first is to shatter the shackles of political dominance and allow historical records to reveal their true faces. This is a starting point, using it to train our thinking, to ponder why they had those days, and why they feared the truth being known. Mr. Bei Yang only hopes, through continuous reporting, to see the generation of paste-filled minds perish early, and that the next generation will be one of thinkers. Mr. Sun Guanhàn said: "Respect the facts." Chinese people must have the ability to speak the truth, to tell honest stories, to cleanse any filth or makeup that has been painted over the facts. Therefore, when the New York-based China Times asked me to write articles, I was overjoyed to comply. At first, I wrote one thousand words a day, but later, the word count automatically expanded to one thousand five hundred words a day. As I wrote, over three months, I ended up writing around one hundred thousand words, covering the period from the 23rd century BCE to the 7th century BCE, the Huangdi Dynasty to the Warring States period, which could be published as a volume. My dear readers are truly fortunate to see the truth of history. If this had happened in the past, I would have been imprisoned, or worse, my entire family would have been annihilated. I may have been unlucky, but you would not have had this fortune. Thinking of this, if you still don’t buy it now, is there still any sense of justice, humanity, or legal and moral obligation?