The Death of the Emperor - The 27 Most Fortuitous Emperors in History

Author: Bei Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: As a renowned writer of modern and contemporary China, Bei Yang's representative works fall into two categories: essays and historical writings composed during his imprisonment. For The Death of Emperors and The Death of Empresses, Bei Yang proudly claimed them as "genuine and well-structured" "historical notes," which in reality combined the characteristics of both historical studies and essays—both restoring and disseminating historical knowledge while also employing the satirical, humorous, and biting qualities of essays to critique the present through the lens of the past. In these two works by Bei Yang, you can witness scenes completely different from those in the official history that has been upheld for thousands of years. Bei Yang believed that from the Yellow Emperor (Xuan Yuan) to the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Puyi, China had produced 397 emperors and 162 kings. Among these 559 rulers who claimed imperial or royal titles, approximately one-third died unnatural deaths. Whether they met their end fortunate enough to die on the dragon throne after "spending the night with the mountain-like sea of beautiful concubines" or met their fate tragically through hanging, starvation, or imprisonment, it was all a result of the self-inflicted system of power struggles in a world dominated by men, where political factors always took precedence. And the empresses were often even more directly linked to "false accusations." "False accusations" seemed to be a part of traditional Chinese culture, and even the noble empresses were not immune. Behind every empress who died a tragic death, there was always a "struggle for the bed," and the essence of this struggle was nothing but power. "It wasn't a matter of whether they were beautiful or not; it was a matter of whether they were more beautiful than others. Every beautiful rival was another beautiful one." "These beauties were thrown into a court of snakes and scorpions, and in the end, they themselves became snakes and scorpions, only to be bitten to death by another one." Whether they were killed, hanged, suffocated, drowned, or threw themselves into wells, it was all a tragedy of the times, a of the times. Under the rule of politics, Chinese historical texts became a breeding ground for literary deception. When the emperors and kings fell into disrepute, with their faces red and their dignities shattered, the historians could never help but "conceal" the truth. Sometimes they were vague, or worse, they became mute witnesses, leaving people so furious they could spit blood. Alas, if China is to modernize successfully, the first thing that should be done is to shatter the shackles of political dominance and allow the true faces of history to be revealed. This is a starting point, using it to train our thinking, to examine why they feared the truth being known. Mr. Bei Yang only hopes that through continuous reporting, the generation of paste will be wiped out early, and the next generation will be the generation of thinkers. Mr. Sun Guanhan said: "Respect the facts." Chinese people must have the ability to speak the truth, to tell the plain truth, to cleanse any filth or makeup that has been painted over the facts, whether it is filth or cosmetics. Therefore, when the China Times in New York asked me to write an article, I was overjoyed to accept. At first, I wrote a thousand words a day, but later, the words kept expanding, and I wrote fifteen hundred words a day. As I wrote, over three months, I had written around one hundred thousand words, covering the period from the 23rd century BC to the 7th century BC, from the Yellow Emperor's 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 it had been in the past, I would have been imprisoned, or worse, my entire family would have been exterminated. I may have been unlucky, but you would not have had this fortune. Thinking of this, if you do not buy it now, is there still any sense of justice, humanity, or legal and moral obligation? This is the preface.