Chinese History Unsolved Mysteries - Image and Text Version

Author: Li Yewei
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: This book is one of the key book projects of the Guangming Daily Press, part of the Guangming Color Book Series Discovery. The editor adopts a brand-new exploratory perspective to study history, selecting over a hundred major historical mysteries from eight aspects: emperors, imperial harems, politics, military, celebrities, religion, culture, and science. Through rigorous and scientific analysis, as well as vivid and concise writing, the book aims to dispel historical fog and present the true face of history to readers in a comprehensive and three-dimensional manner. Over a thousand exquisite images related to historical mysteries allow readers to enjoy the beauty of historical landscapes while exploring the truth of history.
There was a man named Mu Du with an exceptionally large, whom Lü Buwei took in as a retainer. At that time, many skilled performers gathered to showcase their talents. Lü Buwei had Mu Du use his to lift a wooden beam, with a wooden wheel hanging on each side, while walking forward. Many people gathered to watch. Lü Buwei intended to introduce Mu Du to Empress Dowager Zhao, hoping to allure her. Upon hearing this, the empress indeed wanted to meet Mu Du. Lü Buwei then had Mu Du accused of lechery and arrested. Generally, lechers were castrated, but Lü Buwei told Zhao Ji that he could pretend to castrate Mu Du and bring him into the palace as an eunuch.
Additionally, the Mongol khans possessed a powerful weapon: meticulously planned psychological warfare against their enemies at all times. If a city refused to surrender, it was certain to face a brutal massacre. Samarkand and Nishapur, the two largest and most prosperous cities at the time, were spared no mercy. The news of this spread, and other cities dared not resist. However, even those who surrendered were not always spared. Before surrendering, the Russian prince of Kyiv was promised leniency, but he was ultimately crushed to death under a table during a celebratory banquet. The people of Herat in the northwest border of Afghanistan, upon hearing news of amnesty, stepped out of the city and were all killed, with the entire city razed to the ground.
One popular theory about the origin of Chinese characters is the "Cang Jie Invented Characters" theory. In the Shuowen Jiezi, Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty stated that Huangdi’s historian Cang Jie created "shuqie," which refers to characters carved on clay or oracle bones. The stages of the origin and development of primitive characters are "Bagua," "knot records," and "shuqie." Among the various theories about the origin of Chinese characters, the "Cang Jie Invented Characters" theory has the greatest influence. Ancient texts such as the Xunzi, Lüshi Chunqiu, and Hanfeizi also affirm this theory.
"The past spans millennia, as Wei Wu，," Mao Zedong portrayed Cao Cao as a charming figure. Looking at Cao Cao’s life, whether he himself admitted it or not, he moved from unconscious to conscious in his step-by-step progress toward the path of becoming an emperor. If the efforts Cao Cao made before the first year of Jian’an (196 AD) were merely a quiet buildup, then from the first year of Jian’an, he began to take solid and decisive steps in this direction. In August of the first year of Jian’an, Cao Cao personally went to Luoyang to pay homage to Emperor Xian of Han. He then seized Emperor Xian and moved the capital to Xuchang, turning the emperor into a puppet and a trump card in his hands, gaining the advantage of "holding the emperor to command the vassals." Emperor Xian appointed Cao Cao as Grand General and enfeoffed him as Marquis of Wuping. Later, due to Yuan Shao’s dissatisfaction, Cao Cao transferred the position of Grand General to Yuan Shao and instead took the post of Minister of Works, concurrently serving as the General of the Imperial Cavalry, and began to oversee the court affairs.
As his power grew, Cao Cao’s control over the court became increasingly stringent, and the puppetization of Emperor Xian deepened. In April of the twenty-second year of Jian’an (217 AD), Emperor Xian ordered Cao Cao to set up banners that were only permitted for the emperor to use. When he went out, he was guarded by strict security, and pedestrians were not allowed to pass. In May, Cao Cao built the Xiang Palace, a school for feudal lords. In June, Cao Cao appointed Huaxin as the Minister of Circuit Inspections. In October, Emperor Xian ordered Cao Cao to act like the emperor.