chinesegeography

Zhang Heng and His Earthquake Sensor-Sequel



Zhang Heng (AD 78-139) was born in Xi'e, Nanyang Prefecture (in today's Henan Province). As a young man, Zhang Heng demonstrated an extraordinary quickness in learning, as well as an open mind. He was well versed in almost all types of ancient learning, but did not want to take for granted everything that the books told him. Instead, in AD 94, he left Xi'e to travel through the country to discover for himself how book knowledge fit into the real world.



In AD 111 Zhang Heng was assigned to a position in the government. Only having to perform mediocre routine tasks, Zhang Heng was able to focus his talents and research skills on astronomy after his office work was done. There were two current theories then concerning the nature of the universe. One of them involved a paradigm in which the heavens resembled an umbrella covering over the earth, like an overturned basin. The other drew a different image, and put a round earth at the center of the universe with all the other heavenly bodies moving around it in a celestial sphere. Scrutiny of both theories led Zhang Heng to believe that the second made more sense. He further developed the theory of a round earth at the center of the celestial sphere and made it the most widely accepted model of the universe.



When Emperor An Di heard about his wisdom in astronomy, in AD 115 he put him in charge of astronomical studies at the royal academy. In 117 Zhang Heng in vented a hydro-powered model of an earth-centered universe.



A further great contribution Zhang Heng made to the history of science was what is believed to be the world's very first earthquake sensor that could register earthquakes and locate their origin.

Cai Lun's lmproved Paper



Before Cai Lun improved techniques for papermaking, writing used to be done either on wooden plates and bamboo slips, which were rather heavy, or on silk or cloth, which was too costly, or on hemp paper, which was too coarse.



Cai Lun, a eunuch of Emperor He Di, realized that the paper had to be of better quality as well as cheaper, if it was to be more widely used. He began his research by taking a small step to advance the current technology, which involved beating hemp fibers into a pulp, which was then pressed into thin sheets. He made a finer pulp, but the pulp was not fine enough. Furthermore, hemp, being the chief material for producing cloth, was too costly for papermaking. New materials had to be found.



In his search for a cheaper substitute for hemp that was still as fibrous, Cai Lun experimented with Ink brick. Over 1,800 years old, this ink brick still looks as good as new. recycled cloth, broken fishnets and bark. He put these things into water to soak until they were washed clean. Then he pulped them in a stone mortar. The pulp was then pressed much the same way as hemp pulp was pressed. Paper made out of these materials was much cheaper, but not smooth enough. Cai Lun wanted to obtain a finer pulp so that the paper could be of better quality. He tried putting in lime, hoping this corrosive material would further break down the fibers of the cloth, fishnets and bark. The result was better than expected. Not only was the fiber more thoroughly broken, but the pulp was also whiter thanks to the blanching effect of lime. Cai Lun was excited at his discovery.



However, he found that the paper produced out of the blanched pulp still contained coarse fibers. Furthermore, the lime used during the pulping left small particles in the product. To eliminate these undesirable byproducts, Cai Lun thinned the pulp with water and put it in a wooden tub. He then sank a mesh into the water-pulp mixture for a while, so that the finer and lighter pulp settled evenly on the mesh. The layer of pulp was then dried, and became a sheet of paper that was white and smooth.



Emperor He Di (r. 89-105) was pleased with this new technique. He told Cai Lun to continue with his research and development toward mass production of the improved paper. Cai Lun was made a marquis for his ingenuity, and paper produced by the technique he developed came to be referred to as Marquis Cai Paper.

Wang Mang the Usurper



The military actions that Emperor Wu Di engaged in against the Xiong Nu weakened the empire both financially and politically. By the time Emperor Yuan Di ruled (48-33 BC), the governing bureaucracy, now controlled by the emperor's relatives on his mother's side, had become so corrupt that it threatened to take down the whole empire. This power shift from the emperor to his mother's family, considered dangerous and illegitimate, took place when Emperor Yuan Di died; and his son succeeded him as Emperor Cheng Di (r. 32-36 BC), and made his mother Wang Zhengjun the "Queen Mother," promoting all his maternal uncles to important positions in government.



One of the emperor's uncles had a son named Wang Mang. Wang Mang harbored major ambitions for power, and knew he must prepare himself intellectually and politically for his aspirations. He spent years growing closer to his uncle Wang Feng, whom the emperor had granted military importance; so that when his uncle grew old and retired, he would be the one to succeed him. He did indeed end up succeeding Wang Feng, and power was now in his hands，One other move Wang Mang had made to fulfill his ambitions involved building a support network of those who would help him when needed. He helped his friends enter the government and shared so much of his fortune with them that he himself lived most frugally.



Some time after Emperor Ai Di had ascended the throne in 6 BC, Wang Mang found the gate to power was shut to him. But, after the death of Emperor Ai Di, he was again on the rise; and Wang Zhengjun, as the grandmother of the former emperor, helped him to crown Emperor Ping Di (r. AD 1-5). Wang Mang gave his daughter in marriage to the new emperor, so that, as his father-in-law, he acquired still more power and influence in the government. In AD 5, Wang Mang poisoned the 14-year-old Emperor Ping Di, his son-in-law. He then coerced his aunt, Queen Mother Wang Zhengjun, into agreeing to his managing the state affairs on behalf of the throne while the throne remained vacant. In the same year, as Wang Mang had started to rule as "Regent," he made a 2-year-old boy from the royal family the crown prince, giving the impression that he was merely taking care of the throne for its legitimate heir until he grew up and was mature enough to take over. All he, in reality, wanted was to take over himself. So he sent a cousin to his aunt Wang Zhengjun for the official seal of the emperor. Full of emotion and indignation, the queen dowager confronted her nephew, accusing him of ungratefulness for all the Han-dynasty royal family had done for the Wang family. But the elderly lady knew she would be unable to hold onto the seal. In the end she had to surrender it, crying bitterly at the outrage.



Early in AD 9, Wang Mang crowned himself as the emperor, changing the dynastic name for the empire from Han to Xin, and officially taking over the sovereignty of what historians refer to as the Western Han Dynasty.

Sima Qian, the Great Historiographer



Sima Qian was born in Longmen (today's Hancheng, Shaanxi Province). His father Sima Tan was a royal historiographer. At 10, Sima Qian was already well versed in history and adept with words as well.



Sima Tan died when Sima Qian was 36. On his deathbed, the old historian cried out to his son about the ambitious mission he had barely started yet had to leave unfinished, saying: "Together with the birth of the Han Dynasty has returned this Golden Age, with the throne in the hand of the righteous, and wisely served. This is a time of grandeur and nobility that a royal historiographer must bear witness to, or he would not be doing his duty. You must finish what I was able to only start, my son."



Two years later, Sima Qian succeeded his father as royal historiographer, and set out to write the history book that his father had left unfinished. Circumstances seemed to be right for him to fulfill the task when, as the royal historiographer, Sima Qian gained access to government archives as well as the rare books in the royal library. But then, tragedy struck. In the year Sima Qian was 48, an officer, Li Ling, was captured in a campaign by the Xiong Nu. When rumors reached the capital Chang'an that Li Ling had surrendered to the enemy, Emperor Wu Di had Li's whole family executed, which then pushed General Li toward the Xiong Nu. In a dramatic twist of events, the case involved Sima Qian, who indiscreetly spoke up in defense of Li Ling. In his wrath, Emperor Wu Di had him castrated, a punishment that was as humiliating as it was physically crippling. Devastated as he was by his ill fortune, Sima Qian nevertheless managed to cast aside the idea of suicide. He decided that he had to live so that he could finish the history book his father had not been able to, being what he knew would allow the deceased historian to at last rest in peace.



After years of hard work, Sima Qian finally completed the great work Shi Ji, or Records of the Historian when he was 53. The book, containing 130 chapters and over 520,000 characters, is divided into 12 Biographies (kings and emperors), 10 Chronicles (records of major historical events and figures in the form of table to supplement Biographies, eight Treatises (records of important rules and rituals, astronomy as well as political and economic life), 30 Hereditary Houses (records of princes, dukes and renowned figures such as Confucius, Chen Sheng, etc.) and 70 Lives (covering all other famous personages, lives of tribes, neighboring countries, etc.). Of all these, Biographies and Lives are the most significant. Since Sima Qian introduced this genre in historiography, all later dynastic historiographers followed suit in recording history.

Zhang Qian, Envoy to the Western Territory-Sequel І



From the day it was founded, the Han Dynasty was beleaguered by a pastoral tribe from the north called the Xiong Nu, or Huns. Little could be done to stop these exploiting invaders, until the dynasty reached its zenith during the reign of Emperor Wu Di (r. 140-188 BC). An economic recovery policy characterized by little government intervention and light taxation, as adopted by previous emperors, meant that Emperor Wu Di was financially ready to act more aggressively on the issue of national security. Apart from sending troops to fight the Xiong Nu, the emperor also started appointing ambassadors to the Western Territory, a geographical term used during the Han Dynasty to refer to the states and people inhabiting today's Xinjiang and the regions beyond the Congling Mountains (Pamirs), with the objective of eliciting an alliance in the war on the Xiong Nu. Zhang Qian (born in Hanzhong, Shaanxi) was the first government envoy dispatched to the Western Territory.



In 138 BC, a Han delegation led by Zhang Qian started traveling west from Longxi. They did not travel long before they fell into the hands of the Xiong Nu, who detained them for ten years. The Xiong Nu gave a young woman in marriage to Zhang Qian, and they had children. But Zhang Qian still never stopped thinking of his mission. At last, together with his family and a few cohorts, he managed to escape the Xiong Nu. The group traveled west across the Congling Mountains into Ferghana (Dawan). The king of Ferghana recommended Zhang Qian and his delegation to another state, Kangju, from where they moved to Tukhara.



The political situation changed in a way that did not favor a Han-Tukhara alliance against the Xiong Nu. Zhang Qian spent over a year in Tukhara without ever being able to interest the king ofTukhara in what he had come to do. In 126 BC, Zhang Qian returnd in Chang'an, the capital of the Han Dynasty. He had left with a delegation of over a hundred, but returned with only one partner accompanying him.



The expedition into the Western Territory took 13 years. It did not bring about an alliance with Tukhara, but it allowed Zhang Qian to learn a great deal about the lands of the Western Territory and the peoples living there. In recognition of the useful knowledge that Zhang Qian had returned with, as well as of the pioneering political groundwork he had done for future diplomacy, Emperor Wu Di promoted Zhang Qian to be superior grand master of the palace and his assistant commissioner.

The Destruction of Xiang Yu-Ending



Knowing his days were coming to an end, Xiang Yu ordered wine for his last dinner with his concubine Yu. In his hut, he expressed these tragic lines:



I was able and I shattered the world 'til Fate decided my doom was due. My horse sensing the time quit the race, but you, O my love, what shall I do with you？



Yu joined him in chorus. Xiang Yu was in tears, as was everyone at the dinner. Then Yu killed herself. Xiang Yu mounted his horse, to attempt to flee; just over 800 cavalrymen accompanied him. They managed to break through the siege and headed southeast.



Xiang Yu and his men fought their way to Dongcheng (northwest of Tuxian, Anhui). By this time he had only 28 cavalry with him, with thousands of enemy soldiers pursuing them. Knowing he could probably not escape, Xiang Yu said to his men: "You know that there was not a single encounter in my eight years as commander in which I did not subdue whoever stood up against me. I out-dared all other heroes in this fight for supremacy, but this seems to be how I shall go down. If this is what Fate intends for me, so be it. But it's certainly not that I am not a good fighter." Then Xiang Yu led his men into battle again. By the time they arrived at the Wujiang River (east of Taihe County, Anhui, where the river empties into the Yangtze from the west), they had lost two more companions.



Now, it happened that a district governor in this neighborhood had a boat moored for Xiang Yu. He urged him to board the boat and go across the river back to his home state. Xiang Yu refused to return home defeated and alone. Instead, he and his soldiers headed back into the battle with Liu Bang's men. Xiang Yu was as unyielding as a cornered lion; he and his faithful followers killed hundreds. But in the end, he killed himself with his own sword. Xiang Yu died at only 31 years of age.