Page 223-230, has nudity

Chapter 6

Departing Sanya and Haikou

My tummy is rumbling as the cab whizzes towards Sanya Railway Station on early Thursday morning. The station is one of the fifteen impressive and virtually identical ones on the East Ring Railway line in Hainan, its undulating roof suggestive of a huge rolling wave. Its front, with the entrance in the middle, is about a hundred metres wide. My luggage in tow, I struggle up to its upper floor after we have purchased the tickets. Fortunately, the train is punctual and the journey to Haikou takes only slightly over an hour, although it is unbearably long in my condition. I am pleased to be finally ensconced in the familiar hotel in Haikou People’s Park.

Sanya Train Station
三亚火车站

Four days of rest and sleep foster my convalescence although I am slightly emaciated, the result of voluntary starvation necessary to purge the gut bacteria. I am lucky: my ordeal does not begin on my last day in Hainan. As I sink comfortably into the cushioned seat on our flight to Singapore, I muse over our adventure during the preceding three weeks.

Within that brief period, we have seen the wonders of many memorable places as well as met many genial people and welcoming relatives. The joy they impart to us, and the joy we impart to them is palpable. Hainan is an island, blessed with countless features. The flora and fauna is diverse; and the people from the different ethnic communities live in unheralded peace and harmony. The follies and disasters of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution were slowly and gradually being rectified. A new and more liberal Hainan is emerging, which we have witnessed.

Liberalisation in Hainan
海南的自由化

My mind returns to the life and time of Lady Xian’s three notable grandchildren. Could one of them be my ancestor? Was geomancer Du Rui Dao right when he boldly affirmed that I am a descendant of Feng Ang? How may I discover the link, if any? I am perplexed. General Feng Ang lived through the Chen, Sui, and early Tang era.

When Sui founding ruler Yang Jian (Emperor Wen) died in 604 at the age of sixty-five, his second son Yang Guang became his successor. Four years earlier, Yang Guang, the commander of the battalions in the Lingnan conquest and amalgamation, had conspired against his older brother, placing the crown prince under house arrest for alleged treason. The emperor of thirty-five was a visionary. But he was also politically and economically inapt, a young man in a rush. He raised taxes and conscripted millions of workers to reconstruct the Grand Canal and Great Wall, build several palaces and hundreds of kilometres of highways, and wage wars against the small kingdom of Korea. More than half a million souls perished from diseases or starvation. In one military campaign, three hundred thousand poorly trained troops attacked the fortified Koreans; only two thousand seven hundred returned. Mass uprisings exploded.

2nd Sui emperor Yang Guang (left) and 1st Sui emperor Yang Jian (right)
第二隋皇帝杨广（左）和第一隋皇帝杨坚（右）

616 was a critical year for the second Sui ruler. When many generals refused to attend the Chinese New Year celebration, Emperor Yang realised his impending doom. He fled south but he was captured and murdered in early 618 by his subordinates. Among the rebel leaders, one styled himself as the emperor of Chu and extended his territory southwards as far as Panyu (modern Guangzhou). Another was Li Mi in whose service was the talented intellectual Wei Zheng.

Prior to the regicide, Sui general Li Yuan had installed the deserting emperor’s twelve-year old grandson on the throne as well as appointed himself as regent. Li Yuan then attacked and defeated Li Mi, obtaining his surrender. Upon learning Yang Guang’s death, the general secured the young emperor’s abdication and declared the inception of the Tang dynasty. Tang Emperor Gaozu’s eldest son, crown prince Li Jiancheng invited Wei Zheng to join his staff.

Wei Cheng, notable chancellor and confidante of emperor Taizong (Li Shimin)
魏征, 唐皇帝太宗 (李世民) 的着名总理和信徒

Feng Ang (冯盎) was governor of Lingnan when the Sui dynasty fell. His Feng clan had authority over several commanderies in Guangdong and Hainan. In fact, he controlled twenty prefectures over an area of about two thousand square miles. Initially, he submitted to the Chu emperor. Two years later, he apparently changed his mind because he attacked and captured the rebels who have taken over Guang (modern Guangzhou) and Xin (modern Yunfu, Guangdong Province). By 621, the first Tang emperor had triumphed over most of the rival leaders and had unified much of northern and southern China.

In August 622, Feng Ang transferred the areas under his command (which included Hainan) to Tang General Li Qing. Emperor Gaozu was generous with those who surrendered. They were allowed to keep their ranks and status. Gaozu conferred upon Feng Ang the honorific title “Duke of the State of Yue” (“Yue Guo Gong”) and made him Area Commander-in-chief of Gaozhou. He also received an estate stretching over two thousand li (or a thousand kilometres). His house was in Gaozhou, along the coast of Guangdong. The emperor also appointed his sons Feng Zhidai (冯智戴) Inspector of Chunzhou and Feng Zhiyu, Inspector of Donghezhou.

Feng Ang’s tomb at Xian Furen-General Feng Ang Memorial Park,
Le’an Village, Shuangjie Town, Jiangcheng District, Guangdong
冯盎的墓在冼夫人冯盎将军纪念公园, 广东省江城区双捷镇乐安村

Between 618 and 626, while wars were waged against the remnant anti-Tang rebels, tension escalated between the crown prince and his younger brother, who were jockeying to be their father’s heir. Anticipating the plan of the crown prince and a younger brother to liquidate him, Li Shimin hired assassins in 626. They ambushed and eliminated the pair.

Unchallenged, the twenty-seven year old prince then forced his father’s abdication. The latter eventually died in 635. To boost the efficiency of his administration, the second Tang emperor co-opted talented people such as forty-six year old Wei Zheng. Promising generous terms like retention of ranks and properties, the pragmatic and prudent “remonstrating counsellor” was successful in persuading many rebel leaders to surrender, making the reign of the second Tang emperor a golden era in Chinese history.

Li Shimin, second Tang emperor (Taizong)
李世民, 第二唐代皇帝 (太宗)

Emperor Gaozu’s coerced abdication might have been the cause of his loyal general’s actions the following year (627). Now in his mid-fifties, Feng Ang had engaged in some skirmishes within the territory under his control. When he heard the rumour of rebellion, emperor Taizong’s immediate reaction was to authorize troops to attack Feng. Wei Zheng dissuaded him since no clear evidence of revolt was present. The wily adviser recommended treating the general with “sincerity and trust” by sending a commission of inquiry instead. He was aware that any attack could be disastrous for the Tang troops since malaria was prevalent in the south. Acting on Wei Zheng’s advice, the emperor delegated officials to reassure Feng of the imperial confidence.

As a token of his continued submission, Feng sent his eldest son Zhidai to the capital Chang’an. Some years later, the general visited the court and, in 631, led Tang troops against the rebellious Lao tribes in southern China. A rich man, General Feng had thirty sons, according to the New Tang Book, and the best known was Zhidai, who was “brave and prudent”. Feng Ang obviously had a few concubines to produce so many sons, not counting the daughters. That he had many children was not unusual. Li Yuan had twenty-two sons and nineteen daughters while emperor Xuanzong (Li Longji) also had thirty sons and twenty-nine daughters.

Feng Zhidai, Inspector of Chunzhou (now Yangchun county, Yangjiang district, Guangdong)
冯智戴; 春州刺史(今阳春, 阳江区, 广东)

A simple gesture leading to the aversion of a costly civil war in Lingnan saw the consummate diplomat Wei Zheng rewarded for his good advice. He gradually rose in rank, becoming the chancellor and confidante, or “mirror”, of the emperor.

Another literary talent recruited by Taizong was forty-two year old Xu Jingzong in 634. His father was an Assistant Minister of Rites under the Sui. According to the Book of Tang, his daughter married a son of Feng Ang before Feng Ang’s death (in 649 or 650). Xu would later rise to be chancellor under the third Tang emperor. He assisted Wei Zheng, who was commissioned in 629 as general editor in compiling the histories of Tang's preceding dynasties - Northern Zhou, Sui, Liang, Chen, and Northern Qi. Wei Zheng also wrote commentaries on the biographies of important persons.

On completion of the histories in 636, Wei Zheng received the title “Duke of Zheng” from Taizong. Now suffering from an eye disease, Wei Zheng tendered his resignation and was given an honorary position. That year, Xu Jingzong was demoted and sent out of the capital for a slight breach of etiquette during Empress Zhangsun’s funeral.

Most of the palace staff would not have paid any attention to a thirteen-year old girl brought into the palace in 638. But she was to adversely affect the lives of many royals and commoners and alter the course of Chinese history.

Born in 625 (or 624), Wu Zhao (better known as Wu Zetian) was the daughter of a Sui official, who had encouraged Li Shimin’s father to seize the Sui throne. In making this young girl his concubine after the death of his empress, the thirty-eight year old second Tang emperor was acknowledging her father’s contribution to his father’s ascension as well as his own. Over the next ten years of his rule, she did not have any children with him.

Wu Zhao (better known as Wu Zetian)
武曌 (更名武則天)

Li Shimin had more than one hundred and ten concubines of different ranks, the highest being the “fu ren” (“Lady”). There were four “fu rens”. The empress had three sons and three daughters. The consorts had altogether eleven sons. After the empress’ death, the vexatious problem of succession ended with the exile of her eldest homosexual son for treason and the exile of her second son for allegedly coveting the throne. Both died within two years.

In 642, Wei Zheng fell ill, and died the following year. Xu Jingzong, who was recalled in 642 and placed in charge of imperial supplies, was promoted to be the acting deputy head of the examination bureau and also advisor to the late empress’ third son, the fifteen-year old Crown Prince, born in 628. Li Zhi’s step-mother Consort Wu Zhao was only three years older.

While Li Shimin was at the (present-day Liaoning) frontline leading a war against the Goguryeo in 645, Cen Wenben, the legislative bureau head who was highly skilled in writing edicts, died from an illness. Xu was swiftly appointed as the acting deputy head of the bureau and charged with writing edicts.

Making not much progress in the Korean campaign, the emperor returned from the battlefield a beaten man. Also ill, he was attended closely by his heir apparent, who had now shifted into a living quarter next to his. Rumours of illicit romance between the Crown Prince and his teenage step-mother were swirling around the capital.

In mid-649, emperor Taizong died. He was only fifty-five. At twenty-one, Li Zhi ascended the throne. As court rules dictated, twenty-four year old childless Wu Zhao became a Buddhist nun.

That year, or the year after, saw the marriage of elderly governor Feng Ang’s son to Xu Jingzong’s daughter. Feng Ang died not long after. The luxurious dowry – a “barge filled with gold” - offered by “the tribal chieftain” from the south aroused the envy of courtiers and even the new emperor in northern Chang’an (Xi’an). Xu was demoted to serve as prefect of Zhengzhou. Was Feng Ang my ancestor?

END OF PART 1

Copyright 2015

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Freedom of artistic expression in mainland China
中国大陆其他地方的自由化