China Time Travel Blog
A travel blog is an online travel journal.
In this assignment you are going on an imaginary time-travelling journey through China. Your posts should include some of the people/places/events which I provided to you. Information on all of them may be found in your book, but could also come from other resources. While you are not actually travelling to these places your blog should be written as if you did.
1. Please have at least 10 posts. All need to be completed no later than December 16, 2011
2. Posts should be at least 1 large paragraph or two shorter paragraphs
3. Each post should include mention of one of the people/place/event that I gave you, along with a thorough description of that person/place/event
4. You will be graded on having the appropriate number of posts, your content, and your writing. Think of them as mini essays
5. Please keep all posts appropriate – remember that this is a graded assignment which I can review. This is not the place for insulting comments.
6. You can comment on other people’s blogs, but remember to keep it school appropriate
Hooyah!
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ReplyDeletegot it!!
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ReplyDeleteHey :)
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ReplyDeleteNovember 19, 2011 9:13 AM
ReplyDeleteHi
Hey it wouldn't except my email when I tried saturday, and this is Erik.
ReplyDeleteJustins first comment
ReplyDeleteginger says hi
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ReplyDeleteThanks BC for the enlightening comment
ReplyDeletegoodnight mod e
ReplyDeletehi :)
ReplyDeleteToday, while traveling through eastern China, I ran into some Chinese guy with no eyebrows and burns all over his body. His name was Tang Chu. He said that he was an Alchemist and he had just discovered a new substance. He took me to his home in the local village, well, at least were it used to be. He explained that when he had finished making a new compound of a black substance he threw it into his fireplace thinking it was another failure because he was trying to make a elixir that would make him immortal, and it evidently blew up his house. He had just started work on harnessing the energy of the powder to be used as a weapon, so he showed me his prototypes. He had a variety of hollowed trees that were stuffed with black powder, arrows with attached rockets, and small clay pots filled with the powder. Not being able to restrain myself in the presence of explosives, I kind of set it all off and blew up his neighbor’s house. Nothing like the smell of burnt gun powder in the morning, Hooyah! So in return for blowing up his neighbor’s house I slipped him the idea of making cannon out of the tree, which he was satisfied with after testing it. My stolen idea proved useful later on when holding back the Mongols in northern China a few years later.
ReplyDeleteDuring my time travels this past week, I have been focusing on the Great Wall of China. First, I visited it in modern times. Today, it is about 8,852 kilometers long, and it twists along deserts, mountains, plateaus, and many other landforms. More than twenty Chinese dynasties contributed to the building of the Great Wall, but the dynasty that first started it was the Qin dynasty, about 2,000 years ago. Although the Qin dynasty started to build a series of walls that was the beginning of the Great Wall, the Ming Dynasty was the dynasty that contributed the most to the building of the Great Wall. Since the Ming Dynasty completed most of the wall in comparison to other dynasties, I decided to get in my Delorean and travel back to the time period in which the Ming ruled China.
ReplyDeleteOnce I got to the Ming dynasty, I asked for directions to where the construction of the wall was taking place. I got lost a few times, but when I finally got there I asked a few laborers why they were working on the construction of this huge wall so diligently. First of all, the laborers looked at me like I was crazy for not knowing the answer, but since I was a foreigner, they let it slide. Finally they explained to me that the Chinese were constantly being attacked from the north by the Mongols. In order to protect their empire, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty had continued construction on and strengthened a wall that already existed in order to keep the Mongols out to the north. These laborers had no idea that the project they were working on every day would survive over 2,000 years and would be one of the great man-made wonders of the world. Neither did these many Chinese laborers know that the walls they were building simply to prevent attacks would become a symbol for all of China, and that it would end up symbolizing the spirit of the Chinese people. They did not know it at the time, but the Great Wall of China would affect the culture of China forever.
This past weekend, I somehow managed to travel through time. I mysteriously ended up in the Qin Dynasty of Ancient China. This dynasty is the origin of the modern name "China". This dynasty only lasted for about fifteen years. However, it left a major footprint on Chinese life. This was the dynasty when the Great Wall of China was built. The wall was way too large to be finished during this small period, but the Qin led the path for all construction which followed.The Qin government forced people to work in this project. One man I talked to said he did not mind this hard work because he knew he was helping protect his country from invaders. He also did not mind the form of government. The Qin established an autocracy, in which the emeperor had total power. This kept everything in order, and did not allow for criticism. Overall, this man was happy that the Qin took over because it put an end to war within the country.
ReplyDeleteToday, I traveled back in time to the time period of the famous Han dynasty of ancient China. While I was there, I had a chance but enlightening encounter with Liu Bang, called the King of Han. I asked him how he had come to be the King of Han, and he told me his story of rising from being a commoner in the Qin dynasty to overthrowing the Qin dynasty to finally becoming the founder of a new dynasty, the Han.
ReplyDeleteHe explained to me that as he was rising in the ranks of the Qin army, he made a surprising discovery. He noticed a trend in the activities of the Qin army and government that he later used to help himself orchestrate its overthrow. The Qin were always focused on building walls and other protective boundaries, which later would be finished and would become the Great Wall of China, but the Qin always focused on keeping others out. They wanted to keep invaders out, but they had no defenses in place to protect against a revolution from within. So Liu Bang waited patiently until he was a general in the Qin army, and then he made his move and overthrew the Qin, just as a rebel army was attacking them. Liu Bang then set up the Han dynasty. I also asked him why he had put so much premeditation into overthrowing the Qin. He said that the answer was simple. He did not agree with the harsh Legalist policies imposed on the people by the Qin. Liu Bang said that his disagreement with the politics of the Qin influenced the politics of the Han dynasty. He tried to set up the Han dynasty’s government system and policies based on a mixture of Legalist and Confucian philosophies.
Immediately after the time travel technology was perfected, I knew where I wanted to go. Ancient China, with its cultural diversity and influential philosophies, was surely my first destination. Now the question was who or what to visit first. I decided I would visit the most influential philosopher to ever live in China. I set the coordinates to the correct time period and prepared to journey to another time much unlike my own. It took several seconds, and then I materialized in Ancient China. Finding Confucius was not difficult because every individual knew who he was. I quickly started in the direction where he lived. I entered the room I was told he was in with immense interest. It was strange, but the language barrier between us just disappeared. I started firing off questions faster than you can imagine, but he quieted me so he could speak. He stated that there was a more important interest and the future than in the past, so he would be questioning me.
ReplyDeleteHe asked about rulers of our present time and of course I stated the good ones, but I also gave him the worst. He was shaking his head at the latter’s mention. He was frustrated with how government had become so powerful, it disregarded the people it was meant to protect. I know this to be a core principle of his philosophy. He also asked about modern China and family life. I told him China was a Communism that had a “free” economy, but everything else was controlled by the government. He was flabbergasted with the future government’s disregard for the people of China. He was in fact almost brought to tears, for all that he preached about virtuous leaders had no effect on the China thousands of years in the future. I then told him that across the world family is s till strong and important. He was relieved at this. He said that if families were still important, there was hope for the future world. He said that my words had been very enlightening, and politely asked me to leave. I did, and asked myself where I could find Laozi.
Laozi, like Confucius, was not hard to find. After all, he was the second most influential philosopher in his time to China. I was very interested to see how Daoism (the philosophy that Laozi created) differed from the other philosophies that were prevalent in this time period. I knew that his was not from a political standpoint. In fact he avoided speaking about politics as much as he could. I wasn’t sure why this way, and made a mental note to ask him about it when I meet him. I was quickly approaching his home, but noticed that there was a shabby home in between many normal ones. I was certain that Laozi did not live there, but it turned out that he did. I walked in and greeted a very calm man who had a peaceful aura about him. I did not know when I could start speaking so I waited for him to say the first words. He greeted me back, still in the same tranquil manner. I asked him about his philosophy, to make sure I had my facts straight.
ReplyDeleteHe told me that he could answer the questions with no words at all. I waited for him to reveal his joke, but he just went into another room. Then, he reentered with a picture. It was of a large mountain with a river and trees. He asked me if I could see the man in the photo. I honestly replied I could not. He told me that’s what his philosophy was. It all clicked after that. I now remembered that the called others to withdraw from hectic life and observe nature. The shabby home was probably because he spoke about the unimportance of wealth. The man also seemed extremely humble. It made sense because he was the philosopher that told others not to search for a life of power and influence, but one of tranquility and nature. The meeting consisted of only several words, but it felt as if I had read a book. Daoism made sense, knowing that it came from Laozi himself. I told myself after this time travelling journey is over I was going to buy a translated version of the Dao De Jing. Then I would really know a lot about Daoism.
Today I went back in time to Ancient China. I arrived in China during the Qin Dynasty. It was when the empire was building the Great Wall of China. It was terrible what the people had to go through to create the wall. It was not even the wall as we know it today. The people were forced to build the wall. Most were scholars being suppressed by the government or men who were taken from near by villages to build. They had to spend all day building the wall. Many of the men died while building the wall. Their bodies were not even taken care of, they were just dumped on the wall and became part of the wall. When the wall was finished it was not even the stone wall that we think of today. It was just a large mound of earth, stone, and bones. It would be added onto though over the years and control of other dynasties. But the forced labor was what eventually caused the fall of the Qin Dynasty by a commoner.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was still in the Qin Dynasty I decided to go and meet Liu Bang. When I finally met him we started to talk. He told me all about his life. I found out that he had been born into a poor peasant family. He grew up in the warring states. Then one day he said that a rival state took control of China. Of course he said that it was not called China until this state took over. This state he said was the Qin. While living in the Qin Dynasty he became involved in the military. He rose ranks very quickly. He is now a general and the Qin Dynasty as only been around for fifteen years. He then told me that he was planning something big with his group of soldiers but it was secret and I could not know. I then left after hearing all that Liu Bang had to tell me about his life.
ReplyDeleteA few days later I met up with Liu Bang again. This time he was now emperor. He told me that he and his soldiers had been planning this. They attacked and defeated Emperor Cheng. He was now emperor and had started the Han Dynasty. People were happy about this since they no longer had to live under Cheng's Legalist views where they were suppressed and scholars were executed.
today i decided to go to china. for some odd reason i met confucius. i decided to talk to him for a little while. he taught me of the importance of a true family and the respect one should have for elders. he then began to tell me that he wanted to end the political misconduct going on in his society. he talked about his core values, strong powerful behavior and good virtues. i told him i would arrange a time to meet with him later.
ReplyDeletea few days later i met with confucious he told me that surprisingly his ideas were being adopted by other chinese thinkers. he the restated that rulers that have strong moral and ethical guidelines would be supported more by their followers. this was very interesting.
Today i went back to china to look for Laozi. I searched the nearby school buildings and stumbled upon him teaching Daoism. I went in and decided to talk to him about Daoism. Laozi basically told me that the principles of Daoism or "the way" that people should withdraw from the world and they should instead contemplate nature. I found this to be interesting. He told me the reason why people should practice Daoism is to understand better the Dao and to live with the Dao in harmony or peace. He told me that people should not strive to attain the wealth or material things but they should seek peace and unison. i now understand this on the basis that it provides a balance to the chinese culture.
ReplyDeleteToday i visited the Great Wall of China. I walked around for a little while marveling the size of it. Its Huge. Instead of walking the whole thing which would have been impossible, i decide to read up on the history of it . I found out the the wall is actually bunch of walls combined. all the different dynasties that came along had built on to the wall, later creating on massive wall. Its about 1500 miles long. it took a lot of workers to complete the task which actually angered a lot of people. This was because Qin had employed forced labor for the public work projects like the Great Wall of China. As a result of this, dislike arose among arose between the people and the emperor. Later, i saw news that Liu Bang, a commander of the Qin overthrew the empire.
ReplyDeleteToday i looked for a change of scenery. In doing this i decided to visit the Huang river. upon arriving at the Huang, i was startled to find that the river was very goldfish brown in color. unlike any normal river I've seen which are usually blue, this was diferrent. I the began to walk along the river and i then saw a man standing by the river alone. i was curious so i decided to go and talk to him. He introduced himself as Chang Jung. He told me that he was a chinese engineer that proposed an idea to fix the river. I then asked him why because the river didn't look like it needed any fixing. i went back to my hotel.
ReplyDeleteA week later i returned to the river to find Chang Jung still there. he then told me that the Huang has been the center for many of the deadly floods that occurred during the week. Chang Jung told me how the Huang river was also named "Chinas sorrow" after the many devastating floods and also that during the week i was there the river had destroyed many crops. Construction work was being done to the river. The workers constructed dikes to protect the crops but as a result the river washed over the dikes. Chang Jung then explained how no one would accept his ideas of fixing the dikes. He said that with ought his idea being put into action that the river would keep flooding. even if the dikes are built higher.
Today i decided to go to a foot binding ceremony. This was very interesting because foot binding is usually used on female dancers. it is the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. It must be very painful for these girls.the tiny narrow feet are considered beautiful and to make a woman's movements more feminine and dainty. However it is looked down upon by female rights activists. they consider this to be abuse which in a lot of cases is abuse. i didn't really enjoy this too much so i left and went home. goodnight.
ReplyDeleteToday I traveled back in time to China circa 1989. I decided to go to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, but I was side tracked when I saw Cam Brown, and felt the need to get him arrested as a U.S. spy. It was pretty easy to do, due to the chinese paranoia at the time. Anyway, I made it to Tiananmen Square, or at least within a mile or two of it before i was stoppe by a thick cloud of tear gas. After I had pushed through I saw a man run out into the road right infront of a massive tank. He just stood there and everytime the tank moved he would step in front of the tank, he halted an entire division of tanks. He then jumped on top of the tank, puncked it a couple of time, and walked away. After that I began to run as the Chinese Military opened up with guns on the crowd I was standing in. I found that it was a truly terrible massacre. To end my day I snuck into a chinese prison, laughed at Cam, and then left.
ReplyDeleteOk, so today I went back to 1492 to meet Christopher Columbus, but my machine malfunctioned and sent me back to 1420 during the Ming Dynasty in China. I found myself in front of Emperor Yongle, the first emperor of the 24 to rule from it. After watching my friend Joe L. get attacked by the emperors guards for writing Joe L. on his walls (or maybe I did?). Anyway, I talked to him about it and he told me that it was built like The Purple Palace that god lives in to represent his influence on earth. After writing Joe L. on a couple more walls and going to see Joe to break him out (and get him arrested again) I left. Ging Out!
ReplyDeleteWell today Aidan White and I went to go see Confucius, but i lost Aidan while travelling through time, but upon my return I found that he landed around Cambodia and had to swim all the way back to America. Anyway, I met up with C-Dog (as I call him) and we talked a lot about his philosophy. I met up with im in 482 B.C. and after playing with animals we sat down and drank some tea. He told me that he grew up poor, but his teching expresses the importance of family and respect for elders and anscestors. He said he was not recognized for his talets until his 50's and was exiled from his post in the government of Lu and traveled until around 484 B.C. and has been teaching ever since. He taught me so much and helped me realize what I should do with my life, so i wrote a famous book called the Odessy, its about Mrs. Byron and her quest to restrain Cam Brown from going on a rampage. I cleverly masked this theme and teleported to the time of Homer and let him translate it to Greek for me. Well, Bye!
ReplyDeleteYesterday I had a cup of black tea with the great philosopher Confucius. We had a nice talk about his beliefs on the importance of family, respect for elders and remembering ancestors. Confucius told me that his philosophy has had the biggest influence on Chinese life than any other philosophy. Confucius told me that if I ever wanted to learn more about his teachings, I could go and find them in the Analects.
ReplyDeleteAfter our second cup of black tea we talked about his teachings in greater depth. Confucius told me that according to his philosophy, a person should willingly accept his or her role in society and should perform the duties of that role as best as they can do. The second thing Confucius told me was that the leaders of the government and the government should be virtuous. Confucius did not teach or concern himself with religion or what happens after death. Confucius only teaches the people who follow his philosophy about politics.
After our second cup of black tea we talked about his teachings in greater depth. Confucius told me that according to his philosophy, a person should willingly accept his or her role in society and should perform the duties of that role as best as they can do. The second thing Confucius told me was that the leaders of the government and the government should be virtuous. Confucius did not teach or concern himself with religion or what happens after death. Confucius only teaches the people who follow his philosophy about politics.
Last night after dinner with Liu Bang, we talked about his conquests. We started by talking about his life under the Qin dynasty. Liu Bang told me that he started under the Qin as a peasant. Liu Bang was able to get to high rank in the Qin army fast and was able to become a general. Liu told me that because he was a general he was trusted and popular. Liu said that when he heard of the rebel army trying to take over the country.
ReplyDeleteFrom then on Liu Bang knew that he was called to overthrow the government. Liu Bang said that it was a glorious time for himself and for his vision of a Han dynasty. In 206 BC Liu took the name King of Han and became the leader. He told me while we were talking that he tried to keep the Han government to be moderate instead of the Qin, who were legalists. Liu Bang said that he hoped that the Han will last long and become powerful.
While walking through China in 205 BC I noticed a few things about how they ran things. I noticed that the Qin ruled a very large empire. The thing that I am worried about is the way they run the country. They have an autocracy in which the emperor rules everything. I see a possible problem with it. The problem I see with their autocracy is that it is nearly impossible to control a large empire by yourself. I also do not think that the Qin's laws are the best for them. They based their laws on legalism, which would instruct them on making harsh laws. I just think it is a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteAs I am walking along I see what I think is the Great Wall of China. It is not done as I am looking at it right now it is being worked on by workers that are being forced to. It seems to be angering a lot of people. This discontent is spreading throughout the empire. It is only a matter of time till it all boils over and they start to revolt.
I wanted to visit a geographical landmark, rather than another individual, so I set my next destination as the Huang River. I knew it was important for farming in the time period I was now in, but also knew it had a reputation. Upon asking for directions, I heard stories of the river overflowing years back, killing many people because it destroyed crops. One man told me that dikes were built to prevent flooding. At first the dikes seemed to work, but they eventually failed in working properly. A large amount of silt was deposited to the bottom of the river. This was because the dikes slowed the river’s flow. Silt that previously could not settle because of the fast paced current now settled to the bottom, raising the water level. The water level rose until it again overflowed, flooding the surrounding crops. To rectify this, it was decided that the dikes should be made higher.
ReplyDeleteI was nearing the river and was wondering what the dikes would look like. What I found was much more significant than I had imagined. The river seemed like it was above the ground. The heightening of the dikes caused the river to flow at least 10 feet above the surrounding area. I was completely amazed. And then, I got a vantage point where I could actually see the river. Again, I was surprised. It had a weird yellow tint to it. I then remembered that this specific river contains loess, a fertile soil that is responsible for this yellowish tint. I found it amazing how the river had supported human life by irrigating crops, but also killed many humans by destroying the crops it supplied water to. The river was a reoccurring natural disaster that the surrounding area was dependent on. I doubted my friends would believe me when I told them I witnessed a river flowing 10 feet about its surroundings that was yellow. Too bad I forgot a camera to supply proof.
Visiting China’s Great Wall was simply a must see for me. The sheer magnitude of the structure was awe inspiring. I had learned that astronauts could even see it from space. This one particular aspect of China was one that I was very familiar with. Its history and purpose were both interesting so I decided to do further research before my traveling back in time. This historical wonder was not hard to find. Seeing as it stretched for 1,500 miles every village had access to it one way or another. I quickly found it and examined the craftsmanship. The fact that it was created during the ancient Qin dynasty was simply amazing. The Qin felt pressure from invaders and had seen how the area they controlled was prone to invasion. So they decided to build a wall to keep invaders at bay. The harsh Qin employed forced labor to get the job done. The Qin were quite harsh and this forced labor contributed to the rebellion that squashed the dynasty.
ReplyDeleteIt was no coincidence that after being the victorious Warring State, the Qin sought protection, knowing foreign peoples were itching to invade. Some legends have stated that the Qin were so determined to finish the gigantic structure that they worked some laborers to death. Focused on the project, the leaders in charge decided the bodies should be buried under the wall. Whether this was true, I was not sure and the villagers did not seem like they were interested in reopening the painful past. What I was surprised to learn was that many Warring States had built walls for protection. Once the Qin came to power they set to connecting the walls; even if this meant building though mountain ranges.
Fortunately I had the ability to fast forward through time, so I was not limited to just one time period. My last excursion for the journey was not a landmark or individual, but a dynasty as a whole. The Han were very culturally diverse and created traditions that were upheld in China for about two thousand years. I found myself in the Han dynasty and observed my surroundings. I realized I was on the famous Silk Road. Camel caravans carried jade and silk to the Mediterranean area, while some returned with gold, silver and wool. I followed the Road, until I found myself in the central part of the dynasty. They had a centralized government that was run by a civil service. This service was extremely respected and difficult to join. Schooling was usually provided for only wealthy family members who were connected to the civil service already. One amazing aspect of the civil service was that it remained in China until the nineteenth century.
ReplyDeleteWhat was also interesting was the difference between the previous rulers (the Qin) and the Han. After suffering through an autocracy, the Han set up a moderate government that was not very similar to the Qin. They also knew how to stabilize their economy by employing a system of leveling. This consisted of using price controls to ensure balance in the economy when farmers were experiencing bad crops or surplus. This program was especially beneficial to the peasants who struggled with changing prices on farming products. The dynasty was consistent in maintaining order. They set up a civil service to train future government workers. Also, they set up a leveling program to prevent fluctuations in the price of farm products. These are among many reasons why the Han remained in power for over 400 years.
Ok so I time traveled back to 1370 during the Ming dynasty. I eneded up in a small town that the people would stay at who were build g the great wall of china. The great wall hs already been built before the Ming dynasty but the Ming are the ones who fortified it and built it with brick. The workers are not treated well I see them and they are so ski ny and mal nourished. I even saw one man die right in front of me and all that they did was take his body and put it in the wall az they were building it. I asked one of the builders with my awesome chines speeking skills if they did that every time a person dies and he said that the walls were lined with dead bodies. This made me so sick that I had to run away to puke. I came back and talked to some more builders who told me that most of the materials used to build the wall are local such as bricks and frames. I also learned that each brick was hand carved to fit perfectly into the wall andnthat if the crafted messed up on a brick he would face very serious punishment.
ReplyDeleteToday while I was walking through China, I met a man named Confucius. Although I did not recognize him at first, once he started talking about his views, I was able to figure out who he was. Confucius was one of the leading philosophers in Ancient China. He had great morals and was always ready to share them with people, especially total strangers, as was the case with me. He believed what he was doing was not only morally right, but also just. Arguably the most important idea Confucius taught was the importance to respect elders. This is typically important in most cultures as well, but Confucius put a very large emphasis on this moral. It is one's duty to respect his or her parents. He asked me how well I get along with my family. I was unsure how to go about with answering this question, so I said that we get along relatively well. He told me that family is one thing that is always there and that it is possibly the most significant part of one's life. He also explained to me the importance of achieving respectful behavior towards oneself and others. If everyone, especially the government, practiced virtue in his or her daily life, the world would be a much more peaceful and happy place. The government would be needed in this, because if their laws were centered around virtue, people would become more virtuous as a result. Confucius told me to see what my ancestors have done and discover what I can improve while still following their footsteps. After spending the day with Confucius, I will definitely start to respect my family more. After all, family is one of the most important social structures.
ReplyDeleteHey guys i need some help! Marco said he was really good at hiding, and knowing me at all suggests i would challenge him to that statement. Well i made the wrong choice. I can't find him anywhere! I checked the Yangtze River and wasn't there. Went to the great wall of China, walked the whole thing and he wasn't there.Then i journeyed to the Forbidden City, but they wouldn't let me go in for some reason. Anyways I asked if he was in there and they replied with a big NO. I was just told he was Venetian merchant traveler, not a master of Marco polo. So just to wrap this up if you find signs of where he is just tell me please.
ReplyDeleteOne day while walking through a field in China, I came across a man. This man was Laozi the philosopher. He then started teaching about his philosophy. First he told the central idea of his philosophy which was called the Dao. The Dao is also called "The Way." He described the Dao as an indescribable force that governed the universe and all of nature. It started to sound like Star Wars to me. But then he started going into other things that come along with believing in the Dao. One of the first he told me was to not strive for material wealth in life and to not be involved in politics because then you would not be in harmony with the Dao. To be in harmony with the Dao he went on was to be humble, quiet, and thoughtful. I thought to myself how this was almost the opposite of Confucianism. I soon left Laozi alone so that he could continue to sit in the field and contemplate nature.
ReplyDeleteHey guys still no luck in finding Marco. I think I might of checked everywhere. First I went to Great great Canal, but got side tracked when i met my old fraternity brother Confucius. We went to have some lunch in Tibet where we parted ways and I went on looking for Marco. Then i thought to myself "maybe he is hiding under the loess in the Huang River, so i decided to look there only to be disappointed. Wait i forgot, Marco had built a brand new time traveler. I went to his house to finding it all built together and checked where it last visited. It read the 2008 Olympics. I decided to go see for myself of he was there. When i arrived i found my first sign of him. He had dropped one of his books. I would of probably found him too until it happened. The opening ceremonies. They were beautiful. All those people in sync with each other. I felt like i was paralyzed. Once it was over there was no hope. i couldn't find him anywhere so i decided to go back to the past.
ReplyDeleteok so now i time traveled back to 2008. its the summer olympics in beijing. i get there just as the opening ceremony starts. i hear something that sounds like drums but i don't have a ticket so i can get it through the door. instead i use my spider climbing powers that are a side effect of time travel to scale the walls and get to the roof. then i use my laser vision. another side effect from time travel to cut through the roof ( which is why it shows the ring as an open roof) and jump in. at first when i get in i was slightly confused as to what was happening and then i realized the spectacular that was happening. hundreds of chinese people in perfect synchronization playing there drums at the same time. then all of a sudden all of the lights turn off and. bam! fire works shoot off al around the arena. it was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteBam I'm now back in the Ming dynasty. I decide to go to see what the forbidden city was all about. I get there and see tones of gates. So I decide to go up to one were what seemed to be a tour guide dressed in soldiers cloths was. I asked him if he could show me around and he burst out laughing. When I asked him why he was laughing he said that there was no way that I would ever get into the forbidden city because only servants and emperors were allowed in. So I figured that if I made a run for it I'll be able to hide once I got it. So I bolted and caught the guard by surprise. As I was running in the first thing a saw were spectacular gardens and then bam I got hit by an arrow and died.
ReplyDeleteIts about the year 1215, trebuchets are launching rocks at the defending Chinese forces. I hear someone screaming commands from the battlefield. it is the great Mongol leader Genghis Khan. After starting his invasion of China in 1211 he has crushed the Chinese strongholds and has made his way to the Jin territory. I ran across the battlefield, (wasn't the best idea at the time). i dodged arrows left and right and scurried through sword fights between the two armies. i just wanted to meet Genghis Khan. I finally got to the Great Khan he had just entered his war tent. I used my translator to speak mongolioan to his guards and convinced them to let me in buy showing them my cell phone. It amazed them and they called me the wizard. Now that I got to meet Genghis he decided to challenge me to a sword fight. now this i thought was unfair but i knew a few things about sword fighting. Amazingly i beat him and he allowed me to talk to him about his war strategies. He said his ambition and determination provided the base for his extraordinary military conquests, the defeat of great empires by means of comparatively small armies. He also told me that he is name meant Universal Ruler. i decided i would let him get back to the war going on around us and wished him luck. (even though i knew he was going to win). Now it was time to go forward in time and experience what happened at the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
ReplyDeleteAight so I was walking through this town somewhere in china. I come across an abandoned shack and thought that I should look inside because that's what I do with every random shack that I finde. Inside I meet a guy named laozi. Laozi seemed like a very humble, giving, and kinde soul to me. I started to talk to him and he told me of his philosophy called daoism. He said it's called daoism because it is focused off of dao or the way. He told me not to search after weath because that's bad and also not to join politics because then I won't be one with the way. I told him "ok" gave him a hug (because he is just one of those type of people you want to hug. And left.
ReplyDeleteI arrived back in China again. This time it was during the Tang Dynasty. A woman has just became emperor. Her name is Empress Wu. This is the first time that a woman has been in control of China. She entered the royal life at a young age. She had become a member of the Tang household. While living there I heard that she eliminated her female rivals so that she could be the top female in the household. As a result of this, she would be left by the emperor to manage state affairs when he was sick. When in power she would eliminate her political opponents. She did this by exile and execution. From her power hunger she finally took control of China and became the empress. From what I heard I about her she was not nice, but instead very power hungry. I have no doubt that now since she is in control of China that she will do whatever it takes for her to stay in power and not lose. A lot more people will most likely be exiled or executed so I am sure that nobody wants to become a political enemy to her now.
ReplyDeleteNow I have gone to the Qing Dynasty. The White Lotus Rebellion is going on right now. The rebellion is being caused by a cult called the White Lotus Society. It all began as tax protest. It soon became a peasant revolution. The government has sent imperial soldiers to put down the rebellion. They have failed their task so far. Now a new emperor has risen to power. He is organizing now a more advanced group of soldiers to go in and stop the rebellion. The soldiers have left now for the provinces of Sichuan, Hubei, and Shaanxi. They have been successful now in putting down the rebels.
ReplyDeleteThe government was barely able to survive this rebellion. if another one happens then the Qing Dynasty may not last.
Today, I traveled back in time to the Zhou dynasty, the longest lasting dynasty in ancient China. Unlike the other famous dynasties of ancient China, the Zhou did not set up a centralized for of government. The Zhou dynasty granted areas of their empire to different members of the royal family. The rulers of these areas had to pay the Zhou tribute and had to give military service in the Zhou dynasty. The rulers of these areas in the Zhou dynasty attained their positions hereditarily, but each new ruler of these territories had to pledge to be loyal to the Zhou dynasty.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got to the Zhou dynasty, I found the ruler of the dynasty, and I asked him what made the Zhou think that they had the right to rule China. He replied that the Zhou had the Mandate of Heaven. This was referring to a common belief in ancient China that stated that the rulers got their right to rule from the god of Heaven. In other words, they thought that the gods approved of their rule of China.
Me and My friend Cam decided to go back to the the year 1840, and we teleported to China. I brought along a Desert Eagle and gave Cam a squirt gun, just in case we ran into any trouble. We were walking down the road to Guangzhou, Cam found a sack of eggrolls. He decided, since he is ALWAYS hungry, to eat a few. He ate 18, and there were only 17 in the bag.... Anyway Cam began to feel quite woozy and started to yell "IM FLYING". So being the great friend that I am, I tied him to the nearest tree and ran down the road to find help. I ran into a house to find a doctor, and, because I'm a boss, found one on the first try. He told me that Cam had eaten smuggled opium wrapped in eggrolls, that the British had smuggled into China. I was confused and when he saw his opportunity he tried to kill me ( im not sure why) so i roundhoused him and casually walked out. I then ran to a sort of palace, while dodging mortar shells as they zinged over head. I looked out to the ocean and saw that British warships were firing on us. When i got to the palace it was surrounded by British sailors. After about ten seconds of me rampaging into the house, I saved the man who was inside. He told me that
ReplyDeleteBritish merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain, but that the Chinese had put a ban on it and they were now in conflict. So after I found that out I figured that i was fighting a losing battle and ran back to Cam's tree. I found him face down on the ground, singing the Pokemon theme song. he told me that he had flown but he hit the ground. I left, with him still giggling under the tree.
Today I went back to the glorious Han dynasty to have tea with the longest ruling Han emperor Liu Che. Liu Che told me to call him by Wu Ti, which was his more commonly known name. Wu Ti is really tired right now while talking to me because he had just gotten back from working on getting more land. I learned later on that Wu Ti expanded Han rule to what is modern day Manchuria and Korea. Wu Ti had said that he heard rumors that the Han ruled over the largest empire to date. After we finished our tea we retired to our chambers for the night.
ReplyDeleteWe resumed talking the next day after Wu Ti came back from a meeting on the other side of the palace. He told me that they just started a system in the government that he will call the civil service. He said that it will run the day to day parts of the government. Wu Ti said that the system is still rough because the only way for a person to get a job in the service is that you had to be recommended. Wu Ti hopes that one day that there will be a standardized test to get the job. As of right now Wu Ti has plans for a new economic policy that will stabilize the price of farm products.
Yesterday, I went to visit the Huang River in China. Of course, I could have gone to visit the river in modern times, but what fun would that be? Since I was craving some adventure, I went back in time to visit it during the Shang dynasty, in ancient China. The Huang River is one of three rivers that winds through China Proper. The Huang River is also sometimes called the Yellow River. This is because the Huang River valley has a yellow soil called loess. A lot of loess washes into the river and makes the water look yellow. I saw some people sitting down by the Huang River’s bank, so I went over to talk to them.
ReplyDeleteI asked the people by the river why the river was sometimes called China’s Sorrow. They answered me by saying that the river often floods, and the floods are sometimes deadly. These floods destroyed crops and caused a great loss of life. So many people died in these floods that the river began to be called China’s Sorrow. In an effort to try to stop the devastating flooding of the Huang River, people built dikes, however this just made the problem worse. The river kept rising until it would be higher than the dikes, and the floods would happen again. This cycle kept repeating, and now the Huang River is 12 feet higher in elevation than the land that surrounds it, so if it floods the water will not recede back into the river, but instead it remains until it evaporates.
I felt bad for Cam and went back to untie him, bringing with me an AS50 Rifle and a G36 for Cam. We decided to go and meet with Marco Polo. So we traveled to 1272 to meet Marco and his crew Niccolo and Maffeo. Along the road however we saw some bandits, I'd say aroung 20, holding Marco and his father and uncle hostage. We made a game plan and after 30 seconds I shot 3 of them with my sniper and Cam downed two more. Thinking that friendly fire was off i shot Cam in the foot for fun. Realizing it was hardcore too late, Cam took a fall with a hole in his foot. I then dropped the other 15 and carried Cam to safety. I later recieved the title of Daddy for this. Anyway, I met up with the Polo's who were on their way to meet with Kublai Khanthe great mongol leader, ruler of China, and son of Genghis Khan. They were only in Persia and said the still had 2 more years of travel if they were to reach him by 1275. They said they were sent by Pope Gregory X and that they will aquire fabulous riches. After saying good by they left and I tied the now semi-conscious Cam to the teleporter and when we got home I went to Taco Bell and they may or maynot have made tacos out of him. They said they would take him to the hospital, but I think they lied.
ReplyDeleteI went back to China during the Sung dynasty to learn more about the invention of gunpowder. I went to the Sung to learn about gunpowder because of their knowledge about it. The Sung did not invent gunpowder but got the idea from the Han. The Han may of found out about gunpowder but they did not know the power of it. The Sung said that the Han were not smart enough to find out the uses gunpowder in the military. The Han only used it for fireworks and signals. The Sung were the first civilization to use gunpowder in war. They did this in 900 AD. The first time they used it they found out that it messed with the enemies' head. They said that they were working on a way to harness the power of gunpowder more efficiently than how they have been using it before. The Sung said they are putting research towards a hollowed out pole that will shoot a metal ball out of it. The Sung believe that this concept of projectiles getting launched by the help of gunpowder is the future of warfare.
ReplyDeleteAfter years and years of waiting, I was finally able to purchase a time machine, only to find that it was made specifically for traveling in China. So the first thing I decided to do was travel back to the Huang River Valley in approximately 2200 B.C. to see what life was like in one of the earliest Chinese dynasties, the Xia. I spoke to a man who explained to me how unpredictable the harvest is from year to year. He informed me of how the gods had sent him much rain that year and it appeared he was going to be blessed with an abundant harvest. But unexpectedly, the river had flooded and devastated his crops. He knew it was going to be hard to provide for his family in the coming year. He also complained of his lazy ruler named Jie who cared little about the suffering of his people yet constantly surrounded himself with luxuries. And he also told me of the rebellion that Tang was organizing to overthrow the tyrannical Jie.
ReplyDeleteI recently visited the Xia dynasty of ancient China. The Xia were a line of Chinese kings who ruled over a group of people who lived around the Huang River in about 2200 BC. According to Chinese legend, Yu, who was a mythological man who got rid of the floodwaters so that China could be lived on, established the Xia. The Xia made improvements in agriculture, and may have started to used written symbols. These written symbols may have been the beginnings of the current Chinese written language. However, even though the Xia made many advances in Chinese life, there were also some disadvantages to life under Xia rule.
ReplyDeleteThe Xia were caught very off-guard by unexpected events such as floods or droughts. When floods or droughts occurred, they had no idea what to do. This allowed the Shang to take over rule of China, because unlike the Xia, the Shang had improved irrigation and flood control measures.
My next stop on my time travel vacation was to 690 A.D. to visit the only woman in Chinese history to hold the throne in her own name, Wu Hou, or Empress Wu. She was very strict with me at first and made sure I was not trying to cause any trouble. She even threatened to have me beheaded saying she had done it before and was not afraid to do it again. When I convinced her that I only wanted to ask a few simple questions, she allowed me to proceed. I asked her why she believed woman should be allowed to lead China and she replied that an ideal ruler is one who treats her people like a mother treats her children. She elaborated that as empress she had tried to treat everyone fairly including peasants by lowering oppressive taxes, raising agricultural production, and strengthening public works. She also shifted government power from the hands of the military to the highly skilled scholars.
ReplyDeleteAlright so i found Marco he was hiding on the great Wall of China. I guess i wasnt looking hard enough since i was there earlier but what ever. Since this game was over i decided to go meet up with my man Confucius again to catch up. He said he was a philosopher and believed that people were the most important thing. Im very happy for him. He told me if i wanted a good experience i should visit the forbidden city. I told him that i wasnt allowed in there anymore. The only thing he said is be one with the people. I wander what he means.
ReplyDeleteAfter my visit with Confucius, I walked into a purple and blue portal which took me to the start of the construction of the Great Wall of China. I was in the Qin Dynasty. The people who were working on the wall at this time were forced to do so by the government. They were also forced to do other public works projects. This policy was deemed unfair by many people. The Qin were building defensive walls around their borders to protect from invaders. These walls were somewhat scattered, but were still believed to be enough to protect from invaders.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, I was transported to 1421 without stepping through any portal. I was not in the same spot as I had been the minute before. Instead, I was further north. This was where the Ming Dynasty planned to protect the most. The Ming emporers wanted to ensure that China would never again be invaded or conquered by Central Asian forces. The Ming wanted to protect the North because that was where they believed the invaders would enter from. While I was walking through this area, I could see construction on the wall, and I later came across an imperial city, which I learned to be their new capital, Beijing. Apparently, they had moved their capital further to the north because they had encouraged people to move there. Just in walking in the capital, I could see many different types of people, their were soldiers, peasants, government leaders, and children all in the city. I also people walking out of the city with gifts, which were going to the leaders of nomadic tribes to prevent invasions.
Once again, I was surprisingly flung through space and was back in the year of 2011, standing atop the wall. All I could see was tourists trying to move along the wall. I could not see that far ahead of me because of the air pollution. However, what I could see was a wall that seemed to stretch on forever; it stretched through mountains and meadows, just about anything, and it also protected China from just about many ancient military forces.
So when I arrive at the Forbidden City I am still wondering what Confucius said. Be one with the people. Maybe he meant that there is a type of person that is only allowed in. So I sit outside the front gates observing the people going in. I notice they all represent servents. So i go to my house and put on the dirtiest clothes i have. When i get back i walk through with ease. Confucius wasnt kidding this place s beautiful. It is a private city made for just the Emperor. As im aweing, i am recognized as a citizen not a servent and am thrown in jail.
ReplyDeleteToday I decided that I wanted to go back in time and see the Great Wall of China. So I made a time machine with some friends and we time traveled back to 210 B.C. Back then the wall was not even finished being built. We got a tour of the wall from the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang who started the building of the wall. It turns out that it started as little walls all separate from each other that were all eventually connected to try and keep invaders out. At this time it is nearly 3,000 miles long and 26 feet high, which I found really surprising. I always thought the wall was made of just big rocks or bricks. But going back in time and seeing it I found out that it was first made of big huge stones that were made into sort of stone bricks and wood. Then later on, during the Ming dynasty bricks were used.
ReplyDeleteAfter I left the Great Wall of China I was walking through the streets and saw this lady holding her daughters feet and tying them with some sort of cloth. I stop and asked her what she was doing. It turns out she was practicing an ancient Chinese tradition called foot binding. She was wrapping these clothes around the girl’s feet to stop them from growing because small feet were considered more beautiful. I had learned about it in history classes but never actually witnessed it. I felt very bad for the little girl, she was screaming from the pain the binding was causing her. Her feet were being put into an abnormal way by her own mother. I could not stand to see her distorted feet being made worse anymore so I left with my friends to go and explore more of ancient China.
ReplyDeleteIts my sixth day in a Chinese jail. Ill be getting out shortly but i will have to pay a fine first. After i pay my fine i go back to the Huang River to study the loess in the water. It makes the water this yellowish color giving it the name Yellow river. As im sitting looking at the water i feel a sharp pain in my neck. Short after i feel drowsy. I turn around to see a silhouette and then i pass out.
ReplyDeleteMy next stop was to a more recent time period, the twentieth century, to visit who is considered to be the father of Communist China, Mao Zedong. I asked him about what inspired him to be so strongly supportive of communism and he replied that the hardships he experienced as a child made him realize that the system of government had to change. For this same reason, he was able to get other peasants to help fuel his revolution. I asked him how he was able to lead his Communist Party to defeat the Nationalist Party. He did so by implementing many of the guerrilla warfare tactics he learned in the war against Japan. Finally, I asked him why he criticized Russian leaders and he answered that he was not content in just following in their footsteps. Although their philosophies were similar, he made it clear China was superior and would remain independent.
ReplyDeleteThe next stop on my time traveling journey was to see the Huang River, also known as the Yellow River. I never believed that a river could actually be yellow, but after going to see it I realized that it really could be yellow. Apparently the river is yellow because of this stuff called loess in the soil of the river. While walking along the river bank we found a good spot and decided to go swimming in the historical river. But it got pretty annoying always moving out of the way of traders going up and down the river. It was one of the major commercial waterways that were used in ancient China, which kind of surprised me because everyone there kept telling us to be careful because the river floods so often. They even have these things called dikes to try and keep the water away from their crops and homes. I guess they are just like our modern day dams.
ReplyDeleteAfter I saw the Great Wall of China, I stepped back into the portal and was taken to about 1 B.C. I looked around and all I could see was a river with a yellow tint to it. This was extremely strange, considering the only rivers I had seen were the rivers in New England. This river was called the Huang RIver, also known as China's Sorrow and the Yellow River for its color and flows into the Yellow Sea after flowing nearly 3,000 miles throughout China. This river has a yellow tint from the loess, a fertile yellow soil, that washes into the river. This river, much like some of the rivers we have in New Hampshire, is prone to flooding. These floods were devastating to everyone, especially farmers. This is how it achieved the nickname of China's Sorrow. As I continued to walk along the river, I began to see walls along the river in what looked like an effort to protect from flooding. These walls were called dikes, and it seemed to me that they were doing more harm to the area than good. This happened because the construction of these walls led to a continuing deposition of silt on the floor of the river, increasing the river level, thus reslulthing in the flooding of the river. As I continued my walk down the river, I saw a group of people of discussing something about remonving the dikes. They did not seem happy about this idea, and it did not look like it was going to succeed. They were saying that they thought it would just make more sense to build higher walls ro keep out flooding.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I was launched through time and arrived at the Huang River Valley in 2011. One of the people along the shore told me that the river was actually 12 feet above the land. Whenever there is a large amount of rain, the river is prone to flooding. The Huang River can still live up to its nickname of China's Sorrow.
My last adventure in China for this week was much more modern. This time, I stayed in the year of 2011 for the duration of the adventure. I was at the Grand Canal. This was one of accomplishments of the Sui Dynasty. This was a very short dynasty, but it began construction on this engineering marvel. It now connects Beijing to Hangzhou and is nearly 1,000 miles long, just about the distance from New York City to Atlanta. Throughout the canal, there are many dams which were built in order to even out the water levels. The Grand Canal is not as important now as it was previously. When I was on my excursion in China, I travelled mostly by train and the occasional bus. I did not want to walk because the air quality was so poor and the sidewalks and streets were always so congested. People would just walk into others as if it was no big deal. People bumping shoulders was also a relatively common occurence. However, the Grand Canal is still used quite often despite these more modern means of transportation. While I was there, I could always see one or two ships with either trade goods or passengers. The Grand Canal is still active to this day.
ReplyDeleteA malfunction in my time machine brought me back to a mountainous region in 1796 A.D. where I found myself in the middle of a violent and bloody rebellion. I asked who was leading this rebellion and one of the men explained that he belonged to the White Lotus Society, a secret Buddhist cult. He said he and other members were discontent over increased taxes and growing government inefficiency. The new Qing Dynasty was not doing what it needed to do they preferred the previous Ming Dynasty. I then traveled forward in time until about 1850, curious to see the result of this rebellion. The rebellion had grown and taken about 16 million lives. Unfortunately, the government was not destroyed and was able to stop the rebellion in 1804. But it did mark a turning point in the dynasty. It sparked a series of other rebellions that greatly weakened the government and forced it into decline.
ReplyDeleteOnce my time machine was built, I automatically knew who I wanted to visit first. So, I hopped into my time machine to go and visit that influencial Chinese pilosopher Confucius. My luck was with me that day because my machine shot me right into one of his wonderful classes. I had dropped right in when he began to discuss the three main concepts of Confucianism. He told the class that the importance of family, respect for one's elders and reverence for the past and one's ancestors were the criteria of Confucian philosophy. After his lecture on these important aspects, I asked him what he thought Chinese leaders should be like. He answered by saying that he encouarged strong, positive behavior on the part of China's leaders. He told me that he believed this could be accomplished in two ways. One, that the leader needs to accept his or her role in society and perform those duties fully and two, the government and its leaders should be virtuous. I was not too certain as to what he meant as virtuous so he went on to explain that virtue should involve correct behavior toward others and instead of seeking wealth and power, rulers should be honest and honorable to those they lead.
ReplyDeleteAfter that lesson was wrapped up, I hopped back into my time machine and zoomed off to my next destination.
The next destination I decided to go to was the ever so famous Great Wall of China. Once I got there, I attempted to walk as much as I could but did not end up getting too far. Plus, after awhile, the short thresholds got pretty annoying to walk through. Once I decided to walk back, I got to learn about the history of the Great Wall of China. I learned that at first, it did not have a title or label. Dynasties just built a series of defensive walls and as time passed, they eventually connected to form what is now known as the Great Wall of China. While the Qin Dynasty was around, they employed forced labor to create and contribute their portion of the Great Wall, which was 1,500 miles long. After hearing about the forced labor I decided it was a good time for me to switch to a new destination.
ReplyDeleteFor my third stop I decided to meet Laozi, the founder of Daoism, just to compare his philosophy to Confucious'. After entering in his name into my time machine, I was wisked away and landed right in his beautiful, blooming garden where I found him smelling colorful flowers. I introduced myself and started the conversation about where Daoism came from and its ways. Laozi first explained to me that Daoism took its name from its central idea, the Dao, which means "The Way". He told me he saw the Dao as an indescribable force that governed the universe and all of nature. He then started to discuss his teachings with me. He taught that people should withdraw from the world and contemplate nature. If they did this then they could fully understand the Dao and live with it in harmony. He also told me that people should not strive for material wealth and that he shunned politics. As a final note, he told me to reflect on one last thought which was if I was humble, quiet and thoughtful, then would I be in complete harmony with the Dao? After that being said, he went back to his garden and I zoomed off to "China's Sorrow".
ReplyDeleteAfter getting out of my time machine I could absolutely tell that I was at the right destination because all I saw was 2,900 miles of a yellow tinted river. After seeing that, I had a much better understanding as to why the Huang River has the famous nickname of the Yellow River. I found myself a dry spot, which was very difficult since all of the surrounding area was so wet and muddy, and took out my guide book to read about why the river was so yellow. I learned that the valley has a fertile yellow soil called loess and so much of the loess washes into the Huang River that it gives the river a yellow tint. I read on and found out that the Huang River was prone to having devastating floods. These floods were so uncontrollable that strong and sturdy dikes that were built could not even stand up against the river. Once I read that, it clicked to me as to why the area was wet and muddy. I quickly got right up, took my backpack and ran to my last trip for the time being.
ReplyDeleteMy next stop was to the construction of the largest man-made waterway in the world, the Grand Canal, in about 600 A.D. One of the 6 million laborers there gave me some information on the construction of the canal. It would take hundreds of years to complete but would eventually connect the northern and southern ends of this massive country from Beijing to Hangzhou. Because there were no railroads at the time, it was particularly important for traveling and transporting goods over long distances. What surprised me most was the primitiveness of the building tools I witnesses being used. Also, many of the workers I talked to viewed this project as waste of money and human life. But despite these facts, the Grand Canal was completed and today remains larger than the second and third largest canals in the world combined.
ReplyDeleteToday, while I was mountain biking through the Himalayas, I somehow teleported to the 1200's and ran into Genghis Khan with his army of Mongols. Khan told me that he was on his way west to expand his empire, but he had lost his way. Out of curiosity I reached into my bag for my GPS, and surprisingly it worked. I told Khan that it was a magical compass and it had come from a great empire on the other side of the ocean. Most importantly he was excited when I told him that it would lead him and his army through the treacherous Himalayas and into Tibet Khan’s army and myself were able to make good time with the GPS and we were in Tibet in no time at all. Now that Khan had regained his bearings he thanked me for my help and gave me his bow, this is a great honor as the Mongols were known for their skilled archers and quality bows. In return for the bow, I gave Khan my GPS and wished him good luck. Who knows, maybe my GPS is the reason for Genghis Khan's great military success; he only created the largest contiguous empire in history.
ReplyDeleteToday, while I was scuba diving in the East China Sea searching through wrecked vessels, I found an old book written by Confucius. Strangely the book seemed unaffected by the harsh conditions of the ocean water, and on top of that it looked as if the ship had just sunk yesterday. Since I was low on oxygen I returned to the surface with my newly found treasure. However, I soon realized when I reached the surface that I no longer had treasure, also I realized it wasn't 2011 anymore when a pretty big land mark was missing. The brightly lighted metropolis of Shanghai in the distance was no longer there, only a small somber village. My boat having miraculously disappeared, I had to swim to the shore. When I arrived at the rocky shore I met an old man sitting on the end of the pier with a fishing pole. At first I startled him, he yelled at me and called me an evil dragon, and then when he realized I was human he settled down. He asked me where I was from, and without thinking I told him America. Well of course he didn't know where America was, so I told him I was from the other side of ocean. Then the old man asked me what it was I had in my hand, he said it looked familiar. I gave it to him then he said it was his book, he said it was the Analects. I told him I found it in a wrecked ship, but he still insited that it was his book. Then it hit me, this old guy must be Confucius. I started to ask him if he was Confucius when I realized he was no longer there and I was standing in downtown Shanghai in scuba gear, weird. He may have taken the book which I thought was treasure, but I received a great treasure from meeting with one of the world's greatest philosophers.
ReplyDeleteIt's 1989, there are hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators here in Tiananmen Square. There are tons of students here in Beijing's central gathering place. I went around asking them what's going on. They explained to me that Deng Xiaoping had changed their governor back in the late 70's. He had called it the Four Modernizations. They told me that many Chinese wished for a fifth modernization democracy. They wanted to end corruption in the rulers, a greater say in government, and better conditions in the universities. These students were on a hunger strike and I was in the middle of it. He government came and told us we had to leave but the students stayed so I did too. Sadly this led to the military coming in in early June. They opened fire on us. It was a war zone, people were screaming, bullets were flying through the air. I was scared for my life. I blacked out but somehow I survived. All around me hundreds of people were dead and thousands injured. It was a warzone. I got out as fast as possible. It was the scariest moment of my life. It caused Western nations to cut their loans with China. They had no business yet they hid the massacre from their people, increased government control, and some how made their economy boom. That's all from this sad sad time I'm off to hopefully happier history.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was in Beijing today I decided that I would go parachuting. Nothing quite like jumping out of a perfectly operating airplane in the morning, Hooyah! Anyway, when I went to jump out of the plane I hit my head on it and got knocked out. I regained consciousness at some point and deployed my chute and then I went out cold again. I woke up to some fat guy sitting on some sort of cow talking about nature and goodness. I looked around and it looked like I had landed in a courtyard of some rich Chinese guy's house. I asked the guy, who had a really big Fu Manchu by the way, if he had a telephone. Based on the expression on his face I guessed he had no idea what a telephone was. So instead I asked where I was, well, he told me that we were in the Qin Dynasty. I figure hitting my head must have done more than just knocking me out, it sent me back in time over 2,000 years. Out of curiosity I asked him if he was an emperor or something because he had a really big house surrounded by many beautiful gardens. He explained that he was no man of power and that he was a Daoist and lived a quiet life, more importantly he was Laozi. Since I knew he was a very wise man I explained to him that I wasn't from his time and that I had somehow gone back in time. He was startled by this and fell off his cow, which he had been sitting on this whole time. The cow charged at me and knocked me out, yeah… not very fun. Anyway, I woke up and found myself back on the plane minutes from the jump with a massive headache. I guess I just fell asleep, or did I?
ReplyDeleteAfter venturing to 1900’s Paris and 1800’s England, I began to wonder where I should travel next. I desired to visit somewhere a long, long time ago. Then it hit me. Ancient China! The ancient mysterious culture, the rich tradition and interesting people all made it very easy to choose such a grand place and time. As I stepped into my time traveling machine, the colorful lights lit up inside and a big screen came up asking me where I wished to visit. I pondered… then said the first thing that came to mind whenever most people think of China: The Great Wall of China. Zooming through billions of years, I looked outside the window and gazed at the billions of stars and many planets that never cease to amaze me on my journeys. Finally, the time traveling box came to an abrupt halt and the door slid open. I stepped outside and my jaw dropped. There I was, right in the middle of the construction of the Great Wall of China. I began to strike up a conversation with one of the workers, since, the time traveling box also gave me the ability to speak the native language of every country I visited. I learned quickly that he was apart of the Qin Dynasty, the dynasty behind this colossal construction. I also learned that although this wall was being built for ultimate defense, many people were angry with the project because the Qin employed forced labor. I gazed at the man. His lifeless body stood there, while his eyes still remained hopeful. Feeling sorrowful, I thanked the man and continued onwards, where I later discovered the wall was about 1,500 miles long. After I made awkward eye contact with an angry looking worker, I swiftly and discreetly made my way back to my time machine and prepared for my next destination.
ReplyDeleteThis morining, I bought a time machine on a street corner from a guy named Sanchez. It cost me 5 bucks. I tried it out and found that it only takes me to random times in ancient China. I was trying to get my bearings to see when and where I was. I seemed to be near a small, peaceful cottage surrounded by mountains and a vast forest. The house looked tiny compared to the nature surrounding it. I barged into the cottage and woke up a thin old man from his meditation. He started speaking, but since it was in Chinese, I couldn't understand him. Good thing I always carry my 7th century BC Chinese phrase book on me. Thanks to this, our conversation flowed quite quickly.
ReplyDelete"What were you doing?" He asked. "I was trying to establish harmony with the Dao.”
“Sorry,” I said casually. “I just came from the future, and I want to know when I am.”
“You are in the Zhou Empire. But that is not important. My philosophy is to free yourself from the government and only focus on the world around you. That is why I live in the quietest corner of the empire.”
“So what are the basic principles of Daoism?”
“We focus on bettering our compassion, moderation and humility. Have this book. It will teach you about my philosophy.”
Laozi pulled a book out of his pocket. It said, Dao De Jing. It had a picture of Yin and Yang on it.
“Thanks, Laozi!” I said. I ran back into the time machine before he had the chance to offer me tea.
My final destination for this week was a tough one to chose, but I decided to take a quick stop at the Grand Canal. The Sui emperors were right in the construcion site when I dropped by. I decided to stop and ask them what their plan was for this new structure. They told me that after spending time on planning and figuring out what it was useful for, they decided that the Grand Canal was going to connect existing and newly dug waterways and that it would be the site of something that was a first for China: it was going to link up Nothern and Southern China. The Grand Canal was going to be one of the engineering marvels of the ancient world. After hearing that, I took a quick snapshot of the construction site and jumped back into my time machine to head home.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was driving on the highway the other day and casually got hit by a vending machine which fell out of the sky. Suddenly, I found myself in Ancient China in the Han dynasty. I found on the ground the book Learn Ancient Chinese in 47 seconds and I, well learned ancient Chinese in 47 seconds. I found in my pockets a huge pocket knife, a lighter, and a MAC11 which I thought might come in handy during my stay. So I went into the city which a large group of people were going to the same place. We passed a house on the way that smelled atrocious. A man next to me said that that was where some crazy alchemists were trying to find an elixir for immortality and that there have been fires every three days. Interested, I walked in and heard yelling. The two people were arguing about how much of some sort of powder they should put in this jar. While they were arguing, I dumped the whole pile of blackish powder into the bucket and instinctively and skillfully lit it on fire with my lighter. Next second, ShaBAng and next second I realize that I am back outside and everything is on fire. Where the house once stood there was a huge crater and one of the alchemists lying on the ground. I performed emergency heart surgery with my knife (no big deal) and booked it, seeing the destruction I caused.
ReplyDeleteIts the time of the Han Dynasty. I'm in some strange closet filled with some sort of potions and gadgets. The closet shakes, a loud explosion bursts my eardrums. I jump out of the closet to see what happened. There is a Chinese scientist it seems with soot on his face and his eyebrows and part of his beard missing. Even after what has happened he is surprised to see me standing in front of him. i explained to him who i was then he told me how he was trying to make some immortal potion. I explained to him he just gunpowder and it would revolutionize war for years to come. he laughed at me and asked me to leave. Now it turns out he used my idea and obviously i didn't get any credit as you can see. It was only used for fireworks and signal flares at first. By the 900's it entered warfare and from then on war was never the same. I'm still looking for some credit though, I'm thinking of going back again and writing my name in some history journals so don't be surprised if my name pops up in some history books now.
ReplyDeleteHmm… where next? I suppose it would be quite exciting to meet some of the philosophers that influenced China’s history. I pulled up my time traveling machines database and searched: “Chinese philosophies”. Half a second later, millions of pages of information were right before my eyes. Scanning the pages, I came across a certain philosophy that caught my eye. It was called Daoism, made by some guy named Laozi. Amusing names! I clicked “TRAVEL HERE” on the page and before I knew it I was on my way to Laozi’s home. Once I arrived to his rather empty house, Laozi was nowhere to be found. I searched in every room, basically feeling like an intruder. After about fifteen solid minutes of tearing apart this poor man’s house just to find him, I decided to check outdoors. And low and behold, there Laozi was, sitting on lush grass with his eyes closed. His garden was magnificent, with beautiful flowers and trees growing without limits. Birds seemed to have made a home, there, too, as many flew above surrounding the paradise. I felt calm and peaceful. I coughed a little to see if that would alarm Laozi… he didn’t even open his eyes or budge. I figured he was in a deep mediation so I slowly approached him and tapped him on his shoulder. He looked shocked at first, but after introducing myself, his perplexed expression quickly turned into a warm smile. He told me to have a seat next to him on, and I quote, “Mother’s bed” (referring to the grass). I chuckled and did as told, as he resumed closing his eyes and explaining what Daoism is really all about. He told me that Daoism took its name from its central idea, the Dao, which is defined as “The Way”, viewing it as an indescribable force that governed the universe and all of nature. He explained that above all, nature is first, and people should withdraw themselves from the word to indulge in a complete harmony with nature. He shunned politics, and discouraged any desire for materiel wealth. Kind of like an ancient hippie, I thought it myself as he spoke. He concluded his thorough explanation by opening his eyes and handing me a book called the Dao De Jing, a compilation of all his teachings. I felt enlightened. I thanked him immensely and continued onwards on my journey.
ReplyDeleteToday while I was hiking along the Great Wall of China the strangest thing happened. I came across a sign on a door of a tower that read "Danger, enter at own risk". Danger is just a six letter word for fun to me, so I went through the door. After I went through the door it closed shut behind me and locked itself, that was a bit weird. Anyway, it appeared as if the door led to another section of the wall I hadn't seen before. Funny thing is there was still people here working on it; I thought they finished the wall a long time ago. I left from the tower and walked out onto the open part of the wall. Then I noticed that the wall I was standing on 10 minutes ago was no longer there, whoa. Then it hit me, I must have gone back in time, again. The people working on the wall were being carefully watched by Qin soldiers. I hid from the soldiers so they would not see me, because the last thing I wanted to do for my trip to the Great Wall was to build it. Using a rope on the side of the wall I repelled down to the ground so as not to be seen. I walked my way back along the part of the wall that was complete until I found one of the workers who was fetching water. I asked him if he knew how far the nearest town was, he looked at me with a funny face as if I was speaking a different language. Then he yelled in Chinese, yeh... I guess he doesn't speak English, and then a group of soldiers came over and grabbed me. Great. They brought me back to where I was before, near the tower. When some of the soldiers left to inform their superiors I quickly took out two guys guarding me and the others soldiers ran away. I made a break for the rope and ran for the door which opened on its own and closed right behind me. Well, uhh... that was fun. I looked around and I was back in the real world, well, the present world at least. I kind of feel bad for those soldiers, I made them look like little girls in front of those workers, no wonder the Qin Dynasty only lasted 15 years, wimps.
ReplyDeleteAs I was running I tripped on strategically positioned Steve Miller Band record. And there I was, in Beijing. But no one was calling the city Beijing. Instead they all called it Khanbalik. I was confused so I asked a friendly panda why they were calling the city such an odd name. He said, “The Mongols took over about a lunar month ago. Genghis is crazy. He lives in a big tent while his house is being built. It’s just of 32nd St. on your left.” So I did as the panda told me and began to walk to the tent. When I arrived I saw a man in armour with a small beard who was quite chubby. He was eating something that looked like chicken. I asked him when the next flight to Boston was, but he just growled and yelled and attacked me. I took out my handy dandy MAC11 and shot out the poles of the tent, collapsing it on the Mongolian. As I was looking for the airport when some guy came up to me and punched me in the face.
ReplyDeleteAfter passing out for about what seemed 15 minutes, I was in the Zhou dynasty. I started to walk along a path when I saw a man who looked homeless. “Are you up to your eyeballs in debt?” I asked. “No,” he replied, “I am Laozi.” Now I’m just all confused because this guy thinks he has a loud zoo. “Where is this ‘Loud Zoo’ of yours?” I asked, wondering if his zoo had gone bankrupt and left him on the street. “I have no zoo. My name is Laozi but its pronounced like loud zoo.” “I see,” I replied, “so are you a time traveler too and have not found a house yet?” “No, I live like this because I am follow Daoism. I shun material wealth and live at one with nature.” “Okay.” I said and took some of the gunpowder I had left over and through it on the ground, disappearing in the smoke.
ReplyDeleteSo, I got back in the time machine, with no clue where it would take me next. After a bunch of whirring and flashing, the time machine settled. I opened the door to see modern day people. They were protesting and screaming. Some were getting too violent. Soldiers were shooting at them. I realized something.
ReplyDelete"This is Tiananmen Square!" I said to myself. It was when the Chinese people finally took a stand against communism. I could see every type of person. The young and the old, students, parents, everybody was there.
Protesting went on for hours. I was lost in the sea of people. Then something happened.
BAM! The lights went out. Everybody went silent. Then we heard the tanks rolling in. They were crushing everything in their path. I didn't want to imagine what the sick cracking was under the treads of the tanks. Suddenly I had an idea. I heard about Tankman in history class, and how nobody knew who he was.
I ran in front of a tank and refused to move. The driver gave me a rude hand gesture and yelled at me to get out of the way. I didn't move. We locked eyes. I could see that he was annoyed. He tried to go around me, but I moved into his way. I climbed onto the tank and banged on the window. After a few seconds I got down. For what felt like hours, the tank and I were locked, nobody giving an inch. Finally, somebody on a bike pushed me out of the way and dragged me to the side of the square. I ran back into my time machine and left for the next location.
Well I was hanging out with Kublai Khan when a man by the name of Marco Polo entered the room. It turns out he was an Italian merchant and explorer. He told me that he started his journey to China at the age of seventeen after he left his father and uncle in Venice. It took him three years to get to China. Now it seems Kublai was extremely impressed by him and he hired him as his special representative. I went back to my teleporter and went forward about 20 years. I met back up with Marco Polo and he told me of his 17 years he spent travelling around China. He also had me proof read his book called The Travels of Marco Polo. It explained about Kublai Khan's court and some of his fellow Europeans. Well that was some sweet bro time with Marco Polo. Till next time.
ReplyDeleteI am starting to get pretty tired of all this ancient time. I think I am going travel back to the 20th century. We get in the time machine and when we have arrived at our next stop we get out to a great amount of turmoil. I see a sign that says Tiananmen Square and I instantly know that we have arrived at Tiananmen Square in China, during the massacre of 1989. I know that we should probably get out quickly, but before we leave I want to talk to someone to see what life was like for them during the massacre. A man ran into me and started explaining things. He said that it was the first time the violence had actually been in the square and that most everything else was outside of the cities. He explained that people, mainly students, were protesting for their civil rights. Then he had to leave in a hurry, in fear of being captured by the soldiers and police. So we decided that it was probably best for us to leave as well.
ReplyDeleteFor my next trip I decided I wanted to go to a time that I knew a little better, so I figured why not go to the 2008 Olympics that were held in Beijing, China. I arrived there on August 8, 2008 at about 7:00. The opening ceremonies are about to start, so I just walked with the crowd into the stadium. As soon as the ceremony starts I learn from the nice people standing next to me, that the date is actually very significant to them. It is 8-8-08, at 8:00 P.M. and that is because the number 8 is considered to be an extremely lucky number for the Chinese symbolizing prosperity and wealth. Many of the people hope that it will bring them luck and lots of gold medals. Unfortunately for them Michael Phelps rules the water and wins 8 gold medals. But I guess I’ll let them figure that out for themselves. I think I have had enough of modern time and I will soon be heading way back into the future.
ReplyDeleteI got out of the time machine right near a long wall that twisted and turned through the mountains. Some of it was being worked on by hundreds of unhappy workers. The wall was really great. I went up to a guy and started talking to him.
ReplyDelete"What are you building?" I asked.
"We are building an impenetrable wall to keep the smelly Mongolians out." said the worker.
"Why are you so unhappy?" I replied.
"Our emperor forces us to do this work. We are like slaves! It was better when the Zhou ruled us! Now the Qin emperor enforces legalism on us. He thinks that we are naturally bad, and need rules to keep us in line!"
"That really sucks, man, but I gotta go. Hey, make this wall 1387.2 miles long and call it the Great Wall, okay?"
"Sure," said the worker.
I left for the time machine, unsure where I would end up next.
I reappeared in Tibet in the Himalayas where it was heavily snowing. I trudged in the snow for a while before I came to a cave and decided that it would be good for shelter. After warming up in the mouth of the cave, I decided to explore deeper into the cave. I then saw an orange glow toward the back of the cave. I took out my MAC11, cautiously inching forward and saw a Yeti. I screamed and was about to shoot when I heard a familiar British accent. It was Bear Grylls and he was being held captive by the Yeti, or so it seemed. My good friend Bear explained to me that the Yeti was named Charlie and just felt a little threated. It put my gun away and asked Bear where we were going at noon. He said that after we got out of the cave we would head south toward Potala Palace to have supper with the Dalai Lama. Four hours later, after going through tunnels in Glaciers and jumping off cliffs into small lakes and eating some weird stuff, we arrived at the palace. The Dalai Lama was waiting for us, for Bear and the Yeti had called him on his cell earlier that day. We sat on the floor while having some yummy momos, Tibetan dumplings, and some yoghurt and talked Buddhism. He said that our friend the Yeti was a very common belief in old times in Tibet and that he was actually benign. We had a nice day and I fell asleep on the floor in the Potala Palace.
ReplyDeleteI got out of the time machine to see a man farming rice along a huge river.
ReplyDelete"Hey, I'm Byrne," I said. "Where am I?"
"My name is Ching Chang Chung," said the farmer. "And you are along the beautiful banks of the Yellow river."
"I thought it was the Huang," I said.
"That is it's official name," replied Ching Chang Chung. "But we call it the Yellow River because loess, wind-blown, yellow soil, flows in it."
"I see." I replied wisely. "Why is it so important?"
"Well, It provides lots of water for farming rice. And of course, the waterway carries boats from the west end to the east end of the Han dynasty. But we also call the Huang "China's Sorrow," because the yearly floods kill so many people."
"Are there any other important rivers?"
Yes, the Yangtze is the longest river on this whole landmass. That also is good for farming and is a waterway."
Ching was starting to bore me, so I walked away. I could still hear him blabbering on about stupid rivers. I went back to the time machine and headed to the next location.
Its time for another journey. I'm here in the Qin Dynasty during the construction of the Great Wall of China. It is the largest thing i have ever seen and i have never seen some many people working at once. Its surprising to see such hard labor with the technology they had back then. i really wanted to bring some future tools to help them build the Wall faster but i would not want to throw off the space time continuum. I decided to measure it.(NOT), but i found out as of right now it was about 1,500 miles long. I also learned that it was forced labor for this public works project as they called it. I talked to some laborers and they were very angry with this policy. This actually was one of the causes that caused the revolt that caused the overthrew the Qin Dynasty. This revolt was led bye Liu Bang a former commoner turned general. Well I'm off again, time to see the wall in real time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I woke up, it was 1841. The British had sold the Chinese drugs in exchange for their unquenchable thirst for fine teas. The British were crushing the Rebellion with their superior weapons and snobby attitude. “Those dopey (no pun intended) British!” I exclaimed, “They screw everything up but you just can’t beat ‘em.” The bullets flying passed my head were worrying me so I returned fire with my gun, kicking barrels of Opium and Tea into the Ocean while tearing up the ships with my clearly superior weapon. I set up a rehabilitation clinic to help the Opium addicts. I burned all the tea, making the air fragrant with the smell of burning tea leaves. This made the British fight harder unfortunately, so I took over a ship, pouring some gunpowder into the advanced engine and lighting it with that ever so handy lighter. I jumped off just in time and swam back to shore. This scared them, but did not stop them from Nanjing. I fled from the advancing British, knowing I helped a lot of poor people by setting up that clinic.
ReplyDeleteI stepped out of the time machine and entered the nearest building I saw because I figured that if I just entered some random house, I could avoid any famous stuff. I was wrong. I saw another old guy who reminded me of Laozi, except his beard was longer and he was wrinklier. It's amazing how all the old, wise teachers always have long white beards, like Gandalf of Dumbledore.
ReplyDelete"Who are you?" I asked.
"My name is Kongfuzi, even though everybody always calls me Confucius," said the old man. "Kongfuzi is my actual, real name."
"Whatever, Confucius," I said. "Tell me about your philosophy."
Confucius poured me some green tea.
"My philosophy is about the family," he said. "Respect your elders and honor your ancestors. Family is the most important aspect of life. You should also accept your political role in life and do your best in it.
"Anything else before I leave?" I asked.
"Yes," said Confucius, not taking the hint. "Leaders should always be just and strong. If they aren't the people have the right to overthrow them. Here is a book called the Analects. It has all my teachings.
"Another book? Great! The last thing I need is another philosophy book!"
I left and went back into the time machine. I think I saw a tear in his eye.
After falling back in the ocean, I resurfaced, finding myself in 1966 Beijing. There were a group of Men who called themselves the “Red Guards” who were marching around with huge banners and flags. They were saying that they were faithful to chairman Mao and would destroy his enemies if it came to that. They looked really angry. A man came up and told them that the group of them and Mao were all scum. They started to beat him up, but I intervened. I tackled two men and nailed their red clothes to a wall so they could not move. After seeing this, the rest of the Red Guards turned on me. I ran as fast as I could, throwing the remaining magic gunpowder in front of me and disappearing through the smoke.
ReplyDeleteSo, I just had a relaxing yet informative time with Laozi, why not visit someone a bit different? I yet again pulled up my browser history of philosophers and came across a philosopher named Confucius. Was he… confused?! Sorry… I had to. Anyway, his philosophy, like Laozi, was during the Zhou era, although that was pretty much the only similarity between the two. Already interested because he was the leading philosopher of that time and influenced Chinese life more than any other philosophy, I hit the travel button. I arrived to Confucius’s home where he had many drawings of ancestors hung up on his wall. I saw him and a few of his family members all around the kitchen, debating what looked like a serious matter; politics, I assumed. I introduced myself to all of them and told them my story, and Confucius was eager to explain his teachings to me. He remarked how important family is, respecting your elders, and reverence for the past and one’s ancestors, which is the basis of his philosophy. It was obvious as to why this particular philosophy was valued so highly in Chinese society. Confucius also told me he was not very interested in religion, but he sought to end the political disorder occurring in his time. He encouraged strong, committed leaders and living a virtuous life. Embracing family, good leaders and keeping virtues in high priority. Got it! I thanked him for his time, said goodbye to his family and embarked on another adventure.
ReplyDeleteAppearing back through the smoke, I travelled back through time to the Tang Dynasty. There I met Empress Wu Hou who was no more than two. She had a severe expression on her face and looked like she was going to kill someone. I asked, “Why are you so angry?” “My opponents are becoming too powerful,” she replied, “I must do something.” “Well do not kill them because that would be illegal.” “Don’t you realize,” retorted Wu, “that I am above the law? I am the law! Good idea though, I think I will execute some of them. The others I will banish forever.” Realizing that I could not change much more history, I let her go on with her plans. I thought it was an empty threat but when she took out a sword to kill her opponents, I tried to stop her. I was punched by a guard and realized I had used my spare time wisely. Back at the Palace, I had read “Learn Kung Fu in 102 seconds.” And then, everybody was Kung Fu Fighting. After getting my kidneys punched at on several occasions, I passed out…
ReplyDeleteI woke up by the sea again. There were people digging very deep holes, so deep they could have reached China. I was asking what on earth they were doing. They replied, tired but proud that they were building a Great Canal that would go from Shanghai all the way to the Capital at Beijing. Now at this time I did not realize far that was, because I had relied on unconsciousness, magic gunpowder and underwater time warps. They said they were just beginning but soon they would be famous for building this extremely long man-made river. I helped with the digging for a while and found couple of small treasures such as a dragon scroll with calligraphy on them and some maps to Atlantis. I gave them to the diggers (I could not read Chinese only speak it) and jumped back into the water to find another underwater wormhole.
ReplyDeleteI’ve talked to many people, but only visited the Great Wall. I decided to check some other places I could go to broaden my understanding of Chinese environment at the time. A body of water of some sort seemed fitting, as I figured that would have a big impact in ancient China. I said this out loud, and it seemed as though my time traveling machine picked up my voice. Suddenly the big screen came up again and directed me to a few options. The Huang River and the Grand Canal stuck out to me most. I decided to visit the Huang River first. As soon as I arrived and stepped off the machine I noticed the yellow tint instantly, probably because of something I read in my time machine about some fertile yellow soil called loess that washes into the river in massive amounts. I guess this is why the Chinese gave it the name “Yellow River”. Upon observing and studying further, I discovered the Huang River was also prone to devastating floods, leading it to be nicknamed “China’s Sorrow”. Although early famers built dikes, or walls, along the river to protect crops from the floods, it did more harm than good. At this point, the bottom of my pants were soaking wet, so I ran on my time traveling machine and headed off to the Grand Canal.
ReplyDeleteI resurfaced and found myself in a gross bog, covered in mud. There were like 100,000 people marching through the bogs so I decided I should join them. I asked where they were going. They said they were going to Shanghai and were being ambushed by Nationalists. We came to a mountain pass and everyone was scared. They were saying that this was where all the nationalists were. There was gunfire and a whipped out my MAC11 and started shooting up at the mountain tops. There were some of us on the tops of the mountain and one of them saved all of us by strapping dynamite to himself and jumping on the machine gun post, blowing them up. Most of the people got away including me, but not before sinking back into the mud…
ReplyDeleteThis weekend was a very strange one for me. I fell asleep in my bed as usually but was woken up by the loud sounds as if I was in a construction site. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was in the midst of the construction of the Great Wall of China. I guessed it was about 220 AD but that was just an assumption. All I could see was a twenty five foot high, twenty foot wide wall that seemed to never end. Watch-towers were also set up every 200 yards and stood about 40 feet high. Since I was there, I decided to ask someone a few questions about where I was and some fact about the wall. When I asked about the watch-towers he told me that they were used as a station where a Chinese soldier could spot any enemy movement, and the bottom of the tower was used to store food and military supplies. He mostly talked about how the wall, which was made out of earth and stone, was used to as a military purpose only. It was apparently being made to protect themselves from northern invasions. Since China was protected by natural barriers on the other three sides it was important that the wall was built for protection. The man knew a great deal about the Great Wall of China and gave a great deal of other facts but I stopped paying attention after a while, maybe it was the lack of sleep. The most unbelievable thing he said was that the wall planned to stretch 1500 thousand miles. I also was surprised to find out that the Warring States had built their own walls for protection and once the Qin came along they started connecting the walls and expanding. It was defiantly a site to see.
ReplyDeleteAfter my strange trip to the Great Wall of China I decided to take a quick nap near the wall and when I woke up again I was surrounded by the strikingly yellow river flowing beside me. A man passing by informed me that I was sitting beside the great Huang River. I think he could tell by the disgusted look on my face that I was wondering why the river was actually yellow. Without even asking for an explanation he started telling me of how the valley has this very yellow soil called loess and by depositing it into the river it turns it yellow. That is why the Huang River is also called the Yellow River. It seemed like after the man started talking about it he could never stop. He talked about how the river had troubles with flooding so they decided to put up these things called dikes to stop the flooding. However, these devastating floods couldn’t be stopped and the area still has horrible floods which destroy land, homes, and killed many. Once I heard that this river could do so much damage I wanted to get as far away as I could. After I sprinted away from there and got as far as I could I became exhausted and almost instantly fell asleep.
ReplyDeleteWhen I opened my eyes again I was no longer anywhere near the Huang River, but outside a small house with a vast amount of nature and vegetation around it. It was gorgeous and tranquil. I have accepted that every time I fall asleep I will go through some time travel and go to another region so for now I will try to make the most of it. I knocked at the door and was greeted by a man named Laozi. He invited me to have tea with him outside because he believed that you should separate yourself from the world to contemplate nature. We had a long talk about Daoism. Daoism comes from the main idea of the Dao or "The Way". He said that the Dao was a force that governed the universe and nature. He said that we should live our lives focusing on the goodness of nature and he never mentioned anything about politics or power. He mentioned that Daoism was becoming very popular with people like peasants. It was very interesting to get his views on things and as the sun started to fall I realized I had to go and hopefully sleep again so I can go to somewhere new.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t sure where I was transported this time but all I knew is that I was woken up by the soothing voice of a man who was discussing and teaching the concepts of Confucianism. He was saying that Confucianism is based upon the importance of family, respect for one's elders and reverence for the past and one's ancestors. The man teaching must have seen me wake up because he came over to me and reached out his hand to help me up. He introduced himself as Confucius and told me to join the small group of people he was teaching. As I continued listening I noticed that he focused primarily on the importance of family and respect for elders. He also had strong views on politics as well which was very different then Laozi’s teachings of Daoism. He believed that the leaders should be strong but also have good morals. They must be honest and do what is best for the people. He believed that the leaders should be virtues and also that the leader needs to accept his or her role in society and perform those duties fully. His views were very intriguing but Confucius had to leave to spread his teachings to others. I think it’s time for me to travel somewhere else now.
ReplyDeleteAfter I saw Confucius I thought I was almost done with traveling to all these places and going back in time, but when I feel asleep I woke up to the sound of a little girl crying in pain. As I woke up in this strange place all I saw was a mother forcefully bandaging her little girl’s feet. Of course I have never seen anything like this in my life. I could see the pain in her eyes as her mother tightly wound the bandages around her feet. It seemed as though she was trying to twist them or make them abnormal. As I looked around in horror I saw many other people but none of them seemed to be fazed by this incident at all. I asked the older woman that was trying to comfort the little girl why she was bandaging her feet. She talked fast but I heard her say it was the practice called foot binding in which you rap the feet so they will stop growing. They did this because in their culture small feet where considered more beautiful. I couldn’t watch anymore I was horrified. I just wanted to fall asleep and wake up in my own bed without doing any more time traveling.
ReplyDeleteAfter the bottoms of my pants were finally dry, I arrived at the Grand Canal. My time traveling machine for some reason didn’t pull up much information about this place, so I decided to investigate myself. I talked to some emperors of the Sui dynasty, who happily shared much information on this construction and a little bit about their background. After the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220, there was a long era of political and social chaos. Then invaders came into China territory, settled, set up kingdoms, and adopted Chinese customs. In the late 500s one of these groups succeeded in reuniting China under their rule; this new dynasty being the Sui, which came into power in 589. Under this rule, they began construction of the Grand Canal, which connected existing and newly dug waterways, linking northern and southern china for the first time. This canal was a revolutionary engineering invention of the ancient world. It connects the Chinese cities of Hangzhou and Beijing, spanning almost 1000 miles long. The emperor did not forget to boast about the canal also being a very convenient way to transport goods. I was satisfied with this wealth of knowledge I had just received, said my thanks and wished the man good luck with the rest of the Sui dynasty. Once I got back on my time traveling machine I was exhausted. I was looking forward to going back to my home in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2011. Until next time, fellow time travelers!
ReplyDeleteAnd I woke up in the middle of the street near a bird’s nest shaped stadium. It was huge. I heard drums and rushed inside. There were thousands of people on drums that lit up every time someone hit them. It was amazing. Then there was a giant scroll. People were dancing on it and making cool designs and pictures. I realized that it was 2008, only three years from home. I had watched this whole ceremony on television just three years ago. I realized that planes existed and found a passport in my back pocket. I took a flight back to Boston. In the middle of the flight a Tsar Bomba (those crazy Russians) went off and blasted me two years into the future. I got home just before midnight and posted my adventures on my world history blog just seconds before they were due.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I decided to take a trip back into the past; specifically back to the time period of 206 BC - AD 220. Now, I could have traveled anywhere in the world; the choice was completely mine. However, I chose to travel to China, placing myself in the midst of the Han Dynasty. I was honored to meet the most influential and inspiring philosopher of this time; Confucius. Confucius was such an inspiring man and philosopher because he composed, demonstrated, and preached about morals that have not only had such a significant effect on China, but on other places in the world. Confucius taught mainly about the importance of family and of how family should be one’s main priority in life, the importance of showing respect for elders, and of the importance of learning about and showing appreciation for ancestry. Confucius also stressed the importance of ‘treating others the way that you would want to be treated’, which is modernly known as the Golden Rule. Confucius’ teachings have all been recorded in a book called the Analects, which has been passed down among many generations. As I visited many chinese households and walked among the people on the streets, I observed the utmost respect that children had for their fathers and even their mothers; and the significance of genealogy. I got to talk to Confucius for a little bit, but he was very busy and I had to let him get back to teaching.
ReplyDeleteI also decided to visit Laozi during my trip back to China, and learn about him and his principles through experience. Laozi was a major philospoher in China, and although he was not as equally influential on the people as Confucius was, he definetely had a very significant impact. Laozi’s teachings, unless Confucius, were not centered around politics. Laozi taught about the importance of respecting, appreciating, and revering nature. His practices were referred to as Taoism.
ReplyDeleteTaoism stresses the significance of appreciating nature and withdrawing from the world of government, politics, etc. As I was in China, I had the pleasure of observing Chinese festivals. The people would get together during the season of the harvesting of crops and celebrate their crops, as a sign of respect for their crops and for nature. Laozi himself was a very kind, uplifting, peaceful, and humble man.
Next, I decided to travel back to 2008 to be a guest at the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies. This ceremony was undoubtedly the most amazing experience that I have ever encountered in my life. It was summertime and the Olympics were held in the National Stadium, otherwise referred to as the Bird’s Nest. There were thousands of people scattered among the stands, waiting to see the games begin. An amazing sequence of drums first took place, and the entire stadium was filled with the breathtaking sound of synchronized drumming. The drums were lit up and illuminated the vicinity completely. It was a truly unique sight. A trail of 29 fireworks followed the amazing drumming sequence, which caught everyone’s attention and mesmerized all who witnessed it. “Fairies” then seemed to float through the air and resided by the Olympic Rings. Most significantly, however, 56 minors (children) dressed in costumes then drew the attention of all, as they represented the 56 ethnic groups of modern day China. It was such an exciting event to see!
ReplyDeleteNow where? I thought carefully about where I should travel to next in my time machine...and then it hit me: I should go to the wonderful Han Dynasty! There were so many great things about the Han Dynasty. I was very happy to see that the harsh and cruel laws of the Qin Dynasty were no longer in effect. I saw that the civil service system, however, was in effect at this time. The civil service system put people into the position of running the government if and only if they were selected after completing a difficult examination. The government was very strong and I was impressed with how well it was put together and run. I talked to a woman by the name of Emili who told me many things about China in her time period. She enjoyed going to many festivities and eating delicious chinese food every night. Emili was very nice and I learned a lot from her wise words.
ReplyDeleteThe last thing that I decided to do, of course, was visit the amazing Great Wall of China! You would have HAD to see this...it was breathtaking..exhilarating...simply beautiful. It extended for miles and miles! It stretches across many obstacles and challenging landscapes, including deserts, grasslands, mountains, and plateaus. The wall was not finished though; there was still much construction to be completed. I saw many different types of people-- mostly men-- working on the wall in the scorching heat. The men included soldiers, prisoners, and locals. It was much larger than anything you can imagine in even your wildest dreams.
ReplyDeleteI would like to clear up some inaccuracies in my posts. First off, pocket knives are generally not huge, hence ‘pocket.’ I will stand by the pocket knife part but not the huge part. Second, I meant to put that I threw the gunpowder on the ground, not ‘through’ the gunpowder. Next I would like to acknowledge the fact that Genghis Khan was not the braindead goon I accidentally portrayed him to be. He was actually quite the beast and conquered a lot of land. Contrary to popular belief, he had the ability to speak. He attacked so early probably because he realized that I was packin’ heat and quite sensibly hopped on the ‘I’m Gonna kill you’ train a bit too early than expected. Then I would like to clear up that we ate momos, which are Tibetan dumplings, not as well as Tibetan dumplings. Lastly, the story of the man who blew himself up was historical. I know cause I saw it on the History Channel, which is descending into a TLC-like channel which I believe is very unfortunate. Soon we’ll be seeing antique shopping on the Military Channel and fashion shows on NatGeo. The news will descend into the paid programming channel, infomercials, and soap operas if that’s not what they already were. Movies will eventually all be sequels and we will enjoy corny recycled pop culture. On a more positive not Indiana Jones is on so goodnight.
ReplyDeleteI traveled into the Sung Dynasty not knowing what I wound find. It was by mere coincidence I wound up here, having randomly selected a date to travel through time to. I was walking around observing my surroundings when I saw a woman hobbling on the side of a road. It was like she was shuffling her feet intentionally. She was moving as if she was eighty years old, yet she could not be over thirty five. I went over to her to ask if she needed help. She politely said no and stated her feet were killing her. I asked if it was because she had been walking a long distance. She then said any distance hurt to walk since her feet were bound. I was not sure what she meant, so I had her explain foot binding. She said her father wished to display his wealth, so he had her feet bound with linen strips of cloth. They were applied at age seven, and made her feet beautiful and small. Since she was unable to do work, it showed her father was wealthy enough to hire servants. I was perplexed, so she lifted her dress to show two tiny feet with shoes that were small enough for a toddler. I had no clue how much it hurt to distort her fee that much, but I was not inclined to ask. The appearance with the shoe one was enough to give a mental picture. I said they are indeed beautiful and small and left her to go in another direction. As I walked away, I turned and saw her hobbling down the street once more and felt sorry for her.
ReplyDeleteI needed to leave this time period. Clearly any dynasty that supported the mutilation of women's feet was not worth visiting. I went to another random time period and found myself in a time period where the Chinese were battling with the British. I seemed that the people were outraged at how the British had used them as a giant consumer and nothing more. I asked how and got a pretty strange answer. The British had such a strong desire for tea, that they had to create a new market, so the British could receive more tea. They did this by trading opium which is an addictive drug. I was shocked at the manipulation. The British got the Chinese hooked on opium, just so they could get highly desired tea. This outrage among the Chinese caused a war between the British and the Chinese. The Chinese tried to fight off the British, but their superior navy ensured the Chinese would lose. Their ships were reinforced with iron, and the British soon showed they would win. The Chinese decided to enter negotiations with the British, sensing that there was no way they would be victorious. The Chinese agreed to give the British Hong Kong and open up several of their ports. Also, the British established low tariffs. The Chinese agreed to these negotiations despite the fact that they received very little. After all, the British were quite strong, so all the Chinese could do was nod their heads and agree. This time period seemed no better than the last and I was looking forward to departing it.
ReplyDeleteThe Tang dynasty seemed to be an interesting thing to visit, so I prepared to travel there. I chose to go to the last years of the Tang dynasty to see how it started to fall. Luckily, I found myself in the midst of a storyteller who was talking about the Tang dynasties history. It was an excellent opportunity to learn all about the history of the dynasty. The storyteller had just started, and was recounting how the Tang had forced out the Turks from China. They set up a large and stable dynasty that everyone envied. They even influenced multiple places that surrounded them. The man then said that the capital Xi’an was home to all sorts of people: Greeks, Arabs, Persians, Jews, and more. The Tang had started to become extremely successful and was the wealthiest country of its time. The storyteller then told the crowd about the famous poets: Li Bo and Du Fu. Both were widely popular, but their styles were vastly different.
ReplyDeleteThe storyteller seemed to be getting to the heart of the story and said that Buddhism was very popular. Rich individuals would even donate land for monasteries. So many did this that the government got worried and destroyed all the monasteries they could. They forced nuns and monks to abandon their beliefs. The man said that the most significant period of Buddhist influence in China was swept away by the same government that previously supported it. The Tang suffered from weak rulers, and its end was finalized when a warlord killed the emperor and took over ruling. This experience was much more satisfactory than my previous two and I even debated for a while. But as they say the show must go on; it was time to investigate the Taiping Rebellion.
I travelled to the Taiping Rebellion expecting a revolt, but what I found myself in was complete chaos. The whole area looked like a warzone. I had no clue the rebellion had been this severe. I quickly saw a woman crying and rushed to her side to make sure she was okay. She nodded, but continued to weep. She mentioned how she could not find her husband. I asked her how the situation had gotten so severe. She stared gravely in the distance and told me the saddening story. It started with a man named Hong Xiuquan who claimed to be a brother of Jesus. He wished to declare a new dynasty and gained an immense amount of followers. They wanted to name their dynasty Taiping, which translates to “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. This was very appealing to many, so they started to rebel. The Qing attempted to end the rebellion, but found the opposing side’s numbers difficult to overcome. Also, Muslims had started a rebellion of their own and the Qing was struggling with controlling both rebellions at once. The Qing did eventually end both, but at the cost of millions of lives. Much of China was completely destroyed by the fighting. Although they won, the dynasty was extremely weak after fighting the rebels. The Qing found their power slipping through their hands and could not stop the trend.
ReplyDeleteMy last journey was one of pure curiosity. I was looking forward to seeing the last individual. I prepared to visit the Yuan dynasty so I could meet Marco Polo. You can guess why I wanted to mean him so much, seeing as marco polo is played by every kid in the U.S. I knew the time he would arrive at Kublai Kahn’s palace so I waited in anticipation. After several hours of waiting I notice a group of men that looked much different than the Chinese people surrounding me. I was positive that one of these men was Marco Polo; they all looked European. I guessed Kublai Kahn had known of his arrival because he allowed Polo to bow to him and was not surprised. They started talking together, which was surprising seeing as one was European and one was Chinese. I soon found out Polo was a master linguist since he spoke 4 languages fluently. After the greetings were done I asked Marco some questions I had. I asked him where he had come to which he responded with Venice. I was astounded because that meant he travelled over 5500 miles. He told me it took them three years which were in no way easy. My interview was cut short because Kublai Kahn wanted to resume conversing with him. They seemed to get along instantly and Kublai was very impressed with him. They did not know it but Marco Polo would become Kublai’s favorite representative. The whole thing seemed strange, but I was witnessing the history myself. No one would guess that a European would be a Chinese ruler’s favorite representative, but I could see it with my own eyes. I went over to tell Polo about the popular swim game. I thought he would get a laugh out of it. But then I checked my watch; I needed to return to my own time period in the next thirty seconds or I would be stuck here forever. China was nice, but I think I like the present United States much more. I traveled back through time for the last time and was thankful to be home.
ReplyDeleteI returned back to China recently. I arrived during a time of great political distress for the Chinese. Foreigners are coming in and out of China. They have set up missionaries and trade routes. they are changing Chinese lifestyles and the emperor is upset over this. He has already tried to modernize China to reduce foreign influence. The rest of the Chinese government was outraged and his own aunt there him in jail. His aunt has now claimed power for herself and has become Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi. She has started to encourage the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, an anti-foreigner movement. The members of the groups have earned the name Boxers from the foreigners. The Boxers have now started to destroy anything that is associated with foreigners like churches, railways, mines, and missionaries. They have even started attacking embassies in Beijing. Foreigners fear for their lives and are trying to stop this rebellion as they call it.
ReplyDeleteIt has now been a few months. The rebellion is over now. The foreigners came together to defeat the Boxers. They needed a small army to do this though. This army consisted of troops from Great Britain, America, Japan, Germany, France, and Russia. They all came together to defeat the Boxers. Now foreign influence has increased and the Chinese have been fined because of the rebellion. The soldiers will also not leave because the foreigners want protection now in case the Chinese rise up again against their influence. I believe now that China will be walked over and be taken over by an imperial force.
The other day I went to go visit my old buddy Confucius. By the looks of it he had became an amazing Philosopher. He told me about all of his philosophies, and how his life had been going. He told me, he cared for people and thats what he wanted his philosophies to be about. I guess that wasnt a bad idea because he had alot of followers. Im so proud of him for becoming so popular. Well back to the 2008 Olympic Ceramonies! When i had traveled there looking for Marco Polo I was just stunned by the sights. So i decided to go back again.
ReplyDeleteMy next stop was to a critical period in China's history when China was undergoing imperialism and seemed destined to become a secondary nation. I traveled to the year 1900, in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion. The first thing I had to do was rent a costume so I would not be mistaken as a foreigner. The Boxer Rebellion was an anti-foreigner movement begun by a group called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Its original purposes were to both destroy the Qing dynasty and rid China of all foreign influence, however when Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi took the throne from her nefew and supported the movement, the rebels focused on eradicating foreign influence. The rebels had destroyed churches, railways, mines, and anything connected with outsiders. To stop this, the imperialist nations sent an army comprised of over 2,100 American, British, Russian, French, Italian, and Japanese troops to suppress the rebellion. In a last-ditch attempt to keep it alive, the Empress ordered every foreigner to be killed (hence the costume). Although this rebellion did not succeed and resulted in heavy consequences, it helped to encourage a nationalist sentiment among the Chinese people especially the young and well-educated. They were ultimately able to establish a new political party, the Kuomintang.
ReplyDeleteI again have returned to China because of its rich history. I have arrived during the Qing dynasty again. I have arrived during an important event in Chinese history, the Opium War. By talking to some British foreigners, I have found out what this war is all about. I have found out that before the war the British were trading opium and cotton for tea and porcelain. Then the Chinese emperor got angry because people were getting addicted to the drug and were needing foreign influence. This angered the emperor because he wanted as little foreign influence as possible. He even sent a letter to Queen Victoria asking her to stop her sailors from trading this substance. She ignored this request since the Chinese had agreed to free trade which meant that the governments could not get involved. The Chinese then struck out against the British to try to stop the trade. The British fought back and started this war. The Brit then told me that if Great Britain wins this war, which he assured me they will, then China may just become another British colony or at least have heavy British control in some areas.
ReplyDeleteLast week, I traveled back in time to the White Lotus Rebellion. What I learned by being present during the rebellion was that it was a mass rebellion of the peasants against the leaders of the Qing dynasty. That much I could tell just by looking at the people. However, in order to get a more detailed account, I went up to a group of peasants and asked them why they were rebelling, who had organized it all, and other basic questions.
ReplyDeleteThe answer to my question about why they were rebelling was because the peasants were fed up with constantly increasing taxes and the inefficiency of their Qing government. These people also told me that they were not merely peasants, but that they all belonged to a Buddhist cult named the White Lotus Society. This is why it was called the White Lotus Rebellion. In the interest of not leaving you all wondering what happened to stop this rebellion, I will explain the outcome. The Qing dynasty eventually stopped the rebellion and restored peace in China, but the White Lotus Rebellion irreversibly weakened the Qing dynasty, and became a precedent for future rebellions. Many rebellions began to occur in China after this.
Recently, I also visited the Taiping Rebellion in China. Like when I visited the White Lotus Rebellion, I could tell a few things right off the bat. For instance, I could tell that this was no little rebellion. It was a huge rebellion, and it was tearing China apart. The only problem was that even after observing for a few hours, I still had no idea what the rebellion was about, and why people were rebelling on such a large scale. This time, I knew that I could not find out all the important details be just asking a bunch of peasants to help me out and explain. I needed to talk to whoever was in charge. I needed to find the person who started it all and talk to him. I asked around to figure out who this person was, and I was pointed in the direction of a man named Hong Xiuquan.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, Hong Xiuquan was willing to talk with me, but as soon as I started talking to this guy, I realized that he was completely nuts. To prove that he was even crazier that I first thought, he started out by introducing himself to me as Hong Xiuquan, the brother of Jesus Christ. I kind of just stared at him for a while, trying to figure out if he was serious, and let me tell you, this guy was dead serious. He went on, ignoring my looks of bewilderment, saying that he had an important mission, and that it was to establish a new kingdom, called the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. He was going to call it Taiping. Since I wanted to get out of the presence of a crazy man as soon as possible I time traveled back to modern times in the middle of our conversation. Oops... Once I got home, I googled the Taiping Rebellion and found out that it was devastating. Millions were killed, and many cities and farms were destroyed. This information really did not surprise me, since I now knew first hand how crazy Hong Xiuquan was.
Yesterday, I went back in time so that I could experience China during the Opium War. To give some background information on the Opium War, it started after China wrote a letter to the Queen of England asking her to stop the British opium trade in China. Many Chinese people were getting addicted to opium, and it worried the Chinese government, because they were spending all their silver on it, and it was weakening their empire. The British never responded to the Chinese letter, so the Opium War began. I went specifically to the region near Nanjing, which was controlled by the British. This area of China was controlled by the British, because the Chinese army, and even more specifically their navy, was no match for the British navy. The British navy defeated the Chinese navy in no time, gaining the region where Nanjing was. Soon after I arrived, the Chinese began to negotiate with the British based on the British terms. I had the opportunity to sit in on these very tense, mostly one-sided negotiations. These negotiations caused China to give Britain Hong Kong. They also caused China to open five additional trading ports in which Britain could trade with China. Goods that came in these ports were only allowed to have negligible tariffs on them. One very important thing that came about because of the negotiations after the Opium War were that British citizens in Chinese ports now had extraterritoriality, which means that they still lived by British laws, even though they were in China. They were also exempted from Chinese laws. All these negotiations were made under the Treaty of Nanjing, which ended the Opium War.
ReplyDeleteLast weekend, I travelled back in time to August 8, 2008. I was in Beijing at the Chinese National Stadium, better known as the Bird's Nest for its remarkable architecture. This was the date of the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony - 8/8/08 at, of course, 8:00pm. The Ceremony began with fireworks being shot off throughout the city while traditional Chinese drummers, acrobats, and martial artists performed under a phenomenal light display. Following this, over fifty children, each representing the different ethnic groups of China, came into the stadium. Dancers then performed a tribute to China's incredible and imperial history, with images depicting the Silk Road, Great Wall of China, and many other important events throughout the country's history. After this, the national teams marched into the stadium, organized by the number of strokes necessary to write their names in Chinese characters. Once this was said and done, the Olympic games were declared open, and one of the most symbolic flags in the world was raised. However, the ceremony was not over yet. For the lighting of the torch, a former Chinese gymnast carried the torch while being suspended by wires. This allowed him to run along the edge of the Bird's Nest with a torch in his hand, while behind him, images of previous torchbearers were seen. This finally culminated with the lighting of a giant torch attatched to the roof and with that, the 2008 Olympic Games had officially begun.
ReplyDeleteI have arrived in China once again. Again I have arrived during the Qing dynasty in a time of conflict. This time I have arrived during the Taiping Rebellion. This rebellion is being led by Hong Xiuquan. I have found out that he is heavily influenced by Christianity and believes himself to be the younger brother of Jesus. He is leading this rebellion because he believes that it is his divine right to end the Qing dynasty and establish his own dynasty in the name of God. This has been going on for ten years now. Over a million people have already died and it does not look like Hong will be stopped for another few years. As a result of this rebellion, I have heard that a group of Muslims from central and western China have also rose up. I do not know how much more the Qing dynasty can handle since they have already had the White Lotus Rebellion, the Opium Wars, and now this. They are losing support and may be overthrown soon. This does not look good for the Qing dynasty.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I took a trip bact to China in 1840. I should not have done that though because a war had just started there. From what I heard was that the war was between the British and the Chinese. I went around and asked why they were fighting the British and the reason I got was illogical. They said that the British were trading an addictive drug to them that they did not want. They said that China asked that the British not sell them opium and they even sent a letter to the Queen. This failed so they tried to forcibly stop the trade and that is when war broke out. The Chinese that I questioned thought that they were fighting a losing war because their ships are no macth to the British's iron hulled ones. So I left China to come back in 1842 to see the results of the war and this is what I found. After the Chinese were defeated, they had to agree to the British's demands in the Treaty of Nanjing. The Chinese had to give Hong Kong to Britain and they had to open five more ports to the British trading.
ReplyDeleteLast night I sat down to have tea with Hong Xiuquan to talk about what made him start the Taiping rebellion against the Qing. My first impression of him was that he was nuts and my talk with him proved that. He told me that he was influenced by Christianity and the teachings, but that was not that made me think he was nuts, it was the thing he said next. Xiuquan said that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ and that he had to make a dynasty that would be Taiping which means Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. It surprised me that he has gained a huge following of people that believed in him and that he can pull it off. We continued through the night talking. When I got home I looked up the rebellion to see the results. The rebellion led by Xiuquan caused major destruction in southern China and the Yangtze river valley. It also killed many of people. Ooops I mean millions of people were killed. And a lot of cities and farms were destroyed. I think Xiuquan's rebellion failed.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I went back to the time in China during the White Lotus rebellion. It did not take me awhile to notice that most of the people that make up the forces are peasants. They told me that they are fed up with not being able to support their families from a small farm. They say that there has been to many disaterous floods and to many famines to keep going like this. The peasants also say that the taxes and bad government control has made them overflow with anger. After that I went around asking who was leading them and they all said that a buddhist cult was in charge. That you are being led by buddhists would not install courage in me because buddhists are agianst fighing and being led into battle by them would make me think that do not know what they are doing. I went back home and learned that the rebellion failed but it was difficult for the government to do so. Even though they survived, the government of the Qing dynasty was greatly damaged.
ReplyDeleteI went back to ancient China to visit the Grand Canal to learn more about it. I learned before I left the the Grand Canal was the world's oldest and longest canal system. It connects the cities of Hangzhou and Beijing. I learned that it is about one thousand miles long. The people who sail it say that it is a convenient way to transport their goods between the north and the south. I went around China looking for people who know how it was built and I found a few. They told me that they would make it by digging trenches to link lakes and rivers. They said that they also build dams to keep the water levels the same throughout the canal. The Grand Canal serves as a transport system for goods and passengers.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I went and had a cup of tea with Empress Wu, who if you did not know was the the only woman to hold the title of Empress under her own name and not under a family member. We talked about her stand on religion. She told me that she is a supporter of Buddhism. She believes that Buddhism is a good religion to follow and she wants other people in the Tang dynasty should follow it to. Empress Wu, from what I can tell is a strong leader and able administrator that should be the leader of China. After our talk I went back home to see what happened of her vision for Buddhism. After awhile the Buddhists were gaining more and more wealth and the government officials did not want that so they seized the monastries' land and items withing them for the government. They also persecuted them. Even after that the Tang officials destroyed shines and monasteries. Good thing that Empress Wu was not alive when this happened because she would have gone beserk of the harsh treatment of Buddhism.
ReplyDeleteOn yet another time travelling trip to China, I ended up in the yeear of 1796. This was the time of the White Lotus Rebellion. The entire region I visited was engulfed with fighting. There were peasants attacking the government everywhere I looked. I could not see any form of peace wherever I looked. What surprised me the most was that the peasants were led by a group of Buddhists! When most people, including myself, think of Buddhism, they think of peace, nature, and meditation; most definitely not cults and rebellions! I could most definitely tell that the Qing dynasty would be weakened by this peasant rebellion. It would become one of many rebellions in this dynasty, which eventually led to its decline. The people I saw were not the typical rebels. They looked as though most of them were farmers and would have no control in a government, but because they were the ones being taxed and oppressed, they were the rebels also. This just shows that the government valued people with more money and power higher than those who did not.
ReplyDeleteAs one might recall, I have time travelled to talk to Confucius, so I figured why not visit Laozi as well? After several hours of searching, I finally found him and was able to chat with the founder of Daoizm about his views and Daoism. He kept repeatedly talkiung about the Dao, which means the way. He kept talking about this because he could never seem to find the right words to describe it. His views on it kept changing, but one thing was certain: he thought the Dao was the ruler of the universe. Daoism is cenralized on nature. If people could live in peace with nature, they could understand and live with the Dao in perfect harmony.
ReplyDeleteHe then proceeded to ask me if I had a lot of money, a large house, or a great amount of material objects. I told him I had some of these things, but I would not consider myself completely dependent on material objects. He said that I should not strive for material wealth. He told me that money and power were not the way to eternal happinesss, but people should instead try to bring themselves into harmony with the Dao. I asked how this could be done, and he replied by saying that one must be humble, quiet, and thoughtful. According to Laozi, much of what we value in our society is unimportant. We should not be striving for power or wealth, but instead perfect peace and harmony. He said if I had any more questions about his teachings, I should look them up in the "Dao de Jing". Overall, Daoism was completely focused on nature rather than manmade materials.
Today, I went back to China under the Tang dynasty. I went to go meet the famous Empress Wu. She ruled China from about 690 to 705. Empress Wu was the only woman ever to rule China in her own name. She did not rule on behalf of someone else. She herself had the right to rule. I was very impressed by her, and I wanted to talk to her to see if she lived up to all the hype. My conversation with her confirmed the opinions of others that I had read. She was a very good, strong leader, and she ruled China well.
ReplyDeleteAn important contribution that Empress Wu made to China was the spread of Buddhism. She was a very vocal supporter of Buddhism, and since she was a figurehead in China, many people followed her lead and became Buddhist themselves. Overall, I think that Empress Wu was a woman who was much more advanced than the rest of the people who lived in the same time period as her. She knew that even though she was a woman, she could still lead China well, perhaps even better than any man could have at the time. Empress Wu’s confidence in her leadership abilities and her success as a leader may have made people in other countries more open to having women lead them in the future.
A few days ago, I time traveled back to China in the year 600. At this point in history, China was being ruled by the Sui dynasty. The Sui dynasty did not really accomplish much, but I was there to see their claim to fame, so to speak. I wanted to visit the Grand Canal. Of course, they did not actually start the Grand Canal from scratch. They expanded on existing waterways and improved them. After they improved what they already had to work with, then they started digging the new parts of the canal. Normally, a canal would be something really boring, and I would never write about it, never mind travel back in time to China to look at one. The Grand Canal, however, was interesting, because it linked the northern and southern parts of China for the first time ever. Another reason that it was interesting was because it was one of the most spectacular architectural feats the world saw in this time period. Anyway, I went to visit it, and it seemed kind of average and not remarkable to me. I figured out though, that this feeling of melodrama was probably to be expected, since I live in modern times and have seen many more advanced and amazing architecture.
ReplyDeleteOne day while walking through China during the Yuan dynasty, I met an Italian traveler. I started walking with him and he told me about his life. He said that his name was Marco Polo. He said that he had left Italy when he was seventeen to travel with his father and uncle. He said that they traveled for three years before they finally came to China. He said that he had impressed the ruler of China who he said was Kublai Khan. As a result of his impression on Kublai Khan, he was made into a special representative of the Chinese court. After this he said that he traveled around China for seventeen years. He said that he had just finished all of his travelers and was now returning to Italy. He told me that it had been so long since he had been away for so long that people probably thought that he was dead. We parted ways but he told me that if I ever wanted to find out more that all I could do was to read his book that he was working. He left me a copy before he left.
ReplyDeleteI am now at the 2008 Olympic ceromonies. Once I arrived I was struck by the sight I saw. All those drums beating in unison. It was the most interesting thing I've seen since the taiping rebellion. After an hour or so I decided to go to the Taiping Rebellion. This was a very bad idea because when I arrived, there was chaos everywhere. I guess the leader of the Rebellion thought he was the brother of Jesus. there was a lot of killing and it was just a bid mess. I decided to get out of there as quick as possible. then I thought of the White Lotus Rebellion. That sounded much more peaceful. So why don't I just go there.
ReplyDeleteWoosh! I have set my time machine to 1796. it is the year that the White Lotus Rebellion began. It was a rebellion that occurred during the Qing Dynasty of China. It broke out in 1796 among impoverished settlers. It apparently began as a tax protest led by the White Lotus Society, a secret religious society of Buddhist priests. Yes i said buddhist priests!! the supposed peaceful, nature loving people formed a cult to overthrow the government. there were farmers and villagers everywhere attacking China's government. it was a crazy sight. it would turn out to be one of many rebellions that would occur during the Qing dynasty and eventually destroyed it. now I'm going to sneak out of this mess i teleported into. till next time.
ReplyDeleteI am on my way to the White Lotus Rebellion. Once I get there I am surrounded by a bunch of very mad peasants. You would think because of the name White Lotus that it would be peaceful but it is not. Once again I decide to leave. It was my time anyway. Confucius set me up with this girl who I guess is quite a hotty. We decided to meet at the Huang River. Once I got there there was no one. After waiting for forty five minutes I am treated with a girl that has a weird limp. Then being kind of snoopy. I look down at here he traumatized by her feet. Once regaining my ability to talk I asked her what happened. She said when she was young her mother binder her feet to make them small. She said it was good if you wanted to be beautiful. The lasted thing she asked me before I bolted out of there was "don't you think this is sexy?"
ReplyDeleteI teleported as fast as I could not even knowing where I was going because I wanted to get out of there. I ended up on a British ship with a bunch of barrels full of a suspicious liquid. Being who I am I dug my finger in and ate some. Then this great Euphoria came over my body. I felt so alive. But this ended with me falling off the ship and passing out in the water. I was surely dead. Once I woke up, I sat up to find four Chinese people holding knives to my throat. They kept asking if I was British. I told them no and they relaxed a little. They kept me in a pen full of other people that aren't Chinese. What are they gonna do to me?
ReplyDeleteWhile in the pen I was asking around but no one could speak English. Until I found one guy who could. I asked him why we are here. He told me this was the Opium war, and theyre holding us here because we represent the typical look of the English. I thought to myself and thought that this was the reason I was in such a euphoria. I had eaten Opium and blacked out. I had been rescued by some Chinese fisherman who brought me here. I asked the man what they are gonna do with us. He told me there are many options. The best was that they might let us go. The bad is they might kill us. Then I heard something in the mans voice. It sounded so beautiful so I took a second look and find out it's Morgan Freeman. Why is he in a Chinese holding pen. Then I thought to myself and forgot that I had a tele potation device. But it only holds one person and that person is me. About to go I had to say goodbye to Morgan Freeman. I mean who wouldn't. This turned out to be a bad thing. Because the guards saw my device and killed me. Now I'm dead.
ReplyDeleteThis time when I traveled back in time, I did not travel to ancient China. This time I traveled to ancient Mongolia. There I met a man riding a horse. I talked to him and found out that his name was Temujin. He gave me a horse and I started to ride with him to China. He told me that he was meeting up with his soldiers. They were stationed in China and had already started to invading. They had been there years earlier though to accept bribes every now and then to not invade Beijing. While riding with Temujin he said that they had already conquered Beijing and most of China and were now making their way west towards central Asia. He soon asked me if I liked the name Universal Ruler. He asked this because he was thinking of changing his name to this. I did not realize it then, but when I did the translation, his name was Genghis Khan. I did not realize that I had been in the presence of such an influential person in history. When we met up with his soldiers I left to see more of China while he went on to conquer central Asia. He let me keep the horse and he also gave me a Mongol bow. This was one of the top weans of the time because of its ability to fire it from horse back. I thanked him and left deciding that my time in ancient China was done and that I would go on to see other parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteI next visited one of the most influential philosophers of all time and certainly the most influential philosopher to Chinese life, Confucius, in about 500 B.C. He began by explaining the problems that China was facing economically, socially, and politically. He did not look to religion to solve these problems but believed these problems primarily stemmed from immoral and unethical leaders. He believed that strong, positive, virtuous behavior was important in a leader. Instead of selfishly seeking personal wealth and power, leaders should act in the greatest interest of their people and work to improve their happiness and welfare. The should be well-educated and set good examples for their subjects. Also, each person should accept his role in society. In addition he taught the importance of family, respect for elders, and respect for the past and one's ancestors. He showed me a book of these teachings he was compiling which he called the Analects. Little did he know that this would later be used to train scholars and leaders for years to come.
ReplyDeleteToday I visited The White Lotus Rebellion in the Quin dynasty. The people who rebelled were actually in a Buddhist cult called the White Lotus Society. The people of the cult explained to me that they were very displeased by the taxes. The were also not happy about the governments lack of success. It was a violent rebellion but was soon suppressed. Order was restored after a few years. However, the government was not as strong as it used to be. More rebellions followed, declining the Quin even more. I was surprised to discover the weak goverment structure of the Quin.
ReplyDeleteHello again time travelers! Since I have researched more about China since my last journey, I now know exactly where I would like to visit. I am traveling back to the late 1700’s - early 1800’s in China to get a historical personal perspective of the White Lotus Rebellion. When I arrived on the scene of pure chaos, I asked someone who was a part of this rebellion to tell me a little bit more about the rebellion and what they were fighting for. The man, who, said to be Buddhist, told me it was a revolt against the over increased taxes and growing government inefficiency. He also added it was lead by a Buddhist cult and the rebels were the peasants. I was confused at first… weren’t Buddhist’s supposed to be peaceful and non violent? As I was about to ask him that question, an angry looking mob started storming my way. I decided it was probably a good time to go to my next destination.
ReplyDeleteMy next stop was to visit the scene of the Opium War during 1839. When I arrived, I talked to a troubled Chinese government official. He told me this conflict between China and Britain arose due to Britain’s export of opium to China. This substance, he added, was an extremely addictive and harmful drug, leading to colossal government failures. Since the Chinese people were buying so much and not benefiting from it besides in a negative addictive way, one Chinese government official even wrote to Queen Victoria of England to plead her to stop trading the opium. The British did not listen, however, so the Opium War began. I felt saddened by this point and could not stick around to here much more.
ReplyDeleteI thought to visit another significant rebellion in China’s history; the Taiping Rebellion. I got in my time traveling machine and zoomed to year 1850 in China. When I got there, I was extremely pleased to talk to the leader of the rebellion himself, Hong Xiuquan. Xiuquan told me he was very influenced by Christian teachings, and even thought that he was the younger brother of Jesus. Once I heard that I thought to myself, “Okay, so, this guys psychotic, clearly.”, and knew this could not end well. Although he was crazy, for some reason, this movement seemed to attract many followers. It caused terrible destruction in southern China and the Yangtze valley, as well as taking millions of lives. Thankfully, the Qing dynasty put these rebellions to rest in the 1870’s. I said goodbye to “Jesus’s younger brother” (yeah, right!) and continued on with my journey.
ReplyDeleteToday i decided to go back to the invention of gunpowder. So i stepped into my machine and went to 850 A.D. during the Tang Dynasty. I started asking people where to find the gunpowder guy but no one understood english so I was in a bind. Until i saw Shaun and Cam walking down the road. I walked up to them and asked where i could find him. They said they were heading there now and that i should come too. After making a quick stop at the local matial arts dojo to teach them real karate we arrived at the house. It was a small, quaint house that you could easily miss. We walked into the house, and sense Shaun can speak Chinese, we asked him what he was doing. He told us his name Zin-Zin-Tai-Quin-Chi-Wiz-Xia-Bob but to call him Zizbob for short. We happily abliged and he asked cam if he could mix the 75 parts saltpeter with 15 parts charcoal and 10 parts sulfur to make a long-life elixer. So Cam got to work. Ten seconds later the mixture ingnited because Cam touched it to an open flame, and 10 more seconds later me and shaun were carrying a chared Cam-On-A-Stick out of a buring building, with Zizbob screaming at us. We droped Cam off at the local martial arts dojo, for use as a punching bag that reacts, and then grabbed some food. After eating our fill Shaun and i picked cam up from the dojo and went home.
ReplyDeleteAlright, alright… enough with these ludicrous rebellions! I decided to visit one of the most influential women in China’s history, Empress Wu. I traveled back to 690 in China and talked to Wu herself. Upon meeting Wu, I could tell right off she was stern and powerful. Quite impressive for a woman to hold such great power during these ancient times! She began to tell me missionaries from India brought Buddhism to China during the Han dynasty. And under the Tang, Buddhism reached its peak. Wu was very passionate about Buddhism and a strong leader. She also did not fail to mention that she was the only woman to hold the Chinese throne in her own name. You go, girl! I thanked her for her time and got back to time traveling.
ReplyDeleteThe time machine buzzed, whirred and made some weird, suggestive noises. It spit me out onto a large Chinese junk, where a couple dozen Chinese men were getting ready to fight. They all had spears in their hands and primitive guns.
ReplyDelete"Where am I?" I asked one of the men.
"What do you mean?" one responded. "You are on one of our ships as we fight the British in the great Opium War. They refuse to stop trading us opium, even though it is greatly hurting our citizens. We waged war against them because of it. This may be the last battle of the war, because we are just about ready to surrender. It is 1842, and has been three long years. Right now, the British are trying to take Canton. I will not let them!"
I just watched as the Chinese and British went at it. Britain kinda wrecked them. Britain took out all but one of the Chinese warships (the one that I was on survived.) with their better cannons. At one point, I had to go to the bathroom, so I got up and started walking to a cabin on the ship. I accidentally bumped into a man trying to fire a cannon at the British. He landed on the fuse, causing the cannon to explode, destroying the ship. The explosion threw me, luckily into my time machine. I guess that the British won that war.
For my last stop for the time being, I decided to visit someone whose name is commonly known for a popular aquatic game, but not for its actual historical significance. Marco Polo is perhaps one of the most successful explorers during Mongol rule. I set my time traveling machine to the time of the reign of Kublai Khan. When I met Polo, he was very charismatic and intelligent. He began telling me he was from Italy, and started off as an explorer and merchant quite young, at the age of seventeen. “Seventeen?! That’s practically my age!” I exclaimed. He smiled, and continued to say when he was that age he left Venice to travel with his father and uncle. After three years of struggle out exploring the world, they arrived in China. Being so impressed with how young Polo was, Kahn employed Polo as his special representative. Polo got to travel around China for seventeen years and became famous. At this point, Polo was glowing. I decided to let him bask in his glory, thanked him for his time and was pretty exhausted. I set back for my home once again. See you soon!
ReplyDeleteOk so Im in china doing my thing walking around seeing them build the things that are now history today and I can't help to notice all of the girls taking little foot steps. At first I thought this was just polite but then I noticed they had tiny feet. So I found someone who spoke English and asked them what was going on. They said that the women had foot bindings. Wanting to explore my curiosity further I asked what foot binding is. He happened to be a doctor of foot binding and told me it is were they soak the ladies foot for a very long time. Then they break the bones and shove them into the top of the foot. Then they bandage them up and let them heal. I asked if everyone had this done and at what age. He told me that not every ne had it don't only the rich who could afford servants did and he also said that they got it done at a fairly early age of around seven. I thanked him and then walked away.
ReplyDeleteOk so I'm in china and right now they are having a little bot of a dispute between an addictive drug called opium. The chines didn't want the opium any more because it was making everyone crazy and just wanting more. The British however believed in free trade and that the government should interfere with them trading. Eventually the dispute evolved into a full on war. I was just walking down the street when I was grabbed. People handed me a gun so I assumed I was now a soldier. Throughout are battling I noticed us sometimes fiteing people who I thought were on are side and at other points we were shooting at people who I know we were shooting at the other day. Eventually I got the chance to slip away when everyone was using the opium. Let's just say throughout the war I was very confused.
ReplyDeleteSo today i went back in time with Cam to see the Great Wall of China. We went to 1640 during the Ming Dynasty, when most of the wall we see today was built. We then met a man named Le Lon Jin who told us about the Great Wall itself. He said "It starts from Hushan Great Wall in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west traversing Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai." Then he told us that it was started in the Qin dynasty and has continued since. He said that he is out here checking the integrety of each brick. we told him that was a pretty dumb job, but he maintained that it was necessary. Before we left he yelled to us that it was added on to by most of the rulers since. This momentary distraction cause Cam to fall to the ground on the outside. At that ery moment a band of about 100 nomadic invaders tryed to pierce the unprotected wall. With Cam down I had no choice but to let out my inner Chuck Norris. i jumped down and then Chuck Norrised all of them. Casually dusting off my sweatshirt I went into the wall through a gate that Le Lon Jin opened for me. I then went home. oh, and no I didn't forget Cam, i just chose not to remember to take him home.
ReplyDeleteWhile off-roading through the desert of western China in my HUMVEE, I came across the strangest hitch hikers. They wore funny clothes and spoke with some kind of Italian accent. Considering we were in the middle of a desert I let them in, for now. At first I thought I made a big mistake when one of the guys in the back started firing off the .50 Cal machine gun. However, I learned that I was wrong when I asked the men their names; they were the Polo’s. They were on their way to Beijing to see the Chinese leaders and form a relationship with them and Italy. I told them sure as long as they paid for the gas, and since Hummers get like 2mpg they were in for a big check. Anyway, after four wheeling across China and filling up the tank at least 50 times at random 7-11s in the middle of nowhere, all mysteriously owned by Apu from the Simpsons, weird, we finally arrived in Beijing. Unfortunately we thought we weren't going to make it to the Emperor's palace due to the traffic jams, yeh well I guess they never have seen an American truck in action before. HOOYAH, nothing quite like running over small Chinese cars in the morning! So we finally got to the palace but Old Marco found out Kublai Khan, the guy he was looking for, died like 800 years ago. He got all pissed and ran off with my truck, yeh that's rule number twenty three on the Don't Do List; don't steal my truck, so I blew it up. Don't worry though, I'm in good hands, I have Allstate, they'll fix the up old guy; the truck I mean, not Marco because I'm pretty sure my policy doesn’t cover Italian Merchants from the 1300's. Well anyway, today wasn't so bad; I only helped one of the greatest travelers of all time, destroyed half of Beijing, and taboot I got away with a little insurance fraud.
ReplyDeleteToday I traveled to the Boxer Rebellion. It went from 1898 to 1901, so i decided to arrive in 1900. Unfortunalty i landed in the Legation Quarter and was immediatly fired upon. The Legation Quarter was a place in Bejing where foreigners were forced to seek refuge from the Boxers in 1900. So while i was running away i realized that this seige would last for 55 days and i had no idea how long i had to hold out for, for the Eight Nation Alliance's 20,000 troops to liberate me. I knew that since the Americans and the British were part of the alliance, i would be able to communicate with them. I looked to my left and saw a teenager wearing a diaper, and flailing around with a machete. I recognized the boy as Cam Brown and steered clear. I got up from where i was lying to see the Rightous Harmnoney Society, ot the Boxers and the Quig advancing upon my location. Then they started chanting, getting really pumped, saying stuff that they were against like imperialism, opium trade, political invasion, Christianity,and economic manipulation. They said these were reasons for fighting the foreigners. Then they charged, I pulled out my rifle i decided to bring with me and started firing, but there were simply too many. I began to run while hearing bullets wizz around me and seeing cannonballs ricochet off of buildings.I turned down an allyway, and then turned down another. I came out into an open area outside of the city, and saw the advancing armies of the Eight Nation Alliance, consisting of Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the U.S., Austro-Hungaria empire, and Italy. I was saved! After the battle that the allies won i was able to go back into the house i had teleported into and retrieve my teleporter. I went home.
ReplyDeleteToday i witnessed the Taiping rebellion. I traveled to south central china and met Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the christian uprising. I talked to him about his logic behind the rebellion. He told me that Christianity had greatly influenced him. He seemed a little weird after he claimed he was the son of Jesus. I was very skeptical. I then sat down with him and had a cup of tea after the rebellion and talked to him about "Taiping". He then explained to me that the name meant, "Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace". It had just got over after 14 long years of turmoil and great destruction of farmland. After seeing all the destrustion i was told by some locals that the result of this rebellion had done alot more damage than good. they complained about how it greatly weakened the dynasty. After speaking with them i left.
ReplyDeleteToday while I was racing down the Autobahn in my Corvette I somehow went back in time right after I got a massive head ache and ended up in 2008 at the Olympics in Beijing. Now constrained by speed limits I took a cruise to the big giant bird nest shaped building were the Olympics were being held. When I arrived my old buddy Yoa Ming found me and asked me if I could bring him to see his mother who lived on the Haung River. I accepted his offer but only if he would let the US beat them in the Olympics, which he agreed to. Anyway, in 6th gear going like 200mph we got to Yoa Ming's house in 30 minutes, yeh try that in a Toyota. Strangely however Yao had shrunk to a mere child and somehow my beautiful Vett turned into a mule cart, not cool. I made my way into the hut were I assumed Yao's mother lived, I opened the door and there was some Chinese lady with little feet, gross. Little Yao told me he had to come home to do his mother’s laundry. Wow a multi-millionaire who does his mother’s laundry? He asked me that I wash his mother’s feet because it was an honor to do so, well that didn't work out to well cause those feet smelt like the east end of a horse riding west. I started getting nauseous and I heard a loud horn sound screeching in my ears, then I passed out. Well, I woke up back in Germany my head pushing in the horn, my Vett crashed around a pole and looking at my feet I noticed I had little feet and passed out remembering that horrible smell. I woke up again back in my hotel room in China and was greatly relieved to be there. I was a little disappointed I hadn't hung out with Yoa, but I was happy that at least I know not to meet his mother now.
ReplyDeleteHappen to stumble upon the Boxer Rebellion today. Its been going on for a couple of years now. I arrived in 1890 and found that there was lots of fighting and bloodshed. Unfathomably i was in a bad spot and had to get to safety quickly before i was killed. I soon found refuge in an old broken down prison. I found the emperor taking cover. I went over and asked him what all the fighting was about. he told me that the fighting had been going on for a while and that it was because he tried to stop foreign influence so he thought of revitalizing the goverment and trying to
ReplyDeletemodernize china. he then explained that the conservative leaders took great offense to this and the emperor was imprisoned. He said that his crazy aunt, Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi then organized her officials and they formed an anti foreigner movement. The group was called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. He then told me the group just called themselves the boxers. They're main target were Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries. I asked him what there purpose was and he told me that their main targets to destroy were railways, churches and mines. So pretty much everything that was associated with outsiders. when the coast was clear i peaced out and said goodbye to him. The commotion had stopped at this point. then i saw the rebellion being suppressed by other armies. That was the end of the Boxer Rebellion. China, as a result of this was completely dominated by foreign powers.
Met Marco Polo today. I talked to him about the ancient mongol empire.. He told me that he served the great Khan during the Khan ruling. Marco told me that he was Khans right hand man. He served high level positions in the goverment for the great Khan. I asked him which Khan he served and he told me that he was serving Kublai Khan. He also told me that he traveled to Europe and found out that his wife had died. He said that he was on a quest to bring missionaries to the mongol empire. But Marco polo went by himself to supposedly help convert the mongols into Christians. Marco served in several high-level government positions, including as ambassador and as the governor of the city of Yangzhou.he then let me know that while the Great Khan enjoyed having Polo as his subject and diplomat, Khan eventually consented to allow him to leave the Empire, as long as they would escort a princess who was scheduled to wed a Persian king.
ReplyDeleteThis is the story of how i learned chinese. So me and Cam wentback in time to see the Huang River. We met up with Chang Jung who told us that if the people keep building dikes the water level will be over the counrtyside level and the floods will be worse. No one listened to him, probably because he sounded really whinie and annoying but thats beside the point. Anyway i decided to push Cam into the river as a fun way of saying find ur own ride home. Chang began to yell at me in chinese, do i yelled back at him in asian gibberish. he promptly backed off, allowing me to fish Cam out of the water. I laughed at him because his ugly clothes were even uglier when stained yellow. I told hime it was because of the loess in the water, just like Amby taught us. I also said that it was called china's sorrow because when it floods it causes immense devestation to the surrounding area. After that we decided to team up and throw Chang into the river. I walked back to the teleporter and went home. That is the story if how i leasrned chinese
ReplyDeleteTonight i met Empress Dowager Tz'u-his. She seemed a little crazy. She began ranted about foreign influence and how she didn't like it. She then told me that she had the emperor imprisoned because he didn't follow policy. She then began to bicker about how she doesn't want any Christian influence. I left. A day later i came back to find that there was fighting going on among the people. i saw churches being burnt down and people ranting that they don't want foreign influence. i got bored so i left. Later i overheard people talking and calling the fight the Boxer .
ReplyDeleteSince I have been dying to go back to ancient China, I have decided that it is time to jump back into my time machine for my final five trips. So far, I have gone to visit many places and have talked to many people so I think this time around I would like to go to an event that is seen as a custom during that time period. The custom that comes to mind is footbinding. With a flip of a switch, off I go! I ended up landing in a beautiful home where a wealthy family greeted me. A man told me that they were getting ready to bind his wife's feet. As the woman's feet were being tied tightly with strips of linen and her toes being tucked underneath, her husband discussed with me what this custom was all about. He said that all though it was crippling and would cause the feet to stop growing, it showed that a man was successful and wealthy enough that his wife did not have to do housework and that he could afford servants. Once the wrapping was done, I asked the wife if it was painful and all she told me was that beauty is pain. After learning about that Chinese custom, I said goodbye and jumped back into my machine where I was whisked away to the time period of the Tang Dynasty.
ReplyDeleteToday i went to a footbinding ceremony, which i can proudly i only threw up 17 times during the entire ceremony, which is more than i can say for Joe L. A footbinding ceremony is when a doctor is paid by a wealthy man to have is daughter's feet soaked for hours, broken near the arch so that the foot has a hyperextended arch, and the toes curled in. Essentially they pay for an eccentric self-crippling ceremony. After that the feet are wrapped up so they stay that way. Well Joe, Sidney and I went on an adventure to go see one and when me and joe were busy throwing up from the grossness (and the rotten food) Sidney was taken to get her feet bound, we thought it was hilarious until we realized that she was in serious trouble. We decided to kick the doctor in the face and then grab Sid. The doctor had other ideas and knocked Joe out. I threw a big porcelain bowl at him that he dodged and it ended up hitting Sidney in the head. After that i realized i had my handy-dandy taser, so i tased him (im sure he said dont tase me bro in chinese) i then dragged the two of them into the teleporter and said peaceout to China. Oh by the way Cam died...he was eaten by Godzilla, or tyhe guy in the Godzilla costume, i couldn't tell which.
ReplyDeleteI woke up next to my time machine a city. It was filled with people, and definitely looked more old fashioned than where I was last. I went up to a guy and asked him where I was. He said that I am in Chang'an, the capital of the Han Dynasty. I remembered that the Han dynasty lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD.
ReplyDelete"Why is Chang'an such an important city?" I asked someone.
"It is on the Silk Road," the person said. "Now that the trade route is developed, we can trade with West Asia and Europe. Everything is great about the Han dynasty. Especially the new civil service system. Now people can have jobs working for the community. And leveling really keeps price consistent. I just hope that the government won't be too corrupt,and the dynasty will collapse."
"Dude, why are you just listing the key points about the Han Dynasty?" I asked. "It's not like we're in a report and being graded on this. What a weirdo."
I walked away back to my time machine.
Today, while I was making my way through the forests of eastern China along the Yangtze River and after teleporting back to 1989 on the hunt for Sasquatch, I came across one of my best buddies from back home, Chuck Norris. He was on his way to Tiananmen Square to kick some Communist butt. Chuck Norris was armed with just his fists, a pen and paper. Realizing more firepower was needed I called up the local Enterprise and asked if they had a tank, to my surprise they did. When we got in the tank we made our way to Tiananmen Square to prevent the massacre. Much to our displeasure this Chinese tank was a piece of crap. So Chuck Norris pulled out the pen and paper and divided by zero, yes Chuck Norris can divide by zero, and caused a tear in the fabric of space causing us to be teleported into the middle of the square. The plan didn't exactly work out the way I expected it to, yeah cause the Chinese guys kind of had guns and they were shooting at us. And Chuck's Cowboy hat stuck out like cow in a nursing home. So using his extreme math skills he proved Pi rational and caused all of the soldiers’ guns to turn into sticks of dynamite, anyone up for some hot potato? Well unfortunately for me one of the soldiers threw his stick of dynamite at us and blew us up. HOOYAH, nothing quite like the smell of burnt eyebrows in the morning! Well, I woke up and I was back in my bead room in two pieces, two counting myself and my bionic leg of death. Well that was interesting, I guess those Chinese soldier guys learned a lesson or two about killing innocent people, and challenging the mathematical abilities of Chuck Norris.
ReplyDeleteOnce I reached one of the golden ages of China, I met up with Li Bo and Du Fu. They both acted as my tour guide and started out the trip by telling me how China flourished under the Tang Dynasty. I was told that the Tang dynasty marked a high point in the development of Chinese literature and 2,300 known poets lived and worked during this era. They told me that they were among the best poets during this age. Li Bo told me that he mostly wrote about happy and light-hearted things whereas Du Fu wrote about serious subjects. All though Du Fu was not too exciting, he told me that he has been using his poetic gift to call for an end to the frontier wars and destructive uprising that was ruining Tang China. Li Bo started to talk to me about what was going on religious wise. He told me that Buddhism had reached its peak under the Tang Dynasty thanks to Empress Wu who was such a great supporter of it. Wealthy Buddhists even donated land for monasteries and a sect of Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, had become very popular. It stressed meditation as a means to enlightenment. Du Fu piped in and told me what has recently happened though. The governement felt threatened by the wealthy Buddhist monasteries so they destroyed thousands of shrines and monasteries in a matter of days and forced more than 250,000 monks and nuns to give up their duties and go back to ordinary life. They have now officially brought back Confucianism, Li Bo told me, and after that I decided it was best for me to leave.
ReplyDeleteFor my next trip I went to the year 1803, just before the end of the White Lotus Rebellion. I wanted to go to witness the rebellion because I had learned about it in class and found it very interesting. To me the White Lotus Rebellion sounded like it would be very peaceful; I mean it is named after a flower. But it turns out millions of people were killed during the eight year span of it. The peasants basically decided that they were tired of being given such high taxes when they already had less money. So a society called the White Lotus Society, which gave the name to the rebellion, started to fight the government on it. So the peasants began to rebel against the government to try and lower taxes. The rebellion began a decline for the Qing dynasty in the later 1800s, but from what I could see, things were already going down. That’s all for now.
ReplyDeleteSome of the friends I was traveling with started arguing about whether there was even a female empress. I of course knew there was because I had learned about her in my history class, so I took the to 655 A.D. Once there we went to the palace of the emperor so I could show them Empress Wu. She was the only empress ever to rule under her own name not someone else’s. Many would assume that an empress would be very weak and a bad military leader. But in fact Empress Wu was ruthless against her opponents. She told us stories of how efficient and fast moving her forces were. We were all very impressed by the military and social aspects that she added to China’s Tang dynasty, but it was time for us to leave and go see something else.
ReplyDeleteNext we wanted to see some of China’s skilled sailors, so we traveled to the year 1315, the time of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty had extremely skilled sailors who sailed large ships called junks. As soon as we started walking the streets we could tell that people did not want to talk to us. We were not exactly sure why so I stopped and asked someone what was wrong. They told me that we were outsiders and should not be there, and that we should not try to inflict our views on them. This was because after the Mongol rule, the Ming leaders wanted China to be self-sufficient and not need outsiders for trade. We were also very surprised to see the merchants so low on the food chain. Usually you think of peasants as the lowest people, but I guess since they did not like trade the merchants were very unappreciated and poor. It was much different than you think of social classes today.
ReplyDeleteI got out of the time machine and saw many Chinese women in a palace. They were all very hot, but their feet kinda ruined the whole rest of them. The feet were tiny and ugly, and they could barely walk.
ReplyDelete"Why would you guys do that to your feet?" I asked.
"It is the new cool fashion trend. Rich guys get it done to their wives to show how rich they are," said the hot lady.
"Oooh, I'm rich!" I exclaimed. "I want to have this new cool fashion trend. Bind my feet!"
"Ok," said the woman. "Ping!"
A big, muscular man named Ping came out and grabbed my feet. He broke the arches.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" I screamed. "I didn't know it would hurt that much!"
"Oh, by the way," said one hot lady. "Now, you can't walk well, so you will have to tiptoe or be carried in one of those elevated seats where people carry a pole on each side."
"Really!? What!?" I cried. "I didn't know that would happen! I'm gonna go and see if I can find a doctor."
I tiptoed into my time machine.
I had always heard of the Opium War, but never really researched or knew much about it, so for my next trip I went to 1840 to witness the Opium War in action. Many people know that the war was over Britain selling China’s people opium, the drug. This of course would drain China’s economy because the drug was fairly expensive. So the Chinese wanted to stop Britain from selling it to their people. The British said no, and a war started. When we got there we landed at a port, immediately I could see how tiny the Chinese ships were in comparison to British forces. I started talking with an artist on the side of the street as he was drawing pictures of the ships. He told me that a treaty had been signed just that week, making it so that China had to negotiate on Britain’s terms because they lost control of one of their main ports. He had no idea what the future for trade would hold for China. But I did know so to keep myself from telling him I left to go to my next destination.
ReplyDeleteFor my final destination I want to see something that the Chinese invented. Someone mention that they invented gunpowder so I wanted to see it. I was not sure when they first invented it but I knew they used in the 900s for warfare. So to the 900s A.D. we went. We arrived in the middle of some fighting. The Chinese now had the upper hand however because they had guns. Almost everyone today would rely on guns instead of swords, and so did the Chinese after they had the new invention of gunpowder. I never knew that they had printing presses back then either, but it turns out the Chinese knew how to on print paper way before anyone else. Well I have visited all ten of my destinations, so now I am going to head home, talk to you next time!
ReplyDeleteAs my third trip, I thought it would be cool to meet Marco Polo, mostly because I wanted to figure out why the game 'Marco Polo' was named after him. I got into my time machine and zipped off to meet up with him. Once I got there, I found him sitting down and writing something. I introduced myself and asked him what he was writing so quickly about. He told me he was writing a book about all of his travels. He said that he was at the part about the amazing Kublai Khan. Marco started to tell me his story. He said that he, as a seventeen year old Italian, decided to leave Venice with his father and uncle and head to China. After three years of difficult travel, the famous merchant and explorer told me how Kublai Khan was impressed with his young self. Marco told me how Khan employed him as his special representative. Before I left, I asked him what about Kublai Khan's court that stood out the most to him and he told me that the arragment of seating at banquets was very paritcular. He said that Khan sits at a much higher table then the rest, then his wife would sit next to him on the left and on a somewhat lower level to the right, his sons would sit in the order of age and placed so that thier heads were leveled with Khan's feeet. At an even lower table, the noblemen would sit. Then, all the wives of Khan's sons, grandsons and kinsmen were seated on his left at even lower levels, and next to them were the wives of his nobles and knights. After discussing that, I felt like it was time to leave and go visit Genghis Khan.
ReplyDeleteSo, today as I was hanging out at the top of a building in Shanghai I casually fell off the top of the building, no big deal right. Wrong. Somehow the falling caused me to go back in time and I fell into a big pool of water. Well it was a little more than a big pool of water, it was the Grand Canal. To my displeasure the walls on the sides were too high to climb over so I had no choice but to keep swimming. Then the weirdest thing happened, Tim Tebow showed up in his private yacht traveling up the canal. He brought me on board and explained that he was going to convince the Chinese to let foreigners trade with them. When we reached the end of the canal we saw a bunch of British ships fighting a whole bunch of junks. Tebow picked up foot balls, filled with C-4, and started throwing them at the Chinese ships. Yeah, they didn't see that one coming. The Chinese fleet was quickly destroyed by Tebow the one man army. Because the Chinese greatly feared the almighty Tebow they signed the treaty of Nanjing giving exclusive trading rights to the British. So Tebow kind of forgot about the fact there was still C-4 in his boat so when we invited over Commodore Perry for a party on the yacht the pipe he was smoking blew up the ship, yeah that's cool. Nothing quite like the smell of burnt cyclotrimethylene trinitramine in the morning, HOOYAH! Due to the explosion I got sent forward in time and was back in my room, thank God.
ReplyDeleteI hoped that whatever time i got taken to would have a doctor that would put my feet back to normal. I got out of the time machine and was in a mammoth stadium with a crowd full of thousands of people. Everything was so... Modern. I saw a sign that said "2008 Beijing Olympics" I heard the announcer speak.
ReplyDelete"I am proud to present, on August 8th, 2008, the 29th Olympics, the Beijing Summer Olympics!!!" he yelled. The crowd roared.
"These Olympics are held on 8/8/08 because 8 is the Chinese number for prosperity! Without further ado, let the ceremony commence!"
I saw fireworks go across the sky and a parade of performers walk by. I figured that I would just stay and watch the games. My favorite was seeing Hussein Bolt break the 100m record. It was amazing. I then went back to the time machine.
Even though I never got to figure out why that game was named after Marco Polo, I went to go meet Genghis Khan, the fiercest Mongol leader and the grandfather of Kublai Khan and Batu. At first, I was a little timid with meeting him but after we introduced each other I asked him about his life. He started off by telling me how his original name was Temujin but he took the title Genghis Khan because it was stronger, fiercer and meant "Universal Ruler". After his name change, he went on to create an immense empire. He told me that around the 1200s, the Mongols swept down from Karakorum, their capital, under his rule. He told me how they captured a city that they named Khanbalik. This city is now known as Beijing. After that, they turned westward, conquering Central Asia and most of Perisa. My last question for him was what was next on the agenda. He told me that he was getting too old for invading and conquering other territories but that he has great expectations for his two grandsons.
ReplyDeleteOk so I thought that I would go and take a cruis for most of the journey we were just out in the open sea sailing but then the next morning I wake up and notice that we are in a giant river. I ask the captain were are we and he said rrrrrrrrrrrrr the grand canal maty. So I said cool. The entire canal was hand built and is massive it stretches just about the full length of china and just about any type of ship can pass through. It took us about two days to pass through and it was really really cool
ReplyDeleteAs my absolute final destination to China, I chose to talk to a peasant about the White Lotus Rebellion. Once I was taken away by my time machine, I found the peasant that I was supposed to talk with sitting down on the sidewalk. I asked her to tell me what had happened. She started out by telling me what started it all. She said that about 4 and a half years ago, discontent over increased taxes and growing goverenment inefficiency led to the start of the whole peasant rebellion. The White Lotus Society, which were members of a Buddhist cult, were the ones to really lead the revolt that was titled as the White Lotus Rebellion. She told me that now, in the year of 1800, the government, with great struggles, finally restored order. She told me that although it survived the rebellion, the Qing Dynasty has been seriously weakened which pleases her very much. I thanked her for the insight and conversation. I got back into my time machine and headed home for good.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I time travelled to June of 1989. I woke up in a hotel room overlooking Tiananmen Square. I looked out my hotel window and all I could see was hundreds of people flooding the Square. There were tanks and military troops surrounding them. However, what surprised me the most was that most of these people looked rather young, as though they were college students. I did not know why they were out there, so I went to get a closer look. As I stepped outside the hotel, I quickly realized that was a bad idea. The troops were shooting the protesters. I ran back upstairs to my room to get a glimpse of this horrific event from a safe distance. The troops had killed hundreds and wounded many more. I found out later that these protests were to end corruption in the government, a say in government, and better conditions in the universities. These students even went to the point of a hunger strike to get what they want. This Tiananmen Massacre most definitely caused tension between China and other countries, but also between the Chinese government and its people.
ReplyDeleteNext, I decided I wanted to get in on some of the action, so I decided the perfect thing to do was to go to the Opium War between China and Britain in 1839 which also happened to be a major turning point in China's policy on trade and its relationship with the rest of the world. I spoke to a man named Lin Tse-hsu who was put in charge of eradicating the already illegal trade of opium, an addictive drug. He said that he had tried everything to stop the opium trade and even pleaded with Queen Victoria, but when the British ignored his requests, he was forced to fight. In the three year war that followed, the Chinese army and naval forces were no match for the better-armed and better-trained British who were equipped with iron-hulled steamships. When the British gained control of the region near Nanjing, Qing officials finally agreed to negotiate on British terms, resulting in the Treaty of Nanjing. The treaty gave the British the island of Hong Kong, opened five new ports to the British, allowed British goods entering through these ports to be subject to a fixed, low tariff, and demanded that British subjects accused in Chinese ports be tried in British courts.
ReplyDeleteSadly today was my last day here in China. You'd think they'd try to send you off on a good note, well, uh China, not so much. While eating breakfast I was viscously attacked by my waffles and knocked unconscious by the toasted pastries, don't ask, I have no idea how it happened someone probably spiked the batter with wasabi or something. I woke up and I noticed that I was in the Forbidden City, the one place that I had neglected to travel to. There were a bunch of Samurai walking in formation, I figured if they saw me they would probably kill me and I would be stuck in China, yeh I'm sorry but the whole waffle incident kind of ruined the trip for me. Looking around I noticed a random panda costume and quickly put it on. Then I got up and casually explored the city looking for the way out. Stupidly I forgot that pandas walk on four legs not two, yeh so I kind of blew my cover. Then I got hit over the head with a hammer and was only partially knocked out. They dragged me to a prison were they left me, still in the hairy panda costume by the way. Then out of nowhere I was hit again in the head by a baseball bat and knocked out, if I have learned one thing on this trip it is you should defiantly bring aspirin with you to China because you get knocked out a lot. Then I woke up and found myself on a plane, I looked down at the ticket in my hand and it said Boston to China. Are you kidding me, I haven't even started my trip yet, oh this is goanna be a long trip. Yeh and especially if their waffles have minds of their own, crap this is goanna hurt.
ReplyDeleteHOOYAH!
Poof! Well this is strange it seems i have been transported to some sort of palace. It seems to be some time in the Tang Dynasty. Now this Palace seems very feminine in my opinion, as if an empress were to decorate it. WAIT! I know it must being during the reign of Empress Wu! She was the only women in the history of China to assume the title Empress Regent. It turns out she was an autocrat, she was ruthless in her desire to gain and keep power. Now after talking to some other people they told me they thought of her as a woman doing a man's job. She did what she had to do, and acted no differently than most male emperors of her day. I also learned that she managed to effectively rule China during one of its more peaceful and culturally diverse periods. Well i think thats enough of the Tang dynasty and Empress Wu. She does have a lot in the history books of China so no more of me talkin about her for now.
ReplyDeleteFor my last adventure to China, I decided to have a cup of tea with Empress Wu. She was a leader of the Tang dynast, and also the first and only woman to hold the Chinese throne in her own name. Many people thought she would not be capable of holding this high authourity. However she clearly disproved all of these remarks easily. She ruled from 690 to 705. I asked her about her religious beliefs, and from what she started to tell me, it sounded like she could continue talking about them for hours. She was one of the strongest supporter of Buddhism and it was under her rule that Buddhism reached its peak. She continued to tell me about the different sects of Buddhism, one of which was called Zen and stressed meditation. Empress Wu was a very efficient and strung ruler who brought about needed changes in the Chinese culture. She often tied her religion of Buddhism into her ruling which helped her become such a great leader. After our conversation about her rule and religion, I left China for good. I saw the purple portal that brought me to all these places and stepped through.
ReplyDeleteIt’s been a few weeks since I took my last trip into China, and I’m starting to miss it a little bit. It was so much fun seeing all these historical places and people last time and I think I need to go again. Time to start up the old time machine and get going. For my first stop I wanted to meet a powerful woman I heard about in school once so I set my dial to China during the Tang Dynasty. When I got there the woman introduced herself as Empress Wu, the first and only woman ever to rule China under her own name. I thought this was so impressive for a woman to not only be given the right to rule, but also be as successful as she was. Her rule lasted from 690 to 705.
ReplyDeleteAs I started talking to her I found out that she is a huge supporter of Buddhism. She helped spread Buddhism a great deal, and since she was such an important figure in China many others converted to Buddhism as well. I was telling her about how much of a role model she is for other countries at that time period and even today. She showed that woman can be strong, powerful rulers just like men, and they could even be more successful.
The next stop on my trip to China is to one of the great engineering marvels of the ancient world. This was the Grand Canal and to get to the Sui dynasty where the construction started. The Grand Canal was so magnificent because it linked northern and southern China for the very first time. All thought this canal was one of the Sui dynasties biggest contributions to the ancient world, they didn’t build it all by themselves but they connected existing and newly dug waterways. During the Sui dynasty’s very brief rule, which only lasted from 589 to 615, they managed to produce something so great like the Grand Canal. However, when I went to actually see all of this in person it didn’t seem as grand as I had heard or was expecting. Living in the current times probably had an impact on my views but it was still amazing to see. I could see how important it must have been to the people back then though.
ReplyDeleteMy next trip back in time was to the Qing Dynasty in 1796. When I got there I was shocked to see only fighting and civil outbreak. It appeared to be that the peasants were try to lead some sort of rebellion against the government. I was so confused about this, so I ask a peasant that I saw walking on the street to explain to me what was going on. He told me that a Buddhist cult called the White Lotus Society was leading a revolt against the government. He said that discontent over increased taxes and growing government inefficiency is what led to this peasant rebellion. I was surprised to find out that Buddhist where behind this whole revolt. This is because Buddhist is typically seen as peaceful, loving, calm, and harmonious people. The government regained order in the 1800s but the dynasty was weakened greatly.
ReplyDeleteToday I took a trip back in history to southern and central China during the 1850s. When I got there I was surprised to see that yet another rebellion was taking place. This one was called the Taiping Rebellion and it lasted from 1850 to 1864. It was strange to me that it was called Taiping because that means “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace” and there is never any peace in a rebellion. To see what this rebellion was all about I decided to sit down and talk to the man that started it all, Hong Xiuquan. When I sat down to talk to the leader of the revolt I found out that he was completely crazy! He started by saying he was influenced by Christian teaching, which seemed normal, but then he said he was the younger brother of Jesus which is just completely weird. He told me that it was his mission to start a new dynasty. He was bragging to me about all his followers which I found very odd because I wouldn’t think anyone in their right mind would follow this guy! I found out afterward that the rebellion was a complete failure and caused a terrible destruction in southern China and the Yangtze valley. Not only were millions killed by this rebellion, but cities and farmlands were also destroyed. Overall I learned that the Taiping Rebellion weakened the Qing dynasty and the nation as a whole, and that Hong Xiuquan is seriously crazy.
ReplyDeleteFor my last time travel trip today I wanted to check China back in 1839 because I heard that’s when I war broke out and I wanted to know why. When I got there I asked one of the men from the Chinese army to explain to me why Britain and China are fighting. I already knew that the war lasted from 1839 to 1842. He explained to me that all the fighting started over a little addicting drug called opium and that’s why it’s called the Opium War. It all started when China asked the British to stop there opium trade to China because they felt like they were being undermined by Britain. Even though China pleaded with them and the queen, Britain still didn’t respond to China’s demands. This is when China decided to forcefully stop them, and this is when the war broke out. The man I was talking to explained to me how this was a losing battle for China because they couldn’t beat the better armed and trained British. After the man left I went and looked up what happened in the war in 1842 on my phone. It said that the Chinese were easily defeated by Britain and they were also forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing which gave them the island of Hong Kong and it also opened five ports for British trade. All of this over a little drug seemed crazy to me so I decided to just go home.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got out of my time machine, I, like usual, had no clue when or where I was. I seemed to be in a complex lab with fizzing chemicals and many weird instruments. I saw a scientist guy working furiously. I went up to him.
ReplyDelete"This may seem like a weird question, Mr. scientist, but when and where am I?" I asked.
The scientist turned around. "Oh, Hi, my friend. You are in the Tang Dynasty, around 850 AD. And I am an alchemist, not a scientist.
"So what are you trying to make?" I asked, more curiously.
"I am attempting to make an elixir. Right now, I am combining saltpeter and charcoal. I am not sure what ingredient to put in next. The potion is supposed to give whoever drinks it the gift of eternal life."
"That's hella stupid," I said bluntly.
It was so stupid that I decided to ruin the experiment. I took a random tube filled with yellow liquid and poured it into the solution.
"You nimrod!" The alchemist yelled. "That's sulfur! You ruined the experiment!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
We both got knocked back. Smoke filled the room. When the smoke cleared, we both got up and looked at our creation. It was a grey, grainy powder that seemed explode when it was put near fire.
"I think we invented gunpowder!" I said, jumping for joy.
We decided to show the emperor our great invention. We walked into his palace and made an appointment with him. We entered his throne room and proposed our idea.
"We call this blackpowder," said the alchemist. "You can use it to make fireworks."
"Screw that idea," I rudely said. "Use it to make stuff like this."
I tossed the emperor the AK-47 I always keep in my back pocket.
"I will use this black powder for both." proclaimed the emperor. "Good job, you guys. Now, we can wreck our enemies and celebrate after."
We each got paid millions of dollars. I left to go home. I went to the nearest ancient China money converter and became filthy rich, not caring that I invented the deadliest weapon to ever exist.
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ReplyDeleteNow its time for some recent history. The 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. It was literally one of the most stunning things i have ever seen. it started with thousands of Chinese men drumming. as they drummed the lights lit up and made patterns and numbers. it was the craziest thing i have ever seen. once the countdown reached zero the most spectacular fireworks i have ever seen launched before my eyes. i have never be so amazed in my life it was just jaw dropping and just put me in shock and awe. this was probably the greatest of my trips so far. after that it led to a lot of dancing and performing arts by Chinese acrobats and dancers. then it was the beginning of the Olympics. i stuck around to watch China lose to team USA in the basketball. in my opinion it was no surprise.
ReplyDeleteWell id like to discuss a recent trip to China in which i learned a very disturbing fact. It turns out in Chinese culture women having large feet was considered gross in a way. i guess it was considered beautiful and supposedly made women's walk more feminine to have tiny narrow feet. well it turns out when the girl was in between 2 and 5 her toes were taken and pushed to her feet eliminating the arch of the foot completely. it was horribly painful and actually managed to stay around into the 20th century. it caused many foot disabilities and infections and caused many struggles for Chinese women. just a disgusting thing to have to learn about. sorry about sharing it with you listeners. i shall leave you on that note.
ReplyDelete