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From Magic City Morning Star R.P. BenDedek
Continuing the story of a recent trip to Nanjing 3rd April 2008
As I have written previously I caught the super fast train from SuZhou to Nanjing to meet up with Mingxing who was flying in from Chengdu. He made it from the airport to the Train station around the same time that I arrived there, but we spent two hours wandering around looking for each other. I am not going to be unkind and explain the reason for this, but for over an hour I was standing right at the exit point for passengers. Anyway, when we did meet up, we took the Tourist No 1 bus from the Railway station out to Zhongshan Donglu (East zhongshan street) and got off at the stop in front of the remnants of the ancient City wall. Mingxing had chosen this point to head for, because it was central to everything that we wished to visit. Within a few minutes walk we discovered the Ming Palace Hotel at No.311 East Zhongshan Road. They served great meals in their restaurant. It was late in the day by the time we arrived, and so after settling in at the hotel, we went for a walk up to the city wall remnants and had a look see. That section of the wall is very short, unlike other parts of it around the city, but from it we had some spectacular views, which prompted us to take a walk along the lake.
The following day, April 4th we travelled out to the Zhongshan Mountain National Park and spent the day looking over Sun Yatsen's mausoleum area and the Ming Tomb. That was a strenuous day. Had we had more time in Nanjing, we might even have taken the cableway up to the top of the mountain, from which, as some tourists report, one has really spectacular views. On Saturday 5th, Mingxing took me off to find the Confucius Temple and from there we went on to the Nationalist Government's Presidential Palace complex within which you can find relics related to the Taiping Heavenly King. What started out as a quick trip to the Confucius Temple actually ended up becoming quite an interesting series of visits to nearby sites. We started out by Catching the No 2 tourist bus to the 'Walking Steet' and this took us to a section of the Qinhuai river.
Qinhuai River Qinhuai River, known as Huaishui River or Longcangpu in ancient times, rises from two places: Baohuashan Mountain in Jurong County and Donglushan Mountain in Lishui County. The two streams meet at the foot of Fangshan Mountain, Jiangning County, then winds its way of 110 km to Yangzi River. The river that flows through Nanjing measures 10 li (5 kn) and this part is called Inner Qinhuai River.
The River has a long history. As early as in Neolithic Age, it nurtured the early settlers along the banks. Now the Inner Qinhuai has become the center of culture and economy of Nanjing.
The walking street riverfront area is really beautiful, and at Kingscalendar I provide a panoramic series of photographs that allows you to get a better picture of the area than I can provide here.
The Confucius Temple is located right on the walking street opposite the river, and it is not all that imposing when you first look at it. When you enter (through the ticket gate of course) you follow a path that leads to the Bronze statue (shown below), and along the path are a series of 'Book-like' Statues that recount details of some notable scholars. Ming Shun (536 B.C. --?) Styled as Zi Ye, Ming Shun lived in State Lu in the late Spring-Autumn Period. As a disciple of confucious, he was noted for his devoutness to his parents, love for his brothers and self-discipline. Ming Shun was reputed for his "Refusal to become an official and stand against embezzlement." was regarded as one of ten philosophers of four subjects under Confucius (the subject of morality).
Bronze Sculpture of Confucius Named as Qiu and styled as Zhongni, Confucius was born in 551 B.C. in Quyi, State Lu (present-day Qufu, Shandong province) during the Spring-Autumn Period. He passed away at the age of 73 in 479 B.C. As the great thinker, educator and statesman in Chinese history, Confucius is reputed by people of following generations as one who integrated the ancient history and culture of Chinese nation. The bronze sculpture of Confucius, 4.18 meters high and 2,500 kilograms in weight, was carved my Mr. Wu Xianlin, cast by Nanjing Chenguang Machine-Building Factory and erected on January 8, 1993. It is the highest bronze sculpture of Confucius in China so far.
The complex itself is a series of buildings (as you will read below) - nothing spectacular except for the Shrine room itself, which contains a series of Wall mosaics carved in Stone, and a monstrous painting of Confucius. The Scholastic Palace It was the reading place for students ready to attend imperial examinations in the old days. The scholastic palace was already built together with the Confucius Temple since people in ancient times were bant on following the doctrines of preceding sages. As the culture and educational center of Nanjing in ancient times, this scholastic palace was built before Confucius Temple came into being. As Taixue (imperial school) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, it was built in the third year under Xiankang reign of emperor Chendi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (337 A.D.) This scholastic palace is chiefly based on Mingde Hall and Zunjing Pavilion, with the temple in the front and the school in the rear. It was known as "Number One School in Southeastern China" thanks to its spectacular scale. The horizontal tablet above its gate, which reads "Number One School in Southeastern China", was inscribed by Qin Dashi, a Number-One Scholar of Nanjing in the Qing Dynasty. This scholastic palace functioned as the National School for a time from the end of Yuan Dynasty to early Ming Dynasty. In the fourteenth year under the Hongwu reign of Ming Dynasy (1381), it was named Yintian School. In the late Qing Dynasty, imperial examinations gave way to school education. In 1906, the scholastic palace began to run Jiangnin Public School and Youyou Elementary School. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), Li Ziying started to run Jiangnin Municipal 24th Elementary School. After 1927, Fuzimiao (Confucius Temple) Elementary School was established based on the merger of three schools. For over 1,000 years, the scholastic palace has brought up many talents, giving an impetus to the prosperity of culture and education in Nanjing.
When we left the complex and before heading off to the Presidential Palace we were just wandering around, when we stumbled upon a funny little place which turned out to be the remnants of the Imperial Examinations Centre. At one time, it contained 20,644 examination rooms. Whilst it was obviously once a huge place, (judging by the 'model' on display), it wasn't quite as big as you might imagine a 20 thousand room place to be. The examination rooms were just meter wide boxes which contained a bed/desk to which the examinees were confined for the several days necessary to complete their exams. These rooms are set up as displays and each has a mannequin in it that depicts something of the trials and tribulations of the examinees, and includes one in which a 'snake' was attacking one person, and another in which the examinee is being burned by fire. So much for the good old days.
Whilst Chinese students no longer submit to Imperial Examinations, nothing much has changed for them, aside from their living conditions. Examinations are examinations the world over. This 'bright' boy in the photo below is Mingxing, which means 'bright star', and he is certainly a star on the rise. Currently studying in Chengdu, he is a 'natural speaker' of English, and completely able to discuss any topic with any foreigner who may wish to talk with him. Along with two other students, (and not allowed to speak Chinese) he shared a house with me for one year. He has had Five and a half years experience of normal English conversation at normal speed.
He will, if some foreign company is fortunate enough to hire him, be a most excellent and productive member of Staff, and who knows, given time, an excellent multi-national liason officer. (He is currently studying German). He has initiative, commonsense and a mind that has had years of exposure to every imaginable topic that a foreigner might wish to discuss. If it were not for Mingxing, I would never have seen what I did in Nanjing, and certainly have missed out on seeing Emeishan and LeShan Buddha in Chengdu. When we get together I just say, "Well mate! If you don't plan something for us to do, you know I'll just sit in front of the TV." He plans it, and I just follow the leader.
Well, that's it for today. Given a little more time I will present to you some photographs relating to Sun Yatsen's Mausoleum and Chiang Kaishek's connection to the Presidential Palace in Nanjing. Until then, I hope you have enjoyed these photos. There is more text and many more and larger photographs spread over 2 files at Kingscalendar.
R.P.BenDedek Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com Already Published in this series:
Photographic Stories from China at Magic City "The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
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