Jo retweetledi
The second I saw this meme I knew I had to redraw it 🤗 (original in comments)
#tgcf #Heavenofficialsblessing #tianguancifu #xielian
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Jo
8.9K posts
Jo
@Jomo_Life
escaping end stage capitalism in the jianghu || hualian❤️wangxian ❤️ranwan || danmei all || support fandom writers/artists || 18+ 🔞 || nsfw || AO3: Jomo_Life
Florida, USA Katılım Nisan 2022
665 Takip Edilen232 Takipçiler
Jo retweetledi
An excellent footnote that gives more depth of meaning to this section #tgcf #heavenofficialsblessing #tianguancifu
ClearNoodle256@ClearNoodle256
I just added a massive translator's note for the last question of the One Thought Bridge ghost.👀 Maybe now you can understand the ghost a little more 😅 Read the full revised #tgcf with Smooth Reader smoothreads.world/c/gwyc/mo-xian…
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x.com/ZhaiXiang5/sta…
A seal once belonging to the earliest recorded empress in Chinese history was, astonishingly, picked up by a 13-year-old boy, from a muddy drainage ditch, two thousand years after her death.
Today, this seal is housed in the Shaanxi History Museum and is considered one of its most prized treasures. It measures just 2.8 cm across, 2 cm in height, and weighs only 33 grams. Yet its value is beyond measure.
Carved from fine Hotan mutton-fat white jade from Xinjiang, its texture is smooth and lustrous, and flawless. On the base are four characters: Seal of the Empress (皇后之玺). Surrounding them are cloud motifs, and the knob is a high-relief carving of a mythical beast, a fusion of dragon and tiger, majestic and lively.
In 1968, a 13-year-old rural boy would go to a nearby drainage ditch after school every day to hunt for treasure-collecting ancient bronze nails and coins. One day, as usual, he was rummaging through the mud when he noticed an unremarkable white stone.
He struggled to pry it out of the mud. After wiping it clean, he saw that it had characters carved on the bottom, and a small animal figure atop.
He took the little stone back home, even thinking about polishing off the inscription and carving his own name. If not for his father taking a second look, Chinese history might have lost a national treasure.
Sensing it could be something valuable, his father took him to the Shaanxi History Museum. There, it was identified as a national treasure, the imperial seal of a Western Han empress.
That empress was Empress Lv (吕后), wife of Liu Bang (刘邦), the founding emperor of the Han dynasty. In many ways, she stands as China's counterpart to Cleopatra.
The museum rewarded the father and son with the equivalent of about half a month's wages, asking them to enjoy some lamb soup with crumbled flatbread and get a ride home. They enjoyed the meal, but decided to save the fare, walking several hours back instead, arriving at home after nightfall.
What makes the story even more remarkable is that the seal's own disappearance reads like a historical mystery. It was found very close to the mausoleums of Liu Bang and Empress Lv. In 25 AD, those tombs were brutally looted.
The seal may have come from the underground palace and got dropped by grave robbers in their haste. Or perhaps it was once kept in an above-ground structure, later destroyed, with the seal washed away and buried in mud, lying hidden underground for two thousand years.
No one knew where it was. No one even remembered it existed. Until the child picked it up from a ditch.
In 1974, China was still in a period of turmoil. Led by Jiang Qing, the Gang of Four wielded immense power. She held herself in high regard, projecting herself onto powerful women from history. She admired Empress Lv, and she admired Wu Zetian (武则天), the only female sovereign in the history of China, seeing them as reflections of herself.
And so, she did something both absurd and yet entirely real-She had the jade seal transferred to Beijing.
Taken away. Kept in her possession. Handled and admired for two full years.
A seal that had lain buried for two thousand years, newly brought back into the light, was once again drawn into the orbit of power.
It was not until 1976, when the Gang of Four fell and Jiang Qing was arrested, that the seal was finally returned to Shaanxi. It was as if it had completed a cycle spanning two millennia.
As a side note:
Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, is never recorded in historical texts as having an empress. Because of this, many believe he may not have established the institution of "empress" at all.
It was Empress Lv who truly brought this title onto the historical stage. As for her husband, Liu Bang, I've introduced his story in a previous post. Empress Lv's own life was just extraordinary as well.
She was named Lv Zhi (吕雉), with Zhi meaning "pheasant." Before the age of twenty, she moved with her father to Liu Bang's hometown. Because her father was a friend of the county magistrate, many people came to offer congratulations. Those who brought gifts worth a thousand coins could only dine outside the hall.
Liu Bang, however, claimed he had brought ten thousand coins and strode into the banquet, despite having brought nothing at all.
Lv's father did not expose him. Instead, he offered him a seat of honor. According to historical records, he was skilled in physiognomy, the practice of judging a person's character and destiny from their facial features.
After the banquet, he even kept Liu Bang behind. What he saw was not the gift, but the man himself, his bearing and what he believed to be his infinite future potential.
Therefore, Liu Bang, a bachelor around his forties, married Lv, who was 20 years younger than him. Soon, his life started to change dramatically.
During Liu Bang's competition against Xiang Yu for supremacy, Lv was once captured, but she survived.
From 202BC to 195BC, Liu Bang ruled China as the emperor. In the fifteen years after he died, she became the true holder of power in the Han dynasty. Strong-willed and decisive, she determined who lived and who died, who rose and who fell, who belonged to the empire, and who would be erased.
She held no imperial title, yet possessed everything an emperor did.
At the time, the head of the Xiongnu (Huns) sent a letter, probing and tinged with condescension:
"I am a lonely ruler, born in the marshes and raised on the steppe. I have come to the borders many times, hoping one day to visit the Central Plains. Your Majesty rules alone as well, living in solitude. We are both solitary sovereigns, neither of us content. Why not exchange what we each have, for what we each lack?"
Faced with such a subtle provocation, Empress Lv briefly considered military retaliation. But after weighing the strength of her state, she chose a far more measured response.
In her reply, she wrote:
"You have not forgotten our humble and remote land, and have personally sent us your letter, which fills me with awe and unease. I reflected carefully. I am now old and frail-my strength has waned, my hair and teeth have fallen, and I can't walk well. You must have heard exaggerated praise of my appearance. How could someone like me dare diminish your illustrious presence? I have committed no offense against you, and I trust you will be magnanimous. I now send you two imperial carriages and eight fine horses as a modest token."
With a single letter, she defused the provocation, while preserving dignity on both sides.
Today, the boy who once donated a national treasure for a bowl of lamb soup is in his seventies. People still travel to visit him, listening as he recounts that moment from long ago.
He says he has never regretted it.
Because what he gained back then was not just a meal, but the return of a piece of history that had been buried for two thousand years.
Zhai Xiang@ZhaiXiang5
Xuzhou (徐州) has long been a vital transportation hub in China, and it was also the hometown of Liu Bang (刘邦), the founder of the Western Han dynasty (202 BC–9 AD). Liu Bang was known for his bold and generous personality, though he also carried a certain roguish charm. Even around his forties, he was still an ordinary man. His position was like a chief of a small community police station today. One day, upon seeing the grand procession of the First Emperor of Qin (秦始皇), he could not help but exclaim: "A true man should be like this." At the time, it was probably nothing more than admiration. But fate was about to take a dramatic turn. In 209 BC, after the death of Qin Shi Huang, uprisings broke out across the land against the harsh rule of Qin. Amid the chaos, Liu Bang gradually built his own following, relying on his character, and a measure of luck. His leadership drew super talented strategists and formidable warriors to his side, many of whom became fiercely loyal to him. Gradually, the chaos of the age turned into a struggle for destiny between two men: Liu Bang, in his forties, and Xiang Yu (项羽), a warrior in his twenties. Xiang Yu was immensely strong and a brilliant military commander, fearless in battle. But he was indecisive, poor at governance, and often unwilling to heed advice. Liu Bang, by contrast, was no match for Xiang Yu on the battlefield. Yet he excelled at something else: He knew how to use people, and how to win their loyalty. What seemed like an uneven contest was rewritten again and again. Xiang Yu, despite his overwhelming advantage, missed critical opportunities at decisive moments. Liu Bang, seemingly the weaker side, advanced step by step, until victory was his. In 202 BC, the struggle ended. By a river, Xiang Yu took his own life. Less than a decade earlier, Liu Bang had been an unknown man, standing by the roadside, gazing at the emperor's procession in awe. Now, he became the Son of Heaven himself. Liu Bang had three brothers. The one he trusted most, also the most learned, was Liu Jiao (刘交). He was enfeoffed as King of Chu (楚), with his capital in their hometown, Xuzhou. The state of Chu had once been one of the most powerful kingdoms of the Warring States period (BC475-BC221), second only to Qin, controlling vast territories across southern China. Both Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were, in origin, men of Chu. In 223 BC, Qin conquered Chu. In bitterness, the people of Chu once swore: "Even if only three households of Chu remain, Qin will surely fall to Chu (楚虽三户，亡秦必楚)." And in the end, it did. Xiang Yu overthrew Qin. Liu Bang replaced the Mandate. Both were men of Chu. By enfeoffing his brother, Liu Bang, in a sense, gave Chu a new lease of life. The tombs of Liu Bang's brother and his descendants in Xuzhou were remarkably lavish. They were constructed by hollowing out entire hillsides, a method strikingly similar to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Their fate, too, was similar: they were almost all looted. In 1986, archaeologists discovered two gold belt hooks in the tomb believed to belong to an early Western Han King of Chu. Each was shaped like a swan-measuring just 3.3 cm in length and weighing 25 grams. But in another, even older tomb in Huainan, there was a far lonelier object. The images on the top right and below show the only gold artifact unearthed two years ago from the tomb of King Kaolie of Chu (楚考烈王)-the most powerful ruler of Chu in its final years during the Warring States period. It is shaped like a duck, 4.3 cm long and weighing 45 grams. King Kaolie's grandfather had once been held hostage in Qin, where he miserably died. Before becoming king himself, Kaolie too had lived bitterly in Qin as a hostage. After ascending the throne, he sought to restore Chu's former glory, but failed. His tomb, consisting of nine wood chambers, had already been looted a thousand years ago. Otherwise, this small golden duck would not have been the only piece of gold left behind. Although its form resembles the swan-shaped belt hooks left decades later in Han dynasty Chu tombs, its exact function remains unknown. Empires rise and fall, but what survives are not the winners, but the traces they leave behind.
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Peak destructive OCD behavior in a danmei bl: Hua Xin, leader of the immortals, in 300 Years of Longing by Mu Su Li #danmei #bl #300yearsoflonging
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yes AO3 writers please write in your notes under your fic what inspired you to write this fic. What you had for dinner, why you disappeared for three years and updated just now, what science shit you learned just to include it in your fic and you’re explaining it to us. Anything.
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