The First Wonder of
Guizhou
A Coded Message on a Red
Cliff
29 May 2006
In China's remote
mountainous Guizhou province where the
unspoiled natural beauty is characterised
by limestone hills, rocky caves, roaring
waterfalls and terraced rice fields, a
gigantic red cliff rising 30 metres from
the level ground bears mysterious
symbols. This cliff is known as the First
Wonder of Guizhou - Red Cliff Relics (红崖天书).
The locatoin of
Guizhou Province highlighted in
red colour
The Landscape of
Guizhou
The sizes of the
symbols vary, from one metre to two
metres, so do their shapes, some
resembling pictographic characters,
others looking more like abstract
drawings. And they are neither lined up
horizontally, nor arranged vertically.
This piece of
wonder has bewildered and puzzled Chinese
historians and the general public for
centuries. What are they? The work of
Mother Nature? The written language of a
lost tribe? Or, a message to the mankind
from an alien civilisation?
The
First Wonder of Guizhou
Recently,
however, some researchers in China came
up with an amazing theory: it is none of
the above but an imperial decree written
in code.
The earliest
record of this dates back to the middle
Ming dynasty (1368 - 1646). Following
this clue, they carefully studied the
copy of the symbols and discerned some
Chinese characters in assorted written
styles, such as "yun" (允) on the top left corner,
"bing" (丙) adjacent to "shu"
(戍), and "xin"
(心) for heart under
a reversed "yi" (乙) for swallow.
In the Chinese
calendar system, "bing" and
"shu" together represent
a fire dog year (like 2006, also a fire
dog year), which appears only every 60
years. During the early Ming dynasty
period, there was only one fire dog year,
which is year 1406, and this led the
researchers to look hard into another
unsolved conundrum in Chinese history:
the mysterious disappearance of the
second Ming emperor, Jianwen.
In 1368, the
first emperor of Ming overthrew the
tyrannic Mongol reign and founded the
last authentic Chinese Dynasty Ming (明: character "sun"
plus "moon", meaning
enlightened). While he moved the capital
from Beijing to southern city Nanjing, he
sent his fourth son back to strengthen
the frontier defence in the north. Since
the abbreviation of Beijing in Chinese is
"yan" (which is also a
character for swallow), the fourth son
was titled Prince of Yan.
When the first
Ming emperor died in 1398, power passed
to his grandson Yunwen who ruled under
the title "Jianwen".
Emperor Jianwen
was gentle, relaxed and poetic by nature
in contrary to his grandfather, an
aggressive warlord. He proclaimed a
general amnesty, put Confucian officials in the
key positions to replace the military
chiefs, and scaled down the bureau system
to lighten the burden of taxpayers. Harsh
laws were modified, excessive land taxes
were reduced, and orphanages and nursing
houses for childless elderly were
installed. He was also a believer in the
value of wide consultation in
policy-making, and welcomed criticisms.
Once he was censured by an official for
being late to a daily court morning
meeting. Despite the criticism was not
entirely justified as it was caused by a
sudden illness, the emperor still
publicly apologised. But he was too young
therefore too inexperienced, and too much
of an idealist to rule a huge kingdom
effectively. When he tried to restrict
the power of his prince uncles who
overruled their residing provinces with
their private armies, the princes
rebelled. They soon rallied around Prince
of Yan who had designs on the throne.
After four years
of bloody battle, Prince of Yan carried
the day and his armed forces entered
Nanjing. The palace was set on fire, and
burned bodies were claimed to be those of
Emperor Jianwen and his empress, although
the official documents later admitted
that his remains were never positively
identified.
The majority of
the civil officials, however, refused to
serve under the new emperor. Eventually
tens of thousands were executed,
incarcerated or banished, along with
their families, relatives, friends,
students and even neighbours. Dark
military power of an autocratic prince
had overcome a short enlightened period
of Confucian liberalism.
But legends were
passed on that Emperor Jianwen escaped
his fate and had fled, possibly,
overseas, and that Prince of Yan, now
Emperor Yongle, was sending fleets led by
his trusted eunuch Zheng He to
locate the whereabouts of his
predecessor.
Although this
tragic hero's post-emperorhood existence
has become a subject of popular
fascination and literary motif for good
600 years, opinions are widely divided
among the historians. Was he indeed burnt
to death at the tender age of
twenty-four, or he actually lived to a
ripe old age and became an eminent
Buddhist monk?
Yet by connecting
the symbols on the red cliff to this
piece of history, the researchers were
able to break up the code. An image at
the top right corner is identified as
containing three distorted Chinese
characters in Seal Style: "yun"
(允),
"wen" (文) and "majesty"
(上) - the
classic form of address in an imperial
decree. And the one above the
"heart" is recognised as the
ancient character "swallow"
written in a revered way - usurpation in
Chinese is often represented by character
"fan" (反 ), meaning reverse, so
this code seems to be illustrating the
fact that Prince of Yan is an usurper.
Having deciphered
all the symbols, the researchers
announced that the red cliff was once
used as an imperishable message board by
Emperor Jianwen who invented the coded
language to publically communicate with
his officials in exile.
Many historians
in China, nevertheless, are yet to be
convinced. They doubt it is truly an
imperial decree in disguise, or it was
indeed issued by Emperor Jianwen, and
after all, the young man ever survived
the place fire on Lunar 13 June (13 July)
1402 in the first place.
Emperor Yongle (Prince
of Yan), who relocated China's
capital to Beijing, built the
Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven,
and initiated the biggest naval
expeditions in history
Here is an
ancient Chinese couplet that praises the
top two wonders in Guizhou: Huangguoshu
Waterfall and Red Cliff Relics:
“白水如棉，不用弓弹花自散；红岩似火，何须薪助焰亦高.”
Related website: Emperor Jianwen Research
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