I shouldn't really have opened such a new blog on Google, for I already have one on msn in use, not to say that I have abandoned another one before.
However, it is the first time ever that I open a blog in English. And it's not for the practising of my English along, but also to share my knowledge in history, especially in Chinese history, with potential readers around the world, (However, if there aren't so many, I will not despair, but rather enjoy writing on my own) as the name of my blog 'Memories of Palace' has indicated this point. The 'palace', more precisely, should have been 'The Forbidden City'. But I later preferred the former title, partly due to a beautiful music of the same name (which was inspired by the grandness of the Forbidden City, link of music http://www.tudou. com/programs/view/ jeOfNM4IBI/), partly because I don't want to bound my writings by the Ming and Qing dynasties of China. I will seek to expand my topics. But I will also seek to combine all my writings here with a historical sense.
It's interesting to start a blog on history when you have just taken a history exam on that morning, sitting four hours in a hall writing on a featured topic on religion and power. My first extension was about China (My homeland, of course!)---China didn't really develop a native religion by modern sense, either Taoism or Confucianism could be classified as religion by a rigid standard, yet their combination produced the basic theory for legitimacy of a ruler (emperor in most cases) :The 'Mandate of Heaven'. To make a long story short, the Emperor of China was not only a secular ruler, but also the incarnation of God on earth, that's why an Emperor, especially in Ming and Qing dynasties, was called 'Son of Heaven'.
A 'Son of Heaven' of Ming and Qing , in most cases, enjoyed absolute domination in the Empire's politics and gained the utmost reverence from people both in and out of the royal court. However, there were exceptions even for the noblest 'Son of Heaven'. Princess Der Ling, daughter of a Manchu envoy to France in late Qing dynasty once wrote a historical novel in English carrying the same title ('Son of Heaven'), which recounted a true life of perhaps the most tragic Emperor in Chinese history.
You might have noticed the photo of the young Emperor Guangxu (1871~1908) on the right corner of my blog , who is the hero of Der Ling's novel and also the Emperor I admire the most, yet he actually didn't manage to practice the power of a real Emperor even for one day. Moreover, he led a tragic life comparable to that of Hemlet and Mary Stuart . Indeed, my admiration and partiality towards the Emperor is similar to Jane Austen's admiring Mary Stuart (As she once referred to Elizabeth Ⅰas ' the villain' and her victim as 'the bewitching princess'),which is an obsession tracing back to childhood when I contemplated daddy's ' The complete biographies of Chinese Emperors' and accidentally caught sight of him. At that time, neither the Internet nor English existed in my world, yet I now endeavor to share my knowledge and feelings about Guangxu Emperor as well as his contemporaries by applying both.
