Women who service the King

 Why should a woman want to "service" a gentleman?

     

Why should women want to "service" the King? Already, there is a disparity of equality. It was said that the King's many women, brought from around Hangzhou, from the city and the farms, "wanted to please." The emphasis is on this "willingness," in the telling of the story. But in reality, they were probably given little choice in the matter. And the average man, at this time, has one wife and is relatively poor. He works from sunup to sunset. King Fanfur, however, had ample time for the “erotic”!

From Marco Polo’s Description of the World, “…and he made the said [damsels] run with dogs and he gave chase these kinds of animals; and "played with his courtesans in the woods," which faced one another above the said lakes.  Leaving their clothes there, they "came out of [the woods] naked, and entered into the water and set themselves to swim, some on one side and some on the other, and he (the King) stayed to watch them with the greatest delight; and then (they) went back home.”[i]

Where was all this on the map?

Where was this? If you go to the 2005 Beijing report Number 9 or the posting here, you will see “4a.” In general, these are the “hills which face one another,” that Marco Polo described.  Within those hills is area "4," which is speculated to have had porticoes on a covered walkway. The actual quarters of the "1,000 women," would have been on two sides of the covered walkway. (Choose the first slide. Make sure that it is larger by clicking on it.)

If we allow an India connection, in mythology the Indian god, Krishna, as an adolescent, was interested in pranks. He called upon the “Cowgirls” to go swimming with him. They disrobed. He sat in a tree and watched them. Not so unlike King Fanfur's diversions!

The Grumpy Sweeper

 

The Grumpy Sweeper's Special Route

The Grumpy Sweeper

I met the aforementioned sweeper on one of my hikes to the 18 Lohans. He was, well, a sweeper of roads, but he was incredibly knowledgeable about local hiking, too! I’d also met a Chinese band of hiking fellows, about 45-50 of them, and they were a great group. This sweeper seemed rather put out - grouchy, even - for what reasons I dared not guess, nor ask. But to my surprise, he made a proposal. He would lead some of us on a hike to the 18 Lohans area. So that we did.

 

His grumpy disposition continued over the first half of the hike: “We didn't know how our country's hikes would come out," he grumbled. "We didn’t know what we were doing, etc., etc.” But he successfully delivered us to the 18 Lohans. Hoping to buck up our crusty leader, but not sure what would, I told him, “Good job!”

 

What he did then was strange and not intuitively obvious. He headed into the forest, on a path I hadn’t seen, in the opposite direction! Off he went, and not wanting to lose sight of him, I headed into the forest after him. A few other Chinese came with us.

 

The path was a bit narrow. And unmarked. But we followed it. It was uphill quite a bit, then  downhill... where was he taking us? The trail undulated, going over ridges, until, somewhat to our surprise, the band of us arrived safely at the village. A great finale, filled with suspense! And a change had come over the sweeper - his mood had lifted! Was it because he had been able to share that "secret leg" of the hike with us?  Was it hearing, "good job" ? Only the forest knows the answer.

Check the Google Earth for location.

The Beijing Archaeological Survey

 The Beijing Archaeological Survey

 

In 2004 Krista and I interviewed a woman, very animated, who talked about Beijing's archaeological survey against the backdrop of the survey itself! As she spoke, couple of men were working on a piece of road, just a short distance behind her. They were the Beijing archaeological team! I intersected with them several times - I, with my Moule map, and they with their Sung wall excavation! 

Now we are due back along Songcheng Road. On my last visit, I photographed many houses alongside this section of road  but I can’t find them now. As I ponder this, my stomach growling, I realize it's time to get back for the dinner at Beijing!

 

Click here to go to the Beijing Archaeological Survey. 

West Lake "Fishback"

 

I love Chinese food!  On the way back to dinner, I began to remember my first China trip in 1991. I was in Hangzhou with Professor Ho. He was giving me background on every place, and dish, that were tops for tasty eats. He reserved highest marks for "Westlake Fish." This led to a delicious flashback - my first experience eating Westlake Fish.

West Lake fish is like poetry. You take one bite. First you taste one element, “reeds in water,” next you feel, “vinegar,” still in a watery landscape (all this requires some moments), and then comes the flavor of “the fish”! 

Such poetry!

 

Ok, enough about my "fishback!"

 

The Location of the Palance now; Mushrooms!

 The Palace, alongside a Farmer's Market

 

The “Da Nei” (the “big inside,” or Palace interior over 700 years ago), was in fact right on the same street where a farmer’s market is now. You can check it. On the map it is "2." Check it here.

 

A Tunnel of... Mushrooms?

 

We head down Songcheng Road. It’s downhill all the way! There is a rise on the left, and a roadmark telling us it's about mile to the next location. The roadmark is a tunnel in the cliff. What kind of tunnel? (It is located at "10" on the map.)

The area is forested. As we come upon the tunnel, the forest clears to reveal a road in the distance. The first time I photographed this chamber it was silent and empty. The next time, about a year later, the tunnel was full of mushrooms with at least one attendant! It was marked “wholesale,” and the attendant was as amazed to see me as his customer, as I was to find him!   But today, the tunnel is once again silent and empty.  Maybe the wholesale business hasn’t held up, or he has found a better location than a tunnel at the edge of a forest. Any number of other possible reasons come to mind! 

Check here for the mushroom video of 2004.

 

We've reached the upper part of Songcheng Road. Here the road meets the trail and it’s where Beijing has done their archaeological survey of the old Palace's city walls.

The 18 Lohans

 

The Buddha?

The Eighteen Lohans

 

The next “scenic area” contains the Eighteen Lohans. They are on a bluff facing passerby. There are old ones, young ones - each of the eighteen are different. In Chinese mythology, each serves a different function.

 

The Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, CA, currently has a visage of the eighteen Lohans. In it they are meant to be different, wildly different. There is a spindly man, a fat man and someone who is very severe, and so on. You find that on Phoenix Hill as well.

 

The Three Buddhas Grotto

 

At this juncture, we can turn about to head down what will become Songcheng Road to town, or we can go uphill to see the “Three Buddhas Grotto.” A “Sweeper” I met mentioned yet another way back to the city from here, but the three buddhas are beckoning! 

 

We head uphill to the “Three Buddhas Grotto."  It’s not far, but alas! No Buddhas are in it!  Robbers have taken all three!

 

The Palace – NOT!

 

Now a slight turn downhill - almost to the house where the two women live. But not quite. Just before reaching the house, look down the cliff. There, fifty feet down, is where I first thought the Palace used to be! Further research revealed that this area was too remote to be the right site.  The Palace was large and commodious, and sat inside the area where "the hills face each other." On this early hike, I hadn't yet discovered that area.  So if something WAS here, it wasn't the Palace!

Consider going to our slide collection and also to our video selection.

The Ciyuin Buddhist Temple

 

The Ciyuin

Ciyuin Buddhist Temple (Cloud-Resting Buddhist Temple) 

 

The path through the trees takes us to the Ciyuin Temple. This Buddhist temple feels "out in the wilds" but we're only a ten minute walk from Hangzhou. A very long, yellow wall borders the grounds around the temple. Once you go in, the temple area itself is considerably smaller. The censor, which is large and impressive, is in the center. There are benches about, placed on the four sides of the rectangular courtyard.

And it was here I heard a story about a Buddhist monk. It was told to me by one of the Chinese women on the tour I took here in 2002, one of three I took with Cal Poly Pomona.

 

The monk worked at the seminary for some years, right at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. When it happened, the monks at the Ciyuin temple became restive, and gradually this monk was “tipped over” into joining the cause of the Cultural Revolutionaries! 

And there he existed, for a while.  But he was regretful, and this, over time, caused him to go back to the Ciyuin. He was interviewed by the Abbot of the Ciyuin. He made such a case, wanting to return to temple life, that all there welcomed him back! The Cultural Revolution was 1966-1976. He stayed well into the Ciyuin’s future after the Cultural Revolution.

 

I photographed the Ciyuin long after. One image, “End of the Road,” is a pillar at the end of a long wall, showing a left turn into “nowhere.”

 

The Ciyuin's endurance, through the Cultural Revolution especially, makes it seem to me a precious and unlikely treasure. I was moved to donate 50 yuan to the monastery, and I interviewed the Abbot in 2004.

 

Toward the Moonrock

 

Departing the Ciyuin, we make our way "left" on the path, leading to more new territory. Everyone is so free to wander the whole area. I wonder at first if anyone would object to my presence, given my GPS unit. But the area is without heightened precautions.

 

About a mile upward in the forest is the “Moonrock.” This is the occasion for the Great Moon-viewing, on the eighth month, fifteenth day. This tradition  began as a moon-viewing event for the primary court: the King and Queen of the Sung, (long before Marco Polo in 1296) and the maidens – 1,000 of them, dedicated to servicing the King.

 

The House Where Two Women Live

 

If we continue up and then down the path, it will gradually become more formal, with steps and a concrete path. It's then that we'll see "the house where the two women live." It's different from the dwellings where we began our hike - recently built, with "above average" construction. We descend a long line of steps, then proceed past the house (the path passes very close to it!). The path takes us along “contour” lines which are parallel and uphill. Off on the right is a bluff, but pass it by.

Here a video of of the Ciyuin Buddhist Temple made in 2004.

Going to Bejing!

 

Going to Beijing

 

I’m back in Beijing! It is September 5, 2005. I’ve come over from the States. My journey's been tiresome but it’s almost over. Once again I see the grand view of the airport as the plane lands, then the guy waiting for me after customs. And the busy blur in the parking lot. Hallelujah, I’m here!

 

Why my return to Beijing? Officially, to deliver a report on my hike through what had once been the Last Palace of the Southern Sung, near the old downtown of Hangzhou. Personally, to see if I could separate historical fact from (albeit delightful) historical fantasy.

The next morning, I take off to toward the “Temple of Heaven," exploring that area of the city. All car-parts and motorcycles, but one path leads inwards and I see an old woman there, under an awning.  Phoenix Hill beckons me.  I continue up the path, remembering the previous year's adventures and wondering what new ones await.

 

Marco Polo’s destination in the 13^th Century

 

At that time in history, as the story goes, one thousand women were in the service of the Sung King. Ten thousand (other) persons, “…chief lords, great masters, and rich artificers” also numbered among the King's visitors. The guests dressed in “silk and gold” because each “did his utmost to go with the greatest of wealth in his power.”  The King would invite people to visit for twelve days, and see to it they were very well entertained.

 

The Palace dimensions were known since Marco Polo

For 700 years the old Sung Palace had been deserted since Marco Polo visited there for an interview with King Fanfur.  Why was I searching for something so long buried?  Because the hiking terrain of Hangzhou was known since Marco Polo.  And that terrain, which I had hiked, had supposedly contained the old Sung Palace! Amazing to think that this terrain had remained essentially unchanged in all that time. I wondered how much longer that would remain the case, especially considering the frenetic construction taking place in Hangzhou during recent years.  

 

In 2002 or so, I had discovered a map of that area, authored by A.C. Moule, which included written notes - a guidebook to the map, if you will.  Then a colleague gifted me a Topo model of Hangzhou. This was a 3D rendering of the “up-and-down,” hilly portion of the area.  And I was already a big-time GPS mapping geek.  So I had what I needed in order to hike Phoenix Hill, a key Palace area. 

I could walk it with GPS, then try to reconcile all three: My independent "on-foot" GPS map, the topo model, and the Moule map!  Fun! 

It didn't seem as though anyone had mapped the Palace area, on foot, in recent times. Old neighborhoods in the area were being torn down at a rapid pace to make way for modern construction. One such neighborhood bordered Phoenix Hill, where the old Palace had once sat.  Was it just a matter of time before Phoenix Hill and the old Palace foundations were bulldozed too?   

The possibility that such a historic site might fall to "development" didn't sit well with me. Maybe this could be more than a recreational mapping adventure.

If I was able to complete this project and present my findings to the right people,  it might stir interest in conserving the site, or at least inspire further investigations.

The Beijing North China University of Technology Project, as I dubbed it, was born. 

On Foot with A.C. Moule

I like to take you on one of my first hikes in Hangzhou. The author of my map, A.C. Moule, said in a footnote that until 1936, the foundation stone of the Palace was right at Fantian Road. So it’s at Fantian that we will start on our first hike!

We start by taking a cab ride from the hotel, down Wansong Road - all the way to Fantian Road.  The street retreats up a ways. There are houses on each side. They are very simple, but incredible to me - because the residents, as it happens, know their dwellings are in the old Palace area.

 

Last Chance for an Orange Soda

 

Two long blocks along Fantian get us to the Palace foundation border, which is filled largely with trees. At the last minute, before going up the hill, we come across a street vendor selling cold drinks. Amid the local offerings, I spot an orange soda! The gentleman pulls it out of the machine and hands it to me. Thus provisioned, I’m ready for the trees and bushes. Upwards on the path and into them!

 

Hiking Hangzhou's Phoenix Hill

 The Trails that Led to Beijing: Hiking Adventures on Hangzhou's Phoenix Hill

by

James Manley

Phoenix Hall via Google Maps

 

The Palace on Phoenix Hill, in Hangzhou, has lain fallow for 700 years - since the time of Marco Polo, when the last Sung King was defeated by Genghis Khan. Cultural taboo has mostly prevented the building of houses on the old palace grounds. Hiking and gambling there, however, appear to be perfectly ok, and on most days, these pleasant pastimes can be seen happening within the palace wall's historic footprint. Mao Tse Tung knew of the old Palace, too, and took steps to make his presence felt there. In 1949, he placed a military medical facility on one edge of the old Palace grounds, which remained until at least 2005. 

How will the languishing of the Palace be met by future Presidents and Party Secretaries? What about the throwing out of the "old"? The Chinese have done this with the canals in Hangzhou - building very nice houses along them, and leaving the older houses in ruins.  So will the "old" Palace grounds meet the same fate? 

I don't think so. I've checked recently, and there doesn't appear to be any current plans related to the Palace. But in the long term I speculate there will be a resurgence of historic interest in the Palace. The Beijing Archaeological Survey is active in the area - this hints that a project could be in the works. And one could imagine a very impressive, very Chinese, historical replica of the Palace there in the future.

I am fascinated by the Palace's past and its possible future. So much so, in fact, that I was inspired to share my findings with anyone who'd listen - including a presentation to members of Beijing's North China University of Technology in 2005, and another talk at Cal Poly Pomona upon my return. 

What follows are snippets of some favorite encounters I had on this quest, on and around Phoenix Hill, circa 2001-2005.  I hope you'll be "swept" into it, too!

Orientations: Getting Comfortable With Maps

 We start out with this China view.

Now we zero in on Hangzhou.

Even closer. We see West Lake in the upper left.

Here we see the hiking routes

Here we see the hiking routes on Google Earth.