Jottings from the Granite Studio

I don’t do these every day. Frankly, even with 5000 years of history, not much has happened on some days…or at least not enough for me to break from my sloth and write about it.  August 15…well, this is one of those days when you’ve got TOO much good stuff to pass up.
In 978, Li [...]

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On this date in 146 A.D., the treacherous Han Dynasty courtier and official Liang Ji (梁冀) poisoned the young Emperor Zhi (Liu Zuan b. 138).  Liang Ji was the brother of the Empress Dowager and he used his position to amass considerable wealth, power and political control, making deals with eunuchs, allegedly carrying out homosexual [...]

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Today is the birthday of painter Xu Beihong (徐悲鸿), born this date in Yixing, Jiangsu in 1895.  Xu studied painting in Shanghai until at the age of 22 he was hired by Cai Yuanpei to teach at Peking University.  After a two-year stint at the university, Xu traveled to France where he studied at the [...]

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Today is the 325th anniversary of the Battle of Penghu 1683 (澎湖海戰), in which the Qing admiral Shi Lang (施琅 1621-1696) soundly defeated a fleet from the Kingdom of Tungning (东宁王国), A.K.A. the Koxinga clan on Taiwan, and captured the Penghu (Pescadore) Islands (澎湖群島).  It was the final blow in the Qing’s war of annexation [...]

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On this date in 1402, the second Ming emperor Zhu Yunwen (朱允炆 b. 1377) died in a palace fire.  Reigning as the Jianwen Emperor (建文 r. 1399-1402), Yunwen as the grandson of Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋 r. 1368-1398).  After taking the throne, Zhu Yuanzhang enacted a series of reforms/edicts, one of which was to [...]

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We’re old. Not chronologically per se, but simply in our habits.  Nevertheless, we decided to fight the gravitational pull of our couch and go out for the evening on the town with our friends B. & V.
Dinner was at El Fogoncito over by Wanda Plaza.  I grew up in New Hampshire, so I can hardly [...]

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Why Daqing? Well, the Party claimed it was the spirit of hard work, self-reliance, plus selfless devotion to party, country, and Mao Zedong thought which was responsible for Daqing’s incredible productivity. That said, it probably didn’t hurt that they struck oil there in 1959.

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June wasn’t an a particularly auspicious month for the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Thursday marked the founding of the Southern Song by what was left of the Song court who had just been chased out of the north by the Jurchens. In the confusion, they left behind two emperors, Song Huizong (Zhao Ji 1082-1135, [...]

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It’s always exciting to move into a new house. That sense of expectation, of planning where to arrange things, that glorious feeling of being home. It’s probably less thrilling if you’ve moved into your new home because the bank foreclosed on the old house. Even less so if the new place is half [...]

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Last month’s devastating earthquake continues to threaten the lives and homes of the people of Sichuan province. The deadly May 12 earthquake dramatically changed the landscape of the province. Landslides tumbled into riverbeds, blocking the flow of water and endangering the lives of those living downstream from these natural dams. The PLA and government engineers [...]

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