China has been a world power for as long as they’ve existed as a sovereign nation. Despite the fact that they always play a big role in political and military crises of our past, there’s still a lot we don’t know about this great country.
Where their present isn’t exactly crystal clear, the thing that causes the most mystery is actually China’s rich past. Let’s take a look at some truly mysterious things that have happened on Chinese soil.
The Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor was known as Huang-Di. According to Chinese ancient texts, Huang-Di was responsible for starting many of the values that made up Chinese civilization, but also possessed advanced technology and summoned a metal-scaled dragon. This dragon allowed him to travel to any part of China at amazing speeds. If this sounds like an alien in a spaceship, you’re not the first one to think that. Regardless, the Yellow Emperor is a very prominent figure in Chinese legend.
The Fuxian Lake City
Underneath the Fuxian Lake in the Yunnan province, legends told that a lost city could be found. In 2001, they actually looked for it and found it. They found a 1750 year old site that for some reason finds itself at the bottom of a lake now. As most of it is unexplored, the true reason for this city’s descent into the lake is only guesswork for now.
“Magical” mirrors
Ancient Chinese mirrors called t’ou kuand ching are definitely some of the weirdest objects in the world. These mirrors have a secret ability to reflect the patterns decorated on the back of the mirror when the light strikes the undecorated polished front exterior.
Xu Fu Disappearance
We all know of the terra cotta army in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. That’s not the only weird thing ol’ Qin did, however. He ordered one of the “magicians” that he surrounded himself with, Xu Fu, to find the elixir of life that would make Qin immortal. Naturally, Xu Fu came back empty handed the first time, claiming monsters prevented him from reaching the elixir. The emperor sent him back with a group of archers as back up, but then Xu Fu never came back at all and was never heard from again. According to Japanese legend, he stranded in their country and was even revered there as a god.
The Stick Assassination Attempt
Back in the early 1600s a man broke into the Forbidden Palace (I mean, the name says you’re not supposed to go there) and attacked the guards with a stick. He claimed that he was part of a conspiracy by a part of the guards to kill the emperor’s son. Zhang Chai, as the somewhat unsuccessful assassin was named, figured he’d try to do that with a stick. After the trial, and Zhang’s death, the emperor’s son succeeded his father. Sadly, he mysteriously died five years later, and we have no idea who or what killed him.
Emperor Jianwen’s Death
Emperor Jianwen got attacked by his own uncle, who set his palace on fire. In the aftermath of the fire, uncle Zhu Di “identified” one of the bodies found in the palace as Jianwen and declared himself the new emperor – purging all records and human ties to Jianwen from his empire. Most people at the time however believed that Jianwen escaped the fire and lived the rest of his days as a monk. One of his court officials even allegedly saw him flee to another province after the fire.
