I am not Ximen Qing.

With the aid of the Wanli Emperor, Korea shattered Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ambitions and the centuries-old dream of the Yamato people. Yi Sun-sin became a national hero, a tragic figure, worthy of praise and lamentation. What could be more terrifying than losing national independence? Japan ushered in the Tokugawa Shogunate era, but American ironclad warships broke the Shogunate's closed-door policy. Japan embraced the spirit of the pilgrimage to Chang'an, reviving the spirit of the Japanese envoys to Tang China, humbly drawing strength from Western culture for its revival. Emperor Meiji ascended the Japanese historical stage, ambitious and seeing hope in regaining its position as the dominant power in East Asia.

The Self-Strengthening Movement aimed to use advanced Western technology to counter the barbarians, an unexpected benefit of suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, which believed in the God-worshipping Society. The fall of Nanjing did not bring the Qing Dynasty a chance for revival. With the Battle of the Yellow Sea in 1895, the humiliating First Sino-Japanese War, and the heroic deeds of figures like Deng Shichang and Ding Ruchang, even they could not save the nation from its impending doom.

The Empress Dowager could never understand why the navy of such a powerful nation could lose to the tiny Japanese. This nation was utterly ruthless and shameless, its spirit of enduring 'shamelessness' pushed to the extreme. The Qing Dynasty lost its foundation, Taiwan, Ryukyu, and the entire Self-Strengthening Movement in one war. The invaders wouldn't give it a chance to recover and revive. The Empress Dowager had always dreamed of the Yuanmingyuan's rebirth, but in reality, she could only find solace in the revelry of the Summer Palace, much like Li Yu, the last ruler of the Later Tang Dynasty, who spent his days numbing himself with poetry and songs, seeking solace in beautiful women and the company of the Zhou emperors. The Empress Dowager was no different; she still dreamt of eternal reincarnation, plundering the nation's wealth and resources for her Eastern Qing Tombs. The Qing Dynasty was trapped in a struggle between internal and external troubles, a conflict fueled by external forces. Once the pig is fattened, it must be eaten; external powers wouldn't allow the pig to become a lion. They never understood the culture, spirit, or faith of the dragon.

Qian Gua

Qian Yuanheng Lizhen

The ninth day: The hidden dragon should not be used.

Nine in the second place: The dragon appears in the sky; it is advantageous to see a great man.

The third line of the hexagram reads: "The superior man is constantly vigilant and cautious, even at night he is in a state of peril; thus he is without blame."

Line 94: Perhaps leaping in the abyss, no blame.

Nine in the fifth place: The flying dragon is in the sky; it is advantageous to see a great man.

The ninth line at the top: The dragon soaring too high will have regrets.

Use Nine: Seeing a group of dragons without a leader is auspicious.

The Chinese dragon totem and the belief in the dragon differ greatly from the Western understanding of the dragon. The dragon is not Satan; rather, it represents the Chinese people's spirit of perseverance and self-improvement.

The Russo-Japanese War is interesting, taking place in the ancestral lands of the Jurchen people, between the Changbai Mountains and the Heilongjiang River. The Empress Dowager Cixi pondered deeply, but had no solution, embodying the spirit of moderation. Imperialist powers slaughtered the people of the Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang River region. The non-resistance policy of this great nation is somewhat like Gandhi's non-violent movement in India; there was no other way, only people remained, people were cheap, and they were the last resort. In this tragic world, people faced nothing but war and disaster. The Empress Dowager, with a change of heart, declared: "If you want to live, go to the Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang River!" This demonstrates the wisdom of women; now, they no longer cared about their ancestral homeland? As long as there are people, there is territory—a last resort at the time. The Qing Dynasty's more than two hundred years of rule, employing the subtle and historical narrative. Turning left to the Spring and Autumn Annals, the wisdom and will of Zuo Qiuming and Confucius, like Jin Shengtan, were precisely the kind of talented individuals with a spirit of resistance that the Qing army killed when they entered the pass. The Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors' severing of the essence of Han Chinese culture. The spirit of the nation was on its last legs. Emperor Wu of Han castrated Sima Qian, but he did not deprive Sima Qian of his right to write the Records of the Grand Historian. "The supreme masterpiece of historians, a lament without rhyme"...

Human life is lighter than straw, as light as a feather, so cheap it's less than a feather. Human life is more unjust than the tragic story of Dou E in Guan Hanqing's novel, filled with oppression and exploitation as heavy as Mount Tai. Heavy snow falls as a sign of heaven and earth's wrath; in the Yuan Dynasty, heaven and earth still showed some compassion, but during the reign of the Empress Dowager, heaven and earth became heartless. Human relationships cannot be suppressed; every family has seven or eight children, but to survive is truly a blessing from a previous life. How fragile is the fate of the common people, less resilient than even wild grass; severe droughts and crop failures are commonplace.