A Time Traveler’s Message from NYC to a Chinese King
I recently watched 4 episodes of “the Fabrics of the Cosmos”, a PBS documentary led by celebrity Physicist Brian Greene narrating a story about the relativity of time and space in our universe. The mind-binding part is, what is in science fiction about time travel is not entirely unfounded. In theory, if time and space work the way Einstein predicted, there should be a way travelling back in time.
Let me imagine a theoretically possible time-space travel back to Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 9) some 2,300 years ago. If I had a chance to meet the king from the Chu (楚) Kingdom (BTW: I CANNOT think of any reason to meet him. I am merely entertaining the PURE theoretical idea.), how would I have told him what happened to his jade suit, which, made before 175 B.C., with over 4,000 pieces of high-quality Hetian (和田) jade sewed together through gold thread, was believed by the king to preserve his flesh and soul for eternity.
The king might have been VERY surprised to know his jade suit is currently on view in New York City (NYC) at the China Institute Gallery in lower Manhattan from May 28 until November 12, 2017.
2,300 years ago, there was no NYC, no United States. None of the current European countries would have existed yet. Roman Empire is known as the equivalent civilization in the West when Western (or Former) Han Dynasty emerged on the other side of the northern hemisphere. The king might have not heard of the Roman Empire, while there might have been a slim chance that he saw objects of Hellenistic styles and patterns made their way through the Silk Road to his Chu Kingdom, a powerful, wealthy and culturally rich region along the north-eastern coast of China, the birthplace of Liu Bang (刘邦，256 – 195 B.C.), the first emperor of the Han Dynasty.
To begin with, it would be almost impossible to explain NYC to the king. The king and his people believed that they were living in the center of the world, a popular belief among almost all civilizations until Columbus discovered the world is a globe more than 1,500 years later. Such fundamental concept is reflected in the name “中国” (literally mean “middle kingdom”) later appeared in Eastern (or Later) Han Dynasty (A.D. 25 – 220) , referring to the region under the ruling of Han Emperors. How the world has changed in 2,300 years! To make sense, the king must comprehend that not only China is not in the center of the world, but also there is a whole continent on the other side of the ocean (the Atlantic Ocean) and a cosmopolitan city called NYC is hosting his jade suit.
Nevertheless, I would be happy to tell the king that his jade suit was magnificent. A jade coffin made to cover him from head to toe in the shape of his body, the suit is among the 116 total unearthed jade suits in China and arguably the best of all. Placed in a glass case in the inner corner of the gallery, the suit is glowing as if the king is wearing it and lying in the chamber of his mausoleum complex. In addition, just like in his mausoleum, he is accompanied by miniature terra-cotta soldiers, civil attendants, dancers, musicians, etc., each with amazingly vivid details individually captured by his craftsmen. Having survived through over 2,000 years, some still have the original paint. Above all, I would give my highest compliments to the jade pendants. In addition to the jade suit, the king brought to his afterlife many jades such as disks (玉璧), grips (玉握), rings(玉环), headrests (玉枕), facemasks(玉面罩), all with meticulously designed and highly stylish dragons, tigers, cicadas, mystic creatures, clouds, knots, or geometric patterns. Sitting in their individual cases on the wall of the gallery, or in the middle of the room, the jades are lifted from above the ground and floating around the suit, as if it’s a scene in the king’s dream. Exquisite and elegant, jade in Han Dynasty was widely believed to be able to preserve the corpse and the spirit of the deceased; hence jade suits were common at the time among the royalties and aristocrats.
S-shaped dragon jade pendant, early Western Han Dynasty
Photo from the catalogue, Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity, China Institute Gallery / Xuzhou Museum, 2017
While it is farfetched for the king to dream of coming to NYC, it’s almost certain that he dreamed of living a luxurious afterlife: numerous jade wine cups, bronze cooking utensils, bathing baskets, and so on, were buried with him; a full banquet was in a chamber next to him; the remains of his chief chef were found in the same tomb, so as two females in two separate chambers right next to the king. The arrangements were obviously made for the king to continue what he enjoyed in his lifetime. In fact, he might not consider all these to be in a dream: after all, the jade suit should have protected the king’s body from decaying and preserved his spirit to ensure his luxurious life in eternity!
Here comes the sad message, surely more difficult for the king to swallow than the idea of NYC: the jade suit actually didn’t work. When discovered, the tomb was already previously looted, the jade pieces piled up in the chamber, the gold thread mind-bending gone, and the king’s body long decayed (as we truly don’t know about what happened to the spirit, I can’t talk about it.). Since jade suits were proven not working (with the looters’ help, ironically) while making one (and build a mausoleum complex around it) cost a fortune, which subsequently enticed loads of looters to disturb the tomb owners, extravagant burials were banned later during Cao Wei (曹魏，220 - 265) period. No jade suits after Eastern Jin (东晋，317 - 420 ) were unearthed so far.
Jade suits unearthed are mostly exhibited in museums in China, some traveling around the world. There are currently two in New York City alone, one at China Institute, the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until July 16, 2017, less than one hour apart from each other on the subway (assuming the traveling is not delayed as it routinely happens nowadays). A third suit is on view at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Archeologists and art historians are almost certain there are more underground. The first emperor of Han Dynasty, Liu Bang (刘邦), was VERY LIKELY buried with a jade suit but is yet to be proven. While China’s policy banned any tomb excavation, it’s possible one day a construction truck might dig into the dream of another king, or a farmer might find a Terra-Cotta soldier’s oddly small head in his own rice field, just like the accidental discovery of this Chu King’s tomb in the Lion Mountain of Xuzhou in 1986.
The king’s body may be decayed, however, his jade suit and all the other burials survived are excellent authentic materials for people in NYC to appreciate Chinese fine art, history and culture. However, I would imagine the king would be more concerned about eternity, less about helping others understand China, Han Dynasty, or even his own kingdom. So all these would be truly terrible news for him, and not so good for me to be the messenger: after all, given his extremely high-profile jade suit and mausoleum, he was surely an all-powerful king when I met him in this time-travel.
That said, I would congratulate the king for what was created for his eternity. In the end, while it turned out to be a mere dream for him, his jade suit, along with other objects, are truly the messengers of the past that have disappeared 2,300 years ago.
In this sense, the jade suit, not me, is the real time traveler.
Fangsuo Bookstore, Chengdu, China
2017/6/20