Ping Xiang Lotus, Jiangxi Province

Ping Xiang Lotus  I bought a bag of dry white lotus, and they are all the way from Jiangxi province. I just love to watch them and never opened the bag. Ping Xiang has the man文廷式Wen Ting Shi （1856—1904）who was Princess Pearl’s professor. She and the emperor Guang Xu were for the reform of the Qing Dynasty. During the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, the Emperor wrote a letter to U.S. President McKinley to plead to him not to take harsh action against China. But McKinley still did, and Peking was burned for 3 days and 3 nights. The empress dowager threw Princess Pearl into the well to drown. In 1894, Wen was for war to fight off Japan, but was condemned by the Prime Minister Li Hong Zhang and the dowager for complacency. The most powerful person of the Han race in the court was the emperor's professor, Weng Tong He, who was for war against Japan. He left the court and came back to organize real enterprises in coal production in order to provide for the Han Yang iron ore production and also founded many schools. 他兼任矿主，组成采煤、炼焦、运输一条龙经营，月供煤二千吨，成为江南有数的工商综合性大实业。广泰福七厂十八井，是为萍乡安源煤矿建矿的基础 Wen Ting Shi was the owner of the mine, which used one dragon line management. He was for digging the coal, purifying the coal, and transportation. 2000 tons of coal were produced and transported per month. It became one of the big industries as a combined real enterprise. Guang Tai Fu has 7 factories, and 18 wells. It is the foundation of Ping Xiang’s An Yuan Coal Mine. No wonder I always felt a linkage to Princess Pearl. Wen Ting Shi, a Ping Xiang man, was her professor and the Emperor's advisor. He was against making peace with Japan, but was betrayed by PM Li Hong Zhang, with the 1895 "Ma Guan Treaty" to sell out China, and cut Taiwan. This man later was taken out of Central court, so he returned to hometown to build a real industry, called An Yuan Coal Mine, in order to provide to the heavy industry Han Yang (nearby Hu Bei province, China's foremost first heavy industry Iron center) Iron conglomerate production for the coal fuel. 他兼任矿主，组成采煤、炼焦、运输一条龙经营，月供煤二千吨，成为江南有数的工商综合性大实业。广泰福七厂十八井，是为萍乡安源煤矿建矿的基础 Later, in 1910, Huang Zhong Jie, the ROC revolutionary, was to call for help from the Qing Dynasty army and coal workers in Ping Xiang. They lent a sympathetic ear to him. Though they worked for Qing, either in military or in industry, they still were Han conscience. As the 7 samurai committed suicide in 1894, the Navy 7 ship captains, they died for China, against Japan. They didn't think that they were dying for big Qing throne. An Yuan region has this coal mining tradition. The ROC association, Huang Zhong Jie, came to Ping Xiang and Liu Yang Army base to raise and build up an organization of 100 members, from the Qing army and also the coal miners. Mao also came to An Yuan mine ten times from 1920s to 1930s. He wanted to persuade and enlisted the coal workers. To stage a coup. Because of the large number of coal workers, it was easy for ROC revolutionaries and Mao to recruit supporters. Mao used An Yuan as a riot center, unfortunately.