Kids in Ancient China (Part 7): The Big Parade

I haven't posted one of the stories of kids in Ancient China. There are 10 stories altogether. The last story was long as was posted in a few parts. The next one will also be posted in a few parts. On rainy days in teh fall and winter I hope to re-work some of my Chinese biography books. I want to make the drawings better and re-work them so they read better.  Meanwhile, here's story #7.

The Big Parade

Oh, hello there! I didn’t know you were watching me. I’m getting ready  for a big parade. They say that Xuanzang came back, after all of these years. What did you say? “Who’s Zuanzang?” Oh, you don’t know him? Everyone in town is talking about him. By the way, this town is called Chang’an (later I’m told it was renamed Xi’an). It’s the capital of our country, China, and one of the largest cities in the world at the moment. Well, that’s what they say anyway. It is a huge city. From where we live (which is close to Qujiang Lake in the Southeast part of the town), we would have to walk a good three hours or more to get from our part of town to the very  North part of town. 

Right now everyone in town is talking about Xuanzang and are getting ready for a big parade about him. Many shops have special food or special things they are making to remember this day. My favorite steamed bun place at the market is making a new kind of steamed bun and naming it “Xuanzang” for the special day. I like it- it has nuts and raisins and sugar inside. Usually steamed buns have meat, sweet bean paste, veggies, or eggs and veggies. This one is completely different and my favorite so far! They started selling them yesterday and I hope they keep selling them after the parade is over tomorrow. 

My dad has a special tea shop and he’s trying to make a blend of teas to sell, especially for tomorrow. This afternoon I’m going to his tea shop to help try some of his teas. I don’t usually get to do this, but when I do, it’s one of my favorite things. I get to hang out with my dad and drink one of my favorite drinks: tea. 

The Emperor, Emperor Taizong (from the Tang Dynasty), wants to have a big party because it’s such a big thing that Xuanzang has come back to town. Xuanzang left this city sixteen years ago! That  was before I was even born! When he left, he had to quietly sneak out of the city because the emperor (the same emperor that’s welcoming him back now) didn’t want anyone to leave the country. At the time China and another country were fighting. However, Xuanzang was determined to go and so he went. It took him three years to get to Turpan [which I’m told that if you took a train from Xi’an to Turpan nowadays, it might take you a day or two but then it took him three years because he had to walk most of the way!]. 

Whenever I hear people talking about all of his travels, it excites me because he had some close calls and lots of adventure. A few times he was almost stopped by robbers and bad guys, but somehow he made it through. He kept going West, around the desert and up into and over the mountains. I’m told that these mountains are beautiful with beautiful lakes and that it can  get really cold at night there. Along the way, Xuanzang stayed in Buddhist monasteries where he could and he tried to meet with and learn from as many Buddhist monks as he could. Before he went on this big trip of a lifetime, Xuanzang was a Buddhist monk. He moved to Chang’an to study languages and learn more about Buddhism. He had a dream that he was supposed to go West to India to learn more about Buddhism. 

After many years he finally made it to India. I’ve been told that India has a lot of Buddhist monasteries and people who teach about it. Xuanzang talked with many of the Buddhist teachers and tried to get as many scrolls as he could of Buddhist writings. Many of them he brought back with him and spent the rest of his life translating them. His trip back from India was probably shorter  because he took a different route. There’s a big desert out West (the Tamalakhan Desert) and people usually either go up and around it or down and around it. It’s too big and hard to go through it. On the way to India I”m told that he went up and around it over some mountains and on the way back he went down and around it.

Now he’s finally back and the Emperor wants to have a big party to welcome him back. It’s more of a parade than a party because they’re closing some of the big streets of the city so that Xuanzang, the Emperor himself, and some other famous people can walk  through while everyone shouts and claps at them. I know where I’m going to be: my dad’s tea shop. I’m actually going to try and climb to the to part of the roof so I can have a good view, if my dad lets me. 

Epilogue:

Xuanzang (602-664) was as Buddhist monk who was famous for his trip to India and back. He brought with him many Buddhist teachings on scrolls that he spent the rest of his life translating into the common Chinese language of the day. In 646 he also wrote a book for the Emperor about his travels and the countries and people that live out West and in India (“Great Tang Records on the Western Regions” 大唐西城配）. Actually, a big tower called the Big Goose Pagoda in Xi’an was made in 652 AD to hold all of the scrolls that Xuanzang brought back and wrote. It’s part of a Buddhist temple there. Today, you can see the Big Goose Pagoda and there are statues of Xuanzang in quite a few of the cities he traveled to. 

Old Recipes: Yorkshire Pudding and Welsh Rarebit

 I tried out two more recipes from the old cookbook. This might be my last post about this old cookbook for a while. I've worked through the recipes I really wanted to work through. It was a really great summer project and something I might do again next summer. Actually, I found a cookbook that has recipes from the Oregon Trail from the 1850s to 1900s...I might try some of them. We'll see. My favorite recipe from this old cookbook: County Recipes of Old England, was Chelsea Buns. I've made them two times already and plan to make them again on Friday. I like them because they aren't as sweet as cinnamon rolls and have more flavor. The kids like them too. The kids' favorite was probably cheese pasties...something I'll try to make again for them sometime. 

Welsh Rarebit. One of my kids liked it; the other two did not.

                  Yorkshire Pudding. My husband thought they were ok and my kids too. I think they'd

                                        be great with some kind of sauce or gravy on them. 

Old Recipes: Ginger Cookies and Porridge

 Yesterday I tried out a recipe for Grasmere Gingerbread. It's different from most recipes because it had chopped almonds in it. I was supposed to put some chopped almonds on top of the cookies before I baked them but forgot...I used them all for inside the cookies. The cookies were supposed to have chopped almonds in the cookie and on top as well. The recipe also called for ginger, not a mix of spices. 

I also tried a barley porridge. I've made lots of porridges before. In China we ate porridge a lot and love it. We'd make oatmeal porridge (with the whole oats, not crushed or chopped), millet porridge, and a mix of different grains porridge. In China, there are shops that sells grains, rice, flour, oil, and spices. They have a huge variety of grains, beans, and mixes for Chinese porridge because it's a very common breakfast there. 

A weekend trip and Lighthouses

 We went for an overnight trip over the weekend for a follow-up doctor appointment. Our youngest son (7 years old) broke his arm a month and a half ago. It was a bad break and they flew him to a bigger hospital to put 3 small metal pins in it to hold the bones in place. A week and a half ago we went there to get his cast off. They took out the 2 metal pins they could see. This weekend was his surgery to get out the final pin that they couldn't see. When they put the pins in the arm, they normally leave part of them sticking out so they can just pull them out. However, one of them got pushed further in. Anyway, we made a little trip out of it and re-visited the Cape Blanco Lighthouse (which was extremely windy and foggy!) and went to the Heceta Lighthouse.

                                                        Cape Blanco Lighthouse (foggy!)

Heceta Lighthouse

Old Recipes: Scones (cooked in the pan) and Bath Buns

 Yesterday and the day before I tried out 2 more recipes: scones (cooked in the pan) and Bath buns. Bath is a city in England and the buns (rolls) were really nice. The recipe called for carraway seeds on top but I didn't have any so I left them out. A few recipes I looked at call for carraway seeds but I can't seem to find them at the local grocery store. 

Old Recipes: Edinburgh Shortbread and Elcho Scones

 I tried out two more recipes yesterday from the old cookbook. The shortbread was really good and surprised me because both recipes for shortbread in the cookbook use a small amount of rice flour with regular flour. I thought the rice flour was strange but I looked it up in other recipes. One lady on youtube shared her recipe for shortbread (an old recipe for 3 generations) also used some rice flour along with the regular flour. So, I followed the recipe as it was in the book and it tasted really good, just like the shortbread I've had from the store (but better because it was fresh).

The scones were surprising because normally I roll out the dough and use a circle cutter to cut them in circles instead of wedges. However, the recipe said to divide the dough in three and make each third in a circle, then cut in wedges. 

Kids in Ancient China (Part 6): The Fake City Part 5 and Epilogue

This is the final part of the Fake City story, a fictional story set in the time of the Three Kingdoms in Chinese history. You can look back on the blog for the first four parts of the story. The next story I'll post in this series is about Xuanzang who lived during the Tang Dynasty.

Part 5

A few months later people in the town were talking about a group of men who were going to the cities to destroy them. By this time, most of the towns close by below the mountain were already abandoned. This made everyone hope that they would never come. However, the leaders of the town started training some of the men how to fight. The boys in this story, however, had a different idea.

‘Hey, what if we build a town close to ours but make it look already broken  down,” Xi Bing said one day as they were in the orchard.

“What? Why?” Asked Xi Wei.

“Because if we make it look like there’s a another town here that’s already been destroyed, they would probably give up and go away.” Said Xi Wei.

The older man who was pruning his apple trees close by overheard their conversation and went to them.

“That might actually work. I think it might, just might work.” Said the old man.

“Yes, and we’d have to make a big road going to the fake town to make it look like it’s a real town.” Said Xi Wei.

The old man talked with some of the leaders of the city and they decided it was a good idea. The boys were able to help their dads build part of it. It took everyone three months to finish the town. Since they were making the town look like it had been destroyed, it faster. They didn’t have to make tall buildings. Instead, they had to make it look like there used to be tall buildings. They also made a big road going to the town.

The boys loved playing hide and go seek in the fake town. They were hardly seen in town anymore because whenever the weather was nice they were either in the orchard, talking with the family that grew vegetables, or in the new “fake” town playing hide and go seek. Every time they went to the fake town, they added and did more to make it look like it had once been lived in.  Sometimes Xi Wei would find rocks and mark on the walls and sometimes Xi Bing and Chen Min would move stones around. They made sure to walk along the road going to the town at least two times each day to make the road look like it had been used.

All their work paid off a year later when a group of men came. The boys were in the orchard when they heard people coming from the distance. Thankfully, the old man was there and told them all to be quiet. The old man went with the boys to get a closer look. 

“If you go with me, you have to be quiet. Quieter even then a mouse,” said the old man.

“Of course!” Said Xi Wei. However, he said in a regular voice.

“Shhh,” the old man whispered back. 

They slowly walked closer and found a place to watch that was hidden. About fifty men came. They went to the town and walked around. The boys and old man could hear them talking.

‘Who did this? I thought we were the only ones in this area.” Said one of the men.

“Maybe it was the people to the North of us,” said another voice.

“I think so. Let’s go and find them! They took everything from this town that belonged to us.” Said another voice. 

All in all, the men spent only an hour looking around the city before deciding to leave. They never talked about there being another city close by, which means that the plan worked.  

Epilogue

The four boys remained close friends their whole lives. They lived in that town a long time. The old man died two years later, but told the boys to take care of his apple trees for him. He said that his children and their children lived in a different city so he wanted to give all of his apple trees to the four boys. The old man spent his time teaching the boys how to take care of the apple trees before he died. The vegetable family continued growing vegetables, although it was harder for them to make money because more and more people started growing their own vegetables in the forest close by. In terms of the country, the Han Dynasty ended (220 AD) and the country was going crazy. The country was divided into three countries (The Three Kingdoms Period) before becoming united again under the Sui Dynasty in 589 AD.