This Month in History

March 3, 581

Emperor Wendi, also known as Yang Jian (541-604), established the Sui Dynasty (581 - 618). Although it was a short-lived regime, it marked the reunification of China as well as a series of important accomplishments in politics, culture, the economy, the arts and national defense. Two major constructions survive from the period and remain active to this day: the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, one of the oldest and the longest in the world, and the Zhaozhou Bridge, the earliest open-spandrel stone arch bridge on earth. It was during this dynasty that the imperial examination system was initiated, in which applicants vying for official posts were required to write essays on given topics about state affairs. The system was inherited by all subsequent imperial regimes.

March 19, 1279

After losing almost all of his fighting forces during a final decisive defeat by the Mongols, eight-year-old Emperor Zhao Bing drowned himself in the sea on the back of his prime minister, marking a tragic end to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Years earlier the Mongols had taken over the Southern Song capital, and established the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), where for the first time in Chinese history an ethnic minority ruled over the entire nation.

March 8, 1641

Xu Xiake (1587-1641), renowned traveler and geographer of the late Ming Dynasty, passed away. Xu developed an intense interest in history and geography through extensive reading in his early years, and began to travel around China at the age of 21. In his journeys that spanned over 30 years he kept diaries about his experiences on the road, depicting the landscapes, vegetation, customs, transportation and economics of the places he visited. These materials, which exceed 600,000 Chinese characters, were compiled into Xu Xiake’s Travelogue after his death.

March 12, 1782

The Siku Quanshu, or Complete Library of Four Branches of Books, was completed. The four branches refer to Classics, Histories, Masters and Collections, the four library divisions of the imperial court. Qing Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) launched the project in the hope of creating an epic work that could surpass the Yongle Encyclopedia of the previous Ming Dynasty, the largest of its kind in the world at the time. An editing board of more than 360 officials supervised the production of Siku Quanshu, with thousands of people participating. The whole series consists of more than 79,000 volumes, totaling approximately 800 million Chinese characters.

March 12, 1925

Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), the great democratic revolutionist, passed away at the age of 58. Dr. Sun founded the first democratic party – The Chinese United League – in China and organized a number of armed insurgences to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. After the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, which led to the fall of imperial rule in China, he was elected provisional president of the Republic of China. Dr. Sun later co-founded the Kuomintang, and served as its first chair.

March 11, 1974

A farmer digging a well in a field in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province stumbled across an important archeological treasure trove featuring a Terracotta Army. The clay figures of warriors, officers, horses and chariots are funerary objects from the tomb of Qinshihuang (259- 210 B.C.), the First Emperor of Qin, who established the first united feudal regime, and became one of the strongest central authorities in Chinese history. The human sculptures number in the thousands, each bearing unique individual expressions.

March 27, 1987

China’s first Special Olympics competition was held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, with 314 athletes from around the country participating.

March 10, 1988

China’s first test tube baby Zheng Mengzhu was born. Her mother became pregnant at the age of 39 with the help of in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology. Zheng’s birth, though 10 years after the world’s first test-tube baby Louise Brown in the UK, brought much hope to the five to eight percent of couples in China that are infertile.

March 16, 1988

The Last Emperor, a biopic about the life of Puyi (1906-1967), the last Chinese emperor, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Puyi ruled across two periods between 1908 and 1917, firstly as Emperor Xuantong from 1908 to 1912, and then as a puppet emperor for 12 days in 1917 when Warlord Zhang Xun occupied Beijing and proclaimed restoration of the Qing Dynasty. Puyi was the final member of the Qing Dynasty to rule over China.

March 15, 2003

Hu Jintao (born 1942) was elected president of the People’s Republic of China. He is now General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People’s Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

March 24, 2008

The 2008 Beijing Olympic flame was ignited at the Hera Temple of Ancient Olympia in Greece.