The Ancient Chinese Myth of their Gods 'CATS'

The Ancient Chinese Myth~

Cats of the Gods In
Ancient China 

Hello, my dear friends & followers, I found a few new legends about CATS! First is about the Ancient Chinese Myth & their Gods The CATS. I found this to be interesting because in many countries Cats are seen as Gods. I hope you All find this interesting. YOURWENDY---
When the world was a new-created place, the gods decided to appoint one creature to see that it ran smoothly and to oversee all other creatures. The creature that they selected was the CAT! Thoughtful and contemplative, cats were given the power of speech in order to talk with the creator Gods and given instructions to the other creatures who shared the world. For a very long-time all seemed at peace & go well with the Cats in power.
The Cats, however, were sybaritic creatures. Rather than attending to the mundane day-to-day running of the world. They wanted to doze in the sunbeams on beds of fragrant catnip and Matata Bi Vines. The Creator Gods saw this & asked the Cats whether they were doing anything to ensure the smooth running of this newly made world. The Gods asked the Cats to be more diligent in the running of the newly made world and the Cats promised to pay a little more attention to their allotted task. However, some while later, when the Gods paid another visit to their vibrant new world, they found the Cats were sleeping under cherry trees or playing with falling cherry blossoms. Once again they questioned the Cats' who were in charge of overseeing the world. Finally, the Cats were honest to the Gods, 'To be perfectly honest,' said the cats, 'We've realized that we really don't want to bother with the running of your World! We've noticed that one of your creatures shows much more promise in this respect, perhaps you could give the task of running the World to them so that we can spend our time enjoying the pleasures this world has to offer.'

The Gods reluctantly agreed but on one condition. Those that are appointed to run the world required the power of speech. Therefore, the Cats could no longer speak and the other creature, called humans, would be endowed with speech. Even though man busied himself about running the world & remaking it to his own liking. Filling it with chatter, cats basking in scented sunshine with inscrutable expressions and much more...
From that day on, mankind gained the power of speech while the Cats enjoyed the delights of the world had to offer --- Sunshine, scents, textures and things to chase or play with. However, the Gods never forgot that the Cat was their first choice to run the world and made them the timekeepers so that the humans could always tell the time of day by looking into a cat's eyes. In the morning, their eyes are pools of blackness rimmed with gold; at noon they are mere black slits on disks of gold while in the evening they open out into pools of blackness once more. Not only that, the purring of the cat is the sound of the machinery moving the world around the heavens & should the Cats cease to purr the world would stand still in the sky and the seasons and all of time would come to an END!

So while mankind has the day-to-day running of the world, the cat still remains its timekeeper and guardian which is why CATS always look so

 scrutable and so smug.

YOURWENDY

Magical Transformations

Magical Transformations~

Magick of the Fairy

Good afternoon my dearest friends and followers I am truly sorry that I haven't been posting that much these last couple of months. Life has been rough for me and my family. So it's been hard to be thinking creatively. So for today I decided to pull out my old fairy book my Cousin gave me to seen if there is something that might catch my eye. What I found was Magick transformations or Shapeshifting of sorts. I have always been  fascinated about both and in my book that I am writing there is quite a bit of that going on. So I thought I would write a bit on the subject. Being able to change your form or shapeshift is a powerful attribute, that we have always held in awe to such people, as blacksmiths, who can cause metal of many different kinds to become liquid and then solidify again. Also, magic are substances such as glass makers, how they can break many pieces of coloured glass then make it become a fluid liquid so that it can be blown through a metal tube to a stable form when cooled. Things that are firm to the touch, but can alter are unnerving as is being able to transcend barriers, such as skin, that keeps things where we think they should be. By transforming, like a fairy reveals their greatest power; to who she/he lets see! To manifest into the mortal world something that is so obviously faery to the human if they are lucky or unlucky to see the faeries. It just depends on which faeries a human may run across.
How much more impressive this is to humans than simple invisibility. You may not know this but faeries use their 'glamour' & powers of enchantment to change their form... They relish the metamorphosis of the transforming. The Norwegian Fossegrim fairy's - guardian of waterfalls can change in an instant from male to female.
The Russia's Freshwater - RUSALKA - from maid to fish to toad - With this fairy it will allure a male or female into a wooded area or lake who might be more instantly smitten either by a fairy or a maiden. It is though the Rusalka shapeshifting enables them to seduce human men and woman, binding mortals to themselves, not through love but by magic.

The Panther is very common as
an animal spirit 

Then there are some spirits that come to be identified with a particular animal. There has been many movies, T.V. shows and novels done on this particular subject. Yet after being on the internet over 10+years doing Ning.com groups and having some very dear friends that are very close to this subject, I've decided that many have different opinions on this subject. Some can shift between forms of animal spirits almost randomly, such as swan to goat to toad to crow. Bird; such as Owl-Raven-Crow animal spirit is popular. Birds of the night are the most magical, have the most knowledge and are the most powerful. Another's can be supernatural powers in North American. Native American Indian cultures like that of Moroccan and other Tribes too. This is where the wolfs, and big cats come in some cases.
In Russian legend the bird of divine fortune is the Wren who might be mistaken for a tiny winged form flitting in the undergrowth.
The Red Deer are a common shape for the Scottish Highland fairies.
The Swedish Nacken of Inland waters is sometimes an old man, sometimes a boy or a seductive lad, distinguishable, just by an equine nose and flecks of green hair, but he is most powerful as a gray or white horse tricking women and children to ride on his back then leaping int the depths of the lakes. 
The Scottish Kelpie inhabits moving water, particularly the lochs, threatening both those who swim and those who dilly-dally by the shore. Sleek as a seal, his victims adhere to his back like glue as he leaps into the river, his body lengthening to accommodate as many children as might be playing at the waters edge.

There so much more to the story of Magical Transformations but I just wanted to give you all my dears just a taste of the magick world and how both are one in a lot of ways. We just need to take care of our Earth and all creature both Magical and human. I hope you all enjoyed the post today

I love you all my dears 

YOURWENDY

Your Lovely Garden Lady

YOURWENDY

Emperor Ming Yongle of 1421

Revenge of the Emperor~

Good Afternoon my dearest Friends & Followers as It is nearing October and Halloween is coming soon I usually try to find either creepy, scary and odd tales for you. Well, this one has it all. Dated back 1421, it was about the Beijing's Forbidden City and the hidden terror's of China's emperors that ruled the Forbidden City at the time of 1421. Apparently the name of this emperor was Ming Emperor Yongle one of the most feared despots of Chinese imperial history who cause a mass slaughter in the Forbidden City. It is said that all had wielded their swords to ensure no one would survive. He was a very tackle with taking over Beijing Palace by telling his soldiers to show no mercy in slaying fragile creatures on that terrible night in 1421 as all were sleeping.

Lady Cui was Lock up in his room far away
from the carnage that was happening in the Palace.

Before the killing started the Tyrannical Emperor Yongle locked up his concubine Lady Cui in a room far away from the carnage. Some of their innocent victims were as young as 13years

old, but one horrified chronicler of the time described how they had been 'rent, split, ripped and torn to shreds in their beds, alongside the servant girls and eunuchs who guarded them. In all, that terrible day some 2,800 people of the china royal Palace were murder in the harem as the It was his darkest hour of strewn across the gleaming black floors of the Imperial Palace with blood-stained butterflies pinned to a broad, the beautiful young concubines in the Beijing's Forbidden City appeared at first to be sleeping, but if you stepped a bit closer the crimson pools of blood around their silken robes that absorb in blood and their beautifully long black hair told a much more gruesome story---The mass Slaughter in the Forbidden City...

The Lady Cui and her server's
threatened to show the
secret of a sex scandal which
could humiliate the Emperor Yongle of
his reign of the Ming dynasty. 

Emperor Yongle tried to suppress a sex scandal which threatened to humiliate him at what should have been the proudest moments of his reign.

From what I could understand about this gruesome tale of murder and power of the Grand Forbidden City of China is that Beijing was at the time full of foreign dignitaries who had been invited to the unveiling ceremony of the Forbidden City, The architectural wonder which is still the largest palace in the world. It seems The Emperor Ming Yongle hoped in 1421 by murdering all witnesses to the scandalous developments in his own harem, he could keep the

secrets for all eternity even from the Gods. However, the tale of treachery and murderous intrigue which unfolded with the blood-red walls of his palace is finally found and told my some people of china that were found by long-forgotten chronicles that were translated into English for the very first time. What it shows is how just as today Chinese government hopes of the Olympics will lend their regime credibility so the building of the

Ming Yongle 

Forbidden City was Emperor Ming Yongle attempted to legitimise his claim to be the supreme ruler of all China. Emperor Ming Yongle murdering all those innocent royal servants of the Palace of the Forbidden City of 1421 feeling that killing off all those witnesses to the scandalous developments in his own harem, he hoped to keep his secrets for all of eternity , but as one knows secrets have a way of coming to the surface at some point. As did with Ming Yongle Murders and tales of treachery unfolded within the blood-red walls of his palace.
Well, It seems that Ming Yongle had no right to call himself an Emperor!!!
You ask Why? Well, it's because his father, the first Ming emperor died in 1398, the true heir to the throne was Yongle's 20-year-old nephew Jianwen.

Emperor Jianwen 

The Jianwen Emperor - Chinese Emperor Jianwen Di was born December 5, 1377, & some said died July 13, 1402, however, that is up for debate. He was the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty in China. His personal name was Zhu Yunwen. The era name of his reign, Jianwen meant 'Establishing  Civility' and represented a sharp change in tone from Hongwu also meaning 'Vastly Martial', the era name of the reign of this Grandfather and Predecessor the Hongwu Emperor. Unfortunately Jianwen Emperor reign didn't last long; an attempt to restrain his uncles led to the Jiangnan rebellion, is what eventually overthrown Jianwen Emperors reign by one of his uncles, Zhu Di who was then enthroned as the Yongle Emperor. Although Yongle Ming Emperor presented a charred body of Zhu Yunwen's, which started circulating rumours for decades that the Jianwen Emperor had disguised himself as a Buddhist monk and escaped from the palace when it was set afire by Zhu Di's forces. Some people speculated that one of the reasons behind whey the Yongle Emperor sponsored the Admiral Zheng is because of his treasure and voyages of the early 15th century. Yongle to search for the Jianwen Emperor, who was believed to have survived and fled to Southeast Asia. Some have said or even historians believe that the Jianwen Emperor had indeed survived and escaped from Nanjing, but official histories of the Ming dynasty were modified later during the Qing Dynasty to please the Manchu rulers. His reign did not last long; an attempt to restrain his uncles led to the Jiangnan rebellion. Even so Jianwen Emperor was overthrown by one of his very own uncles, Zhu Di, who was then enthroned as the Yongle Emperor.
It is said that Yongle Emperor presented a charred body, however, it is said that Jianwen the Emperor had disguised himself as a Buddhist and escaped under the palace tunnels and the body was left as a decoy. Then lived out the rest of his days as a monk in a monastery.
So how this all work was, Ming Yongle was 18years older than Jianwen and very much wanted the power that his father had. Yongle was also an aggressive warrior who had successfully defended china's northern reaches against the Mongols. So in his mind he believed his father should have given him the throne instead.

 What most people of the time didn't know was the Ming Yongle was encouraged to take the throne by an old soothsayer who appeared before him in a tavern.
This is what happen in the tavern between Ming Yongle and the old soothsayer who appeared before him....
The old soothsayer told Ming Yongle he was the true 'Son of Heaven' and said he would one day be the emperor of the forbidden City Palance, but only when his beard reached his navel. So three years later, a once superstitious Ming Yongle had grown his beard to his navel. After doing this, he led his forces to Nanjing, then to the capital of China with plans to kill his young nephew who should have been Emperor of the Forbidden Palance of China. At first, Jianwen believes he is safe behind Nanjing's unbreachable defences, but then he learns that one of his generals had betrayed him, by opening the gates to invaded the palace. It seems that Ming Yongle's triumph was assured, however, he hadn't reckoned on the intervention of his father ---Hongwu---from beyond the grave. Just as Ming Yongle's 20year old nephew Jianwen was contemplating suicide rather than die at the hands of his bloodthirsty Uncle, and old eunuch who had served under Ming Yongle's father Hongwu scuttled in with an ancient vermilion box and placed it before Jianwen. You see this old eunuch who had served Hongwu anticipated Ming Yongle's fury at being overlooked as his father heir, so the emperor Hongwu instructed that the box be given to his grandson[Jianwen] in such a case as this attack on his palace. In this box, it contained a map of a secret, passageways under the city, orange robes and a razor for Young would have been Emperor Jianwen to shave his head so he could escape into the countryside disguised as a Buddhist monk.
As Emperor Jianwen fled, he ordered the palace be burnt to the ground, leaving his family to die inside rather than face the torturer of his uncle's wrath. Once the flames had cooled down, Ming Yongle men went inside to check on if the Emperor Jianwen and his family were dead.All the blackened bodies in the palace were that of their six-year-old son, his men and alongside them was the corpse of a young man which they all thought to be the corpse of the Emperor Jianwen. Even though the corpse of the young man was burnt beyond recognition, Yongle decided it must have been Jianwen and declared himself the Emperor of China. However, there were rumors soon after that of a mysterious monk seen running from the city shortly before the fire. So from all those sightings and rumors the

Emperor Yongle was haunted to the day he died by the possibility that Jianwen might return to claim his throne. The bloodshed, which marked the rest of his reign, flowed from his determination to prove that just as the soothsayer had said, he was heaven's chosen agent on Earth. Some say they never knew what happen to the young Emperor Jianwen however, I did find some interesting info that I will share with you all at the end of this post... As the new Emperor Yongle appointed himself Emperor of China, he purged the capital of all his political opponents, killing tens of thousands of people. Doing this to assert himself as the new and unassailable Emperor of China, be also built a new capital in the province of Beijing which was 550 miles to the north, where his support base was very strong. At the heart of Beijing, The Mandarin word for northern, capital would be the palace complex of the Forbidden City.

Emperor Yongle enjoying the Ming
8th Century lunar moon

The Forbidden City Palace was built with nearly 1,000 building & more than 9,000 rooms occupying 180 acres - five times as much land as Buckingham Palace- Yongle hoped this wondrous creation would show it had been built with divine approval. The entire construction of the Palace took 15years and more than a million people were press-ganged into gathering building materials for the palace from every corner of the empire. When the freezing winters came upon the plains of the north, great slabs of marble were hauled across the ice. If any were sub-standard, those responsible for the findings of them were beaten or executed on site. There was great suffering too when building the City. In the province of Szechuan, where unpaid workers were ordered deep into the uncharted forests to lumber hundreds of thousands of giant timbers Trees. This is why there no forest left in the area's of the Forbidden Palace. They were hounded by the Emperor Yongle's soldiers and beset by disease, wild animals and sheer exhaustion by building this enormous palace.

Only half made it out alive. The survivors would roll the trees down the mountain gullies and into the rivers, where they would float on a 1,000-mile journey to Beijing. A trip that took as long as four years.

As the buildings materials inched towards the new capital, Yongle ordered that every brick, pillar and stairs of the old palace in Nanjing should be measured to ensure that the Forbidden City should be the Higher Grander and more Magnificent of all China'. The task was delegated to a team of eunuchs who were believed to make the most loyal servants. Keeping their severed 'treasure parts' in a jar and pricing them as proof

It was in the year 1408 that the Emperor Yongle sent his high chief eunuch on a special mission to the neighbouring Korea to retrieve a Korean woman that he had talked to the King of Korean about. Afraid of displeasing his neighbour, the Korean King sent his high officials across the land to find their purest and most becoming young woman to the Emperor Yongle. So all the pretty girls within the country of Korean government had to be reported to the authorities, and anyone who hid their daughters or cut off their hair to try to make them either look like a boy or ugly was arrested and stripped of everything they owned.

Among the many young girls and woman that were taken from their homes/family and country was the Lady

Cui a 14-year-old daughter of a Korean government official who was taken over 600 miles from the only home she ever knew to Beijing to serve the Emperor. [ Note there is even a popular Chinese TV drama that is featuring the lives of the Emperor Yongle and the Lady Cui a 14-year old daughter of a Korean government official who was taken from the only home she ever knew to serve the Emperor of China.[ In addition to the Chinese mainland, where it earned a 10% share of the TV-watching audience in its time slot, the show has drawn big audiences in Singapore, Malaysia & Taiwan. In one month, it racked up 2.4. billion views on various online platforms. "We have not decided which channel will show the English version in the US, but the collaboration will not be limited to the American channels. We want it to be global,' Cao says.

The producer says a production company in the United States with a number of Asian-Americans on its staff will re-edit the 76 episodes into six miniseries - like installments and update the soundtrack. Additionally, some of the scenes will be reshot with the original cast members and dubbed into English, rather than used of subtitles... So have a look on your local internet and Youtube for the upcoming six miniseries...]

The Lady Cui never saw her family again and her incredible 

The story, recently were translated from the original Mandarin, give to 

the I don't really who but it was an unprecedented insight 

to the secret world of the Ming Emperor world of the concubines. 

Maybe at some point I will try to find out for you my dears.

Until the Forbidden Palace was completed, the Lady Cui and hundreds

of others courtesans were locked inside the imperial palace in Nanjing

[rebuilt after the fire]. where they were taught the art of love-making,

reading textbooks and studying erotic paintings that showed them how to

please, the emperor. The Emperors Yongle's favorites, like that of the 

Lady Cui could become women of much wealth and influence

in the ritualized world of the harem, but catching the emperor's eye was

not easy. Even though Lady Cui was brought her for the Emperor to

serve in any way he chooses she also had to get him to catch her eye over

all the rest of the women within his court. And being at a young age

of 14years old this could either help her or go against her.

A strict astrological calendar was in operation to ensure the emperor was

having sex with the right woman on the right day, depending upon the time and circumstances of their birth. This was to ensure his love-making was

according with the wishes of heaven, but it meant a particular concubine might not be called to the imperial bed-chamber for many years and some

were never summoned at all to the Emperor's bedchamber. 

I can't even image what that was like for these woman in those times. 

It must have been, a feeling of great regret  & shame.

This lack of contact with their emperor might explain why some of
the concubines resorted to so-called 'vegetarian' affairs with the eunuchs
the only men or half-men they saw from day to day.
It also seems that the Chinese were the pioneers of SEX aids too, these
intensely emotional relationships may also have been partly physical,
however - whatever their nature they were forbidden. So all was
done is secret.They could also have had catastrophic consequences,
to their desires behind closed doors, as it was seen shortly after
the Emperor Yongle unveiled the Forbidden City on
New Year's Day On 1421.
This was Yongle Emperor's triumphant moment, however though
he had festooned the palace with statues of magical beasts to ward off
evil, he did not enjoy heaven's blessing for long.
The reasons for this was, as you might know in history there
were many foreign ambassadors who had traveled very far for
the opening ceremonies of the Forbidden Palace. To enjoy Beijing's
hospitality outside the palace walls in the coming weeks. However, those
inside were luxuriating in their surroundings without the foreign
ambassadors not really knowing what was truly was going
on inside the palace. You see the concubines had never known such
opulence, with each of the departments run
by the eunuchs catering to their
every whim. There was a Department of entertainment to organize festivals and parties for all. Also, the Bathhouse's to provide them with steaming hot water and would believe this? even a department of Toilet Paper!
But of course, the fun and frolic wasn't going to last forever.
However, but for the concubines it was a prison  of sorts. Why?
 They were forbidden to leave the
harem within the Palace and they're every move was spied
upon by a secret police within the palace, which force known
as the Eastern Depot, that was run by the senior eunuchs.
Shortly after the enormous ceremonies that the Emperor Yongle
had put on for the ambassadors, the Eastern Depot told Yongle one of his
favorite concubines had committed suicide after being caught
having a relationship with a eunuch.
This was the first sign the Emperor Yongle

Emperor Yongle 

 was not in his control it would seem. So of course he could have
that going around within and outside China. Any suggestion that
Yongle was not in complete control of his palace could encourage his
political enemies, within and outside China, to think he was a weak ruler,
so he took action. Sadly what the Emperor Yongle decided to do was
this---Away from the gaze of his foreign visitors, the occupants of the harem were all rounded up, not really knowing what was going to happen to them till it actually did, all were marched to their bloody deaths
and silenced forever. Just because of one of the Emperor Yongle's
favorite concubines had committed suicided after being caught
having a relationship with a eunuch and Yongle need to cover
his ass from the harem that he was running in the forbidden palace.
Of course there is no mention of this in the Emperor Yongle official records, but he managed to write the murders within China's history,
the gods appeared to have taken their vengeance upon him, through the
centuries as is divulged in the memories of the Lady Cui.
The Lady Cui life was spared because she had been recuperating

from an illness in the old imperial palace at Nanjing at the time of the
massacre, [some have said the Emperor Yongle had put her in the old
part of the imperial palace to save her from the massacre. One will really
never know.] She at some point she did returned to the Forbidden City

the next night in time to witness what had happened.
There was such deep sorrow in the Grand Forbidden Palace
that thunder shook the three great halls, ' recalled Lady Cui.
Also, Lighting struck them after all those years of toil,
they all burned to the ground. The blaze lit up the whole city and
soon spread across the Palace reducing 250 buildings to ashes
and burning scores of men and women alive.
The palace of Yongle had covered with lucky charms seemed damned.
Questions of what the Emperor Yongle had done & fearful that the
heavens were very angry with him,  sank the Emperor Yongle into a
deep depression in which he died in August of 1421 --- A broken man --- A broken Emperor.
In the dark world of the Forbidden Cit, where life could be snuffed
out in just an instant, the Lady Cui had outlived the Emperor that taken
her from her home Koren & Family when she was only 14-years old, however, there was just one sickening thing that he had left with her
when he died 'the marriage vows'. So from that moment on she would
 never allow herself to give herself again to a man. There would be
only one way to ensure that.  This is what the Lady Cui did to ensure
that she would never be in that situation at again. So on the very day
that Yongle's funeral was, Lady Cui made herself beautiful that day at the
wake for her emperor one last time & then, along with 15 of his favourite concubines[that survived the massacre] & their servant girls, she was executed - hung from a noose of white silk in a quiet hall within the
Forbidden City. She was just 30 years old.
The Emperor Hongxi which was Yongle son planned to abandon the
ill-fated palace and move the capital back to Nanjing, but he died just one
year into his reign. It seemed the Palace was cursed!!!
The three great halls lay in ruins for 15years until the decision
was taken up to rebuild them after a time had passed hoping the curse
had passed.
The Forbidden City world serve 24 emperors before 1911 when the
revolutionaries stormed the palace to the end of imperial rule.
Thanks to the determination of their modern-day successors to bring
China into the 21-centry, international attention will soon focus
not on the Forbidden City but on a new landmark
"Bird's Nest"
Olympic Stadium which is five miles away
Like its historic neighbour the Forbidden City, it has cost vast
amounts of money to build and is said to have cost the lives of many
constructions workers in fact too.
However, China feeling that it's all worth it. China rules will have to
hope they fare better than the Emperor Yongle the tyrant who was in
power the last time Beijing set out to dazzle the world.
I pray for the people of china that they will never go
through another time like the Emperor Yongle
and the Curse is forgiven.
I hope that you all enjoy the history of China and
just a bit of their history. I love history of
the different countries of the world...
Love you all my dears
YOURWENDY

 YOURWENDY