The Tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen

Through China's history there has been a concept called the "Mandate of Heaven".  The Mandate of Heaven is what the emperors have claimed gives them legitimacy to rule.  It's similar to Europe's Divine Right of Kings, except it has a "performance clause".  The emperor is entitled to rule as long as he considers the welfare of his subjects, is fair, and is just.  In this case, heaven will bless the kingdom with prosperity and stability.  If the emperor is wicked or incompetent then the heavens will respond with famines, plagues, and natural disasters.  In that case, the people are welcome to terminate the contract, overthrow the ruler, and install a new one.

This has happened many times in China's history.  For example, our friend from the previous post, the first Ming Emperor HongWu, claimed the throne by overthrowing the underperforming emperor of the Yuan Dynasty.  The Chinese have not historically been hung up with royal bloodlines.  HongWu started life as a peasant.  The peoeple were seemingly happy to have him take over the operation....like stockholders after a bad CEO is ousted in a hostile board meeting.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Chinese empire was in decline under the Qing Dynasty.  There were natural disasters and plagues, but the worst thing was the gradual subjugation and colonization of China by Western powers.  France, Germany, England, Japan, and the U.S. were all carving up the land and making off with the treasure.  The heavens were not smiling upon the empire.

 Sun Yat-Sen was a farmer's son from the Southeast of China who became a doctor and later organized the revolution which toppled the Qing Emperor on October 10, 2011.  In earlier times he might have founded his own Dynasty.  Instead, he helped constitute the Republic Of China and became it's first president.  If all stories had a storybook ending, then things would have ended happily there.  But in the real world there were a lot of folks jockeying for power - both internal warlords and foreign powers.  Sun Yat-sen left the presidency and died in 1925.

They built him a grand mausoleum up on Nanjing's Purple Mountain.  The tomb is not far from the Ming Tombs.  Whomever design the new mausoleum borrowed heavily from the imperial tombs.  I guess the thought was that, emperor or not, Sun Yat-sen had founded a new dynasty and deserved a resting place commensurate with that achievement.

The tomb rises up the side of Purple mountain with long walkways and multiple flights of stairs.  One of the sign said 364 steps from bottom to top.  The first photo shows the 364 steps looking up.  The one just above shows them looking down.  The view is nice from both locations.

The People's Republic of China drove the government of the Republic of China from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949.   Though there is still disagreement between the two, both governments honor Dr. Sun Yat-sen as one of their own.  In their eyes, he founded modern China.  He took the Mandate of Heaven from the emperors and gave it to the people.

The mausoleum is at the top.  A lot of people come to honor the doctor, as you can see from the photos.  Near the mausoleum there is a shop selling flowers for people to place on the tomb.  (The second photo shows the flower stall, complete with an sign in English that says "Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum Flower-Presenting Service".)  The doctor's statue sits in the center of the mausoleum, and his remains rest just below the statue.

This year, October 10, was the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Qing empire (if you are on the mainland) and of the formation of the Republic of China (if you are in Taiwan).  The anniversary date fell during the Golden Week national holiday.  We're told that, during that week, you could not see the stairs as they were so covered with people.

One last story.  On the day we visited, Theresa's knees were feeling a little sore.  So we asked the tourist desk if there was a way to get to the top by a back maintenance roadway or something.  Nope, the stairs were the only way up.  We didn't really believe that, but took the stairs to the top anyway.  On the way down we passed the guy shown in the photo above lugging a load of bricks to the top.  So evidently, the stairs really are the only way to get there.