STORIED HANKOW PASS

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 6

STORIED HANKOW PASS

THE KEY TO CHINA Command of historic Nankow Pass and the Valley of the Thirteen Tombs has thrice changed _ the destiny of China, says a writer in the Melbourne ‘ Age.’ To-day history is repeating itself. In this strategic gateway, through the chain of towering Chihli mountains that divide the land of Manchus from Old China, Japanese and Chinese have fought desperately for mastery. China clung tenaciously to the famous resting-place of the 13 Ming Emperors, for the capture by Japanese of Nankow Pass opens the gateway to Shangtung, Shensi, _ and Shansi, three of . the five provinces coveted by the military leaders of NipW pou in their second drive against China,. It is at Nankow Pass that China has won or lost nearly all of its wars. Tha shattered city of Nankow, 20 miles distant, was a village of mud huts when Mongolian hordes poured through tha pass in 1260 a.d. and set up the Yuan dynasty that was to rule China for almost a century. Marco Polo passed through the beautiful valley on his visit to the ancient capital of China during the reign of the Great Khan. In 1355 a.d. an obscure priest in a Buddhist temple at Nankow led a revolt that spread throughout the nation and, swept the Mongolian invaders from the country. The priest became Emperor Hung Wu, the first of a line of rulers who maintained the sovereignty, of China until the invasion of tha Manchus three centuries later.

Nankow • Pass was the _ gateway; through which the Manchurians galloped on their wiry ponies in 1644 and founded the dynasty that remained, until China became a Republic in 1912. The last of the Manchus was tha Dowager-Empress, mother of Pu Yi, who became the first ruler of Manchukuo when Japan set up the puppet State in 1932.

Almost inaccessible, Nankow Pass has nearly always fallen by carelessness or treachery in the past; rarely to force. The towering mountains that flank the valley are easily defended by, a small force. Rocks that thundered down the mountain sides to crush tho invaders of old have been by, machine-guns and artillery, against Which an overwhelming preponderance of Japanese troops hurled themselves unavailingly for over a month. Aircraft played only an unimportant part in this mountain warfare against_ the Chinese soldiers dug into the hillsides.Until Japanese troops and supplies could proceed unmolested through the pass so jealously guarded by _ crack Nanking troops, Japanese operations in the theatened provinces must necessarily be restricted, and must be carried out through Tsientsin to the south and Kalgan to the east. Japanese occupation of Peking was also a nominal one, since Chinese troops still commanded the ancient capital from threw fronts; GATEWAY TO GREAT WALL. Tourists know Nankow Pass as tha gateway to the Great Wall, and to tha famous Valley of the Thirteen Tombs,Here, where they lived, and loved, and died, lie the dust of 13 of the _l6 Ming emperors, the dynasty founded' by the obscure "Nankow priest, who led the rebellion against the Mongols. The Valley of the Tombs is only two hours distant by train from Peking. The beautiful valley in which the tombs are located is . six. jmle% long, and the tombs j each in a separate enclosure, are on the of the timbered . mountains where Chi-, nese troops are now so firmly entrenched. ■ , , The tombs are approached through an exquisite white marble archway or five tiers, where inscriptions earnestly enjoin on all visitors a feeling of reverence for the “ Holy. Way ” about to be visited. Only in recent years, since the foundation of the Republic, has the injunction become necessary for Chinese visitors, since reverence for ancestors and ancestral worship is a religion transcending all others. The Ching Ming festival, or day of brightness and purity, is set aside as the principal day for ancestral worship, and in pre-republican days thousands of Chinese visited the tombs to pay homage to the Ming liberators. On this day the spirits or all ancestors return to earth, where they receive offerings of food and spirit money to enrich their lives in heaven until tha next festival. .. Three miles from the marble pailii are the 13 tombs, each with large images of the Ming rulers—six military and seven civilian—carved in blue limestone. HOLY WAY DESECRATED. The animals accompanying the images, which face a six-nule-long avenue, include two pairs or lions, two unicorn monsters, and two each or. camels, • elephants, horses, and dragons for each emperor. _ . . . Various invaders of China, including the Manchus, who replaced the Ming dynasty with one that was to rule until China became a republic m 1912, have desecrated the Holy Way. Most of the paving of the beautiful avenue, scene of many magnificent processions when the later Ming rulers offered sacrifices to their emperors, has been tom up. Japanese attempted unsuccessfully to i sweep through the valley in the 1931-32 camipaign, which cost China its five northmost provinces that have since reverted to a puppet Manchu rulei. Nankow was bombed h.y Japanese ana Manchukman invaders in 1930, when Chihli almost followed the five provinces. ■ Republicanism* which still adheres rigidly to the principles of ancestral worship, frowns heavily upon worship at the tombs of former kings, and makes no effort to prevent bandit hordes and, irregular troops from using the valley as a refuge. The nearby city of Nankow was bombed almost out of existence by Japanese war planes when to present offensive started. But although Japan early laid waste to the birthplace of the first Ming ruler, and drove the Chinese from Peking and Tientsin, Nanking retained strategio command of the threatened province until its troops were dislodged from the mountains overlooking the lomb# of the Thirteen Emperors.