The Monument of the Manchu Nation
This page displays some screen shots from the Monument of the Manchu Nation, an outdoor landscape sculpture designed in Autodesk Inventor. The Manchu Nation has evolved from the racial, cultural, political and economic integration of many ethnic groups living in today's Northeastern part of China and Southeastern part of Russia. In 1635, Aisinjoro Hong Taiji, the second Emperor of the Great Qing Manchu Empire of China, decreed the official adoption of the name "Manchu" for all ethnic groups under his reign, including the Jurchen people, the mainstream ethnic group, the Han Chinese, Mongolians, Koreans, and even Russians. According to Qing Dynasty's official historical record, the Researches on Manchu Origins, the ethnic name Manchu came from Manjusri, the "Gentle Glory," a bodhisattva associated with transcendent wisdom in Mahayana Buddhism. In Esoteric Buddhism she is also taken as a meditational deity. Qianlong, the Fifth Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, also supported the point of view and even made few poems about it. In 1644, China's Ming Dynasty was overthrown by rebels after a long civil war. This event provided an opportunity for the coalition of Jurchen, Mongolian and Han Chinese Eight Banners to march into China Proper and unify the country, defeating many factions of Chinese warlords. The Qing Dynasty was the first Chinese state where all ethnic groups live in relative equality and peace, and peoples of all social classes live in relative harmony through extensive networks of welfare system administered by the Imperial Government and local literati-gentry (basically, wealthy landowners and merchants). The Qing Dynasty was multi-racial and multi-cultural, allowing peoples from all racial and ethnic backgrounds (including Europeans) to serve in the government; and it has increased China's territory four times through aristocratic intermarriage, diplomatic efforts, and occasionally, military campaigns. Under the Qing Dynasty, the Crown considered itself as the re-incarnation of Manjusri and promoted many enlightened and progressive social reforms such as emancipation of the pariahs, redistribution of land ownership, decrease of taxation, and limitation of death penalty (throughout over 268 years of Qing Dynasty reign, for a population of 1000 to 4000 million, over a vast territory of over 12 million square kilometers, the number of convicts put to death varied from less than 100 to less than 1000 per year). After the 1911 Anti-Manchu Rebellion, the Manchu people suffered from 38 years of genocidal persecution and social discrimination and many of them had to flee to foreign countries or hide their ethnic identity. The founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 has somehow improved the conditions of the Manchus, although during the Cultural Revolution, Manchu Civilization was branded as “reactionary remnant of Qing Dynasty feudalism,” and suppressed. In the recent two decades, with China's economic reforms and social modernization, Chinese scholars are much more honest and objective in their evaluation of modern Chinese history; and many large-scale movies have been produced to present to Chinese audience a more positive and enlightened world under the Qing Dynasty; they include Kangxi Dynasty, Qianlong Dynasty, Huanzhu Gege, and many others. Chinese Government started to officially recognize the contributions made by the Qing Dynasty and the Manchu people. This outdoor landscape sculpture has been created to commemorate the contribution of the Manchu people to world civilization.
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Symbolic meanings of the design elements in the logo of the Manchu Arts and Crafts Emporium
The pink heart with golden frame symbolizes benevolent government serving the needs of all people regardless of racial-ethnic or religious identity or socio-economic status, the red flames represents the Mongolian people and their cultural heritage, the four-colored rainbow symbolizes the Eight Banners (the social, economic, and military organization of the Manchu people) which brought peace and prosperity to over 50 ethnic groups of Chinese people under the reign of the Qing Dynasty, and the white, blue and gold symbol represents the ideas of harmony between Yin (positive) and Yang (negative), from the Daoist philosophy, the native belief system of the Han Chinese. |
Edward Locke's SuniSea Studio
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