Chapter I The Shadow of an Empire

"Life is over but the soul remains; The soul has gradually gone, but my song remains; Looking at the demolished ancient wall tower; yelling out a line from the Shaanxi Opera, tears shed from your eyes..." Rock singer Zheng Jun, said in his song "Chang’an, Chang’an".

In a sense, this song reflected people’s attitude towards historical memory, today’s life and future prophecy.

In the long history of the Chinese nation, no other dynasty, as did by the Tang dynasty, had left endless imagination for countless generations; No other city, as did by the ancient city of Chang'an, has recorded the most gorgeous memory of the Chinese people; No other palace, as did by the Daming Palace, has been bearing the Chinese people’s eternal longing.

Leaving aside the historical records that showed us the brilliant majesty of the building, the ruins of the palace now, after more than 1,000 years, still gives us great amazement.

Passing through the Danfeng gate and walking to the north, a 610-meter long, 150-meter wide pilgrim road leading you directly up to the Empire’s palace. This road has recorded the footprint of many famous people including poet Li Bai, marshal An Lushan, the emperor’s dearest concubine Yang Yuhuan, hierarch Abe Nakamaro, Lady Guoguo, peasant uprising leader Huang Chao and emperor Zhu Wen of Later Liang.

Standing on the ruin of the Hanyuan Hall, the main hall of the Daming Palace, without strong search, one can subconsciously mull into a deep thought of the lost glory of the ancient gigantic empire.

Perhaps, we could not effectively bring back history into the reality and we might only can see the melancholy view of the back of an empire.

Even so, the great pride and warm feeling generated by the Daming Palace is strong enough to encourage us to move on.

"Time" (Source: Heritage Relics Preservation Station of the Daming Palace, 1990)