{"id":26911,"date":"2022-01-03T12:27:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T01:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaheritage.net\/?p=26911"},"modified":"2023-01-13T16:43:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T05:43:13","slug":"the-true-face-of-mount-lu-prologue-to-xi-jinpings-empire-of-tedium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaheritage.net\/journal\/the-true-face-of-mount-lu-prologue-to-xi-jinpings-empire-of-tedium\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Face of Mount Lu \u2014 prologue to ‘Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It is five years since we published ‘A Monkey King’s Journey to the East’<\/a>, the inaugural article in\u00a0China Heritage<\/em>, and ten years since what would soon become the irresistible rise of Xi Jinping. We mark this occasion by launching a series of interconnected essays under the title Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In \u2018The True Face of Mount Lu\u2019, the preface to our China Heritage<\/em> series on the inaugural decade of the Xi Jinping era, we ascend Mount Lu, or Lu Shan, the Hermitage Mountain, in Jiangxi \u6c5f\u897f\u7701\u5eec\u5c71. One of China\u2019s most famous mountains, and a modern national park, Mount Lu has inspired poets, scholars, recluses, religious devotees over the ages. In the twentieth century the hill station at Guling provided both escape from the summer heat as well as a political platform for leaders both of the Nationalists and the Communists. During the era of High Socialism in the People\u2019s Republic of China (c. 1949-1978) Mount Lu was the stage for the rise and the fall of the the most extreme policies of Mao Zedong and his co-conspirators, as well as for Mao\u2019s cult of personality.<\/p>\n

The complex terrain and numerous peaks of Mount Lu provide many perspectives both on the mountains themselves and the landscape surrounding it. Mount Lu frustrates the ambitious who hope to gain an all-encompassing perspective; these heights provide no olympian vantage point from which to survey or dominate the world. Rather, Mount Lu offers beguiling viewpoints and multiple angles from which to contemplate the passing cavalcade of history. It is for this reason that we offer the following meditation on Mount Lu as the prologue to Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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We are grateful to Lois Conner for allowing us to use some of work she made during our travels on and around Mount Lu in July 2004 as part of our long-term collaboration on Chinese landscapes.\u00a0We are also grateful to Callum Smith, the designer of China Heritage<\/em>, for creating our new masthead with Lois’s photograph of the Temple of Confluence and the peaks of the Five Old Ones.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Geremie R. Barm\u00e9,\u00a0Editor, China Heritage<\/em>
\nDistinguished Fellow,\u00a0The Asia Society
\n1 January 2022<\/p>\n

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Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n