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| Golden cows statues erected outside an office block in Beijing in preparation for the Chinese Spring Festival 2009Source: DailyMail |
Last week my attention was dragged about story of great-great-great-grandfather of famous first China Emperor Shi Huangdi - king Huiwen of Qin. His attention was dragged by reach, fertile land of silk and money
"This was Sichuan, the great upper basin of the Yangzi that is today the country’s most populous province. Two administrations then controlled it – as indeed they do now following a 1997 bisection of the province: Ba in the south-east roughly corresponded to the modern Chongqing region and Shu in the centre to the modern Chengdu region." Source: Keay, J. China: A History, Kindle edition, p. 81
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| Sichuan on modern China map Source: wikimedia commons |
"Five life-size stone cows – rather than a wooden horse – were commissioned and, when sculpted to naturalistic perfection, were mischievously embellished by spattering their tails and hindquarters with gobs of purest gold. The herd was then put to grass where emissaries from Shu might observe it and reflect. Shu people being, even by Qin’s doubtful standards, unenlightened in the ways of civilisation and so somewhat credulous, the emissaries reported this remarkable phenomenon to their king" Source: Keay, J. China: A History, Kindle edition, p. 81
Having Shu rulers attention he make generous proposal to share some of his cows with great kingdom of Shu. In order to make it happen he need to however build a road through mountains Shu applauded as they are blinded by the vision of wealth. This is how construction of Stone Cattle Road begin:
"Where modern engineers would cut or tunnel, the makers of ‘Stone Cattle Road’ traversed. (Not even in China had the blast of gunpowder yet been heard.) It teetered along galleries cantilevered out of the sheer hillsides. Holes were bored horizontally into rock faces and plugged with sturdy poles that projected far enough to accommodate the planking of the carriageway. Elsewhere rivers were bridged and forest felled." Source: Keay, J. China: A History, Kindle edition, p. 82
As soon as road finish Shu expect Golden Cows herd arrival but instead there is surprise:
"(...) heavily armed and armoured Qin storm-troopers with their chariots and supply wagons who followed along ‘Stone Cattle Road’. Clattering over the planked galleries, Qin’s forces invaded Shu in 316 BC." Source: Keay, J. China: A History, Kindle edition, p. 82
Similar invasion was done by Alexander the Great during his India campaign. He also need to pass mountains with army:
"Only elsewhere in Asia had a comparable feat of arms been recorded. Just ten years earlier Macedonian infantry had erupted into India in similar fashion. Without the benefit of a mountain highway Alexander the Great had led his men on a circuitous route through the Hindu Kush before descending to no less promising victories in the basin of the upper Indus. Panj-ab, meaning the ‘five-rivers’ tributary to the Indus, lay at Alexander’s mercy much as Sichuan, meaning the ‘four-rivers’ tributary to the Yangzi, did at King Hui’s mercy." Source: Keay, J. China: A History, Kindle edition, p. 82
By far well known episode with army crossing through mountains is Hannibal campaign against Rome (218 BC).
Primary sources:
[1] Keay, J. "China: A History", Kindle edition
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