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Henan

 

Major Cities:

Zhengzhou is the province's capital and most populous city. Other major cities include Kaifeng, Luoyang, Xinxiang, Anyang, Luohe, and Xuchang.

 

Tourism

• Gaocheng Astronomical Observatory, the oldest astronomical observatory in China.
• Annual Peony Show in Luoyang.
• Mount Song, near Dengfeng, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of China.
• Shaolin Temple, on Mount Song.
• The Longmen Grottoes, near Luoyang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
• Songyue Pagoda
• Yinxu in Anyang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Youguo Temple with the Iron Pagoda

 

Henan opera (豫劇), or Henan bangzi (河南梆子), is a form of Chinese opera, especially popular in Henan, Hubei, and other provinces.

 

Henan cuisine (豫菜 or 河南菜) is a cross between the Jiangsu cuisine, with which it shares the trait of selecting ingredients according to the four seasons, and to a lesser extent, the Beijing cuisine, from which it adopted many cooking methods. The characteristics of Henan cuisine include:

• The wide utilization of onions
• Pork is the major meat in Henan cuisine but seldom served in soups; mutton and lamb are mainly served in soups.
• Rice is the major food, but Henan cuisine is unique in that the rice is served with oil produced from animal fat (though this practice is diminishing due to health concerns)
• Although noodles are cooked similarly to other northern Chinese cuisines, the Henan cuisine is unique in that it utilizes rice vermicelli that is mostly used in southern China and Southeast Asia.

HENAN

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Henan (河南), is a province of the People's Republic of China, located eastern central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫, named after Yuzhou Province (豫州), a Han Dynasty province (zhou) that included parts of Henan. The name Henan means "south of the (Yellow) River" (Huang He).

With nearly 100 million people, Henan is the most populous province of China by residency. It borders Hebei to the north, Shandong to the northeast, Anhui to the southeast, Hubei to the south, Shaanxi to the west, and Shanxi to the northwest.

Henan is often called Zhongyuan (中原) or Zhongzhou (中州), literally "central plains" or "midland"; this name is also broadly applied to the entire North China Plain. Henan is traditionally regarded as the cradle of Chinese civilization.

 

Geography

Henan is flat in the east and mountainous in the west and extreme south. The eastern and central parts of the province form part of the North China Plain. To the northwest the Taihang Mountains intrude partially into Henan's borders; to the west the Qinling Mountains enter Henan from the west and end about halfway across Henan, with branches (such as the Funiu Mountains) extending northwards and southwards. To the far south, the Dabie Mountains separate Henan from neighbouring Hubei province.

The Yellow River passes through northern Henan. It enters from the northwest, via the Sanmenxia Reservoir. After it passes Luoyang, the Yellow River is raised via natural sedimentation and artificial construction onto a levee, higher than the surrounding land. From here onwards, the Yellow River divides the Hai He watershed to the north and the Huai He watershed to the south. The Huai He itself originates in southern Henan. The southwestern corner of Henan, around Nanyang, is part of the drainage basin of the Han Shui River across the border in Hubei.

Henan has a temperate continental climate, with most rainfall in summer.

 

Economy

Henan is a major economy in China and is ranked 5th in GDP in China (after Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang). Like most other inland regions, it lags behind the coastal region economically.

Henan is an agricultural province, leading the provinces of China in wheat and sesame production, and is third place overall in terms of total grain output. Cotton, rice, and maize are also important crops in Henan.

There are several important centers of coal production in Henan, including Pingdingshan, Yima, and Jiaozuo. Luanchuan County in western Henan is an important center of molybdenum extraction. Electricity generation is another important industry of Henan.

 

Culture

Henan is located in the Yellow River valley where ancient people lived. Earlier in the New Stone Age, the light of civilization had appeared and the delicate potteries in the Peiligang Culture and Yangshao Culture, and the character signs and musical instruments 8,000 years ago have filled the present world and the ancient times with wonders. Three of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China are in Henan: Luoyang, Kaifeng and Anyang. Henan is one of the provinces that has the most historical relics in the country. There are 16 key national units of protecting historical relics and 267 provincial units of protecting historical relics. The over-ground historical relics are the second in China in number. Historical relics in museums take up one-eighth of those in China, and the underground historical relics are the first in China in number. In Henan Museum there are 120,000 historical relics, including over 40,000 rare ones.

Most of Henan speaks dialects of the Mandarin group of dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China. Linguists put these dialects into the category of "Zhongyuan Mandarin". The northwestern corner of Henan is an exception, where people speak Jin dialects instead. The dialects of Henan are collectively called "the Henan dialect" in popular usage, with easily identifiable stereotypical features.

 

Demographics

Henan is the most populous province of China, with a population of 97,170,000 in 2004. If it were its own country, it would be the twelfth most populous, just behind Mexico. However, Sichuan used to be more populous before Chongqing city was carved out of it. Also, when considering migrants, Guangdong has the highest population in China, despite Hainan being splintered off of it.

Just under 99% of Henan's population is Han Chinese, while Hui account for virtually all the remaining 1%. It is the third most populous sub-national division in the world, after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra of India.

 

 

 

Central Plain of China

Map showing the province of Henan and two definitions of the Central Plain or Zhongyuan (map by Exult)

The Central Plain of China (中原; Zhongyuan) refers to the area on the lower reaches of the Yellow River which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization. It forms part of the North China Plain.

In its narrowest sense, the Central Plain covers modern-day Henan, the southern part of Hebei, the southern part of Shanxi, and the western part of Shandong province. A broader interpretation of the Central Plain's extent would add the Guanzhong plain of Shaanxi, the northwestern part of Jiangsu, and parts of Anhui and northern Hebei.

In the pre-Qin era, present-day Luoyang and its nearby areas were considered the “Center of the World”, as the political seat of the Xia Dynasty was located around Songshan and the Yi-Luo river basin.

Inscriptions on some bronze objects from this era contain references to the 'Central States' (Zhongguo; 中國), 'Eastern States', or 'Southern States'. This indicates that the Central Plain, which was referred as the 'Central States' in these inscriptions, was considered to occupy the center of the world. 

 

 

South Central China

South Central China (中南: 華中, 華南) is a region of China defined by governmental bureaus that includes the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, but excluding 2 Special administrative regions: Hong Kong and Macau.

 

Central China

• Henan
• Hubei
• Hunan

Southern China

• Guangdong
• Hainan
• Guangxi 

 

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* Genetic Link Between Chaoshan and Other Chinese Han Populations: Evidence from HLA-A and HLA-B allele frequency distribution by Sheng-Ping Hu, et al.

Neighbor-joining Tree

(China Middle)

 

 

* Genomic Dissection of Population Substructure of Han Chinese and Its Implication in Association Studies by Shuhua Xu, et al.

Abstract: To date, most genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and studies of fine-scale population structure have been conducted primarily on Europeans. Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the world, composing 20% of the entire global human population, is largely underrepresented in such studies. A well-recognized challenge is the fact that population structure can cause spurious associations in GWAS. In this study, we examined population substructures in a diverse set of over 1700 Han Chinese samples collected from 26 regions across China, each genotyped at 160K single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our results showed that the Han Chinese population is intricately substructured, with the main observed clusters corresponding roughly to northern Han, central Han, and southern Han. However, simulated case-control studies showed that genetic differentiation among these clusters, although very small (FST = 0.0002 0.0009), is sufficient to lead to an inflated rate of false-positive results even when the sample size is moderate. The top two SNPs with the greatest frequency differences between the northern Han and southern Han clusters (FST > 0.06) were found in the FADS2 gene, which associates with the fatty acid composition in phospholipids, and in the HLA complex P5 gene (HCP5), which associates with HIV infection, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) showed that most differentiated genes among clusters are involved in cardiac arteriopathy (p < 10−101). These signals indicating significant differences among Han Chinese subpopulations should be carefully explained in case they are also detected in association studies, especially when sample sources are diverse.

 

 

* Population Genetic Data of 15 STR Loci in Han Population of Henan Province (central China) by Zhao Shu Zeng, et al.

Abstract: Allele frequencies of the 15 STR loci were determined in 208 unrelated individuals from Han population living in Henan, China (central China). All loci except D5S818 were found no deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. The combined power of discrimination (PD) and the combined chance of exclusion (CE) for the 15 studied loci were >0.9999999 and 0.999996119, respectively. Our data were statistically compared with the previously reported data from other Chinese population groups, and significant difference was found between central Han Chinese (n = 208) and eastern Chinese (n = 100) at vWA, or between central Han Chinese (n = 208) and southeast Chinese (n = 122) at D13S317.

 

 

* STR Polymorphisms of the Henan Population and Investigation of the Central Plains Han Origin of Chaoshanese by Li-Na Xu, et al.

Abstract: Allele frequencies for 15 short tandem repeat (STR) loci were obtained from a Chinese Han population in Henan province of middle China. No deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was observed for the STR loci except for D3S1358. The 15 STR loci are potentially useful for paternity testing and forensic casework in the Henan population. A phylogenetic tree based on CODIS STR allele frequencies of 25 Han populations revealed noticeable but far less clear distinctions between southern and northern Chinese populations; the Henan Han population was located at an intermediate position between south and north Chinese Han populations, relatively closer to Chaoshan and Minnan Han. Moreover, admixture analysis showed a large proportion of Central Plains Han origin in Chaoshanese and Minnanese. Admixture and phylogenetic analysis also reflected the genetic similarity shared by these two groups.

 

 

* Polymorphic Distribution of Y-chromosome Haplotype and Mitochondrial DNA in the Bouyei People in China by Li Yong-nian, et al.

Y-chromosome Haplotype Frequency Distribution in China and World Populations

 

 

* A Nomenclature System for the Tree of Human Y-Chromosomal Binary Haplogroups by The Y Chromosome Consortium

 

 

* Genetic Relationship of Populations in China by J. Y. Chu, et al.

Phylogeny Constructed by Using the Neighbor-joining Method based on 30 Microsatellites

 

 

* STR Polymorphisms of the Henan Population and Investigation of the Central Plains Han Origin of Chaoshanese by Li-Na Xu, et al.

Neighbor-joining tree constructed from Nei’s genetic distance based on the allelic frequencies of CODIS STR loci in 25 Chinese Han populations

 

 

* Tracing the Origins of Hakka and Chaoshanese by Mitochondrial DNA Analysis by Wen-Zhi Wang, et al.

Population Analyzed

 

Two-dimensional PC Plot of mtDNA of Han Populations

 

PC Map of Y Chromosome of Han Chinese

 

 

* Taiwan Aboriginals and Peoples of the Pacific-Asia Region: Multivariate craniometric comparisons by M. Pietrusewsky, et al.

Plot of 55 Male Groups Means on the First Two Canonical Variates Using 29 Cranial Measurements

 

Diagram of Relationship Based on a Cluster Analysis (UPGMA) of Mahalanobis' Generalized Distances Using 29 Cranial Measurements Recorded in 55 Male Groups

 

 

* The ADH1B Arg47His Polymorphism in East Asian Populations and Expansion of Rice Domestication in History by Yi Peng, et al.

The Distribution of the ADH1B*47His Allele and the Sites of Early Rice Relics

 

The Distribution of the ADH1B*47His Allele in the 38 East Asian Populations

 

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History of Henan

Northern Henan, along the Yellow River, was the core area of ancient China for at least the first half of Chinese history. The two cities of Luoyang and Kaifeng each served as the capital city of a long list of dynasties.

Archaeological sites reveal that prehistoric cultures such as the Yangshao Culture and Longshan Culture were active in what is now northern Henan. Although there have been factual data that prove reptilian fossils and statues found there of non human intelligent life civilizations that existed there that have pre-dated future civilizations to come as in following a pre-set order on how to live life in Henan for many years to come. Also shortly after the Erlitou culture, which has been controversially identified with the Xia Dynasty, the first Chinese dynasty as described in Chinese records, was also centered in Henan.

The first literate dynasty of China, the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC), was centered in Henan. Their last capital, Yin, was located at the modern city of Anyang, Henan.

In the 11th century BC, the Zhou Dynasty arrived from the west and destroyed the Shang Dynasty. Their capital was located initially in Hao (near present day Xi'an in Shaanxi province). In 722 BC, it was moved to Luoyang, Henan. This began the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, a period of warfare and rivalry. What is now Henan was divided into a variety of small states, including Hua (destroyed by Qin in 627BC), Chen, Cai, Cao, Zheng, Wei (衛), and powerful Jin from Shanxi to the north. Later on these were replaced with Han and Wei (魏). Throughout this period the state of Chu also held much of what is now southern Henan.

In 221 BC, the state of Qin from what is now Shaanxi completed the unification of China, establishing the first unified Chinese state, the Qin Dynasty. They were followed by the Han Dynasty in 206 BC, which initially put its capital in Chang'an (now Xi'an, Shaanxi). The second half of this dynasty (the Eastern Han Dynasty) moved its capital to Luoyang.

The late Eastern Han Dynasty saw war and rivalry between regional warlords. Henan was the power base of Cao Cao, who was based in Xuchang and eventually succeeded in unifying all of northern China under the Kingdom of Wei. Wei then put its capital in Luoyang. The Western Jin Dynasty that followed also put its capital at Luoyang.

In the 4th century, nomadic peoples from the north invaded northern China. Henan then came under the rule of many successive regimes, including the Later Zhao, the Former Yan, the Former Qin, the Later Yan, and the Later Qin. The Northern Wei Dynasty, which unified North China in 439, moved its capital to Luoyang in 493.

Northern Wei splintered in 534 and would not be restored until 589, when the Sui Dynasty reunified China. Sui Emperor Yang's costly attempt to relocate the capital from Chang'an to Luoyang contributed to the downfall of Sui. The Tang Dynasty that followed kept its capital in Chang'an (modern Xi'an, Shaanxi). The Tang lasted for three centuries, but eventually succumbed to internal strife.

In the Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that followed, Kaifeng was the capital of four dynasties: Later Liang Dynasty, Later Jin Dynasty, Later Han Dynasty, and Later Zhou Dynasty. The Song Dynasty that reunified China in 982 also had its capital at Kaifeng. Under Song rule, China entered a golden age of culture and prosperity, and Kaifeng was the largest city in the world. In 1127, however, the Song Dynasty succumbed to Jurchen (Jin Dynasty) invaders from the north, and in 1142 had to cede away all of northern China, including Henan. By this point, cultural and economic development in the Yangtze River delta Jiangnan region (modern southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, and Shanghai) had made that area into the new economic and cultural center of China, instead of Henan. Henan would forever lose this pre-eminent position.

Kaifeng served as the Jurchen's "southern capital" from 1157 (other sources say 1161) and was reconstructed during this time. But they kept their main capital further north, until 1214, when they were forced to move the imperial court southwards to Kaifeng in order to flee the Mongol onslaught. In 1234 they succumbed to combined Mongol and Song Dynasty forces. Mongols took control, and in 1279 they conquered all of China.

Mongol rule over China ended in 1368. The Ming Dynasty that followed set up the equivalent of modern Henan province, with borders extremely similar to modern ones. The capital was, however, at Kaifeng instead of modern Zhengzhou. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) did not make any significant changes to this arrangement; nor did the Republic of China in their rule over Mainland China (1911-1949).

The completion of the Pinghan Railway (Beijing-Hankou) made Zhengzhou, a previously unnoted county town, into a major transportation hub. In 1954, the new People's Republic of China government moved the capital of Henan from Kaifeng to Zhengzhou. The PRC also established a short-lived Pingyuan Province consisting of what is now northern Henan and western Shandong, with capital Xinxiang. This province was abolished in 1952.

In 1958, Yashan in Suiping County, Henan became the first people's commune of China, heralding the beginning of the "Great Leap Forward". In the subsequent famines of the early 1960s popularly attributed to the Great Leap Forward, Henan suffered terribly, with several million lives lost. 

In 1975, the collapse of the Banqiao Dam and other dams in southern Henan, following a typhoon that caused extraordinarily high levels of rainfall, is estimated to have killed 230,000 people across several counties. This was the most deadly dam-related catastrophe in human history.

In recent years the prevalence of "blood selling" (blood donation with pay) among poor villagers has put Henan in the spotlight of the nation. It was exposed that AIDS villages, where most of the population is HIV positive, have resulted because of poor sterilization techniques. The initial cover up of the crisis by local officials, followed by the national exposure, has put Henan in a somewhat negative light.

In November 2004, martial law was declared in Zhongmou county, Henan, to quell deadly ethnic clashes between Han Chinese and the Muslim Hui Chinese. The reported number of deaths ranged between 7 and 148.

 

 

Hui

The Hui people (回族) are a Chinese ethnic group, typically distinguished by their practice of Islam.

In modern People's Republic of China, the term "Hui people" refers to one of the officially recognized 56 ethnic groups into which Chinese citizens are classified. Under this definition, the Hui people are defined to include all historically Muslim communities in People's Republic of China that are not included in China's other ethnic groups. Since China's Muslims speaking various Turkic, Mongolian, or Iranian languages are all included into those other groups (e.g., Uyghurs, Tajiks, or Dongxiang), the "officially recognized" Hui ethnic group consists predominantly of Chinese speakers. In fact, the "Hui nationality" is unique among China's officially recognized ethnic minorities in that it does not have any particular non-Chinese language associated with it.

Nonetheless, included among the Hui in Chinese census statistics (and not officially recognized as separate ethnic groups) are members of a few small non-Chinese speaking communities. Among them are several thousand Utsuls in southern Hainan province, who speak an Austronesian language (Tsat) related to that of the Cham Muslim minority of Vietnam, and who are said to be descended from Chams who migrated to Hainan. A small Muslim minority among Yunnan's Bai people are classified as Hui as well (even if they are Bai speakers), as are some groups of Tibetan Muslims.

The Hui people are concentrated in Northwestern China (Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang), but communities exist across the country, e.g. Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Yunnan, etc.

Most Hui are similar in culture to Han Chinese with the exception that they practice Islam, and have some distinctive cultural characteristics as a result. For example, as Muslims, they follow Islamic dietary laws and reject the consumption of pork, the most common meat consumed in Chinese culture, and have also given rise to their variation of Chinese cuisine, Chinese Islamic cuisine and Muslim Chinese martial arts. Their mode of dress also differs primarily in that men wear white caps and women wear headscarves or (occasionally) veils, as is the case in most Islamic cultures.

The Hui people are mixed blood. Their ancestors include Central Asian, Persian, Han Chinese, and Mongols. In ancient China, e.g. Tang and Yuan Dynasty, lots of people from Central Asian and Persia came to trade or pursue political careers. In the following nearly one thousand years, they gradually mixed with Mongols and Han Chinese, and the Hui people were formed. Because the Hui people have lived in China for so many years, they haven't retained Arabic and Central Asian languages, instead becoming Chinese speakers.

Apart from some minor characteristics, the majority of Hui people look much like Han Chinese, especially in eastern China.

 

Yellow River

The Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho (黃河; Mongolian: Hatan Gol, Queen river) is the second-longest river in China (after the Yangtze River) and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 kilometers (3,395 mi). Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through through Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, and empties into the Bohai Sea. The mouth of the Yellow River is located at Dongying, Shandong.

The provinces of Hebei and Henan derive their names from the Huang He. Their names mean respectively "north of the (Yellow) River" and "south of the (Yellow) River".

Major cities located along the Yellow River include, starting from the source, Lanzhou, Wuhai, Baotou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and Jinan.

The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", as its basin is the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations and was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. But frequent devastating flooding largely due to the elevated river bed in its lower course, has also earned it the unenviable name "China's Sorrow".

Early Chinese literature refers to the Yellow River simply as He (河), the word that has come to mean simply "river" in modern language. The first appearance of the name "Yellow River" (黃河) is in the Book of Han (漢書) written in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 9). The name "Yellow River" describes the perennial ochre-yellow colour of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. The yellow color comes from loess suspended in the water.

Sometimes the Yellow River is poetically called the "Muddy Flow" (濁流). The Chinese idiom "when the Yellow River flows clear" is used to refer to an event that will never happen and is similar to the English expression "when pigs fly".

In Qinghai, its Tibetan name is "river of the peacock".

 

 

Shan Dynasty

The Shang Dynasty (商朝) or Yin Dynasty (殷代) was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia Dynasty. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper", in the Yellow River valley. According to the chronology based upon calculations by Liu Xin, the Shang ruled between 1766 BC and 1122 BC, however according to the chronology based upon the Bamboo Annals, it is between 1556 BC and 1046 BC. The results of the Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Project places them between 1600 BC and 1046 BC. According to historical tradition the Shang Dynasty followed the (possibly mythical) Xia Dynasty and preceded the Zhou Dynasty. Direct information about the Shang Dynasty comes from Shang inscriptions on bronze artifacts, but mainly from oracle bones—turtle shells, cattle scapulae or bones on which were written the first significant corpus of recorded Chinese characters. Other sources on the Shang come from historical records of the later Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty Shiji by Sima Qian.

The inscriptions on the oracle bones are divinations, which can be gleaned for information on the politics, economy, culture, religion, geography, astronomy, calendar, art and medicine of the period, and as such provide critical insight into the early stages of the Chinese civilization. One site of the Shang capitals, later historically called the Ruins of Yin (殷墟), is near modern day Anyang. Archaeological work there uncovered 11 major Yin royal tombs and the foundations of palaces and ritual sites, containing weapons of war and remains of animal and human sacrifices. Tens of thousands of bronze, jade, stone, bone and ceramic artifacts have been obtained; the workmanship on the bronzes attests to a high level of civilization. In terms of inscribed oracle bones alone, more than 20,000 were discovered in the initial scientific excavations in the 1920s to 1930s, and over four times as many have since been found.

 

 

Tomb of Lady Fu Hao

The Tomb of Lady Fu Hao (婦好墓) is an archaeological site at the ruins of the ancient Shang Dynasty capital of Yin. It was discovered in 1976 and identified as the final resting place of the queen and military general Fu Hao, likely the Lady Hao (who was killed by a different state officer) inscribed on oracle bones by king Wu Ding and one of his many wives.

One of the best-preserved Shang royal tombs it was excavated by the Anyang Working Team of the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, extensively restored, and open to the public in 1999.

Archaeological Discoveries: In 1976 archaeologists probing the area around Yinxu with a long shovel, called a Luoyang shovel, recovered some samples of red lacquer. The burial pit uncovered, officially titled tomb number 5, is a single pit, 5.6 meters by 4 m, just outside the main royal cemetery. The tomb has been dated to around BCE 1200 and identified, from ritual bronze inscriptions, to be that of Fu Hao.

Her tomb, one of the smaller tombs, is one of the best-preserved Shang Dynasty royal tombs and the only one not to have been looted before excavation. Inside the pit was evidence of a wooden chamber 5 meters long, 3.5 m wide and 1.3 m high containing a lacquered wooden coffin that has since completely rotted away.

The floor level housed the royal corpse and most of the utensils and implements buried with her. Rare Jade artifacts, such as those of the Liangzhu culture, were probably collected by Fu Hao as antiques and while some of the bronze artifacts were probably used by the lady and her household others inscribed with her posthumous name of Mu Xin were undoubtedly cast as grave good. The artifacts unearthed within the grave consisted of:

• 755 jade objects (including Longshan, Liangzhu, Hongshan and Shijiahe cultural artifacts)
• 564 bone objects (including 500 hairpins and 20 arrowheads)
• 468 bronze objects (including 130 weapons, 23 bells, 27 knives, 4 mirrors, and 4 tiger statues)
• 63 stone objects
• 11 pottery objects
• 5 ivory objects
• 6,900 cowry shells (Shang Dynasty currency)

Below the corpse was a small pit holding the remains of six dogs, and along the edge lay the skeletons of 16 human slaves, evidence of human sacrifice.

There is also evidence above ground of a structure built over the tomb that probably served as an ancestral hall for holding memorial ceremonies; this has since been restored.

Biography: Little is known of the early life of Fu Hao. What is known is that King Wu Ding would cultivate the allegiance of neighbouring tribes by marrying one woman from each of them. Fu Hao entered the royal household through such a marriage and took advantage of the semi-matriarchal slave society to rise through the ranks. Fu Hao is known to modern scholars mainly from inscriptions on Shang Dynasty oracle bone artifacts unearthed at Yinxu.

In these inscriptions she is shown to have led numerous military campaigns. The Tu-Fang fought against the Shang for generations until they were finally defeated by Fu Hao in a single decisive battle. Further campaigns against the neighbouring Yi, Qiang and Ba followed, the latter is particularly remembered as the earliest recorded large scale ambush in Chinese history. With up to 13,000 troops and important generals Zhi and Hou Gao serving under her, she was the most powerful military leader of her time. This highly unusual status is confirmed by the many weapons, including great battle-axes, unearthed from her tomb.

Although the Shang King exercised ultimate control over ritual matters, which were the most important political activity of the day, oracle bone inscriptions show that Wu Ding repeatedly instructed Fu Hao to conduct special rituals and offer sacrifices. This was very unusual for a woman of that time and shows that the king must have had great confidence in his wife. The sacrificial bronze vessels and tortoise shells inscribed prepared by Fu Hao discovered in her tomb further evidence her status as high priestess and oracle caster.

She also controlled her own fiefdom on the borders of the empire and was the mother of Prince Jie (oracle bone inscriptions show concern for her well-being at the time of the birth). She died before King Wu Ding and he constructed a tomb for her on the edge of the royal cemetery at his capital Yin. The King later made many sacrifices here in hope for her spiritual assistance in defeating the attacking Gong who threatened to completely wipe out the Shang.

 

 

Luoyang

Luoyang (洛陽) is a prefecture-level city in western Henan province. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang to the south, Sanmenxia to the west, Jiyuan to the north, and Jiaozuo to the northeast.

Situated on the central plain of China, one of the cradles of the Chinese civilization, Luoyang was one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.

The origin of the name "Luoyang" is the city's location to the north side ("yang") of the Luo River.

History: The greater Luoyang area has been sacred ground since the late Neolithic. This area at the intersection of the Luo and Yi rivers, called The Waste of Xia, was considered to be the geographical center of China. Because of this sacred aspect several cites, all of which are generally referred to as "Luoyang", have been built there. In 2070 BC, the Xia Dynasty king Tai Kang moved the Xia capital to the intersection of Luo river and Yi River and named the city Zhenxun (斟鄩). In c 1600 BC, King Tang of Shang defeated Jie, the final Xia Dynasty king, and built Western Bo (西亳), a new capital on the Luo River. The ruins of Western Bo are located in Luoyang Prefecture.

In the 1136 BC a settlement named Chengzhou (成周) was constructed by the Duke of Zhou for the remnants of the captured Shang nobility. A second Western Zhou capital, Wangcheng (also: Luoyi) was built 15 km west of Chengzhou. It was the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in 771 BC. The Eastern Zhou Dynasty capital was moved to Chengzhou in 510 BCE. Later, the Han dynasty capital of Luoyang would be built over Chengzhou. The ruins of Chengzhou are still visible today 2 km east of the White Horse Temple area. Modern Luoyang is built over the ruins of Wangcheng, which are still visible today at Wangcheng Park.

In AD 25, Luoyang became the capital of Eastern Han Dynasty. For several centuries, Luoyang was the focal point of China. In AD 68, the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China, was founded in Luoyang. The temple still exists, though the architecture is of later origin, mainly from the 16th century. An Shigao was one of the first monks to popularize Buddhism in Luoyang. The late second century saw China decline into anarchy.

"The decline was accelerated by the rebellion by the Yellow Turbans, who, although defeated by the Imperial troops in 184, weakened the state to the point where there was a continuing series of rebellions degenerating into civil war, culminating in the burning of the Han capital of Luoyang on 24 September 189 AD. This was followed by a state of continual unrest and wars in China until a modicum of stability returned in the 220s, but with the establishment of three separate kingdoms, rather than a unified empire.

In AD 190, Chancellor Dong Zhuo ordered his soldiers to ransack, pillage and raze the city as he retreated from the coalition set up against him by regional lords from across China. The court was subsequently moved to the more defensible western city of Chang'an. Following a period of disorder, Luoyang was restored to prominence when Emperor Wen of the Wei Dynasty declared it his capital in AD 220. The Jin Dynasty, successor to Wei, was also established in Luoyang. When Jin was overrun by invaders and forced to move its capital to Jiankang (modern day Nanjing), Luoyang was nearly totally destroyed.

In AD 493 the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital from Datong to Luoyang and started the construction of the rock-cut Longmen Grottoes. More than 30,000 Buddhist statues from the time of this dynasty have been found in the caves. Many of these sculptures were two-faced. The Empress Dowager Wenming tomb and Yongning Temple (永宁寺), which had a pagoda nine stories high, were also built here.

During the Tang Dynasty, Luoyang was the 'Eastern Capital' and at its height had a population of around one million, second only to Chang'an, the 'Western Capital', and the largest city in the world. During the short-lived Five Dynasties, Luoyang was the capital of the Later Tang. After that period, Luoyang no longer served as capital of any subsequent dynasties.

 

 

Peony

Portrait of peony by Chinese artist Yun Shouping, 17th century

Peony or paeony is a name for plants in the genus Paeonia, the only genus in the flowering plant family Paeoniaceae. They are native to Asia, southern Europe and western North America.

Most are herbaceous perennial plants 0.5–1.5 metres tall, but some are woody shrubs up to 1.5–3 metres tall. They have compound, deeply lobed leaves, and large, often fragrant flowers, ranging from red to white or yellow, in late spring and early summer

The peony is among the longest-used flowers in ornamental culture and is one of the smallest living creature national emblems in China. Along with the plum blossom, it is a traditional floral symbol of Mongolia, where the Paeonia suffruticosa is called 牡丹 (mǔdān). It is also known as 富贵花 (fùguìhuā) "flower of riches and honour," and is used symbolically in Chinese art. In 1903, the Qing Dynasty declared the peony as the national flower.

The famous ancient Chinese city Luoyang has a reputation as a cultivation centre for the peonies. Throughout Chinese history, peonies in Luoyang are often said to be the finest in the country. Dozens of peony exhibitions and shows are still held there annually.

In Japan, Paeonia lactiflora used to be called ebisugusuri ("foreign medicine"). In kampo (the Japanese adaptation of Chinese medicine), its root was used as a treatment for convulsions. It is also cultivated as a garden plant. In Japan Paeonia suffruticosa is called the "The King of flowers" and Paeonia lactiflora is called the "prime minister of flowers."

 

 

Kaifeng

Panorama of Along the River During Qingming Festival, an 18th century remake of the 12th century original at The National Palace Museum in Taiwan. It captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng.

Kaifeng (開封), is a prefecture-level city in eastern Henan province, People's Republic of China. Located along the southern bank of the Yellow River, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the west, Xinxiang to the northwest, Shangqiu to the east, Zhoukou to the southeast, Xuchang to the southwest, and the province of Shandong to the northeast.

History: Kaifeng is one of the Seven Ancient Capitals of China. Like Beijing, there are many reconstructions.

In 364 BC, the state of Wei during the Warring States Period founded a city called Daliang as its capital in this area. During this period, the first of many canals in the area was constructed; it linked a local river to the Huang He. When the State of Wei was conquered by the Qin, Kaifeng was destroyed and abandoned except for a mid-sized market town, which remained in its place.

Early in the 7th century, Kaifeng was transformed into a major commercial hub when it was connected to the Grand Canal as well as a canal running to western Shandong Province.

In 781 (Tang Dynasty), a new city was reconstructed and named Bian (汴). Bian was the capital of the Later Jin (936-946), Later Han (947-950), and Later Zhou (951-960) of the Five Dynasties Period. The Song Dynasty made Bian its capital when it overthrew the Later Zhou in 960, and shortly afterward, they further expanded the city.

During the Song Dynasty, called Dongjing or Bianjing then, Kaifeng was the capital with a population of over 400,000, living both inside and outside the city wall. Typhus was an acute problem of the city.

In 1049, Youguosi Pagoda (佑國寺塔), or Iron Pagoda (鐵塔) as it is called today, was constructed, which measures 54.7 m in height. It has survived the destruction of wars and floodings and become the oldest landmark in this ancient city. Another Song Dynasty pagoda, Bo Ta (繁塔), from 974, has been partially destroyed.

Kaifeng reached its peak of importance in the 11th century, when it was a commercial and industrial center at the intersection of four major canals. During this time, the city was surrounded by three rings of city walls and probably had a population of 600,000 to 700,000.

It is believed that Kaifeng was the largest city in the world from 1013 to 1127.

This period ended in 1127, when the city fell to Jurchen invaders (see Jingkang Incident) and came subsequently under the rule of the Jin Dynasty. While it remained an important administrative center, only the city area inside the inner city wall of the early Song Dynasty remained settled and the two outer rings were abandoned.

One major problem associated with Kaifeng as the Imperial capital of the Song Dynasty was its location. While it was conveniently situated along the Grand Canal for logistic supply, Kaifeng was militarily vulnerable due to its position on the flood plains of the Yellow River.

Kaifeng served as the Jurchen's "southern capital" from 1157 (other sources say 1161) and was reconstructed during this time. But they kept their main capital further north, until 1214, when they were forced to move the imperial court southwards to Kaifeng in order to flee the Mongol onslaught. In 1234 they succumbed to combined Mongol and Song Dynasty forces. Mongols took control, and in 1279 they conquered all of China.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, Kaifeng was made the capital of Henan Province.

In 1642, Kaifeng was flooded by the Ming army with water from Yellow River to prevent the peasant rebel Li Zicheng from taking over. After this disaster, the city was abandoned again.

Under the celebrated Qing emperor Kangxi (1662), Kaifeng was rebuilt. However, another flooding occurred in 1841, followed by another reconstruction in 1843, which produced the contemporary Kaifeng as we know it.

Kaifeng is also known for having the oldest extant Jewish community in China, the Kaifeng Jews.

 

 

Kaifeng Jews

The Kaifeng Jews (開封猶太人) are members of a small Jewish community that has existed in Kaifeng, in the Henan province of China, for hundreds of years. Jews in modern China have traditionally called themselves Youtai (猶太, from Judah) in Mandarin Chinese which is also the predominant contemporary Chinese language term for Jews in general. However, the community was known by their Han Chinese neighbors as adherents of Tiaojinjiao (挑筋教), meaning, loosely, the religion which removes the sinew (a reference to kashrut).

History: According to historical records, a Jewish community lived in Kaifeng from at least the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) until the late nineteenth century and Kaifeng was Northern Song's capital. It is surmised that the ancestors of the Kaifeng Jews came from Central Asia. It is also reported that in 1163 Ustad Leiwei was given charge of the religion (Ustad means teacher in Persian), and that they built a synagogue surrounded by a study hall, a ritual bath, a communal kitchen, a kosher butchering facility, and a sukkah.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a Ming emperor conferred seven surnames upon the Jews, by which they are identifiable today: Ai, Shi, Gao, Jin, Li, Zhang, and Zhao; sinofications of the original seven Jewish clans' family names: Ezra, Shimon, Cohen, Gilbert, Levy, Joshua, and Jonathan. Interestingly, two of these: Jin and Shi are the equivalent of common Jewish names in the west: Gold and Stone.

The Taiping Rebellion of the 1850s led to the dispersal of the community, but it later returned to Kaifeng. Three stelae with inscriptions were found at Kaifeng. The oldest, dating from 1489, commemorates the construction of a synagogue in 1163 (bearing the name 清真寺, a term often used for mosques in Chinese). The inscription states that the Jews came to China from India during the Han Dynasty period (2nd century BC-2nd century AD). It cites the names of 70 Jews with Chinese surnames, describes their audience with an unnamed Song Dynasty emperor, and lists the transmission of their religion from Abraham down to the prophet Ezra. The second tablet, dating from 1512 (found in the synagogue Xuanzhang Daojing Si) details their Jewish religious practices. The third, dated 1663, commemorates the rebuilding of the Qingzhen si synagogue and repeats information that appears in the other two steles.

Today, 600-1,000 residents of Kaifeng trace their lineage back to this community. After contact with Jewish tourists, the Jews of Kaifeng have reconnected to mainstream Jewry. With the help of Jewish organizations, some members of the community have emigrated to Israel.

 

* Chinese Government Conducts DNA Testing on Kaifeng Jews by Jewish Times Asia

Judaism is not one of the five officially recognised religions today in China yet there are families who still identify themselves as Youtai (Jewish) on all official government documents.  The legitimacy of this claim, linking modern families to the Kaifeng Jews, has been a source of debate for many years.

On the face, the Youtai appear to look no different from their neighbours, almost entirely “Han Chinese”, but these families hold onto an identity very deeply rooted in their past.

A recent article that appeared in Hong Kong’s Chinese language paper, Ta Kung Po, makes reference to the municipal authority’s investigation into the legitimacy of the claims.

A report compiled in the 1980’s, by authorities in Kaifeng, references the use of DNA testing on ten families, including that of Zhao Pingyu.  The results indicated that while these Jews intermarried, “the Jews who were in Kaifeng mainly came from the areas around the two rivers in Iraq. They were also quite close to those Jews in Armenia and the Arab world. A rough estimate was conducted by the authority in Kaifeng...there were 618 such people.”

The significance of these tests is that there is now apparently scientific proof to connect these people with their Jewish lineage.

The application of the DNA testing to Israel’s Right of Return laws remains to be seen.

 

 

Sancai

Foreigner on a camel, in sancai style, Tang Dynasty

The Sancai (唐三彩; literally "three colours") is a type of ceramics using three intermingled colors for decoration.

Development : The Sancai technique dates back to the Tang Dynasty. However, the colors of the glazes used to decorate the wares of the Tang Dynasty generally were not limited to three in number. In the West, Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred to as egg-and-spinach by dealers, for their use of green, yellow, and white (though the latter of the two colors might be more properly described as amber and off-white or cream).

Sancai wares were northern wares made using white and buff-firing secondary kaolins and fire clays. At kiln sites located at Tongchuan in Shaanxi, Neiqui county in Hebei and Gongxian in Henan, the clays used for burial wares were similar to those used by Tang potters. The burial wares were fired at a lower temperature than contemporaneous whitewares. Burial wares, such as the well-known representations of camels and horses, were cast in sections, in moulds with the parts luted together using clay slip. In some cases, a degree of individuality was imparted to the assembled figurines by hand-carving.

Influences: Sancai travelled along the Silk Road, to be later extensively used in Syrian, Cypriot, and then Italian pottery from the 13th to the middle of the 15th century. Sancai also became a popular style in Japanese and other East Asian ceramic arts.

 

 

Chinese Influences on Islamic Pottery

Chinese influences on Islamic pottery cover a period starting from at least the 8th century AD to the 19th century. This influence of Chinese ceramics has to be viewed in the broader context of the considerable importance of Chinese culture on Islamic arts in general.

Early contacts with Central Asia: Despite the distances involved, there is evidence of some contact between eastern and southwestern Asia from antiquity. Some very early Western influence on Chinese pottery seems to appear from the 3rd-4th century BC. An Eastern Zhou red earthenware bowl, decorated with slip and inlaid with glass paste, and now in the British Museum, is thought to have imitated metallic vessels, possibly of foreign origin. Foreign influence especially is thought to have encouraged the Eastern Zhou interest in glass decorations.

Contacts between China and Central Asia were formally opened from the 2nd to 1st century BC through the Silk Road. In the following centuries, a great cultural influx benefited China, embodied by the appearance in China of foreign art, new ideas and religions (especially Buddhism), and new lifestyles. Artistic influences combined a multiplicity of cultures which had intermixed along the Silk Road, especially Hellenistic, Egyptian, Indian and Central Asian cultures, displaying a strong cosmopolitanism.

Such mixed influences are especially visible in the earthenwares of Northern China in the 6th century, such as those of the Northern Qi (550-577) or the Northern Zhou (557-581). In that period, high quality high-fired earthenware starts to appear, called the "jeweled type", which incorporates lotuses from Buddhist art, as well as elements of Sasanian designs such as pearl roundels, lion masks or musicians and dancers. The best of these ceramics use bluish green, yellow or olive glazes.

China and the Islamic World: Direct contacts between the Muslim and Chinese worlds were marked by the Battle of Talas in 751 in Central Asia. Muslim communities are known to have been present in China as early as the 8th century AD, especially in commercial harbours such as Canton and Hangzhou.

From the 9th century onwards, Islamic merchants started to import Chinese ceramics, which were at the core of the Indian Ocean luxury trade at that time. These exotic objects were cherished in the Islamic world and also became an inspiration for local potters.

Archaeological finds of Chinese pottery in the Middle East go back to the 8th century, starting with Chinese pottery of the Tang period (618-907). Remains of Tang period (618-907) ceramics have been found in Samarra and Ctesiphon in present-day Iraq, as well as in Nishapur in present-day Iran. These include porcelaneous white wares from Northern Chinese kilns, celadon-glazed stoneware originating in the Yue kilns of Northern Zhejiang, and the splashed stoneware of Changsha kilns in Hunan Province.

Chinese pottery was the object of gift-making in Islamic lands: the Islamic writer Muhammad Ibn-al-Husain-Bahaki wrote in 1059 that Ali Ibn Isa, the governor of Khurasan, presented Harun al-Rashid, the Caliph, twenty pieces of Chinese imperial porcelain, the like of which had never been at a caliph's court before, in addition to 2,000 other pieces of porcelain".

Yue Ware: Yue ware originated in the Yue kilns of Northern Zhejiang, in the site of Jiyuan near Shaoxing, anciently called "Yuezhou" (越州). its names goes back to the Yue (state) of the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC). Yue ware was first manufactured from the 2nd century AD, when it consisted in some very precise imitations of bronze vessels, many of which were found in tombs of the Nanjing region. After this initial phase, Yue ware evolved progressively into true ceramic form, and became a true medium of artistic expression. Production in Jiyuan stopped in the 6th century, but expanded to various areas of Zhejiang, especially around the shores of Shanglinhu in Yuyaoxian.

Yue ware was highly valued, and was used as tribute for the imperial court in northern China in the 9th century. Significantly, it was also used in China's most revered Famen Temple in Shaanxi Province. Yue ware was exported to the Middle East early on, and shards of Yue ware have been excavated in Samarra, Iraq, in an early example of Chinese influences on Islamic pottery, as well as to East Asia and South Asia as well as East Africa from the 8th to the 11th century.

Sancai Ware: Tang period earthenware shards with low-fired polychrome three-color sancai glazes from the 9th century were exported to Middle-Eastern countries such as Iraq and Egypt, and have been excavated in Samarra in present-day Iraq and in Nishapur in present-day Iran. These Chinese styles were soon adopted for local Middle-Eastern manufactures. Copies were made by Iraqi craftsmen as soon as the 9th century AD.

In order to imitate Chinese Sancai, lead glazes were used on top of vessels coated with white slip and a colorless glaze. The coloured lead glazes were then splashed on the surface, where they spread and mixed, according to the slipware technique.

Shapes were also imitated, such as the lobed dishes found in Chinese Tang ceramics and silverware which were reproduced in Iraq during the 9-10th century.

Conversely, numerous Central Asian and Persian influences were at work in the designs of Chinese sancai wares: pictures of Central Asian mounted warriors, scenes representing Central Asian musicians, vases in the shape of Middle-Eastern ewers.

White Ware: Soon after the sancai period, Chinese white ware ceramics also found their way to the Islamic world, and were immediately reproduced. The Chinese white ware was actually porcelain, invented in the 9th century, and used kaolin and high-temperature firing, but Islamic workshops were unable to duplicate its manufacture. Instead, they manufactured fine earthenware bowls with the desired shape, and covered them with a white glaze rendered opaque by the addition of tin, an early example of tin-glazing. The Chinese shapes were also reproduced, seemingly to pass for China-made wares.

In the 12th century, Islamic manufacturers further developed stone-paste techniques in order to obtain hard bodies approximating the hardness obtained by Chinese porcelain. This technique was used until the 18th century, when the Europeans discovered the Chinese technique for high-firing porcelain clays.

Celadon Ware: The Chinese fashion for turquoise, or celadon, ware was also transmitted to the Islamic world, where it gave rise to productions using turquoise glazing and fish motifs identical to the ones used in China.

Blue and White Ware: The technique of cobalt blue decorations on white background seems to have been invented in the Middle East in the 9th century through decorative experimentation on white ware. Cobalt blue used in this type of porcelain was imported as a raw material to China from mines in central Iran from the 9th century and the technique was fully transmitted to China in the 14th century. On some occasions, Chinese blue and white wares also incorporated Islamic designs, as in the case of some Mamluk brass works which were converted into blue and white Chinese porcelain designs. Chinese blue and white ware then became extremely popular in the Middle East, where both Islamic types and Chinese types coexisted.

From the 13th century, Chinese pictorial designs, such as flying cranes, dragons and lotus flowers also started to appear in the ceramic productions of the Near East, especially in Syria and Egypt.

 

 

Notable People from Henan

• Shang Tang (商湯), the first ruling king of the Shang dynasty
• Du Fu (杜甫; 712–770), considered one of the greatest of Chinese poets
• Han Yu (韓愈; 768–824), one of China's most famous prose writers and poets
• Yuan Shikai (袁世凱; 1859–1916), second President of the Republic of China
• Lao Zi (老子; Lao Tzu: dates uncertain), founder of Daoism
• Mo Zi (墨子), founder of Mohism
• Han Fei (韓非; c.280–233 BC), Legalist philosopher
• Chen Sheng (陳勝) and Wu Guang (吳廣; both d. 209 BC or 208 BC), leaders of the first rebellion against Qin Dynasty (秦朝).
• Yue Fei (岳飛; 1103 – 1142) a famous Chinese patriot and military general who fought for the Southern Song Dynasty against the Jurchen

 

 

Yuan Shikai

Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) ( 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the first President of the Republic of China, and his short-lived attempt to revive the Chinese monarchy, with himself as the "Great Emperor of China".

Yuan Shikai was born in the village of Zhangying (張營村), Chenzhou prefecture (陳州府), Henan province. Chenzhou is now called Huaiyang (淮陽).

Revival of the Monarchy: With his power secure, many of Yuan's supporters, notably monarchist Yang Du, advocated for a revival of the monarchy, asking Yuan to take on the title of Emperor. Yang reasoned that the Chinese masses had long been used to autocratic rule, and a Republic had only been effective in a transitional phase to end Manchu rule. China's situation longed for stability that only a monarchy would ensure. Yuan held a political convention which unanimously endorsed monarchy on 20 November 1915. By 12 December, he proclaimed his reign as Emperor of the Chinese Empire (中華帝國大皇帝) under the era name of Hongxian (洪憲; i.e. Constitutional Abundance) to begin on 1 January 1916.

The Downfall of the Monarchy: Once Yuan Shikai openly declared that he was the emperor, opposition unfortunately mounted against him, especially from the revolutionaries and their leader Sun Yat-Sen. Sun fled to Tokyo and set up a base there to overthrow Yuan's monarchy. Yuan's monarchy was somewhat unpopular, partly because his sons were fighting over the "Crown Prince" throne, and his former loyal subordinates like Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang were disloyally leaving him one by one to create their own factions. Yuan Shikai was also in dire straits and when 25 December, Yunnan's military governor, Cai E, rebelled and several provinces followed. Seeing his weakness and unpopularity, foreign powers, including Japan, withdrew their support.

Monarchy Abandoned and Death: Faced with widespread opposition, Yuan repeatedly delayed the accession rite to appease his foes. Funding for the ceremony was cut on March 1st and he abandoned monarchism on March 22. This was not enough for his enemies as they called for his resignation as president. More provinces rebelled until Yuan died, humiliated, from uremia on 5 June. His death was announced the following day. His remains were moved to his home province and placed in a mausoleum built to resemble Grant's Tomb. In 1928, the tomb was looted by Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun soldiers during the Northern Expedition. He had three sons: Prince Yuan Keding, who was handicapped; Prince Yuan Kewen, who was said by his father to be a 'fake scholar', and Prince Yuan Keliang, whom Yuan Shikai called a "bandit".

Offspring: Besides his original wife, Yu Zhi (于氏), Yuan also had nine other concubines. He had a total of 17 sons and 15 daughters.

Yuan's grandson, Luke Chia-Liu Yuan, was a Chinese-American physicist. Another descendant of Yuan is his great-grandson, Li-Young Lee, a Chinese-American writer and poet. Another descendant of Yuan is his great-granddaughter, Kachuen Yuan Gee, a Chinese-American librarian.