History All Around—The Monuments of Dali

                                                        by Jim Goodman

looking across the Dali Plain to Erhai Lake

       When Yunnan opened its doors to international tourism some three decades ago, the ancient city of Dali quickly became one of the most popular destinations.  Lying in the middle of a long, north-south plain at around 2000 meters altitude, flanked on the west by the peaks of the Cangshan mountain range, some of them over 4000 meters high, on the east by sprawling Erhai Lake, the city enjoyed a superb physical location.  Moreover, it was small, more like a town, full of old buildings, with little traffic and easy to explore on foot.

       It was a long haul to get there until the mid-90s and the construction of a multi-lane highway linking Kunming with Xiaguan, at the southern end of the plain, with tunnels cutting through the last mountains.  An airport and railway soon followed.  Only a two-lane road connected the cities in the beginning, clogged with big, heavy logging trucks and other ponderous vehicles, making the journey at least twelve hours. 

western wall and the Three Pagodas

       After finally arriving at this undeniably atmospheric old city, with the added attraction of the colorfully dressed Bai minority prevalent in the area, it all seemed worth the ordeal.  Bai houses and pavilions, though similar to classic Chinese styles, featured specifically Bai characteristics, like the decorations beneath the roof apes, the dominant use of stone and elaborately carved compound gates, and thus embellished the travelers’ impression that they were in a very different part of China.

       Actually, Dali was not even part of China until the 13^th century.  At their greatest extents, the Qin, Han, Tang and Song Dynasties did not incorporate the area into the Chinese empire.  In fact, from the mid-8^th century to its conquest by Kubilai Khan in 1253, the area was the heartland of two successive states:  Nanzhao until the beginning of the 10^th century and the Kingdom of Dali afterwards.

General Li Mi

Nanzhao king

       The buildings, gates and walls of Dali Old Town today date from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but monuments prior to the Mongol conquest still stand.  The most famous are the Three Pagodas just north of the city, the Lone Pagoda near the South Gate and the Skeleton Python Pagoda just north of Xiaguan.  All of these date from the Nanzhao era, but these are not the only Nanzhao relics.

       The long campaign to unite the area’s principalities began in the 7^th century, led by Xinuluo, the ruler of what is now Weishan, 50 km south of Xiaguan.  His descendant Piluoge finally quashed all his rivals and founded Nanzhao in 737.  Seeing the strategic defense capabilities of the Dali Plain, he moved his capital here, at first to Taihe, between Xiaguan and Dali.  It remained the capital until 779, when Dali assumed the role.

Nnnzhso-era illustrated manuscript

       The high mountain just east of Xiaguan prevented attacks from the east.  Sentries posted at the top could easily spot an approaching force.   Another post on the mountain slopes north at Shangguan kept watch on the northern end of the plain.  The lake protected the plain from the east and the Cangshan peaks from the west.

       Taihe still exists, though only remnants of the original city wall are left.  Today it’s just an ordinary village of stone houses, but at the top is the historic Dehua Stele.  King Piluoge erected this near the end of his reign to list the state’s achievements and to give his side of the story of how and why Nanzhao vanquished two Chinese invading armies.

       The Tang Court considered Nanzhao its vassal and an ally against Tibet, which was a strong military state back then and a perennial threat to Sichuan.  Nanzhao saw itself as fully independent and its astute kings played one state off against the other to further its own interests and security.   As it grew in size and strength, Nanzhao aroused Chinese suspicion and the Tang Court launched punitive expeditions in the mid-8^th century, all of which failed miserably.

wax sculptures of the Nanzhao Court

       Nanzhao’s army repulsed the first before it could even approach the Dali Plain.  The second expedition crossed the Cangshan Mountains, but Nanzhao forces simply retreated to Taihe and stayed comfortably ensconced within its walls while their enemies succumbed to malaria and starvation.  The third and biggest attempt, said to consist of 200,000 troops led by General Li Mi, suffered a horrific defeat at Dengchuan, just north of Erhai, trapped between the warriors of Nanzhao on one side and Tibetans on the other.

       These became known as the Tianbao Wars, after the after the name of the Tang reigning era.  A mound preserved in one of the back streets of Xiaguan is supposed to contain the remains of the 200,000 Chinese killed in the last invasion.  The mound is too small for that, or even for just the heads, so perhaps it just contains the ashes.  

the recreated palace at Nanzhao Culture City

       The other vestige of the Tianbao Wars is the General’s Temple, dedicated to Li Mi, on the side of a hill in Xiaguan’s southwest suburbs.  Following an unusual custom, pious Bai worshippers make daily offerings to him here.  It’s as if they were apologizing for wiping out the general’s entire army, propitiating his spirit to avoid any spiritual revenge on his part.

       The victories confirmed Nanzhao’s independence, even though Tang China still considered it a vassal state.  The kingdom continued to grow until the late 9^th century before, overextended, it began a rapid decline.  Meanwhile, it also developed culturally and the 8^th and 9^th centuries witnessed the construction of several temples and pagodas that are today among the area’s top attractions.

the Snake Bone Pagoda 

       These include two temples—Gantong and Shenyuan—high up on the slopes of the western mountains.  More accessible is the Chongsheng Temple, just north of the old city, in front of which stand the iconic Three Pagodas.  The tallest one, with 16 closely spaced tiers, stands in the center nearly 70 meters high.  Smaller, ten-story pagodas, in a different style, rise 43 meters on either side.  The complex dates its construction to the early 9^th century.  The temple there now is a late 20^th century reconstruction, for the original was completely destroyed during the Muslim Rebellion in the 19^th century.

       The Three Pagodas survived unscathed, as they had during wars in the past.  They have also withstood several serious earthquakes.  The Lone Pagoda, outside the southwest corner of the walled city, replicates the style of the central pagoda at Chongsheng Temple, as does the Snake Bone Pagoda, four km north of central Xiaguan and today all but hidden behind new roadside apartment blocks.

shop houses in the old city

       At just over 30 meters height, the Snake Bone Pagoda is the smallest of the Nanzhao-era pagodas, but has the most interesting origin myth.  Accordingly, in the past a demon snake from the lake was causing floods all over the plain and the king promised a big reward to anyone who could kill it.  A local hero answered the call, wrapped his body with knives and jumped into Erhai Lake. 

       The demon snake swallowed him whole.  The hero then rolled around inside the snake’s body, mortally wounding it with the knives until both were dead.  The king ordered the snake’s body opened, the hero’s removed and his body given a magnificent funeral.  Then he ordered the Snake Bone Pagoda to be built in his honor.  Like the other ancient pagodas, it has also survived wars and earthquakes.

       Other Nanzhao relics lie further afield, like the late 9^th century Iron Pillar in Midu County and the shrines and sculptures of Shibaoshan in Jianchuan County.  Dali still reveres its Nanzhao legacy and in the mkd-90s created the Nanzhao Culture City in the southern suburbs.  The main building is a recreation of the ancient palace and the compound includes exhibition rooms of costumed wax figures in scenes of Court rituals, the Tianbao Wars, receiving envoys, etc. 

South Gate, 1993, before renovattion

       The Nanzhao Kingdom fell when a usurper massacred the entire royal family to seize power.  Internecine warfare followed, kings rose and fell and finally in 937 Duan Siping, a Bai lord from Yuanbang village, at the foot of Wutai Mountain, where a statue of him stands in the Sanling Temple, assembled allies, took control, founded a new dynasty and gave the state a new name—the Kingdom of Dali.  Shortly afterwards, in 960 China also had a new ruling dynasty—the Song. 

       But this regime did not make any trouble for its southwestern neighbor.  The Song Dynasty’s main security concern was its northern frontiers and the menace of mounted nomads.  China needed horses for its own forces to deal with this enemy and the Kingdom of Dali was a prime source.  For the Song Court it was better to keep the peace with Dali so as not to upset the trade in horses.

South Gate at night

       Thus the Kingdom of Dali enjoyed over three centuries of peace.  It did not, like Nanzhao, seek to enlarge itself and was never as big a state.  Areas to the east and south were relatively autonomous and Dali’s direct administration only applied to what is now Dali Prefecture.  Part of the consequence was an emphasis on religion.  The state patronized temples, renovated old ones and built new ones.  Nine of its 22 kings retired to become monks.

       The kingdom’s peace came to an end in 1244, when a Mongol army advanced against its northern frontier.  Dali’s king dispatched a strong force that defeated the invaders at Jiuhe, a little north of Jianchuan County.  Eight years later a much bigger Mongol army, personally commanded by Kubilai Khan, swept down from recently conquered Lijiang and besieged Dali.  King Duan Xingzhi’s troops put up a good fight, temporarily halted the Mongol advance, but only held out until the beginning of 1253.  Dali’s king fled to Kunming, but pursuing troops captured him.

Fuzinglu viewed from South Gate

the Tower of Five Glories

       Contrary to ordinary Mongol practice upon taking a city, Kubilai Khan forbade plunder and massacre.  He brought Duan Xingzhi back to Dali and installed him as the Mongols’ administrator of the area.  He also left a stone inscription of his achievement on a stele mounted on a slope just west of the old city, which is still in place.  Together with the Dali troops, he went on to subdue the rest of Yunnan and annexed it to the Mongol Empire.  In 1279, when Kubilai Khan inaugurated the Yuan Dynasty, Yunnan then became part of China.  The following century the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Yuan, but Mongol forces remained in Yunnan until finally driven out in 1382.

Qing Dynasty buildings in the old city

       To fully incorporate Yunnan into China, the Ming Court sponsored large-scale immigration into the province and stationed garrisons of soldier-farmers, many of them Muslims, all over the western part.  Dali was rebuilt, with surrounding walls and massive gates at the four cardinal directions.  The remnants of this layout became prime attractions when Dali became a tourist destination.  The East and West Gates were only reconstructed in recent decades, while some remains of the old wall were extended.  The North and South Gates are still the original buildings, though the stone lions in front of the South Gate disappeared during renovation in the mid-90a.   

       Inside the walls, shop-houses and other buildings went up in the Ming style, dominated by the Tower of Five Glories on the main north-south street.  The original looked like a rectangular block, taller than it was wide, with an arched passageway at its base, and a wide, tiled roof with upturned corners, similar to those on the four city gates. 

Dali's Catholic Church

       During the Second World War, city authorities demolished the Tower because it feared Japanese air forces could use it as a landmark to bomb other targets in the vicinity.  When it was rebuilt, it was in a totally different style, taller, with three tiers, a standard Qing Dynasty building.  In recent decades smaller pavilions have been added to the area and today it is one of the most popular spots in the city. 

       The shop houses on the southern half of Fuxinglu, the street between the North and South Gates, now sell marble ware, jewelry, Bai handicrafts and other souvenirs, but those on the northern side still cater to the local population.  A Protestant church on this street as well as a Catholic church on a lane around the corner from the center of town, attest to the efforts of Christian missionaries in the early 20^th century.  They didn’t win many converts, but the churches, in the style of local architecture, are still intact and among the sites tourists visit. 

       The natural beauty of its setting alone would suffice to draw travelers to spend time in Dali, even if it had no relics of its past.  But it does, and these are unique assets.  Dali’s monumental legacy stretches back fourteen centuries, covering each successive stage of its history.  No other city in Yunnan can make the same claim.

watchtower at Shangguan, from where sentries saw the Mongol armies pour into the plain 

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Weishan, Yunnan—Birthplace of an Ancient Native Kingdom

                                                             by Jim Goodman                    

    Lying in a broad and fertile plain 50 km south of Dali Prefecture’s Xiaguan in western Yunnan, boasting many Ming and Qing Dynasty structures and a preserved old quarter of traditional shop houses, Weishan is a charming, old-fashioned Chinese town that gets surprisingly little tourist traffic.  The few visitors are mainly Chinese families or couples from other parts of Yunnan.  Dali, just 18 km north of Xiaguan, is the main attraction for travelers in the area.  Tourists from all over China and beyond jam the old town streets, lined with overpriced souvenir, tea and jewelry shops, complain about the crowds, the prices and the commercialization of local culture but never venture to Weishan, an hour and a half away.  Yet in Weishan’s old town the shops on the streets sell items for the local population, merchants are laid back and friendly, it’s never crowded, always leisurely and the atmosphere of traditional urban China far more authentic than anywhere in Dali.

street in Weishan's old town

    Dali is more famous because it was long the capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom, Tang Dynasty China’s rival in the southwest, and its successor the Kingdom of Dali, which remained independent until overwhelmed by Kubilai Khan’s Mongols in 1253.  It is also near scenic Erhai Lake and mountains of 4000+ meters, which made it a prime destination from the very dawn of modern tourism.  Weishan is less well endowed physically and topographically, but did not undergo the commercial transformation of Dali, where now virtually every building caters to the tourist industry.  Weishan is still a slice of Old China, unique in western Yunnan.
    Moreover, it has its historical importance as well, for the Nanzhao Kingdom had its start right here, in the 7th century, when the town was known as Mengshe, the capital of one of the six native chiefdoms, or zhao, roughly in the area that is now Dali Prefecture.  Being in the most southern location of the six, the area around Mengshe was the Southern zhao—Nanzhao.  In 649 its ruler Xinuluo conquered a neighboring tribe in Midu and shortly after, when Tang Court officials were looking for an ally to secure their southwest frontier they chose Xinuluo’s state.

a Nanzhao king, from a Weibaoshan mural

    Four generations later Mengshe’s ruler Piluoge conquered the other five zhao.  In 738 the Tang conferred a royal title on him and recognized Nanzhao as a vassal state.  Piluoge’s own opinion, and that of his successors, was that Nanzhao was independent on a par with Tang China.  Until it fell in the early 10th century, shortly after the Tang regime’s own demise, Nanzhao fought both Tibet and China for control of the region, periodically launching invasions into Sichuan, defeating any invasion into its own realm.  But now that Piluoge’s success had made Nanzhao a bigger state, the capital shifted closer to Erhai Lake; first at Taihe, then Dali.
    Mengshe lost its political importance and had no impact on the history of the next several centuries.  Nanzhao expanded, contracted and imploded.  Its successor Dali lived in peace with Song Dynasty China until the Mongol conquest.  With the rise of the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century, the Mongols evacuated and the Ming Court began sending immigrants from eastern China into Yunnan to give it a more Chinese identity.  In the Dali area, from 1382 the Ming Court dispatched soldiers to both establish military garrisons and clear land to settle down on farms.
    At that time the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of Yunnan were not Han Chinese but a mixture of many ethnic minorities.  In Dali Prefecture the dominant groups are the Bai and Yi.  Nanzhao’s ruling class was Yi or proto-Yi, while Dali’s kings were Bai.  Today the Bai constitute the largest ethnic minority in the prefecture and dominate the plains areas, while the hills are mostly inhabited by Yi. 

Bai shopkeepe in Weishan

    Because they are the largest community Dali is an Autonomous Bai Prefecture, where the top officials are Bai.  But the Yi and Hui outnumber the Bai in Weishan, so the latter is an Autonomous Yi and Hui County.   Some of the Hui are descendants of Kubilai Khan’s Central Asian Muslim allies, who stayed on to administer and garrison the province in the Yuan Dynasty.  Others came in after the Ming Dynasty evicted the Mongols and sponsored immigration.
    In the late 14th century the city underwent a major transformation, beginning with a name change from Mengshe to Weishan, apparently a contraction of Weibaoshan, a sacred mountain 18 km south of the city that would become home to many temples, mostly Taoist, over the next four centuries.  The mountain is swathed in thick forests of pine and cypress, the shrines and temples sited at intervals along roads and paths that ascend to the summit.
    The entrance to the area is about halfway up the mountain.  The first compound inside is dedicated to the Nanzhao kings.  Paintings or statues of them line the hallway on the upper level, with basic information about each posted on a signboard in Chinese, Yi and English.  The information is a bit biased, though, in the sense that an uninformed visitor would never get the idea that Nanzhao was actually an independent state, not just a vassal existing with imperial permission, but one that completely annihilated two large invading Tang armies. 
    The walls flanking the lower courtyard feature low-relief sculptures of life in Nanzhao times.   Vignettes depict soldiers marching to war, kings at the palace and scenes of daily life, as well as a Nanzhao-style standing Buddha with a seated Buddha on his head.

Nanzhao-style Buddha

    From here to the summit, up two separate roads, are fourteen temples in the classic Chinese style, surrounded by trees, built with brick and tile, embellished with courtyard gardens and ponds.  The most interesting of these is Wenyong Temple, in particular for the Dragon Pond in the upper courtyard.  An elegant pavilion stands in the middle of the pond, connected by a stone bridge to the courtyard walkway.  On its base just above the water is a famous mural of a circle of Yi dancing around a bonfire celebrating the Torch Festival.  Painted in the 18th century, reproduced in hotels and restaurants in Weishan, the top half is still sharp and vibrant, though the rest is faint and has lost most of its color.

Dragon Pond mural, Weibaoshan

    On the ride back down the mountain to the city are several spots with a broad view of the plain, its farms and villages and distant hills.  The modestly sized city of Weishan does not resemble a fast-growing modern metropolis, for very few tall buildings mark its skyline.  The city was not on the Tea and Horses Road and its prosperity basically derived from its fertile and fruitful land.  Even today, while connected by a good road to Xiaguan, it is not on the major provincial highways from Kunming to southwest Yunnan.
    As a result, development and expansion proceed much more slowly in Weishan than in those cities on the main commercial routes.  The atmosphere is never hectic, traffic jams unknown, the people relaxed and friendly.  At the edge of the city, on the way to the bus station, a large park serves as an outdoor tea center, where patrons sit in small stools at tables of woven split bamboo.  A short walk from this is a quiet park with several nice Qing Dynasty buildings.  A couple of blocks further up is the old town, where cars are banned.
    Dominating the preserved old quarter, erected by the first Ming administrators in 1397, is the very wide and imposing, 23.5 meter-high Gongchen Tower, which used to serve as the northern gate when Weishan was a walled city.   Urban planners at that time laid out the city in a chessboard grid, resembling the nearly square shape of an official seal.  Gongchen Tower was considered the handle.  Standing beside a large plaza, its rose-pink stone walls are topped by a two-tiered, red hardwood building with tiled roofs and upturned corners.  From its upper tiers observers can view the straight stone streets radiating in the four cardinal directions.

Xinggong Tower

    Originally, when it was a walled city, gates stood at the end of each street.  Today only one such street ends with a gate, called Xinggong Tower.  It was built around the same time as Gongchen Tower, rebuilt at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, but it is narrower, only as wide as the street, with two tiers rising above the neighboring houses.  Both towers are illuminated at night, as are the main streets of the old town, or at least the sections closest to Gongchen Tower.
    The street running from Gongchen Tower to Xinggong Tower is lined on both sides with red wooden shop houses with tiled roofs and has the most traditional look and feel of any street in the city.  They are all modest buildings, with the goods stored in the room facing the street, which may also serve as a workshop, and the living quarters in the rear and in the attics.  There are a few shops selling antiques, plus one or two with ethnic clothing, though their customers are not tourists so much as local ethnic minority people who buy the items to wear.

old town street

    Other shops cater to the needs of local residents.  There are shops selling furniture and ornate bird cages, bolts of cloth, sandals made of cloth or straw, noodles, footwear, tie-dyed clothing, sitting stools and sundry other items.  Customers take their time examining the goods.  The patient shopkeeper never pesters, never urges them to buy this or that item, in fact never says anything until the customer is ready to ask a question.  The rule seems to be politeness before profit.
    Shops on the street continuing on the other side of Gongchen Tower are less oriented towards traditional items and more towards things like modern clothing, medicines, shoes, children’s toys, stationery etc., but the buildings are in the same classic traditional style.   Lanterns hang from the roofs of these and from the compound gates of houses on the side streets.  On some of the narrow lanes branching off one street or another farmers set up stalls to sell mushrooms, edible fungi, walnuts and fruits and, during festival times, decorations and items used in the events.

old-style sandals for sale

old town noodle factory

    Many more will join them during Weishan’s regular market days, held the 10th, 20th and 30th every month.  At that time the city fills with minorities from the vicinity—the Yi, Bai and Hui—dressed in their traditional clothing.  The Yi women, from the Tuli branch of the Yi minority, are particularly colorful, in bright shades of red and green and fancy headgear.   
 

Tuli Yi women, Dacan

                       

    local Hui girls, Dacang

    While Weishan’s market day draws a good proportion of Yi women, they come in even greater numbers to Dacang, a small, largely Hui town 35 km north.  Full of nondescript modern buildings, but with one small and attractive Buddhist temple, Dacang holds its market day the same dates as Weishan, as do a couple other villages in between Dacang and Weishan.   At the northern end of the Weishan valley, Dacang draws more Yi to its markets because it is closer to the hills where they live.
While minibuses ply the route from Weishan to Dacang and beyond, many people prefer the more leisurely journey by pony cart.  They can hold up to 12 people or so.  Weishan County is one of the very few places in the province where pony carts are still widely used.  As in Weishan, market day in Dacang is not confined to a single area or neighborhood, as country folk set up stalls in several separate venues. 
    Once in a while some folks might set up some entertainment spot at a market day, playing music or just singing songs.  Weishan itself has little in the way of entertainment at night.  Not many restaurants exist, although the number is steadily growing.  In an old house next to Gongchen Tower is a bar, but for socializing local folks take to one of the side alley grills for kebabs and cold beer with their friends.  The real entertainment in Weishan is not in the form of music and dance, not even ethnic music and dance (other than on big holidays).  It lies in appreciating the slower rhythms of traditional everyday life in a city with bilingual signboards that announce, “All of us are living images of Weishan.  Every household is a window into the culture of Weishan.”

Gongchen Tower

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