There had never been a proper legal system. Without power or money, no Chinese could feel safe from the depredations of officialdom or random violence. Being an official brought power, and power brought money. The goal was for him to pass the examinations to become a mandarin, an official, which was the aspiration of most Chinese males at the time. Only a son could perpetuate the family name-without him, the family line would stop, which, to the Chinese, amounted to the greatest possible betrayal of one’s ancestors. My great-grandfather was the only son, which made him of supreme importance to his family. The Yangs were Han, ethnic Chinese, and had ventured north of the Great Wall in search of opportunity.
The imperial family were Manchus who had conquered China in 1644 from Manchuria, which was their base. My great-grandfather, Yang Ru-shan, was born in 1894, when the whole of China was ruled by an emperor who resided in Peking. In the grassland areas and in the hills to the west, farmers grazed sheep and cattle. The plains around produced cotton, maize, sorghum, soybeans, sesame, pears, apples, and grapes. Every night the bell was rung to signal the time, and the tower also functioned as a fire and flood alarm. The town’s most conspicuous feature was a tall, richly decorated bell tower of dark brown stone, which had originally been built in the sixth century when Buddhism had been introduced to the area.
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