The Quest of King Zhao of Yan for a Capable Man

I should be writing about Tasmania, or Sha's parents in Australia, or work, or something.  Instead, I've been inspired by the book that I'm reading "Tales from 5000 Years of Chinese History - Volume 1" to write a story.  Here goes:

After King Huai of Chu was defeated at the hands of King Chu of Huai, King Zhaoziang of Qin decided to search for a capable man. However King Zhaoziang of Qin's son, Gongzi Zilan, disapproved of this idea.  He therefore killed his father, King Zhaoziang of Qin and went to a meeting in Wuguan (southeast of Danfeng County in Shaanxi Province).  At the meeting, Gongzi Zilan met King Zhao of Yan who tied daggers to the horns of his 1000 bulls and set fire to their tails.   This led to King Zhaoziang of Qin abdicating in favour of his son, Yue Yi, who was subsequently renamed King Gou Jian of Yue.  He knew that alone he couldn't conquer Qi and therefore formed an alliance with King Fu Chai of Wu and his advisor Ping.  King Min of Qi was scared by this alliance and therefore invited his prime minister, Meng Changjun and favourite concubine, to plan their defence.  Unfortunately, the defence failed and they all had their noses cut off.    King Fu Chai of Wu was deeply touched by all he saw.


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I may not have the history completely correct, but that seems to be the gist of early Chinese politics.

Day 2 in Tasmania

Guarding Eaglehawk neck

I should continue writing about Tasmania before I forget everything that we did.  I'm getting far too behind in this blog.  Today, we had a walk in the Kuring-Gai national park, yesterday we saw the fireworks, the day before we hiked in the Lane Cove National Park (which reminded Sha's mum of where she and her friends secretly used to watch the firing squads executing the condemned prisoners). Another rather embarrassing cultural difference was at midnight last night.  At exactly midnight I held out my glass to say cheers, but everyone else was requesting a wish from a God. Sha's mum thought that I was very funny.


On the second day, we checked out of the hotel and then went to look at the chain of dogs that used to stand guard across Eaglehawk bay.  At Eaglehawk bay the land is so narrow that the guard dogs were placed in a line stopping any convicts trying to escape.  The small museum was excellent and Sha's dad sat on a statue of a fierce dog.  We then went on to the Wildlife park to show Sha's parents a Tasmanian devil.  We started with an excellent bird show (but, as always in Australia, the native birds that were just flying around were as interesting

This parrot was not meant to be part of the bird show

as the birds in the show -- we had to wait a while as a huge wedge-tailed eagle flew overhead).  We saw some baby Tasmanian devils.

We then went to the exhibition of "tree cutting and chocolate making" and bought some chocolate.  We checked-in at our hotel (in the style of an old English pub), went for a short walk around and then went to visit Port Arthur.  Port Arthur is massive and impressive!  We started on a boat tour to see what the convicts would have seen as they arrived.  Actually, it looked very nice and pretty.  I'm sure that it didn't in the past!

In the evening we went for a walk to the bay near our hotel and watched some huge sting-rays (or something similar) swim around.  Then we went for a very odd walk in what seemed to be a lost garden.  There were obvious signs of paths, bridges etc., but everything was falling down and we had to push our way through the bushes. 

We saw a lot of wallabies.

Our hotel in Port Arthur

The bay next to our hotel

The first view of Port Arthur

The island of the dead (and a cruise ship)

The rays in the bay