{"id":10750,"date":"2021-01-24T19:44:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T02:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=10750"},"modified":"2021-01-24T19:46:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T02:46:54","slug":"the-middle-kingdon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=10750","title":{"rendered":"The Middle Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"455\" height=\"600\" src=\"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Empress_Dowager_Cixi_of_China_3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10753\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Empress_Dowager_Cixi_of_China_3.jpeg 455w, http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Empress_Dowager_Cixi_of_China_3-228x300.jpeg 228w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px\" \/><figcaption>Empress Dowager Cixi of China, by a court painter, mid 1800s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mary Soon Lee<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\"><font face=\"Arial\">At the center of all things,\na fountain in a garden.\n\nFive yards from the center,\nbeneath a willow tree,\nLing Hua, Empress of China,\nsat cross-legged\nlistening to the water\nchattering to itself\nin the hour after dawn,\nthe hour of consecration.\n\nHer left knee ached.\nShe wished for her youth, long gone;\nwished for a cup of green tea;\nwished she could sail\nright round the Earth's rim,\nto see, as the great navigators had,\nthe line where ocean became sky.\n\nA sparrow hopped onto the stone wall\nof the fountain, bent down,\nsplashed busily.\n\nLing Hua, Empress of China,\nwatched the sparrow\nwhile she sat beneath the tree,\nfive yards from the center of all things\n(according to the astronomers' measurements),\nthat small separation a token\nof her own imperfection.\n\nFor the stars and the sun and the moon\nswept each in their perfect courses\naround Earth's great disc,\nbut all who were born of women\nwere fallible.\n\nThree hundred and eighty-two years\nsince China proved that it centered\nnot merely the Earth,\nbut the Universe.\n\nLing Hua bowed her head,\npromised to safeguard China\nfrom the least sparrow\nto the oldest man.\n\nHer knee ached as the stars spun round her.<\/font><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mary Soon Lee At the center of all things, a fountain in a garden. Five yards from the center, beneath a willow tree, Ling Hua, Empress of China, sat cross-legged listening to the water chattering to itself in the hour after dawn, the hour of consecration. Her left knee ached. She wished for her youth, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10755,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10750\/revisions\/10755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}