Sky Tree Tower
Now 550 Meters High
La Bataille de Falaise Rouge
The Battle of Red Cliffs (Sekiheki-no-Tatakai in Japanese) was one of major battles in the Chinese history which was fought on the Chang Jiang (Yantze River) in AD 208 between one powerful warlord, Cao Cao (So-So in Japanese) who forcibly took over power from the Han court, where he had become prime minister, and other two warlords who tied up to encounter 200,000 mighty troops led by Cao Cao.
It was made into a Chinese film called "Red Cliff" which I saw tonight on TV.
It is said that a shift in the wind decided the outcome of the war, since both the camps tried to burn naval ships the opponent side mobilized.
In addition, Cao Cao (AD 155 - 220) was of the northern origin as with most of his generals and soldiers. Accordingly, many of them got sick due to local disease in the southern areas along the Chang Jiang where they fought. The difference between Norther China and Southern China has been large from ancient days.
The Three Kingdoms period (simplified Chinese: 三国时代; traditional Chinese: 三國時代; pinyin: Sānguó shídài) is a period in the history of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties following immediately the loss of de facto power of the Han Dynasty emperors. In a strict academic sense it refers to the period between the foundation of the Wei in 220 and the conquest of the Wu by the Jin Dynasty in 280. However, many Chinese historians and laymen extend the starting point of this period back to the uprising of the Yellow Turbans in 184.
The three kingdoms were Wei (魏), Shu (蜀), and Wu (吳).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms
This era in China is also important for the Japanese history. One outstanding queen of Yamato, Japan, is actually recorded in the Chinese official history book about the Wei Dynasty.
Himiko or Pimiko (卑弥呼, d. ca. 248) was an obscure shaman queen of Yamataikoku in ancient Wa (Japan). Early Chinese dynastic histories chronicle tributary relations between Queen Himiko and the Cao Wei Kingdom (220-265), and record that the Yayoi period people chose her as ruler following decades of warfare among the kings of Wa. Early Japanese histories do not mention Himiko, but historians associate her with legendary figures such as Empress Consort Jingū, who was Regent (ca. 200-269) in roughly the same era as Himiko.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himiko
This is one of the biggest mysteries in the Japanese history. The official history book (Nihon-shoki) compiled around AD 720 did not mention anything about Queen Himiko of Yamato, though Yamato (in Nara Prefecture, south of Kyoto) is the birthplace of the Imperial regime. There are even some theories that claim that Himiko's Yamato was not in Nara but in some prefecture in Kyusyu Island, straightly south of the Korean Peninsula.
Himiko, as a tributary queen, sent envoys to the Wei Dynasty which was then governed by a grandchild of Cao Cao. In return, the king of Wei provided many gifts, including 100 or more special mirrors, with the Japanese queen. Many of those mirrors have been excavated in old tomb mounds in various prefectures around Nara and Western Japan. So, no one doubts historical existence of Queen Himiko, but arguments about where she lived and her court was situated are yet to be fixed.
Most importantly, there is no evidence that Queen Himiko is one of direct ancestors of the Imperial Family of Japan. (If so, the Imperial Family of Japan was once in a dependent position to a Chinese king, which cannot be accepted by Japanese nationalists.)
Anyway, if Cao Cao had been killed in Battle of Red Cliffs, probably the Wei Dynasty must not have been established or would have collapsed soon after the Battle. If so, Queen Himiko in Japan might not have enjoyed strong diplomatic support, though not militarily, from the Chinese Continent, while her regime was also at war with some local kings in Japan. In this case, Himiko's regime in Yamato might have been terminated, which means the history of the Imperial Family of Japan must be drastically changed.
So, though Cao Cao, leading the northern forces of China, lost more than 100,000 soldiers in the Battle of Red Cliffs against the southern and western camps of China in 208, his survival decisively influenced the Japanese history.
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Now, check the shift of the window and try not to be taken with illness such as the flu.