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Stories behind the return of the 'Legendary Luminous Pearl' to Prince Xiang's Palace

(People's Daily Online)    16:29, December 27, 2013
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(Photo provided to People's Daily Online)

A legendary luminous pearl that was inlayed on the Green Screen Walls of Prince Xiang's Palace over 570 years ago disappeared mysteriously later. Now, an exact replica successfully made using a unique material and special techniques will return to Prince Xiang's Palace soon, and will be presented to the public on New Year's Day of 2014.

According to historical records, Prince Xiang's Palace was the mansion of Prince Xiangxian (the fifth son of Emperor Hongxi of Ming Dynasty), accounting for 2/10 to 3/10 of Xiangyang City back then. Later, Li Zicheng burnt down the mansion. The mansion, which had been luxurious in the old days, had nothing left except the Green Screen Walls, a precious work of art. The Green Screen Walls, which has stayed safe and sound since then, is now a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.

The Green Screen Walls is unique among existing screen walls in China. The Green Screen Walls as a work of art consists of three walls, with a total length of 26.2 m. The middle wall is 7.6 m high, while the right and the left walls are 6.7 m high. Their thickness is 1.6 m. The three walls are decorated with irregular green aluminite anaglyphs, and edged with white aluminite pieces. Ninety-nine dragons are carved on the fronts, seats, tops, and ridges of the walls. The largest dragon is more than 5 m long and the smallest dragon is only over 10 cm long. As a unique treasure in China's stone carving art, the Green Screen Walls enjoys equal popularity with the Great Colored Glaze Nine-dragon Walls in Beihai of Beijing and Shanxi. They can be hailed as the Three Incomparable Screen Walls in China. On the front of the middle wall, two great dragons fly in the air to play a dragon ball with a diameter of 33 cm. It is said that it was a luminous pearl that the two dragons on the middle one of the Green Screen Walls was depicted as playing as a dragon ball. Every night, the legendary pearl lightened the space before the wall as if in daytime. But the pearl somehow disappeared mysteriously sometime later. It is still a riddle where the legendary luminous pearl is.

This August, Hubei Gushan Holiday Culture Tourism Development Co., Ltd., which operates Prince Xiang's Palace, Madam City, and Mi Fu Memorial Temple, went into a partnership with Zhidu Cultural Transmission Co., Ltd. subordinated to Xiangyang Daily Press. In order to highlight the historical and cultural features of the Green Screen Walls in Prince Xiang's Palace and realize tourists' wish of seeing the legendary luminous pearl, two companies established a special work team to look for information about the legendary luminous pearl lost many years ago. Through hard work, the members of the special work team finally found a fluorite material for the recreation of the legendary luminous pearl and made a replica of the pearl that is 36 cm in diameter and 100 kilograms in weight, which conforms to the size of the legendary luminous pearl as depicted on the Green Screen Walls. With stable energy, it can send out a fluorescent light that changes from green to white in the dark, which is as beautiful and bright as the moon.

The director of Zhidu Cultural Transmission Co., Ltd. in Xiangyang introduced that the display window of this legendary luminous pearl, which faces the Green Screen Walls across a distance, will be presented to the public on New Year's Day of 2014.

(Editor:HuangJin、Zhang Qian)

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