Thirteen years ago, in the Dingwei year, during a time of chaos, the Khitan army invaded Kaifeng, unleashing f…
Thirteen years ago, in the Dingwei year, during a time of chaos, the Khitan army invaded Kaifeng, unleashing fire and slaughter. The people rose to defend their homes, and after a month of bitter fighting, the invaders were repelled. As the city rebuilt, an old tree in the northwest was found scorched by the fires of war, yet miraculously sprouting new leaves. Seeing it as a divine sign of resilience, the people named it the Immortal Tree.
Later, when the usurper Liu Zhiyuan founded his short-lived Han dynasty, his sycophantic court seized upon this story. Claiming the tree as a heavenly omen, they forcibly expelled the local residents and built the Garden of Auspicious Omen, adorning its burnt branches with paper flowers to flatter their emperor.
And yet, what came of it? The Liu Han dynasty collapsed in just two generations. A dynasty's fate is not bound to trinkets and omens. How can a ruler in troubled times dare to cast aside caution for arrogance?
Now, in the first year of Jianlong, with the founding of the Great Song, the realm remains divided. Our Emperor, taking this tale of hubris as a solemn warning, has decreed that the garden be remade. It is renamed the Garden of Vigilance and returned to the people, a testament to his vow to rule with virtue, to remain ever-cautious, and to protect the nation and its people.
Decreed and erected in the seventh month of the first year of the Jianlong era