This Day in History: China’s Qing Dynasty UFO Incident of 1892

On the 28th day of the Ninth month in the 18th 365 days of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign –1892 – a crowd gathered on Zhuque Bridge, shut to the Confucius temple in Nanjing, Jiangsu province to have a examine a burning ball immoral the sky.

The Qing Dynasty scene became recorded by painter Wu Youru, whose ‘Red Flame Soaring in the Sky’ (赤焰騰空 ‘Chi Yan Teng Kong’) is the first illustrated memoir of a UFO incident in China. The work has turn into a precious historic legend for UFO researchers.

Wu Youru’s ‘Red Flame Soaring in the Sky’ (赤焰騰空 ‘Chi Yan Teng Kong’)

A translation of the 190-character description on the checklist reads as follows:

“At 8 o’clock on the night of September 28, a intellectual crimson object looked all straight away in the southern sky of Nanjing Metropolis.

Its form resembled a tall egg and it became touring slowly eastward. The article became clearly considered in the night sky. A entire bunch of civilians were standing on Red Sparrow Bridge, jostling for a shapely gaze, standing on tip-toe, craning their necks upward.

It lingered for a duration of a meal’s time, fading into the distance shrimp by shrimp. Some acknowledged it became a meteor, nonetheless a meteor takes nonetheless an on the spot to stir away, whereas this ball’s lope – from its first look in the shut to sky to the final disappearance in the distance – became moderately stagnant. So it will perchance presumably not were a meteor.

Others acknowledged it became a lantern-kite that early life flew. But the wind became blowing to the north that night whereas that object became heading east. So it will perchance presumably not were a lantern-kite either. For a time all individuals spoke, nonetheless none would possibly perchance perchance presumably resolve the mystery. None of the theories made sense. 

An elderly man acknowledged, ‘When it first arose, there became a diminutive noise which became rarely audible, cherish the buzzing technique of males darting all the plot thru the South Gate. The sound became so gentle that most folk would like uncared for it.’ He added that the article soared up into the sky from the southern outskirts of town. It became so phenomenal!”

READ MORE: From Sightings to Alien Sex: A Temporary History of UFOs in China

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