`Chinese history is a cycle of empires.'

The family of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) are building a new tomb, named Chiang Ling (蔣陵), for the two late presidents. Let us put aside the legal issue and the source of construction costs for now, and focus on the the tomb's name -- which has historical meaning.

The Chinese word ling often refers to an imperial tomb. So the tomb's name is the poison of feudalism and a reappearance of imperial thinking. The Taiwanese people can hardly accept it.

But on the other hand, the two Chiangs' bodies will soon be moved to a remote site: the Wujhihshan (五指山) military cemetery in Sijhih City, Taipei County. Honestly, the Taiwanese people are lucky to celebrate the termination of the Chiang family's foreign regime.

The site will be the place where the Chiang dynasty is buried.

According to the local media, the Chiang family insists on naming the tomb "Chiang Ling" and has its own space, so as to distinguish it from other tombs in the same cemetery.

This shows that the family has become an ordinary one at last. If the Chiang dynasty still existed today, it would certainly have majestic tombs which would not be mixed with those of the public.

This is exactly the meaning of the empire's extinction.

Sun Yat-sen's (孫逸仙) tomb in China is named Chungshan Ling (中山陵). As the Chiangs come down in one continuous line from Sun, why did they choose to call it Chiang Ling, using the family surname, instead of Chung-cheng Ling (中正陵), using the elder Chiang's courtesy name, as was done for Sun?

Obviously, this is because the tomb is for the two Chiangs, highlighting the fact that they formed a dynasty, but also signifying the end of that dynasty. Moreover, after the Qing (清) Dynasty was overthrown, Sun established the Republic of China (ROC) in 1912 as if he were a new emperor, and the public built an imperial tomb for him after his death.

When former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the elder Chiang fled to Taiwan in a rush and left his crown behind.

Before Chiang's defeat in the civil war between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Mao once proposed an eight-article "domestic peace agreement" (國內和平協定) as a tool to bring about the KMT's surrender. Among the eight articles, Article 3 was drawn to abolish the legitimacy of KMT rule.

After Mao erased Chiang's legitimacy, he took Sun as a great "pioneer" (先行者) of the CCP, and therefore gained a foundation for his own empire. So China's history was rewritten as the PRC consolidated its power into an empire, while the ROC was eliminated as a result of Taiwan's democratization.

Chinese history is a cycle of empires. After the two Chiangs' death, the Taiwanese people also got rid of the reincarnation of imperial feudalism.

As we moved into the democratic era, we also cut off the connection to the past empire.

The existence of "Chiang Ling" serves as a witness to the foreign regime's last page. As the Chiang family bids farewell to the two Chiangs, the public can sit back and watch.

Chin Heng-wei is the editor-in-chief of the Contemporary Monthly magazine.

TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG