τέσσερα στοιχεία: Γη

�"η:  mainland china-  

        the year is 1556 &

        the winter’s early

        morning sun has

        just risen in the

        east of the gansu

        province, where the

        morning ritual of getting

        up from the yaodong &

        following with a

        bit of tea, a boiled

        egg & some bread to be

        shoved down the

        gullet, then on to

        one’s work or lessons

        from the high place of

        the loess plateau as just

        another day has come to

        pass

 

        then

 

        without any kind of

        warning, a sudden &

        unimaginable

        quake of 7.9-9 magnitude

        begins to split 20 meter holes

        in the earth, dropping hills

        & forming new valleys

        whereby “mountains &

        rivers changed places”

 

        this great earthquake

        killed 830,000+ people,

        leveling & destroying

        everything its path spanning

        as far as 500 kilometers away

        from the epicenter in the wei

        river valley of shaanxi

        province.

 

        with aftershocks for half a

        year following the initial 

        catastrophe, though there

        have been quakes of larger

        magnitudes, the shaanxi of

        1556 is listed as the “third

        deadliest natural disaster”

        in recorded human history.