The Nirvana of the Great Empire: Fragments of Chinese Dynastic Succession and Peasant Uprisings Throughout History

Author: Jiang Shangwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Tianya · Boiling Wine Discusses History Moderator, Jiang Shangwei's Passionate Masterpiece. A Reassessment of China's! Renowned Alternative Historian, Helian Bobao King (Mei Yi) Writes the Preface with Strong Recommendation! Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, Fan Chong, Zhang Jiao, Huang Chao, Guo Zixing, Liu Futong, Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Hong Xiuquan, and other peasant uprising leaders are reinterpreted in this book. Their diplomatic maneuvering and strategic planning, their unrestrained freedom and lonely solitude, are vividly portrayed on the pages. Historical coincidences and conclusions, accidents and inevitabilities, repeatedly converge and overlap in those life-and-death moments until the dust settles.
The book focuses on nine major and far-reaching peasant uprisings in history, based on detailed historical records, revealing numerous details often overlooked by historians. Chen Sheng, Wu Guang, Wang Kuang, Wang Feng, Fan Chong, Zhang Jiao, Huang Chao, Guo Zixing, Liu Futong, Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Hong Xiuquan—these names that struck terror into the hearts of emperors and generals of the apocalypse, these heroes who rose from the mud and streets, are reinterpreted in the book. Their merits and demerits, their contributions and obstacles to history, their impact on their time and posterity—beyond the "conclusions" in history textbooks—there are many newly examined "meanings" that will be shared with you in this book.
The book is hailed by the media as a "masterpiece that reassesses China's." Renowned alternative historian Helian Bobao King (Mei Yi) writes the preface, strongly recommending this book. A heavy rain ignited the flames of rebellion against the Qin Dynasty; a failed reform sounded the dirge for the decline of the Western Han Dynasty; a jade seal found in a field witnessed court struggles. The Seven States Rebellion in China, spanning two thousand years of imperial history, always saw the prelude to a new dynasty born from peasant uprisings. Those unpredictable accidents always sway the fate of the empire in unexpected ways. Thus, the bookish Wang Mang became emperor, the peasant Liu Xiu became emperor, and even the cowherd Liu Pan became emperor.
In the unseen forces that shape history's course, what determines the direction of events? In the distant past, how many stories of sighs of regret and claps of laughter remain untold? China's two thousand years of imperial history is a history of war, a history of heroes, but more so, it is the history of the fusion and permeation of various ethnic groups across this vast land, and the renewal of civilizations. The majesty of the great empires cannot suppress the cries of "Why should the nobility and generals be born of noble blood?" The "Son of Heaven" is merely a commoner among the strong and mighty. Those who rose in rebellion sought to conquer the world; the gravediggers of successive dynasties rose and fell with suddenness.
In the unseen forces that shape history's course, what determines the direction of events? In the distant past, how many stories of sighs of regret and claps of laughter remain untold?