"Yellow Sky"

M Thorne T. P.

Description

It is the middle of the 2nd Century, and the world is mired in chaos. In China, it is the third century of rule for the Han Dynasty, and all is far from well. A strange alliance of corrupt officials and supposedly timid court eunuchs have managed to gain a firm grip on power, and any that oppose them are slandered as 'Partisans' and all but destroyed.As the years wear on, a coalition of nobleman officials - including Confucius' descendant Kong Rong, polymath Cai Yong, the influential Yuan clan heir Yuan Shao and rising star Cao Cao - dedicates itself to challenging the wrongdoers, while in the country at large, a number of new and dangerous movements rally the weary and frustrated common folk against their rulers. The most dangerous of these new movements is the Taoist sect known as the 'Way of Peace', whose leader inspires an uprising that is known to history as the 'Yellow Turban Rebellion'. But these divisive troubles all precede a unifying horror: Dong Zhuo.The obedient provincial inspectors make way for ambitious provincial governors, and passive calls for change are replaced by armed dissent: this is the beginning of the chaos that precedes the arrival of the famous 'Three Kingdoms era' that changed China forever.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: PaMat Publishing
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780957500457
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

YELLOW SKY
~ CRISIS FOR THE HAN DYNASTY ~
BY T. P. M. THORNE
COVER ART BY T. P. M. THORNE



Published by PaMat Publishing

Copyright 2014 T. P. M. Thorne

All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs andPatents Act 1988, no part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, electrical,chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - withoutthe express written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should bedirected to the author of this work.

The author, T. P. M. Thorne, has asserted the right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://tpmthorne.com/

For any enquiries, email the author at [e-mail]

This version of the work is for online publication only.

Cover art: an artistic representation of China during the Han Dynasty; it is coloured redwith yellow disturbances to signify the situation at the time. The Han s colourwas red, and the colour of divine rule was yellow: the latter was also thecolour chosen by the Taoist sect known as the Way of Peace during theirfamous rebellion . The specific characters used in the title Yellow Sky are taken from a 16-character mantra that the leader of the rebellion used torally his followers: the entire mantra can be seen in the background, endlesslyrepeated as it would have been by Yellow Turban acolytes.



Table of Contents FOREWORD PROLOGUE: A TALE OF OLD TIMES ACT I: THE OLD MISTAKE CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 ACT II: THE GREAT UPRISINGS CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 ACT III: THE GREAT TRANSITION CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 CHAPTER 32 CHAPTER 33 CHAPTER 34 CHAPTER 35 CHAPTER 36 CHAPTER 37 CHAPTER 38 CHAPTER 39 CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER 41 CHAPTER 42 CHAPTER 43 ACT IV: THE GREAT TYRANT CHAPTER 44 CHAPTER 45 CHAPTER 46 CHAPTER 47 CHAPTER 48 CHAPTER 49 CHAPTER 50 CHAPTER 51 CHAPTER 52 CHAPTER 53 CHAPTER 54 CHAPTER 55 CHAPTER 56 ACT V: THE FIGHT FOR LUOYANG CHAPTER 57 CHAPTER 58 CHAPTER 59 CHAPTER 60 CHAPTER 61 CHAPTER 62 CHAPTER 63 CHAPTER 64 CHAPTER 65 CHAPTER 66 CHAPTER 67 CHAPTER 68 CHAPTER 69 CHAPTER 70 CHAPTER 71 ACT VI: THE FEUDAL DIVISION CHAPTER 72 CHAPTER 73 CHAPTER 74 CHAPTER 75 CHAPTER 76 CHAPTER 77 CHAPTER 78 CHAPTER 79 CHAPTER 80 CHAPTER 81 CHAPTER 82 CHAPTER 83 CHAPTER 84 CHAPTER 85 CHAPTER 86 CHAPTER 87 ACT VII: THE WESTERN REGENCY CHAPTER 88 CHAPTER 89 CHAPTER 90 CHAPTER 91 CHAPTER 92 CHAPTER 93 CHAPTER 94 CHAPTER 95 CHAPTER 96 CHAPTER 97 ACT VIII: A PERSONAL MATTER CHAPTER 98 CHAPTER 99 CHAPTER 100 CHAPTER 101 CHAPTER 102 CHAPTER 103 CHAPTER 104 CHAPTER 105 CHAPTER 106 CHAPTER 107 CHAPTER 108 CHAPTER 109 CHAPTER 110 ACT IX: THE GREAT HUNGER CHAPTER 111 CHAPTER 112 CHAPTER 113 CHAPTER 114 CHAPTER 115 CHAPTER 116 CHAPTER 117 CHAPTER 118 CHAPTER 119 CHAPTER 120 EPILOGUE: A TALE FAR FROM TOLD CHARACTER PROFILES AND NAME PRONUNCIATION GUIDE PEOPLE PLACES MISCELLANEOUS


FOREWORD

This is my second attempt at presenting the era known as Three Kingdoms (approx. 184AD - 280ADwhen including the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the decline of the Han thatprecedes it), having first written Crouching Dragon - The Journey of ZhugeLiang , which was released initially in April 2012. I did not originally intendto write any more about the era, despite my interest in it; however, it was ajoy to research and write, since my writing focusses on developing charactersfar more than attention to descriptive detail, and there were many moreinteresting figures to characterize, and events to cover.

Zhuge Liang,however, was a difficult act to follow, as he lived and worked within the mostimportant years of the conflict, is highly regarded, and achieved a lot, havingassisted his lord, Liu Bei, in carving out almost a third of the land when hebegan with next to nothing. Further to that, a book that spans eras tends tosuffer from repetition, entirely because people are by nature repetitious. Itis an unavoidable truth. That means that any attempt at focussing on anotherscholar-strategist such as Sima Yi, Lu Xun, or Jia Xu would likely lead to apainfully similar work, and many of those characters are strongly represented in Crouching Dragon anyway. So what to do ?

In the end, Idecided to write a prequel to Crouching Dragon that tells the story of theHan Dynasty s implosion: it focusses on that early period via noted figuressuch as Kong Rong, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and also some lesser-known ones thatshould, perhaps, be better known, like Cai Yong, Zhang Miao and Zhang Yang. Ialso dare to go further back than is traditional, beginning the novel with anact that summarises the Partisan Disaster , a multitude of eunuch/officialbattles and uprisings that precede the famous Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184.It concludes with the Chang an Regency ruling China, as going any further inone book (e.g. ending where Crouching Dragon started, as was my originalintention) became impossible without missing some interesting vignettes thattell a more varied version of the early story.

Once again, I havetried to present as original a presentation as possible, partly by looking atfigures and events that are usually ignored or downplayed, and mainly bydrawing on history more than folktales, although there is still some artisticlicense for the sake of telling a balanced story. And once again, all I canhope is that this book inspires or entertains someone out there as much as I haveenjoyed writing it.


T. P. M. Thorne, the author


PROLOGUE: A TALE OF OLD TIMES


The vast lands of China were once ravaged by a war that lasted for almost a century: it beganwith the people s disaffection with corrupt officials, and at its end, animperial line was once again the dominant force in the land, though thingswould never be the same again.

A group of young children gathered expectantly at the corner of a busy road. Most days, an oldman that remembered the famous tales of the Three Kingdoms era would come tothis spot to share them with enthusiastic audiences. I wanna hear bout Guan Yu! one child said excitedly. I wan hear bout nasty old Dong Zhuo! another said. The chatter and the excitement built steadily, until one older boy said, Here he comes! The old man hobbled toward the gathering, accompanied by several adults that were as keen to hearthose stories as the children were. Hello, everyone! the old man said with thinly-disguised joy at the attention that he was receiving. One child clutched at the old man s sleeve, and shouted, Tell us about- Hush, please! the old man chuckled. I can t very well tell you anything if you all shout, can I ? The children quietened, and many adults looked on jealously at the power the old man hadover the energetic youngsters. I talk a lot about the days of Liu Bei, and Cao Cao, and Sun Quan, the old man began. Italk a lot about Dong Zhuo- Boo! the children shouted. Boo to Dong Zhuo! Boooo! Yes, the old manchuckled once the children fell silent once again. Well, I wonder if ever saidanything about how Dong Zhuo became strong. It was them Turbans , an older boy suggested. Them dirty Turbans what tried to make all thetrouble! And then all the- I wonder if thestory really does begin there, the old man sighed. Or maybe it begins long,long before that The old man pondered the stories that his parents and grandparents had told, and wonderedwhere he should truly begin. The story that he would tell would be verydifferent from the one in the records of history, and it would be differentfrom the one in his mind: this would be a story told in many ways and for manydifferent audiences in the ages to come.

*************

ACT I: THE OLD MISTAKE


1

A man from the Empire of Rome awaited the arrival of the man from theMinister Herald s office that would finally introduce him to the court of theEmperor Huan, ruler of the land of China. For the Romans, it was the fifth yearof rule for Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius and the end of a costlyterritorial war with the Parthian Empire under Vologases IV; for the Chinese,it was the twentieth year of rule for Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty. The Roman was not alone, having brought with him to theHan court an entourage that included a Chinese man to serve as a translator inmoment