Rise and Fall

The night deepens and the rain falls down from the sky.

It is the same night as always to many people

But they did not know that the wind of change has blown.

And it is blowing from everywhere all at once.

The world did not know that right now, in the Great Steppe, a great conqueror is about to be born

Meanwhile, in Yan Empire, the people live horribly and the nobles and scholars and eunuch fight each other in the court.

The one that suffers is the common people.

The people of the tribe have their difficulties and the people of Yan also have their difficulties.

The theme of the world, unfairness everywhere.

In the residence of nobles and scholars' officials, there is sword dance in the night and flower viewing in the afternoon

The melody of song is cheerful, the great work of past four hundred years all went for nothing.

The Analects of the Wise and the Three Teachings was forgotten, all virtues and honor forgotten, sound of music weakens the mind and the soul, to indulge always in the temptation of the world forgetting the great work of the ancestors

Outside the residence of these nobles and scholar, are a different world.

The common people starved in their houses at night, and in the morning, they would be beaten by the tax officials

The night and day between the officials and the common people are as different as Heaven and Earth

Theme of the world, unfairness everywhere.

Those villagers and poor people, the common people of the world…how could they live in such a world?

At morning, oppressed by the officials, at night dying of starvation…what kind of life this is?

Is it not hell?

Those who resisted is taken into custody. The nobles do crime in the morning and by the evening, they are released, the pleas of the people fell into deaf ears.

But the common people do crime in the morning and convicted even before the Sun could stand up in the middle

Theme of the world, unfairness everywhere

The people that were taken into custody, some of which are powerful fighter. They do not do wrong, and they are not guilty, so why are they punished?

They look at the sky and they became angry

The blue sky is vast and high, but it seems it could not accommodate the good people of the world

These fighters resisted, run away and these kinds of people either become bandits or wandering hero.

Those who are not powerful fighters are brought to the prison and some are recruited to become a slave soldier

Fighting in battles that benefit the lord but oppresses the people. The fathers get stabbed by sword; the children get torn to death under taxes

The wail of pain, the resentment of the people is accumulating. The blue sky in Yan is about to change

Yellow scarves could be seen all over the country and all they need is a fuse

And they ask the sky, what is the theme of the world?

And they see the answer everyday

Unfairness everywhere!

The Blue Sky shall fall and the Yellow Sky shall rise!

….

The affairs of the world are sometimes very complicated

And sometimes it is very simple

Yan Empire rules a large area of the world and they think that they rule the world. They did not know that all over the world, there is large lands and large empires

In the frozen land filled with snow, there is a tribe that is slowly expanding. In the desert, an empire rises from the enlightenment of the mind.

And as there is empire that rises, there is empire that is crumbling. In the West, an old empire is in the process ofc rumbling.

Will it have another savior this time or will this Empire crumbles completely?

On another continent entirely, a Sun worshiping civilization is about to devolve into a civil war and break this empire

Rises and fall, fall and rising, like the Sun and the Moon.

And these are the affair of the world, the rise and fall of Empires.

The name of these dynasties rises and the name faded, but whether in its rise or its fall, the common people is the one that suffers.

In Yan Empire, for almost four hundred years, it had maintained the peace.

But there is no empire that could go this long without it being corrupt. And for so long it has united, and so it is time for a change

The world of Yan has become stale and so it will crumble

The story of the Yan Empire is a fascinating story.

In the far past there is the Zhao dynasty.

It is one of the first recorded dynasty in this part of the world

It ruled around one third of the current territory of the Yan Empire

But they are the first government in this area.

They conquer the tribes and they created an identity for themselves.

They rule for a few hundred years and then the rule of Zhao dynasty weakened. The vassal princes all over the world rises up, and another hero king arise.

The Wu dynasty rises.

And then it ruled for to hundred years and then it weakened.

And then Dukes and Princes declared themselves king, and all over the area of the Wu dynasty, kingdoms rise up, all creating their own kingdom, so the Wu dynasty collapsed.

These kingdoms fight against each other, leaving seven contending kingdoms that rises up from the ashes of the defeated.

It is one of the most brilliant periods and it is also the saddest period of the Yan Empire

Seven Kingdoms warred against each other; how many people were killed to satisfy the ambition of the powerful?

Xun Kingdom prevailed over the Seven Kingdoms. And so, they possessed the Empire, and a great unified Empire was created.

But Xun is cruel and it treated men like they were tools in their hands. People look up to the sky and ask themselves who they are, what they want to be and why they are here?

And everyone has their own answer but it is clearly not to become tool in someone else's hand. So, the Xun dynasty destiny run short and from then arose two opposing kingdoms

There is the Southern Zhao and there is Northern Yan to fight for the world.

And Yan was the victor.

The South and the North united and the empire are unified.

The rise of fortune for the Yan began when Jiang Han, Gaozu of Yan raise a banner of uprising.

A young small official raises the banner of rebellion, who would have thought he would succeed?

The Xun dynasty was cruel and the world waited for a benevolent ruler.

Cunning and wily, Jiang Han has many weaknesses but there is one virtue.

Respecting those who are smarter, knowing people and employing people with trust, the uprising that he had raised only ended when the whole Empire belonged to Yan

He defeated the Xun dynasty, fought against the Southern Zhao and become the emperor and sat on the Dragon Throne.

This was magnificent and a great undertaking that was handed down to the successive Yan emperor.

In the four hundred years since then Yan empire was founded, there is troubles and there are problems.

There was of course disruption to the dynasty and there was a time that the Empire seem to be at its end.

But each time it seems that it would crumble, there is people holding up the sky and so the Yan Empire lasted this long

But things that should have fallen should fall and things that should rise, must rise. The times comes and the times changed, but Yan did not change

The people whimper, wails, scream and all of this anger...is accumulating. And the people now knows that the sound that the officials heard is not their screams but the sound of melody of music and the screams is drowned by the moaning of their concubines.

So, they no longer wail, and no longer scream

They picked up the arms and will made their voice heard even if they have to bring the ears of the officials to their mouth

Rebellion exploded all over the Yan Empire.

the curtain of the fall of the empire is opened.

….