Well, it’s been… a while. Had some questions regarding Tang dynasty administrative division and that made me come back to this episode’s translation.

Next one is in the works, but might take a while. There are some things I want to focus more on for Lü Bu’s episode and those might end up growing into their own separate post, lol

Episode 5

Thirteen provinces of Eastern Han dynasty

In Eastern Han period, the whole country was divided into 13 provinces: Youzhou, Jizhou, Bingzhou, Yanzhou, Sizhou (under the military rule of the Colonel Director of Retainers), Yuzhou, Xuzhou, Jingzhou, Qingzhou, Yangzhou, Liangzhou, Yizhou, Jiaozhou (apart from Sizhou, all 12 provinces were governed by a provincial governor).

After the Yellow Turban Rebellion 1, thoroughly suppressed by the Emperor Ling of Han 2, the governors were assigned by the imperial court. Since then, provinces gradually became administrative divisions and the governors also became permanent military commanders, sowing the seeds for future power struggles.

Sizhou

In the period depicted in the story, the local government in Sizhou was located in the Luoyang county. Its area of jurisdiction corresponded to present-day south of Hebei, south of Shanxi and the plains of Wei river in Shaanxi. The province was divided into counties: Jingzhao magistrate, Henei county (home of the Sima family), West Fufeng, East Fengyi, Hedong county, Hongnong county, Henan magsitrate.

Reference material: “The Encyclopedia of China – History of China – Western and Eastern Han administrative Division”, “The List of Offices”, “The Book of Han – geography section”

Spoilers time!

The soldiers of the Guandong Coalition are made-up, but the first two generals they are assigned to (Han Fu and Gongsun Zao) are real people who served under the Yuan family, although Gongsun Zao turned against Yuan Shao by the end of his life). The third general mentioned, Qiao Mao, also participated in the campaign, though I think he wasn’t affiliated with the Yuans.

But this isn’t what you’re here for. You want to know if Yuan Fang is real or not.

He’s not.

As for Sun Shu, well, this one’s somewhat real (although as usual, heavily fictionalized). It is known that Sun Jian had daughters, although their names aren’t known. One of them later married Liu Bei, but I don’t know if that happens to Sun Shu in the manhua… The other two are basically only known by who they married. My bet would be on the one who married Liu Bei though, since she was somewhat known for being fierce and a troublemaker.

I’m also not sure if the move to Chang’an was as secret as is depicted, but this is something that I think was about as dramatic as is shown in the donghua. Dong Zhuo did ransack the imperial mausoleums as well as rich households and he did burn down the city after leaving it. Anyone opposing him - before or during the move - were disposed of, and many civilians died. Even if the banquet scene likely didn’t happen, I think it was cool shorthand for the events in Dong Zhuo’s court leading up to the move.

  1. The Yellow Turban Rebellion, also translated as Yellow Scarves Rebellion was a peasant revolt that happened in the late Han dynasty. It started in 184 CE and wasn’t fully suppressed until 205 CE, although the main uprising only lasted until 185 CE. This rebellion is also the opening event of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
    While the uprising was caused by the government corruption, diseases, natural disasters and poor crops, it must be noted that it was also a Taoist sect – the leader of the rebellion, Zhang Jue, was widely known as a healer and sorcerer, and he and his brothers originally garnered supporters through their religious beliefs.
    A lot of the notable people of the Three Kingdom period (like Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Jian) make an appearance in that period assisting the suppression of the rebellion, and these events set the stage for the later unrest, as many regions assembled their own military forces to fight the uprising and the government’s control of the provinces weakened. ↩

  2. Emperor Ling of Han (Liu Hong) – the emperor during whose reign the Yellow Turban Rebellion happened. A distant cousin of the previous emperor who died without leaving a son, he ascended the throne at the age of 12, and his reign saw a rise in the power of eunuchs who dominated the government. His death kicked off the events shown in the donghua. ↩