The Celestial Scribe

Grand Historian Sima Qian, the revered scholar who compiled the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), was the son of the wise hermit Sima Tan. It was he who first conceived the great saga of the War of the Ten Kingdoms, a tale of virtue, betrayal, and the Mandate of Heaven.

Yet, to inscribe such a vast and intricate history, he needed a scribe of divine wisdom. Thus, he meditated upon Yu the Great, the legendary ruler who tamed the floods and brought order to the land. Yu appeared before him, and Sima Qian bowed deeply, pressing his hands together in respect.

"O Sage," said Yu, "Invoke the spirit of Gan Bao, the Chronicler of the Heavens, and ask him to transcribe your words." With these words, Yu vanished like mist upon the Yellow River.

Sima Qian then meditated upon Gan Bao, the immortal scholar whose brush never erred, whose ink flowed with the wisdom of the ancients. Gan Bao appeared, his robes woven from the threads of forgotten histories, his eyes alight with the knowledge of a thousand dynasties.

"Lord Gan Bao," Sima Qian said, "I shall recite the story of the War of the Ten Kingdoms, and I beg you to inscribe it upon the silk of eternity."

Gan Bao nodded, but set forth his condition: "My brush must never pause. You must speak without hesitation, like the unbroken current of the Yangtze."

Sima Qian agreed—but with a counter: "So be it, yet you must first grasp the meaning of my words before setting them to paper."

Gan Bao smiled, and thus began their great labor. Sima Qian wove his tale in measured cadence, occasionally crafting verses so profound that Gan Bao would pause to contemplate their meaning. In these moments, Sima Qian would compose yet more stanzas in his mind, ensuring the epic grew ever richer.

Thus was the War of the Ten Kingdoms inscribed—a scripture of war and wisdom, as enduring as the Great Wall and as deep as the teachings of Confucius.

In those ancient days, before the invention of printing, the memories of scholars were the only libraries. Sima Qian first taught his epic to his son, Sima Guang, who in turn carried it to the courts of kings and the halls of sages.

It is said that Li Bai, the wandering poet, sang the tale to the celestial immortals, while Sima Guang recited it to the mountain spirits and the warrior ghosts of old battlefields.

But it was Lu Xun, one of Sima Qian's most devoted disciples, who first revealed the epic to mortal ears. He narrated it at the great sacrificial rites of King Zhao of Qin, son of the fallen King Hui.

Later, the wandering scholar Su Shi. recounted the tale once more in the Bamboo Grove of Nanyang, where sages gathered beneath the whispering leaves.

"I have heard the War of the Ten Kingdoms," Su Shi declared, "as told by Lu Xun at the court of Zhao. I have walked the very plains where the great battle raged, and now, I bring this story to you—so that its lessons may never fade."

And so, the sages listened, and the epic lived on.

After the death of the wise Emperor Yao, his son Prince Jing  ruled the kingdom of Xu. He was succeeded by his brother, Prince Liang, who left two sons: Jia Long, born blind, and Ying Zheng.

Since Jia Long could not rule, Ying Zheng took the throne. But in time, he committed a grave offense—some say he slew a sacred dragon—and was forced into exile with his two wives, Lady Wen and Lady Zhao .

In the wild mountains of Chu, the two noblewomen bore five sons: the legendary Five Heroes of Ying. When Ying Zheng died in exile, the Daoist hermits raised the boys, teaching them the arts of war, statecraft, and the wisdom of the Five Classics .

At sixteen, the eldest, Ying Xiong, led his brothers back to Xu, where the venerable general Bai Qi took them under his wing.

But the Jia Princes, sons of the blind Jia Long, grew envious. They schemed against the Ying brothers, poisoning their food, setting traps in their chambers—until Bai Qi intervened, dividing the kingdom to keep peace.

The Ying ruled from Chang'an, while the Jia remained in Xu.

In time, the Jia challenged the Ying to a game of weiqi, played by the cunning Minister Wei. Through trickery, he defeated Ying Xiong, forcing the Five Heroes into thirteen years of exile.

They wandered the wilderness with their loyal wife, Princess Ling, enduring hardship until the day they could return.

But when they demanded their birthright, Jia Chao, now ruling both lands, refused. War became inevitable.

The Battle of Red Cliffs raged for eighteen days, until at last, the Ying prevailed. They ruled for thirty-six years before passing the throne to their grandson, Prince Hui, and retreating to the mountains as ascetics.