[April A-Z Blogging] [D] the Dungan Revolts

'Dungan' is the name given in Central Asia to the Huí (see p30 of The Celestial Empire), the Chinese-speaking Muslims from Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin. They call themselves Lǎo Huíhuí: Old Muslims. Two devastating Huí revolts took place in China in the second half of the 19th century, resulting in very heavy casualties, destruction, and the mass emigration of the Huí to Sogdiana and Turkestan.

The Manchu-led Qīng empire had a very aggressive policy vis-à-vis the Dungans. However, it did not provoke any major migration of Dungans out of China before the Dungan revolts. As explained on p40 of TCE, the Qīng treated Muslims as second-class subjects. At the time of the Tàipíng Rebellion (second half of the 19th century), the Qīng allowed the Hàn to form armed militias to defend themselves. The Hàn of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin also armed themselves, even if they were thousands of km away from the Tàipíng Rebellion. The Huí felt threatened and also started arming themselves. This escalation led to a very tense situation, which only needed a spark to become something worse. A trivial incident in 1862 gave start to the rebellion, which quickly spread as far east as Gānsù, where there were many capable Sufi leaders who joined the rebellion. In 1865, the Uyghurs joined the fray on the side of the Huí under their leader Yaqub Beg (see p40 of TCE), and soon the Qīng lost control of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin. In 1867, the Qīng General Zuǒ Zōngtáng fought back using a carrot-and-stick strategy: on the one hand, massive amounts of money were invested in the region to promote agriculture and education; on the other hand, gun-carrying forces were sent to fight against the Muslim rebels (Chinese armed forces in the 19th century were still mostly relying on cold weapons!). After the first Qīng victories in 1871-2, skilful diplomacy brought back several Huí leaders into the loyalist camp. Despite repeated offers of amnesty in 1873, the war went on with many battles (mostly sieges), thousand of victims, and ethnic cleansing on both sides until 1877. In the end, the situation became so confused that the Uyghurs and the Huí started an internecine conflict, with the Hàn Chinese still in Dzungaria and in the Tarim Basin joining forces with the Uyghurs to exterminate the Huí, whilst the Russians to the north took advantage of the chaos to annex the territory around the city of Kulja in Dzungaria.

In the end, a combined force of Hàn soldiers and Huí former rebels defeated Yaqub Beg's forces and took back all lost territories. The Huí who fled to Central Asia were those who remained on the rebel side until the very end of the (first) Dungan Revolt.

A second Dungan Revolt took place in 1895-6. This time, the fighting was mostly between rival Sufi Naqshbandi orders amongst the Huí. It was put down by loyalist Muslims.

[April A-Z Blogging] [C] the Celestial Bureaucracy

The Celestial bureaucracy is the pantheon of Chinese mythology. As with many other elements of Chinese thought and religion, the idea of a Celestial Bureaucracy modelled on the Imperial Bureaucracy stems from Confucianism. Despite its scholarly roots, the Celestial Bureaucracy has been readily adopted by Daoism and Chinese Folk religion; it is also at least acknowledged by Chinese Buddhism, in particular in terms of what the afterlife looks like.
Its basic structure and some of its divine members are described on p37 of The Celestial Empire. However, just as the Imperial Bureaucracy is a vast body with innumerable members reaching down to the remotest provinces of the Empire, the Celestial Bureaucracy has many more members than the ones listed on p37 of the rule book. Actually, per Confucianism and Chinese Folk religion, the Celestial Bureaucracy oversees all gods, deities, and apotheosised heroes, and even the Daoist Immortals of Chinese mythology.

This post presents a few variations/additions to the elements provided in the rule book.

Originally, the supreme ruler wasn't called the Jade Emperor, but the Yellow Emperor (黃帝). The change occurred under the Táng.

Whatever his name, this supreme ruler is not really worshipped: he's revered throughout China's Confucian and Daoist temples, and joss houses. Once a year, on the ninth day of the first month, Daoist temples hold a Jade Emperor ritual (拜天公 bàitiāngōng, literally heaven worship) at which priests and laymen prostrate themselves, burn incense, and make food offerings.
The Jade Emperor's four assistant emperors are detailed below:

➀ Yándì (炎帝), the Flame Emperor, is much more of an historical figure than a mythological one, even though he is supposed to rule the southern cardinal direction.
➁ Shǎohào 少昊 is sometimes counted as an apotheosised emperor, sometimes as a mythologica figure. He rules the western direction.
➂ As written in the rule book, from the Míng onwards the nameless Northern Emperor (Běidì 北帝) becomes extremely popular, both in Daoism and in Chinese Folk religion. He is revered as a powerful god, able to control the elements (worshipped by those wishing to avoid fires), and capable of great magic. He is particularly revered by martial artists, and is the patron saint of Héběi, Manchuria and Mongolia ("the North").
➃ Tàihào 太昊 oversees the eastern cardinal direction. He is particularly worshipped on the sacred peaks.

A fifth assistant emperor can be added to the list: the Yellow Emperor (黃帝), who oversees the central cardinal direction. After his abdication, Zhuānxū 顓頊 becomes the fifth assistant.

In Daoism, the Jade Emperor governs all of the mortals' realm and below, but still ranks below the Three Pure Pellucid Ones (Sānqīng 三清, of which more will be revealed in another post). In Confucianism, the Jade Emperor is considered as a kind of abstract principle. In Chinese Folk Religion, on the contrary, he is really seen as the heavenly equivalent of the earthly ruler; this also explains the changes in his name— a ruler simply cannot be eternal, even if he is heavenly!

Similarly, the Celestial Bureaucracy is seen in Chinese Folk Religion as just another sprawling bureaucracy, much as a mirror of the earthly one. Each assistant had its ministries and specialised bureaucrats, with official lists being published by the government — since the Emperor of China was the only person supposed to be able to communicate with the Celestial Bureaucracy. This sprawling bureaucracy was made up of gods, goddesses, bodhisattvas, deceased emperors and empresses of the past, heavenly beings, and immortals. Each disease was also believed to be the result of the works of a particular member of the Celestial Bureaucracy. The idea was that no single activity, good or bad, was outside of the jurisdiction of the Celestial Bureaucracy. Sometimes, the Chinese government would co-opt local deities, apotheosised heroes, or even demons, lest their worship should create local, uncontrollable cults. This was actually one of the very official duties of Chinese magistrates.

Buddhism also found its way into the arcana of the Celestial Bureaucracy, which was supposed to keep rack of one's past lives and deeds. Especially virtuous deceased people would eventually join the ranks of the Celestial Bureaucracy.

[April A-Z Blogging] [B] Bento de Góis

Bento de Góis was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who was active at the turn of the 17th century, at a time when it was still unclear in the West whether "Cathay" and "China" referred to the one and same geographical entity or not. He was also fascinated by the legends of native Christian peoples living in Inner Asia (e.g., the legend of "Prester John"). He is the first Westerner to have travelled overland from India to China.

Bento de Góis led an adventurous life from early on. He was a soldier, and saw action against the Spaniards. When stationed in the Portuguese Indian city of Goa, nicknamed the "Rome of the Orient" because of its intense Catholic activity, he abandoned the secular world and entered the Society of Jesus, possibly because his fiancée back in Portugal became a nun at that time. Bento de Góis was then assigned missionary work in Mughal India for several years, which enabled him to become proficient in the Persian language and in Muslim customs, because he sometimes had to hide his true religion.

At that time, the Jesuits were busy trying to convert the Japanese to Christianity, with very little success, yet undergoing mass persecution at the end of the Sengoku period. Noticing how the Japanese were in awe of everything Chinese, the Jesuits then thought that converting the Chinese would be the key to converting all of East Asia, and hence turned their attention to China, where some Jesuits were already active at the court of the Míng. However, because of various setbacks, the sea route revealed itself to be impractical for missionary activities. As a result, it was decided to send missionaries to China through Tartary — the first European attempt ever to travel from India to China overland. The idea was also to take advantage of the inland trip to ascertain whether there were any native Christians in Tibet and/or in "Cathay" (at the time supposed to be different from "China"), even though the Jesuits in Běijīng doubted that such peoples did exist.

Bento de Góis left North India in February 1603 with the annual caravan bound for the Uyghur trading centre of Yarkand (Shāchē 莎車), situated in a fertile oasis of the Tarim Basin. The trip would last 4 years and Bento de Góis would cover 4,500km. He left Lahore disguised as an Armenian merchant intent on travelling to China on the Silk Road. The caravan went first through Bactria, experiencing the terrible cold and dangers of the Pamirs. In Bactria, Bento de Góis made the acquaintance of several Uyghurs who were returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca and who were also bound to Yarkand. At the time, the Silk Road was but a shadow of its former self, and was plagued by bandits and marauding nomads. Bento de Góis carried arms, and helped defending the Uyghur pilgrims. As a result, he was much welcome in Yarkand, especially since one of the pilgrims was the very sister of the Uyghur ruler of Yarkand.

After having rested in Yarkand, Bento de Góis travelled through the desert to the oasis city of Aqsu (Ākèsù 阿克蘇) in western Dzungaria. Despite Aqsu's ruler being related to Yarkand's, Bento de Góis was ill-treated in Aqsu and virtually kept there as a prisoner. After paying a huge ransom, however, he was allowed to leave. His next stop was the oasis city of Karasahr (Yānqí 焉耆), in eastern Dzungaria, where he could ascertain that a Nestorian community had indeed existed in the past, but that none were left in his day. There, he also met some Uyghur merchants who were travelling back from Běijīng, and who confirmed him the presence of fellow Jesuits at the court of the Míng. After some time spent preparing the last leg of the expedition by buying jade so that he could pretend being a merchant, Bento de Góis left Karasahr for China, reaching the Great Wall at the end of 1605. The Míng Empire had very restrictive rules for foreigners' entry into the country, and Bento de Góis was detained by the Chinese authorities in the city of Sùzhōu (肃州) in Gānsù. From Sùzhōu, Bento tried to send messages to the Jesuits in Běijīng, but he did not have their exact address, and he could not write Chinese. On the other end, the Běijīng Jesuits (informed about de Góis's expedition by his Goa superiors) were making enquiries about him from people coming from the west, but could not learn anything either, since they did not know his assumed 'Armenian' name. One of Bento's letters, sent in the first half of 1606, eventually found its way to the Běijīng Jesuits at the end of 1606. Matteo Ricci, the chief Jesuit in Běijīng, promptly sent a Chinese convert fetch his Portuguese colleague. The latter arrived in Sùzhōu at the beginning of 1607, only to find Bento de Góis on his deathbed.

The travels of Bento de Góis are humbling for us gamers. They make us realise how very difficult and very dangerous it was to travel, even through 'civilised' lands. In terms of using this narrative with The Celestial Empire, a GM could simply re-use it as is for a long overland campaign (a giant hexcrawl!). Alternatively, the PCs could be native Chinese in the employ of Matteo Ricci who must go to Sùzhōu and organise Bento de Góis's escape.

[April A-Z Blogging] [A] the Ān Lùshān Rebellion (755-763)

I will try to do a post a day, in the alphabetical order, during this month of April. This is not to participate in a contest, but to force myself to posting more frequently.

As an introduction, let me state some facts: the eighth-century Ān Lùshān Rebellion was the single deadliest war in human history in relative value, i.e., by calculating the death toll against the global population of the time. It is assumed that 15% of the total population of the world (not of China, of the world!) died either as a direct consequence of the military actions, or as a consequence of the mass starvation and diseases caused by the upheavals brought upon central and northern China by the war. Yet this war is incredibly little-known in the West.

The Táng empire possibly represents the zenith of Imperial China. Its territorial extent was immense, more or less the same area as today at a time when transport and communications were definitely not as they are today! In terms of culture, arts, and religion, it is also widely accepted that this is the time when Imperial China reached its apogee — it is the culture of Táng China that spread on to Korea and thence to Japan.

Táng China was a centralised empire, with an embryonic civil service, yet still mostly relying upon the ancient nobiliary structure. In the 7th century, the empire embarked upon a series of wars of expansion, to the north-east (present-day Manchuria), to the west (Inner and Central Asia) and to the south (present-day Vietnam). Although China was victorious, these wars strained her economy. The huge armies that conquered these distant lands had to remain stationed there to prevent any local revolts, and, due to the economical difficulties of the central government, the funds for the upkeep of the armies and of the mercenaries, which played a growing role in the wars, came from the generals of the armies themselves. As a result, the generals of the frontier armies became the equivalent of the European feudal marquis: hereditary noblemen whose duty it was to guard the marches of the kingdom. These frontier military governors were called jiédùshǐ (節度使) in Chinese.

Ān Lùshān (安祿山)

Ān Lùshān (安祿山) was one of these jiédùshǐ. The son of a Sogdian father and a Turkic mother (rumoured to be a sorceress), he was born c. 703, and was already a successful general in his thirties, having warred against barbarians both in the north-east and in the west. Note: it was frequent under the Táng to appoint foreigners as army generals, as they were deemed to be more politically reliable than native Hàn, the latter being thought to be held sway over by the various aristocratic factions.
Ān Lùshān was a frequent visitor in the capital, where he was admitted in the inner sanctum of the emperor's palace. This prompted a rumour that he was a lover of Yáng Yùhuán's, the emperor's favourite concubine. To this day, it is unknown whether the rumour was based on anything concrete, and this love triangle has originated quite a number of films and TV dramas.


The battle of Talas, lost against the Arabs in 751, was the turning point in the Chinese wars of expansion. The people in China grew dissatisfied with these costly wars, and the emperor had to implement a series of sometimes conflicting changes of policy. These changes were accompanied by the rise and the decline of various aristocratic factions at court. In the winter of 755-756, one of these factions called in Ān Lùshān, who occupied Cháng'ān. The city was ruthlessly sacked and destroyed by the (mostly non-Hàn) armies of Ān and his allies. At this point, emperor Xuánzōng gave all power to the factions who opposed Ān Lùshān to remove this threat. Ān reacted by attacking and taking Luòyáng, the 'second' or 'eastern' capital city of the Táng. At this moment, Ān Lùshān declared himself emperor of the new Great Yān (大燕) dynasty.

The legitimate emperor had to flee south to Sìchuān. His guards, however, blamed the war on the supposed affair between Ān and Yáng, and had her put to death. In 756, the heartbroken Xuánzōng resigned in favour of his son, Sùzōng, who had remained in the north to reclaim the throne. The hard flight to Sìchuān and the death of Yáng Yùhuán have spawned a number of very famous Chinese and even Japanese works.

Sùzōng first had to battle against his brothers for pre-eminence within the loyalist camp, enlisting the aid of Uyghur barbarians. Since Sùzōng didn't have any funds to pay the Uyghurs, they were left free to pillage North China as compensation for heir help. After having defeated his brothers, Sùzōng defeated the Yān, and took back Cháng'ān and Luòyáng in 757, again with the help of his Uyghur allies.

Meanwhile, in the Yān camp, Ān Lùshān had grown complacent as emperor of the Great Yān dynasty, and he was eventually murdered by his own son, Ān Qìngxù. General Shǐ Sīmíng, a long-time ally and childhood friend of Ān Lùshān's, had Ān Qìngxù executed in 759. He took over Ān's territory and troops, and claimed for himself the title of emperor of Yān. This is why the Ān Lùshān Rebellion is also called the Ān-Shǐ Rebellion.

During all these events, most of North China remained disputed between the Táng and the Yān, depending on the outcome of various battles and sieges, and on the shifting loyalties of the various army generals. The rebel heartland lay in the north-east.

However, with the military situation coming to a stalemate between the Táng and the Yān, the latter started to experience internal dissent. Emperor Shǐ was killed by his own son in 761. Apparently, Shǐ's son was an able commander, but with the Uyghurs entering again the fray to help the Táng, he couldn't avoid defeat after defeat, and committed suicide in 763, thus ending the Ān-Shǐ Rebellion.

At this time, northern China lay in ruins, the Táng had lost all their territorial gains from before the Ān Lùshān Rebellion, and the Arabs and the Tibetans could quietly attack and plunder Chinese cities. The Uyghurs controlled the Tarim Basin. The Táng dynasty was irrevocably weakened. Despite its role in the war, the Táng were forced to keep the system of the jiédùshǐ.

On top of the immense deaths and devastation, and of the effects mentioned above, the outcome of the Ān-Shǐ Rebellion was also an economic and an intellectual decline.

Using the Ān Lùshān Rebellion with The Celestial Empire:
As explained in TCE, the game has been written with the peaceful time periods of Imperial China in mind, when travel is safe and player characters can try and work their way through the stable organisations of Imperial China: literary academies, martial arts schools, religious sects, and clan associations. However, troubled times such as the Ān-Shǐ Rebellion may also obviously present many occasions for role-playing. The player characters can be the agents (or even the cìkè) of the one or the other aristocratic faction at the court of emperor Xuánzōng. Or they can be 'secret agents' of the latter, or even accompany him through the dangers and the hardships of the flight to Sìchuān. Or they can be a general ad his retainers, trying to grab as much power as possible.

Nice Words

It's always heartening to read kind words about one's work, especially when it was a labour of love like The Celestial Empire.

The following is from a recent thread on rpg.net:

Celestial Empire is really, seriously, good. It's nominally for BRP, and it seems primarily for 'medieval' China, but it'd work as a sourcebook for any China-based game. I have an MA in Asian Religions (specialization in Neo-Confucianism) and I've found almost nothing to complain about regarding the author's scholarship.