Emperor Xiaowen and the Transformation of the Northern Wei Xianbei
In the late autumn of the seventeenth year of the Taihe era (493 CE), under a relentless, freezing downpour that transformed the roads of…
29 min read
Tag
Three Kingdoms & Six Dynasties
The Battle of Fei River and the Preservation of the South
In the late autumn of the eighth year of the Taiyuan era (383 CE), along the muddy, reed-choked banks of the Fei River (淝水,…
31 min read
The Disaster of Yongjia and the Southward Exodus
In the fourth lunar month of the fifth year of the Yongjia era (311 CE), the imperial capital of the Western Jin Dynasty (西晋,…
35 min read
The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and Neo-Daoist Xuanxue
In the middle of the third century CE, in the shadow of the Taihang Mountains near modern Jiaozuo in Henan province, a grove of…
28 min read
Zhuge Liang, the Longzhong Plan, and the Logistics of the Northern Expeditions
In the spring of 228 CE, from the remote mountain valleys of Hanzhong in southwestern China, an army of fifty thousand soldiers in iron-scaled…
30 min read