China

**Other Names:**The Earth Kingdom, The Forbidden Kingdom, Qing, People's Republic of China.

**Founder:** The Jade Emperor

**Notable Leaders(BC):**The Jade Emperor, Fu Xi((2,952-2,836 BC),Xi Wangmu(Queen Mother of the West), Emperor Shennong, Huangdi(The Yellow Emperor)(2,698-2,598 BC), Emperor Shaohao(C.2,600 BC), Emperor Zhuanxu, Emperor Ku, Emperor Yao(2356 – 2255 BC), Emperor Shun(2,233 BC-2,184 BC) Yu the Great, Qi of Xia, Jie of Xia(1,728-1,675 BC), Zhou of Shang(1,075-1,046 BC), King Wu of Zhou(1046-1043 BC), Qin Shi Huang(247 BC-220 BC)

**Capital:**Beijing

**Population:**1,403,500,365

**Government Type:**Unitary one-party socialist republic

**Language:** Chinese

**Currency:**Renminbi

**Religion:**Chinese Folk Religion, Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese Buddhism,

## History

The recorded history of China goes back hundreds of thousends of years, coming from a time when even Hyboria and Atlantis still where primitive tribal territory, when China was known as the Earth Kingdom and then known as Khitai. At that time, the nomadic tribes of China where controlled by an immortal god king called the Jade Emperor, who was originally the crown prince of the kingdom of Pure Felicity and Majestic Heavenly Lights and Ornaments. Although some sources claim, that the Jade Emperor ruled since the beginning of time itself, this claim seems to be a massive exaggeration. Still, the Jade Emperor's rule lasted for at least a million years. After the Jade Emperor achieved godhood and founded China's pantheon, the Celestial bureaucracy, his reign of peace was over: Out of anger of loosing the fight for the throne of Heaven, the monstrous water god Gong Gong nearly smashed the pillar holding the sky. Gong Gong was calmed down by Nüwa and her brother and companion Fu Xi who also repaired the damaged pillar of Heaven.

In order to speed up the procreation of mankind, Nüwa and Fu Xi formed the first modern humen by using clay to create humanoid figures and making them to come alive using the power granted by the Jade Emperor. Soon, Fu Xi came to rule over his descendents, being China's first mortal sovereign as well as the first of the Three August Ones. During Fu Xi's 116-year government (2952 to 2836 BC), China made first contact with the Four Heavenly Kings, immortal rulers of what would later be India, Tibet and Shambhala, and the land turned into the home for plenty of powerful beings like the Eight Immortals, the wise Xi Wangmu, called Queen Mother of the West as well as the Four Symbols: the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermillion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West and the Black Tortoise of the North.

The Second August One was Emperor Shennong, who was succeeded by Huang Di the Yellow Emperor. For his numerous accomplishments like the invention of the principles of traditional Chinese medicine and for defeating the dissident tribe of Chi You, the Yellow Emperor was granted godhood after his death. The rule of the Three August Ones was followed by the Age of the Five Emperors: Shaohao, Zhuanxu, Ku, Yao and Shun. Each of these monarchs increased the power and influence of the fast growing China even further. During the time of Shun, the Yellow River erupted in a huge flood. A wise man named Yu was put in charge of flood control, and taught the people in building canals and levees. After thirteen years of toil, flooding problems were solved under Yu's command. Because of this great achievment, Shun passed the leadership to Yu, who would later been called Yu the Great, on his death bed. Upon Yu's death, his position as leader was passed not to his deputy, but was inherited by his son Qi. Qi's succession broke the previous convention of meritorious succession, and began what is traditionally regarded as the first dynasty in Chinese history. The dynasty is called "Xia" after Yu's centre of power.

Around 1,728 BC, Jie, a bloodthirsty despot of the Xia Dynasty, ruled over China. During his brutal rule, the gods cursed China with a harsh climate change and with hordes of rampaging ghouls. Jie was overthrown by the tribal leader Tang of Shang, who established the Shang Dynasty. This blood line would later end nearly the same way as there predecessor: It was overthrown by the Zhou Dynasty in order to stop the brutal tyrant Zhou of Shang, the last one of the Shang Dynasty. After the uprising against Zhou of Shang, many strong, independent states continually waged war with each other in the Spring and Autumn period.

The first really unified Chinese state since the rule of Fu Xi was founded by Qin Shi Huang, The Dragon Emperor, king of the Qin state. Han united the warring states of China by force using his great army of men as well as Loong dragons. As his first act as Emperor, he orderd the construction of the Great Wall Of China, burying his former enemies beneath it and cursing them to hold it up for all eternity. The Great Wall was supposed to be an impregnable line of defense against the pastoral nomads from the steppes in the North as well as the Himalayan kingdoms like Tibet and Ling. In order to achieve immortality, the Dragon Emperor imprisoned the witch Zi Yuan from Shambala, who had the power to grant endless life. But instead of blessing Han, Zi Yuan cursed the Dragon Emperor and his warriors, transforming them into the Terracotta Army. The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BCE and 220 CE, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that would last to the present day. The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia.

After Han's collapse, another period of disunion followed, including the highly chivalric period of the Three Kingdoms. Independent Chinese states of this period also opened diplomatic relations with Japan, introducing the Chinese writing system there. In 580 CE, China was reunited under the Sui Dynasty led by the legendary lovers Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, who managed to conquer the other kingdoms using the powerful sword Glory of Ten Powers. Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese technology and culture reached its zenith: The Song Dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size. This growth came about through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. The following centuries are also very characteristic for the spread of Buddhism and Taoism in China. The adventures of people like Xuanzang, the monkey king Sun Wukong, Song Jiang, a rebel and bandit similiar to Robin Hood, and Bai SuZhan, a snake demoness who tried to achieve godhood by performing good deeds, left their marks during this Golden Age of China.

At the beginning of the 13th century, not even Chinese war legends like Hua Mulan were able to stop the invading Monoglians led by Genghis Khan. But the Chinese Empire would only be the first victim of the Mongolian hordes. In 1271, the Mongol leader and the fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty and the new de-facto capital of Xanadu, with the last remnant of the Song Dynasty falling to the Yuan in 1279 after the completion of the conquest. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty. China's capital was moved from Xanadu to Beijing during the early Ming Dynasty. The Ming fell to the Manchus in 1644, who then established the Qing Dynasty. An estimated 25 million people died during the Manchu conquest of the Ming Dynasty. But the royal families of the Qing Dynasty, most notably the estranged houses of the Jia Clan, where fighting battles for power among themselves, thus weakening the empire.

The Qing Dynasty, which lasted until 1912, was the last dynasty in China. In the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty adopted a defensive posture towards European imperialism, even though it engaged in imperialistic expansion into Central Asia itself. At this time China awoke to the significance of the rest of the world, in particular the West. As China opened up to foreign trade and missionary activity, opium produced by British India was forced onto Qing China. Two Opium Wars with Britain weakened the Emperor's control. One result was the Taiping Civil War, which lasted from 1851 to 1862, costing 20 to 200 million lives, thus being one of the bloodiest wars in human history. Other costly rebellions following the Taiping Rebellion and the flow of British opium hastened the empire's fall. The creation of the Confederation of Eastern Asia together with Japa in 1907 and the following War in the Air weakend the empire even further. Doktor Fu Manchu, an insidious scientist and criminal mastermind, used the empire's weakness for his own sinister plans, ones even seizing the power over China for a short time.

The empire's foreseeable decline took place on 1 January 1912 with the founding of the Republic of China. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang Party was proclaimed provisional president of the republic but soon he was replaces by Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general. After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented, with an internationally recognized but virtually powerless national government seated in Beijing. Warlords in various regions exercised actual control over their respective territories. Only in the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control. During World War II, China had to defend its territory against Japan. With the surrender of Japan in 1945, China emerged victorious but financially drained. This led to the Chinese Civil War and the foundation of the People's Republic of China ruled over by the Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong.

After the Chinese Civil War, mainland China underwent a series of disruptive socioeconomic movements starting in the late 1950s with the Great Leap Forward and continuing in the 1960s with the Cultural Revolution that left much of its education system and economy in shambles. With the death of its first generation Communist Party leaders such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, the PRC began implementing a series of political and economic reforms advocated by Wu Qinghua, the first female leader of China, that eventually formed the foundation for mainland China's rapid economic development starting in the 1990s.

After some years, the PRC's regieme attempted the assassination of Golovko, head of the SVR (formerly the KGB) in order to sow confusion in the Russian government because of China's designs to annex Eastern Siberia, where geologists had redently discovered a large amount of oil and gold. The following Sino-Russian War led to the USA assisting the losing Russia in its battles against China. The PRC surrendered to its enemies after the raid of the Politburo in Beijing by student demonstrators. This uprising led to a massive change of Chinese politics, the introduction of democracy and China's convergence to the US. Together with its new American ally, China successfully crushed a radical, anarchic terrorist group with unclear goals called GLA (Global Liberation Army) of Middle Eastern, Maoist and former Soviet origins in the War against Terror. Altough China won the war, it emptied their financial reserves and it suffered from losses like the destruction of the Three Gorges Dam and a devastating attack on Beijing.

For some years, China developed to the scientific, democratic Republic China. But with the Awakening of Magic in 2011, chaos erupted: Tibet was covered by a magical cloud of fog leading to its isolation and thus de-facto independence. In the following decades the united China collapsed and was replaced by the Chinese successor states including Henan, Guangxi, Beijing, Uiguristan and the remains of the Republic China. Though, to ensure the survival of Chinese power, the members of the Kwan Do family, owners of Kwan Do Electronics and Communications and proud descendants of Han the Dragon Emperor, founded an alliance known as the UFAR (United Federation of Asian Republics) and thus turned into the de-facto rulers of China and later member countries like India, Korea, Mongolia, the ASEAN nations and the independent Siberian Yakut nation. The Kwan Do family's money and their technology was supposed to allow the desired colonization of space. These ambitious plans attracted the attention of the Eye of God, a fanatical terrorist group from Gilead, that wanted to keep Earth, as it is God's chosen planet, as the only planet inhabited by mankind. In spite of several devastating terrorist attacks, the UFAR, working together with Japan, managed to send a colonization shuttle to Mars. The planet would be divided in the Eastern Hemisphere controlled by the Kwan Do family and the Western Hemisphere controlled by the Wong family, who bought the planet from the native Martians, called Barsoomians.

In the year 2066 the tension between the UFAR and the nations of North America reached a critical stage. Because of the international shortage of resources, the UFAR launched an invasion to conquer Alaska's reserves of raw materials. In the next eleven years, a bloody war of attrition took place along the Pacific coast of Alaska, Canada and Gilead. At the same time UFAR troops assisted the Yakut nation with its border conflicts with Russia, leading to a strong political tension between Russia and the UFAR. On the 23. October 2077 (later called Judgment Day), the ONAN's (Organization of North American Nations) leader Robert L. Booth finally launched most of America's nuclear weapons in response to international opposition, aiming not only at the UFAR but at Russia and Europe too. Asia answered to this attack with the launch of its own weapons of mass destruction. So did all of the superpowers around the world, leading to World War III. Except for America, China suffered the possibly biggest losses during the Atomic War: The Chinese mainland was totally destroyed and turned into the so-called Radlands of Ji. The only areas of China that where protect with anti-missile defenses were the newly founded megacities Sino-City One, Sino-City Two and Hong Kong. Making use of the chaos on Earth, Khan Sun Do, a member of the Kwan Do family, united the colonies on Mars and declared them independent from their home planet, starting Earth's first interstellar war.