The Later Han fell and the Three Kingdoms emerged. If the Later Han had not declined, there would have been no Three Kingdoms.
The Later Han’s decline stemmed from the power struggle between the emperor’s relatives and the eunuchs. The Dou clan’s rise to power began the relatives’ dominance, while the eunuchs first gained the right to enfeoffed titles thanks to Zheng Zhong’s role in destroying the Dou clan. In the generations that followed, relatives and eunuchs repeatedly took turns holding power. The powerful families included the Dou, Deng, Yan, Liang, and He clans; among the eunuchs were Zheng Zhong, the “Nineteen Lords,” the “Five Lords,” and the Ten Attendants. Their fortunes rose and fell in turn. Those who gained power grew arrogant and tyrannical, only to be beheaded, their families destroyed, and their lives ruined in the blink of an eye. At last, Dong Zhuo entered the capital and warlords rose up, and the Han dynasty’s empire of more than four hundred years was handed over to others…
This book follows the story from the rise of the Dou clan to the reunification of the Three Kingdoms under Jin, and seeks to show the Three Kingdoms in full, from its roots: a period you may not know as well as you think.
