The Eternal River: A Complete History of China's Fictional Dynasties

In 9988 BC, the ancient Liangzhu kingdom arose on the shore of the Eastern Sea. Its people used jade cong to communicate with heaven, and called their dynasty the "Cong Dynasty." For the next ten thousand years, dynasties rose and fell like the tides.

The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors ruled for a thousand years, followed by the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. Qin unified the six states, and Han inherited the mandate. The Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties were plagued by constant conflict, until the golden age of the Sui and Tang restored the realm's glory. After the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Zhao Song founded a state that endured for three hundred years, bringing civil governance to its height.

But history now flowed down another course. The Song court did not fall. Instead, it governed with renewed vigor, successively conquering Western Xia, Western Liao, Eastern Liao, Eastern Xia, Tibet, Dali, and Mongolia, pushing its borders to the Central Asian steppes. In 1248, a descendant of Jiang Ziya founded the Qi kingdom on the shore of the Eastern Sea, calling it the "Yingqiu Dynasty." It faced the Song across the land from east to west. Over the next two hundred years, Qi destroyed Yuan, Han, Jin, Liao, and Ming, eventually becoming the dominant power in the east.

In 1644, Eastern Qin rose beyond the passes, destroyed Qi, and annexed Ming, establishing the Great Qin Empire, which lasted 361 years, until the 1970s. In 1973, a descendant of Zhao Kuangyin raised the banner of the "Later Song" and restored the dynasty. Four years later, it destroyed Qin, and Huaxia returned to rule by the Zhao clan.

Through ten thousand years of upheaval and dynastic change, only the mountains and rivers have remained unchanged, and the bloodline unbroken.