“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne

“Emperor Ling turns his back on true faith and words of wisdom, and seeks new guidance from false gods and foreign luxuries!” Zhang Jue proclaimed. “Just like his predecessors, his eunuchs and officials slander and persecute the wise, harangue the educated, line their own pockets with ill-gotten wealth and build grand homes in the capital with public monies and bribes, while people in the counties starve and struggle!”
The murmurs became obvious cries of accord.
“All of you, I’m sure, believe that there is no other way!” Zhang Jue continued. “But there is always another way! You know that I travel the land, healing the sick, and removing wicked curses from the afflicted… so far, I have been successful in removing even the most terrible malady, but there is one that I need help to reach. Will you help me…?”
“We will!” a second woman cried.
“This malady is serious, and affects us all, because it affects the supposed light of the land!” Zhang Jue continued. “If a wound is infected, then it must be cleansed… if the throne is tainted, then it must also be cleansed!”
The crowd were suddenly anxious, but the speaker expected it.
“Our land is governed by divinity, in the form of a - not the - Son of Heaven!” Zhang Jue explained. “When they die, their progeny inherit the throne: but when there is no son, who rules…? Emperor Ling is not the son of the previous emperor, but an elevated marquis, and so was his predecessor!”
The crowd were silently thoughtful.
“And the Lius rule not by inflexible fate, but by divine mandate!” Zhang Jue proclaimed. “The founder was a man from a village that tilled the fields, like any one of you… and he was elevated to the throne because Heaven saw in him a man that knew the way of things.

Can that be said of the former Marquis of Jieduting, who was appointed by greedy men and women, not by Heaven? No! No, it cannot! All of you have seen the signs… pestilence, famine, strange patterns in the sky, and yellow dragons!”
“We have!” one of Zhang Jue’s followers shouted, and the crowd agreed.
Zhang Jue threw his arms upward and bellowed, “All those things are signs from Heaven… signs telling us that the mandate of the Han has expired! Like the Qin of old, the Han has been tainted, and it is Heaven’s will that the people shall rise up, and let their voices be heard! No more will we starve! No more will we suffer! No more will we be silent while the privileged few enjoy lives of decadent pleasure while others toil thanklessly! A new age is coming… the age of the Way of Peace!”
The crowd was favourable and met the words with excited yet cautious chatter.
“…A load of nonsense,” one young man in pale blue official’s robes chuckled as he walked away from his place at the back of the gathering.
“You’d say that, bein’ an official, an’ everythin’, wouldn’t ya?” a middle-aged farmer heckled. “Prophet Zhang is right! He’s right, and you’ll get yours, you smug bastard! We’ve had enough!”
The official harrumphed and flicked his baggy sleeve as a sign of contempt.

<< Main Product Page

<< Previous Page

Next Page >>