Great Shun

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Great Shun (大顺)
Alias(es)	Great Shun Dynasty; Dashun
Occupation/Role	Imperial dynasty and global great power
Founder	Li Zicheng 1
Status	Active 196
First Appearance	Chapter 1: “Assassin”

History

Period	Event
Founding era	Li Zicheng entered Beijing and founded Great Shun, but suffered defeat at Shanhai Pass and died at Jiugong Mountain. 1
Li Guo’s rise	Li Guo reversed Great Shun’s decline at the Battle of Jingzhou by trapping Qing reinforcements and personally killing Lekedehun with Grandmaster-level strength. He subsequently recovered Jingzhou, conquered Shanxi, and helped pacify the realm. 1 20
Consolidation	By Chen Wu’s arrival, the dynasty had remained firmly established for more than 150 years. 1
Expansion under Li Si	Sixty years before the story, the fifth emperor, Li Si, subdued the Western Regions, destroyed the Dzungar Khanate, and projected naval power across the world’s oceans. 1
Retro revival	The dynasty revived Tang-style commandery and county divisions after Li Zicheng claimed descent from the Tang imperial Li clan. 118

Li Guo and the Battle of Jingzhou

Li Guo—posthumously known only as Emperor Taizong by his own decree—became Great Shun’s defining ruler. His victory at Jingzhou transformed a collapsing war against the Manchu Qing into the foundation of the dynasty’s later supremacy. 1 20 118

At Jingzhou, Li Guo pierced three layers of armor, led a direct charge on Lekedehun’s command banner, and killed the Qing commander in person. Great Shun later elevated the battle into a central state myth, portraying Li Guo as its supreme military and political exemplar. 20

Government and Institutions

• Great Shun is ruled by an emperor from the Li imperial house, with the dragon throne in the Forbidden City representing the core of hereditary privilege. 54
• The Heaven-Blessed Hall Cabinet, established by Li Zicheng, stands above the central Police Department and the regional Constabulary Offices. 82
• The Constabulary Offices maintain independent regional branches, while the central Police Department directly supervises them. 82
• Wude Palace, originally a military camp, serves as a major institution for training Great Shun’s military talent. 81
• Emperor Taizong compiled the Martial Canon, a collection of martial-arts manuals and writings on Concentrated Spirit cultivation. 75 77
• Taizong’s stated prohibition on literary inquisitions remains official policy, though scholars still avoid publicly discussing politically sensitive works such as Waiting for the Dawn. 14 186

Military Power

Great Shun’s military strength rests on martial artists, standardized firearms, artillery, line-infantry tactics, and maritime power. Its modernization allowed it to overwhelm neighboring states that could not field comparable muskets, cannon, or fortified positions. 118

• Great Shun defeated the Dzungar through modernized armies rather than relying solely on local allies or traditional cavalry warfare. 118
• Its fleets operate across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, making naval power central to its influence over India, Japan, and the New World routes. 1 172
• The Sea-Pacifying Palace is a major naval and martial institution; General Shui Ziyi served in campaigns against Japan, the Southern Ocean, India, and Gibraltar. 14
• Martial arts remain militarily relevant, but even Mystic Realm experts can be killed by coordinated formations of firearms and high-level constables. 144
• Great Shun military uniforms are predominantly blue, reflecting the dynasty’s official association with the virtue of water. 82

Economy, Science, and Technology

Industrial Development

Great Shun’s eastern coastal regions are deeply integrated into early capitalism. Workshops, mines, textile factories, and cash-crop agriculture have expanded rapidly, while small farmers who once depended on household weaving have been impoverished by factory competition. 94

• The country’s industrial development is uneven: inland regions retain more traditional conditions, while the capital and coast display the clearest signs of the steam age. 94
• Great Virtue Prosperity is an example of a major Great Shun conglomerate, combining wool textiles, trade, banking, and northern finance. 165
• The Yongjiu School prepares to establish an oil company based on refined Fire Oil, with elite patrons seeking to promote it among noble houses and the palace. 161

Academy of Sciences

The Dashun Academy of Sciences combines mathematics, machinery, and martial cultivation.

• The Academy houses a Difference Engine built with imperial support; its specialized materials were nurtured by martial artists and manufactured by Concentrated Spirit Realm experts. 67
• The machine can analyze and optimize martial manuals, including the Seventy-Two Forms of Cloud-Chasing Sword. 67
• Great Shun co-leads the Zhoutian Star Chart Project with France, coordinating observatories, telescope standards, and astronomical data with several major powers. 120 124
• Great Shun is expected to manufacture many telescopes for observatories in South America. 124

Foreign Relations

Foreign relationship	Status and significance
France	A key allied power. Great Shun and France jointly support scientific projects, and France received Great Shun assistance during the last World War. 120 121 196
England	A defeated rival whose trade privileges and colonial revenues were heavily restricted after the last World War. 196
Japan	A tributary state whose Tokugawa Shogunate relies on Great Shun’s economic and naval dominance to maintain authority. 168 170 172
India and the Southern Ocean	Numerous local rulers are tributaries, reflecting Great Shun’s maritime hegemony. 122
Hawaii	Formally a tributary kingdom, though its administration is controlled by Great Shun personnel and its king spends much of the year in the capital. 122

Tributary System

Great Shun distinguishes between tributary states and diplomatic states. Tributary envoys rank ahead of diplomatic representatives during the annual Grand Court Assembly, even when diplomatic states possess greater practical standing. 122

• Great Shun formally recognizes only five diplomatic states. 122
• Tributary states are numerous and include Indian princely states, Southern Ocean monarchs, Hawaii, Japan, and foreign colonial governors who must seek investiture. 122 123 168
• The system provides prestige to Great Shun while allowing foreign powers limited autonomy in exchange for tribute, recognition, or commercial access. 122 123

Political Factions and Internal Strains

Major Schools

The modern schools emerged around sixty years earlier, when global trade divided Great Shun between interests tied to domestic land and interests tied to overseas commerce. Martial artists, wealth, and political networks combined into organizations capable of influencing both the court and the jianghu. 54

School	General alignment
School of Heavenly Principle	Represents interests rooted in domestic land and supports monarchy. 54 51
Investigation of Things School	Represents interests tied to trade routes, industry, and technological development. 54 67
Yongjiu School	Advocates “Leaderless Dragons” and opposes inherited privilege, making conflict with imperial authority inevitable. 12 54
Equal Poverty School	Organizes among workers and lower-class urban residents amid rising labor conflict. 111 135

Court Instability

• The imperial court faces pressure from industrial disruption, cash-crop agriculture, rural bankruptcy, new technologies, radical ideas, and active folk organizations. 54 94
• Hereditary succession leaves important noble and imperial positions vulnerable to incompetence despite Great Shun’s immense military and economic strength. 54
• The abolition of the Old Five Battalions’ fixed quota and the later suppression of their mourning procession further damaged the court’s relationship with veteran military communities. 89 90
• Competing newspapers and tabloids contested the official narrative of the suppression, demonstrating the growing importance of propaganda and public opinion. 90

Trivia

• Great Shun identifies itself with the virtue of water, but its blue official uniforms are technically inconsistent with the traditional association of water and black. 82
• Emperor Taizong rejected ancestral temple names for his successors and wanted to be remembered only as “Emperor Taizong,” reflecting his admiration for Tang Taizong Li Shimin. 118
• In Great Shun popular culture, Emperor Taizong is treated as a near-universal national hero: statesman, strategist, mathematician, literary master, calligrapher, Grandmaster, and dynastic savior. 187