Great Qi

Biodata

Background / History

Founding and claimed legitimacy

Great Qi was founded by Chen Qiao after the fall of Great Zhou and the subsequent Calamity of the Noble Clans. The Master and his Confucian worthies assisted Chen Qiao in establishing the dynasty. 251

The imperial clan traces its lineage to Chen Zhi, one of Yan Kingdom's Three Dukes. Its founding mythology claims that the dynasty's ancestor was born under an omen of the Yaoguang star piercing the moon and descended from the Heavenly Emperor Shaohao. The Master publicly dismissed this account, stating that he saw no such omen when the founder was born. 265

Great Qi has endured for over a thousand years, an exceptional lifespan among the dynasties discussed in the narrative. 290

The Academy and the Master

Great Qi governs through Confucianism and supports Confucian cultivators, whose divine-soul cultivation can reach the level of a Yang Spirit roaming thousands of li. 248

The Academy's Master is regarded as the true source of Great Qi's legitimacy. Common people place greater faith in him than in the emperor, and an emperor without his recognition is not widely considered orthodox. 253

While the Master was present, Academies were established across every circuit, major county, and commandery. Great Qi possesses seventy-two Academies, whose heads were personally selected by the Master and are collectively called the seventy-two sages. 322

After the Master departed for the Eastern Sea in search of immortals and failed to return, his absence enabled the rise of powerful in-laws and the Nine Great Surnames. 253

Governance and Society

• Confucian supremacy — Great Qi honors Confucianism above other teachings. Buddhism has little institutional space within its borders, with only a few recognized temple gates. 322
• Academy influence — The Academy gives Great Qi a major advantage in Primordial Spirit cultivation; Sima Ting describes it as the reason Great Sui remains weaker than Great Qi on that path. 278
• Military strength — Great Qi maintains an army of one million, one of the principal reasons neighboring powers fear it. 253
• Restricted cultivation methods — Lower-realm martial manuals circulate widely, but upper-realm techniques are monopolized by the imperial clan and kept secret even from the Nine Great Surnames. 288
• Examination culture — The state has a common saying: “Thirty is old for passing the classics; fifty is young for becoming a presented scholar,” reflecting the long path through its scholarly examinations. 249

The Nine Great Surnames

The Nine Great Surnames are the dominant aristocratic families of Great Qi. They intermarry, control influential court positions, and collectively eclipse the emperor's authority. 353 376

Chancellor Su Jing secretly engineered their rise through a continuation of corpse-liberation methods. According to Third Mister, Su Jing created the Nine Great Surnames so that, even if individual clans perished, later descendants could sustain his cycle of corpse liberation. 376

Emperor Chen Yan is the nominal ruler of Great Qi, but the Nine Great Surnames placed him on the throne and treat him as a puppet. Following the palace coup in the third year of Xianhe, he withdrew into mystic cultivation and pleasure-seeking while state affairs deteriorated. 353

National Fortune Crisis

Third Mister exposes Su Jing's scheme to steal Great Qi's dragon vein and national fortune through an external spirit body within the palace. 365

Su Jing allegedly allowed the Nine Great Surnames to believe they were sharing national fortune, while the power they received was actually his corpse qi. Third Mister condemns the plot as one that pushes Great Qi's people toward disaster; Su Jing makes clear that he does not share his former companions' concern for the common people. 365

Despite Great Qi's visible decline, the chief of the Directorate of Astronomy forecasts that its imperial star has dimmed but not fallen and estimates four hundred years of remaining national fate. 454

Foreign Relations

• The Academy — Great Qi's ideological foundation and a decisive source of imperial legitimacy; the Master's written opposition to war was enough to calm a domestic political crisis. 253 262
• Great Sui — Major rival and later treaty partner. Following war, the two states redrew their borders and formally concluded an alliance. 262
• Marsh Lake Dragon Palace — Relations worsened after Great Qi's earlier anti-demon campaign pushed Marsh Lake's demon forces and Dragon Palace toward Great Sui. 262
• Jiannan Circuit fiends — Their potential alignment with the Dragon Palace threatens Great Qi's northwestern approach to Bianjing. 264
• Red-Eyed Army — Revolutionary enemy whose stated aim is to sweep away the Nine Great Surnames, abolish harsh governance, and establish equality; after taking the Jiangnan Circuit, it is expected to advance on Bianjing. 454

Story Role / Major Arcs

• Great Qi and Great Sui reopen peace talks, redraw their border, and enter a formal alliance after the Master advises against renewed war. 262
• Political tension escalates around Marsh Lake, Jiannan Circuit, and Zhuya Commandery as Great Qi seeks to counter Great Sui and the Dragon Palace without openly breaking the alliance. 262 264 265
• The Gathering of Beauties Banquet reveals Su Jing's theft of Great Qi's national fortune and the extent of his manipulation of the Nine Great Surnames. 365
• Great Qi suffers the destruction of a one-hundred-thousand-man army and the loss of the Jiangnan Circuit to the Red-Eyed Army, exposing the dynasty's accelerating internal collapse. 454