Great Qian

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Great Qian (大干)
Affiliation	Great Qian imperial court; the Hundred Schools
Occupation/Role	Empire governing the unified realm
Status	Active; undergoing a Ninth-Rank Official System Reform 201 202
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Territory

Division	Details
Nine Heavens	Eight directional heavens and Central Jun Heaven organize Great Qian's territory.
Provinces	Thirteen provinces, including Sacred Capital. Each ordinary province governs thirteen commanderies. 53
Commanderies	One hundred and eight commanderies. The four central commanderies—Zhenji, Celestial Pivot, Spirit Terrace, and Jianzhang—form the empire's ancestral inner core. 53
Capital	Sacred Capital, the center of Great Qian's power, stands above the Nine Heavens. 53
Border regions	Four forbidden lands surround the empire; Li Shun suspects the empire's orderly territorial arrangement resembles a gigantic formation. 53
Road network	Official roads connect even remote counties. Ordinary laborers can travel roughly two hundred li per day on them without exhaustion. 14

History

Founding and Unification

Great Qian emerged after Emperor Gan's campaigns against the Seven Kingdoms. The former royal houses met different ends: some surrendered and entered the new order as nobles or ministers, while others were exterminated or disappeared into hiding. Great Xiang's royal house was specifically marked for complete eradication. 5

Before unification, Great Qian was known as Yu. After the founding, the former name and the history preceding the dynasty were systematically erased from common knowledge. 87

In the second year of the New Calendar, Emperor Gan ordered the construction of empire-wide official roads. One million conscripted laborers cut through mountains, filled valleys, built bridges, and incorporated terrain qi into the road formations. 14

Erasure of Earlier History

The Book of Imperial Exegesis, written by the Grand Historian, recorded events following Great Qian's founding. Its original manuscript was locked in the palace after the Grand Historian's death in the 454th year of the New Calendar. 3

Records from before the dynasty—including the wars of the Eight Kingdoms and earlier eras—were erased by Emperor Gan through unknown means. References to those events may vanish or bring backlash when discussed openly. 18 199

An exception is the Indra Scripture, Emperor Gan's personal writing. Only the Emperor may interpret, bear, or preserve it. 198

Imperial Tomb Commandery

The Imperial Tomb was constructed to secure the golden veins of the Thirteen Provinces and establish an enduring order. It contained a vast replica of Great Qian's geography at a ten-to-one spatial ratio, with time flowing nearly seven times faster than outside. 50 99

Beneath the central burial mound, the landscapes of the former Seven Kingdoms encircled Emperor Gan's coffin in symbolic submission, alongside many relics seized during the wars of unification. 81

Emperor Gan later decreed Imperial Tomb Commandery abolished, lifted its sealing net, and permitted the Hundred Schools, officials, and commoners to enter and resume ordinary livelihoods. The territory was subsequently reorganized as Old Tomb Commandery. 99 101

Government and Administration

Imperial Authority

Emperor Gan is the empire's sovereign and the source of its political order. Although the Left and Right Chancellors govern in his absence, unrest has grown as the Emperor has remained out of public view. 1

Great Qian places exceptional weight on hierarchy. Officials with sufficient rank and official seals may bypass normal checkpoint procedures, though military emergencies can remove those exemptions. 50

Official Cultivation

The official school is Great Qian's most widespread and orthodox cultivation path. Recognition by the court grants officials extraordinary strength through the blessings of sages; even physically weak people may gain the power to split mountains and shatter stone. 32

Officials cultivate the Twelve Longevity Method, which borrows lifespan from Heaven. Their connection to this method also binds them to Great Qian's Heavenly Dao. 25 201

Ninth-Rank Official System

The court introduced a revised official evaluation system under which Great Qian's Heavenly Dao assesses officials according to thousands of established standards of conduct. 201

Assessment Component	Weight	Function
Heavenly Dao assessment	80%	Evaluates an official's recorded words, conduct, and bearing; assigns one of nine grades. 201
Public assessment	20%	Allows popular opinion throughout the realm to influence an official's overall major grade. 202

The top three grades bring promotion and noble titles; the middle grades pass; the lowest grades may lead to mandated self-reflection, removal from office, or investigation. 201

Officials' Towers are to be established in prefectures and counties, publicly displaying officials' names, backgrounds, and achievements. Decrees must also identify responsible officials. 202

Institutions and Forces

• Heaven Oversight Bureau — Reports directly to Emperor Gan and stands outside the ordinary hierarchy of the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers. It oversees astronomy, calendars, stellar divination, and yin-yang rhythms. 104
• Hundred Schools — A network of cultivation traditions active within court and society. Major schools include Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, Legalism, and Militarism; smaller hidden schools include Yin-Yang, Diplomacy, Medicine, Agriculture, Miscellaneous, and Fiction. 32
• Black-Robed Envoys — Imperial envoys who took the captured Great Xiang leader Xiong Jin into custody. 9
• Blood Armored Guards — Guards associated with the Imperial Tomb's sealed grounds; they kneel before the authority of Emperor Gan's bloodline. 94 105
• Mohist School construction corps — Maintains major imperial works, including the Imperial Tomb. Mohist disciples rebuilt the ruined Langya Replica Commandery in just over thirty days. 82

Economy and Infrastructure

Currency Reform

Emperor Gan approved Gongshu Yuan's proposal to abolish the various currencies of the former states and establish the Yuan as Great Qian's sole circulating coinage. Gold, silver, pearls, and jade were delivered to the public treasury and stored in the inner palace. 3

Labor Service

Large-scale labor service has supported Great Qian's infrastructure and imperial projects since the dynasty's early years. The official-road project alone conscripted one million able-bodied workers. 14

Imperial Tomb Commandery also imposed labor service on its tomb-guarding population, though its officials argued that such service prevented unchecked overcrowding in a region free of famine, war, and natural disasters. 58

Political Situation

The empire's stability is strained by Emperor Gan's prolonged absence and lack of a publicly recognized heir. Remnants of the former kingdoms, especially Great Xiang, remain a source of rebellion and political unrest. 1 68

Although the Seven Kingdoms fell more than five centuries earlier, the Twelve Longevity Method allows some people who lived through those events to remain alive. Old loyalties and grievances therefore persist beyond ordinary historical memory. 68

The attacks on the Sacred Capital and the temporary severing of its communications intensified speculation about the Emperor's condition and the court's internal balance of power. 196 198

Notable Imperial Decree

“Heaven and earth are boundless; Great Qian has no end. I hereby instruct all under heaven to look up toward the zenith of everlasting radiance and each remain in their proper place.”
— Emperor Gan's decree abolishing Imperial Tomb Commandery 99