Comments by "Kasumi Rina" (@KasumiRINA) on "Changsha: Secrets of a Forgotten Kingdom" video.
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Changsha is famous in literature and Chinese media for the battle where Liu Bei sent his generals to defeat four regional leaders, as Guan Yu dueled a veteran general Huang Zhong (who on falling from a horse claimed it was the actually the animal that was too old)... They exchanged signs of honor after nobody could get the upper hand after having three duels, so the defending commander Han Xuan got really mad at Huang Zhong returning without victory, and tried to execute him for it... Enraged by that, another general, Wei Yan, killed Han Xuan and saved Huang Zhong, and they both swore loyalty to Liu Bei. Conquest of Changsha formed the base of a force that would later become the Shu Han kingdom, even though Liu Bei had to flee it soon and it became part of Wu, then Jin. But that's just one story from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a chapter of region's endless landmarks and legends.
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40:47 Despite never claiming to hold entire China, the Eastern Wu kingdom was arguably the most successful of the 3 Kingdoms, and though the Sun (Wu) family fell and lost power to Sima (Jin), it was their lands that remained the only ones not conquered by "5 barbarians" invasions, as China lost their imperial capitals, Luoyang and Chang'an, as well as largest cities in the North, as well as former capitals of Shu (Chengdu) and Cao Wei (Xuchang) all very soon after Jin replaced Wei (Gaoping tombs, long story) and itself went into civil "8 Princes" war...
That's how you get so much Wu and Eastern Jin documents around Changsha, Nanjing and so on. They were the final frontier of what was left of centralized rule of Han China in fourth century after years of "unification" wars, and resulting famines and emigration (people fleeing from the warlords) destroyed most of the country up north.
The population of China diminished so much in that century of civil conflict, strife and everything that comes with it, that it was not matched until World War 2 or possibly Taiping Rebellion in 19th century... Though some scholars believe that the devastation was exaggerated in records thanks to chaos letting people avoid census – and taxes.
Highly recommend reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms or watching its adaptations, especially if you like KOEI games or 3K Total War. It's basically Chinese Shakespeare but if all stories flew one into another instead of being separate.
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@TomMorrison-cc6xw nation states are a modern concept. You'd think unifying it in 3rd century BC is way sooner than Greece or Italy, which despite ancient history, only became unified states around 200 years ago, and not 2200 like Han China did. By 3rd Century, Eastern Wu was totally doing classic colonization, as in, on boats, reservationing the natives along Yangtze (the Shanyue mostly) not unlike what Brits would later do across the pond. Han and its successors did very same things to Xiongnu, that Tangut people, Western "barbarians" and various southern tribes, Vietnam and even Korea, which was vassalized by Wei. So by 200 BC they started an EMPIRE, which is a bit after Persia or Egypt, but still earlier than Rome did it.
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