Wang-Liang, and a China-Like Empire!

[SHARK]

Greetings!

In one of my campaigns, the evil Vampire King Mallenar is in the process of making some kind of political/economic/military alliance with a huge Wang-Liang Empire, that is similar to the Chinese Empire of our own history. What kind of sources are good for Chinese Empire research? What are the best elements to include in such an empire for the Wang-Liang?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I can't say much about good sources, I have textbook that covers very briefly Chinese history from the prehistoric age to the modern communist era, but it only really has one chapter per dynasty/era. You can always watch movies as well for some ideas.

Though somehow I envision an empire of Wang Liang to be a lot like the Manchu, which would be more into the Qing dynasty (about 1650-1912).

 

[Psychotic Jim]

I guess the first thing to know about ancient Chinese empire would be to know about its religions, which were directly tied to the empire and the Chinese way of life. I recommend reading the Confucius' Analects and Lao Tzu' Tao Te Ching. I reccomend DC Lau's translations (in the Penguin Classics book series). Confucianism and Taoism have been extremely influencial on Chinese way of life in the past, and were developed to help establish harmony in ancient China, an extremely important desire for a people that were plagued by hundreds of years of fighting between warlord states. Buddhism also came in later from India, but, in China, it acquired an uniquely Chinese flavor.

I also recommend looking at any old college textbooks if you have them or can get them cheap, Religions of the World is a good example. The small, paperback book, CK Yang's Religions of China has a pretty good overview. A translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War could be very useful too.

Since Wang-liangs are lawful creatures, you could keep a more primitive version of the Confucian hierachy system of goverrnment, based on merit. In real life, the rulers of ancient China were supposed to have passed a civil service exam based on Confucian principles of proper class behaviors/roles and filial piety in order to become rulers. Perhaps for the Wang-Liang you could replace the civil service exam with something more to your view of how Wang-Liang culture should be like.

Good game resources include of course OA and also Green Ronin's monster book Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts , which contains a few Chinese monsters.

 

[Mindcrime]

Slayer's Guide to Yuan-Ti from Mongoose can be used quite easily as the base for a Chinese style empire, if you remove the Yuan-Ti.

Chris

 

[Enkhidu]

Find and read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Find an annotated one if you can - its about as significant a myth to the Chinese as King Arthur is to the British.

 

[ForceUser]

Find and read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Find an annotated one if you can - its about as significant a myth to the Chinese as King Arthur is to the British.

I second this. You can download Romance for free from the internet; I did. As far as gaming aids go, check out Jade and Steel: Roleplaying in Mythic China by Avalanche Press LTD. It's only 13 bucks and its a great crash course in the Romance setting for gamers.

 

[crater]

Strange. I searched for Wang-Liang Fang-Kyu Mam but came up with nothing.

 

[FireLance]

Well, SHARK, it depends on what you are looking for in your research into all things Chinese.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a good read, but it mostly details the exploits of the heroes and villians in one of the most chaotic periods of Chinese history. As such, it would not be useful as a reference for day-to-day life in China, nor for a description of China as a single, unified empire (which you seem to be trying to achieve with the Wang-Liang).

The best resources for this would probably be the Wuxia (lit: martial heroes) or Chinese kung-fu swordfighting novels, but I don't know if it would be easy for you to get English translations. Hong might be able to give better advice, if you can get him to post in this thread.

One point which might be of help: are there Wang-Liang commoners in the empire, working the fields to produce rice? If that picture looks kind of odd to you (as it does to me), the Wang-Liang might just be the nobility in the empire, ruling over another race that does most of the menial work (humans, bakemono, whatever). If so, the Yuan and Qing (Manchu) dynasties (when China was conquered and ruled by foreigners) would be the closest parallel to that situation in Chinese history.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

I suggest Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries; they are a series of detective novels set in 7th century China, at the heyday of the T'ang dynasty (considered by many to be the highpoint of Chinese culture).

Lots of interesting information about the Chinese justice system, civil bureaucracy, customs and such, and very very very good reads.

 

[dave_o]

I am Taoist, and it does have a pretty obvious influence on the Chinese empire's lifestyle.

Yet, it's a bit more chaotic than lawful, so I'd research Confucianism primarily.

And go heavy on the crazy monks.