imperial decline

  • To the Cuckoo [Tang Poems]

    — Wu Rong You see your splendor gone with the wind disappear; You waft with resplendent feather from year to year. Your tears have dyed the flowers red in alien hill; But when spring comes to your garden, grass looks green still. Among the leaves, trees dark in rain long you stay; At moonset…

  • Swallows in the Sui Palace [Tang Poems]

    — Li Yi The swallows’ twitter seems to grieve over the old dynasty’s spring; To dust have returned palace flowers on the wing. Since the overthrown dynasty closed its splendid scene, They have come many times but nobody is seen.

  • The unstoppable rise of Dong Zhuo [Three Kingdoms]

    In the late Eastern Han dynasty, imperial power had weakened dramatically. Eunuchs and imperial relatives held real authority, while regional warlords began to assert their independence. After the suppression of the Yellow Turban Rebellion(Yellow Scarves Uprising), the entire social order was on the brink of collapse.