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In the picture above is the famous Korean actress, Kim Hee-sun (金喜善). She wore Chinese Clothing in the movie "Myth". This movie is about the mystery of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin Dynasty. Qin State was created feudally in 770 B.C., because Qin Xiang-Gong (秦襄公), the chief of Qin tribe, escorted Zhou Ping-Wang (周平王) to migrate the east. In the Warring-States Period, Qin State attached importance on military development, and became the strongest country militarily. In the 3rd century B.C., Qin State annexed other six states and built Qin Empire in 221 B.C.. Ying Zheng (嬴政), the king of Qin State, became the first emperor of China. He abolished the system of conferring posthumous titles (谥号) that ministers evaluated monarches by. He called himself the First Emperor (始皇帝), and he hoped his empire would descend to all generations of his offsprings. In order to resist Hun (匈奴), he ordered several hundred thousand people to build the Great Wall in 214 B.C.. He sent an army of three hundred thousand men to capture the Great Bend of the Yellow River (河套), a very fertile area from Hun. The right picture is a still from the movie "The Emperor and the Assassin" (荆轲刺秦王), and the sitting man is Qin First-Emperor. He ordered several hundred thousand people to build the Epang Palace (阿房宮) and his mausoleum. The Great Wall and the Bingmayong (兵马俑, pottery figures of warriors and horses buried with this emperor) are famous all over the world.

The two pictures are stills from the TV drama "Han Wu The Great" (汉武大帝). In the left still, the man is Han Wu-Emperor (汉武帝) who was regnant from 140 B.C. to 87 B.C.). In the right still, the old woman is Dou Taihou (窦太后), the mother of Han Jing-Emperor (汉景帝) and the grandmother of Han Wu-Emperor, an important character of the early days of the Western Han Dynasty. Han Wu-Emperor was the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220) and one of the greatest emperors in China. During his reign, China became one of the most powerful countries in the world. He unleashed wars on Hun, Joseon (朝鲜, this country of the north of modern-day Korea Peninsula was built by a general Wei Man (卫满) of the Yan (燕) State in the early days of the Western Han Dynasty), Dayuan (大宛, modern-days Fergana), Yue (越, an ethnic group in the south of modern-days China) and Qiang (羌, an ethnic group in the west of modern-days China). The armies of the Han Empire subjugated the latter four ones and weakened the Huns seriously. This emperor pay much attention to establish friendly relations with nations of Central Asia and Western Asia such as Persia, Daxia (大夏, Bactria) and Dayuezhi (大月氏, Yueh-chih, which built Kushan Kingdom afterwards in the first century A.D.. By way of wars, the Silk Road was cleaved onto the land, and it was safeguarded. By wars and deterrence, China established hegemony in the Eastern Asia and the Central Asia, and the Huaxia nation gained great honor. Since then, Huaxia has been called "Han" by other ethnic groups.

The Huaxia nation started to plant cotton and produce cotton fabrics in the Western Han Dynasty. Silks were exported to the West. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius sent envoys to present Han Huan-Emperor (汉桓帝) with many western treasures by way of the sea in A.D. 166. This indicated that a relationship of the two great empires was established.

The two pictures are stills from the TV drama "Cao Cao and Cai Wenji" (曹操与蔡文姬) which tells an imaginary romance between Cao Cao and Cai Wenji. In the left still, the man is Cao Cao (曹操), a famous statesman and militarist in the last days of the Eastern Han Dynasty; the woman is Cai Wenji (蔡文姬), a tragic genius. In the right still, the man is Han Xian-Emperor (汉献帝), the last emperor of the Great Han Empire, and the woman is his beloved concubine Dong Guiren (董贵人. “Guiren” was a titile). Dong Guiren was the daughter of Dong Cheng (董承) whose military rank was "Cheji-General" (车骑将军. “Che” means chariots and “Ji” means cavalry).

In the later days of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial government was very corrupt, and lost the public trust. The influence of the royal family gradually became weak. In A.D. 184, yellow-hooded peasants staged violent uprisings in many regions. They were called "the forces of Yellow Hood" (黄巾军). The Han Empire, which had lasted more than four hundred years, was in serious disorder. Han Ling-Emperor (汉灵帝), the father of Han Xian-Emperor, hastily massed a large number of troops to suppress rebellions. In these troops, there were many up-and-coming officers who later became famous heroes such as Yuan Shao (袁绍), Cao Cao, Sun Jian (孙坚) and Liu Bei (刘备). The emperor also released the men who were persecuted in prison or in exile. Later, most of the forces of Yellow Hood were annihilated, and the rest surrendered themselves to the government army. In A.D. 192, in the Qing Zhou (青州, where is in the north of modernday Shandong Province), three hundred thousand rebels surrendered themselves to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao enlisted the elite warriors in his army, so the influence of Cao Cao was much strengthened. In A.D. 200, in the battle of Guandu (官渡), Cao Cao utterly defeated Yuan Shao who was his playmate of childhood and now his strong opponent. And then Cao Cao became the man of strongest influence.

Cai Wenji was the daughter of Cai Yong (蔡邕). Cai Yong was a famous scholar, musician and calligraphist in the later days of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Cai Yong was a highly principled person, and offended many powerful officials. He had been in exile for many years and escaped from many assassinations. In A.D. 189, Dong Zhuo (董卓), an atrocious general, controlled the imperial government. The man knew Cai Yong was a man with high reputation, so he decided to give an official position to him for pacifying his opponents. But Cai Yong refused him. Dong Zhuo was very angry, and forced Cai Yong to follow his appointment. Cai Yong had to accept an official position for protecting his family. Dong Zhuo respected Cai Yong very much, and raised his position several times during three days. In A.D. 190, a military rank “Left Zhonglang-General” (左中郎将)was conferred on Cai Yong. “Zhonglang-General” (中郎将) was a military position which commanded imperial guard troops. In the following days, Dong Zhuo held Cai Yong in high esteem. Cai Yong tried to persuade Dong Zhuo to do some things which were beneficial to the common people, and Dong Zhuo accepted his advice sometimes. In A.D. 192, Dong Zhuo was killed by his favorite Lv Bu (呂布) who was instigated by Wang Yun (王允). Then Wang Yun controlled the imperial government. In the celebrative banquet, when people talked about Dong Zhuo, Cai Yong didn’t refrain from commiserative sigh, because he couldn’t forget that Dong Zhuo respectfully treated him in the past. Wang Yun was enraged and threw Cai Yong into prison. Many ministers interceded with Wang Yun for Cai Yong, but Wang Yun refused to forgive Cai Yong. At last, Cai Yong was killed. In the later years of unrest, Cai Wenji, the only child of Cai Yong, was captured by the Huns. A chief of the Huns forced her to be his wife. As other Han women who were captured by the Huns, Cai Wenji yearned for her motherland day and night.

Twelve years later, Cao Cao heard that the daughter of Cai Yong was in the Huns, so he decided to rescue her. He sent an envoy to the Huns for redeeming Cai Wenji. At that time, Weiji had given birth to two children for the chief. The chief didn’t permit the children to follow Cai Wenji. So Wenji had to leave her two children and returned to her beloved motherland. Cao Cao let an officer named Dong Si (董祀) marry Cai Wenji. One day, Cao Cao asked Wenji whether she still kept the works of her father. Wenji said, “The books had been lost, but I still remember more than four hundred articles written by my fater. I can write them down.” Then she did so, and people all admired her remarkable memory. In the following years, Wenji looked back on her tragic past, and missed her two children and the other Han women who were still suffering from the Huns. Then she wrote a long poem named “the Poem with Grief and Indignation” (悲愤诗) to tell later people about her tragic life. The poem was the only remaining one of her works. Later people adapted the poem to a longer poem named “Eighteen Stanzas Played by A Reed Pipe” (胡笳十八拍). The latter is even more famous than the original poem.

The six pictures are stills from the movie "The War of the Red Cliff" (赤壁). The right woman in the first photo is Xiaoqiao (小乔), the wife of Zhou Yu (周瑜) who was a famous general in the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The woman in the second photo is Xiaoqiao, too. The man in the third photo is Cao Cao, who was ambitious to annex the south of China. The man in the fourth photo is Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮), a very wise man in the Times of Three Empires. The man in the fifth photo is Zhou Yu, the husband of Xiaoqiao. The man in the sixth photo is Sun Quan (孙权), the founder of the Wu (吴) Empire in the Times of Three Empires. In A.D. 208, Cao Cao, the ambitious prime minister of the Han Dynasty, massed about two hundred thousand of armymen on the northern shore of the Long River (長江) and wanted to control the south of China. At the critical moment, with the suasion of Zhuge Liang who was a famous wise man, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, two famous heroes, became allies. They only had about five ten thousand armymen, but they had a natural barrier, the Long River. The armymen of Cao Cao were mainly from the north, and they were not adapted to fighting afloat, so Cao Cao had to order to connect warships via iron chains and boards. The connected warships were very smooth, so it was very advantageous for the armymen from the north to fight afloat. However, the southern alliance set fire to the fleet of Cao Cao in the area named Chibi(赤壁, the textual meaning of this word is "red cliff"), and destoryed all warships of Cao Cao. Then the army of the southern alliance disembarked at the northern shore of the Long River, and pursued the army of Cao Cao. Cao Cao was panic-stricken, and led the remnants of his army to flee back to the north. The south was defended successfully. This famous battle is called "the battle of Chibi". Since then, Cao Cao had no enough forces to attack the south. Liu Bei led his army to capture the region named Shu (modern-day Sichuan Province), and the region Shu became his base. In A.D. 220, Cao Pi (曹丕), the son of Cao Cao, forced the last emperor of the Han Empire to abdicate, and he ascended the throne and established the Wei (魏) Empire. In A.D. 221, Liu Bei set up an empire called "Han" as the successor of the Han Empire, and the later people called his state "Shu" (蜀) or "Shu-Han" (蜀汉). In A.D. 222, Sun Quan founded the Wu Empire. The Times of Three Empires started. Liu Bei and his prime minister Zhuge Liang devoted themselves to the restoring of the Han Empire. However, the Shu Empire and the Wu Empire were at a disadvantage all along. The Wei Empire tried to subjugate the other two empires. There were many battles among the three empires. In A.D. 263, Liu Shan (刘禅), the son of Liu Bei, surrendered himself to the Wei Empire. In A.D. 265, the last emperor of the Wei Empire, abdicated, and Sima Yan (司马炎) founded the Jin (晋) Dynasty. In A.D. 280, the army of the Jin Empire defeated utterly the army of the Wu Empire. Sun Hao (孫皓), the last emperor of the Wu Empire, had to surrender himself to the Jin Empire.

There was a romance of heroes. Sun Ce (孫策), the older brother of Sun Quan, was famed for his valiancy. The historical work "The History of Three Kingdoms" (三国志) said that, Sun Ce was a handsome and optimistic man and treated his friends and followers sincerely. He gained the esteem of the southern people. He had a good friend named Zhou Yu who was accomplished in music. They set up an army and started their ambition. After a battle, the two young men went to the countryside for sightseeing. They met a pair of sisters who were peerlessly beautiful. The older sister was called Daqiao (大喬), and the younger sister was called Xiaoqiao. The two beautiful women fell in love with the two heroic men. Later, Sun Ce married Daqiao, and Zhou Yu married Xiaoqiao. They seemed to be perfect pairs at that time. However, in A.D. 200, Sun Ce was assassinated by his enemies. He died with an unfulfilled ambition, and he was only 25 years old. At the last moment of his life, he entrusted his younger brother Sun Quan to his friends and followers. In the battle of Chibi, Zhou Yu was at the zenith of his fame. Later, he planned to march into the Central Plains. But his health was seriously damaged by overwork. In A.D. 210, when he was 35 years old and was preparing a northern expedition, he suddenly died.