title: Stories to Awaken the World: A Ming Dynasty Collection, Volume 3
author: Shuhui Yang hD
description: "Only by reading each anthology in the context of the other two . . . can we fully appreciate the value of the first-ever complete English translation of the San yan and the significance of the translators' contributions."Liangyan Ge, <i>Chinese Literature</i>, (33) 2011
zlib_text: **CHUNG KUO**
  
  by DAVID WINGROVE
  
   **BOOK 1:**
  
   **THE MIDDLE KINGDOM**
  
   **PROLOGUE WINTER 2I90**
  
   **Yin/Yang**
  
  Who built the ten-storeyed tower of jade? Who foresaw it all in the beginning,
  when the first signs appeared?
  
  —T'lEN wen _(Heavenly Questions)_ by Ch'u Yuan, from the ch'u tz'u (Songs _of
  the South),_ _second century_ B.C.
  
  Yin
  
  IN THE DAYS before the world began, the first Ko Ming Emperor, Mao Tse-tung,
  stood on the hillside at Wuch'ichen in Shensi Province and looked back at the
  way he had come. The Long March, that epic journey of twenty-five thousand
  _li_ over eighteen mountain ranges and through twelve provinces—each larger
  than a European state— was over, and seeing the immensity of China stretched
  out before him, Mao raised his arms and addressed those few of his companions
  who had survived the year-long trek.
  
  "Since P'an Ku divided heaven from earth, and the Three Sovereigns and the
  Five Emperors reigned, has there ever been in history a long march like ours?"
  he