The Six Brothers and the Great Wall
Lyndon Man Hon Fan, Group 3: Fiction, HKUGA College
nce upon a time, the emperor of the heaven, Yu Wang, had six sons, Zhao, Han, Wei, Chu, Yan and
Qi. They all had different personalities and they didn’t get along with each other. They always argued
no matter how serious or minor the event was, and fought over everything, from a spot for visiting the
Emperial Garden to a dumpling.
One day, the six sons went to practice archery with the emperor, but there weren’t enough bows and arrows.
As usual, they fought again and broke all the bows and arrows. The emperor was as angry as a bear because it
had already been the tenth argument of the day. He was utterly disappointed and scolded at them, “That’s it!
I’ve had it enough! You all are going down to Earth forever until you all cooperate!” The soldiers beside the
emperor grabbed the six brothers and sent them to Earth.
The six brothers were sent to China, when it was the “Spring and Autumn Period” of Zhou Dynasty. They
were totally shocked by the scene that civilians were running away from soldiers on horses. They though could
use magic to help the people but they were not allowed to do so. Therefore, they ran away with the refugees. As
they were escaping from the soldiers, Wei, Zhao and Han got lost with other brothers, who all established their
own state. Wei, Zhao and Han first joined the Jin state, but later Wei killed the leader of Jin, splitting the
territory into three.
After years of battling, the brothers plus another mortal, Yin Zheng, established themselves as the warlords
of the “Warring States Period”. The brothers were as uncooperative with others as they had been in the heaven.
Therefore, they all set up their own countries and tried to rule the whole of China, fighting against others.
The Qin state, led by a mortal, at first was not as powerful as the other countries reigned by the six brothers.
However, one thing that only the Qin state did was that he started to hire and cooperate with scholars. Luckily,
he got a very brainy advisor called Shang Yin, who executed a big change in the laws of Qin, and made Qin a
lot stronger than the others. This method improved the farming of Qin rapidly, which made it very strong. It also
strengthened its army, making them more fierce and undefeatable, which expanded the territory of Qin.
On the other hand, this situation was no good to all of the immortal sons, so they decided to convene a
secret meeting. Zhao asked, “Hey guys, we will be losing if we sit down and do nothing. What shall we do?”
Wei suggested, “My general suggested cooperating with you.”
“
But it is hard!” exclaimed Chu.
“
Don’t worry, Chu,” responded Han, “We’ve once done this with Wei and Zhao, haven’t we?”
Wei and Zhao nodded.
“
Now, we shall work as best as possible so that the Qin army won’t defeat us. Deal?” Han held out his right
hand and the rest of the people put theirs on top.
“
DEAL!” shouted the rest of them in unison.
The next day, their plan worked as perfectly as it had been thought, and the other states forced Qin to retreat
from Han. However, one of the sophists in Qin guessed that the six emperors were still worrying about whether
the others would attack one another. Therefore, he formed allies with all the states separately and the six states,
once again, were tearing at each other’s arms. They gave up their coalition tactic and worked on their own.
Afterwards, the Qin state took immediate action. He took over the other countries and claimed the first ruler of
the whole of China.
After a few days of ruling the whole of China, the Qin emperor had to punish the immortal sons. The day
before the verdict, Yu Wang went to visit the Qin emperor in person. As the Qin emperor saw him, he greeted
Yu Wang and was told to sit down.
“
How are my sons doing?” asked the emperor of heaven.
“
Who are your sons, highness?”
“
Zhao, Han, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi.”
“
What? I’ve just defeated them.”
Yu Wang sighed depressed.
“
I didn’t mean to do so, your highness, I didn’t know……”
“
I’m not sighing about that, Yin Zheng. I shall tell you the whole story and why they are on Earth.” And Yu
Wang told the reason why the sons ended up here.
“
Don’t let them know that I’ve been here. Just think of a punishment that will change them.”
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