So I'm going to start on this book today and will also give a go at translating it from Chinese to English to share it with others. :) I've always benefited a lot from English translation in my kpop fandom (watching dramas/variety shows) and will like to give back somehow.
Will see how this goes. It will be a new side project for me to distract me from my ruminations.
Disclaimer: All rights reserved to whoever it should belong to. The Chinese work to Tong Hua and the translation here to me :)
Some Chinese folklore and mythology background related to the book:
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PROLOGUE
In the beginning, in this chaotic universe, there is a ruler. He is Emperor Pan Gu-the one who created the Heaven and Earth.
In those times, heaven and earth are not separated and of different realms. Humans lived on Earth and the Gods lived in the sacred mountains. Humans can meet the Gods by climbing the Heavenly stairs. And hence, the gods, the humans and the spirits coexisted and lived between the heaven and earth.
Emperor Pan Gu had three subordinates who he was closed to like siblings. Of them all, the one with the strongest magical powers was a women whose name has been long lost through the ages. It was only known that she established the Hua Xu Kingdom and hence future generations refer to her as Hua Xu. The other two subordinates were male, one was Sheng Nong who lived and protected the central Chinese plains and the other was Gao Xin who lived in the east and protected the place where the sun rose.
When Emperor Pan Gu passed away, the world was in chaos with wars. Hua Xu grew tired of the unending fights and hid herself by establishing the pretty and harmonious Hua Xu Kingdom. However, the reason she was remembered by future generations was not because she created Hua Xu Kingdom, but because of her son Fu Yi and her daughter Nv Wa.
Fu Yi and Nv Wa were judicious in their rule and were respected by all, finally putting an end to the war. From then, they became Emperor Fu Yi and Emperor Nv Wa. When peace was restored, the lands began to prosper.
A few thousand years later, Emperor Fu Yi passed away. Emperor Nv Wa was devastated and left the Hua Xu Kingdom, never to be seen again. This resulted in the decline of the FuYi and Nv Wa people.
In the Northwest deserts, there is an inconspicuous mountain, known as Mountain Xuan Yuan. At its foot lived the small and unknown heavenly clan known as the Xuan Yuan people. After a great ritual, the elder of the Xuan Yuan clan made the youngest hero of the clan the leader, against the wishes of the majority. Even then, he could not expected what will become of this young leader and the fine accomplishments that he would have achieved later on.
In just a few thousand years, the young leader expanded the Xuan Yuan clan so much that it became a threat to Shen Nong and Gao Xin. However, the two of them realised this too late and missed the best opportunity to kill him, unwillingly seeing Xuan Yuan achieve its status of becoming the third clan of great Gods, together with the Shen Nong and Gao Xin clans.
Among these three great clans, Shen Nong was the greatest and its leader was Emperor Yan and he ruled with kindness. Gao Xin clan was second to Shen Nong and its leader was Emperor Shun and he ruled respectfully. The last was the new comer Xuan Yuan and its leader was known as Huang Di (The Yellow Emperor) and he ruled with laws.
Since then, Shen Nong from the Central Plains, Gao Xin from the South East and Xuan Yuan from the Northwest each ruled over their lands and world was divided into three.
