Pre-Game History Timeline
This page gathers the major Jianghu events that had already happened before the story begins (before the prologue "Have You Heard of the Tang Clan?"). These events are scattered through the character and faction pages as retrospective passages like "twenty years ago"; this page rearranges them in chronological order to make it easier to understand where each faction's present situation comes from.
Time markers keep the source's relative phrasing ("about N years ago") rather than being forced into an exact in-game year; only the parts that can be checked against real history (the Jingkang Incident, etc.) are given an actual Western calendar year. Events that happen after the story begins (including the Wulin Assembly at Fengyu Mountain) belong to the main story; see the Main and Branch Story Timeline. They are not covered here.
Overview
The Jingkang Incident and the retreat south
The Northern Song lost the Central Plains in the Jingkang Incident (1125–1127), and the imperial house moved south to Lin'an, becoming Great Song. Since then Great Song has bordered Great Jin and Western Xia, and its territory has been repeatedly invaded by the Jin Kingdom, with General Zhao Fang and Danxiazi holding the Xiangyang Front.
The Wulin's three general mobilizations
According to Nangong Heng at his birthday banquet, in his hundred years of life the Wulin has mobilized as a whole three times.
The first: the relief of Bianliang
Alliance Leader Nangong Zhi, together with two of his granduncles, led the martial world to Bianliang to hold back the Jin Army together. This battle was fought for two full years, and many who went never came back. Emperor Qinzong and Emperor Huizong were still carried off, and Bianliang fell; seeing that the cause was lost, Nangong Zhi apologized to his fellow martial artists, resigned, and disbanded the alliance. The martial artists who fought then drew no court salary and sought no titles; they went to the rescue purely out of a heart for country and people. Yet after Emperor Gaozong (formerly Prince Kang) took the throne at Yingtian Prefecture, he ignored this loyalty and ordered Nangong Zhi to reorganize his troops and join Liu Guangshi, Military Commissioner of the Fengguo Army; if he defied the order, troops would be sent to raid their homes, seize their livestock as army rations, and carry off their wives and daughters to reward the soldiers — this was the beginning of the rift between Jianghu and the Imperial Court.
The second: Yue Fei's Northern Campaign
King Yue burst onto the scene and petitioned to lead a Northern Campaign. On the river he shared a cup of cloudy wine with the Wulin's strategist Zeng Wen, asking him to come out into the world and recover the lost land. With Zeng Wen and the Red Canopy King at the head, one civil and one martial each holding up half the sky, they followed King Yue in recovering lost territory one place after another. Then came the Twelve Golden Plaques, and this famous general, loyal to his lord and devoted to his country, was killed. Zeng Wen went after the King to remonstrate and vanished halfway; the Red Canopy King retreated into monastic life under the Buddhist name Chunmian. From then on the people of Jianghu swore never to trust the Imperial Court again.
Yue Fei's murder would, decades later, set another tragedy in motion — see The Yue Family Army Military Token for details.
The third: The Battle of the Supreme Bliss Cult
About twenty years ago, the Supreme Bliss Cult of the Western Regions threatened the Wulin with great momentum, intending to coordinate with Western Xia from within and without to pincer the Hexi Corridor and choke off the throats of Great Song and the Jin Kingdom. Moved by the eminent monks of the Songshan Sect, the leaders of every Wulin faction set aside old grudges and, under the new Wulin Alliance Leader Long Yuan, united as one to destroy the Supreme Bliss Cult. See The Battle of the Supreme Bliss Cult for details.
At the very end of the battle, Tang Zhongling swallowed poison to force his Power higher and slew the Right Guardian, but was left with lasting damage; defeated Qingcheng's Zhao Kui and fled without a trace; Emei's Wen Wuwei was gravely wounded saving Nangong Yuan and ; Long Yuan, holding the Celestial Cup Sword, broke the Ghost Lotus King Blade of the ringleader "", and after the battle his whereabouts became unknown — he had found that his sworn brother, the Jin Kingdom's Prince Yi Wanyan Xun, had sat by and watched without sending aid, and though he went to demand an accounting, he could not bring himself to strike; he cut off one of his own arms in atonement, then hid his name and mingled among the Beggar Sect.
In this battle both the Tang Clan and Songshan were gravely weakened, yet Songshan is still respected by the world, while the Tang Clan became a drowning dog that everyone beats.
Other events
- Qingcheng Discourse (over twenty years ago): Kongtong's Fire Dragon Immortal Monarch, Quanzhen's Qiu Chuji and Hao Datong, and Qingcheng's Zou Bo and Zhao Kui gathered to debate the Dao. The Fire Dragon Immortal Monarch distorted the Daoist canon and interpreted it at random, which influenced Zhao Kui to some degree and became the distant cause of his later fall of the Daoist heart and his descent into the Dharma King of the Hell Path.
- Tang Clan rescue at the execution ground: before Tang Zhongling took over as Sect Leader, he led the young Tang Buyi and Tang Zheng to save Tang Sheng, who was about to be beheaded for offending a powerful noble, from the execution ground. Though this became a fine tale, it made the Tang Clan an eyesore to the Imperial Court for the next ten-odd years; the Great Song Emperor secretly ordered the Shangguan Family to weaken the Tang Clan, planting the distant cause of the Tang Clan's decline many years later.
- Coup in Dali (over ten years ago): since the founding of Dali, the direct line of Emperor Taizu Duan Siping and the line of his brother Duan Siliang had taken turns contending for the throne, and the powerful Gao Family went so far as to force emperor after emperor into monasteries and hold real power. The Gao Family, suppressed for years by Emperor Xianzong Duan Heyu, put forward a collateral heir, Duan Zhixiu, then only five years old, to launch a coup while Emperor Xuanzong Duan Zhixing was emptying the national treasury to build sixty temples; it ended in failure. The Buddhist late emperor did not take the young Duan Zhixiu's life, but exiled him to the Diancang Sect. This is why Duan Zhixiu, who oversees Songyan Pavilion, is "both high and low"; the full lineage is laid out in Dali Duan Lineage.
- Diancang Sect challenges the Tang Clan: shortly after the Battle of the Supreme Bliss Cult, the Diancang Sect picked a quarrel while the Tang Clan was gravely weakened, and Tang Zhongling, still bearing the lasting damage, led his Disciples to meet the challenge. This battle was fought unexpectedly long, and during it Master's Wife Tang Lu passed away, leaving the young Tang Moling behind. The Sect Leader defeated , but the Tang Clan was gravely hurt as well, and in the end, through the mediation of the , the Sword Saint was forced to seal his sword and retire in exchange for Diancang's withdrawal.
- From Tang Moling's biography (a paper crane folded every night for the ten years since her mother's death) and her being about fifteen in Year 1, Master's Wife's death can be placed about ten years before the opening. In other words, the war lasted about ten years from shortly after the Battle of the Supreme Bliss Cult, and Zhao Huo's entry into the Clan and Master's Wife's dying request both fall within this period.
Notes
- Different pages phrase the relative timing of the same event slightly differently (for example, Qingcheng Discourse is given both as "over twenty years ago" and "twenty-five years ago"); this page keeps the original wording rather than forcing a single number.
- For events after the story begins (including the Wulin Assembly at Fengyu Mountain), see the Main and Branch Story Timeline.