Pre-Game History Timeline
This page collects the major jianghu events that already happened before the story begins (before the prologue "Have You Heard of Tangmen?"). These events are scattered across character and faction pages as "N years ago"-style flashbacks; this page reorders them chronologically to make each faction's current situation easier to follow.
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 calendar year. Events that happen after the story begins (including the Wind and Rain Mountain Alliance) belong to the main plot and are not covered here (the in-game Main Timeline is not yet available in English).
Overview
| Relative Time | Event | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1125-1127 | Jingkang Incident, retreat to Lin'an | Great Song loses the Central Plains and the court retreats south, becoming neighbors with the Jin Dynasty and Western Xia |
| (shortly after the Jingkang Incident) | 1st martial alliance: relief of Bianliang | Alliance leader Nangong Zhi fights for two years, but Bianliang still falls; the court's threats afterward mark the start of jianghu's break with the throne |
| (after the 1st alliance) | 2nd martial alliance: Yue Fei's northern campaign | The twelve gold plaques recall Yue Fei; jianghu's break with the court becomes final |
| about 20+ years ago | Qingcheng Discourse | Five masters from Kongtong, Quanzhen and Qingcheng debate philosophy; Zhao Kui's heart is swayed by Huo Long Xian Jun's distorted teachings |
| (while Xiahou Lan was still a child) | Snow Mountain Sect Extermination | The Kongtong Sect wipes out the Snow Mountain Sect; the sect leader's only daughter, Xiahou Mei, is abducted and renamed Xiahou Lan |
| about 18-20 years ago | Tangmen's execution-ground rescue | Tang Zhong Ling leads Tang Buyi and Tang Zheng to save Tang Sheng from execution; Tangmen is marked by the court from then on |
| about 20 years ago | 3rd martial alliance: The Battle of Ji Le Teachings | Alliance leader Long Yuan leads jianghu against the Blissful Sect; the old cult is destroyed, but Tangmen and the Songshan Sect are both left crippled |
| (soon after the Battle of Ji Le Teachings, lasting until about 10 years ago) | Point Cang Faction challenges Tangmen | Tang Zhong Ling, still suffering the after-effects of the poison he forced on himself at the Battle of Ji Le Teachings, fights the challenge; the conflict drags on unexpectedly long, and Tangmen's matriarch Tang Lu passes away in the midst of it |
| 10+ years ago | The Robbery of Grain on the Official Road in Jiangling Prefecture | Government grain is stolen and the Nangong Family is falsely blamed for years |
| 10+ years ago | Coup in Dali (Dali Duan Imperial Lineage) | Gao clan ministers raise a failed coup in the name of Duan Zhixiu, a five-year-old heir of a collateral Duan branch; he is stripped of his titles and exiled to the Point Cang Faction |
| about 10 years ago | Jinxiang Palace relocates to Dongting | Apricot Immortal Rui Xing offers her palace as a discipleship gift and the whole hall moves to Lake Dongting |
| some years to about a decade after the Blissful Sect's fall | Baifengdong Rebellion (event page not yet translated) | The fugitive Left Enforcer resurfaces as "Li Yuanqi" and raises an army in Chenzhou; he is eventually killed |
| (around the same time as the Baifengdong Rebellion) | The Yue Army Tally | The secret of the tally the Ye family guarded for three generations comes to light; the family is wiped out and the siblings are orphaned |
The Jingkang Incident and the retreat south
The Northern Song lost the Central Plains in the Jingkang Incident (1125-1127), and the court retreated south to Lin'an — this became Great Song. Since then Great Song has bordered the Jin Dynasty and Western Xia, its territory repeatedly raided by Jin, with Zhao Fang and Danxiazi holding the Xiangyang front.
The three martial alliances
According to Nan Gong Heng, speaking at a birthday banquet, jianghu has mobilized as a whole three times in his hundred-year lifetime.
1st: 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. The fighting dragged on for two full years, and many who went never came home. Even so, Emperors Qinzong and Huizong were captured and Bianliang fell; seeing the cause lost, Nangong Zhi apologized to his allies, resigned as leader, and disbanded the alliance. The fighters who answered the call drew no court stipend and sought no rank — they went purely out of loyalty to country and people. Yet after Emperor Gaozong (formerly Prince Kang) took the throne at Yingtianfu, he ordered Nangong Zhi to reorganize his forces under Military Commissioner Liu Guangshi, threatening that refusal would bring troops to raid their homes, seize their livestock as army rations, and carry off their wives and daughters to reward the soldiers. This is where the rift between jianghu and the court began.
2nd: Yue Fei's northern campaign
Marshal Yue emerged and petitioned to lead a northern campaign. Sharing wine with jianghu's strategist Zeng Wen on a river journey, he asked him to come out of seclusion and help reclaim the lost territory. With Zeng Wen and the Red Cloak King at the head — one commanding the scholars, the other the martial world — they followed Marshal Yue in retaking lost ground, until the twelve gold plaques recalled and ultimately killed this loyal general. Zeng Wen went to remonstrate with the Marshal and vanished along the way; the Red Cloak King retreated into monastic life under the Buddhist name Chun Mian. Jianghu swore never to trust the court again.
Yue Fei's death would set another tragedy in motion decades later — see The Yue Army Tally.
3rd: The Battle of Ji Le Teachings
About 20 years ago, the Blissful Sect from the Western Regions threatened jianghu, seeking to conspire with Western Xia to seize the Hexi Corridor and choke off both Great Song and the Jin Dynasty. Moved by monks of the Songshan Sect, the leaders of every faction set old grudges aside and, under new alliance leader Long Yuan, united to destroy the Blissful Sect. See The Battle of Ji Le Teachings for details.
In the final stage of the battle, Tang Zhong Ling forced his power higher with poison to kill the Right Enforcer, at lasting cost to his health; the Left Enforcer defeated Qingcheng's Zhao Kui and fled; Emei's Wen Wuwei was badly wounded shielding Nan Gong Yuan and Lady Wen (then still Su Ying Xiang); and alliance leader Long Yuan killed the arch-villain Li Renyou, "Happy King," with his Heaven Goblet Sword — then vanished after the battle, having learned that his sworn brother, Jin's Prince Wan Yan Xun, had broken his promise of reinforcements and stood by watching. Long Yuan went to confront him but could not bring himself to strike; he instead cut off his own arm as atonement and hid himself among the ranks of the Beggar's Sect.
Both Tangmen and Songshan came out of this battle crippled — but while Songshan remained respected, Tangmen became the world's whipping boy.
Other events
- Qingcheng Discourse (20-some years ago): Kongtong's Huo Long Xian Jun, Quanzhen's Qiu Chuji and Hao Datong, and Qingcheng's Zou Bo and Zhao Kui gathered to debate. Huo Long Xian Jun's distorted teaching later became the root cause of Zhao Kui's fall into corruption as one of the Mud Sect's kings.
- Tangmen's execution-ground rescue: before becoming sect leader, Tang Zhong Ling led young Tang Buyi and Tang Zheng to save Tang Sheng, who had offended a noble and was about to be executed. It became a legend of chivalry, but it also left Tangmen marked as an enemy of the court for over a decade — the root cause of the Great Song emperor later ordering the Shangguan Family to weaken Tangmen.
- Coup in Dali (10+ years ago): since its founding, Dali's throne has passed back and forth between the direct line of Taizu Duan Siping and the line of his brother Duan Siliang, while the Gao ministers forced one emperor after another into monasteries and held the real power. Long suppressed by Xianzong Duan Heyu, the Gaos found a collateral heir — Duan Zhixiu, then five years old — around the time Xuanzong Duan Zhixing was emptying the treasury on sixty temples, and raised a coup in his name. It failed; the devout late emperor spared the boy and exiled him to Point Cang. This is why Duan Zhixiu's post as keeper of Songyan Pavilion is "both high and low". The full succession is laid out in Dali Duan Imperial Lineage.
- Point Cang Faction challenges Tangmen: soon after the Battle of Ji Le Teachings, Point Cang struck at Tangmen's weakest, and Tang Zhong Ling, still suffering the poison's after-effects, took up the challenge. The conflict dragged on unexpectedly long; in its midst, matriarch Tang Lu passed away, leaving behind the young Tang Moling. The sect leader defeated Wu Ming (the Point Cang Sword Saint) at great cost, and through the Nangong Family patriarch's mediation forced the Sword Saint into sealed-sword retirement in exchange for Point Cang's withdrawal.
- Per Tang Moling's legend (a paper crane every night for the ten years since her mother's death) and her estimated age of 15 in year one, Tang Lu died about ten years before the opening — so the war lasted roughly a decade from soon after the Battle of Ji Le Teachings, with Zhao Huo's arrival and Tang Lu's dying request falling within it.
Notes
- Different pages phrase the same event's relative timing slightly differently (for instance, the Qingcheng Discourse is described both as "20-some years ago" and "25 years ago" elsewhere). This page keeps each source's own wording rather than forcing a single number.
- Events after the story begins (including the Wind and Rain Mountain Alliance) are not covered here; the in-game Main Timeline is not yet available in English.
Contributors
NEXTAltair