George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and its television adaptation Game of Thrones has become notorious for its complex political machinations, memorable characters, and truly unpredictable plot twists. Martin has made no secret of his liberal borrowing from various parts of European culture and history in the construction of Westeros and his stories. But what many might be surprised is that many elements of the series actually have counterparts in Chinese history. And in most cases, these real-life versions are more shocking, brutal, and bloody than anything Martin has yet to put on the page.

10.The Wall

Let's kick off this list with one of the most recognizable and memorable pieces of ASOIAF lore: the Wall. 700+ feet high and 300 miles long, the Wall is a gigantic barrier of ice that separates the Seven Kingdoms from the peoples and creatures who live in the frozen North. The Wall is manned by the Sworn Brothers of the Night's Watch, a military order stretching back for thousands of years composed of men from each of the Seven Kingdoms, who occupy nineteen fortresses along its length.

Chinese Counterpart: The Great Wall of China

Martin has reported that the inspiration for the Wall was Hadrian's Wall, a 118-km-long wall built on the northernmost border of the Roman province of Britannia. But both Hadrian's Wall and the Wall itself are dwarfed by the awesome size and scale of what is colloquially known as the Great Wall of China. Stretching a mind-blowing 20,000 kilometers (approximately 12,427 miles), the Great Wall is actually a series of different walls, interconnected fortresses, and watch towers. The Great Wall was constructed in different phases for almost 2,000 years, beginning in the 3rd century BCE under the orders of Qin Shi Huang, the legendary first Emperor of China, and ending in 1644 when the very invaders that it was built to defend against overwhelmed it and conquered China, thereby establishing the Qing Dynasty. Its length and magnitude are all the more impressive when you consider that, unlike the Wall from ASOIAF, it wasn't built with the aid of magic.

9.The Targaryen War of Conquest

One of the defining moments in the history of Westeros was its conquest at the hands of Aegon the Conqueror and his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys from 2BC to 1AC. Armed with three dragons, House Targaryen managed to conquer and unite six of the Seven Kingdoms under his rule. One of the most notable parts of the War of Conquest was that House Targaryen were outsiders in Westeros. Ruling over the island-fortress of Dragonstone, the Targaryens were not of Westerosi heritage but of Valyrian. So the ultimate narrative of the War of Conquest can be summarized as such: with the aid of animal super-weapons, a group of outsiders conquered their divided neighbors to create a single kingdom.

Chinese Counterpart: The Qin Conquest of China

During the Zhou Dynasty (1045-221 BCE), the centralized rule of the state of Zhou deteriorated over the centuries to the point where China was divided into seven smaller states that paid the Zhou lip service as their rulers while in effect they were locked into a period of near-constant warfare for supremacy. That is, until one of the states known as the Qin managed to conquer all six of their neighbors. The Qin were "a buffer state between the civilisation in the northern plain of China and the nomads to the north-west… at first regarded by the Chinese at the centre as semi-barbarian…took no part in the occasional conferences held by the Six." But it's not just significant that, like the Targaryens, they were outsiders who conquered six rival kingdoms. Additionally, they were able to overwhelm their enemies thanks to a weapon that was practically unheard of among the peoples of China: riders on horseback.

8.The Perpetual Warfare between the Free Cities of Essos

The Nine Free Cities are the central hubs of geopolitical power on Essos, the continent to the east of Westeros. Eight were former colonies of Valyria that had been given the right of self-rule while the ninth, Braavos, was secretly founded by groups of escaped slaves. Though they share many similarities, each Free City has developed their own cultural practices and identities. As such, they have been locked in near constant warfare with each other in some shape or form for centuries after the Doom of Valyria in 102BC.

Chinese Counterpart: Multiple Eras of Instability

There were several periods of ancient Chinese history when the disintegration of the centralized state due to political instability, peasant uprisings, or dynastic shifts led to the dissolution of the empire into multiple competing kingdoms. If we associate the destruction of the dynastic model with the Doom of Valyria, then the associated kingdoms that sprang up in its wake can easily be seen as the equivalent of the Free Cities of Essos. One of the most notable examples of this dynamic was the Warring States Period (476-221 BCE) when the downfall of the Zhou Dynasty created a power vacuum that was filled by the establishment of ten smaller fiefdoms which evolved into full-fledged states boasting significant military power. These kingdoms spent hundreds of years battling for supremacy before they were united once again by the brutal conquest of the state of Qin which led to the founding of the Qin Dynasty. Another example was the Three Kingdoms era (220–280 CE) when the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu arose from the ashes of the Han Dynasty and waged sixty years of war that left an astonishing 34 million people dead.

7.The Faith Militant Uprising

Sparked after many long years of royal abuse, the Faith of the Seven revolted against the Iron Throne in 41 AC, sparking a cataclysmic period of unrest known as the Faith Militant uprising. The resulting conflict left countless dead and was countered by King Maegor I Targaryen with such brutality (at one point he bestowed cash rewards on anyone who brought the head of an enemy combatant) that he was forever referred to as Maegor the Cruel. The Uprising was finally ended when King Jaehaerys I Targaryen offered complete amnesty for rebel fighters in exchange for the disbanding of the Faith Militant.

Chinese Counterpart: Daoist Secret Society Uprisings

During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) secret Daoist societies sparked peasant uprisings during times of political instability. Two of the most prominent were the Red Eyebrows and the Yellow Turbans. The Red Eyebrows succeeded in 18 CE in ousting the Emperor Wang Mang, but they failed to enact any lasting change as political power was quickly seized by other members of the former imperial family. The Yellow Turbans were a group of faith-healers who in 184 CE managed to shake the foundations of China so greatly that, while the Han Dynasty was eventually able to regain control over the empire, it was doomed to collapse in a few decades to army generals who used their forces to establish the Three Kingdoms. (G.B. 72) Like the Faith Militant Uprising, both of these faith-based real-life peasant uprisings were eventually put down by the very imperial families they sought to depose.

6.Robert Baratheon

The next few entries are going to focus on individual characters from ASOIAF who have disturbingly accurate parallels in Chinese history. We'll begin with Robert Baratheon, the man responsible for the rebellion which deposed House Targaryen from the Iron Throne. After securing the throne for himself, he quickly proved himself to be an ineffective king by squandering the realm's finances, siring multiple bastards with possible claims to the Iron Throne, and generally letting the kingdom begin to fall into disrepair.

Chinese Counterpart: Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi

Robert Baratheon's contempt for the business of ruling as king and his great fondness of alcohol was matched, if not surpassed, by Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi. Though a formidable and brilliant military commander who succeeded in establishing the Northern Qi Dynasty, he soon plunged into alcoholism and became a cruel and ineffective leader. The great Chinese historian Sima Guang wrote that he "drank heavily and lived immorally, carrying out cruel and barbarous acts at his own whim. Sometimes he sang and danced day and night…Sometimes when it was warm, he would be naked to bask in the sun, but even in the coldest winter, he would strip naked as well and run around." He died of alcoholism in 559 CE.

翻译：小飞侠8+7 来源：前十网