House of Duan

The House of Duan is the ruling family of Dali and a political power whose members also move through the martial world beyond the kingdom. Its importance lies not only in its throne: its ties to the Beggar Society, its dynastic interests, and Duan Zhengchun’s family relationships make it a point where state authority and personal obligations converge. The narrative also sets this established power against the vulnerable lives caught in the recurring raids between the Liao Empire and Great Song.

Sovereignty and reach

The House of Duan holds royal authority in Dali, but its members’ activities are not confined to the kingdom. Madam Ma explains that princes other than the emperor have often visited the Central Plains, and identifies Duan Zhengchun as the current emperor’s younger full brother. He holds the title of South-Stabilizing Prince. This distinction helps explain why a figure who is both a royal relative and a martial-world participant could become entangled in the Beggar Society’s affairs.

That entanglement is framed as a matter of state security. Madam Ma recounts that Duan Zhengchun was visiting the Beggar Society’s headquarters when he and Chief Wang heard that Khitan warriors were heading to Shaolin in force to seize scriptures. Duan Zhengchun led people toward Yanmen Pass to intercept them. The account presents the expedition as publicly undertaken for Great Song, but privately connected to Dali’s survival: if the Liao Empire destroyed Great Song, Dali might be the next target. In this reasoning, the two states are mutually dependent, and the House’s involvement beyond its borders reflects a strategic calculation as well as martial-world honor.

Madam Ma also depicts Duan Zhengchun as a powerful and generous prince, someone who could give friends hundreds or thousands of taels without being asked. His standing, she says, made it difficult for ordinary participants to command him as if he were their subordinate. That combination of rank, wealth, and personal ties made the secret of his identity politically sensitive: she warns that if Xiao Feng learned who the “leading big brother” was, he might seek revenge, leaving Duan Zhengchun exposed despite the strength of his family and kingdom.

Family customs and personal ties

The narrative describes the House of Duan as a family that retained the customs and teachings of its Central Plains ancestors after becoming Dali’s sovereign power. It is said not to have forgotten its origins or embraced excessive luxury in daily life. At the same time, the political arrangements of the royal household brought it into contact with different local customs and interests.

Duan Zhengchun’s first wife, Dao Baifeng, was the daughter of a powerful Baiyi leader in Yunnan. The marriage was intended to secure Baiyi support and strengthen the Duan throne, since the Baiyi were important to the ruling family’s stability in a region with relatively few Han people. The Baiyi practice of monogamy, together with Dao Baifeng’s unwillingness to accept a second wife, turned a dynastic alliance into a source of domestic conflict. The account says she eventually entered religion and became a Taoist priestess after becoming angry over Duan Zhengchun’s continuing romantic attachments.

The narrative names three other women connected to Duan Zhengchun: Qin Hongmian, Mu Wanqing’s mother; Gan Baobao, Zhong Wanchou’s wife; and Ruan Xingzhu, A'Zi’s mother. These relationships extend the House’s personal reach beyond the formal royal household. During his later journey to the Central Plains, Duan Zhengchun visits Ruan Xingzhu, who lives in seclusion beside Little Mirror Lake, and the two spend several days together. Their reunion also places A'Zi, their daughter, within the circle of Dali’s royal family, although her manners and conduct do not conform to the expectations of the prince’s attendants.

Duan Zhengchun in the martial world

Duan Zhengchun’s role in the old Yanmen Pass expedition becomes important when Xiao Feng finally hears his name. Xiao Feng has spent months seeking the identity of the “leading big brother”; Madam Ma’s disclosure that the man is Duan Zhengchun gives that search a concrete target. The revelation also shows how an account of public service can be entangled with concealed identity and fear of retaliation. A'Zhu, speaking under disguise, promises not to reveal the secret, but crafts her oath so that its stated consequences fall on Bai Shijing rather than herself.

Duan Zhengchun’s connection to the martial world continues in the investigation of Venerable Xuan Bei’s murder. Acting on his emperor brother’s order, he goes to Shenjie Temple in Luliangzhou and finds several points that cast doubt on the accusation against the Murong Clan of Gusu. When senior Shaolin monks do not arrive for more than half a month, he travels to the Central Plains with Fan Hua, Hua Hegen, Ba Tianshi, and four bodyguards to pursue the truth. The journey thus links the House’s court responsibilities to an unresolved conflict among martial factions.

At the bluestone bridge, Duan Zhengchun’s party faces Duan Yanqing, whose formidable skills have already injured Gu Ducheng and Fu Sigui. Duan Zhengchun knows that he is not Duan Yanqing’s equal, and his companions urge him to put the kingdom first and seek help from Tianlong Monastery. Yet he refuses to withdraw while his people, Ruan Xingzhu, and A'Zi are nearby. His response presents royal responsibility as an obligation toward those in danger, not merely a reason to preserve himself.

The encounter also makes the family’s reach visible in an unexpected way. A'Zi has caught Chu Wanli in her Flexible Silk Net, and Duan Zhengchun asks her to release him. She challenges him over having abandoned her for more than ten years; his answer falters, and he can only sigh before Ruan Xingzhu intervenes. The attendants are unsettled that the prince’s daughter is so insolent, but recognize that her status makes it difficult to treat the incident as an ordinary offense. The episode reveals both the consequences of Duan Zhengchun’s long absence from A'Zi’s life and the difficulty of separating family authority from royal privilege.

Dynastic power and the borderlands

The wider political story shows how inherited arrangements shape the struggles of rulers and subjects around the House of Duan’s world. In Liao, the succession dispute reaches back to the reign of YeLu LongXu, whose intended successor was his elder son YeLu ZongZhen. Their mother favored the younger son, YeLu ZhongYuan, but ZhongYuan supported his brother instead. ZongZhen later made him royal emperor brother and next in line to the throne. After ZongZhen’s death, however, his son YeLu HongJi inherited the throne. HongJi subsequently elevated ZhongYuan to royal emperor uncle, made him supreme commander of the army, and gave ZhongYuan’s son YeLu NieLuGu the title Prince of Chu and command of the Southern Chancellery.

Those accumulated honors do not prevent a later crisis. When YeLu HongJi is away hunting, YeLu NieLuGu’s rebellion is announced in the name of his father, YeLu ZhongYuan. A new edict calls HongJi a false emperor and ZhongYuan the legitimate ruler. The family history behind the claim makes the rebellion more than a sudden military challenge: earlier succession decisions have created competing grounds for legitimacy, while control of the army gives those claims force. The political account underscores how inherited offices and past compromises narrow the choices available in a present emergency.

The geography of Liao’s power also reaches beyond the royal household. The account traces the strategic advantage of the sixteen prefectures ceded to Liao by Shi JingTang, explaining that their position allowed Liao forces to penetrate deeply into Song territory. Nanjing, also known as Yanjing, is presented as a major city within this political landscape, with busy markets and streets where Xiao Feng and A'Zi hear the language of the Central Plains. The city’s closeness to that cultural world sharpens Xiao Feng’s sense of his own divided belonging.

The border economy makes the cost of imperial conflict visible to civilians. Liao troops are not supplied with provisions or salaries in the account; instead, they obtain what they need by raiding neighboring lands, a practice called “Beating The Grass Valley.” Song forces retaliate with raids described as “Beating The Standing Valley.” In one such aftermath, Xiao Feng sees a Liao troop return with hundreds of Song captives, mostly young women, and goods taken from their homes. A young captive asks to speak to him privately, while the others plead for release. The scene turns the abstract contest between states into the immediate suffering of people seized from their villages.

Xiao Feng releases the captives and urges them to move away from the border, acknowledging that he may not be able to protect them again. His decision follows a change in perspective: having been raised in Great Song before learning of his Khitan identity, he questions why people who share human needs should be divided into enemies by nationality, and why raids invite further raids. The House of Duan’s political story is not directly responsible for this scene, but its earlier strategic account of Dali’s dependence on Great Song forms part of the same frontier world, where rulers calculate survival and ordinary families bear the consequences of war.