Princess Uncommon

by mistykasumi

~Prologue~

Everyone knows about China, how it's the most populous country in the world, how it's a third-world country, how it has the Great Wall, TiAnMen Square, and many other tourist attractions. But foreigners don't know about it's colorful history. The U.S. only has 200 years of true history, but as the Chinese say, they have Shàng Xià Wu Qian Nián¹ of history.

Chinese students are required to learn Chinese History, just as U.S. students are required to learn U.S. History. There have been many dynasties in Chinese History, some divided into west and east, with west at the beginning, some divided into north and south, with north at the beginning. And of course, some are just periods of time, which had China divided into several small countries vying for power.

And like any country, there were good emperors and bad emperors, emprerors that were just, emperors that coveted money and wealth and kept taxing the commoners, emperors that coveted beautiful woman and didn't care about the country, lots of different kinds of emperors. Of course, there were also emperors who desposed of his queen so another woman could be queen, as in the infamous case of Wu ZéTian².

Most emperors had more than one wife. His first wife would be the queen. Any wife after that would be a fei.

So, anyone writing a book about an emperor would have to write a historical novel or else not mention the name of the emperor for fiction.

But what if in another universe, Chinese history was changed? What if something different happened? Then, there would be a good possibility of everything after that also being different.

So, what if Táng Tài Zong Li ShìMín³ didn't have ZhangSunª as his queen? What if Yáng JíEr* was queen instead? Then the whole history of the Táng dynasty would be different.

This story is about an alternate universe in which Yáng JíEr was queen. Thus, the whole Táng dynasty would be different. And with a different Táng dynasty, different events would have happened. All of Chinese history would be different.

What events would happen in this AU? Only history knows, for better or worse. ________________________________________________________________________

1. Shàng Xià Wu Qian Nián - literally, up down five thounsand years. Means 5000 years have passed since the beginning of China. Of course, that's an understatement. The very first emperor appeared in the 26th century B.C.

2. Wu ZéTian - the only female emperor of China. She ruled from 684 to 690. The third emperor of the Táng (T'ang) dynasty, Li Zhì (Li-surname, Zhì-rule) desposed of his queen so she could be queen. Once she became queen, she controled Li Zhì until his death. After his death, she put one of her sons on the throne, herself becoming Huáng Tài Hòu (empress dowager). Unsatisfied, she desposed of him and put her other son on the throne. Still unsatisfied, she desposed of him, also, and become emperor herself. She changed the country name(dynasty name) to Zhou. During her reign, she killed anyone who opposed her. Her tyranny ended only with her death.

3. Táng Tài Zong Li ShìMín - (Li-surname, Shì-world, Mín-citizen)the second emperor of the Táng dynasty. He ruled from 627 to 650. During his reign, China had many developments. When he was still a WángYé (any prince not the crown prince), his older brother, the crown prince, and his second younger brother(the fourth son in the family) were jealous of him and plotted to kill him many times, each time failing. They had been jealous of him before their family became the royal family because he was better at everything than them, and the princess each of them loved loved him instead of them. However, they never suceeded, and in the end, he killed them, making him the only son left in the family. Thus, his father, with no choice, made him crown prince and then retired from the throne. He destroyed a country whose citizens always invaded China, but let the nobles rule the place. He also married off one of his daughters to another country's king to obtain peaceful relations. One of the better emperors of China.

ªZhangSun-before Li ShìMín became a WángYé, he was engaged to marry ZhangSun, who he had met already while he was out riding. They married before he started fighting against the Suí dynasty(the dynasty before Táng). She liked her husband very much. After she gave birth to Li Zhì, she fell ill and died, leaving her son the crown prince in the care of Yáng JíEr. She is a very understanding and smart woman.

*Yáng JíEr - one of Li ShìMín's fei. He met her while he was hunting in a competition with his brothers. At that time, she was a princess of the Suí dynasty(the dynasty before Táng). The two fell in love after that, and after Li ShìMín became emperor, he married her.