Recently, while cleaning up files on my NAS, I discovered some previously downloaded movies and TV series that I hadn't watched yet, so I randomly clicked on a few to take a look. But when I opened the TV series Peaceful Year (Tai Ping Nian) and saw the scene in the first three minutes where Zhang Yanze engages in cannibalism, I was instantly hooked. I ended up spending a whole week finishing the show.

There is a Mountain Near My House

Near my home, there is a mountain that locals call "Prince Mountain" (Wangzi Shan). It is a mandatory pass on the road from our township to the county seat. The mountain path is treacherous—one man guarding the pass can stop ten thousand. Even today, one must stay extremely focused while driving past; a slight lapse in concentration could lead to a fatal accident.

When I was a child, I thought a prince from some dynasty had visited and left his name. I later learned it was a misnomer smoothed over by the local dialect. The real name of this mountain is "Huangchao Mountain."

In 879 AD, Huang Chao’s rebel peasant army marched from Hengyang toward Changsha and camped on this mountain overnight. In that battle, Huang Chao’s army broke Changsha, the army of Li Xi (the Observation Commissioner of Hunan) was defeated, and the blood of a hundred thousand soldiers stained the Xiang River. Today, there is still a village at the foot of the mountain called "Huangchao Village."

This is one of the oldest verifiable place names near my home. What it records is not a legend of some "Charming Prince," but the cruel reality on the eve of a flourishing dynasty's collapse. Every time I drive through those dangerous bends, I think of how over a thousand years ago, an army was stationed on this mountain before charging down to storm Changsha, turning the Xiang River red with the blood of a hundred thousand people.

Where Did the Name "Hunan" Come From?

On short video platforms, many people claim that Hunan as a geographical name originated from the Huguang Province and only separated from Hubei during the Ming or even Qing Dynasty. However, a quick check of historical records reveals that the name "Hunan" began to appear on the historical stage as early as the Tang Dynasty. During the Five Dynasties period depicted in Peaceful Year, "Hunan" appears 83 times in the Old History of the Five Dynasties, while "Hubei" does not appear once. The administrative concept of "Hunan" predates "Hubei" by nearly three hundred years.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the current regions of Hubei and Hunan both belonged to the Jiangnan Circuit. During the Kaiyuan era, the imperial court split the Jiangnan Circuit into Jiangnan East, Jiangnan West, and Qianzhong circuits. In 764 AD (the second year of the Guangde era of Emperor Daizong of Tang), the court established the Hunan Observation Commissioner in Hengzhou (modern-day Hengyang), governing the five prefectures of Heng, Tan, Shao, Yong, and Dao. This was the first time the name "Hunan" appeared in official history.

Carving out the "Hunan Observation Commissioner" from "Jiangnan West" marked the starting point of Hunan as an independent administrative region. The late Tang and Five Dynasties period was the most critical era for the formation of Hunan's regional culture. Without this history, "Hunan" might have remained just a sub-region of "Jiangnan" rather than the "Xiang" identity that Hunan people are proud of today.

In the Five Dynasties, Hunan and Wuyue Were Actually Taking the Same Exam

After the Huang Chao Rebellion, Hunan fell into a period of warlord infighting until the rise of Ma Yin.

When Zhu Wen declared himself emperor in 907, Ma Yin immediately sent envoys to pay tribute and was enfeoffed as the Prince of Chu. For the next several decades, Ma Yin followed a path identical to that of Wuyue: he did not declare himself emperor, acknowledged the Central Plains as the legitimate authority, focused quietly on the economy, and protected his borders to ensure peace for the people.

Ma Yin was a carpenter by trade and incredibly pragmatic. While bowing to the Central Plains, he expanded in the south. Internally, he rewarded farming and sericulture, developed the economy, and did not levy commercial taxes. Tea production reached tens of thousands of loads annually, sold across the country and even as far as the Middle East. Compared to the continuous wars in the north, Hunan under Ma Yin’s rule was more like a "paradise" secluded from the world.

In 924 AD (the second year of the Tongguang era of Later Tang), my ancestors moved from Ji'an, Jiangxi, to Xiangxiang, Hunan. That line in the genealogy remains clear to this day. Why choose Hunan? Because there was no war there; you could farm and survive.

Of course, this genealogy was actually compiled in the Ming Dynasty, and I previously had doubts about the timing of the initial migration. However, if you search using "Tongguang Second Year Genealogy" as a keyword, you will find identical records in a large number of Hunanese family trees. For example, on the first page of search results, I found the following:

- Yueyang Fang Clan: Ancestor Fang Cheng moved from Nanchang, Jiangxi to Shapi, Baling in the second year of Tongguang.
- Xinhua Yuan Clan: In the second year of Tongguang (924 AD), ancestors moved from Tahe, Jizhou, Jiangxi to Hunan.
- Xiangxiang He Clan: Ancestor Da moved from Jizhou to Baima Duan, Xiangxiang in the second year of Tongguang.
- Shishijiang Chen Clan: In the second year of Tongguang (924), ancestors moved to Hunan from Mianyang via Tanzhou.
- Xiangxiang Chen Clan: Since Commander Bowan came to Chu in the second year of Tongguang (924), the lineage split into Xiangxiang, Yiyang, Xiangtan, and Xinhua.
- Xinhua Yangxi Zou Clan: Ancestor Zan moved from Jiangxi to Hunan in the second year of Tongguang (924) to escape the chaos in Huainan.
- Yiyang Song Clan: Ancestor Yisun moved from Tahe, Jiangxi to Tanzhou in the second year of Tongguang.
- Changsha Peng Clan: Moved to Changsha in the second year of Tongguang.

Whether it is Xue Juzheng's Old History of the Five Dynasties or Ouyang Xiu's New History of the Five Dynasties, it is impossible for historical records to capture the migrations of ordinary people. Yet, so many Hunanese genealogies mark "the second year of Tongguang" as the time their ancestors migrated from Jiangxi to Hunan. Whether it is the historically accurate year or not, at the very least, this point in time is widely recognized as the moment when Hunan was the choice for a "secluded paradise." This imagery is more persuasive and vivid than the scenes in Peaceful Year where Qian Chu of Wuyue receives refugees from Southern Tang.

What Ma Yin left for Hunan was not just nearly half a century of peace, but a complete set of economic governance strategies. Briefly summarized from historical records, these included:

• Abolishing Customs Duties: By not collecting customs taxes, "merchants from all directions flocked to the region," making Tanzhou the largest tea market in the south.
• Minting Lead and Iron Coins: Lead and iron coins were restricted to internal circulation. Foreign merchants had to exchange copper coins for lead and iron coins to trade, and upon leaving, they could only exchange them back for goods to take away. "Using the local surplus to exchange for the world's goods," the state became prosperous.
• Substituting Silk for Cash: Using tax policy to guide industrial upgrading. Hunan originally "did not practice sericulture." Gao Yu suggested "allowing taxpayers to use silk instead of cash." As a result, "before long, looms flourished among the people," to the point that the quality was "comparable to Wuyue." In just a few decades, Hunan developed a silk industry that could rival that of Wuyue.
• The "Shending" Tax (Poll Tax): A fixed tax collected per person directly by the government. This was one of the biggest differences between the governance of Hunan and Wuyue. This method of taxing per head was pioneered by Hunan. Later, during the Song Dynasty, this tax system was vigorously implemented in the south. After the Wuyue Kingdom surrendered to the Song, Emperor Taizong implemented the poll tax there to compensate for Qian Chu's "failed administration." (Records of the Court and Country Since the Jianyan Era notes: "The poll tax... began when the Ma family occupied Hunan, taking it from the people of Yong, Dao, Chenzhou, Guiyang, and Chaling.")

Under Ma Yin's governance, not only did the textile industry rise, but gold, silver, lacquerware, papermaking, and shipbuilding also reached significant scales. In the sixth year of Tianfu (941 AD), Hunan presented over ten thousand pieces of lacquerware to the imperial court at once. After the Northern Song recovered Hunan, an edict was issued: "Tanzhou is required to provide 1.78 million sheets of paper annually, exempted for ten years"—providing 1.78 million sheets of paper was merely the amount for tribute. In contrast, many descriptions of Wuyue's grain and warships in Peaceful Year are "imagined" by the screenwriters and cannot compare to the positive evaluations of economic and social development found in official historical records for Hunan.

The Wuyue in "Peaceful Year" is Overly Beautified

Chu and Wuyue followed the same path—not declaring themselves emperors, honoring the Central Plains, and focusing on the economy. However, Peaceful Year portrays Wuyue as an earthly paradise while not mentioning Chu at all.

Ouyang Xiu wrote clearly in the New History of the Five Dynasties:

"The Qian family held the two Zhe regions for nearly a hundred years... since the time of Liu, they often levied heavy taxes on the people to support their extravagance, down to chickens, fish, eggs, and fledglings, which were collected daily from every household. For every person who defaulted, they were whipped... the minor offenders received dozens of lashes, while others received over a hundred; the people suffered beyond endurance."

In translation: Starting from Qian Liu, people were exploited with heavy taxes, with even chickens, fish, and eggs collected daily. If someone owed taxes, they were beaten—dozens of lashes for minor debts, over a hundred for others. The people were in agony. Ouyang Xiu concluded: "Examining the Qian family from start to finish, they did not bestow virtue or grace upon their region; for a hundred years, they treated their people with great cruelty." The meaning is clear: Wuyue survived for so many years not because of benevolent rule.

Yet Peaceful Year portrays Wuyue's tax farming system as a clever move to fix administrative ills. In the show, Qian Chu talks at length to Zhao Kuangyin about the benefits of tax farming, claiming he used it for thirty years. But the essence of tax farming is outsourcing collection to powerful clans; to make a surplus profit, these contractors inevitably squeeze the people harder at every level. After the Song took over Wuyue, their first move was to cut taxes and abolish the tax farming rules because the system had created a vested interest group that could no longer be reined in.

The line in the show, "If Wuyue does not surrender its land, it would take 300,000 elite troops to recover it," is even more absurd. Conquering Southern Tang only took over 100,000 troops; why would Wuyue need 300,000? This number was fabricated just to beautify a "lack of choice" as a "great compromise." Especially the countless scenes showing Wuyue’s "sturdy ships and powerful cannons"—these are preposterous. Opening the historical records, the situation was completely different.

In the New History of the Five Dynasties, there are about 20 descriptions of ships from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. By comparison, Wuyue’s navy was nothing special at the time.

Wuyue's own combat records: In the Battle of Langshanjiang in 919, they deployed 500 warships; in 958, supporting Later Zhou against Southern Tang, they deployed 400 warships and 17,000 naval troops. And Hunan? In 907, the State of Wu sent 30,000 naval troops to attack Hunan, and Hunan also sent 30,000 to meet them, capturing 800 warships in a single battle; in 928, Hunan mobilized "over a thousand warships" to face the enemy. Numbers don't lie: Hunan’s records of "a thousand warships" and Wuyue's core assets of "four hundred ships" are not even in the same league.

Of course, one could argue that Wuyue did not commit its entire fleet when supporting Later Zhou, and there might have been more than four hundred ships. But undoubtedly, Wuyue’s support played no significant role. The force that actually defeated the powerful Southern Tang navy was the Later Zhou court, which had built its ships in a hurry.

The New History of the Five Dynasties records: "At first, when the Zhou army campaigned south, they lacked naval equipment... so they built several hundred warships and had surrendered soldiers teach them naval warfare. They also built several hundred 'Qiyun' ships." Later Zhou built ships and learned naval warfare on the fly near the capital Kaifeng. The "Qiyun ships" were so large they required special channels to be dug to pass. Meanwhile, what was Wuyue doing? Only after the Later Zhou army had crossed the Huai River did Wuyue "scrape together all the men in the country to increase the army," pressing civilians into service to make up a navy, and even then, they arrived late for the rendezvous.

Peaceful Year portrays Wuyue’s navy as "leading the pack" and the "surrender of land" as a proactive submission, all to beautify a "lack of choice" as a "great compromise." But the historical facts are clear: Wuyue’s navy was at most a regional force, let alone standing up to Southern Tang—they couldn't even match the navy Later Zhou built on the fly.

Hunan's Peace Was Crushed by Its Own People

Ma Yin passed away in 930, leaving a final command of "succession among brothers." This command planted the seeds of Hunan's later internal strife.

After Ma Xifan succeeded him, the first half of his reign was acceptable. But after his wife died, he began building the Tiance Mansion, holding overnight banquets, and increasing taxation. In 943, he even decreed that on top of normal taxes, large counties must contribute 2,000 hu of rice, medium counties 1,000 hu, and small counties 700 hu. The people could not afford it and fled in droves.

When Ma Xifan died in 947, the generals bypassed the eldest brother, Ma Xi'e, and supported Ma Xiguang. Ma Xi'e refused to submit and raised an army to march south. Ma Xiguang had the chance to kill his brother but said, "I am unwilling to kill my brother." In 950, Ma Xi'e colluded with barbarian armies, declared himself a vassal to Southern Tang for aid, and attacked again. Tanzhou fell, and Ma Xiguang was captured and ordered to commit suicide. A monarch who was unwilling to kill his brother died at his brother's hand.

After entering Changsha, Ma Xi'e doted on domestic slaves and handed military and political power to his younger brother, Ma Xichong. In 951, Tanzhou generals launched a mutiny, imprisoned Ma Xi'e, and supported Ma Xichong. Langzhou then supported Ma Yin's grandson to raise an army in rebellion. Ma Xichong turned to Southern Tang for help.

Southern Tang had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. In the winter of 951, the Southern Tang general Bian Hao led ten thousand troops into Changsha; the Kingdom of Chu was destroyed. Over a thousand members of the Ma clan were moved to Jinling.

Southern Tang’s Extraction and the Embers of Chu

The Zizhi Tongjian records that when Bian Hao first entered Changsha, Hunan was suffering from a great famine. He opened the granaries to distribute food, and "the people of Chu were greatly pleased." But the true nature of Southern Tang was soon revealed; they hauled all of Hunan's gold, silk, treasures, grain, ships, pavilions, and fruits back to Jinling and sent harsh officials to collect taxes from Hunan to support the garrison, leading to "the disappointment of the Hunan people."

The phrase "the disappointment of the Hunan people" perfectly encapsulates the fall of a province from "peace" into "hell."

Less than a year into Southern Tang's rule of Hunan, Liu Yan of Langzhou rose in rebellion. Thereafter, Hunan fell into repeated slaughter between Liu Yan, Wang Kui, and Zhou Xingfeng. It wasn't until Zhou Xingfeng took control of Hunan that the situation stabilized through strict laws. He abolished the excessive taxes of the Ma Chu era, selected honest officials as prefects and magistrates, and "the granaries became full."

In 962, Zhou Xingfeng died, and his young son Zhou Baoquan succeeded him. In 963, Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Kuangyin, sent troops south under the pretext of helping Hunan suppress rebels, and subsequently pacified Hunan. The eighty-plus years of separatism and war in Hunan since the late Tang finally came to an end.

Hunan Deserves to Film Its Own "Peaceful Year"

The Zhejiang version of Peaceful Year has the "surrender of land to Song" as its main thread—a king’s grand choice, a dignified exit for a regime. This story is clean, simple, and fits the aesthetic of a unified narrative.

The Hunan version of the story is entirely different.

It begins with the Huang Chao Rebellion. Although that "Huangchao Mountain" was just a stop for Huang Chao’s army, still over a hundred kilometers from Changsha, its existence reminds us that the suffering of this land did not begin in the Five Dynasties. After Huang Chao, Ma Yin came; after Ma Yin, the iron hooves of Southern Tang trampled the Xiang River; after Southern Tang, the Song army cleaned up the remains. However, the cycle of history was far from over.

In 951, Southern Tang dispatched troops from Jinling, plundered Hunan’s decades of accumulated wealth, and took away over a thousand members of the royalty. Who could have guessed that nearly a thousand years later, just a few kilometers from the foot of Huangchao Mountain, a man would emerge, leading the Xiang Army? He also started from Hunan, fought all the way to Jinling, plundered the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's decades of accumulated wealth, and incidentally carted away the Yongle Encyclopedia from the Shuixi Gate—the last wisp of cultural lineage from the late Qing and even all of ancient Chinese history.

Southern Tang plundered Hunan; the Xiang Army sacked Jinling. History is sometimes like a closed loop; one side finishes its performance and the other takes the stage. Under the same sky, on the same land, tragedies are performed repeatedly, just with different protagonists.

This is why Hunan should film its own Peaceful Year. This is not to deny the significance of the Peaceful Year filmed by Zhejiang; for the modern era, Peaceful Year indeed holds a unique cultural meaning. But ultimately, it comes down to those two words: "Peace" (Tai Ping). The people on this land of Hunan, their longing and struggle for peace, also deserve to be seen. From Huang Chao to Ma Yin, from Ma Xiguang’s "unwillingness to kill his brother" to Zeng Guofan’s "fighting on despite repeated defeats," Hunanese people have never believed in a dignified exit like "surrendering land to the Song." They only know that peace is not something given by others; it is something you fight for with your life.

Every time I drive through that dangerous bend on Prince Mountain, I think of these things. The mountain is still that mountain; the road is still that road. Only the name of the place at the foot of the hill has changed from "Huangchao" to "Prince"—a bloody past covered by a fairytale-like misnomer. But history is never truly covered up. It is right there in the name of that mountain, in every treachery of that bend, in that line in my family genealogy, and in the very existence of the name "Hunan."

Hunan deserves to film its own Peaceful Year.