A little project I’ve come up with while waiting for EU5 and also being bored on long commutes. I have a BA in History specialising in East Asia and just finished the EU4 tutorial (1500 hours, 92% achievements). I thought it would be fun to do little write ups on the lore of each of the more obscure countries at the time of the known start date, so that even if EU5 releases with limited flavour, all of us as a community might still be able to enjoy playing specific countries. Maybe it catches on, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe the style needs to change, give me your feedback. Otherwise I hope we can all talk about it in the comments. If this hits a 100 upvotes I’ll do another one - what would people like to see?

I thought a good place to start would be Dali. With its capital in the city of Dali (大理) or the City of Marble, which is still a major city today, Dali was ruled by the Duan (段) family. The Duans were officially Han Chinese, but Dali was largely populated by the Bai ethnic group with a large number of ethnic minorities in the surrounding mountains. Dali dates back to 937 and predates the Song Dynasty, but was conquered by Kublai and Uriyangkhadai in 1252.

Geographically, Dali at the 1337 start date occupied what is today Northern Yunnan, reduced from its larger core territory that stretched south into Myanmar and north into what is today Southern Sichuan. This is even today a region of great natural beauty, ringed by the Eastern Himalayas. Many rivers flowed through it fed by melting snow from the Himalayas, but the weather was famously warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The invasion of Dali was part of the Mongol invasion of Song, the most stubborn resistance the Mongols would ever face. The Song held a strong defensive position along the Huai River against the Mongols to the North, and the Mongols had the bold idea of attacking the Song from the rear instead. This involved the invasion of the Sichuan area, then the conquest of Dali and Tibet, then Vietnam, before entering South China. Dali put up a bit of a fight, but most of its armies were actually already serving under the Mongols as mercenaries, including many members of the Duan family - in fact, historians believe nearly all of Uriyangkhadai’s army was from Dali even from invasion of Sichuan 20 years prior, with only 3,000 Mongol cavalry. It’s a bit unknown why despite murdering Mongol messengers, the Kingdom of Dali was allowed to remain nominally independent; the going theory is that it was more of a coup than an invasion, with the Mongols helping to exterminate the influential Gao family that controlled the civil service. The attack from the rear nearly succeeded, until Mongke Khan died in battle against the Song up North.

In any case, the Duan family remained in power in Dali, this time with a Mongol-installed governor who sat in Kunming. The tradition was for these governors to be Muslim Persians from Bukhara (all from the same family), which brought a good amount of Muslim influence and migration to the region. Over time, the South of Yunnan based around Kunming was granted to the Princes of Liang, who were descendants of Kublai. The Duans clearly retained a good degree of autonomy and significant military power, leading Mongol armies against the Burmese, Tibetans, and revolting Persians at different points. In 1334, Duan Guang even went to war against the Mongol Prince of Liang over border disputes, ultimately settling through mediation from the imperial court, but with unending political intrigue. The Duans also remained very rich and influential throughout China, commissioning temples all over the country especially in Hangzhou.

Duan Guang’s brother Duan Gong took the throne in 1344 after his death, and is today seen as a tragic romantic hero, the subject of the Ming opera Peacock Gall (孔雀膽). He reigned during the start of the Red Turban Rebellion which eventually broke Yuan and led to Ming. The new Prince of Liang Basalawarmi was invaded by Red Turban rebels in 1363, fleeing to Dali, which launched a successful counterattack and saved the Prince. Seemingly out of gratitude, the Prince ceded both land to Dali and also married his favourite daughter Princess Agai to Duan Gong, who became passionately in love. In 1365, the Prince instructed Princess Agai to assassinate Duan Gong using peacock gall poison (actually a type of insect), she refused and informed Duan Gong. The classic tale is that Duan Gong, being a just and righteous man, did not believe that the Prince would do something so heinous, and went to see him in Changle Temple where he was assassinated. Princess Agai committed suicide out of grief.

Duan Gong’s son Duan Bao succeeded him and managed to hold back Basalawarmi’s attempted annexation of Dali 7 times. The imperial court intervened to mediate again and put an end to the fighting in 1367, but the relationship was pretty much permanently destroyed. By this point Yuan had pretty much imploded and Basalawarmi and Duan Bao were the only remnants of Yuan south of the Huai River. Basalawarmi requested Dali assistance several times, and in response Duan Bao wrote a now famous poem with the line “Since our borders are now defined, your success or defeat, happiness or sorrow, mean nothing to me. 自從界限鴻溝後，成敗興哀不屬吾。” Eventually, they did realise that they had to work together or both would be defeated, but the relationship was terrible. The Ming tried multiple times to convince Dali to surrender, at one point giving Duan Bao the title King of Dali, and Duan Bao did actually negotiate a surrender, which ultimately fell apart. This resistance continued until 1384 under Duan Bao’s brother Duan Shi, even after Basalwarmi committed suicide in 1382. The Duan family remained popular in the region and were broadly regarded as righteous heroes who stayed loyal even after being betrayed. While they lost their royal titles, the Ming continued to keep the Duans around as governors of Yunnan.

The Kingdom of Dali had a rather unique culture, combining Chinese-ness with staunch Buddhism, despite being Bai. Originally, Dali kings styled themselves Emperors in the Chinese tradition (皇帝), and similarly adopted Chinese-style government, with the Kings becoming renown Chinese poets in their own right as well. Somewhat uniquely, 10/22 Dali Kings abdicated to become monks, and monks were recruited into the civil service in large numbers. Dali Buddhism survives today as the Azhali school and is a little unique, focussed on the deity Mahakala or wrathful aspect of Buddha. Images of Mahakala are scary to say the least, with six arms and a crown of skulls. The combination of Southeast Asian, Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese Buddhist traditions is most obvious from the official title of the Dali Kings after the Mongol invasion - Moheluozhe or Maharaja.

This simultaneously martial and benevolent image became cemented in Chinese culture through the works of Jin Yong in the 1970s, whose martial arts novels featured many tragic heroes from Dali. They were generally depicted as powerful kings ruling over prosperous kingdoms, who were wise monks with tragic romantic pasts, and masters of various martial arts including the extremely powerful Finger of Yang (一陽指). The trope today of a powerful monk shooting laser beams from his fingers is not actually a Shaolin thing, but meant to be a depiction of the Duan family.