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He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. |
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Patience, brothers. Soon we will reveal the secrets of Assassin's Creed: Dynasty and Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road. This article has been identified as being out of date. Please update the article to reflect recent releases and then remove this template once done. |
The Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins, also known at various points as the Beijing Brotherhood[2] and the Great Ming Brotherhood,[3] is the branch of the Assassin Order located in China, one of the few to have existed for more than a thousand years. Like other divisions throughout the world, it operated as an Assassin Guild from the time of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's reforms until that system was superseded in the 20th century by that of decentralized cells.
Throughout imperial history, the Chinese Assassins were responsible for countering the atrocities perpetrated by emperors aligned with the Order of the Ancients and their successors, the Templar Order. In light of this, they were behind the assassinations of notable rulers such as Qin Shi Huang, An Lushan, the Yongle Emperor, and the Jiajing Emperor. Under the Song dynasty, they helped defend the nation from the Mongol Empire and personally slew the Mongols' leader Möngke Khan, although they would ultimately fail to save it from conquest under Kublai Khan.
The Brotherhood's long history, paralleling that of the nation it represents, is marked by major fluctuations in its fortunes as it battled its Templar counterpart, the Chinese Rite. During the Ming dynasty, they were the frequent target of purges enacted by the government in concert with the Templars. Most infamously, the Great Rites Controversy during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor exterminated the guild down to a lone Assassin, Shao Jun. Despite these calamities, the Chinese Brotherhood endured, with Shao Jun restoring the branch after eliminating each of the leading Templars responsible for the purge.
Under the Manchu Qing dynasty, the Brotherhood again suffered persecution and, following a devastating purge, lost nearly all of its power and influence. In the early 18th century, the remaining Chinese Assassins under Xiao Han's leadership sought to locate a Piece of Eden hidden in Angkor and use it to overthrow the Manchus and establish a new dynasty. However, the British Assassin Edward Kenway opposed their efforts, disagreeing with their plans to use the Piece of Eden for personal gain.
History[]
Warring States period[]
In his work, the historian Sima Qian mentioned the existence of five individuals active during the Warring States period who would posthumously be known as the "Five Great Assassins": Cao Mo, Jing Ke, Nie Zheng, Yu Rang, and Zhuan Zhu.[4]
Qin dynasty[]
Wei Yu
In 221 BCE, Ying Zheng, supported by the Order of the Ancients, unified China under his banner and became the first Emperor of China, proclaiming himself Shi Huangdi and inaugurating the Qin dynasty.[5] After learning of the existence of the Assassins, the terrified Emperor ordered their extermination and sent his armies after them, pushing them into oblivion.[4]
Shi Huangdi's tyrannical reign lasted only a decade because in 210 BCE,[6] a youxia named Wei Yu slew him with a spear named after Jing Ke.[4] For this deed, which predated the founding of the Hidden Ones and the Assassin Brotherhood by a few centuries,[7] Wei Yu was later revered and immortalized by the Assassins as one of their own.[8]
Tang dynasty[]
In 751 CE, after surviving the Battle of Talas in Central Asia thanks to the arrival of a group of Hidden Ones, the Tang soldier Li E was recruited into the organization. After his formation, Li E went back to China where he fought injustice and the members of the Golden Turtles, the Chinese branch of the Order of the Ancients.[4]
Song dynasty[]
During the Song dynasty (960–1279), China had to contend with the onslaught of the Mongol Empire. Fearing the devastation that the Mongols would wrought, Assassins throughout Asia actively sought to halt their advances. Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, was slain by the Mongol Assassin Qulan Gal and the Levantine Assassin Darim Ibn-La'Ahad at Xingqing, capital of the nearby Xia Empire, in 1227, but this only forestalled China's fall to the Mongols.[9]
The conflict dragged on for the next few decades with the Song's grasp on the country continuing to crumble before the might of the Mongol forces. In 1259, a Chinese Assassin perished in the midst of saving Diaoyu Castle from a Mongol assault, leaving his daughter Zhang Zhi to discover his corpse in the aftermath.[10]
Despite his doubts about Zhang Zhi's motives, her father's Mentor Kang acquiesced to adopting Zhi into the Order and completing her training. His misgivings were proven true when Zhi defied his warnings to prioritize duty over revenge and personally infiltrated the Mongol camp to assassinate Möngke Khan. Though she was successful, she was crippled during her escape by the Kheshig warrior Bayan, and Kang used her disability as an added pretext for her expulsion.[10]
Ming dynasty[]
Jingnan campaign[]
Li Tong and an apprentice escaping the purge
By the early 15th century, the Chinese Assassins were led by the Confucian scholar Fang Xiaoru. In 1402, Zhu Di usurped the imperial throne with Templar support. Under Zhu Di's reign as the Yongle Emperor, thousands of Assassins were rounded up and executed, including Fang Xiaoru. However, two Assassins, Li Tong and another apprentice, were able to escape the purge with an Apple of Eden. Li devoted herself to protecting the Apple and keeping it out of the Yongle Emperor's hands. In 1424, while the Emperor was preoccupied with suppressing a rebellion near the Gobi Desert, Li Tong slipped into his tent and assassinated him, avenging her fallen Brotherhood.[11]
Prince of Anhua rebellion[]
The Yongle Emperor would not be the last Ming emperor to align with Templar interests. Periodically, the Assassins and Templars continued to vie for influence in the imperial court from behind the scenes.[12]
In 1506, during the Zhengde Emperor's reign, the Master Assassin Wang Yangming was banished from the capital of Beijing after clashing in court with Liu Jin, a powerful eunuch. Though Liu Jin was the leader of the Eight Tigers, a group of corrupt eunuchs composed of Templars, the Templars at this time failed to deduce Yangming's true allegiances, believing him to be merely a Neo-Confucian philosopher.[13]
In 1510, the Assassins staged the Prince of Anhua rebellion, named after Zhu Zhifan, but with Templar assistance, Liu Jin was perfectly poised to defeat it. Liu Jin was soon afterwards implicated on charges of treason by another Tiger, Zhang Yong, and summarily executed via lingchi, as part of a plot by Zhang Yong to seize leadership of their group. A decade of respite for the Assassins seemed to follow, as the Tigers decided to play their hands carefully and bide their time after Liu Jin's execution.[14]
Great Rites Contoversy[]
In 1521, upon the Zhengde Emperor's death, the government was weakened by the ensuing succession dispute. The Templars saw this distraction as an opportunity to destroy the Assassins, but a former concubine of the late Emperor, Shao Jun, having discovered the shadow war on her own, managed to warn Wang Yangming of the surprise operation.[15] Acting swiftly, Yangming led the Assassins in a preemptive strike on the Templars in the Forbidden City, but in spite of the presence of his best agents, they were routed.[16]
Assassins killed in the purge
Capitalizing on this critical victory, the Templars used the momentum to enact a city-wide purge, capturing and executing many Assassins, their associates, and any innocents with tangential ties to them.[16] In the wake of this disaster, Wang Yangming ordered the Chinese Brotherhood, along with all their allies, to withdraw from Beijing entirely, regrouping at the Maijishan Grottoes.[17] Shao Jun was thus spirited away with the Assassins for training.[2] In the meantime, the Templars managed to install their own puppet, Zhu Houcong, as the new Jiajing Emperor.[18]
Three years later, under the machinations of the Templars, the Jiajing Emperor triggered what became known as the Great Rites Controversy, where he had his father declared Emperor posthumously, defying expectations to maintain an unbroken line of succession.[19] The Great Rites Controversy became a pretext for the Jiajing Emperor to purge dissidents and the medium through which the Templars could eradicate their mortal enemies.[20] Across the nation, Assassin safehouses were raided by the Templars, with even their headquarters at the Maijishan Grottoes falling to a Templar assault.[17] Yangming, well-known to the Templars by then as the Assassin Mentor, retreated into hiding and handed leadership over to Zhu Jiuyuan.[20]
With virtually every Assassin worthy of the name dead save Wang Yangming, Zhu Jiuyuan, and Shao Jun, the Brotherhood was all but exterminated and the Templars had total control over the country. Not even knowing if Yangming was still alive,[21] Jiuyuan and Jun decided that their only recourse was to seek help from Assassins abroad, specifically the legendary Ezio Auditore da Firenze of the Italian Brotherhood. Dogged by Templars every step of their journey, Jiuyuan was finally slain by their agents in Venice, but Shao Jun survived and successfully made contact with Ezio at his villa in Tuscany.[22]
Shao Jun and Ezio Auditore, before her departure
Though the elderly former Mentor was initially reluctant to teach Shao Jun, as she represented everything he had sworn to set aside when he settled down, he eventually relented and completed her training. Before she left for her journey home, Ezio presented her with a Precursor box as a parting gift to be opened only in a time of dire need.[23]
Overthrowing the Eight Tigers[]
Upon her return to China in 1526, Shao Jun tracked down Wang Yangming through a network of old, abandoned Assassin safehouses. After sharing with him the events that transpired during her mission to Italy, the two agreed that their predicament merited opening the box, only to find it empty. Determining that perhaps the Templars would understand its function, Yangming decided that their first plan would be to use it as a bait to lure the Templars out of hiding.[24]
Shao Jun captured by Gao Feng
Thus, Shao Jun's quest for vengeance began by having herself captured by the Tiger Gao Feng at the Maijishan Grottoes—by then converted into a Templar dungeon—in the hopes that his interrogation would reveal what the Templars knew of the box. When this plan proved fruitless, Shao Jun wasted no time in escaping from her cell and assassinating Feng, but by then, he had already secreted the box away to his allies.[24] Erstwhile, Yangming had managed to eliminate another Tiger, Ma Yongcheng.[17]
Before the year was out, Yangming was informed by one of his agents in Macau that the box was in the possession of the Tiger Gu Dayong, who oversaw the slave trade in the city.[25] Accordingly, Shao Jun infiltrated Dayong's fortress to assassinate him,[26] and in the process rescued several of the Templar's prisoners, including Yangming's agent and his young son, Kotetsu. However, the boy's father soon succumbed to injuries he had received during his imprisonment,[25] and a vengeful Shao Jun killed Dayong, recovering the box in the process.[27]
In retaliation for Dayong's assassination, his compatriot Qiu Ju ordered his men to set all of Macau ablaze. Shao Jun managed to escape the inferno,[28] but her failure to save countless innocent lives weighed heavy on her mind and she decided to take a three-year break from her hunt of the Tigers to reflect on her actions.[29] By 1529, Yangming had managed to locate another Tiger, Wei Bin, in Nan'an, and Shao Jun infiltrated the city to assassinate him in the hopes Wei Bin would lead the Assassins to the Tigers' leader Zhang Yong.[30]
Wang Yangming's death at Zhang Yong's hands
During her mission, Shao Jun was unexpectedly reunited with Kotetsu, who helped to restore her confidence by making her realize the Templars' actions in Macau were not her fault.[31] The Assassin then promptly eliminated Wei Bin, but her target revealed that the Templars were hunting Yangming to recover the Precursor box.[32] The Mentor had gone to meet with a contact near a Buddhist temple for information on how the box functioned,[31] but he was ambushed and mortally wounded by Zhang Yong and Qiu Ju,[33] who reclaimed the artifact.[34]
Although Shao Jun attempted to save Yangming, she arrived too late and was nearly killed herself by Qiu Ju and his men. A monk from the Buddhist temple intervened to stop the fight and, after the Templars left,[33] identified himself as Yangming's contact. The monk later helped Shao Jun to organize her Mentor's funeral[35] and revealed his knowledge of the Assassins and the Pieces of Eden to her.[36]
In 1530, Shao Jun was lured to the Forbidden City by Empress Zhang, her childhood friend who under Templar coercion had lied that she had information on Zhang Yong's whereabouts. Meeting with the Empress, Jun walked into a trap set by Zhang Yong and Qiu Ju.[37] The former departed to allow his subordinate to deal with Jun personally, but a fire broke out when the lantern of a guard was shot by a hand cannon in the fight that followed. In short order, the Forbidden City was engulfed in flames,[38] but Jun was able to escape with the Empress while Qiu Ju was killed by a falling pillar.[39]
Shao Jun's final confrontation with Zhang Yong
By 1532, Shao Jun had taken Kotetsu as her apprentice at the boy's own request and began training him in the Brotherhood's ways.[40] That year, the two Assassins learned that Zhang Yong had formed an alliance with the Mongols led by Altan Khan and planned to help them invade China in order to maintain his grip on power. Well aware that Zhang Yong had fed the Mongolian scouts details of the country's defenses, Shao Jun and Kotetsu traveled to the Great Wall and the former eliminated the scouts[41] while the latter helped the Ming soldiers to close back the Wall's gates.[40]
Following this, Shao Jun confronted Zhang Yong, but their engagement was interrupted by a sudden all-out assault on the Great Wall by the Mongols, who believed the Templar had betrayed their deal. In the midst of this onslaught, Zhang Yong tried to flee but ultimately failed as Shao Jun killed him. With his dying breath, the Templar mocked his killer with the knowledge that he had sent the Precursor box away to Templars outside of China. However, Shao Jun remained unfazed, believing this was a sign that it was someone else's destiny to retrieve the box while hers was to remain in China and repair all the damage the Templars had done.[42]
Rebirth of the Brotherhood[]
A Chinese Assassin reporting to the Mentor Shao Jun
With the last of the Eight Tigers dead, Shao Jun capitalized on her victory and revived the Chinese Brotherhood.[42] Over the following years, she recruited numerous new members into the Order and completed Kotetsu's training, after which her apprentice decided to return to his homeland of Japan, to establish a new Assassin branch and combat Templar influence in the country.[43]
By 1567, Shao Jun still served as the guild's Mentor, and that year, she ordered the assassination of the Jiajing Emperor by poisoning him with a lethal dose of mercury disguised as an elixir of life. The mission succeeded, with the agent who conducted it returning to Jun at the Great Wall to personally report the Emperor's death.[42]
Even at this point late in her life, Shao Jun had still not learned the function of Ezio's Precursor box, but her Brotherhood did succeed in recovering it. After her death, the box remained in their possession for about a century before it was eventually smuggled to the West Indies Brotherhood via Manila galleons.[44]
Qing dynasty[]
Purged by the Qing Empire[]
Chinese Assassins killed during the purge
In the early 18th century, the West Indies Assassins' Mentor Ah Tabai maintained semi-regular contact with members of the Chinese Brotherhood.[45] Although the Chinese Assassins had by this point enjoyed over a century of prosperity thanks to Shao Jun's actions, the Brotherhood started to decline again following China's invasion by the Manchus, who overthrew the Ming and established the Qing dynasty in 1644.[46]
As most Assassins then were of Han Chinese descent, they suffered heavy persecution under the Qing regime, culminating in an attack on their headquarters that nearly wiped out the entire Brotherhood. During the purge, many individuals with tangential ties with the Assassins were also targeted. As a result, the few members of the Brotherhood who survived were reduced to aimless drifters, having lost their homes and families.[46]
Conflict in Macau[]
By 1725, the only surviving Chinese Assassins were Liu Qing, Xue Yan, and their Mentor Xiao Han, who claimed descent from Shao Jun.[47] Blaming himself for failing to prevent the Brotherhood's collapse[46] and despising the Manchus for their persecution of the Han Chinese people, Xiao Han sought to locate a Piece of Eden and use it to overthrow the Qing dynasty.[48]
Liu Qing, Xiao Han, and Xue Yan confronting Sun
That year, Xiao Han, accompanied by Liu Qing and Xue Yan, met with his uncle Sun in Macau, who claimed to have a lead on a Piece of Eden. Aboard his floating gambling hall, Sun presented the Assassins with an encrypted sea log which contained information on the location of Angkor, the lost city of the Khmer Empire and an alleged Isu site. Xiao Han recognized the language used to encrypt the log and believed he would be able to decipher it, but first asked his uncle what he intended to do with Angkor's treasure once they retrieved it. After Sun revealed his plans to gift it to the Qing Emperor, the Assassins drew arms and prepared to execute him, as Xiao Han denounced his uncle as an enemy of the Brotherhood.[47]
After Sun summoned his guards to deal with the Assassins, he attempted to flee, but Xiao Han chased after him while Liu Qing and Xue Yan battled Sun's guards, including a number of ninja in the service of the Templar Shimazu Saito. When Xiao Han cornered Sun, he was stopped from killing him by the British Assassin Edward Kenway, who was also on Angkor's trail and needed Sun alive to obtain the sea log.[49]
As Xiao Han and Edward were unaware of each other's identities or affiliations, they fought to a stalemate, until they both noticed the other wielded a Hidden Blade. As the two realized that they were both with the Brotherhood and sought the same prize, they questioned what the other intended to do with Angkor's treasure. Edward claimed that he simply sought an adventure while Xiao Han explained his intention to use the artifact to overthrow the Manchus, a plan which Edward disagreed with, believing the Pieces of Eden were not to be used for personal gain.[50]
Liu Qing and Xue Yan confronting Edward
During Xiao Han and Edward's fight, Liu Qing dueled Saito when she came to defend her men and managed to defeat her. Witnessing this, Edward stopped the Chinese Assassin from executing Saito, before Liu Qing and Xue Yan were both called by Xiao Han to help pursue Sun, who had fled with the sea log during the chaos.[50] Edward also chased Sun and briefly fought Liu Qing and Xue Yan before again facing Xiao Han, who had killed Sun and recovered the log.[51]
Unable to make Edward symphathize with their cause, Xiao Han declared him an enemy of the Chinese Brotherhod, before all four Assassins witnessed the gambling ship being bombarded with cannon fire by Admiral Jeong.[51] After warning Edward to stay out of their way, Xiao Han, Liu Qing and Xue Yan left the ship before it was destroyed by Jeong's fleet. The following morning, they approached the admiral and, revealing that they had acquired the sea log sought by Jeong's patron Lee Huiyin, were able to secure an audience with her.[3]
At the Mandarin's House, Xiao Han proposed an alliance to Lee to find Angkor's treasure and explained his goal to use the Piece of Eden to overthrow the Manchus. The Mentor hoped that Lee would symphatize with his cause because she, like many other Han Chinese people, had suffered heavy persecution under the Qing regime. To Xiao Han's surprise, Lee was more interested in increasing her power and influence, but she nonetheless agreed to work together with the Chinese Assassins to recover Angkor's treasure.[48]
Search for Angkor[]
The Chinese Assassins using gliders to board the Fenghuang
After learning that Edward and the members of his Zhang Wei Union had left Macau to pursue a possible lead to Angkor's location, the Chinese Assassins joined Jeong and her fleet as the admiral pursued the Union's ship, the Fenghuang, to the Philippines.[52] After the Fenghuang sank most of Jeong's fleet, the admiral sailed Xiao Han, Liu Qing and Xue Yan close to the ship, allowing them to board it using their gliders. They then used their Greek fire bombs to set the deck on fire and killed many of the ship's crew in the resulting commotion.[53]
After the Union's engineer Yun Pyeong-Gyu realized that sand was needed to extinguish the Greek fire instead of water, Xiao Han attempted to kill him, but was stopped by Edward, who engaged the Chinese Mentor in a duel. Meanwhile, Liu Qing was surrounded by the navigator John Young and several crew members who held him at gunpoint, and Xue Yan faced off against Shimazu Saito, who sought revenge for the deaths of her men in Macau.[53]
Once both Xiao Han and Xue Yan were defeated by their respective opponents, the former ordered a retreat and the Chinese Assassins used their parachutes to escape the Fenghuang and glide back to Jeong's ship. There, the admiral informed them that she was unable to continue her pursuit of the Fenghuang due to the ship sailing into a storm. When Liu Qing and Xue Yan apologized for their defeat, Xiao Han told them to prepare themselves for their next encounter with Edward's crew, as their paths were bound to cross again eventually.[54]
Later, the Chinese Assassins accompanied Jeong and Lee to Manila, where a riot had occurred recently. While Lee met with the Lieutenant Governor-General to secure their passage to the Southern Seas, Xiao Han, Liu Qing and Xue Yan investigated around the city. They learned that Edward had been in Manila as well and fought a monk who wielded a Piece of Eden – a crescent amulet – but the artifact had been stolen by a group of native resistance fighters. Determined to acquire the amulet for themselves, the Assassins decided to intercept the native warriors before they reached their destination, Cebu.[55]
The Chinese Assassins departing Monkey Island
After Fuma Sukuna's informants learned that the resistance had a stronghold on Monkey Island, Xiao Han, Liu Qing and Xue Yan accompanied Sukuna to the island and watched as his ninja followers laid waste to entire villages, an act that deeply disturbed Xue Yan. Eventually arriving at the resistance's fort, the Chinese Assassins and Sukuna found it in ruins and concluded that the resistance had already left Monkey Island. The Assassins then decided to resume their voyage to Cebu and went to rejoin Jeong and her fleet.[56]
In Cebu, Xiao Han instructed Jeong to await his signal before commencing her attack, and infiltrated the city to look for the crescent amulet. Arriving at Fort San Pedro following Edward's fight against the Visayan chief Rajah, Xiao Han killed the latter[57] and dueled Edward for possession of the amulet. Shimazu Saito soon arrived to assist Edward, but Xiao Han was joined by Liu Qing and Xue Yan, initiating a battle between the two groups.[58]
During the fight, Xue Yan overpowered Saito and stole from her a second sea log containing clues to the locations of two more Pieces of Eden. Following Saito's defeat, Edward reluctantly used the amulet against Xiao Han and Liu Qing, forcing them to stand down. Edward and Saito subsequently escaped with the amulet, leaving the Chinese Assassins with only the sea log.[46]
Republic era[]
In 1925, the Assassins were behind the death of Sun Yat-sen, then the Templar Grand Master of the Shanghai Rite.[59]
By 2015, at least one Assassin cell operated in China. That year, they were aided by the Japanese Assassins, including Kiyoshi Takakura, who were sent by Japanese Mentor Saeko Mochizuki in their search for Álvaro Gramática's secret laboratory in which he planned to recreate an Isu's body with the help of the Shroud as part of the Templars' Phoenix Project.[60]
In 2016, the Chinese Assassin Yanmei was ordered by the Assassin leader Gavin Banks to assist fellow Assassin Griffin and the teenagers Natalya Aliyev, David Collins, and Javier Mondragón in finding the Tomb of Möngke Khan and retrieving a prong of the Trident of Eden. However, Yanmei was ultimately killed by the Templar Isaiah after he recovered the fear prong and used its power against everyone, killing her when she tried to attack him.[10]
Barindra Mitra's cell being wiped out
In February 2017, an Assassin cell led by Barindra Mitra assisted Charlotte de la Cruz in her efforts to gather information about the Templars' Phoenix Project. Infiltrating an Abstergo office in a Hong Kong skyscraper, which had in fact been abandoned by the Templars, the Assassins were ambushed by an unidentified group. Barindra and her cell were all killed with only Charlotte and the tech expert Guernica Moneo escaping.[61]
Techniques and equipment[]
True to their heritage, the Chinese Assassins blended Assassin techniques with traditional Chinese martial arts. As a result, their combat maneuvers were more acrobatic and employed more footwork.[12][23] Though the Hidden Blade, the iconic weapon of the Assassins, was standard for the Chinese Brotherhood, Shao Jun was displeased with it and created her own variant more suited to her style: the Hidden Footblade which extended from her foot rather than her wrist.[12] This complemented her agile fighting style which had a special emphasis on kicks.[12][23]
Shao Jun using her concealed blade
Aside from this, in 1526, Shao Jun also invented the rope dart, which she utilized as a grappling hook and to extend the reach of her assassinations.[12] Use of this weapon would later spread to other guilds such as the Colonial Brotherhood in the 18th century.[62] Other gadgets in their arsenal included firecrackers which similar to smoke bombs served to momentarily stun enemies, noise darts which emitted sounds that were useful for distracting enemies, throwing knives,[12] and bracers that launched needles.[23]
During the early 18th century, the surviving members the Great Ming Brotherhood each specialized in a different combat style, which was reflected in their personal choice of weaponry. For instance, Xiao Han was a master swordsman who also wielded a single Hidden Blade and rope darts; Liu Qing wielded a large guandao which complemented his imposing size and stength; and Xue Yan specialized in ranged weaponry, carrying a crossbow and a pair of deer horn knives for close-quarters combat.[63]
In terms of equipment, the Great Ming Assassins all carried gliders and parachutes which could be used to fly for short distances. In 1725, they used their gliders to board the Fenghuang and bombard the ship with grenades filled with Greek fire, an inflammable substance which produced a thick smoke and was also highly resistant to water.[63]
Attire[]
Unlike the standard white and red color scheme of Assassin robes, the outfit of Shao Jun was black and red.[12][23] Nevertheless, at least one of her agents donned white robes with red trims consistent with the traditional Assassin colors.[12] During the early 18th century, the Great Ming Assassins wore outfits reminiscent of Shao Jun's robes, with a black and red color scheme.[63]
On many occasions, the Chinese Assassins forwent the traditional Brotherhood robes and wore ordinary Chinese clothing to make their affiliation hardly recognizable.[8][11]
Members[]
- Spring and Autumn period
- Warring States period
- Qin dynasty
- Wei Yu (posthumously)
- Tang dynasty
- Li E (leader; c. 755)
- Li Qimo
- Princess of Gaochang
- Qian
- Zhai Wande
- Zhangsun Qi
- Song dynasty
- Kang (Mentor; c. 1259)
- Zhang Zhi
- Zhang Zhi's father
- Ming dynasty
- Fang Xiaoru (leader; until 1402)
- Li Tong
- Kotetsu (Japanese Brotherhood)
- Kotetsu's father
- Shao Jun (Mentor; began 1532)
- Wang Yangming (Mentor; until 1524; 1526 – 1529)
- Zhu Jiuyuan (Mentor; 1524)
- Liu Yan
- Qing dynasty
- Republic era
Allies and puppets[]
- Tang dynasty
- Éléna (Hidden Ones of the Great Desert)
- Li Bai
- Pei Min
- Yan Gaoqing
- Yan Jiming
- Yan Zhenqing
- Jessamyn (Egyptian Hidden Ones)
- Oisel (Frankish Hidden Ones)
- Ming dynasty
- Qing dynasty
- Republic era
Behind the scenes[]
In the non-canonical novel Assassin's Creed: The Ming Storm, the Chinese Brotherhood is also referred to as the Central Plains Brotherhood.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed II (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Discover Your Legacy
- Assassin's Creed: Embers
- Assassin's Creed III (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China
- Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Tomb of the Khan
- Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization
- Assassin's Creed: Rebellion (mentioned in Database entry only) (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed: Blade of Shao Jun
- Assassin's Creed: Dynasty
- Assassin's Creed: The Silk Road
- Assassin's Creed: The Imperial Jade Seal
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage (indirect mention only)
- Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple
Non-canonical appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: The Ming Storm
- Assassin's Creed: The Desert Threat
- Assassin's Creed: Turbulence in the Ming Dynasty
References[]
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