The series will be adapted from the historical novel Li Zicheng by Yao Xueyin (1901-99), which comprised five volumes.

The group has bought the rights to adapt the novel into scripts for both a film and TV serial from Yao's son, Yao Haitian. It paid 1 million yuan (US$120,000) for the rights, according to sources.

Yao started to write the novel in the early 1960s after being labeled a "rightist." When the first volume came off the press it attracted the attention of the late Chairman Mao Zedong, who issued an order protecting Yao against persecution from the red guards.

His nephew, Zhou Ding, recalled that was why Yao's manuscripts and other historical materials remained intact throughout the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

But it was difficult for Yao to write the second volume in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, where fighting was quite rampant in 1966.

Encouraged by friends, Yao wrote a letter to Mao, telling him of his plan to write another four volumes and the difficulty he was experiencing. He wrote a poem in the letter as well.

Mao spoke highly of the poem in the letter upon reading it and immediately ordered that Yao should be able to write the novel in a better working condition.

As a result, Yao was transferred to Beijing later that year to work on his novel. The second volume was published in 1977 and the third volume in the early 1980s. The last two volumes were published in 1999 after his death.

The 100-part TV serial will be divided into three separate chapters. The first, comprising 40 parts, will feature how Li started the uprising and his army's battles with the troops of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); the second, comprising 30 parts, tells about the infighting within the court of the dynasty, which led to its final collapse; and the third, also comprising 30 parts, focuses on the defeat of the rebellion by the Manchus, which established the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

(China Daily December 3, 2002)