benlehman

On a somewhat different note (since my knowledge of Chinese history is a bit poor), what about turning it around into a worldbuilding game?

The players try to deal with the aftermath of the world-founding events, involving famous people who have died (and have unresolved karma, etc), or the creation of crazy artifacts, or anything else that is appropriate.
As play proceeds and players turn to any of the outcomes you have suggested, their actions communally define how that world advances through that period of time, until another group of people finds their lives drawn to these key objects/places. You can have the players get one incarnation with each key. And you can have fluctuations, where the players fill in certain scenes from the past incarnations (or perhaps even suggest scenes for future incarnations).