Haihun: The King’s Own Account

This is a full-length historical novel centered on the story of Liu He, the deposed emperor of the Western Han dynasty and Marquis of Haihun. After Emperor Zhao of Han dies, the naive Liu He is manipulated by the powerful court minister Huo Guang into becoming a puppet emperor. Though he holds the power of life and death over his subjects, he lives in constant fear and anxiety of the unknown. A political tool exploited by the powerful, he longs to resist but is powerless to do so. A man who should never have become emperor, who had neither the ambition nor the ability to rule, is made emperor all the same. He is therefore filled with sorrow and helplessness. The novel as a whole is imbued with the mournful, poignant beauty of an elegy.