The Ming Dynasty’s Campaigns, 1592–1600

On August 15, 1945, the Japanese emperor announced Japan’s unconditional surrender to the world. Just as everyone was celebrating, Zhang Zhiguo, a reporter at a Beiping newspaper, suddenly ran into Chen Li, a childhood friend he hadn’t seen in years. Chen Li had become an archaeologist, and he had come to ask Zhang Zhiguo, who had once studied in Japan, to translate a suicide letter left behind by a Japanese ninja more than three hundred years earlier. Zhang Zhiguo was astonished to discover that the letter not only recorded a tale of love and hatred, but also recounted the legendary heroes of China, Japan, and Korea in that extraordinary age.