In 1276, Lin’an fell. The world’s most prosperous city opened its gates before the Mongol cavalry. But this was not the end of the story. For the next three years, Wen Tianxiang, Lu Xiufu, and Zhang Shijie struggled on in the south with two young emperors, until a hundred thousand loyal souls rose to the surface of the sea at Yashan.
After Lin’an tells this history, so often misunderstood, in an accessible style. In these pages, you’ll encounter a capital that never built city walls, a “traitor” reviled for seven hundred years, a sixty-seven-year-old woman forced out of retirement, and a last chancellor who leapt into the sea carrying a young emperor.
This is not just a book about the fall of a dynasty. It is about how a civilization chose to make its final farewell with dignity.
