The Weishan Swordsman’s Tale: The Phoenix Perches on the Parasol Tree

{Jianghu + court politics + wuxia + legends of immortality + folk legends} Feng Qiwu, the Longxi Hall, and the Luoning swordsmen belong to the jianghu. Emperors, ministers, eunuchs, and officials of the ninth rank belong to the court. Descendants of Nuwa, chivalrous heroes, and lovers devoted to one another belong to wuxia. After Nuwa mended the heavens, a group of people followed her for a long time. They eventually called themselves the Feng Clan. Half human and half immortal, they lived in the Wilderness of Liguang. When King Zhou of Shang made light of Nuwa’s divine image, the entire clan rose up to help Ji Fa claim the realm. Later, to protect their people, they withdrew from the world. The Feng Clan concealed their identities and blended into human society. Li Chunfeng eventually discovered them and named them Feng Qiwu. During the Tang dynasty under Empress Wu, Shangguan Wan’er invited them to emerge from seclusion. One of their women, Feng Ya, had wandered among humans for more than a century. While caught up in the Li brothers’ quest for revenge and the struggle between the Tang emperor and the eunuchs, she met the poet Li He while searching for her clan. She left behind a descendant, Li Yunshu, with him. This book unfolds against the history of the Tang restoration, weaving in the legends of the Feng Clan and folk tales, as well as the golden age of Tang poetry. The ideas that would later constrain the Chinese people had yet to take hold. Women could take part in government and politics, and live with the same freedom as men. How could that time not inspire longing? This book offers a different kind of experience. Since the major events take place in Chang’an and Luoyang, and mostly in winter, it is also known as A Winter’s Night in the Two Capitals. After the An Lushan Rebellion, the Great Tang wavered between order and chaos. Loyal ministers and treacherous officials, wandering heroes and fierce women, eunuchs and imperial in-laws meddling in government, and increasingly powerful regional warlords all shaped the times. Even peddlers and laborers were swept up in the tide and could not escape. When the realm flourishes, the common people suffer; when it falls, the common people suffer. I want to lift one corner of history’s veil and catch a glimpse of the people and events of that age.