The Tale of the Twin Phoenixes is a long chaptered novel written by Master Xueqiao during the Qing dynasty.
The story begins when Emperor Yuan of Han dreams of a beauty and issues an edict calling for consorts to be selected.
Wang Qiang, also known as Zhaojun, the daughter of Wang Zhong, governor of Yuezhou, is peerless in both talent and beauty. When she refuses to bribe the corrupt chancellor Mao Yanshou, he spitefully adds a mole to her portrait, brands her ill-omened, and has her banished to the cold palace.
Fearing punishment, Mao Yanshou defects to the Xiongnu, presenting the barbarian king with a portrait of Zhaojun's true face. He lies that the Han emperor refuses to surrender a beauty, goading the king into demanding Zhaojun by force. The king sends envoys to taunt the Han court with a riddle poem, then eventually launches an invasion to the south.
Meanwhile, to take revenge on Wang Zhong and frame Zhaojun, Mao Yanshou devises a poisonous scheme. He bribes Lu, a wealthy man from Yuezhou, to send his daughter, Lu Jinding, to the Han palace in Zhaojun's place. Lu Jinding wins the emperor's favor and is named the Western Palace Consort. Narrow-minded and allied with Mao Yanshou, she further conspires against the real Zhaojun, keeping her trapped in the cold palace to suffer.
The title's “twin phoenixes” refers both to Wang Zhaojun and Lu Jinding, two women of outstanding talent and beauty whose fates could not be more different, and to the opposition between loyalty and treachery, good and evil. Though beset by adversity, Wang Zhaojun holds fast to her principles and remains devoted to her homeland. Lu Jinding, by contrast, becomes an accomplice to treacherous ministers in her pursuit of vanity and status.
The main story follows Zhaojun's efforts to clear her name, the war sparked by the foreign kingdom's demand for a beauty, and the struggle of loyal ministers and generals, such as Li Ling and Li Guang and his son, to defend their homeland and overturn the injustice. The first twenty-eight chapters lay out Mao Yanshou's wickedness, Zhaojun's suffering, Consort Lu's rise and schemes, the foreign kingdom's fierce invasion, and the bloody battles fought by Li Guang and Li Ling at the frontier, where they suffer repeated setbacks. The conflicts are intense, setting the stage for what follows.
