The Heavenly King and the God of War: A Love for the Ages

The heroine, Fu Hao, is determined to make herself better, stronger, and more successful.

She says, “Women are like water: when the water rises, the boat rises with it.”

If a woman isn’t strong in her own right, no one will respect her.

Not her sisters,

not her children,

not her colleagues,

and certainly not her husband.

Sometimes, not even her parents.

Even a woman as beautiful as a flower may still meet the fate of a doomed beauty.

The heroine comes from a small northern steppe kingdom. Brilliant and beautiful, she is constantly troubled by her family’s political marriage plans.

With no other choice, she arranges a martial arts tournament for her hand in marriage, using it to put a stop to proposals from princes of neighboring kingdoms and sons of noble families.

By chance, she defeats five martial arts experts single-handedly and saves a handsome young man. Little does she know that he is Prince Wu Ding of Shang, who has spent ten years living among the people under an assumed name.

Grateful that she saved his life, the Shang prince falls in love with her. They give each other a token of their love, a “bloom together” keepsake.

Fate brings Fu Hao to the royal court at the age of thirteen, where she becomes the first queen and begins her journey of love.

When she first enters the royal harem, it already has sixty beauties and two consorts. Yet she wins the undivided favor of King Wu Ding. How does she do it?

With her superb horsemanship and archery, her military skill, her intelligence and courage, and her deep knowledge of strategy, she leads the army on ninety campaigns, defeats more than twenty kingdoms, and stabilizes the Shang Dynasty’s precarious borders.

King Wu Ding loves not only her beauty, but also the fact that she is a god of war who expands the Shang kingdom and brings peace to its people during its revival.

She breaks the age-old curse that beautiful women are destined for tragic lives. King Wu Ding cherishes her for the rest of her life.

A few hundred words can’t do justice to the love story of China’s first female god of war. Come read the story, dear readers.