The Archive of Unnatural Deaths Among the Rulers of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods

Built on historical fact and fleshed out with literary imagination, this novel delves into the stories behind the bizarre deaths of several rulers during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Through an archive-style structure, it shows how these once-powerful rulers met tragic ends, undone by the backlash of power, flaws in their characters, and the cruel twists of fate.

The story approaches its subject through the lenses of power, desire, and destiny. You’ll learn how Duke Huan of Qi, the first hegemon of the Spring and Autumn period, was kept under house arrest in his later years by his trusted treacherous retainers Yi Ya and Shu Diao, and starved to death, his corpse left unattended for sixty-seven days until “maggots crawled out through the door.” Zhao Wuling, a great ruler who introduced “Hu clothing and mounted archery,” mishandled the matter of succession and was trapped in his palace at Shaqiu for three months. He raided nests for fledgling sparrows and ate them raw to stave off hunger, yet still could not escape death by starvation. Ying Dang, King Wu of Qin, was born with tremendous strength and loved testing it against others, but accidentally lost his grip while competing with the strongman Meng Shuo to lift a bronze ding. The vessel crushed his shin, and he died. Duke Jing of Jin met an especially bizarre end when he accidentally fell into a cesspit while using the toilet and drowned. Duke Zhuang of Qi, meanwhile, was ambushed and killed in a plot by the powerful minister Cui Zhu after having an affair with Cui Zhu’s wife, Tang Jiang.

Behind these seemingly absurd deaths lies the brutal reality of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, when rites and music fell into disarray and power changed hands relentlessly. The novel focuses not only on death itself, but also on the human struggles at the pinnacle of power and the helplessness and uncertainty of individual lives swept along by the tides of history.