Through one person's eyes, we witness the changes of an era; through one person's life, we live through the fall of a dynasty.
Yu Xin (513–581) was the most extraordinary man of letters in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Born at the height of the Liang Dynasty and blessed with literary talent and refined elegance, he lived through the bloodshed of the Hou Jing Rebellion and witnessed the devastating burning of books in Jiangling. He was ultimately stranded in the Northern Dynasties for more than twenty years, where humiliation and homesickness inspired his timeless masterpiece, "Ode to Lament for the South." He was both a participant and a chronicler, both a figure in history and its witness and recorder.
This book does not attempt a panoramic history of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Instead, it is a historical novel about the Qi and Liang Dynasties, with Yu Xin as its protagonist. We see the world through his eyes and feel the times through his experiences. Structured around "Ode to Lament for the South," it depicts major historical events, including the Hou Jing Rebellion, the burning of books in Jiangling, and the end of the southward migration of the nobility.
