Li Zhu ascended the throne at thirteen and was murdered at twenty-two. He never truly sat upon the imperial throne in his lifetime.
Shi Jingtang ceded the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in exchange for the throne, earning eternal condemnation in return.
Wang Qing crossed the river with two thousand soldiers. He requested reinforcements three times and was refused three times. The bodies beneath Zhongdu Bridge piled up like a mountain.
Zhao Kuangyin donned the yellow robe and founded the Song dynasty, unaware that the sound of his younger brother’s axe had already rung out in the dead of night.
From the late Tang to the early Song, five dynasties rose and fell over fifty-three years.
Everyone stood on the chessboard of power. Some became kings; others became ghosts.
Drawing on official histories and local gazetteers, including the Old Book of Tang, the New Book of Tang, the Old History of the Five Dynasties, the New History of the Five Dynasties, the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government, and the Records of the World Within the Taiping Era, this novel recreates the fractured lands and the shifting fortunes of ordinary people in the turbulent Five Dynasties period.
The Five Dynasties: Twilight of the Dynasties
A historical novel about power, survival, and fate.
