The Records of the Han Empire

Written in the style of a chronicle of the Three-One Kingdoms, this is a novel focused on a single nation. In the final years of the Da Ji dynasty, the late emperor dies suddenly, and Princess Ji Minghuang ascends the throne by imperial decree. To thwart the thirty-one princes’ ambitions for the throne, she sends them to marry into the thirty-one kingdoms, hoping that scattering the imperial bloodline will weaken its claim to legitimacy. But each kingdom gains a share of the royal blood, and legitimacy flows from the imperial capital into the wider realm. Some change the calendar and era name; some fabricate imperial grandsons; some profit from grain debts; some wield the historian’s pen; others manipulate the course of war through salt and iron, waterways, military industries, and celestial signs. The empress wins many battles, yet step by step she loses the rites, the people’s hearts, the history books, and the imperial capital. Xiliang raises the youngest prince, Ji Cheng, with care, and his son, Liang Chengzhao, inherits both the old emperor’s bloodline and the loyalty of Xiliang’s people. In the end, Xiliang does not name its dynasty “Liang,” but instead founds a state called “Zhaohan.” “Han” evokes the Milky Way, the waters of the Han River flowing together, and a vast land united as one, symbolizing the remnants of the old line converging into a new dynasty. The empress scatters her thirty-one sons and throws the realm into chaos; Zhaohan gathers one bloodline and brings the realm to peace.