The Making of a Great Chancellor

Later, people always spoke of her as "peerlessly brilliant." "What's wrong with being drunk with a beauty in my arms and waking to hold power over the world? Why should I confine myself to the four walls of the inner quarters?" "Power demands a heart without feeling, with nothing left but desire. I have failed you." * This chancellor, revered by countless fangirls of later generations as their ideal man, placed first in the imperial examinations at sixteen and rose to the rank of a powerful minister by twenty. He helped Emperor Taizong of Jin build his empire and brought peace and prosperity to the Jin kingdom. The histories described him as "beautiful as a woman, more handsome than Pan An, and impeccable in word and deed." Yet he never married in his entire life, leaving behind only a poem that inspired endless speculation, recorded in a collection of notes from his later years. People lamented the love of this extraordinary figure, yet could never discover what sort of woman had won even Xie Shuwang's heart. * Later, I heard that you had always been alone, Dressed as a man, weathering the tides of officialdom. Theme: