The Stormy Song Dynasty

In the later years of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the soldier Zhao Kuangyin seizes the moment when the ruler is young and the state is in doubt, staging the Chenqiao Mutiny and taking the throne. He then disarms his generals over a cup of wine, consolidating the Zhao family's rule as the country is gradually unified. But the Liao, Jin, and Xia rise in the north, and the Song court never recovers from its weakness. Both Northern Song emperors are captured. The Southern Song court clings to a fleeting peace, only to suffer the same fate: its three young emperors are captured, die, or perish at sea... Arranged chronologically, this book brings together more than a hundred remarkable tales from the two Song dynasties, taking readers into an age of ceaseless warfare and stirring heroism.