Chang’an’s Long Song

Set against the three-hundred-year rise and fall of the Tang dynasty, Chang'an's Long Song follows a fate in which generation after generation of emperors try to atone with blood, yet can never fill the emptiness within them. From the Xuanwu Gate Incident to Zhu Wen’s usurpation of the Tang, the novel weaves together the recurring images of “caverns” and “sophora blossoms.” Through intimate glimpses of commoners’ taverns, a weaver girl’s crimson brocade, and a Hu woman’s poetry drafts, it paints an epic portrait of power and human nature.