Heroes Rise in the Grass

The late Eastern Jin was an age that produced many heroes. The country was divided, and the people suffered through war and upheaval. China's vast lands were split among more than a dozen regimes. The largest were the Wei in the north, the Jin in the south, the Later Qin in the west, and the Southern Yan in the east... Liu Yu of Pengcheng was born a commoner, but he was determined to make his mark and joined the army. He successively crushed the pirate Sun En and the rebellion of the warlord Huan Xuan, then led northern campaigns that destroyed Southern Yan and conquered Later Qin. He expanded the Eastern Jin's territory to its greatest extent and stood against the mighty Northern Wei. At last, after rendering such service, he compelled the Jin emperor to abdicate in his favor! He made it his life's mission to bring peace to the realm, but in the end, time was against him. He died with the country still divided.

I have always admired the heroes who rode into battle, and ever since reading Sima Qian's biography of Xiang Yu, I have been fascinated by military history. Liu Yu and Xiang Yu were both born in Pengcheng, and according to the Book of Wei, Liu Yu's original surname was Xiang. This led me to connect the two of them. Modeled after Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this book follows a ratio of seven parts truth to three parts fiction and draws heavily on official histories such as the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, the Book of Northern Wei, the Book of Southern Wei, the Book of Jin, the Book of Wei, and the Book of Song, so that its content remains largely credible. To make it more engaging, I have added details and invented some stories to bring the characters to life. I hope readers will come away with a better understanding of that period of history!