Romance of the Former Han Dynasty (Illustrated Edition) (Illustrated Edition)

Author: Cai Dongfan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: A popular historical masterpiece that has gained fame both at home and abroad. Renowned historian Cai Dongfan uses official history as the backbone and anecdotes as the weft. After ten years of painstaking effort, he vividly portrays five thousand years of Chinese history in a traditional chapter-based structure, with accessible language, witty comments, and a realistic depiction of the tumultuous process of the evolution of Chinese civilization. It portrays the emperors like Qin Shi Huang and Han Wudi, Tang Zong and Song Zong, the customs and livelihoods during dynastic changes, and the survival wisdom amidst battlefield bloodshed and palace intrigues. The book includes stories such as using the "swap flowers for trees" trick to offer a beautiful concubine, killing a false father to become emperor, enacting laws to deceive the people, crossing the Xiang River during a storm, escaping an accidental strike by a mallet and meeting a hermit who reveals a prophecy, building the Great Wall, trusting treacherous ministers to destroy books and construct the Arhat Palace, and the scholars perishing in a deep valley while the tyrant discovers the original jade.