My Reign as Emperor

Author: Su Tong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: My Emperor's Life is a historical novel by Su Tong that blends realistic techniques with modern styles. It is also a story where Su Tong unleashes his creative imagination, freely constructing a palace and concocting a historical narrative according to his own recipe. The era, dynasty, and characters are all illusory, yet the story is told with a sense of realism and credibility. The entire work adopts a first-person narrative, telling the story of a naive and ignorant prince named Duan Bai, who becomes a puppet king of the state of Xie under the manipulation of the Empress Dowager's power. Though he holds the lives and deaths of his subjects in his hands, he lives in constant fear and anxiety. He is merely a political tool used by his grandmother and mother, and though he wishes to resist, he is powerless to do so. A man who was not meant to be an emperor—a man without the ambition or ability to rule—becomes the sovereign. No wonder, Duan Bai and the mad old palace servant Sun Xin repeatedly utter the ominous phrase, "The disaster of Xie is coming!" The disaster is always looming, casting a deep shadow over Duan Bai's heart. Thus, he is filled with sorrow and helplessness, and the entire novel is imbued with a dirge-like melancholy, exquisitely tragic. The author's narrative remains remarkably calm and composed. Amidst the bloodshed and swordplay in the palace, the horrors are countless: Lady Yang is nailed alive inside a coffin; the favored concubine of the late king is banished to the cold palace on trumped-up charges, merely for being skilled at playing the pipa, and her ten fingers are broken by the jealous Lady Meng. The weeping imperial concubines have their tongues cut out by the young emperor; what a brutal scene! Yet the author's pen remains eerily detached, even somewhat admiring, as he writes: "The tongues of those weeping concubines look just like delicious red braised pork tongues." Outside the palace, wounded soldiers who fought for the nation die at the hands of their loyal emperor, and the brutal interrogation of the failed rebel Li Yizhi is unbearable to read. But the author's language is always calm, elegant, mysterious, and gentle. The details of the work are realistic, yet the narration is delicate. It essentially recreates the life of the protagonist.