Night Banquet: The Splendor Behind the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Author: Du Wenyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: This book takes the Southern Tang as its narrative focus, yet it unfolds the complete picture of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. These fifty-three years are so chaotic and turbulent that even these words fail to accurately describe its historical state. Taking the Central Plains, the core of Chinese civilization, as an example, five dynasties succeeded one another in an instant—the longest lasted seventeen years, the shortest only three and a half. Ancestral laws were manipulated at will. Set against the backdrop of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, this book presents rich historical scenes and depictions, telling the truth of history. The author thoroughly reveals the inner feelings of emperors and scholars, restoring their true appearances. In that turbulent and uncertain era, where dawn was unknown from dusk, they were utterly bewildered and lost. There was a profound loneliness between people of that time. This is also the common ground we see between this book and a cinematic art film. The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms came before the prosperous Tang Dynasty and followed the prosperous Song Dynasty, presenting a "saddle" shape between the two peaks of feudal Chinese dynasties. It was indeed a chaotic and turbulent era of disintegration, with each ruler governing independently, the strong oppressing the weak, and the many bullying the few. This book takes the Southern Tang as its narrative focus, yet it unfolds the complete picture of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. These fifty-three years are so chaotic and turbulent that even these words fail to accurately describe its historical state. Taking the Central Plains, the core of Chinese civilization, as an example, five dynasties succeeded one another in an instant—the longest lasted seventeen years, the shortest only three and a half. Ancestral laws were manipulated at will. Set against the backdrop of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, this book presents rich historical scenes and depictions, telling the truth of history. The author thoroughly reveals the inner feelings of emperors and scholars, restoring their true appearances.